Star Grave

Star Grave is a long science fiction novel by the web author Angel Oscar (real name Xu Zhen). It is one of five works in the Wanggu Mythology worldview V1.0 series led by Boyi Chuangwei and Fengshen Culture, and together with Yue Guan's Qin Ruins, Ma Boyong's A Chronicle of the White Snake's Maladies, Wandering Toad's Strange Tales of Mount Shu, and Tiaowu's Records of Choosing Heaven, it forms the initial story cluster of this worldview. The novel was serialized on Tiandi Chinese Network in June 2017, and a physical edition was released by Jiuzhou Press in October 2018. The story takes place under the twelve mythological epochs framework of Wanggu Mythology, on a planet called Lone Star: on the surface it has only developed to the level of a steam-age civilization, yet high-tech relics far beyond current technology are scattered across it, and the planet is also covered with poisonous plants and mutated beasts, with vast regions becoming life-forbidden zones that humans cannot enter. Social order is dominated by the Qianshang Coalition Government, citizens are divided by grade, and the lower classes live in hardship. The protagonist, Xu Le, is a technical school student from a third-class citizen background whose parents died early; to supplement his livelihood he fights in underground boxing matches. After accidentally saving an exile, he is dragged into prison, and to survive he can only join a survival game with an extremely low survival rate. Together with companions such as Zhu Fei and Yang Bin, he struggles to survive amid killing and betrayal, and step by step uncovers a secret the Coalition Government has tried hard to conceal—that game, held in the name of selection, is closely tied to the true fate of Lone Star. The book wraps its passionate coming-of-age line around the question of absolute logic versus human emotion, making it the entry in this series that leans toward soft science fiction and adventure.