The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 3 A Century-Old Hotel
Yu Qing woke up during a downpour; it was around seven or eight o'clock the next morning.

He stood in the rain for two whole hours before he fully recovered.

He swallowed the rainwater that was running down his hair.

The outside temperature had dropped considerably, and he felt a coolness he hadn't experienced in the past two days.

Food, food! This was the problem he needed to solve immediately. He hadn't eaten anything for two days.

He thought that perhaps he should turn back to where there was water, where he might be able to catch some fish to fill his stomach.

He hesitated for a moment. Perhaps he should walk forward a little further and see?
The two buildings in front are only seventy or eighty meters away. Shall we go in and take a look?
Theoretically, you shouldn't find a single edible grain there.

Just think about it, that's a grave that wasn't covered with soil more than a hundred years ago!

Maybe with a bit of luck, I might catch a mouse or something. But what do mice eat?

But he ultimately decided to go inside and take a look. It would only take a few minutes.

Out of caution, he kept the dagger in his hand and remained on guard before entering the building.

He entered the lobby of the abandoned hotel.

He was immediately awestruck by the grand and magnificent sight as soon as he stepped through the welcoming gate.

Most incredibly, despite the ground being covered in dust, its decorations remained as bright and new as ever.

Several humanoid beauties and humanoid men who had lost their vitality stood in the lobby, their clothes still mostly intact.

Perhaps because they were indoors, they were much cleaner than the humanoid creature outside.

This also demonstrates the technological advancements made by the new generation in materials and architecture.

The First Amusement Park was built earlier than this one, and the excessive use of non-natural materials is prohibited, so the buildings need to undergo some small-scale maintenance every thirty years.

At this moment, he had no time to appreciate any of this; instead, he went straight to the point and searched for the location of the hotel's food station.

The First Paradise was already supplied with synthetic food by food stations; natural foods had almost been phased out in that era.

People at the time believed that synthetic foods were more balanced and scientific, while eating natural foods was simply a random mix of nutrients.

Consuming synthetic foods throughout one's life can extend lifespan by 22 years, and their price is one-fiftieth of the average comprehensive price of natural foods.

Therefore, people who ate natural foods were generally considered fools at the time.

Of course, synthetic foods can also be made to look like natural foods, and with a little seasoning, they can simulate the taste of various natural foods.

But the taste of all natural foods cannot compare to that of synthetic foods. Eventually, there was no longer any problem of pleasing everyone's tastes, and everyone ate synthetic foods produced by automated workstations.

There is obviously no electricity here now, so the workstation cannot operate, and it is impossible to imagine that it can produce food.

Even if there were any remaining finished products from over a hundred years ago, they would have long since decayed. His search for workstations everywhere might be pointless.

I was starving, so I was hoping for a miracle.

When he finally found the grain processing station, just as he had expected: the equipment was broken down, and some of the finished products had turned to dust.

You might not believe it, but the raw materials for synthetic food are just water, air, and soil; nothing else is needed!
Let's retreat, let's retreat. He felt a little guilty for wasting his time.

It seems more reliable to go back and catch a couple of fish.

He felt his consciousness starting to blur, which might be a symptom of low blood sugar.

As he was leaving, he noticed what appeared to be a harpoon lighter on a table in a room next to the workstation and immediately went to get it.

The First Paradise has this thing, which is two alloy rods that look like harpoons. When people celebrate birthdays, they can strike the harpoons together to make pleasant music and sparks to light the candles.

He held a harpoon in each hand and began to strike them together, producing a pleasant sound and sparks.

This is a great discovery; we won't have to eat raw fish later, we can cook it over a fire.

“This is where they make birthday cakes for guests,” he muttered to himself. “Why didn’t they save one for me?”

Suddenly, as if remembering something, he slammed his hand on the table and exclaimed, "Ouch!" Then he started searching around.

He was so lucky to have found a birthday cake that was made a hundred years ago!
This isn't absurd. Back then, birthday cakes were no longer primarily used as food, but rather as props for quirky antics and creating a festive atmosphere. The method of making and using them was as follows:

If the cake's owner is 20 years old, the cake will be divided into 20 sections, each with a different flavor. When ordering, you can specify which section has any flavor, such as sweet, sour, bitter, astringent, or spicy, or it can be generated randomly.

When used, guests tap each other with small harpoons while singing "Happy Birthday," and the sparks from the taps ignite the candles.

After the host gave a speech and made a wish, they blew out the candles and shared the cake.

No one knew which flavor of scallop they would get, so while eating, some people shouted, some laughed, some glared, and some grinned.

But everyone has to eat it.

This is not finished.

Actually, this kind of cake is indigestible if eaten like this; it's not even food, you have to drink water to digest it.

Water and cake react in the stomach and intestines to become real food.

The funny thing is that when water and cake react, they produce a lot of gas, causing people to fart constantly.

At the time, people called this phenomenon "year-end summary".

In fact, this is beneficial to the gastrointestinal health of people who consume synthetic foods for a long time, giving their digestive system a comprehensive workout.

Because this type of cake cannot be exposed to water, it is usually packaged in transparent vacuum packaging.

As long as there is no water, even if you leave it for a hundred years, the cake will always be the same cake.

And as the old saying goes, good things come in pairs. He saw an alloy bucket in a cabinet opposite the table, and when he picked it up, he found it was an unopened bucket of something commonly known as "sticky powder," which is the ingredient for making cakes.

Sticky powder is also amazing; it's powder when it doesn't come into contact with air, but it turns into a sticky paste when exposed to air.

It seems we won't have to worry about food for the next two weeks, but let's take care of our stomachs first.

He used a dagger to stab open the vacuum-sealed packaging of the cake, which had been sealed for over a hundred years, picked out a piece, and stuffed it into his mouth.

This time he was unlucky; he picked an extremely spicy one, so spicy that tears streamed down his face, and he was pacing around the room.

Seeing two cake molds placed face down on the counter, he grabbed them and rushed outside to catch the rainwater.

The rain had subsided considerably by then, but water was still dripping from the eaves. He reached out and caught the mold.

One drop, two drops, hurry up!

Before he could fill the container with water, he used both hands to pour it into his stomach.

And then it continued... That ticking sound was so beautiful.

A moment later, his stomach started churning, and then he started farting one after another.

The person who invented this thing is a genius. The sticky powder reacts with water to produce not only high nutritional value but also a rich aroma.

His stomach was finally full, so he filled two more molds with water and took them back to where the cakes were made.

After rummaging through drawers and cabinets, I found two empty buckets of sticky powder that had been used up, and then went outside to fill two buckets with water for later use.

After doing all this, he realized it was already dark, and then he understood how he was going to spend the night.

Although today was much better than last night, he was still afraid of the dark and longed for some light at night.

Forget about those delicate decorative candles in the birthday cake; it looks like we'll just have to find something to burn into a fire.

What annoyed him was that, despite the magnificent lobby on the first floor, there wasn't a single thing that could be burned. That damn fire department, they failed to prevent the fire, but they actually caught me.

He realized this was a hotel, and there should be some things in the room that could be burned, such as blankets.

He searched the second, third, and fourth floors but couldn't find a single door! How did the customers get into the rooms if there were no doors?

He thought: There should be a door, but it should be hidden. When a customer arrives at their floor, the automatic recognition system will open the door automatically.

Without electricity, he naturally couldn't find the door.

Even with electricity, he cannot pass the identity verification.

There was no other way. But he didn't want to spend the night in this dark and stuffy room, so he simply went out to stay outdoors.

The rain has stopped, so let's take a walk. As long as we don't take off our protective clothing, there shouldn't be much danger.

I hope those big wolves on the hillside across the river last night don't show up...

However, there are no signs of any animals present at the scene.

Despite the still sweltering heat, he put on his helmet so he could see further and take precautions in case of emergencies.

Would you dare to sleep in the wild for a night? Let's explore first and then decide.

Sleeping fully clothed with the helmet's warning system on is theoretically safe.

But walking around outside dressed like this is really uncomfortable and stuffy.

Oh, right, I should break off some branches to burn for light at the hotel. Even though it's an artificial tree, it probably isn't fireproof, is it?
So he found a lower branch and used his dagger as a weapon to chop it down.

"Hey, there's electricity!" he shouted, dropping the dagger to the ground.

He slapped his forehead and suddenly realized what was going on.

These trees, like the solar panels in First Paradise, are used to generate electricity. The trees in this area are not just for aesthetic purposes; they also provide power to the hotel.

So there shouldn't be a power shortage here, but why isn't a single light on?
Clearly, there was a malfunction in the power supply system.

No matter how powerful the new humans are, they cannot guarantee that their facilities will remain intact for over a hundred years.

He then examined another tree and discovered that the leaves were actually some kind of soft sunlight-collecting plate.

He slowly peeled back the roots of a cluster of leaves with a dagger. As the dagger pierced inside, he felt an electric current flow through him, and even a few sparks flew out.

Remote power transmission was already widespread by 2A62. The tree-generating devices appear to be working properly, so is the problem with the hotel's power receiving system or the output control?
Logically speaking, it should be the latter.

Since the hotel roof should also have solar panels or other electrical facilities, which should be directly connected to the hotel's power supply system and do not need to be transmitted remotely, even if it does not receive electricity from the solar trees, it still has other sources of power and will not experience a power outage.

We should go back to the hotel and look for the control system; it must be an old device. The Time Capsule should be able to answer how to repair it and restore power.

He wanted to go in and try it out before it got completely dark.

He walked back, recalling the places he had passed through in the hotel during the day. Could that be the power control room?
From a safety perspective, it should ideally be placed on the first floor. Areas with high foot traffic should probably be ruled out first. And it seems that none of the places we've already visited have this number.

Based on this analysis, he roughly knew the location and headed straight there.

The room was already pitch black, and he could only rely on the night vision of his helmet to guide him forward.

As he approached a corner, he suddenly received a high-danger warning from his helmet-mounted alert system, and a fast-moving object flashed in his night vision goggles.

He was terrified and instinctively turned and ran. He couldn't stop running, and ended up running back the way he came to the place where he had come ashore.

It's so embarrassing to run away like that without even seeing what kind of monster it was.

In the First Amusement Park, he was the bravest and fearless.

But the new humans are even bolder, daring to create any kind of monster.

He then remembered that his only food was still at the hotel. He had no choice but to go back.

He hesitated: Should he wait until tomorrow during the day to go back, or should he go back now and try to take it back?

He calmed down and decided to first have the helmet play back the footage from the police call to see what the monster actually was.

After watching the video, he was so angry that his nose twisted.

The helmet's automatic analysis system clearly identified it in the image: it was a king cobra, not some monster!

He returned to the hotel in a rage, dagger in hand.

When he came to that corner again, he slowed down.

Through the night vision goggles, it can be seen that there are six king cobras in the room in front.

He walked to the door, pushed it open abruptly, and slashed at the head of a king cobra with his dagger. The snake's head immediately rolled to the ground.

The other five lunged at him, but they couldn't even scratch his protective suit.

Without any hesitation, he quickly chopped them into several pieces in just two minutes.

Only then did he realize that the room was actually the hotel's electrical distribution room.

He glanced at them a few times and had a feeling of déjà vu. That's right, they were the same as the main power distribution room at First Amusement Park!

It's likely that these snakes or their ancestors inadvertently triggered the emergency power cut-off device after intruding into the area.

This can be restored on-site or remotely.

But since the hotel had been abandoned by its owner, naturally no one paid any attention to it.

He reached out and pulled the emergency power-off device, and the lights in the room instantly came on.

He was overjoyed and inspected the area again to check for any mischievous creatures.

After confirming there were no leftovers, he gathered the dead snakes into a pile and muttered to himself, "Isn't this food too? Wow, quite a lot!"

Now that we have electricity, the hotel should have an ice-making room where we can store the ice for later use.

However, let's find something to boil water first and cook a piece of snake meat to try.

So he picked out a section of snake, carried it in his hand, and walked towards the cake shop.

Just as he was about to cross the hall, he was startled again.

The humanoid beauties and men in the hotel suddenly came to life! They were frantically cleaning and tidying up.

He stood there, unsure how to deal with the situation.

At this moment, two humanoid figures came over and said, "My king, how can I help you?"

He stammered, "I...I..."

The humanoid looked into his eyes and suddenly exclaimed in surprise, "We have no record of the king here!"

Another humanoid figure glanced at him and said with a smile, "I don't know how you got in. Please go to the gate and register right now."

He remained standing still.

The two humanoid figures gently carried him to the gate with both hands.

He heard a voice above him say, "I'm very sorry, your identity cannot be verified and you are not allowed to enter."

(End of this chapter)