002 Beginning II

02 Beginning II

After the war, a lot of technology was lost. But humans are resilient and over the period of several centuries, they were able to regain what was lost, and significantly improved them, surpassing even their ancestors. But humanity's loss is not just the technology. No, humans also lost one of the most significant advantages of being human. (Fertility)

For some reason, humans are showing infertility symptoms. During the last 200 years, it became more apparent, as more and more couples were unable to conceive a child. So 150 years ago, the United Government and all superpowers unanimously made a difficult decision to pursue one of the taboo branches of science: (Cloning)

At first, it was bombarded by a lot of opposition, but when the government released the data on humanity's infertility for the last 200 years, the world was shocked.

Data shows that for the last 100 years, humanity's population not only didn't increase but actually decreased. It was so alarming that the study shows that if humans didn't do anything to address the infertility issue, humans would be extinct within 300 years.

A lot of alternatives were given, such as In vitro fertilization or most commonly known as

(The Seed Project)

But it was scrapped 20 years later because humans born this way are showing symptoms of mental issues, such as derangement or aggressive personality. Even with the most advanced technology, they couldn't figure out the source of the mental problems.

In the end, the governments were forced to shut down the project, because cloning was showing good progress. Not only was it cheaper, but no human clones were showing any mental problems. They even showed some increase in human intelligence and physiology. The only downside is that human clones have a short life span compared to natural-born humans.

But because of cloning, the term "family" is beginning to lose its value, even after more than 70 years since a law was passed that stated that a human clone needs to receive the same rights and be respected as a regular human. A clone is still not accepted in most communities, especially religious communities. They firmly rejected the government cloning projects and did not allow any cloned people in their community, many even banned them from entering the church. Stating clones have no soul and are an abomination in the sight of god.

Radial city where Arc and his family lived, it is an exception as it's an open city where clones or human mutants are accepted without being discriminated against.

Jorge Ferdinand Radial is the founder of Radial city.

He once stated that to him, any humans, whether it's a clone or a mutant, is still a human. He also said that what makes humans a human is not our genes or how we are born, but it's the principle to accept and loving others unconditionally are what makes us human.

Using the fortune that his family was able to amass over the past six generations, he founded a city near the wasteland. Near enough to be able to take advantage of the rich abundance of materials, the wasteland was able to offer but far enough to be safe from radiation.

A lot of people thought he was crazy, and even his own family felt the same, they said that it was a fool's dream. But Jorge was not discouraged, in fact, it only fueled his desire to prove himself.

He firmly believed that he was building a Future, one that everyone will accept, and true enough 50 years later, he was correct. In the last 50 years since the founding of Radial city, it has become the center of commerce in the southern part of the United Government. Countless people visit it every year to trade or simply experience what the open city can provide.

***

Arc checks his mobile phone and looks for anything interesting such as games or the latest trends, but after a few minutes of browsing, he loses interest, and only his annoyance increases. He still can't fall asleep. It's like he was on drugs or something, his body wants to rest, but his mind wants to party.

You have new mail!

Hmm, it's been a long time since he got any personal mail.

He gets messages from his sister or from his annoying Boss, who keeps on taking advantage of him. But never an email, the last email he gets is more than a year ago, it's from his relatives saying don't disturb them anymore.

He checks the sender, and it was blank,

"Hmm, well, it might be spam."

Even though this was a new account that he created after the accident. He can count on his fingers the number of people who know this new email address.

Click! He opens it. The only thing he saw was a link, and the link address covered the whole page.

"Eh, what the hell is this web address? It must be a prank, right?"

"Has it been like this two years ago?" he asks himself, a little confused.

He may not be active anymore online, but he was not a novice. Before the accident, he was an active user.

He was an active member of many forums, and he was even a moderator in some of them, though he left all of those things behind two years ago. It's not long enough for many things to change.

He will usually ignore it as a shady website that is full of viruses and Trojans that prey on any new user. Though human technology has advanced during the past couple of centuries, viruses and those hackers are also advancing along with technology.

Well, since he has nothing better to do, he can't even fall asleep, so he might as well check the link out.

Click!....

His vision went black!