Warlord

Warlord is an evolutionary mutation science fiction web novel by the author Chen Ran. Serialized on Zongheng Chinese Network from June 21, 2012, and now completed, it runs to roughly 3.7 million Chinese characters in over a thousand chapters. The story is set in a wasteland world after a global "Cataclysm": in its aftermath, law and order have vanished, the land has become a jungle wilderness where the strong prey on the weak, and mutated creatures and splinter factions fight for living space among the ruins. The protagonist "Zero" is an artificial life form bearing the "Golden Right Eye," who returns to this world after being accidentally awakened from slumber by a miner. In the wilderness he meets the human woman Lia; when Lia is infected by the blood of the Lawless, he takes her away from the base to seek medical help, but loses his beloved to pursuit by the Dark Council. Hunted by the dark forces, he joins Valhalla after the intervention of a Valkyrie dispatched by "Odin," and sets out to uncover the truth of his own origins. As he awakens genetic abilities and develops the Five Ability Domains, Zero is drawn ever deeper into the conflicts among organizations such as Valhalla and the Dark Council, is chosen by the Planetary Will as a "Child of the Planet," and learns of the existential threat posed by the star beast Prometheus. Through dense battle scenes and multi-stranded struggles among factions, the book unfolds a brutal evolutionary worldview, ultimately pointing toward the rebuilding of human order and the fate of the survivors.