The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 116 The Purple Ball's Request

Ziqiu only made a sound without showing any expression, so you could only judge whether his words were true based on logic. But Yu Qing had his own plans, so he didn't care whether his words were true or not.

This is just a verbal request; he can do it if it's convenient for him. Conversely, if he's unhappy, he can simply put it aside and pretend it never happened.

"When did Feixi City develop? I came from thousands of miles away and have never heard of this place before..." Yu Qing said.

"Hmm, let me think. Less than thirty years, I guess. The purpose of building Fancy was very clear: to let people spend all their money before they had to give up their bodies. Of course, some people gave up their bodies voluntarily, while others were tired of the life of constantly exchanging organs."

Yu Qing laughed and asked, "May I ask which type you are?"

"I... have no other choice. After multiple organ transplants, my entire body is inexplicably out of balance. If I die suddenly, I won't even have consciousness."

"You can clone a body, or copy the consciousness in advance."

"If it were that simple, it would have been popular all over the world long ago. Cloned bodies do not gain the original's legal status, and the mortality rate is very high. Consciousness cannot be copied from one body to another without damage, and usually loses 32 percent of its information."

This is fatal because the lost information is random; a bright person could become an idiot or insane. To completely upload consciousness to the receptors, the original physical brain must be sliced ​​and dissected using special equipment, ultimately resulting in brain death.

"I see. Humans can finally live without dying, at least their consciousness can remain."

The purple ball scoffed and said, "Who says humans don't die? Ninety-nine percent of them will still have to obediently say goodbye to this world. Do you know how much it costs to become a Yu Zi? Right now, at least seventy percent of the people in this world don't have a single penny."

Another 29 percent of people can only afford organ transplants. As for becoming Yu Zi, sorry, only 1 percent are eligible.

"Isn't that an exaggeration? Seventy percent of them don't have a single penny? How do they survive...?"

"It's not an exaggeration at all. These people live off the free resources of society. From birth to death, they have never done any work that creates value. It's not that they don't want to, but that there's nothing left to do; it's all been taken care of by the humanoid creatures."

Another 29% of people earn money by having children. Because if no one had children, the earth would soon be deserted, so the authorities subsidize childbirth. Ultimately, only 1% of the population is needed to keep this society running!

"So that's why Hongqiu charges an air usage fee. It's to stop 70% of ordinary people from coming here to freeload off the resources, right?"

"Good. If you handle this matter well for me, you'll become one of the 'one percent.' Where else are you going to earn those 200 billion yen!"

"Wait a minute, you really are a liar. I remember you said there was 97000 trillion! Two-thirds should be over 60000 trillion! And now it's down to 200 billion!"

"Feixi City's assets are indeed worth 97000 trillion, and I created them, but it was created through my job, so I only received 1600 billion in salary! 1000 billion was used to pay for Hongqiu's citizenship, leaving me with only 600 billion in personal assets. And 300 billion was prepaid for Yu Zi's lifetime maintenance..."

Yu Qing said, "So you only have 300 billion left. What are you doing? You created 97000 trillion in value, but you only received 1600 billion in compensation? That doesn't seem fair!"

"It's incredibly unfair. The problem is, I've created so much wealth, yet I've never seen the biggest beneficiary who reaps the benefits without lifting a finger! Isn't that ridiculous? But next year, all this wealth will be confiscated. Let's all forget about it!"

Yu Qing was taken aback. Could he be the biggest beneficiary he was talking about? He asked calmly, "Who is it? So powerful that they let so much money be confiscated for nothing?"

The purple ball didn't answer him directly, only saying, "Anyway, it's not you. Over a hundred years of fighting and vying can finally come to an end."

Yu Qing was unwilling to give up and wanted to continue asking, but he was afraid of revealing his identity, so he put on an envious look and said, "I wish Fei Xicheng belonged to me!"

Ziqiu said, "Stop dreaming! I can't help you. You poor kid, go find my daughter in Feixi City and make 200 billion first."

"Okay! But you have to give me a guarantee... or a document. How do I know it won't all be for nothing?"

"I can't give you anything right now. Even if I did, it wouldn't make a difference. This is a risky job. If you're going to try to get something for nothing, don't be afraid of getting bitten."

……

After finishing his voluntary labor, Yu Qing reunited with Yao Dan and the others.

He had Chang'e buy another corpse-carrying box in Hongqiu, and then slowly rode it towards Wengshan, beginning his journey to lure the enemy. Of course, this might have been just a form of self-amusement, but he felt more at ease knowing that Chang'e had left him first.

Although Chang'e has no intention of harming herself, the backdoor programs on her body could trigger at any time, manipulating her to do unpredictable things.

Now he was focused on figuring out what was going on in Feixi City. He had ruled out the possibility that Hongqiu had a branch of the Shengtian Group. Because this place was not a place for humans to live; to be precise, it was an artificial paradise that housed the souls of the wealthy and powerful.

As soon as it was light, Yu Qing set off with Yao Dan, E Ying, and the little fox. They arrived in Fei Xi City in less than half an hour.

Yu Qing instructed Yao Dan not to engage in any transactions here to avoid revealing their whereabouts. Emo and the little fox had no payment connection with him and were penniless, so there would be no problem.

Like most places on Earth, the free resources here are more than enough for a comfortable life. Of course, don't expect high-end services. Therefore, as long as they maintain the bare minimum of sustenance, they can live a life of quiet seclusion in the city.

Yu Qing's first task was, of course, to explore every street and alley of Feixi, to see what kind of buildings the city had. The key was to see if there was anything related to the Shengtian Group.

He is now eager to find a branch of Shengtian immediately, take over Shengtian's administrative system, and turn the tables.

He realized that his past ideas were too naive. He originally planned to gather several native humans from the paradise together before taking over Shengtian's affairs. But the tree may wish to remain still while the wind blows incessantly; there may be one, or even countless, hands secretly preventing him from taking power.

Power and wealth are a double-edged sword. If used well, he wouldn't need to hide and personally search for people in other paradises. He could utilize Shengtian's resources to quickly achieve his goals, bring back everyone from all the paradises, and find a place for revival.

Strangely, they wandered around for a long time but couldn't find any place related to the name "Shengtian". A group as large as this wouldn't have branches without even a sign.

Had he guessed wrong? But Ziqiu's words clearly revealed this information: Feixi City's industries belonged to a single conglomerate, and Ziqiu had once been its leader. If it didn't belong to Shengtian, then which powerful group was it?

Yu Qing also wanted to know if the person behind Chang'e, the one preventing him from moving forward, was actually in Feixi. And was this the place preventing him from going, or somewhere else? These questions gave him a headache. Unable to unravel these mysteries, his heart remained uneasy.

However, he unexpectedly found the white villa that the purple ball had told him about first.

He suddenly hesitated again regarding whether or not to go to find his daughter as Ziqiu requested. Was it necessary to go into that villa? This deviated from his intended course of action and might cause unforeseen complications and trouble.

He came up with a plan to have Yao Dan go to the villa and retrieve the things that Zi Qiu had entrusted to him.

To his surprise, Yao Dan, following Yu Qing's instructions, effortlessly obtained the photo, biometric card, and necklace belonging to Zi Qiu's daughter. It seemed Zi Qiu hadn't lied. Or at least not entirely. When Yao Dan handed the photo to Yu Qing, she said, "Isn't this Gu She?"

Yu Qing looked at them for a long time and said, "They really look alike. However, their expressions are too different. This woman is much more frivolous. I can only say they look alike. There's nothing I can do about it. Every woman in this world wants to be the most beautiful one, and in the end, they all look almost the same."

Yu Qing then inserted the biometric card into the pendant and temporarily put the necklace in his pocket.

"Husband, where are we going? Why don't we move into this villa?"

"That won't do. They didn't say we could stay here. What if there are some unknown traps or mechanisms inside? That would be even more awkward."

"Should I go ask the humanoid girl who led me in earlier if I can stay here?"

"Alright. Go ask them."

After a while, Yao Dan came running back, looking disheveled, and said, "Let's go, forget it."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "What's wrong? Weren't you all excited just now?"

"That humanoid girl said we can only go in once, and if we want to go in again..."

Yu Qing chimed in, "It has to be the woman in the photo who brings her in."

Yao Dan asked in surprise, "You could hear it from so far away?"

"I'm just guessing. He just wanted me to help him find his daughter."

Yao Dan teased, "Husband, are you going to have another wife?"

"Get out of my way! Don't let her youthful appearance fool you, she's already in her sixties or seventies!"

"My God, people these days are so fake."

"It's not entirely because of that; people's lifespans have indeed increased a lot. Let's go explore some places now. We can freeload and maybe even find that 'veteran girl' to spend some money on us for some high-end entertainment."

The little fox suddenly said, "Big brother, we should be frugal."

Yu Qing exclaimed happily, "You can even talk about saving now!"

However, having learned his lesson from Danggui, Yu Qing didn't want the little fox to go to entertainment venues so early, so he instructed Eying to take her to rest in the car while he and Yaodan went about their business.

They first arrived at a place called "Twister Fun." The music there was extremely strange, making Yu Qing feel uneasy. Most unbelievable was the way the people there entertained themselves. A group of people had their hair hanging from the ceiling and were twisting their bodies like pretzels.

The people around them were even more varied in their poses; some were spinning on the ground like gyroscopes, while others were making 360-degree spins with their mouths pressed against the pillars. But the most difficult sight was probably the human ring woven by the dozen or so people with their own arms.

These people's hands, like vines, intertwined with those of their neighbors on either side, eventually forming a large circle that circled a large vat. The vat was steaming hot, filled with fragrant mist. As they circled, they leaned forward, inhaling the fragrant mist with blissful relish.

Yao Dan pointed at the fog and asked softly, "Husband, what are those things?"

At this moment, a humanoid woman walked over and said, "That's a kind of water vapor similar to alcohol; this is called 'inhaling alcohol'."

"I've heard of smoking, but this is the first time I've heard of drinking alcohol."

The humanoid beauty laughed, "Have you ever heard that old saying? 'Live life to the fullest, then die...'"

Yu Qing nodded and said, "That's true. Many of these people's bodies are already riddled with holes; this is the last chance to squeeze out their last bit of value. In a couple of days, they'll all be going to become servants, right?"

The humanoid girl said, "That's true and that's not true. Half of the people just come here to experience the ultimate pleasure of the human body."

Yao Dan said, "Why do I feel like it's the ultimate suffering? Is it comfortable?"

The humanoid girl ignored Yao Dan and instead asked Yu Qing, "Would you like to go to the VIP room for a while? That's where high-end people go..."

Yu Qing quickly shook his head and said, "No, no, no, I'm penniless, I can just look around here."

The humanoid girl laughed and said, "You can make money there. If you make them happy, they will give you all the money they have more than they can spend."

Yu Qing glanced at the humanoid girl and said, "Please go away, the farther away from me the better."

Yao Dan teased, "Husband, why not make money if you have it?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "If I wanted to trade here, would I need to make money like this? I could bury them in money."

Yao Dan laughed and said, "Don't hit them, just use money to kill me instead. What's that called? Right, it's called keeping the wealth within the family."

"Be serious, can you check if that woman in the photo is here? You promised her, so it's best if you can keep your promise."

"Husband, do you think I'm stupid enough to find you a woman and make myself miserable..."

"You've rebelled again. Let me reiterate, I'm not helping you find a woman for me, I'm helping someone else find their daughter. If you keep rambling on, believe me, I'll sell you."

Yao Dan said mischievously, "I agree. You sell me to that handsome guy at First Paradise. He's a real money-maker..."

Yu Qing shoved the necklace into Yao Dan's hand and said, "Stop talking nonsense. Take this and wander around. Come back and tell me when you hear the alarm."

"Shall we go together?"

"If you rebel again, I'll have Eying come and keep me company, and you can go and take care of the little fox."

(End of this chapter)