Honkai: Man(Sludge) From Future

You might not believe it if I told you.

Hachiman Hikigaya felt that there was something wrong with this world.

He was pondering the strange reasons why his relatives in Nagazora City (formerly a prototype of Yokohama) had suddenly come to his house.

This matter had to be told from the beginning.

Just before the New Year, Nagazora City suddenly went crazy and relocated everyone in a certain area.

Then these people were distributed to other cities.

If you didn't know better, you would think that some terrible battle had happened in Nagazora City. But after Hachiman Hikigaya asked around, he found out that they had been dragged out of bed in the middle of the night and relocated.

Then they received a large sum of compensation that was enough for them to live on, and many wealthy and powerful people were tight-lipped about what had happened there.

This sudden event made Hachiman Hikigaya's scalp tingle with fear.

Any normal person would know how much manpower and resources such a large-scale population relocation would require. It was impossible to do this even in a short period of time.

There must be a force that ordinary people couldn't understand that had intervened.

Hachiman Hikigaya wasn't an idiot, but the way the people around him were acting made him even more afraid.

Whether it was domestic or foreign news, television or the internet.

No one had any intention of explaining this event.

There were even many people who were forced not to discuss the issue of Nagazora City.

Nagazora City was about 40 kilometers away from Chiba City, which was where he lived. If someone had really dropped a nuclear bomb there, Chiba City wouldn't have been able to miss the mushroom cloud.

In other words, if a Honkai incident had occurred in Nagazora City, an explosion with a radius of 20 kilometers would at least be clearly visible to people thousands of kilometers away.

So, in theory, it was absolutely impossible to block a world crisis of this magnitude.

Because you couldn't afford that level of manpower, and you couldn't afford that level of resources.

It wasn't that he didn't believe in the power of human unity, but rather that he didn't believe in the execution ability of these officials in peacetime.

Hachiman Hikigaya had sensed the crisis brought about by the power behind the scenes.

Even a high school student like him could feel it. There was no reason why the adults couldn't feel it.

But everyone was acting like nothing had happened, as if nothing had really happened there.

The confused Hachiman Hikigaya sat in front of the TV in his living room.

His head was buzzing. He couldn't understand what had happened that would make these political leaders so nervous.

'Could it be a world war?'

'Or maybe an alien invasion?'

'Or maybe some secret psychic power riot?'

'The Avengers?'

Many possibilities ran through Hachiman Hikigaya's mind, but in the end, these possibilities all turned to dust and disappeared in his mind.

'Could it be... zombies?!'

He had the urge to leave immediately. At this point, it wasn't time to consider what kind of major crisis the Far East had encountered.

Just as Hachiman Hikigaya's mind was racing, a breaking news report suddenly appeared on the TV.

[A breaking news report regarding the future development of Nagazora City.]

[The countries of North America, the European and North Atlantic Treaty Organization, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations, in order to further develop human biotechnology...]

[Have joined hands to establish a brand new academy city in Nagazora City in the Far East, recruiting outstanding talents from all walks of life. The organizations that are currently preparing to join include...]

[...Schicksal Environmental Alliance... Tokyo Electric Power... Central Bank... Federal Reserve... Anti-Entropy Construction Company... European Union Joint... Environmental Protection... United Nations...]

Various organizations, some he had heard of and some he hadn't, bombarded Hachiman Hikigaya's eyes one after another.

His head buzzed, and he completely lost the normal thinking that a normal person should have.

'What?'

'What's going on?'

'Why did something like this suddenly appear?'

[...Regarding the free skin color potion that appeared in North America, it is also the first human-usable biological gene potion that we jointly created...]

[...In this joint process, two new companies, "Entropy Increase" and "Defying Heaven," will be established as the main organizations for external communication in Nagazora City...]

[...Its members include... Theresa Apocalypse... Frederica Nikola Tesla... former ME Corporation president Raiden Ryoma...]

At this point, Hachiman Hikigaya, as a high school student, was numb.

He had no idea what Nagazora City had encountered to be connected to so many related industries. How did so many big shots suddenly descend on this broken place in the Far East?

And what was up with that Theresa Apocalypse?

Why was there a genius young girl with all kinds of doctor and professor titles?

Wasn't Raiden Ryoma imprisoned? So this was the result? He had risen to a higher level after coming out?

'The world has suddenly become unfamiliar to me.'

Just a few days ago, he was still watching the news about the free skin color potion that appeared in North America, and the various news about parades and riots.

Hachiman Hikigaya was watching with amusement, but today someone told him...

"You didn't expect it, did you?! These are all things that the people of the Far East did with everyone. Isn't it exciting?"

It was like a very bad joke, and this joke wasn't funny at all.

Hachiman Hikigaya had originally wanted to wait until he made money in the future and buy a bottle to try it out. Maybe he could experience what it was like to be a European.

Because by the time he had money, it would be clear whether this potion had any side effects.

But Hachiman Hikigaya had never expected that such a thing would happen in Nagazora City.

To make this happen, the Far Eastern government had even pulled out half the people of Nagazora City overnight.

"What, what exactly do they want to do..."

"Biotechnology? Gene potions?"

Hachiman Hikigaya suddenly remembered something. He immediately took out his phone and started searching online for information about human experiments.

He quickly found relevant information, such as the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, the Nuremberg Code, the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court, etc. They all contained information about human experiments.

But the things that were happening in Nagazora City now, and that free skin color potion that had suddenly appeared, all told Hachiman Hikigaya with cold reality.

The world had changed, and these rules were useless.

When these people were doing experiments, no one in the world knew. When the potion was successful, it was even released as a near-finished product.

'How many test subjects did they use?'

Hachiman Hikigaya didn't even dare to think about the possibility.

He only had two words in his heart—fear.

He felt a chilling coldness all over his body. The warm house in winter couldn't bring him warmth. A chilling chill pierced straight into his heart.

[...Sincerely invite outstanding students from all walks of life...]

[...To jointly build the completion of Nagazora Academy City...]

[...Jointly with elite universities to participate in construction activities...]

Hachiman Hikigaya's vacant gaze fell on the last sentence.

[...High school students aged 15-18 are the most optimal...]

[...are the most optimal...]