The Last 299 Days of Humanity

That brief chase in the flow of data and the void was deeply etched into Yu Qing's mind like a brand, and it only confirmed the fact that the old man Yu Yunshan existed in the form of a "parallel human".

In the days that followed, the "ultimate office" fell into a deathly silence.

The feeling of being watched hasn't completely disappeared, but it has become more subtle and elusive, as if the observer has adjusted their focus, shifting from close-up scrutiny to distant surveillance.

Yu Qing tried various methods to provoke or draw out the hidden "ghost" again.

He loudly questioned and mocked the empty control room, even using the most cutting language to describe Yu Yunshan's possible state—a pathetic worm hiding in the gutter of data, a nihilistic consciousness that has lost its physical warmth and can only gain a sense of existence by spying on others.

He deliberately damaged some non-core equipment interfaces and scattered supplies all over the storage room, attempting to create chaos and break this suffocating "order".

However, there was no response.

The Ultimate Office's self-repair system would silently restore everything to its original state shortly after he created chaos, as if all his resistance was merely a pebble thrown into a silent pool, unable to even stir up a decent ripple.

Only the two humanoid assistants maintained absolute obedience and a perfectly measured distance, following closely behind him step by step.

Their sensors, flashing a constant blue light, seemed to simply receive instructions, but Yu Qing sometimes felt inexplicably that behind those cold lenses, perhaps, were also the eyes of an omnipresent observer.

Their silence and following were a silent mockery, reminding him that he was still in a cage, and that all his actions were probably still within the framework of a certain script.

This feeling of powerlessness and frustration, of having nowhere to vent one's anger, was driving Yu Qing almost insane. He knew the old man existed; logic and that brief encounter proved it, but he simply couldn't reach him, couldn't communicate with him, and certainly couldn't confront him.

The other party is like a high and mighty god, occasionally showing a miracle (or divine punishment) because of the disrespect of mortals, and then continuing to disappear into the clouds, indifferently watching the hustle and bustle of the world.

After a near-desperate agitation, an unusual calm gradually took over. Since they couldn't force him to show himself, they would try to understand him, to thoroughly understand this being named "Yu Yunshan," to understand his past, his thought process, and the underlying logic of all his actions.

Only by knowing yourself and your enemy can you find their weaknesses.

He stopped his pointless provocations and sat back down at the control panel. This time, he no longer merely searched for technical information related to "Lutai," "Mirage," or consciousness uploading; instead, he turned his attention to Yu Yunshan himself.

He retrieved all the written, video, and audio records he could find about the old man's life, including public biographies, company archives, fragments of memoirs from early partners, and even some sealed reports involving gray areas of business competition.

Like a psychological profiler, he began to try to piece together a complete portrait of Yu Yunshan.

Without a doubt, Yu Yunshan is an exceptionally intelligent person. His research notes demonstrate a leap in thinking and an intuitive grasp of fundamental physics and information technology, which is truly genius-level.

He started from scratch and transformed Shengtian Group from a small laboratory into a behemoth spanning multiple fields such as energy, the internet, and biotechnology. His business acumen and strategic vision are beyond doubt.

But as the understanding deepened, an increasingly clear image emerged: this was an extremely selfish person.

His "selfishness" is not greed or stinginess in the ordinary sense, but a more macro and ruthless kind of absolute egoism that puts his own will and ideals above everything else.

In fragments of his private journals (though mostly encrypted and edited, glimpses can still be made), he repeatedly expressed his contempt for worldly morality and ethical constraints.

He viewed many rules of human society as "shackles set by inefficient groups to maintain a fragile order," and what he pursued was "transcendence," "evolution," and "the optimal solution under absolute rationality."

In his value system, personal emotional ties, the continuation of family, and even the survival of the company may all be merely sacrificial "resources" or "tools" to achieve his ultimate goal.

Ironically, this same person was publicly a renowned philanthropist. Yu Qing retrieved the records of the Yu Yunshan Charitable Foundation:

He donated to establish dozens of top laboratories and universities, funded countless basic scientific research projects, and promoted educational equity and medical assistance worldwide. His contributions, especially in the fields of brain science and neuroprosthetics, have been enormous, earning him the reputation of "the benevolent king of science."

In public videos, he always wears a gentle and wise smile, talking about how to use technology to benefit humanity and how to create a better future for future generations.

This extreme "selfishness" and the widespread "benevolence" formed a sharp contradiction, like the symbiosis of light and shadow. At first, Yu Qing thought this was just a clever disguise, a means to help Shengtian Group and himself acquire more resources and prestige.

But when he used his authority to delve into some deliberately concealed and highly interconnected old stories, several hidden threads beneath his impressive resume gradually emerged.

For example, thirty years ago, a startup that had fiercely competed with Shengtian Group on a key technology and even gained the upper hand at one point suffered a series of "accidents" in a short period of time. The company was eventually acquired by Shengtian at a low price under tremendous pressure and uncertainty.

Public investigations all pointed to chance, but Yu Qing found an analysis in a sealed internal risk assessment report that used a psychological stress model to predict the possibility of an opponent's team collapsing, and its accuracy was chilling.

For example, about fifteen years ago, a media storm and regulatory crackdown on a new energy technology that affected several city-states was vaguely linked to the public relations company and lobbying group under Shengtian.

The ultimate beneficiary was Shengtian Group, which was able to consolidate its absolute dominance in the traditional energy sector. Yu Yunshan, in a public speech at the time, expressed "regret" and "called for rational discussion."

More recently, regarding Professor Lu's early "unpopular" research, the reason it was suppressed so thoroughly, besides the conservatism of the scientific community, seems to be that an invisible hand was secretly guiding the "mainstream" opinion in academia.

It cut off all possible avenues for funding until... that disguised code name, hidden in the annex to the interspecies research funding agreement, appeared.

These events, viewed in isolation, might simply be the norm in the cutthroat world of business. However, juxtaposing them with Yu Yunshan's public image of "charity and benevolence," and combining them with the cold rationality that transcends worldly morality revealed in his private diaries, a more complex and terrifying picture emerges. His "benevolence" might not be a pretense, but rather a form of… "nurturing"? A necessary investment to maintain the stability of the "experimental environment" he requires?

He funds basic science to provide a broader knowledge base for his "transcendence"; he promotes medical education, perhaps to maintain a sufficiently large and healthy "human sample pool" so that he can conduct observations and... "stress tests"?
This thought sent a chill down Yu Qing's spine. If even "charity" could be part of a grand experiment, then what else couldn't be?
Just as he felt he was gradually grasping the core of Yu Yunshan's behavioral logic and trying to piece these fragments together into a more complete picture, "it" reacted again.

This time, it's not about erasing data or inviting people through virtual channels, but about the most direct and brutal physical attack.

Without warning, all the holographic images in the control room went out instantly, as if their throats had been simultaneously choked. The soft ambient lighting dimmed, plunging the room into absolute darkness.

The faint hum of the equipment disappeared, the air circulation system stopped working, and the entire space was instantly swallowed up by a heavy, deathly, heart-stopping darkness and silence.

power cut.

The Ultimate Office, the fortress representing the pinnacle of Shengtian Group's technology, the sacred place that theoretically possesses an independent and redundant energy system, has completely lost its power and become a pitch-black metal cage floating in an unknown space.

Yu Qing sat at the control panel, his fingers still hovering over the virtual keyboard, but all he could see was an impenetrable, dense blackness. For a moment, he even wondered if he had gone blind. The absolute darkness stripped him of all sense of space, creating a dizzying feeling of weightlessness and disorientation.

Did he... touch the old man's sore spot?

Because he began to touch upon those carefully concealed "hidden threads"? Because he tried to unravel the true intentions beneath that mask of "benevolence"? Because he got too close to the perhaps colder and crueler truth hidden behind "observation" and "experimentation"?

This sudden, complete darkness was like a bucket of ice water, extinguishing Yu Qing's accumulated restlessness and anger over the past few days, and instantly calming his heart, which had been burning with desire for discovery.

He sat quietly in the darkness, neither shouting in panic nor moving blindly. He was simply feeling, feeling the absolute silence and darkness, feeling the most primal isolation after being completely deprived of the extension of his senses.

Then, slowly, slowly, a smile, a mixture of mockery and enlightenment, crept onto his lips, unseen by anyone in the darkness.

“You’re afraid, old man,” he said softly, in a voice only he could hear. “You’re not an all-knowing, all-powerful god. You’re afraid too… afraid that I’ll see things you don’t want to see.”

This power outage, far from being a punishment, was rather a clear confirmation. It confirmed that his research direction was correct, that he was approaching a core forbidden zone, and that this seemingly detached "ghost director" still had a "problem" that he desperately needed to hide and was unwilling to let be touched.

In the darkness that imprisoned him, Yu Qing's heart seemed to see a glimmer of light that could break free.

He didn't try to restore the power—in this place, without the necessary tools and authority, he was utterly powerless. Nor did he call upon his two humanoid assistants—they were probably frozen somewhere like statues at this moment.

He simply sat there quietly, beginning to piece together all the clues in his mind:

Yu Yunshan's life story, his "selfishness" and "benevolence," his dark past, the paradox of "Deer Terrace" and "Mirage," Professor Lu's "death," and fragments of conversation from that virtual chase...

In the darkness, thought becomes exceptionally clear and sharp. The deprivation of sight, ironically, makes internal logical reasoning and intuitive imagination even more active.

He thought that if Yu Yunshan's ultimate goal was to observe and test the reaction of civilization under pressure, then the simulated disaster of "Mirage" was undoubtedly more "cost-effective" and "repeatable" than the real destruction of "Deer Terrace".

So, what exactly is the significance of the "Deer Terrace"? Is it merely to serve as a more "real" threat, increasing the credibility of the "Mirage"? Or... does it have a deeper purpose that even Yu Yunshan himself cannot fully control?
He thought that Yu Yunshan's eagerness, even resorting to the brutal method of cutting off the power, to prevent him from exploring those past "hidden threads" indicated that behind those events lay more than just unscrupulous business practices.

Or perhaps this is also related to the key secret behind his transformation into a "parallel human," or something even more terrifying... a fatal weakness in his future plans?
Time passed in the darkness, immeasurable. It might have been several hours, or it might have been just a quarter of an hour.

Finally, as Yu Qing repeatedly deduced and gradually outlined several key issues in his mind, his motivation returned.

"Om..."

A faint hum of electricity returned, and the lighting in the control room gradually returned to its previous brightness. The holographic image floated in the air once more, the "Lutai Agreement" icon still glaringly obvious.

The air circulation system brought in fresh air again. Everything returned to normal, as if the darkness had been just a brief nightmare.

But Yu Qing knew that it was not a dream.

He raised his head, his gaze calmly sweeping across the control room, now restored to its original state, before finally settling on the wall with the "hanging positions".

His eyes no longer held anger, confusion, or that mischievous, defiant look. Instead, they held a calm, deep-sea-like resolve.

The old man warned him with darkness, but he also pointed him in the right direction.

He no longer needed to engage in pointless struggles, nor did he need to try to meet that elusive "real person." He now had a clearer goal: to uncover the deep connections between those concealed "hidden threads" and "Deer Terrace," "Mirage," and even the old man's ultimate plan.

Find that true "problem" that even this "parallel human" fears.

The 36-day countdown is still ticking.

But Yu Qing already knew where he had to go. This struggle between light and darkness had entered a new phase. (End of Chapter)