Genetic History

"Huh, this doesn't seem that bad, it's just a little warm is all. If it continues like this then I see no problem at all."

Ah, young lad, one should know when to speak and when not to invite disaster upon himself. Big emphasis on 'not', oh well, you'll get what I mean soon hehe.

"Eh? What's this? Ahhhhhhhhhh!"

Ah yes, the young one screaming here is called Teke and what he's experiencing is called a disaster, yes, no kidding. Oh yes, keep screaming, as if that'd grant you nirvanic rebirth. A thousand years ago, the global population came to a consensus, to ensure human unity in order to prepare for the disaster the old ones foretold, the country system was abolished. Big news, I know. A new world government was proposed, where each sector, then continent, would absorb the countries of the old and form six robust governments, minus Antarctica of course, who stays there anyway? They would support internal growth and development, strengthening humanity for what was to come. Humanity wasn't senseless, together they focused on building themselves, making each generation far stronger than the last. The threat of annihilation was real and all creatures felt it in their blood.

Their bodies cried and yearned to become stronger. Animals broke their genetic barriers and further evolved, apes were a civilization acting as close aides to humans. Their intelligence rivals that of a human child. With their new abilities, they assisted in doing menial things ensuring their and their human counterparts' future survival. The world governments of all six sectors enforced the martial arts law which was widely accepted by all, I mean, who wouldn't want to be a martial artist? Now in the current civilization, men and women alike practice martial arts and have it ingrained in them from a tender age of three or five depending on their physical specifications.

Generation after generation of martial artists improved themselves and finally created a power system for easy referencing. It was called the body tempering system. Different cultivators published various articles that were soon to be called, The Body Tempering Manuals. These manuals detailed the stages of body tempering, which started at level one of course, at one hundred kilograms per punch, peaking at level nine, at nine hundred and ninety-nine kilogram-force per punch, no human seemed to be able to break the one thousand kilogram barrier.

In distress, humanity focused on training another aspect of themselves to the limit, the focus was on reaction speed. There are three types of reactions the human body can develop, auditory reaction speed, the reaction speed for touch, and finally visual stimuli.

Although there were three focuses, humanity chose only two out of the three; auditory reaction speed and reaction speed for visual stimuli, thereby eliminating reaction speed for touch from their practices, after all, why would you need to dodge a bullet when it has already touched you huh? Just die already.

Humanity practiced for countless years and still peaked at 170 milliseconds for auditory stimulus and about 190 milliseconds for visual stimulus, desperate to find the way forward, genetic scientists performed various experiments and through trials and errors developed a special serum that mutates the brain's performance thereby speeding up the overall performance of the human body. Of course, this was just increasing the brain's reaction, the human body still needed the muscles to be taunted and prepared to strike at each appropriate time, thanks to the body's tempering system though, humanity didn't have to worry about that.

The optimum age for injection of the serum was twelve. Now in modern times, you could find a twenty-year-old at the ninth stage of body tempering with an average reaction speed of 20 milliseconds for auditory stimulus and 30 milliseconds for visual stimulus, young Teke here for example. Although the speed is still lacking to dodge a bullet, modern researchers are doing their very best to break through that barrier.

Twenty-year-old Teke here was already standing neck above the majority of his peers and yet he knew that the power he currently grasped was minuscule in the face of what was to come. He gritted his teeth and bore the pain, his tanned skin slowly ripping apart as his 173cm toned body shuddered. He was no longer screaming for he knew what was to come, if his willpower was too weak to endure, the only outcome was the total destruction of both him and the city.

"What the hell is going on?"

"It's finally happening huh?"

"Mommy, is the world ending?"

"The prediction of the old ones has finally manifested."

One would expect chaos to ensue but other than the look of fear and doubt on the faces of all mortals who set their eyes on the pillar of light, no action was taken. All they could do was pray for the poor soul stuck in the light beam, whose face they couldn't see but were sure was covered in anguish. They all knew what was happening, the old ones depicted it on murals that have been passed on for generations. With bated breaths, they waited, the fate of their world would soon be decided.