21 Dead Space

The main story of Dead Space took place in the late 21st century, where human society grew increasingly unstable and conflicts between nations escalated. The war that broke out between the US and Russia plunged the entire world into distress and panic. The effects of global warming had also become pronounced at the same time. The damage that was done to the environment was already irreparable by then.

Under the two-fold duress, humans were forced to form alliances anew, leading to the culmination of the 'Earth Government'—a world regime that governed over all humans. The 'Earth Defense Force' was established then as well. The planet was then divided into eight main sectors which were governed separately.

Due to the Earth's sickly and devastated state, the humans of that plane had decided to concentrate their efforts on the exploration of space. The megacorporation, 'Concordance Extraction Corporation (C.E.C)', was founded with massive backing from the government. Many permanent colonies and extraction bases were established throughout the solar system as humans took their efforts further and further into outer space.

"A corporation?"

Zhang Heng's eyes gleamed when he saw the word 'corporation'. While the name of the megacorporation was nowhere near as recognizable and cool as the Umbrella Corporation, it was also obvious that its influence and technological prowess were well beyond that of the Umbrella Corporation found in Resident Evil. The C.E.C was a world-class megacorporation that was founded in the space-age several hundred years before the current period, after all.

Zhang Heng had just finished making his temporary home in a huge warehouse. The warehouse was located somewhere in the outskirts of Haizhou. The land the building sat on was purchased initially by Li Jianguo for building a manor, but when he heard that Zhang Heng wanted a huge warehouse to serve as his team's research base, he decided to give the place to Zhang Heng for free, instead.

Of course, there was no way Li Jianguo could have known that the 'team' that Zhang Heng mentioned, actually consisted only of one man—Zhang Heng himself.

Zhang Heng read the introductions further. Living standards grew ever higher as the Earth became unified. When one had all one's needs met, one would eventually come to want something else, and the Earth Government became increasingly avaricious in their attempts to gain more. In year 2208, a team of explorers gathered by the authorities went on an expedition to the Chicxulub Crater in Yucatan Peninsula, Mexico.

"They had the ability to explore the stars and yet they went to dig for things in their own backyard instead?" Zhang Heng shook his head and commented. "These people really had nothing better to do. eh? And well, something did happen to the team, no?"

The explorers discovered, completely by accident, a black, tower-like artificial building during the expedition, which they named the 'Black Marker'. A man named Michael Ultman speculated that the Black Marker was a construct left behind by aliens, since it contained the human DNA sequence. Furthermore, the Black Marker was also capable of establishing a mental link with humans, which Ultman took to be a sign of the Black Marker playing some role in the evolution of humanity…

"Michael Ultman? Doesn't the name kinda rhyme with 'Ultraman'? Hell, aren't you an alien yourself from the M78 Nebula?" Zhang Heng continued taking jabs at what he read as he processed things. "By the way, you really are getting too good at guessing things, aren't you? You sure you're not cheating?"

The explorers went insane, one after another, after establishing mental links with the Black Marker. Only Ultman, who wasn't actually human, was spared that fate. He then proceeded to make an insane-sounding declaration, claiming that 'the power that caused all those hallucinations and insanity came from the human brain itself', instead of the Black Marker… He was of the opinion that it was some kind of defense mechanism within the human brain that tried to resist the mental link with the Black Marker that caused people to lose all sense of reason.

Zhang Heng felt increasingly exasperated as he continued reading the material, thinking that the man must have come from another dimension or timeline or something. He had read a good number of fantasy novels where the lead character wore some kind of plot armor, like 'someone from the future traveling back to the day before Armageddon took place', and Zhang Heng guessed that this Ultman must have been someone like that, or how else would he have guessed things in such detail?

In the end, the ones who had gone insane saw the Black Marker as some kind of gift from the heavens, and those who didn't go insane all ended up being killed. But the Black Marker then went on to rearrange the cells of the dead, creating a kind of monster called 'necromorphs'…

Ultman eventually dropped the Black Marker, which was the cause of the disaster, to the ocean floor, and it was eventually lost. However, data regarding the Black Marker was nonetheless left behind.

Human technology progressed even further by the year 2314, and the Earth Government then reverse engineered what they found from the data regarding the Black Marker in secret and made a copy of the Black Marker, which was called the 'Red Marker' instead. However, the Earth Government knew how dangerous that Red Marker was and sent it to another planet in secret instead, which then led to a series of incidents…

Even though both the games and the comics never stated that human civilization was eventually destroyed by such 'markers', Zhang Heng guessed, given that the Dead Space plane was reduced to one of his mission objectives, that it could only mean one thing—human civilization in the Dead Space plane had been completely wiped out. It was just that the series of games called 'Dead Space' never got to the installment depicting the destruction of human civilization as a whole.

…

"Main Quest begins. Mission Objective: Acquire technological data of value from nearby planes. Begin searching nearby planes…

"Search complete. There are four planes nearby worthy of exploration."

"Plane A: Resident Evil plane. (option unavailable)"

"Plane B: Dead Space plane. Danger Level: ★★☆"

"Plane C: Alien plane. Danger Level: ★★★☆"

"Plane D: Prototype plane. Danger Level: ★★★★★"

"Wait, what?"

Zhang Heng's eyes were thrown wide open. He mumbled to himself, "My body has been enhanced by quite a bit, yet it isn't enough to the system eh? The difficulty ratings of both the Dead Space and Alien planes were only lowered by half a star, and the Prototype plane's difficulty stayed exactly the same? And, the Resident Evil plane is still considered a plane worth exploring?"

"You've got that right. Please make your choice immediately, host dude!" Yurianne waved her hand and rushed Zhang Heng.

"But if the Resident Evil plane is still considered a plane worth exploring, why is it unavailable this time around? Wait, hold on…" Zhang Heng narrowed his gaze as his mind went into overdrive.

He recalled what Yurianne had said to him before and jerked his head up. "Yurianne, didn't you once say something along the lines of 'mission duration is limited but plane traversal could be done countless times?'"

"I did. What about it?" Yurianne asked, feeling puzzled.

"I see now…" Zhang Heng was seen grinning. "The time limit between completing two compulsory main quests is three months. I've long suspected something was up about that. Now I could finally confirm it. That means that between the three months given between two main quests, I'll be allowed to go to other planes and do whatever I please, no?"

"Bingo, you got that right!" Huge amounts of ribbons burst from behind Yurianne, as if she had a reward to give him after getting the answer right. "You finally realized that, eh? And Yurianne thought that it would take you a long, long time to figure that out!"

"What happens when all four planes are done?" Zhang Heng asked, feeling curious.

"Then you'll be given greater access, host dude. New planes will be opened up."

"Will the old ones be shut off then?" Zhang Heng asked what he saw to be the crux of the question.

"They won't. So long as you're not doing main quests, all explored planes will be available for exploration at all times."

"That's good to hear then." Zhang Heng breathed a sigh of relief. "Well then, I'll select the Dead Space plane this time."

Yurianne spun around while Zhang Heng made his choice. She was then dressed in her MC attire and announced, in a very gung-ho tone, "Haha, exciting times are upon us once again, and the host dude shall make yet another choice of utmost importance!"

Deafening background music played at the same time as lights flickered behind Yurianne, and the image of a stage appeared behind her. Yurianne was standing on the stage and pointing at the sky and chanted at the top of her lungs.

"The flower of life was trampled and lost. Nothing will change if one were to only commit themselves to prayers alone. The bliss of livestock is brought about by cowardice and compromise. Hungry wolves would die for the sake of freedom!"

"Fly now! The burning arrow of flames!"