The Last 299 Days of Humanity

After that chilling conjecture took shape, Yu Qing, like a trapped beast driven to the brink, launched a near-frantic search within the glamorous yet cold prison of the "Ultimate Office."

He refused to accept the premise that he was a guinea pig in some massive experiment. He needed evidence, he needed to find clues that the old man Yu Yunshan still "existed" and was nearby, to confirm or refute that suffocating inference.

He first used his highest authority as the heir to retrieve the monitoring logs, energy consumption records, and even the slightest fluctuations in the environmental control system of the ultimate office, and used the most complex algorithms he could think of to perform cross-analysis and anomaly detection.

He was trying to find any energy ripples caused by activities not of his own, any data exchange that did not belong to the pre-programmed sequence and carried an “intelligent intent”.

He was like someone sifting through a grain of sand of a specific color in a vast digital desert, working tirelessly day and night, his pupils reflecting the rapidly flowing stream of code, the holographic windows floating on the console layer upon layer, almost engulfing him.

However, the result was disappointing. The logs were spotless, as if they had been cleaned by the most elite cleaners, with no unauthorized access records whatsoever.

Energy consumption was precisely matched to his vital signs and the operating mode of the authorized equipment, down to several decimal places. Aside from necessary communication with a few fixed data nodes (mainly the Shengtian headquarters and related networks in Wengshan), network traffic was completely silent.

The environmental system operates according to the preset, optimized comfort curve, without even an abnormal fluctuation of 0.1 degrees Celsius. All the data is telling the same thing: you, Yu Qing, are the only living person here.

The lack of data didn't deter him. He turned to the most primal and laborious method: physical spatial exploration. He no longer trusted holographic maps and structural diagrams. He would measure the space with his own feet and examine every inch with his own eyes.

The ultimate office is not just a spacious control hall. It contains several functional areas:
The room features a silent lounge with hibernation pods, a miniature laboratory equipped with state-of-the-art analytical equipment, a storage room containing a small amount of emergency supplies and replacement parts, and a circular viewing corridor surrounding the central control room.

Outside the corridor is a simulated, magnificent view that seems to be deep within a sea of ​​stars, but it is just a realistic optical projection.

Yu Qing began his "hunt." He knocked on every wall, listening to whether the echo was solid or contained a hidden cavity. He ran his fingertips along the seams of metal and composite materials, searching for any hidden openings that might be difficult to see with the naked eye.

He inspected every vent, every power interface, and even the base of every light fixture. In the silent rest room, he checked the hibernation pod inside and out several times, even lifting up the cushioning layer to examine it.

In the miniature laboratory, he activated all the non-destructive scanning equipment to structurally scan the room itself, and the results still showed that the structure was intact and there were no hidden spaces. In the storage room, he moved all the supplies one by one to examine the walls and floors behind them.

He was like a man possessed, scrutinizing every nook and cranny. Sometimes he would suddenly turn around or stare sharply in a certain direction, as if a gaze had just moved away from there.

But each time, all he saw was a cold, lifeless metal wall, or his own slightly distorted and weary reflection on its smooth, mirror-like surface.

Silence, an eternal, seemingly substantial silence, enveloped him, with only his own breathing, heartbeat, and footsteps echoing in the space, which intensified the feeling of being isolated, placed in a display case.

The relentless search, lasting for days and nights without sleep, exhausted Yu Qing's physical strength and severely damaged his spirit. The flame of hope was repeatedly extinguished by the cold reality, and his initial anger and persistence were gradually replaced by a profound weariness and self-doubt.

"Could it be... that I'm being too sensitive?" He leaned against the cold wall of the central control room, slowly slid down to the floor, ran his hands through his hair, and pulled hard, trying to use the pain to dispel the chaos in his mind.

"The pressure was too much, and I developed delusions? The old man's death is undeniable, the Lutai operation is a real threat, and everything I did was meaningful... It's just that under immense pressure, I constructed an absurd conspiracy theory to evade responsibility?"

This sense of powerlessness stemming from self-denial was even more despairing than the conjecture about the "ghost director." If he couldn't even trust his own judgment, what could he believe in? He felt like he was standing on the verge of a mental breakdown, with an abyss of nothingness beneath his feet.

He slumped there, his unfocused gaze sweeping over the control room he had practically turned upside down.

The silver-gray base tone, the smooth yet cold lines, and the ubiquitous holographic interactive interface floating in mid-air, displaying various complex data streams and the still glaring "Lutai Protocol - Status: Activated" icon.

Everything was so familiar, yet so strange. Everything was filled with the ultimate sense of technology, yet it also exuded an inhuman, absolute order.

In that moment when his thoughts were almost frozen and his consciousness was hazy, his gaze inadvertently swept over a wall that looked unremarkable to the side and behind the control panel.

His gaze instinctively wanted to drift away, but a subconscious obsession, or perhaps a reluctance to give up, forced him to fix his gaze there.

Wait... there seems to be something there?
He blinked his dry eyes and focused his gaze. On the smooth, mirror-like, silver-gray wall, about 1.5 meters above the ground, there were two extremely inconspicuous, slightly raised dots.

They were only about the size of a mung bean, their color almost completely blending into the wall; were they not noticeable at all if it weren't for the faint shadows cast by the light at a certain angle. The distance between them was roughly the width of an adult's shoulder.

These two points... are quite unusual. In the ultimate office environment, which strives for ultimate simplicity and streamlined design, any abrupt, undefined physical protrusion would seem out of place.

They are not interfaces, not sensors (the sensors are perfectly hidden), and not decorations. Their existence is itself like a "mistake," a very subtle "mark" left by the designer.

Yu Qing's heart skipped a beat; a familiar sense of déjà vu struck him like an electric shock. He must have seen something similar somewhere before! Where?
Fragments of memory flashed by... Tianqing City... when she and her aunt were talking face to face at the tea house... Yes! That's it! Her aunt used those two protruding points to hang it on the wall like that!

He once asked her out of curiosity, and his aunt simply explained that it was an auxiliary node used for "deep connectivity" and "stable field anchoring" to help her better access certain "non-standard sensing networks".

That's... a "hanging point"! A connection point specifically designed for "parallel humans"—those "beings" who have uploaded part or all of their consciousness but still need a physical interface to interact with the real world with high bandwidth and low latency!
In an instant, all the clues, all the inferences, all the doubts, were illuminated by a huge bolt of lightning and connected together with a bang!
Why are there "hanging desks" in the ultimate office? Besides the old man Yu Yunshan, who else is qualified or necessary to use them here?!
Outsiders couldn't possibly come here, and there's absolutely no way they could install something like this. This could only have been prepared for himself by the old man! He really has… successfully transcended the limitations of the physical body and become a member of the "parallel humans"!
His perfect "natural death" was indeed a meticulously planned escape!

The immense shock swept through Yuqing like a tsunami, but what followed was not simply fear, but an almost absurd realization after being thoroughly mocked, and a kind of reckless and destructive "mischief".

He stood up unsteadily, walked to the wall, and stretched out his fingers to gently touch the two cold, slightly raised dots. The touch was hard and smooth, with an unusual energy inertia.

“Old man…” he murmured, his voice unusually clear in the silent control room, “You really were here… watching me do all this, like watching a monkey show, weren’t you?”

He turned around, his gaze once again falling on the floating "Lutai Agreement" icon, a symbol of destruction and redemption. An extremely audacious, even insane, idea slithered into his mind like a venomous snake.

If the old man Yu Yunshan has become a near-godlike "parallel human" who can access any network at will and understand almost all information, then why would he need a crude, physical deterrent like "Operation Lutai" to consolidate his power or achieve any low-level goals?
This "Deer Terrace" was very likely a specific script prepared from the very beginning for Yu Qing, or rather for all "successors" like him! It was to test their reactions under extreme pressure, to observe whether they were qualified, or... simply to satisfy some kind of observational desire!

An anger of being utterly objectified and manipulated, mixed with a strong urge to tear apart this entire false script, surged within him.

He didn't want to follow the predetermined plot anymore. He didn't want to think about saving the world or taking responsibility anymore. He only wanted to do one thing—break this deadlock and force the hidden "ghost" to show itself!
A mischievous, dangerous smile crept across his face. He stopped looking at the complicated procedures and the thirty-six-day countdown.

His gaze was fixed on the bright red virtual button below the "Lutai Agreement" icon, which usually required multiple confirmations and complex commands to trigger and represented "immediate execution".

“Didn’t you want to see something?” he said to the empty control room, as if speaking to the omnipresent observer. “Then I’ll show you something different.”

He took a deep breath, and then, with a resolute, almost self-destructive pleasure, he stretched out his finger and pressed the bright red "Execute Now" button without hesitation!

There was no earth-shattering alarm as expected, nor any cold, impersonal permission denial from the system. Just a fraction of a second before his fingertip touched that holographic red light—

"Om..."

A faint buzzing sound, yet seemingly acting directly on the soul, rang out.

The entire complex interface representing the "Lutai Protocol," which had been floating before him, along with that fatal red button, vanished instantly, as if wiped away by an invisible hand, without warning! It was as if it had never existed. In the control room, only other unrelated data streams remained, silently floating and flowing. The space that had once been occupied by the "Lutai" icon was now empty, like a scar that had been precisely removed.

Yu Qing's fingers froze in mid-air, and his pupils suddenly contracted.

He's here! He really was here! He was watching! And... he stopped it!
Instead of disabling it through permissions or issuing pop-up warnings, it uses a more advanced, direct, and control-oriented approach—by "invalidating" the option directly at the data level!

Instead of feeling fear, Yu Qing was seized by a thrilling sense of excitement, like a hunter finally finding his prey. He turned abruptly, his gaze sweeping across the entire control room like a hawk's.

“You finally couldn’t hold back, old man!” he shouted, his voice echoing in the empty space. “Come out! Don’t hide behind the data like a mouse!”

His response was met with another anomaly.

Not far to his left, a once smooth wall suddenly rippled like water, its metallic texture melting and reforming, quickly outlining the shape of a door! A door that had never existed before!

The door slid open silently, revealing not another room, but a constantly twisting and extending passageway that flickered with unstable blue-white data light, seemingly composed of pure energy and information!

The existence of this passage itself violates the physical rules of this space. It is like a bug that is forcibly embedded in reality, a phantom that only exists in the digital world.

Without a doubt, this is an invitation, or rather, a provocation.

Without the slightest hesitation, Yu Qing charged into the bizarre and dazzling passage like an arrow released from a bow.

The moment he stepped inside, the surrounding scenery instantly distorted. It was as if he wasn't running, but gliding through a high-speed pipe made up of flowing code and fragmented images.

On both sides are digital landscapes that are rapidly receding, constantly collapsing and reassembling—sometimes the spiral staircase of the Shengtian headquarters building, sometimes fragments of familiar streets in the Wengcheng, and sometimes even blurry images of his own childhood memories, all of which are disrupted, spliced ​​together, and played at high speed.

A massive flow of information assaulted his senses, attempting to disrupt his sense of direction and will.

He knew that this must be an obstacle created by the old man, an interference at the level of consciousness.

"This little trick can't hold me back!" Yu Qing roared, forcibly concentrating his mind, abandoning all distractions, and staring only at the seemingly endless end of the passage, shimmering with alluring light.

His body might just be circling around in the control room in reality, but his consciousness is currently racing through this bizarre passage that transcends the boundaries of physics.

Suddenly, a fork in the road appeared ahead. One path continued into the unknown darkness, while the other pointed to a seemingly safe and harmless portal with the word "Exit" flashing on it.

A classic psychological trap! Yu Qing sneered and rushed towards the dark fork in the road without hesitation.

Sure enough, the moment he plunged into the darkness, the distorted scenery around him vanished abruptly, and he found himself in what seemed to be an infinitely vast virtual space composed of countless hexagonal light grids. There were no ups, downs, lefts, or rights here, only endless extension.

In the very center of the space, a blurry human figure outlined by pale blue light floated silently.

It had no clear facial features, but Yu Qing could feel a calm, profound gaze, filled with endless scrutiny, emanating from its outline and falling upon him.

“Yu Qing.” A neutral, emotionless electronic synthesized voice rang out in the space, its source indistinguishable, as if coming from all directions. “Your actions have deviated from the preset path by 327 percent.”

"To hell with your predetermined path!" Yu Qing gasped for breath, staring intently at the silhouette of light and shadow. "Yu Yunshan! Is this what you wanted? To watch your descendants stumble around in your labyrinth like headless flies? Is this the pleasure you found after transcending death?!"

The outline of light and shadow seemed to sway slightly, but the synthesized voice remained steady: "Observation is for understanding. Testing is for evolution. 'Deer Terrace' is the pressure source, 'Mirage' is the frame of reference. Your reaction is very valuable."

"Value? Am I just your experiment?!" Yu Qing roared, trying to rush towards the light and shadow, but no matter how fast he ran, the distance between him and the light and shadow seemed to remain forever unchanged. This space was expanding with his movement.

"From a higher dimension's perspective, all life is an experiment. The difference is that some are aware of the container's existence," Light and Shadow calmly responded. "You've proven your 'unpredictability,' which is interesting. But that's not enough."

"Then what do you want?!" Yu Qing stopped his futile run, stood in the void, and confronted the light and shadow. "What exactly do you want?!"

"Understanding the boundaries of consciousness and seeking another possibility for civilization in front of the 'Great Filter'."

The light and shadow, or rather, the projection of Yu Yunshan's consciousness, provided a grand yet cold answer: "'Deer Terrace' and 'Mirage' are both tools. And you, Yu Qing, are the variable, the catalyst, and perhaps... the key."

Before the words were even finished, the endless hexagonal space around them began to fluctuate violently, collapsing like a shattered mirror! The light grid beneath their feet vanished, turning into a void of darkness after the data was deleted.

“But now, the game is over.” Yu Yunshan’s voice remained calm. “You need to return to your position. In thirty-six days, the ‘Mirage’ protocol will be activated. That will be the next phase… of observation.”

A powerful repulsive force surged from all directions, as if the entire virtual space was rejecting his existence. Yu Qing felt as if his consciousness was being gripped by an invisible hand, about to be forcibly thrown back into reality.

"No! You can forget about it!" He used all his mental strength to resist the repulsion, staring intently at the light and shadow that was about to dissipate with the space. "I will no longer follow your script! I will find you! I will destroy all your 'tools'!"

In the last moment before his consciousness was completely ejected, he made his most resolute declaration towards the blurry light and shadow.

The next second, the dizzying sensation vanished abruptly.

Yu Qing found himself still slumped on the cold floor of the central control room, his back against the wall with two protruding "mounting positions." It was as if the thrilling, surreal chase he had just experienced was nothing more than a brief but intense daydream.

But he knew it wasn't a dream.

He slowly raised his head and looked at the control panel. There, the icon for "Lutai Protocol - Status: Activated" still hovered, as if it had never disappeared. The thirty-six-day countdown continued to tick steadily.

Everything seemed to have returned to square one. But everything was different now.

A cold, resolute smile curved Yu Qing's lips. His eyes were no longer lost or angry, but instead held the sharp, predatory gaze of someone who had found their target.

Old Master Yu Yunshan is indeed "alive," existing in a form that Yu Qing cannot fully comprehend. "Lutai" may be a threat that is both real and deceptive, but "Mirage" is undoubtedly the more crucial core. And Yu Qing is no longer a pawn passively struggling in the maze.

He became aware of the observer's existence and glimpsed some of the rules of this "game".

The next thirty-six days will no longer be a countdown to destruction or salvation, but a countdown in which he, as a "variable" and "key," takes the initiative to hunt down the "ghost director" in reverse.

And he was ready to unleash an even bigger storm. The silence of the ultimate office, to his ears, was no longer oppressive, but rather the exciting calm before the storm. (End of Chapter)