The Last 299 Days of Humanity

After crossing a mountain stream and walking another seven or eight miles, Yu Qing and his companions will arrive at the Fourth Paradise.

He told Yao Dan to rest for a moment on a large rock by the stream, to wash the dirt off his face and straighten his clothes.

Yao Dan cupped some of the sweet mountain spring water in her hands and offered it to Yu Qing to taste.

He would occasionally bite Yao Dan's hand and say, "It would be nice if this were made of meat."

Yao Dan laughed and said, "If you're so capable, then you eat it."

Yu Qing said, "No, let's save it for later."

After sitting for a short while, Yu Qing found the stone too hard and stood up. Yao Dan plopped down and pulled Yu Qing into her arms, letting him sit on her lap.

"Husband, shouldn't you be ashamed? How could you sit on a woman's lap?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "This woman is no ordinary fairy; she can't be broken by sitting on her or knocked down."

Suddenly, Yu Qing stood up again, pulling Yao Dan up with him. He discovered that the stone he had just been sitting on was covered with densely packed symbols!
"My nemesis, do you recognize what's engraved on this?"

Yao Dan examined it carefully and said, "I'm sorry, husband. I don't have the complete language pack, so I don't know what it means. However, I know it's Gurya script; Dr. Lu had a book in this script back then. Your mention of it reminds me. Gurya script disappeared over a hundred years ago, but these markings seem to be less than thirty years old..."

"Guriye language? The language spoken here when the Fourth Paradise was built?"

Yu Qing shouted, "It was carved by people from the Fourth Paradise! They've come out!"

"So the Fourth Paradise has been opened... Could it have been carved by someone else?"

"No, only in the Fourth Paradise would you find people who speak the Gurye script. Think about it, the Gurye script has long been extinct outside the Paradise, so who would come to such a remote place to carve these characters specifically!"

"Shall we still go to the Fourth Amusement Park?"

"Of course we'll go, but there might be no one there anymore. For us, if it weren't for the extensive damage, it would still be the safest place to stay."

Yu Qing carefully observed the terrain and said, "Not many of them escaped; perhaps only one."

"How can you be so sure? Isn't it too early to draw such a conclusion?"

"Think about it, if they had elderly and young children, and were fleeing with their families, where would they find the time to carve those words here? And the person carving the words wouldn't feel comfortable making the elderly and children stand there waiting for him for days, would they?"

Moreover, he left rather calmly, most likely because he was a survivor who came to this place. The mountains on both sides of the ravine are difficult to cross, and if he came down from the mountain, he would have some injuries on his hands, making it unlikely that he could have carved the words so neatly.

Therefore, I concluded that he came out along this stream, which is why he wouldn't have carved the words while injured.

"So this stream leads to the Fourth Paradise? Let's follow it. But this stream isn't on my map."

"Is that so? It seems there was a severe geological disaster here thirty or forty years ago. That's why there's no change on your map."

So they set off along the stream toward the Fourth Paradise. They had no idea how long or short the path would be.

Occasionally, there are a few unidentified symbols carved on stones along the way, which seem to have been left by that person as well. This further confirms that he did indeed come from here.

Yu Qing kept wondering, could the Fourth Paradise have been destroyed in the earthquake? Probably not. At least there's no information about the Fourth Paradise being destroyed so far.

If the Fourth Paradise were truly gone, his original plans would be completely disrupted. His plan was to use himself as the final bait, leveraging the Fourth Paradise's excellent defenses to lure opposing forces there for a fierce battle.

Without the defensive support of the Fourth Paradise, he might turn from bait into prey. Therefore, he must figure this out before the battle at Fish Mouth begins.

They walked for about seven or eight miles, but did not see the Fourth Amusement Park. Instead, they found a row of houses nestled around a bend in the road ahead!

"What's the purpose of building all these houses in this deep mountain forest?" Yu Qing asked.

Yu Qing suddenly thought of Dr. Lu's alloy coffin. Building these houses in such a secluded spot near the amusement park was most likely for conducting experiments using locally sourced materials.
Yao Dan was also familiar with this, and blurted out, "Husband, someone is planning to use the people in Paradise as test subjects! Back then..."

"Since the person who carved the inscription left so calmly, I think there's no one left in this lab."

"They've left?"

"No, they probably didn't leave naturally, otherwise they wouldn't have let the person who carved the inscription leave so easily. Even if they didn't kill him to silence him, they would have taken him with them."

Of course, there's also the possibility that something happened there, everyone died, and only one person left who wasn't an experimenter. This is a highly confidential matter; he would have left quietly, so why would he have carved anything there?

"Perhaps he couldn't walk anymore, so he carved some words to record something."

"He can barely walk, yet he can still carve such neat characters?"

They crept closer to the row of houses. Yao Dan glanced at them from afar and said, "I didn't sense anyone inside. No, husband, there's a huge creature inside!"

Yu Qing patted Yao Dan on the shoulder and whispered, "Let's hide first and see what happens."

"My lord, it's alright. Judging from the image, there are about a dozen four-legged animals in the house."

What kind of animal is it?

"That's hard to say. They're smaller than horses but bigger than donkeys."

Yu Qing and his group are currently in the riverbed, with towering mountains on both sides, making it very difficult to find a place to hide.

At this moment, Yao Dan suddenly exclaimed, "Husband, I misjudged! There aren't just a dozen or so of them, but hundreds! They're swarming towards the door! They seem to have spotted us!"

They had nowhere to escape now. But if they stayed in the riverbed and were surrounded, Yao Dan would be no match for so many unknown beasts, and he would surely die.

Yu Qing carefully observed the surroundings again and had to painfully admit that the only place here where he could defend against attacks was that house.

The fact that these wild animals only congregated on the first floor indicates that the second floor is relatively safe. There is a side staircase on the side of the house that leads to the second floor.

They had to rush towards the beasts and run to the second floor before they emerged.

Before he could offer any explanation, Yu Qing patted Yao Dan on the shoulder, pointed to the stairs, and said, "There, quick!"

Although Yao Dan had doubts, he still carried Yu Qing and ran towards the side ladder. The beasts that were about to rush towards them were confused by their actions, thinking they were going to attack them, so they stopped and adopted a defensive posture.

They gained those crucial few seconds that determined life and death. By the time the beasts realized they were outnumbered and prepared to rush in and surround them, Yao Dan had already climbed seven or eight steps.

The wild beasts began a frenzied pursuit, and only then did Yu Qing and his companions realize that they were ferocious donkey-headed wolves.

Clearly, the donkey-headed wolf was not good at climbing stairs, hence its slow movements.

Yao Dan ran to the entrance on the second floor and found several human-shaped skeletons lying there. But she couldn't worry about finding out what was going on right now. After Yao Dan ran inside, Yu Qing told her to immediately close the door to stop the donkey-headed wolf behind her from entering.

But soon after they entered and exited, they discovered that there were also staircases connecting the first and second floors, making it impossible to shake off the donkey-headed wolf's pursuit! So he told Yaodan to continue climbing to higher floors.

These donkey-headed wolves were no ordinary beasts; they even followed the scent closely behind. For fire safety reasons, the doors between floors weren't locked, so sooner or later they would find them.

If a solution is not found immediately, danger will soon arrive.

The doors here all open inwards. If you use something or block the door yourself, you might be able to hold it off for a while, but that won't allow you to escape and won't solve the problem at its root.

However, he found a fire hydrant. He wanted to use the water to stop the donkey-headed wolf from following him. But it was an automatic device that wouldn't activate unless there was a fire alarm. As for the manual devices, they were either unsure how to use them or they were broken; they simply couldn't turn them on.

The only option left was the most brute force. He ordered Yao Dan to simply chisel open the valve.

Yao Dan immediately sprang into action. Time ticked by. Suddenly, he heard a deafening explosion. Thank goodness, the pipe above had shattered!
The valve nearly hit his foot, and water jets immediately gushed out from the fire hydrant.

Soon, the water cascaded downstairs. This not only washed away their tracks but also temporarily halted the donkey-headed wolf's pursuit.

But Yu Qing soon realized that something was wrong.

The fire hoses didn't rush down the stairwell; instead, they flowed to the fire door on the next floor and stopped. The water became the force that held the door shut!
At first, Yu Qing thought this was a good idea; since the door below was blocked, the donkey-headed wolf certainly wouldn't be able to get in. So they sat down and rested for the time being.

Strangely, the water kept gushing out, and it was already reaching his feet. At that moment, he suddenly realized that this might not be the water from the fire hydrant.

Were they pumped directly from the riverbed? That doesn't seem likely, because the river only has a trickle of water, not such a large volume.

In just half an hour, the water had already reached his knees.

They could only go up one more floor.

Shortly after they went up, Yu Qing heard a loud explosion, and the water level rose even faster, indicating that the entire fire hydrant system had collapsed.

They climbed four more floors in this way, and the water level continued to rise with them. Finally, they reached the rooftop, where they had nowhere else to go.

However, at this rate of rise, the water would soon overflow the roof. He wondered, this amount of water already exceeded the needs of firefighting; where was it coming from?
Could there be a lake or river connected to it in the nearby mountains?
To Yu Qing's surprise, the water level kept rising, eventually reaching the rooftop and overflowing from the surrounding walls.

They had to stand in waist-deep water. At that moment, they truly had nowhere to turn.

Fortunately, Yu Qing's air-conditioned suit had four inflatable airbags. He quickly inflated them to ensure he wouldn't drown. As for Yao Dan, he naturally didn't have this worry.

Perhaps the entire water pipe system had completely collapsed under the rapid flow of water, which was getting stronger and stronger. Yu Qing and the others had to hold on tightly to the roof beams of the house to prevent themselves from being swept away by the flood.

What's hateful is that those donkey-headed wolves, seeing that water was being poured down from the building, immediately withdrew from the building and ran to the hillside thirty or forty meters away to watch the commotion.

Several wolves even jumped onto a huge rock on the hillside behind the building and howled triumphantly at them.

The building is about 60 meters above the riverbed, and the water can flow up to the roof by gravity, which means that the source water level is at least 70 or 80 meters higher than the riverbed. If the flow is sufficient, the river level may rise to tens of meters high.

However, the water that overflowed from the rooftop quickly flowed away from the river channel, and the river level did not show any significant rise.

In this situation, it seems he's doomed. Yu Qing couldn't help but sigh to the heavens. "He who walks by the river will eventually get his feet wet." Living in constant danger, one day he'd inevitably be caught off guard and fall victim.

Those damned wolves! So many brilliant people couldn't kill him, and now he's dying at the hands of those beasts. It's truly shameful.

Yu Qing floated to the edge of the building and began cursing at the wolves below.

Hearing the shouts from the rooftop, the donkey-headed wolves quickly swarmed around the building, howling viciously. Yao Dan couldn't help but raise his hand and throw a light blade, aiming at one of the wolves and slashing down. The wolf didn't even have time to howl before it fell to the ground dead.

At this moment, the other wolf took a few steps back, shook its head and looked around, then suddenly raised its head and let out a terrifying howl at Yao Zhou.

Clearly, Yao Dan's actions had enraged the donkey-headed wolf. A moment later, Yu Qing heard a thunderous roar below as hundreds of wolves charged towards the slain wolf from all directions.

Yu Qing's heart pounded. He thought, perhaps a turning point is coming. When you're in a predicament, what you need most is a dramatic change so that you can find a weakness that you can exploit.

Since so many wolves have come, we must make good use of them. His mind raced. Aren't they seeking revenge? He instructed Yaodan to kill the most troublesome wolf.

After that wolf fell, the other wolves immediately swarmed around it, crowding around the dead wolf and confronting Yu Qing and the others.

Yu Qing then instructed Yao Dan to kill another wolf in a different direction, and the wolf pack immediately swarmed in that same direction. In short, wherever he struck, the wolf pack followed.

"Ah, I see." The flaw has finally appeared.

A thought suddenly struck him, and he grabbed Yao Dan's hand, almost crying out, "I'm saved!"

Yao Dan asked, puzzled, "Is there any hope?"

After discovering the donkey-headed wolf's behavior, Yu Qing felt as if he had a million-strong army under his command and was full of confidence in getting out of the current predicament. He laughed and said, "Of course."

In fact, he had observed that large rock halfway up the mountain several times. Due to weathering and rain erosion, the soil beneath it had been severely eroded and looked very loose. However, without external forces pushing it, it might remain firmly there for another ten or eight years.

Now, he can use the pack of wolves as an external force to push over that rock!

He ordered Yaodan to kill two more wolves around the large rock. Sure enough, the wolf pack charged over and continued to loosen the soil beneath the rock.

Then he directed Yaodan to attack the wolf that had climbed the highest point, causing the wolf to climb higher and higher until the large rock was covered with huge wolves. Those that couldn't get onto the rock kept digging at the surrounding soil to keep their balance.

Not long after, the stone began to wobble noticeably, then with a loud thud, it rolled down from halfway up the mountain and crashed heavily against the wall of the building where he was standing. (End of Chapter)