The Last 299 Days of Humanity

The heavy soundproof door to the control room closed again, completely shutting out the false celebratory clamor from the outside world.

In the holographic image, Yu Yunshan's majestic gaze still seemed to be fixed on the two people in the room, but that was just a looping image recorded by the system.

If the first program is launched, this screen will disappear automatically; otherwise, it will remain until Yu Qing manually closes it.

A silence, more complex and difficult to describe than before, filled the air. Yu Qing and Chang Sheng were each lost in their own thoughts.

Once the second procedure is initiated, it cannot be terminated within 90 days. Yu Qing was worried that something else might happen during these 90 days. Moreover, this meant that he would have to secretly return to Changjin sometime after 90 days to operate the underground ultimate office that Chang Sheng was unaware of.

This trip to Changjin was already a near-death experience; the next one might be a death sentence. If I stay here and finish things up in 90 days before leaving, will Changsheng doubt that my promise to "not get involved in all the company's specific affairs" was a lie?
At this moment, the humble smile on Chang Sheng's face had completely vanished, replaced by a deep solemnity. He spoke first, his voice very low, ensuring that not a single word would betray him: "Chairman... what are your plans next..."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "You want to ask me if I'm keeping my promise and when I'm leaving, right?"

Chang Sheng hurriedly said, "No, absolutely not... There's a flaw in the procedure right now, we need to figure out why..."

Yu Qing said, "I know you might suspect that my so-called second procedure is a self-directed and self-acted trick, just an excuse to stay here for a long time, right?"

Chang Sheng stared at him without saying a word, clearly indicating that he genuinely had this idea. It's difficult for two people who were fighting for their lives just yesterday to gain each other's trust overnight.

Yu Qing sighed, "I don't blame you for your suspicions. But there's something I'll tell you that might make you even more suspicious. Once the second procedure is initiated, it can only be terminated after 90 days..."

Before he could finish speaking, Chang Sheng hurriedly said, "Then, to be on the safe side, I will escort you to Qiongshan now. I'm sorry to trouble you to wait in your old residence for 90 days; that place is the safest."

"If I wanted to stay here for 90 days, wouldn't you become even more suspicious?"

"It would be a lie to say I have no doubts... but you're the one who decides, so I'll follow your opinion."

Yu Qing said seriously, "I can't risk it just to dispel your suspicions. Besides, I'm really uneasy. Have you thought about what will happen to you and me if someone tampered with our administrative system?"

"That might have bankrupted Shengtian Company, or even worse. You certainly didn't... hide anything else from me..."

Yu Qing raised his hand to interrupt him, his sharp gaze still scanning the dazzling stream of data on the spherical screen: "Can you put aside your doubts? Think about it, if I really wanted to deal with you, I have the highest authority now, I could just fire you directly, why go through all this trouble!"

"That's true. My current situation... is different..."

Yu Qing said somewhat impatiently, "Alright. I've said it before, my ambitions lie elsewhere. You can focus on managing Shengtian; I'm too lazy to concern myself with those daily routines. However, we need to find out where today's problem lies, as this concerns our fates."

Chang Sheng's expression calmed down, and he said, "We're in the same boat now."

"By the way, can your parallel system completely mirror all the instructions after the 'second program' was activated?"

“In the past, that was possible,” Chang Sheng answered cautiously, “but as you know, the parallel system can only record and simulate the underlying interactions of core permissions; it cannot truly intervene. Shall I take you to the parallel control room to take a look?”

"Okay. I really can't eat or sleep until I find out the reason."

Since Yu Qing was not very familiar with many current scientific concepts, he simply summoned Dong Hao to come and stay by his side.

Chang Sheng had Yu Qing walk in front while he followed behind to guide them to the parallel control room.

As soon as he entered the control room, Chang Sheng asked the humanoid girl on duty, "Was there anything unusual just now?"

The humanoid girl replied, "Data shows that a program was just triggered and received a response from the central system. Logically, permissions have been transferred to someone named Yu Qing. However..."

"Just what?"

"However, the response level and feedback signals deviate very slightly from the confidential records left by Yu Yunshan back then."

Chang Sheng brought up another floating control panel, which displayed a comparison of two complex code streams. His expression instantly turned serious, and he said:

"Look here, the handshake protocol after successful authorization verification includes an almost negligible redundant query. It's like... while the system confirms new authorization, it also sends an 'received' signal to some unknown, non-standard port."

Yu Qing's heart tightened. An unknown port? He hurriedly asked, "Can we trace the signal's path?"

The humanoid girl replied, "I tried, but the signal, after multiple encryptions and redirects, eventually disappeared into the sea of ​​public data, leaving no trace."

Chang Sheng closed the panel and looked at Yu Qing, his eyes filled with inquiry. "Chairman, are you sure no one knew about the process of activating the 'second program'? Including... Qiongshan's assistant who told you the procedure?"

Yu Qing's gaze instantly turned cold: "Are you questioning me, or testing me?"

"I wouldn't dare." Chang Sheng bowed slightly, lowering his posture, but his tone remained neither humble nor arrogant. "I was merely assessing all potential risks. The system has been tampered with, that's undeniable. Whoever could do that is no outsider. Either there's an unknown traitor within, with astonishingly high privileges; or..."

He paused, then gave Yu Qing a meaningful look. "The old man himself left behind a contingency plan that none of us know about."

"The old man has been dead for almost two hundred years." Yu Qing's voice was devoid of any emotion. "Besides the program, what else do you think there is?"

“Then, only the first possibility remains.” Chang Sheng straightened up. “One or a group of people who can bypass me, and perhaps even the old man’s surveillance, are infiltrating Shengtian. Their purpose is unclear, but they are clearly capable of striking us at the most critical moment.”

Yu Qing was silent for a moment, then suddenly asked, "Is your parallel system safe?"

Chang Sheng paused for a moment, then confidently replied, "Absolutely safe. Its physical network is completely isolated from the central system. I built it myself, and there are no more than five participants or insiders, all of whom are absolutely reliable confidants."

"Is that so?" Yu Qing uttered two words softly, gesturing for Dong Hao to check.

Dong Hao walked to the spherical light screen, his finger seemingly unconsciously tracing a flowing block of data. He stared at it for a few minutes and said:
"Why did I find an abnormal access record to a secondary database of this system 72 hours ago when I was reading the permission log? The access identifier of the visitor... is very interesting. It points to the employee ID of a former security manager who was deactivated three years ago."

Chang Sheng's expression changed instantly, a hint of shock and panic flashing across his eyes: "This is impossible! The database access logs are monitored in real time, and I have never received any abnormal alerts!"

"So, either your 'absolutely reliable' confidant has a problem, or someone has been able to hack into your parallel systems and tamper with the logs." Yu Qing turned around, his gaze piercing Chang Sheng like an icy blade. "President Chang, is this what you call 'absolute security'? Is this what you claimed to have 'never thought of bypassing it'?"

The air in the control room instantly dropped to freezing point.

Chang Sheng's forehead was covered in a fine layer of cold sweat. He opened his mouth, but for a moment he couldn't refute it. Yu Qing had just taken over (even if only nominally), yet he was able to discover the loopholes that Chang Sheng had managed for years without noticing?
Is this due to Yu Qing's superior skills, or... that he already knew everything about the parallel system, and that this access record was actually forged by his assistant to warn him?

At this moment, the seeds of suspicion sprouted and grew wildly.

The two looked at each other, both seeing deep wariness and distrust in each other's eyes.

After a long silence, Chang Sheng finally managed to speak: "I...I will investigate this matter thoroughly immediately!"

“No need for a big show,” Yu Qing said coldly. “We’ll do it in secret. Until we find this ‘ghost,’ we won’t use any communication tools; we’ll just talk face-to-face, the oldest method.”

We can no longer distrust each other.

Before this, I lived in this parallel control room. This is where you have absolute control, so you won't have any wild thoughts, right?

Chang Sheng said in surprise, "How can we live here? There isn't even a bathroom or a place to sleep."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "This place is spacious enough. You can help me get all this done and bring it here."

When Chang Sheng saw that Yu Qing was willing to confine him in the control room in order to gain his trust, he excitedly said, "I will, I will."

Chang Sheng's family's ancestors, in order to please Yu Yunshan, personally tried a gene drug that was said to grant immortality. As a result, their bodies underwent some unexplained genetic mutations, and their kidneys generally failed by the age of forty. Therefore, they all had to get artificial kidneys before the age of thirty.

Therefore, Chang Sheng and his family had long felt that Yu Yunshan owed them something, and naturally, they didn't think much of Yu Qing. However, after experiencing so much, his opinion changed somewhat, and he thought this young man was quite good, which led to a ridiculous idea.

Chang Sheng quickly had all the necessities delivered to Yu Qing and also assigned five humanoid servants to attend to his needs. Chang Sheng agreed to let Yu Qing stay here because it was indeed one of the safest places in Shengtian.

Yu Qing really treated this place like home and found it quite interesting. A humanoid woman even set up an electronic curtain around him, allowing people inside to see out but outsiders to see in, and there was no physical barrier to entering or leaving the curtain.

While resting that night, Yu Qing noticed that one of the five humanoid beauties was quite unusual. Like products from an assembly line, each one was flawless, except for this one, whose lips were noticeably thicker.

Yu Qing laughed and said, "What parameter did you mess up? What happened to your mouth?"

That kind of person bowed and said, "Many of my parameters are deliberately messed up in order to detect whether people's aesthetic sense has shifted."

Yu Qing laughed again, "There's been a shift in perspective; in fact, you seem more charming than the other four."

The humanoid beauty boldly walked over, hugged Yu Qing from behind, and laughed, "Take another look, what else could be more charming than them?"

Yu Qing was startled; she had the same aura as a human, she was a human.

"You switched that humanoid girl? Old Chang said this place was the safest, they didn't even know someone had sneaked in. What are you trying to do?"

"What do you think I want to do?"

"Hmm... If someone sent you to harm me, you should have already done it. The fact that you're still wasting time talking to me shows that you're a friend, not an enemy. But, could you let go of my hand? I feel a bit strange; this is the control room, not a place for close contact."

The girl whispered in Yu Qing's ear, "Isn't there an electronic curtain? My dad was worried you'd be bored here, so he sent me to keep you company."

Yu Qing hurriedly pulled her hand away and said, "Goodness, Old Chang has even offered up his daughter."

The girl retorted angrily, "What do you mean, 'We offered up our daughter too'? We meant no harm..."

Yu Qing quickly corrected himself, saying, "I'm sorry, it was a slip of the tongue. The fact that I singled you out from among them means that I pushed myself into that situation."

The girl chuckled: "You're so funny. You can understand my dad's good intentions, right? Sending a humanoid girl to keep you company isn't respectful enough, but at this time, is it as reliable as me to find someone outside?"

"So, how do you plan to keep me company? Reliable... By the way, what's your name?"

"Yu, please. I want you to fire my father."

"Yu Yingying, why did I fire your father?"

The girl immediately reached out and grasped Yu Qing's hand, saying, "Thank you! You must keep your word!"

"What did I say that I have to keep?"

“I told you to fire my dad, and you said ‘Yu Yingding,’ which means ‘I agree’…”

"You've been waiting for me here. I'm just curious. Your dad wanted to get rid of me to secure his position, but you're asking me to fire him right now. Why is that?"

“He’s at the company 26 hours a day and doesn’t spend any time with us. It’s not worth it.”

"You've set a trap for me again. There are clearly 24 hours in a day, but you want me to correct your statement, and then you reply that your dad is at home for two hours, but his mind is already at the company; or that he sometimes works one hour as if it were two hours to the fullest for the company..."

"Isn't that the truth? I haven't even said he's been here forty-eight hours yet."

“That’s right. Let him continue like this. After all this, I understand what you mean. Go back and tell your dad that I really have no interest in the company. If he keeps testing me like this, I’ll fire him and let you take over.”

The girl said defiantly, "You said it yourself, so I'll go for it..."

"Don't get the wrong idea, that's not what I meant!" (End of Chapter)