The Steam Age: A Survivor a Century After the Great Plague

Xiao Mu should have died in the collapsed ancient tomb, but when he opened his eyes, he was lying in the icy seawater. This was a strange world of steam valves, gear-driven pipes, and mutated plants and animals. History had been severed for a century after the Ming Dynasty, and humanity was barely surviving in nineteen sealed zones. Life in Zone Nine was harsh and oppressive. Ordinary people could never make it past the electric fence in their entire lives. Relying on the original owner's remaining memories, Xiao Mu struggled to survive in a neighborhood filled with the smell of coal smoke and brine. People here burned mutated insect eggs for warmth and fought bitterly over meager black oil rations. Xiao Mu was searching for a way back, and his only clue was the cracked jade disc on his body, which could cause plants and animals to mutate. But the quiet routine was soon shattered. The tragedy that had struck neighboring Zone One six months earlier seemed to be repeating itself in Zone Nine. Fevers, rot, and red fungal threads began spreading through the dark alleyways. Suspected of being the source of infection, Xiao Mu must draw on his knowledge of ancient tombs and the jade disc to find a way to survive before the patrol breaks down his door.