The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 43 Legitimate Evil

This time Yao Dan guessed right; when Yu Qing and his group arrived at the Dingbai Hotel, there was only one room left. If they had been a few minutes later, they probably wouldn't have had a chance.

The people of Changlin have really found a good way to make money. The house prices here are shockingly high, and the cost of staying one night is about one-eighth of the cost of a car.

You heard right, it's a daily fee, not a single day. It counts as one day as long as you open the door once. If you open the door ten times a day, then it counts as ten days.

Of course, even if the store is closed, it still counts as one day. Isn't that weird?
However, this calculation does have some merit.

For security reasons, the procedure for opening the door from the outside is quite complicated, requiring at least three hotel managers to be present to operate it.

But it's much easier to open the door from inside the room.

What Yu Qing and his team were most satisfied with was that they could see scenes of most of Changlin's main streets on the integrated large screen in the room.

The desire to watch a good show is perhaps human nature; this is clearly a way to keep guests safely seated in their rooms and enjoy the spectacle of a life-or-death struggle at night.

Furong asked naively, "What if there's no fighting tonight? Then there won't be anything to watch, right?"

Yu Qing laughed and said, "This situation shouldn't happen. First, there are always some people who think they are the best in the world and are very bold; second, the people of Changlin certainly don't want the show to be dull, so they will arrange a few performances themselves. After all, this is how they make money."

Yao Dan, however, was eager to go out and stroll through the bustling market, or perhaps buy some strange and unusual items. But Chang'e disagreed, saying, "I think we should skip it today. It's already past noon, and we'll have to come back soon anyway."

Yu Qing said, "I think it shouldn't be a problem to shop for two hours."

“My lord, we’re not familiar with this place. If we get stuck somewhere or get lost and can’t get back here in time, it would be too dangerous for you, wouldn’t it?”

Yu Qing laughed and said, "That's true. So what should we do now? How about we start fighting amongst ourselves?"

Daji said, "My dear, you're so biased! You know perfectly well we can't defeat Chang'e and Yao Dan..."

"I'm not asking you to actually fight. I'm having the five of you go through a secret ballot election, eliminating one person at a time. After four rounds, the last person remaining will be the winner. How about it, wanna play?"

Yao Dan said, "What's there to be afraid of? Tell me how to start."

Yu Qing said, "Daji, find five pieces of paper and write the names of all five of you on each piece. Then each of you take one piece and put an 'x' next to the name of the person you want to eliminate in the first round. Let's see who wins first."

After everyone finished as Yu Qing had instructed, they returned the paper to him.

After shuffling the paper, Yu Qing unfolded it and saw that Chang'e had four x's and Yao Dan had one x. Yu Qing laughed and said, "In the first round, Chang'e is eliminated."

Then he crossed out Chang'e's name and added an "x" to the end of everyone else's name to keep them in the same state as Yao Dan. He then distributed the paper to 5 people and started the second round of elimination.

In this round, Yao Dan got 4 x's, and Da Ji got 1 x', so Yao Dan was eliminated.

He then crossed out Yao Dan's name, added an "x" after the names of the remaining people, and reissued the papers to the five people...

Daji was eliminated in the third round, Yan'er was eliminated in the fourth round, and only Furong made it to the fifth round.

Yao Dan retorted, unconvinced, "What does that prove..."

Yu Qing laughed and said, "This shows that the strong are essentially everyone's enemy, yet everyone strives to be the strongest."

The fighting in the streets tonight is all playing this game, except yours is virtual, while theirs is real.

Furong said, "I don't think so. We can just stand by and watch. We won't compete or fight."

Yu Qing said, "You just weren't confident of winning. Chang'e got four X's in the first round. Except for Chang'e herself, who can't give herself an X, didn't you all want to eliminate her? This shows that you subconsciously wanted to be better than her."

Yao Dan teased, "Husband, no matter what, Furong has won. What reward do you plan to give her?"

Yu Qing said, "I plan to award you to her as a yes-man."

Furong quickly said, "No need, no need, it's just a game." Everyone laughed. Yu Qing looked at Furong and smiled, "If Yaodan wins, I'll reward you as her maid, and she'll definitely accept it gladly."

The group argued back and forth for a while, and before they knew it, it was getting dark. Looking at the large screen in the room, the streets were deserted, with doors and windows closed.

It is almost certain that the vast majority of people who come to Changlin (and perhaps cannot be classified as adults) want to witness firsthand how someone stronger than themselves is defeated, and they envision themselves as the fist that defeats him.

However, Yu Qing and his group waited for almost an hour, but there was still no movement.

Everyone was getting a little impatient.

Suddenly, several dark figures darted out from several streets, wielding iron bars of varying lengths, and began violently striking seemingly flimsy doors and windows, the ear-piercing sound echoing through the dimly lit streets. A group of people even broke into a shop and carried away several bags of goods.

Suddenly, a shiny object fell out of someone's bag. Soon after, several doors nearby opened, and several people rushed out to grab the object.

A real melee began. Someone was trying to pick up the object when a foot pinned his hand to the ground.

Then someone was even more agile, scooping across the ground like a skateboard and snatching the thing.

But as soon as he stood up, his head was twisted off by someone rushing towards him.

The fight on the other street was inexplicable. Suddenly, a dozen people were wrestling together. Someone's ear had been bitten off, and he was screaming in pain. He was attacking people like a madman, using his hands and feet to strike from all sides.

Yu Qing thought that those who initially smashed the doors and windows with sticks were probably people arranged by Chang Lin to lure others in, while the people who snatched the shiny object were the ones who actually fought.

And those people fighting in a group don't seem fake; perhaps they've come here to settle old scores.

The bloodiest scene was that of the people on another street. These were huge men, weighing at least five or six hundred kilograms, who rushed out of a house, smashed open the door of the shop across the street, tore the people inside to pieces, looted all the goods, and made their way away.

Because the light was too dim, those big guys looked neither human nor inhuman.

Most incredibly, on one street, a woman with a graceful figure and elegant clothes, but an extremely ugly appearance, walked casually like a ghost, neither launching any attacks nor being acknowledged by anyone.

Yu Qing joked, "Daji, why don't you slash my face a few times with a dagger?"

Daji asked, puzzled, "Why? I wouldn't dare."

Yu Qing said, "As long as I have a scarred face, I'm just as safe as that woman walking down that street in Changlin."

Yao Dan said, "No way. If they knew you were a super-rich man, they would tear you to pieces."

At this moment, Chang'e waved her hand unintentionally, and the scene switched to another street scene.

One scene stunned everyone present: Yu Ling was leading several turtle-men in a fierce battle against the eagle-faced men.

Judging from the situation, Yu Ling and the others seemed to be at a disadvantage, their faces covered in blood.

However, the eagle-faced men didn't seem to gain much advantage either. They were repeatedly knocked back by the Jade Spirit's impact, screaming and yelling in pain.

Yu Qing didn't know why they were so irreconcilable, but he felt a sense of melancholy, as if life itself followed the rule of "no joy without fighting."

Another street scene shows a chaotic battle between creatures that resemble neither humans nor animals, a fight not caused by the food chain, but simply a dispute over a certain ideology or preference.

Yu Qing waved his hand at the screen and switched to another set of images.

The first sight that caught Yu Qing's eye filled him with utter disgust. Several strangely shaped people were molesting a woman, and ridiculously, the woman's wig had accidentally slipped off, making it seem as if she was faking it.

These guys from Changlin will stop at nothing to make a profit.

What happens next is even more terrifying.

(End of this chapter)