The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 27 Human-Tiger Hybrid

Led by Erlang, Furong ran ahead to check the situation. Chang'e told Yuqing to quickly get dressed and carry his clothes on his back, ready to move at any time.

A moment later, Furong ran back and said, "Honey, the road ahead is gone. It seems like the tunnel has been crushed by something."

Yu Qing stamped his foot and exclaimed, "Haven't we wasted a whole night walking? This is just a giant appendix!"

Chang'e said, "My lord, it's not that bad. I'll just cut a hole in this transparent cover and go out through it!"

After saying that, Chang'e started cutting along the side of the transparent cover, and Furong went over to help. After a long time of work, they finally made a large hole.

When Chang'e crawled outside the protective shield, Yu Qing felt a wave of heat wash over him.

After walking a kilometer or two along the outer side of the cover, they looked ahead and saw that the protective cover was completely submerged under a thick layer of gray stone.

All that remained was an endless expanse of gray rock, seemingly formed from cooled lava ash ejected from the Earth's depths. There was no trace of the original path, not even a single landmark to refer to. Now, the only option was to fly towards where the horse had fallen.

Furong brought up yesterday's plan again, proposing to give her flying suit to Chang'e, so that Chang'e could carry Yu Qing and fly to Maluo first, while she herself would wait for Yaodan and the others to return before rushing to Maluo to meet them.

Yu Qing felt a little reluctant, but Chang'e had already accepted Furong's suggestion, and they quickly exchanged flight suits.

Furong handed the remaining synthesized food and water to Yuqing, telling him to carry them himself. Yuqing left Erlang behind to keep her company, hugged and kissed her, and said, "I know you are the most loyal. We will come to get you."

Chang'e carried Yu Qing on her back and suddenly rose into the air, flying towards the direction of Maluo.

Clearly, they had underestimated the length of the gray stone area. Half an hour later, there was still no sign of a road.

If they can't find a road before their power runs out, or if the charging facilities on the road fail, they'll have to go back underground and walk again. But walking through the graystone area is dangerous and arduous.

They found themselves in a dilemma once again.

"Check the map, is it possible to take a slightly longer route to Maluo?" Yu Qing asked.

As Chang'e flew, she looked at the map and said, "There's another branch road to Maluo, about 20 kilometers to the right, which is about 180 kilometers further. But it's a secondary road..."

"Let's go there and take a look. Even a lesser road is better than no road at all."

After flying to the right for a few minutes, Chang'e happily pointed ahead and said, "Look, the road is over there!"

Chang'e swooped down quickly and landed slowly on the road. This road must have been specially treated; almost nothing grew on either side for thirty meters.

Back then, someone invented a super gel that, when sprayed on the road and the ground on both sides, would form a rough film with a hardness similar to diamond, which could not be penetrated by anything, not even a steel cone, let alone grass or trees.

Looking at the well-preserved road, Yu Qing smiled and said, "Judging from this road, the charging facilities along the way should also be intact."

“Sir, you shouldn’t be too optimistic. Look, there are still power-generating trees and windmills on the mountain. This means that this road has not been updated and is an old road with at least a hundred years of history.”

"Why do you say that?"

"Because the power of remote transmission was not high more than a hundred years ago, it would be too troublesome to use wired power transmission here. Therefore, these roads are equipped with devices for obtaining power from nearby sources, which is relatively inefficient."

Typically, the charging efficiency here is only one-sixtieth of that on newer roads.

That means it only took us one minute to fully charge our devices on the road yesterday, but it takes an hour here.

Therefore, flight suits were not popular back then; instead, self-propelled roller skates and other means of transportation were widely used.

Yu Qing nodded: "I understand. Actually, Daji and I have traveled similar roads before. If we had another set of bicycle equipment, it would be great; at least we would have another option."

"The bicycle boots are a patented product of Shengdi Company. In the early days, Shengtian Company and Shengdi Company had a good working relationship, so even the humanoid girls produced by Shengtian Company could wear the bicycle boots produced by Shengdi Company. Later, the two companies became bitter enemies, so we stopped using bicycle boots..."

"Therefore, Sheng Tian invented a more advanced flight suit."

"Perhaps that's a factor. Anyway, our information shows that Shengdi is a terrible company, and they were responsible for Yaoxing's collapse!"

"Let's not talk about them anymore, let's set off. If all goes well, when will we reach Maluo?"

"Flying in an energy-efficient manner, it takes two and a half hours, including one hour of charging time."

"The battery life of this flight suit is really not good."

"It was designed to be lightweight and intended for urban commuting only, not for long-distance travel."

"So there are also heavy-duty versions?"

"Yes, it's very rare, with a range of about 5000 kilometers."

"I wish we had a flight suit like that."

"My lord, this is bad. When you are not flying, it is said that you need special tools to transport it, or 50 humanoid maidens to carry it."

"Then forget it. There's a philosophy behind this: everything has its advantages and disadvantages."

We humans today are completely blind to the 'advantages' of things, while ignoring the 'disadvantages'.

"My lord, we shouldn't talk about the bad things about humans. Let's talk about something else."

Yu Qing didn't reply, but looked down. Perhaps due to the rising global temperature, towering trees were everywhere, their dense foliage almost completely covering the ground.

He believed that countless creatures must live in that vast, dense forest.

With just a few restless scientists, using advanced genetic technology, it wouldn't be difficult to create groundbreaking works there.

He now prays that the monsters won't appear on this road through the dense forest, preventing Chang'e from going down to recharge her flight suit.

Since the efficiency of wireless transmission here is inherently low and decreases proportionally with increasing distance, it is necessary to land and charge the device nearby.

After flying for about 40 minutes, Chang'e discovered a charging facility.

Following the principle of charging whenever possible, Chang'e carefully circled once, found nothing unusual, and landed to replenish her energy against the charging station.

Yu Qing jumped out of the zero-gravity backpack, clutching his lower abdomen, and said, "Perfect timing, I also need to expel the waste from my body."

Chang'e pointed to the spot next to her and said, "Don't stray too far from me, just take care of it there."

"No, that won't do. That's uncivilized; it's solid waste..."

"It has to be somewhere I can see it!"

Yu Qing teased, "Wife, you share the same name as that fairy in the moon, you don't have a penchant for peeping at people when they poop, do you?"

"We can't go far!"

Yu Qing walked to a spot a dozen meters away from Chang'e, looked around, and finding nothing unusual, squatted down on a patch of low grass.

Yu Qing hopped around like a frog, shouting, "Damn it, there are so many mosquitoes here!"

"Who told you to be so fussy? Don't you need to be on the road anymore?"

"This is what we call human civilization: knowing what to do and what not to do."

After relieving himself, Yu Qing got dressed and headed back.

Just as he reached within five or six meters of Chang'e, a huge tiger suddenly leaped out of the woods, blocking his path between them. Yu Qing was so frightened that he collapsed to the ground. This tiger actually had a face that resembled a human's; no wonder he was terrified.

Just as Chang'e was about to raise her hand to attack with her light sword, she was suddenly surrounded by seven or eight tigers of slightly smaller size. One tiger held her left hand tightly, while another tiger held her right hand tightly, making her unable to move.

Yu Qing thought to himself, "I'm doomed this time..."

Just as Yu Qing was lamenting, the big tiger unexpectedly began to speak, stammering. It said:
"Six people, I won't eat it, it's too pungent..."

Yu Qing was utterly astonished that the tiger could speak human language. His mind raced; was this tiger genetically engineered from human genes, or was it a human grafted onto a tiger's genes…?

Yu Qing said tremblingly, "We...we were just passing by...please...be merciful..."

The tiger said, "Don't be afraid, I... won't eat you... I'm... happy..."

Yu Qing steeled himself. Since things had come to this point, there was no point in being afraid. So he stood up, stretched out a hand towards the tiger, and said, "It's a pleasure to meet you!"

The tiger hesitated for a moment, then stood up straight, stretched out its front legs, and, fearing it might hurt Yu Qing, hooked its claws backward and touched his hand with its furry part.

Seeing that it meant no harm, Yu Qing boldly pulled the tiger's front legs onto his shoulders, then put his arm around the tiger and said, "You're really strong!"

Hearing the praise, the tiger happily exclaimed, "Wine! Brother!"

Yu Qing asked, puzzled, "Wine? Brothers?"

However, he quickly realized that it was inviting him to have a drink! He was both amused and exasperated. This wasn't a fairy tale; it was an absurd thing that humans in the 20th century had come up with.

Chang'e was also stunned; clearly, such information was not in her records.

Yu Qing quickly said to Chang'e, "My lady, it's alright! It just wants to have a drink with me."

The tiger asked in confusion, "Wife?"

Yu Qing pointed at Chang'e: "Wife."

The tiger muttered to itself, "Strange...it's so humane..."

Several tigers escorted Yu Qing and Chang'e toward their lair.

On the way, Yu Qing asked cautiously, "Brother... are you... a person...?"

"No, I, the tiger, the human, my benefactor, my ancestor, was saved by humans..."

"Who taught you to speak like human beings?"

"The person was given an injection, saved, and taught to speak."

Yu Qing roughly understood what the tiger meant. Many years ago, its ancestor was injured, and a scientist rescued it, then injected it with one or more genes to promote its language or thinking development, and tried to teach it language or even writing, etc.

The tiger's den is in a large cave. It's clear that there were once human inhabitants there.

There was also a stone stove and an alloy pot here. In the corner, there was a pile of dilapidated instruments and equipment.

Perhaps this is the very place where a scientist conducted experiments on tiger ancestors.

The eight smaller ones, presumably the tigresses, retreated far to one side after entering the cave. They even mimicked the posture of humans sitting, standing upright against the cave wall.

The tiger then jumped to a large rock and patted it with its paws, gesturing for Yu Qing to sit down next to it. Next, a tigress carried a large piece of raw meat and placed it on the rock.

Yu Qing was so frightened that he took a step back and quickly said, "I...I dare not eat raw...meat..."

The big tiger turned around and roared at the tigress, saying, "Fire, fire!"

The four tigresses immediately went inside and fetched some firewood, piling it under the stove, and then brought in a few tufts of dry leaves. Another tigress rolled two stones and started a fire by striking them together. The piece of raw meat was also taken to the stove to roast.

It seems that their ancestors taught human behavior to the next generation.

However, Yu Qing was very curious about how they knew how to drink alcohol, and how they obtained it. After all, the tiger had invited him to drink.

When the tiger tore off a piece of the already roasted meat and gave it to him, he really didn't have the courage to swallow it.

He could only turn around and look at Chang'e standing behind him. Chang'e understood and pretended to tear off pieces of meat to feed him, but actually stuffed the meat into her sleeve.

Yu Qing then pretended to eat, opening and closing his mouth as if he had already devoured the meat in a flash.

When the tiger offered him more meat, he waved his hands repeatedly and said, "I'm full, I'm full."

Just then, one tigress brought over a steel bowl, and the other brought over half a bottle of wine. The two tigresses carefully fiddled around for a while, finally pouring a few drops of wine into the steel bowl.

Tiger gently pushed the steel bowl toward Yu Qing and said, "Wine, brother!"

Yu Qing then realized that their wine was left behind by humans a long time ago, and that even a single drop of wine was extremely precious to them.

He had no choice but to reverently pick up the steel bowl, pretend to take a big gulp, and then bring it to the tiger's mouth, laughing, "Wine, brother!"

The tiger greedily stuck out its tongue and licked the bowl over and over again.

Yu Qing chuckled to himself, thinking, "It's clearly drinking by itself."

However, Yu Qing inwardly groaned; how to escape was the real problem. Although they seemed to have no shortage of food—after all, they were the kings of the forest, and offending them would have serious consequences.

The situation was quite awkward. The tiger seemed to want to say something, but its grunts and groans were unclear, so Yu Qing could only keep stroking its fur to show his friendliness.

He was truly exhausted; this was even harder than dancing with wolves. He couldn't help but let out a big yawn. Unexpectedly, seeing that he was about to sleep, the tiger pushed the two female tigers to his side and then went to the cave entrance and lay down.

Two tigresses, one on each side, snuggled up to Yu Qing and lay down, licking his feet incessantly, scaring him so much he almost wet his pants.

However, seeing that Chang'e seemed about to take action, Yu Qing shook his head at her. If a fight broke out, with nine tigers around, Chang'e might escape unscathed, but he would be in trouble.

Moreover, at least so far, the tiger has shown no intention of harming him; it has even treated him like a VIP. This is indeed somewhat absurd.

He could only pretend to be asleep, but all he could think about was how to escape. One thing was certain: he had to get out of the cave safely first before Chang'e would have a chance to pick him up and fly him into the air where the tiger couldn't reach him.

In the middle of the night, he tiptoed up between the two tigresses, but still startled them. He made a urination gesture towards them, and only then did the tigresses lie down and continue sleeping.

Chang'e knew that Yu Qing was planning to leave, so she followed behind him.

Yu Qing whispered in Chang'e's ear, "I'll go out first, you stay here and hold on. If I cough, you rush out of the cave and take me flying high..."

After saying this, he walked towards the tiger at the cave entrance. The tiger watched him warily. He made a gesture as if he were relieving himself, then swaggered out of the cave.

To everyone's surprise, the tiger, fearing for his safety, followed closely behind.

When he had walked a hundred or two hundred meters away from the cave entrance, he realized he hadn't gotten rid of the tiger and became very anxious.

Suddenly he heard several tiger roars coming from inside the cave, it seemed that Chang'e had already made her move.

The tiger then turned to check the situation inside the cave. Hearing the roar, it took a few more steps towards the entrance. Taking advantage of this, Yu Qing took a few large steps forward and coughed a few times…

(End of this chapter)