The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 99 The Longevity Production Line

Crossing the extremely hot and humid area next to lava was indeed too risky. If the lava were to erupt suddenly somewhere, they could be instantly incinerated.

But Yu Qing was unwilling to just give up. He decided he still had to give it a try.

However, his only chance was on the water. The water temperature couldn't possibly exceed 100 degrees Celsius, so as long as they weren't directly hit by lava, they had a chance.

Although the water mist in front of them severely impaired their vision, the bright lava acted like a navigational beacon, indicating where danger lay.

His car switched to manual swimming mode, which Yao Dan operated himself. The car snaked its way through the spewing lava, and after about twenty minutes, the lava disappeared, leaving only darkness.

After driving for a few more minutes with the help of the headlights, a thick fog appeared in front of them. Yu Qing asked Yao Dan to turn off the headlights, and then they could clearly feel the sunlight overhead.

"My nemesis, slowly rise towards the brightest place!"

A few minutes later, Yu Qing told Yao Dan to fly left and right again to look for purple spots.

When they saw a purple mist appear, Yu Qing shouted, "Slow down! Once we're deep in the purple mist, turn the car upside down and turn on the headlights!"

"My lord, flying like this consumes a lot of energy."

"Life is more valuable than energy. This exit to Yunxian Pavilion is likely man-made and probably not very wide. What if the car hits a rock and gets stuck? So we must make sure there are no obstacles above it!"
Note that if there is an obstacle in front, the light from the headlights will be blocked and reflected. Can you clearly distinguish this difference?

"Don't worry, my husband. The fog won't render my eyes useless."

Yu Qing could only relax and trust that Yao Dan could handle it carefully. When he finally saw a window appear in the distance, he quickly told Yao Dan to stop.

"My lord, wouldn't it be better to fly a little higher?"

"Absolutely not. If there were no barriers at such a high altitude, who would still be queuing up at the foot of the mountain? They would have flown straight up long ago. We're sneaking in from behind them. Let's go a little lower and find a secluded place to land."

Yao Dan lowered the altitude and flew horizontally for a while. Seeing a clean patch of ground, she flew diagonally down. But after the car came to a stop, Yu Qing got out and saw that they had actually brought the car to a large hall.

This was all a misunderstanding caused by the thick fog. But it was for the best; they gently pushed the car to a corner of the main hall to reduce the chances of it being discovered.

It seems Yunxian Pavilion has entered. But this complex must be quite large. In such low visibility, standing here still feels like being trapped in a maze, not knowing which way to go.

Getting lost here might be worse than waiting in line for over a hundred years, at which point you might not even have a chance to leave.

Yu Qing woke Erlang, wanting it to go and scout the way for him. But Erlang stood there motionless, wagging its tail.

Yu Qing found it amusing himself. He didn't even know how to give Erlang specific instructions. Scouting the way—what way? There needed to be a target! He didn't even know where he should go. Or should he just follow any road he could find, going wherever it led him? That was too aimless.

His destination was likely Yunxian Pavilion, the place that supposedly granted immortality. Was it a medicine dispensing facility or a treatment center?
Yu Qing judged that Yunxian Pavilion definitely didn't use medicine to prolong people's lives. If it were medicine, there would be no need to come here to take it. Even if different formulas and dosages were needed for each individual, a diagnosis should be made first, not medication administered directly.

Yunxian Pavilion admits one person every two hours. If it operates at full capacity, this means one person has to leave every two hours. Can the entire process of preparing a so-called elixir of immortality—from diagnosis and formula determination to administration and the onset of effects—be completed in just two hours?
Of course, if they can receive dozens or hundreds of people at a time and arrange them in staggered shifts, each person can be allocated hundreds to thousands of hours of processing time.

However, they used teleportation to send people into the Cloud Immortal Pavilion, which requires too much energy. The most energy-efficient way would be to send in dozens or hundreds of people at a time, rather than one person at a time.

Furthermore, the reason they're acting so mysteriously is definitely because they don't want people to know their process. If it's mainly about pharmaceuticals, they could simply place the drug manufacturing process in another, unknown location; there's no need for such a complicated arrangement.

The most reasonable explanation is that they have a complex diagnostic and surgical process, which involves countless pieces of equipment, facilities, and instruments. These are all located on-site, which is why concealing them is so difficult.

Based on this analysis, Yu Qing could then specify the exact target Erlang needed to find. Since they had used knives, there would inevitably be blood. Yu Qing made a cut on his hand with a dagger, let Erlang smell it, and then patted it on the head.

Erlang understood and darted out in a flash. No matter what kind of person you are, whether you're a turtle-man or a winged man, animal blood always has some similar or identical scents. As long as Erlang finds a place with the scent of blood, he's almost certainly looking for his target.

As time ticked by, Yu Qing's worries grew heavier. The longer it took Erlang to return, the farther away that place was from here, and traveling that greater distance meant taking on more risks.

Erlang didn't return until ninety minutes later. It was biting Yuqing's clothes, trying to curry favor with him.

Yu Qing stroked Erlang's head, gesturing for it to sit down. Based on his past experience, such places were likely equipped with numerous sensors to detect the movement of living beings, and it would be difficult for him to walk such a long distance unnoticed.

Yao Dan and the others are different. Her characteristics are similar to those of the humanoid beauties here. There must be a lot of humanoid beauties here, so the chances of her being identified are much smaller.

So he sent Erlang with Yaodan ahead to scout out the area and make sure Erlang hadn't gone to the wrong place. After all, even a trash can might contain bloodstained trash. It would be a huge joke if he took such a big risk to check a trash can.

When Yao Dan returned, she praised Yu Qing for his uncanny foresight. Erlang had indeed led her to a morgue-like place the first time, and later she had Erlang search for several more locations with blood, which led her to the horrific scene…

Yu Qing interrupted Yao Dan, saying, "Don't rush to talk about what happened next, tell me one thing at a time. What was that morgue you were talking about earlier?"

"It was horrifying; rows of naked corpses were laid out there neatly..."

Yu Qing shuddered and pondered, "It seems my guess was right... their so-called immortality is just replacing one's entire body..."

"Then you'd just die, so what's the point of immortality?"

"But all his memories and consciousness were completely copied out and then reinstalled into a body made according to his physical characteristics. When he woke up, he had no idea that he had been replaced."

"Can a human body be manufactured so quickly? Wouldn't it take years or even decades?"

"So they have many production lines, where various organs are manufactured like machine parts and then connected together."

"But everyone looks different..."

"How do you humanoids achieve different physical features?"

"Ah, I see. It's simply a matter of adjusting the position and size of the nose, ears, and eyes according to the specific object..."

"That's roughly the idea. They can also pre-produce bodies of different sizes—large, medium, and small—...square heads, horse faces..."

"But this doesn't seem to require surgery... How can you be sure you're using blood to find it..."

"It's not just consciousness and memory that's being copied; shouldn't some of his biological characteristics, including blood type, also be kept consistent or similar? This requires blood sampling or surgery. There's another benefit to this: at least it lets the person who comes in know that they have indeed received life-extending treatment. Otherwise, if they go in and sleep until they leave, wouldn't you doubt whether you've received any treatment at all? So even if it's not necessary, we still need to make a couple of incisions so that people can see."

"Maybe when he wakes up, he'll deliberately leave a wound on himself!"

At this moment, Yu Qing suddenly thought of a question and asked Yao Dan, "Are you sure those corpses were laid out there naked and neatly?"

"Yeah, so what? What does that prove?"

"That's something I didn't expect. It seems they're going to reuse those bodies, or they would have just disposed of them. There's no need to strip them of their clothes... Also, where did Erlang take you after that?"

"We couldn't go inside that place; we just walked around the outside. It's a huge building."

"I think... that must have been a human factory... where did they go after that?"

"There was a courtyard outside, but I couldn't even see the gate, so I didn't go in."

"Did you encounter any unusual people or events along the way?"

"Special? The fog is so thick, is that special? We haven't seen a single person."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "Nonsense! Damn it, this might be another unmanned factory."

"No way? What makes you say that..."

"Will we have an answer soon?"

After Yu Qing finished speaking, he beckoned Erlang over and led him to a corner.

Yao Dan said, "Where are you going? I want to go too."

"Don't come any closer! We're coming right now!"

After a while, Yu Qing returned, but Erlang was nowhere to be seen.

Yao Dan asked, "What's going on? Where's Erlang?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "It went to prove to me that this place is an unmanned factory!"

"How can it prove it? What did you do with it in the corner?"

"Give Erlang some instructions in a corner, so he knows what to do."

Yao Dan grabbed Yu Qing's hand and said coquettishly, "Give me some pointers too."

"No, I'm afraid you'll hit me with your little fists."

"It's definitely not a good thing!"

"Yes... not good. I took a little poop and let Erlang smell it. Do you want to go and do it too?"

Yao Dan said, "You're talking nonsense! Such a boring thing..."

"Who said it's boring? If Jiro can't find anyone else's stinky smell here, what does that mean? It means the staff here are definitely made of some kind of mechanical fiber..."

"But what about those people who come in? Don't they need to poop?"

"The probability is very small. They came in to face physical death, so I'm afraid they don't have the time. Besides, even if it were possible, and Erlang found that scent, it wouldn't affect the correctness of my reasoning. I'm talking about the possibility that Erlang simply can't find that scent."

"What if, by chance, no one poops today?"

"You know how sensitive Erlang's nose is. It can detect even the slightest trace of something in the air."

Two hours later, Erlang returned. It lay dejectedly before Yu Qing. Undoubtedly, it hadn't found any trace of the person. This was a fully automated, unmanned factory.

If those queuing outside Yunxian Pavilion knew they were only waiting for a bunch of machines that would kill them according to a set procedure, they would definitely be devastated.

Yu Qing is now caught in a dilemma, unsure of what to do. Deep down, he doesn't want to create unnecessary trouble for himself. But he can't bear to let a bunch of machines fool the public like this; he feels he shouldn't tell everyone the truth.

In truth, what Yu Qing feared most was the mastermind behind Yunxian Pavilion. Was this guy after money, deliberately deceiving the masses, or simply showing off his abilities? If he thwarted his plans, would the mastermind retaliate?
He thought it best not to make a hasty decision now. He should first understand the specific situation here before making any plans. So, he decided to go and see for himself.

Since this is an unmanned factory, and its main defenses are all on the outside, there shouldn't be any interception systems to prevent human activity inside. That's why he dared to follow Erlang around.

Although he couldn't see the whole place due to the thick fog, Yu Qing could tell from the corridors, pavilions, winding paths, and flying eaves that this place was an incomparably luxurious manor.

How ridiculous that humans created such a beautiful sight, only to have it become a tool for their machines to mock and ridicule their own kind.

After visiting several of the places Yao Dan had mentioned, Yu Qing made no new discoveries. At the large house Yao Dan had described, he had Yao Dan carry him on his shoulders and peered inside through the ventilation holes, confirming his suspicions.

In that spacious workshop, various human organs were being produced on the assembly line like toys. Yu Qing instantly felt an unprecedented sense of inferiority.

He didn't want to watch anymore. If he kept watching, he would realize he was nothing at all.

At this moment, Yao Dan suddenly became curious about a two-story detached building not far away. Indeed, the building was faintly visible in the purple mist, exuding an alluring and mysterious charm.

Yao Dan asked, "Husband, isn't there no one here? But that place looks like a human dwelling."

“You’re right. Theoretically, the place where the machine is placed should be built from a practical point of view, rather than like that building, which is too much in line with people’s aesthetic tastes.”

(End of this chapter)