The conglomerates were hawking goods through bloody livestreams when the second Red Disaster descended without warning, and the workers trapped in the prison mutated en masse.

Wasteland bandits, the low-temperature monster Frostcloak Bruce, moles, dense fog, a cliffside wreck. Everything was taking an increasingly sinister turn.

The pathetic little analyst Sui Xin was scared to death: “Thank goodness, thank goodness. I’m a mole too, and a double agent at that.”

Across the Five Capitals and the four great ruins zones, Tianfu’s Forbidden Wall stood supreme. Those who pursued aristocracy and wealth held lapdogs like deep-cover agents in contempt: the King of Tianfu hated that identity above all. A damned mole would sooner or later be castrated and hacked to pieces!

Sui Xin: “Really?”

The people of the world: “Of course. The King witnessed members of his clan being brutally killed by a mole when he was young. No mole has ever survived under his watch, and no one has ever broken such a curse.”

But Sui Xin did. She chose to keep the King’s eyes closed forever.

The Tianfus of the Five Capitals convened a meeting to hunt down Sui Xin, history’s most despicable villain. At the meeting, one of the most noble and aloof kings in history said, “Sit down. You’re one of us.”

Another king said, “Who is she? Does she think she’s worthy?”

Then the meeting went slightly awry: one or two of the Five Kings were gravely wounded, one was killed, and Sui Xin had no choice but to wash her hands and take the dead king’s seat.

The consortium system includes Hounds, Executioners, Hussars, Cthulhus, Sentinels, deep-cover agents, and Full-Time Ruins Hunters.

The ruins-zone system includes Day Eaters, Night Eaters, Full-Eaters, and Half-Eaters.

Other systems include the Kingdom Thieves system, the cult system, and, most mysteriously of all, the Forbidden Wall civilization that developed in secret beneath the first Red Disaster.

Mutant evolution directions include flight, telepathy, lie detection, limb replication and mimicry, invisibility, control, and transformation into other organisms. The last is caused by some kind of radiation combined with viral mutation, turning people into cockroaches, rats, lions, fish, shrimp, birds, and so forth, but there is always a risk that the creature’s instincts will in turn overtake the person.

A Mutant’s talent is usually limited to a single ability. Only a tiny number of monstrous prodigies can undergo multiple transformations, and most remain flesh and blood. Everyone in this world can be killed by physical or energy damage. The world’s power system is built on martial combat, tactical trickery, and minor magic.

Capital livestreamed my murder; just as it wished, I mutated.