Commanding the World

"Commanding the World" is a science fiction suspense web novel by Wang Miao, serialized on Xiaoxiang Academy from August 11, 2015, to November 10, 2016. It comprises 810 chapters and roughly 3.23 million Chinese characters. The story is set in a post-apocalyptic world overrun by monsters: aberrant creatures ravage the surface, and humanity struggles to survive relying on armored technology and a mercenary system while seeking a path to civilizational revival. The protagonist, Hao Sanshui, was once a formidable mercenary. After rebirth, his combat power plunges from 40 to below 5—he mockingly calls himself "combat trash"—yet he starts over relying on a system and his memories of the future. The novel can be roughly divided into three phases: the early section lays out the apocalyptic worldview and the rebirth premise; the middle section revolves around training, combat, and the armored system at a mercenary academy; the later section shifts to multiple monster-extermination campaigns in places such as Blue Snow Mountain, Yellow Desert, and Blue Reservoir. In the final chapter, "Forty-Five Years," Hao Sanshui defeats the ancient sentient tree of the monster planet in a soul space; humanity eliminates the monsters on Earth and rebuilds its homeland, while he, after forty-five years, reopens the gravitational bridge and returns to the human world, reuniting with Tang Xingzhi. With settings such as the "Steel Sky" and "individual soldier armor," the book constructs a grand narrative of humanity's confrontation with monsters—a fast-paced, power-fantasy novel in the apocalyptic system genre.