The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 9 The Tomb Guardian

Yu Qing's attempt to take away the tomb-guarding humanoid Shu nearly cost them their lives.

He was completely absorbed in this obsession and paid no attention to the unusual phenomena here, such as why a power-generating forest was built in this cemetery, and why it was built near the outer wall of the First Paradise.

He tugged at Daji's sleeve and pointed to the tomb-guarding humanoid Shu.

Daji naturally understood, but pretended to be confused and asked, "Are you tired and want me to carry you again?"

He nudged her again and said, "You know what I mean."

Yan'er blurted out, "My darling has taken a fancy to her. Why do all humans want a harem of three thousand beauties? We're all mass-produced on an assembly line. As long as you pay, a million wouldn't be a problem."

Daji said, "This is absolutely impossible. Taking away someone else's tomb guardians is theft, and besides, it's impossible; they will destroy themselves."

Furong whispered, "According to the regulations, if the deceased had given authorization before death, she can still leave."

Yu Qing pulled Furong over and kissed her, saying, "See, my darling really knows what I want. Whether it works out or not, you should ask her. Besides, I just want to ask her about some things that happened on Earth around 2000, which none of you know."

Daji said, "But she is already in a deep hibernation state. She will not wake up unless there is an extremely dangerous stimulus."

Yu Qing took a few steps forward, circled around the tomb-guarding girl, bowed again, and said, "I can't help it, she's just too cute."

After saying that, he tried to pick her up and take her away, but she didn't budge.

He reached for her hand again, clicking his tongue in admiration, "Darling, baby, do you have skin as alluring as hers, and those mesmerizing eyes?"

Daji sighed, "My dear, it seems you're serious!"

Yan'er said, "Since that's the case, then I'll make her wake up obediently!"

After saying that, Yan'er drew Yu Qing's dagger and began to chisel at the white coffin, the piercing sound breaking the relative tranquility of the place.

The tomb-guarding maiden suddenly turned around, raised her right hand, and a red arc of light shot out towards Yan'er and the others.

Yu Qing was terrified, knowing that if that red arc struck, the three of them might be sliced ​​in two. He hurriedly clung tightly to the tomb-guarding maiden, pleading, "Sister...sister...please spare them, please listen to me..."

Seeing herself being hugged, the tomb-guarding maiden became even angrier, turned her face, and raised her hand to smash it on Yu Qing's head again.

Yu Qing was so frightened that his sister kept screaming.

Just as the tomb-guarding maid was about to smash it down, she saw Yu Qing's face and suddenly stopped, seemingly lost in thought.

Her appearance captivated Yu Qing's soul. Yu Qing thought, since he was going to die anyway, he disregarded everything, grabbed her head, and kissed her cherry-like lips forcefully.

The tomb-guarding maid's hand went limp, and she stood there at a loss.

The three women, including Daji, who had just been terrified, looked at Yu Qing and the others with confusion.

Yu Qing thought he was going to die, but to his surprise, the tomb-guarding maiden suddenly collapsed into his arms.

"What's going on?" Yu Qing wondered to himself. But he quickly connected it to Daji's story. Daji had also "decided her fate with a kiss," could it be that this custom among humanoid goddesses had remained unchanged for over a hundred years?
So he kissed the tomb keeper again and said, "We signed it, right?"

The tomb keeper lowered her head and said, "Yes, but I shouldn't have..."

At this moment, Yan'er rushed over and said, "Baby, this means she and the person in the tomb didn't sign anything! She has to go with you!"

The tomb guardian glared angrily at Yan'er and said, "If you dare touch that tomb again, I'll tear you to pieces. You three, get lost."

Yu Qing quickly took the hand of the tomb-guarding maid and said, "Sister, please forgive her. She just wanted to wake you up; she didn't mean anything else."

“There’s something I must tell you the truth: I didn’t sign with Dr. Lu; I was just his assistant. Since I signed with you, I should go with you. But you have to promise me that you will help me fulfill my promise to Dr. Lu.”

Yu Qing grabbed her hands and said, "I promise, I promise everything."

Daji pouted and said, "You agreed to someone's promise without even knowing what kind of promise it was!"

The tomb-guarding maiden glanced at Daji and said, "This thing is decades out of date, and you still keep it around like a treasure?"

"Sister, let's not talk about her for now. Tell me, how can I help you?"

"Don't call me 'sister' anymore. My name is 'Yao Dan'. What we need to do isn't difficult. Come with me."

After speaking, Yao Dan gently pointed her finger, and the lid of the white coffin slowly flipped over, becoming a ladder that rested against the side of the coffin.

Yu Qing was startled and asked, "Go inside..."

Yan'er quickly stopped her, saying, "Baby, be careful not to be fooled!"

Yao Dan snapped his fingers impatiently at Yan'er, activating her hibernation mechanism. Then Yao Dan snapped his fingers again, putting Daji and Furong into hibernation.

Fearing that Yao Dan might harm them, Yu Qing quickly said, "Don't worry about them, let's go."

"They're so talkative, I hate them so much. By human standards, they could be your great-grandmothers. Three good-for-nothings."

Yu Qing smiled ingratiatingly, "Yes, yes, but honestly, in terms of age, couldn't you be my mother too?"

Yao Dan laughed loudly, "That's true. However, I think I might have actually met your mother. Although she's a native, she's very beautiful."

"What? You've seen my mother? How is that possible!"

"Do you know why I hesitated when I was about to kill you? It's because you look too much like your father. I was identifying your biometrics, which gave you an opportunity..."

"You still recognize my father?"

"I don't know them. Back then, we often saw your father holding your mother's hand, taking a walk not far from the park, just a wall away."

They're all gone.

“I know. After they died, I couldn’t be bothered to look at the amusement park anymore, and there was nothing that interested me.” Seeing that Yu Qing was still hesitating, Yao Dan gently hugged him, tapped the coffin lid once, and jumped in. The lid then closed again.

It turned out that this was a basement, about 4 meters high and more than 100 square meters, but the furnishings inside were extremely simple: there was only a bed, a table, a stool, and a large cabinet, and only two doors leading to other rooms.

Yu Qing's eyes darted left and right, trying to find where Dr. Lu's body was. Yao Dan seemed to read his mind and said, "Dr. Lu's body was not left behind."

"Ah, so it's just a cenotaph. But I still don't understand why they would build a cenotaph in such a remote place?"

"It's mainly to preserve the results of his life's research. You've read his biography; he died very young, ten years earlier than he expected..."

"What incurable disease does he have? Science is so advanced now, it shouldn't be."

"His death was an accident, but he did come here because of a serious genetic disease. When he was a few years old, calculations predicted that he would only live to be 42. No one in his family for the first three generations had lived past 70, but at that time the average lifespan was already 120 years."

This is all due to genetic recombination. His ancestors radically edited their genes in order to obtain the most intelligent brain on Earth. His goal is to utilize 99% of his brain's potential.

At that time, an average person's brain utilization rate was less than 15%, but after gene editing, his brain utilization rate reached 74%. However, this also brought a serious consequence: his entire genetic system became inexplicably disordered.

The most direct consequence was premature death. Generations tried to remedy this deficiency, but things only got worse. His grandfather lived to 68, his father to only 57, and his own life expectancy was a mere 42…

Yu Qing, who had been staring intently at Yao Dan's babbling lips, suddenly couldn't help but pull her close and kiss her, mumbling indistinctly, "It seems I won't live past thirty..."

Yao Dan struggled only symbolically for a few moments, and asked vaguely, "You have this defect too?"

"No, it's not that. I'm completely smitten with you."

Although Yao Dan kept saying "No, no, no," she stopped struggling and muttered, "I think we should talk about the important matter first..."

In fact, by the time Yao Dan's generation of humanoid beauties arrived, they were already able to actively accept and crave emotional gifts, just like humans. They were even designed to be able to proactively launch romantic offensives.

She had repeatedly expressed her love for Dr. Lu, but he was focused on his work and always just laughed it off. This caused Yao Dan's "emotional algorithm" to overload, and she began to see Dr. Lu as a burden.

Moreover, the idea that "humans are useless" began to sprout in her mind.

During the experiment, Dr. Lu suddenly experienced unexplained functional disorder and fainted at the feed inlet. Yao Dan could have pulled him away immediately, but she hesitated. As a result, Dr. Lu vaporized himself as experimental material and was fed into the feed inlet.

Yu Qing's kiss unexpectedly released the pressure of her "emotional algorithm" that had been accumulating for many years, and reversed her perception that "humans are useless". Therefore, she responded to Yu Qing's kiss with a surging wave of emotion.

Yu Qing nearly collapsed onto the bed, pleading, "Let's get down to business first..."

Yao Dan then stopped and said, "It's actually very simple. Dr. Lu instructed me many times before his death that if anyone came after his death, I should hand over his research data to them and protect them in completing the important task of human restoration."

"I don't understand. What human restoration? Doesn't it say on the tombstone that he was the first, and there will never be a second..."

"Don't rush, let me explain slowly. Let me address your first question first. Dr. Lu has been researching how to revert his genes to a healthy, original genetic state, which is why he came to the edge of the First Paradise to obtain several sets of living, original human genes."

The genes of the new humans outside the park have been completely altered; there isn't a single living, intact human being with original genes, only some data. Therefore, Dr. Lu's purpose in coming here is to enter the First Park and obtain a living sample.

However, the golden period for gene editing is during the embryonic stage. If the individual has already developed into a mature being, the technical difficulty of modification is too great, and the success rate is too low. Therefore, he wants to produce a food carrier through food channels to deliver healthy genes into the human body to replace the questionable fragments.

Therefore, he has been experimenting for years, trying to produce such a 'miracle pill'. Unfortunately, he has not yet realized his ideal, but he has achieved some results. My name has always been a marker of his progress.

At first, my name was 'Wudan,' then it became 'Yaodan.' He said that adding one more stroke would make it my final name, which would also mean his wish had been fulfilled.

"If you add another stroke before Yao, does he mean to call you 'Rao Dan' and say, 'Spare me, Dan'?"

"Are you going to listen to my answer to your second question, Xu Zi?"

"Of course I'll listen, please spare me, Dan."

"Actually, I don't know what Xu Zi is either. Dr. Lu said that Xu Zi is the last card of the Creator. He only saw it once, and only for two seconds, and then he fainted."

"What's the point of saying that? You wrote something like 'the first one' or 'the second one' on the coffin, doesn't that seem like you're just trying to be mysterious?"

“I didn’t write that. Dr. Lu had it engraved beforehand. I just added the two characters for his year of death, 16. He even engraved the two characters for 22 beforehand. And he wasn’t just making things up. I have evidence.”

"Ah, what evidence?"

"Let me ask you first. Do you have a way to break through the curtain wall and get into the First Paradise?"

"There's no way around it unless we use special methods. There was an agreement when the park was built that it couldn't be opened for five hundred years."

"So Dr. Lu spent two years researching the equipment to enter the park. He originally wanted to get a powerful laser gun or kinetic gun to smash a hole in the park's curtain wall, but later he wanted to research something new and more powerful."

It was during his research that he discovered what he called a 'virtual particle'. To conceal the virtual particle, the Creator caused the matter surrounding it to annihilate, thus destroying any evidence of its existence.

Using this knowledge, he created two virtual particle guns. These guns didn't actually fire virtual particles; instead, they made the virtual particles visible on the matter they hit. Of course, the Creator wouldn't let humans see the virtual particles, so he immediately annihilated the matter they hit.

However, the virtual gun is difficult to manufacture, and its barrel also disappears after firing. Its biggest limitation is that each shot can only last for 3 seconds.

"Where's the gun? Can it really be used to break through the curtain wall of First Paradise?"

"Of course it is. We've already tested it at First Park, so there's only one gun left."

Yu Qing gaped in astonishment, exclaiming, "So you can already enter and exit the First Paradise! I risked my life to find a way out! Where's the gap? Let me see, damn it..."

Yao Dan pointed to the door in front of her and said, "Open that door and walk 50 meters to enter the First Paradise."

Yu Qing pulled Yao Dan toward the door and asked, "You two went in, didn't you?"

"Of course I've been inside. There's something I need to tell you, but don't be angry..."

Yu Qing said, "I'm not angry, go ahead and tell me."

"Back then, Dr. Lu almost brought your father along for experiments. However, he later changed his mind, saying that the elixir experiments hadn't been successful yet, and the risk was too great..."

(End of this chapter)