The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Three tense days have passed. The vanguard of the "Scavengers," a small group of individuals resembling a metallic wave, has finally become the first to arrive at the nearest city, Daya.

The battle began at dawn.

These twisted aggregates ignored the trenches and fences, flowing over like liquid. Unstable arcs of energy flickered on their bodies, and wherever their tentacles touched, wooden fences quickly corroded and dissolved, and rocks were left with deep erosion marks.

Da Ya stood behind the makeshift shelter, her hands trembling as the nightmarish scene approached. She screamed and ordered the humanoid maidens to fire. Energy beams shot into the "cleaner's" body, exploding into clumps of viscous, sparking matter. But their speed was only slightly slowed, and the wounds were quickly filled by the subsequent surge of matter.

"Freeze bombs! Use freeze bombs!" she shouted hoarsely.

Several freezing grenades were thrown out and exploded in the swarm of "scavengers". Low-temperature fog spread, and the movements of some of the smaller individuals became noticeably stiff and cracked, but the larger individuals were only covered with a layer of frost and continued to advance slowly and steadily.

One of the humanoid guards rushed forward too far and was entangled by several metal tentacles. Almost instantly, she was disintegrated and devoured, leaving only a few broken pieces.

This scene completely shattered Da Ya's mental defenses. She crouched behind cover, burying her head in her hands, trembling all over, and almost lost her ability to give orders.

Just as the defensive line was about to collapse, a burst of intense energy weapon fire suddenly erupted from the flank. It was reinforcements sent by Yu Xuan and Yu Lan!

Based on the shared monitoring data, they determined that Daya was under the most pressure and decisively dispatched a squad of fifty combat-type humanoids, carrying heavy cryogenic weapons, to provide support.

The arrival of this new force instantly turned the tide of the battle. A barrage of freezing bombs effectively slowed the advance of the "Scavengers," while energy weapons concentrated their firepower to eliminate larger individuals. The humanoid warriors of Daya City also reorganized amidst the chaos and joined the attack.

After more than half an hour of fierce fighting, this small group of "scavenger" vanguard was successfully eliminated, leaving behind a large area of ​​frozen, smoky, and bizarre remains.

After the battle, Daya collapsed to the ground, gazing at the devastated battlefield and the humanoid squad remotely commanded by Yu Xuan who had come to her aid. Her face was a mixture of lingering fear, shame, and a complex emotion that was hard to describe. She didn't thank them, but her tightly clenched fists trembled slightly.

Meanwhile, Xiaoya's maze also faced a test. Several "cleaners" attempted to invade, but their ever-changing forms seemed to lose their way in the face of the complex and ever-changing maze passages and endless traps.

They triggered a chain of traps, were smashed by falling boulders, trapped and burned by energy nets, and corroded by suddenly sprayed strong acid solutions...

Ultimately, these "cleaners" failed to break through the maze's outer perimeter; instead, they became new and bizarre "decorations" within the maze. Xiaoya, in the maze's core control room, watched the monitors with an almost morbidly satisfied smile on her face. Her method seemed to have worked.

The little bread's playground was the scene of a thrilling incident. Several smaller "cleaners" broke through the loose outer perimeter and rushed to the foot of her "castle".

Little Bread screamed in fright, but her humanoid "soldiers," driven by pre-programmed defenses, bravely (or perhaps foolishly) charged forward, using their bodies and rudimentary weapons to block her.

After losing more than a dozen humanoid creatures, they finally managed to eliminate the "cleaners" under the combined fire of the other humanoid creatures.

Little Bread stared at the scattered remains of the humanoid girl and the corpse of the monster. For the first time, she didn't laugh. Instead, she stared blankly for a long time before silently walking back to her "throne" made of toys.

In the first wave of contact, each city held its ground in different ways, but at a cost. More importantly, it made everyone truly feel the threat of death and the cruelty of war.

Yu Qing calmly observed everything through the surveillance cameras. He saw Daya's breakdown and sense of relief, Xiaoya's stubbornness and effectiveness, Xiaomianbao's fear and silence, and Yu Xuan and Yu Lan's decisiveness and cooperation.

He felt no joy, only a heavy sense of assessment. This was just the tip of the iceberg; a greater threat lay ahead.

Sure enough, monitoring showed that the main force of the "cleaners," a much larger "tide" with a stronger energy response, was converging in the direction of the Radiant Star, and its movement speed seemed to be accelerating.

Just then, Yu Qing received a message from Xiao Ya. Her face was somewhat pale, but her eyes were unusually bright, even carrying a kind of fanaticism.

“Yu Qing, I have a plan.” Her voice was somewhat shrill with excitement. “My maze can trap them, but eliminating them is too inefficient.”

I think what you said is correct. The energy cores are extremely unstable. I can set up a large energy overload device in the core area of ​​the maze, draw them in, and then... detonate it. That would be enough to wipe out a considerable number of monsters.

Yu Qing's heart skipped a beat. This was undoubtedly a low-risk, high-return plan. If it succeeded, it could severely damage "The Cleaner"; if it failed, it would simply mean that her labyrinth would be reduced to ashes.

"How confident are you?" Yu Qing asked calmly.

“I have complete control over the structure of the maze, and I can design the monster-luring routes. The energy overload device… requires your technical and material support, which my humanoid goddess cannot provide.”

Xiaoya quickly replied, "Success rate: 60%. The prerequisite is that you can deliver the item on time, and... trust me."

Yu Qing looked into the gleam in her eyes—a mixture of wisdom, obsession, and a desperate gamble—and remained silent for a moment. Then, he nodded: "Alright. The necessary supplies and technical modules will be delivered to you within an hour. You will be fully responsible for the specific execution plan."

This is how he delegated greater power and risks to this "city lord" who was obsessed with the labyrinth.

At the same time, he also contacted Yu Xuan and Yu Lan, affirmed their previous support actions, and asked them to act as backup, to be responsible for clearing out any possible escapees and to help Xiao Ya retreat if Xiao Ya's plan succeeded.

He also suggested that if the situation became critical, they could abandon the surface positions and hold their ground using the underground storage rooms they had dug.

As for Daya and Little Bread, he ordered them to continue to strengthen the defenses, keep a close watch, and be ready to deal with any stray enemies that might break through the lines.

A huge gamble surrounding Xiaoya's maze thus begins.

Supplies and technical personnel (senior engineering professionals) were quickly delivered to Xiaoya's city. She immediately threw herself into the frantic preparations.

The labyrinth's internal structure was readjusted, and a "path of death" leading to the core area was meticulously designed. Traps along the way were temporarily disabled, but a remotely activated ultimate destruction device was set up.

In the core area, a temporary, powerful energy gathering and overload device was quickly installed.

When the main force of the "Scavengers," like a gray, ominous tide of death, surged towards Xiaoya City, she did not choose to confront them head-on. Instead, she dispatched a small group of humanoid girls carrying specific frequency energy generators as "bait," successfully luring most of the "Scavengers" into the pre-designated passage.

Through the surveillance, Yu Qing and everyone else could see that the twisted, ever-changing torrent of aggregates was cleverly guided, surging into the depths of the labyrinth. They devoured everything in their path, including the humanoid girls used as bait, but their direction was firmly controlled.

When it was detected that the vast majority of the "scavengers" had entered the core detonation zone, Xiaoya stood in front of the control panel, her face expressionless, displaying only an almost martyr-like calm. She took a deep breath and pressed the red button that represented the final command.

There was no deafening explosion, only a blinding white flash that seemed to tear through space, which suddenly erupted from the core of the maze and instantly engulfed everything.

Immediately afterwards, a powerful energy shockwave spread out in a ring, and even those far away at the Wengshan headquarters could feel the tremors.

After the flash, the part of Xiaoya city closest to the maze's core, along with the vast number of "cleaners" within, vanished completely, leaving behind only a huge, charred crater with glassy edges. The maze's outer structure was also severely damaged, with smoke rising from the ruins.

The communication channel was completely silent.

After a long while, Xiaoya's weak but clear voice rang out, tinged with exhaustion and disbelief: "It...it's a success. The core area target...is cleared. The outer perimeter...still has a few remnants."

A huge weight lifted from Yu Qing's heart, but a complex mix of emotions welled up within him. Xiao Ya's insane plan had succeeded; at the cost of part of her own city's destruction, she had severely crippled the main force of the "Scavengers."

The remaining "cleaners," having lost the guidance and energy support of the main force, became chaotic and scattered. Taking advantage of this opportunity, the combat-type humanoids commanded by Yu Xuan and Yu Lan launched an attack, coordinating with the drone formations that took off from Wengshan, and effectively wiped out these remaining enemies.

The urban areas of Daya and Xiaomian also encountered attacks from small groups of stragglers, but after the first experience, they managed to hold their lines.

The "cleaner" crisis, which lasted for several days, has finally been resolved.

When everything settled down, Yu Qing once again turned his attention to those several new urban districts that had suffered greatly.

Xiaoya's maze was nearly half destroyed, but she succeeded and was immersed in the exhilaration of accomplishing a feat and the frenzy of rebuilding. Her abilities, especially her potential to apply complex thinking to real combat, were fully demonstrated.

After experiencing the initial collapse, witnessing the support, and finally the victory, Daya seemed to finally understand something. She silently cleaned up the battlefield, stroking the flowers and plants damaged in the battle, her eyes less resentful and more calm and... resilient.

She began to rebuild her garden herself, and this time, she chose to plant mostly thorny, resilient desert plants.

Little Bread seemed to have grown up a lot overnight. She no longer played wildly all day, but began to seriously "train" her humanoid companion, teaching her how to use weapons more effectively and how to set up a simple early warning system. Her playground now had many more facilities simulating combat.

Yu Xuan and Yu Lan proved themselves to be the most reliable pillars during the crisis. Their district quickly returned to order after the war and began to help other districts rebuild and repair damaged humanoid creatures.

They also forged a stronger alliance based on their shared experience of fighting the enemy.

Looking at the several scarred yet still standing "new urban districts" in the distance, Yu Qing was filled with mixed emotions. His "education through hardship" had completed the first stage of the assessment in a way that far exceeded his expectations and was much crueler.

He truly witnessed growth, the courage, wisdom, and teamwork that emerged in dire circumstances. Xiaoya's desperate gamble, Yuxuan and Yulan's selfless support, even Daya's final perseverance and Xiaomianbao's bewildered growth all exceeded his initial expectations.

But there's a price to pay. Those once innocent women will never be so naive again. The psychological scars they bear will likely take a long time to heal.

He watched as Da Ya carefully transplanted a cactus-like plant into a reinforced flowerpot in the sunset.

Watching the little bread stop running around and instead sit on a rock, resting its chin on its hand and watching its humanoid counterpart conduct formation training;
Watching Yu Xuan and Yu Lan stroke their swollen bellies while directing the humanoid girls to clear the ruins and plan a new, more robust underground dwelling structure;

Watching Xiaoya stand amidst the maze ruins, holding the new design blueprints, her eyes burning with an even more fervent and obsessive light…

They were no longer parasites who needed his constant prodding or even the creation of "imaginary enemies" to motivate them. They experienced real life and death, their hands (at least in decision-making) were stained with the destruction of the "enemy," and they witnessed the support and sacrifice of their comrades.

Their eyes generally held a melancholy and complexity tempered by reality.

They have indeed become "powerful," but is this power the healthy, vibrant spark of civilization he initially hoped for? Or is it a distorted, adaptive mutation solely for survival in a cruel world?
He didn't know the answer. He only knew that once he embarked on this path, there was no turning back. He had to lead them on through this perilous fog.

He connected with Yadu. The official looked surprised; he clearly hadn't expected Wengshan to possess some level of combat capability.

“The crisis is temporarily over,” Yu Qing stated calmly. “Regarding the origin and prevention of ‘scavengers,’ I need your more in-depth research report. In addition, the previously promised technical parameters and highest authority of the defense system should be fully transferred.”

This time, Yadu didn't hesitate much. The death of Danggui, and the fact that Tianqing City hadn't directly intervened during the "Scavenger" crisis, led them to reassess Yu Qing. The complete technical data package and the highest control key were quickly transmitted.

Having mastered the core defense technology of Yadu, and watching the "new urban areas" under surveillance, where a new round of construction was beginning on the ruins, Yu Qing felt that the burden on his shoulders had not lessened, but rather become heavier.

He gained more chips, but also saw a wider chessboard and stronger, unknown opponents.

Whether it's Yadu, Tianqing City, or those "cleaners" who might resurrect from the dust of history, or the unpredictable changes in human nature under extreme circumstances, these are all huge variables he needs to face.

Next, he needed to readjust the forces of the Wengshan headquarters, integrate the newly acquired technologies, and closely monitor the new trends exhibited by the "city lords" in the post-war reconstruction.
Xiaoya, in particular, possesses a dangerous wisdom and decisiveness that must be guided in the right direction, otherwise she may become a new hidden danger.

In a higher dimension unseen by him, his aunt might be lounging in some incomprehensible chair, watching everything that was happening in Wengshan, as if watching an interesting drama.

To her, Yu Qing's efforts, the struggles and growth of those women, and even the rise and fall of the "cleaners" were nothing more than insignificant ripples in the long passage of time.

She casually plucked a thread of fate (the death of Angelica sinensis), observing the chain reaction it triggered, satisfying her curiosity that transcended mortal comprehension, or... some deeper, unknown purpose.

The road to Wengshan remains long and arduous, and he, along with the women he thrust onto the stage of destiny, are nothing more than specks of dust in this vast and cold universe, struggling to grasp their own fate. (End of Chapter)