The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 107 Good News
Seeing that Yu Qing was determined to leave, the big-headed man stopped beating around the bush and said directly, "We hope to get Mr. Yu's help."

Yu Qing asked in surprise, "How did you know my surname is Yu? Besides, there's nothing I can do to help."

The man said, "I know you are the heir to the Yunshan Group. When Mr. Yu Yunshan was alive, he promised to fund our Intellectual Research Institute with one billion RB annually, but the funding has stopped since his death..."

Yu Qing was even more surprised and hurriedly interrupted him, saying, "I don't understand what nonsense you're spouting!"

The man pointed to the ring on Yu Qing's hand and said, "This ring was specially crafted by our swordsmith over a hundred years ago as a gift to Mr. Yu Yunshan, to express our gratitude for his strong support..."

This is terrible! His identity has been exposed. Chang'e and E'ying were right there by the door, listening intently. Seeing that his secret was about to be exposed, he had no choice but to minimize the area exposed, saying:

"This ring was indeed left by Mr. Yu. I found it by chance in the small building where he used to live, but it has nothing to do with the heirs, it's completely unrelated! There are many descendants of the Yu family, I heard there are more than a dozen in Jinchengzi alone..."

The man was skeptical of Yu Qing's words. Chang'e and Eying also seemed unconvinced. Yu Qing, not caring about anything else, got into the car and prepared to leave.

But then he suddenly remembered that he couldn't leave the city, so he had to have the car driven to the south of the city to find a place to stop and sleep in the car.

At this moment, he was very worried that the ring would cause unnecessary trouble. Eying and the others naturally knew he had visited Yu Yunshan's small building, but they knew nothing about the ring's origin. If they suspected the ring was related to the heir, or even a token, would they take immediate action?
The struggle for power has always been fraught with danger, especially now that it involves both power and interests. He wanted to defuse the danger and made a decision that surprised everyone.

Since the ring was merely a weapon and of little use to him, he simply gave it to Eying, ostensibly to keep it safe in case it was lost, but in reality to divert their attention.

This move was indeed ingenious. E'ying kept raising her hand to look left and right, seemingly studying the secrets hidden in the ring. This led Yu Qing to conclude that E'ying had been bribed to spy on him.

The watch he was holding might be suspected by E'ying or those behind her of being a token of Yu Yunshan. So he took it off and handed it to Chang'e for safekeeping. Of course, he also had another purpose: to test whether Chang'e was indeed suspicious.

Just as Chang'e reached out to take the watch, Yao Dan snatched it away, saying, "Husband, I'll keep it safe!"

Yu Qing scolded, "You're acting like a bandit!"

Yu Qing thought it would be more appropriate for Yao Dan to keep it. If it were left with Chang'e, he wouldn't be in a good position if he needed to summon his secretary in case of any emergency.

All he did was to make Eying and the others think that they had only been to the small building and, although they had taken some of Yu Yunshan's belongings, they had not become heirs.

However, his efforts were thwarted by several big-headed people early the next morning.

Just as dawn broke and he was about to urge everyone to hurry out of the city, the big-headed man from the previous night stood beside his car with a few others. They once again pleaded with Yu Qing to continue supporting the intellectual development cause. To curry favor with him, they even gave him a small gift.

Yu Qing could hardly refuse this gift he had longed for. It was a microchip, a feature unique to swordsmiths, embedded in their earlobes. Once implanted, it would connect them to a satellite the swordsmiths had deployed in space. This satellite was their "Ruyi Star."

"Ruyi Star" is actually a real-time updated world library and intelligent analysis assistant. Yu Qing was unaware of many events that had occurred on Earth in recent decades, and it filled the gaps in his knowledge.

Seeing Yu Qing's expression, the big-headed man knew he wouldn't refuse, so he implanted the microchip into his earlobe without saying a word.

The big-headed man told him the gestures and methods to summon the Ruyi Star, and also said: "Theoretically, this chip can be used for 180 years. Its energy comes from your body temperature. If you feel a little coolness in your ear, it is absorbing heat to replenish its energy."

Yu Qing said, "But I... I really am not... The heir to Yunshan Group is one of my aunts."

Yu Qing casually told such a huge lie that even he was surprised. The big-headed man, Chang'e, Eying, and the others were all utterly astonished.

Eying muttered to herself, "This is impossible..."

The big-headed man asked in confusion, "Then why do you have a ring?"

Sometimes, one lie needs dozens of lies to support it. Yu Qing had no choice but to make up another story, saying, "You don't know, before Yu Yunshan died, he secretly gave the authorization letter to that aunt's ancestor, but he was unwilling to take it over, so it was passed down from generation to generation to that aunt of Jin Chengzi."

That aunt was passionate about interstellar travel, had no intention of taking over, and had even altered her genes beyond recognition, losing the basic qualifications for an heir…”

Chang'e said, "So you met with your aunt last time. Then she can pass on the authorization letter to you..."

Yu Qing said, "Do you think that's an object? It's an electronic credential linked to your biometrics. Since your aunt's biometrics are gone, that credential is essentially without a password to unlock it..."

The big-headed man sighed, "That way, she won't be able to exercise her power through the administrative system."

After a moment, the big-headed man clapped his hands and exclaimed, "So Mr. Yu's tokens are used to regenerate electronic certificates! Is that right?"

Yu Qing had never considered this possibility. The big-headed man's words essentially erased the whole story he had just made up, but he still couldn't shake off the suspicion that he was being treated as the heir.

Yu Qing suddenly had a good idea: he asked E Ying to return the ring that the big man considered a token to him. He said to the big man, "Then help me figure out how to regenerate the electronic voucher, and I'll come back to collect it next time."

After saying that, he gestured for everyone to get in the car and left the city without looking back.

This time he planned to fly directly to the third amusement park and not visit the other three cities along the way.

In the past, besides resupplying, his main purpose in going to the city was to learn more about the living conditions and customs of various ethnic groups on Earth. Now he can ask Ruyi Star for this information.

It can even help him calculate the weather parameters from here to the Third Paradise, and derive the precise trajectory and flight time.

Under today's weather conditions, they will arrive at the Third Paradise at 4:06 AM, at which point the car will have 18% of its energy remaining.

He also learned from Ruyi Star that the model of vehicle they were using now was seventy years old! The most advanced model was the Xihe-type all-powerful vehicle, which appeared in 2C37 and could travel between heaven and earth at a speed of up to Mach 28. However, due to a sharp decline in demand, there hadn't been any new products in the world for forty years. Except in a very few places, the development of science and technology throughout the world had completely stagnated or even declined, and people had lost interest in and pursuit of new technologies.

Most of people's attention is focused on studying themselves. One scientist once summarized this situation as: people are keen to transform themselves into an ageless god.

This is like the ancient emperors who devoted themselves to alchemy and cultivating immortality; they had no time to care about people's livelihoods or foreign expansion. But people today have even higher demands than those emperors of the past; they demand to be on equal footing with the gods.

Ruyi Xing told Yu Qing that a survey conducted in 2C07 showed that less than 0.08% of the total population knew the Pythagorean theorem. The systems that keep modern technology running are all intelligent facilities created by the previous generation.

On the assembly line, robots build robots; off the assembly line, artificial humans are created: in 2C16, less than one-thousandth of babies on Earth are naturally conceived; the rest are OEM products.

Yu Qing also received definite news: statistics from 2C50 show that, apart from the original ecological paradise, there are no other native humans on the entire Earth.

而且截至2C12年，保留有原生人类50%完整基因的人不到42%，大多数地方的人90%的DNA都被置换和编辑过。

Of course, Yu Qing also received some good news from Ruyi Star: there are still 3 to 8 native people living in the Third Paradise!
The reason we cannot get accurate figures is that the self-cleaning system of the dome there has failed, so the images obtained from space are too blurry to accurately determine whether the individuals involved are the same person.

However, Yu Qing was unsuccessful when he tried to obtain information about the Fourth Paradise and other places, because Ruyi Star only covers one-third of the Earth's surface. The swordsmiths had never been interested in worlds far removed from their own, so they had no intention of expanding their horizons.

However, Yu Qing was already very happy to receive news that there were similar places in the Third Paradise.

He had never slept so soundly. When he woke up, the car had already landed in a small ravine. From here, they could go through a tunnel to enter the Third Paradise.

For reasons of isolation, the Third Paradise was built amidst towering mountains. Protected by a sturdy dome, not even a bird could fly inside.

This tunnel leading to the Third Amusement Park was originally built to transport materials and equipment. After the park was completed and closed, the tunnel entrance was destroyed to prevent people from disturbing it. As for the depth of the damage, no historical records have been found.

This presented Yu Qing with another major problem: he could overlook the Third Paradise from the air, but there was no way to enter.

Clearing the rubble at the tunnel entrance was no easy task. Besides, they didn't have the necessary machinery. Flying directly over the mountain above the tunnel to the Third Paradise was also impossible; it was covered in dense, primeval trees, making it impossible to find a suitable landing spot.

Without a landing, they can't get to the ground. They also lack the equipment for airdropping personnel. Besides, the vehicle only has 18% energy left, leaving no room for trial and error.

Perhaps after the sun comes out and we bask in the sun for a couple more days to replenish our energy, we can fly up and scout out the situation.

The hardest part isn't getting in, but getting out. Even if you hover the car somewhere near the park and manage to lower people down from the air, how do you get the park's inhabitants back up?

We need to think carefully and find a foolproof solution.

Setting the mountain on fire? That's obviously not an option. Not only would the fire be uncontrollable, but the oxygen in the vicinity would be depleted, and with the thick smoke, he and Danggui might suffocate there.

The best approach is for someone to first cross the mountain and clear a landing area near the amusement park. The area doesn't need to be too large; just enough to land one car, a dozen square meters would suffice.

Such a heavy task could only be entrusted to Chang'e and Yao Dan. Although their walking and climbing abilities did not have a significant advantage over humans, they were sturdy and would not get their hands cut by thorns or their buttocks chafed by stones. Crucially, their light blades could also clear obstacles in their path.

He also wanted to take this opportunity to test Eying's abilities. Regardless of whether she had any problems or not, she was, after all, sent by the Heavenly Ancestor to protect him, so she should have some skills.

He called Eying to his side and told her his idea, wanting her to try it out first to see if the plan to open a landing site could be realized.

To everyone's surprise, Eying replied, "Master, there's no need to try. I'll just open up the landing site for you tomorrow."

Yu Qing asked, "How confident are you?"

Eying said, "It's a sure thing, you don't need to worry."

Yao Dan said, "Chang'e and I will go too. If we work together, we're sure to succeed."

Eying said, "No need, I can handle it alone. You all stay here to protect our master. To be honest, I've discovered that we're being locked onto by a satellite."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "That's the swordsman's lucky star."

Eying said, "That's not how it works. The Ruyi Star won't respond to you unless you give it a summons. But this star is always watching its master, and its T-shaped wave drifts within 5 cm of the master."

Yu Qing was taken aback and asked, "Huh? How did you know?"

Eying laughed and said, "Child's play. My master is often tracked and monitored, so I have more than 300 kinds of anti-surveillance devices on my head."

"It seems I underestimated you. I should have thought of that. How could the Heavenly Ancestor send an incompetent person to protect me? Can you tell me, what method do you plan to use to open up the landing site?"

“Master, there’s no special method, just a simple and brutal approach. Tomorrow, fly the car to an altitude of 200 to 300 meters, find the landing spot, and I’ll jump down from the air and smash it into a flat area.”

Yu Qing laughed and said, "I'm afraid you'll fall apart, and what you'll smash out will be a crater instead of flat ground."

Eying said, "It's impossible for my body to fall apart. My body can dive to a depth of 1200 meters. As for making a crater, that's true, but I can just go down and fill it in. It's not a big deal."

(End of this chapter)