The Last 299 Days of Humanity

After confirming the temporary safety of the Third Paradise and deploying the "Natural Forces," Yu Qing refocused all his attention on the main battlefield against the "Purifiers," or rather, the "Brotherhood of Purification."

His opponent was like a ghost lurking in a sea of ​​data, his attacks sharp and unpredictable, leaving him feeling constantly on edge.

He must take the initiative and cut a hole in that thick veil of darkness. Placing a carefully designed bait might force the enemy to reveal themselves in their panic.

His gaze fell on the boxes of combat debris and environmental waste he had brought back from the desert underground fortress.

After thorough analysis by the technical department, these items were confirmed to have almost no direct intelligence value; they were essentially just a pile of high-level junk. However, their unique materials and energy imprints were the beginning of a story in themselves.

“Donghao,” Yu Qing instructed, tapping his fingers lightly on the table, “carefully select from that rubbish. Find the most inconspicuous but most peculiar things.”

Examples include alloy fragments bearing unusual isotopic markings, resembling those from non-standard smelting processes; aggregated crystal dust with unique lattice structures, remnants of energy weapons; and microchip particles with peculiar structures, though burnt out.

“Your Excellency,” Donghao hesitated slightly, “the final report from the technical department indicates that the internal structure of those things was completely destroyed in the explosion, and they are indeed no longer worth analyzing…”

“Who said they actually have any value?” Yu Qing interrupted her, a subtle, enigmatic smile playing on his lips. “What we need is ‘belief,’ not ‘facts.’ Do as I say.”

The quantity doesn't need to be large, but the sample boxes must be sealed with the highest-grade inert gas. Furthermore, a fully armed security team must be dispatched to escort them ostentatiously to the No. 7 underground analysis room.

He wanted to create the impression of transporting extremely sensitive, priceless items.

Analysis Room No. 7 is a cutting-edge laboratory within Shengtian, renowned for its ultra-strong shielding and ultra-clean environment. It is typically used to handle the most sensitive unknown substances or to perform extreme recovery of information carriers. Director Yu Qing's drama unfolds here.

He assigned a highly reliable team, under the strictest confidentiality agreement, to work in shifts day and night in the underground laboratory, wearing bulky, top-level biochemical protective suits, to "tinker" with those sample boxes.

The laboratory's access logs were carefully altered to show unusually frequent, almost uninterrupted high-energy particle scans, molecular-level deconstruction, and quantum state readouts.

They even deliberately created extremely subtle, fleeting "leakage" points on the energy shielding layer, allowing even the faintest external sensors to detect a slight unusual energy fluctuation, like a fleeting spark in the darkness.

Meanwhile, near a few communication nodes within the company that were marked as "potentially unclean," or in the break room, or at a corner of the corridor, people were arranged to stage "accidental" conversations.

"...The information encoding layers in the desert samples were ten times more complex than expected, resembling multiple nested layers..."

"...The initial correlation is vague, but the matching degree of the underlying protocol feature algorithm cannot be ignored, especially for the Eastern sequence..."

"...The signal fragment is incomplete, but we are attempting to break through to a higher level of decoding access, which may require the use of the 'Tianzhi' core computing power..."

These fragmented, half-true, and half-false pieces of information, like carefully crafted pheromones, are cautiously released into the air within the company, waiting to be captured by the lurking "cockroach" antennae.

Then, the key is external action.

With the highest authority, Yu Qing ordered the mobilization of several high-resolution remote sensing satellites of Shengtian in low Earth orbit to adjust their orbital parameters and conduct frequent and unusual intensive scans of specific areas in the east, especially the southeastern coastal area of ​​Yadu, with unclear objectives.

At the same time, he instructed the company to purchase "technical services" from some small cities or research institutions through third-party agents, and to use their deep-sea acoustic monitoring networks deployed on the edge of relevant sea areas. He claimed that they were conducting "routine geological structure and ocean current monitoring", but the access permissions to the data and the scanning focus were strictly encrypted, making it seem mysterious.

All of this combined forms a vast and secretive surveillance network, more like a gesture: Sheng Tian is mobilizing all resources in an attempt to decipher the fatal clues linking the "Pure World Brotherhood" to a certain Eastern giant from the desert waste, and it seems that key progress has been made and the final confirmation is underway.

The bait emitted an enticing aroma, and the net was already set in silence.

As expected, the "Purification Brotherhood" or the forces behind it took the bait, and their reaction was unexpectedly strong.

The first anomaly appeared in Shengtian's internal network. Penetration attempts targeting Analysis Room No. 7 and related data servers increased exponentially, with a variety of unprecedented advanced web crawlers and saturation attack methods exploiting quantum effect vulnerabilities emerging one after another.

Almost the entire Shengtian cybersecurity team was mobilized, and the sparks flying from the firewall logs illuminated every corner of the virtual battlefield. This showed that the adversary was extremely eager to know what had been extracted from those "junk files."

Immediately afterwards, Yu Qing's pre-set monitoring network detected strong "counter-detection" fluctuations coming from the direction of Haiyuan City, southeast of Yadu. Haiyuan City is the location of the headquarters of the Dadian Elite Consortium.

This conglomerate is one of the three major giants in the East, controlling a vast financial network and a cluster of cutting-edge technology industries. It brings together nearly half of the region's top elites, and its strength is unfathomable.

Dadian Jinghua's response was textbook-perfect counter-surveillance. They clearly detected Shengtian Satellite's focused scan, but their response was not simply signal jamming or communication silence; instead, they activated a highly advanced "quantum frequency hopping" communication mode.

Their core data stream was fragmented into countless encrypted pieces, which, within each millisecond-level communication window, jumped wildly between different frequencies, different satellite channels, and even different communication protocols in an almost random manner, attempting to build an untraceable ghost channel.

However, the core processor of Shengtian's remote sensing satellite array is equipped with an experimental algorithm called "topology capture." It abandons the traditional packet-by-packet tracking method and instead acts like a skilled detective, using massive computation to identify the underlying protocol patterns and topology structures based on chaotic mathematics hidden behind these seemingly random jumps.

Although the content cannot be decrypted in real time, it is enough to roughly outline the "source" and "convergence point" of the key data flow—these invisible lines ultimately point to the Dadian Jinghua skyscraper complex in the center of Haiyuan City and a heavily guarded coastal data center deep in the mountains outside the city.

Almost simultaneously, the deep-sea acoustic monitoring station serving Shengtian detected extremely weak but unusually regular unnatural underwater acoustic signals near the submarine fiber optic cable leading to Dadian Jinghua private island.

The other side dispatched a technologically advanced unmanned underwater vehicle, which silently hovered around the fiber optic cable like a ghost, seemingly deploying some kind of high-performance acoustic jamming device or attempting to eavesdrop.

In Yu Qing's view, this overly defensive posture was nothing short of proof of a guilty conscience. If one had nothing to hide, why would they need to make such a fuss?
The Donghao team immediately took countermeasures, releasing several Shengtian bionic underwater vehicles that mimicked the calls and movement patterns of sperm whales.

After these "bionic whales" entered the target area, they did not launch a direct attack. Instead, they began playing pre-recorded sound waves that mixed complex ocean background noise and specific interference frequencies, cleverly creating a huge "acoustic fog field" in the water. This effectively disrupted the sonar sensors of the opposing AUV and attempted to use the sound wave reflection characteristics to locate its mother ship or control center.

Before the silent underwater battle had even concluded, an attack on another front had already begun. A meticulously planned "fishing" attack targeting Shengtian employees was quietly launched.

Several researchers who had participated in desert sample transportation or peripheral analysis received invitation emails disguised as authoritative academic institutions or well-known collaborating units. The content was extremely tempting, but the attachments contained highly sophisticated Trojan programs that were extremely well hidden.

Yu Qing decided to turn the tables on them.

He ordered the "Tianzhi" system to quickly construct several highly realistic "virtual researcher" digital identities and have these virtual identities "just right" click on Trojan links, but redirect all their access to a "honeypot" system that was completely controlled by Shengtian and highly simulated the internal core network.

When the opponent, unable to contain their elation, sneaks into this realistic trap in an attempt to steal the so-called "evidence related to Dadian Jinghua," their every move, every operation command, and every data access path is meticulously recorded and reverse tracking is initiated.

Despite the use of layers of encryption and a global network of proxy servers, the subtle behavioral characteristics inherent in the attack pattern, as well as certain network latency data that could not be completely eliminated due to physical distance limitations, were pieced together by "Tianzhi" like scattered puzzle pieces, ultimately pointing the finger at the core network center of Dadian Jinghua once again.

After several rounds of silent, high-tech battles spanning the internet, space, and oceans, although the "Pure World Brotherhood" and the Dadian Jinghua Consortium still haven't left any direct legal evidence, all the indirect evidence, behavioral patterns, and counterattack methods, like countless winding streams, break through the fog and ultimately converge irrefutably at the same outlet—that giant consortium located on the southeast coast with unfathomable power, Dadian Jinghua.

Yu Qing stood before the massive global situation map, gazing at the highlighted nodes of Haiyuan City. The enemy's outline finally became clearer from the chaotic shadows, acquiring a specific and dangerous name and coordinates.

“Da Dian Jing Hua…” Yu Qing murmured the name, his eyes sharp as knives. Now that you have emerged from the shadows, it is my turn to drag you into the light of day and let the world see your true colors.

Soon, under Yu Qing's covert instigation, various vague but intriguing messages began circulating online. "Shengtian Company has obtained crucial evidence," "The desert mystery points to an Eastern giant," "The Pure World Brotherhood has a secret connection with a mysterious conglomerate"...

In an instant, public opinion was in an uproar, and the name Dadian Jinghua was pushed to the forefront of the storm, becoming the focus of global attention.

Although Dadian Jinghua has always maintained a low-key and professional image, under this sudden storm, some of their previously overlooked words, actions, and propositions have begun to be re-examined and unearthed by the media and the public.

Some of its executives’ private remarks were leaked, and research reports from certain fringe think tanks, believed to be funded by Dadian Jinghua, were also unearthed.

These materials gradually pieced together a chilling image: within the core elite circle of Dadian Jinghua, there permeated an extreme form of technological elitism and social Darwinism.

They have repeatedly suggested that the global overpopulation of low-level populations is the root cause of resource crises and social problems.

In their view, only a few "optimized" elites deserve to enjoy future resources and planetary leadership, while the majority of ordinary people are nothing more than "redundant burdens" that need to be "rationalized".

Some have even gone so far as to argue that a “controllable and optimized” global reset might be a necessary price to pay for the advancement of civilization.

Their statements largely align with the views of the "Purifying Brothers." Essentially, they are all seeking a plausible excuse to eliminate dissidents.
Although these exposed words and actions were quickly denounced by the spokesperson of Dadian Jinghua as "taking things out of context" and "malicious slander," they were like drops of water thrown into a pot of boiling oil, causing huge controversy, doubts and panic around the world.

Beneath the glamorous exterior of Da Dian Jing Hua, its cold and extreme core has been exposed to the public eye for the first time so clearly.

What's most unsettling is their lifestyle. They are served daily by dozens of humanoid maidens. These maidens are replaced every three months, while the old ones are simply thrown into the shockwave furnace and melted into water.

They believed that once something was dusty and used, it was never perfect, even if cleaned, and therefore should be ruthlessly destroyed. In fact, everything they used was considered disposable.

Furthermore, not a single bird is allowed to fly over their area. They believe these vile creatures will defecate somewhere unseen. Therefore, there are numerous radio frequency devices installed on the streets and suburbs of Haiyuan City to remotely destroy any birds detected flying there.

However, they are indeed different from humans in the ordinary sense. Besides not needing to eat human food like the Yadu people, their shoulders are exceptionally large. That's not muscle and bone, but rather two extra brains there. As for how they manage this, they never discuss it.

They certainly have the right to look down on other humans, let alone a few birds. (End of Chapter)