The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Yu Qing's consciousness floated in the "vast ocean." This dimension, composed of pure information and possibilities, had no up, down, left, or right, and no linear perception of the passage of time.

He was like a collection of billions of data streams, or like a nebula consciousness just beginning to coalesce. The memories, emotions, and personality templates belonging to "Yu Qing" were slowly and painfully merging with some more vast existence.

However, this process is not stable. At a certain "moment" that cannot be measured in time, Yu Qing suddenly lost all sense of direction.

One second ago, he could clearly perceive his position in the "vast ocean" and sense the faint signals from the anchor points of his "shell" scattered throughout the real world:

The one on Wengshan Street is walking through the morning light; the one at Changjin headquarters is gazing at the city from the floor-to-ceiling window; the one from Dongbang has just left Yu Wa's tearful gaze.
The next second, everything blurred. Not visually, but in its very existence. He felt himself being "diluted," like a drop of ink falling into a churning ocean, the unique color of "Yuqing" being infinitely diluted.

The self-awareness he had painstakingly built up—I am Yu Qing, I am Sheng Tian's successor, I want to unravel the mysteries left by the old man, I want to protect Wengshan—these ideas that formed the foundation of his existence began to seem distant and illusory.

A part of the consciousness remained deeply dormant within the body, unwilling to leave, while the other part was pulled into that "vast ocean".
Various crises were converging, and he could hear chilling sounds in his mind's eye:
"Warning: Core consciousness integration fluctuations exceed the threshold."

"A risk of cognitive continuity disruption has been detected."

"Without a stable anchor point, it will be difficult to complete the final fusion."

The cold system notifications weren't delivered through sound, but were directly imprinted on his consciousness. Where did this information come from? Was it the upload program's self-checking mechanism? Or was it a rejection reaction from the "Canghai" dimension? Or perhaps some kind of backup plan left by the old man?

Yu Qing didn't know. But he clearly realized one thing: if he continued to drift along in the "vast ocean," floating in the gap between reality and illusion, he might really "disappear."

That would not be death, but a more terrifying dissolution of existence—Yu Qing would no longer be himself, but would become another information mass in the "vast ocean" that has lost its individuality, like a drop of water in the ocean, which, although it exists, has lost its independent form.

He had to find a place. A safe, stable, undisturbed place to complete this final transformation. But where was safe?
Wengshan? No way. There are too many eyes there, too many emotional entanglements. Yu Xuan, Chang Sheng, Yao Dan... even those forces hidden in the shadows. Once they discover his true state, the consequences will be unimaginable.

Although those "shells" operating outside have temporarily maintained a superficial calm, it is only a temporary measure and cannot withstand close scrutiny and the test of time.

Azure Sky City? The thought was immediately dismissed. Aunt Yu Wei was there, and those beings who had become "parallel humans" were there. Theoretically, it should be the ideal place to complete this transformation—with perfect technological support and beings who understand this state.

But deep down, Yu Qing felt an inexplicable resistance. It wasn't a rational judgment, but rather a kind of intuitive warning.

Tianqing City was too perfect. Those towering, blade-like buildings, those thousands of "Yu Wei" figures hanging on their "positions," all with identical expressions. There was an unsettling uniformity there, an extreme order devoid of individuality.

If he goes to Tianqing City and completes the upload, will he also become like that? A standardized node in some grand system? Losing the unique part that makes Yuqing what it is?

No. At least not now. He still has too many questions unanswered, too many things unfinished. He needs to maintain a certain degree of autonomy.

So, only one option remained: go somewhere no one knew. A completely secluded, absolutely safe place where he could quietly complete this dangerous final step.

Fragments of memory flickered in his consciousness. He saw many places: Shengtian's secret laboratory, the unknown spaces where the old man might be hiding, and even a hidden corner of Dongbang.
Finally, a place became clear in his mind. First Paradise, the place where he grew up, that "home" filled with false warmth and real cruelty. The place he thought he had escaped forever, yet which always haunted his dreams.

Yes, First Paradise. He would quietly wait there for a possibility to emerge: for the hidden secrets and truths to surface. After all, the facilities there were excellent and relatively safe. More importantly, there was a road there:

A secret passage known only to him and Yao Dan, hidden inside Dr. Lu's white coffin.

"Go back. Go home"

The thought grew clearer and clearer in his hazy consciousness. Returning to the starting point, completing the final step. A sense of fateful recurrence enveloped him.

But he couldn't just go back like that. The "shells" outside needed to stay active to cover his disappearance. At the same time, he needed to ensure that his return to the First Paradise was absolutely secretive.

Yu Qing rallied his waning will and, through the unstable quantum channel connecting him to his "body," sent a final, unified command to all the "bodies" active outside:

"Maintain the current activity pattern for 72 hours."

"After 72 hours, it will enter 'deep standby' mode."

"In case of emergency, activate the 'Birds Return to the Forest' protocol."

After sending the command, he severed most of the connections with the "shells," leaving only a minimal monitoring link. This would reduce the burden on his consciousness and ensure that the "shells" wouldn't malfunction due to his blurred consciousness.

Now, he needs to concentrate all his remaining conscious power to accomplish one thing: "send" himself back to the First Paradise.

This is not a physical movement—his biological body has lost its activity during the consciousness upload process and is now being properly preserved in the life support pod of the Wengshan Apartment.

This is a shift in the anchor of consciousness, a re-landing of the core existence that he is integrating in the "vast ocean" in the real world.

Target coordinates: Outside the western area of ​​the First Paradise, Dr. Lu's white coffin.

Yu Qing began to mobilize those powers that he did not yet fully understand. He felt himself "shrinking," withdrawing from the vast dimension of the "ocean," and rushing towards that point in his memory along a path woven by his will.

This process was accompanied by a violent sense of cognitive dissonance. He felt like a painting torn in two, one half still in the vast ocean of information, while the other half had already rushed towards the coordinates of the real world.

The concepts of time and space were completely confused. One moment he seemed to be in his childhood, the next he was back in the present, and the next moment he seemed to exist in all points in time at the same time.

Just as this almost insane feeling of being torn apart reached its peak—

He has arrived.

Darkness. Endless darkness. Then came the smell of old metal and dust.

Yu Qing "opened" his eyes—if he still had eyes. His current perception was a hybrid: he could see his surroundings and directly "know" the structural details of them; he could feel the texture of matter and seemed to float above it. He was in a narrow, low space. The walls around him were slightly yellowed, white with curved outlines. Above him was a transparent, arched dome, but it was covered with a thick layer of dust and cobwebs, with only a few faint rays of light filtering through the gaps.

Dr. Lu's white coffin. He succeeded.

Yu Qing attempted to "move." There were no coordinated hand and foot movements, but rather a mentally driven adjustment of his position. He felt his current form was very peculiar.

It is not a complete human form like the seven "shells" that move outside, but a more basic and unstable state. It is more like a "field of existence" that can perceive and influence the surrounding environment, barely maintaining the cohesion of self-awareness.

He "passed through" the outer cover of the white coffin—not in a physical sense, but by adjusting the "phase" of his state of being, so that the special matter-energy complex that constituted him would temporarily not interact with the atomic structure of the coffin.

Outside was a dusty laboratory. Old-fashioned instruments were covered with white sheets, the monitors on the walls had been off for years, and some petri dishes still held traces of dried culture medium. Time here seemed to have stopped on the day Dr. Lu died.

Yu Qing "floated" across the laboratory, following the route he remembered, and found the hidden switch—a spot that looked like an ordinary wall panel seam. He extended his mind to "touch" that spot, actually triggering the mechanism through a weak energy disturbance.

With an almost inaudible click, a section of the floor silently slid open, revealing the passageway extending inward.

The passage was even darker, but this had no effect on Yu Qing's current state. What he "saw" was not an image of reflected visible light, but rather the mass distribution, energy characteristics, and spatial structure of the objects themselves.

This way of perceiving gave him a kind of omniscient illusion, but it lacked the intuitiveness and emotional color of human vision.

He "moved" down the passage. The passage was narrow; if he were a mortal, he would have to crawl. But in this state, he felt much more at ease.

After descending about ten meters, the passage became level, and then suddenly opened up into a bright and spacious area.

He entered the place he frequented in First Paradise during his childhood. It was an underground space of about thirty square meters, with rough rock walls and ceiling, clearly a natural cave that had been discovered by chance or deliberately carved out during the construction of First Paradise.

The space contained some old equipment: an old-fashioned communication terminal that emitted a low hum (long out of service), several control panels covered with knobs and dials, piled high with paper notebooks and film canisters, a simple cot, and a small workbench.

The most eye-catching feature is a device in the center of the space: a ring-shaped structure made of some kind of dark metal, about two meters in diameter, suspended half a meter above the ground, slowly rotating.

The inside of the ring is engraved with intricate patterns, within which a faint light flows, pulsating as if it were alive.

Yu Qing had absolutely no recollection of this device. He had visited this place many times during his childhood and had never seen it before. Either he had overlooked it at the time, or the device was placed here after he left the First Paradise.

He approached the ring. As he drew nearer, the ring's rotation speed increased slightly, and the light on its inner side grew brighter. A familiar feeling welled up inside him—not a visual familiarity, but a familiarity with its energy signature.

The energy characteristics emitted by this device are very similar to his current state. It also resonates with certain underlying frequencies of "Canghai".

Just then, a stream of information suddenly surged from the device and entered Yu Qing's consciousness directly:

"Identity verification: Yu family bloodline, third sequence."

"Permission level: Secondary access".

"."

A safe house? Left behind by the old man?

Information continues to pour in:
"This space is protected by quantum shielding and cannot be detected from the outside."

"Life support system: operating normally."

“Consciousness Stabilization Field: Activated and adapting to visitor consciousness characteristics.”

Yu Qing sensed that the surrounding space was beginning to change. A strange "concentration" filled the air, as if the physical constants of the entire space were being fine-tuned to accommodate his non-standard state of existence.

The sense of disorientation felt in the "vast ocean" began to lessen, and self-awareness became clear and stable again.

So the old man had prepared this place all along? Not for himself, but for his descendants who might need to have their consciousness uploaded?

This thought left Yu Qing with mixed feelings. Had the old man foreseen everything? Had he even prepared in advance that Yu Qing might need such a place to complete the upload?

He temporarily set aside these questions and began to explore the space. Since it was set up as a safe house, it must have other functions as well.

On the workbench, he found an open optical notebook. Although it was covered in dust, the writing was still clear, and it looked just like the old man's handwriting.

"If you've read this far, it means you've reached this point. Choosing to upload your consciousness isn't about escaping, but about evolution. But the path of evolution is fraught with danger, especially in the final stages. This space can provide the stable environment you need."

The ring-shaped device is a consciousness anchor that can help you complete the final integration. The bookshelf contains the materials you need. Remember: the real danger isn't the upload process itself, but what you'll see afterward. Be prepared.

Yu Qing turned to the bookshelf. There were dozens of optical notebooks, as well as a large number of storage chips and holographic recording discs. He "scanned" these materials, and the information flowed directly into his consciousness.

Most of it is technical information: the theoretical basis of consciousness uploading, the existence state of parallel humans, the mathematical model of reality stability, and the construction principle of quantum consciousness fields.
These things are so difficult they make your head spin. But some are log entries, seemingly left by the old man at different times.

One entry in the log caught his attention:

"Lu came again today, bringing his damned sample of the Immortal Flower. He said he discovered some interesting phenomena: the Immortal Flower can not only affect biological consciousness, but also 'lubricate' the interface between the structure of reality and the structure of consciousness to a certain extent."

I warned him not to play with fire, that some boundaries, once crossed, are irreversible. But he just laughed and said that a scientist's mission is to cross boundaries. A madman. A genius madman. (End of Chapter)