The Evolution

The US government took all the resources from the alien legacy as well as the Edict of Washington, giving Harriet and her team an exorbitant reward. This reward would be enough to give Harriet and her team a satisfying life for both them and their future descendants. However, this is where the story of Harriet Li's legendary excavation team ends - having accomplished their goal, they decided to spend the rest of their days relaxing while attempting to decipher their Edicts which they snatched. The US government which possessed the Edict of Washington, at this time, did not suspect that there were other tablets similar to this one. They were too busy analyzing the data given to them by the alien, which they learned was an intelligent life form that called himself "The Primogenitor." Sadly, no matter how hard they tried, R&D could not pinpoint the location of origin of this "Primogenitor." On the other hand, the Primogenitor had given the secrets behind environmentally friendly ways to harness the various natural resources of the Earth. Creating and making use of sustainable energy was no longer a mere science, it had developed and become something greater than that. The Primogenitor had discovered that due to the pollution, the air was no longer "pure." He had to give humans the technology to totally and perfectly purify the air, while also allowing them to make use of the impurities of the air as another energy source.

At this point in time, this technology was not just a pipe dream anymore unlike if this tech had been given to them a few years ago. The US government quickly ordered prototype machinery of the new air purifiers to be developed and built. With the resources and reference materials given by the legacy left behind by the Primogenitor, the tech became a resounding success. The United Nations was soon informed about this tech and in an unprecedented move, world leaders decided to put their differences aside in order to save their own hides. It was foolish to start more wars over this when everyone could benefit. However, this was mostly due to the US agreeing to share the Primogenitor technology without asking for very much in return. Little would everyone know, however, that many years down the line, the fruits of this seemingly generous trade would bring incredible results for the United States, and perhaps endanger the lives of others...

In the interim, as the world was licking its wounds from its intense pollution, the Primogenitor technology also allowed the world to properly fight back against man-made phenomena such as climate change... These things all slowly began to become a distant myth over the years. But in the meantime, as the air began to become purer and purer, changes at the human level began to occur. The first recorded instance of "Human Evolution," where a single person had developed the strange ability to make whatever he wanted lose its internal heat, had been revealed to the world. Researchers wanted to study this man, who was named Harry Smythe. Harry, of course, refused to be dissected by some scientists, so he put forward the crazy theory that the technology the world was using in order to purify the air was allowing humans to unlock the hidden potentials in their bodies. This was a crazy theory, but it was still an idea nonetheless.

The scientific community at large mostly dismissed it as bollocks, yet there were still many teams attempting to study the new form of purified air in order to see if Harry's crazy initial theory held any water at all. By this time, mankind had already charged through to the twilight years of the 21st century. The year 2080 had arrived, and scientists had unlocked the secret behind Human Evolution. By this time, 80% of people born in the past thirty years were either already born with these abilities, or developed them in their infant years. Those older than that had developed them in their later ages, while those that didn't possess anything were already on the verge of passing from old age. Humans who possessed these abilities became known as "Evolved," while the rest were simply called "Old Ones." A large contingent of scientists who banded together to find the secret behind the Evolved had published a huge research paper simply titled, "The Science behind the Evolved."

The paper stipulated that due to the Primogenitor technology allowing humans to expel all impurities within the air, a new element that had only been written about in ancient civilizations called "Ether" had been confirmed to truly exist. Inhalation of high amounts of ether allowed humans to strengthen their bodies, not unlike the concept behind "cultivation" in fantasy stories. The power of ether was still mostly untapped, and the fact that ether was the secret behind humans developing the equivalent of superpowers was undisputed. The research paper then also put forth the groundbreaking conclusion that ether could also be used as an alternate power source, even more efficient than nuclear power, which had already been decommissioned in the 2060's and replaced with enhanced forms of sustainable energy despite it still being somewhat less efficient than pure nuclear power.

Ether became the ultimate resource, since it could be reproduced indefinitely from plant life and other oxygen creating organisms. Humanity could charge forth into uncharted territory and pioneer a new age in technology. This became the Age of Evolution, not unlike the Renaissance Age in the late 13th and early 14th centuries...