Transcendent Gene
Chapter 93: On The Hunt [1]

Chapter 93: On The Hunt [1]

Raymond wasn’t kidding when he said they had to travel for a while. They were traveling in the air for several days before they even got close to their destination.

The zephyr didn’t have real windows, but its body was lined with cameras. If one wanted to see the outside world from one’s dorm, one could easily access some of those feeds.

As Gio watched the ground pass below them looking like a mess of green and beige, it wasn’t hard to see why humanity was unable to reclaim this part of the world.

’There are just too many of them.’

The skies were filled with aerial beasts. There were flocks ranging from only five or six beasts to thousands traveling as one. Some aerial beasts traveled alone, but those were only the ones who didn’t become prey by doing so.

Beasts as big as the zephyr crossed the horizon several times, making Gio once again understand that the only reason he could observe this scenery so comfortably was because of the power of the zephyr’s technology.

But if humanity had access to such technologies, why hadn’t they been able to end the threat of beasts or monsters?

’Monsters are another matter. Unlike beasts, they’re like an organized syndicate. They’re broken up into factions and have a lot of infighting, but there’s a chain of command. If an order goes down from the top, every monster under the commander’s command will carry it out without fail.’

The monsters at the top of that chain of command had sentience. They could think like humans and even outsmart humans.

Humanity only had an inkling of it now, but the presence of monsters wasn’t caused naturally like beasts. Those portals were never meant to exist.

Monsters were an invading force. Even if they hadn’t been able to confirm anything about their highest powers or even prove that such a chain of command existed in the current era, humanity had to start thinking of them like an army.

’An opposing army that’s stronger and has more numbers...it’s obvious why the war is ongoing on that front.’

Beasts, however, had no sentience. They were mutated beasts, after all. Their original ancestors were still the same animals that existed on Earth at one point. Some of them were able to gain a level of intelligence with their mutation, but sentience was beyond them.

They weren’t an organized army. They were chaotic, wild, and followed the laws of the jungle.

’Other than the fact that they especially discriminate against humans, there isn’t anything about them that’s different from their original animalistic natures.’

But they couldn’t be erased.

It had been almost a thousand years since the first time humanity encountered beasts. Several centuries passed, enough for two eras to go by.

Was it possible for them to remain either on equal or lower standing to beasts for the entirety of that period? If that were the case, let alone their technologies, even the population of humanity wouldn’t have been able to balloon so much.

Beasts just didn’t disappear.

No matter how they were slaughtered, they couldn’t be exterminated.

Because "animals" barely existed on this planet anymore. Mutated beasts became humanity’s main source of nutrition, a large part of their resources, and an important factor in the creation and replication of Gene and Bloodline Sequences.

Their presence was a necessity.

’But they can’t be corralled and domesticated like animals. In the Upper Strata, they have specialized hunting zones where they do something close, but they can’t do that everywhere.’

Humanity’s technologies had been conserved. They’d been kept in the Upper Strata of Earth, Mars, and Venus while the Lower Strata had been left for beasts to conquer.

It started as a problem of oversight, and then the problem became too massive to handle. When beasts were allowed to propagate as they pleased, they took over entire Strata in a matter of a few years.

Humanity’s resources were already spread thin across three planets and fifteen total Strata. Those places that had been abandoned were left mostly abandoned. The reclamation efforts progressed as slowly as they possibly could.

’And that leaves us with scenes like these.’

Entire worlds overrun by beasts and monsters that nobody could do anything about.

Gio sighed.

’The road ahead is too long.’

Humanity was too foolish to believe their current situation was relative peace. They lulled themselves into an illusion of peace so they could ignore the fact that they never left the verge of extinction.

"Well, these are the first steps, anyway. It’s always an exponential curve with these kinds of things."

Gio rolled off his bed and stood up, stretching to wake himself up.

Once he had some influence in the world, things would move a lot faster. He wouldn’t have to dread the long road ahead when that time came.

And if he just thought of that time now, he could get rid of the dread that always crept into his heart.

’It feels strange to humanize myself.’

It wasn’t like he was a different person. He was still the same man who spent a century killing his soul in the Tower of Babel. He knew he was able to maintain himself through [Memory Book], but he also felt like living in the past again was also changing him.

Feelings he never would have felt entered his mind and heart. Insecurities that didn’t exist in the core of his being tried to penetrate it and root themselves in the deepest corners of his mind.

"Is it a hormone thing?"

"Is what a hormone thing?"

Gio jumped as his rhetorical was answered. His eyes snapped to the door, where Amaya was standing.

’So much for security.’

"How’d you manage to get in?"

Amaya shrugged.

"I knocked a couple of times and you didn’t say anything. I was gonna wake you up if you were sleeping, but you’re awake, so..."

Her lips curled up slyly.

"Hormones, huh?"

"Not those hormones," Gio immediately responded with a deadpan stare.

"It’s fine. You’re young, so it’s normal. But if you start having hormone problems again..."

Amaya’s voice drifted off as she knocked on the metal next to her.

"Maybe lock the door next time?"

Gio facepalmed and sighed a deep sigh. He wanted to fix the misunderstanding, but Amaya didn’t plan to give him a chance.

"We’re landing soon. Get dressed and come out to the main room. We’ll pick out some gear for you before we break off from the rest."

She was gone by the end of the sentence. Her laughter echoed through the halls, basically guaranteeing that talk of Gio’s "hormone problems" would be circulating the zephyr soon enough.

He rubbed his temple for a second before calming down, closing the door, and changing out of his sleepwear.

’I’ve been alone for too long.’

For one, he was too used to talking to himself without having to be worried about someone hearing him.

More importantly, though, the embarrassment hit him a lot harder than he expected it to.

’I want to crawl in a hole and die.’

"You’re a man, Gio. You can’t keep losing aura like this."

He shook his head and regained a stable mind.

In the end, he was indeed affected by the natural chemical responses happening in his body as he underwent puberty. He couldn’t even believe that he was having a moment like this.

But, well...

’I suppose it has to happen to everyone at least once.’

It was a fated experience since he was now a teenager again, so he took it in stride and walked out of his room.

There were more important things to focus on today.