The Last 299 Days of Humanity

Chapter 24 The Harm of Qinyuan
The night before, Yu Qing and his group rested on the scorching rooftop. Now he can hardly live without air-conditioned clothing, which seems to have become his second skin.

What bothered him most was the country dog, which barked inexplicably incessantly in the latter half of the night.

He stroked the dog's head and asked, "Erlang, what did you hear or smell?"

The country dog ​​he called Erlang naturally couldn't speak human language and had no such ability; it just circled around him.

However, according to the information returned by Chang'e, the road from here to Maluo is sometimes in good condition and sometimes in bad condition, but no danger has been found so far during the flight. The air-to-ground charging system at several points also seems to be working.

However, for some reason, large tracts of land along the way turned into swamps.

And just as Yu Qing had predicted, the entire city of Ma Luo had been reduced to ruins, with almost no intact buildings remaining.

Strangely, there was no trace of war there; it looked like the aftermath of a major earthquake.

However, there were still a few places where they could charge their devices, and Furong had also brought forty days' worth of rations, which should be enough to sustain his team's basic survival.

He felt he couldn't dawdle, so he set off immediately at daybreak.

Erlang's cries, however, made him somewhat worried, so he asked Chang'e, "Are you sure you haven't found any dangerous places along the way?"

Chang'e said, "Within my perception, that is indeed the case."

Daji said, "My dear, perhaps Erlang has detected the scent of some inconspicuous animals on the ground in the distance. If we don't land, we should be safe."

"This deduction is reliable. Let's continue with yesterday's method of carrying people on our backs to minimize power consumption. Let's go!"

At this moment, Daji and Yan'er had another argument. Daji complained that Yan'er was fiddling around in the backpack and refused to carry her.

Yu Qing asked Yao Dan to carry Yan'er, but Yao Dan refused.

Yu Qing said angrily, "Fine! Fine! Then I'll carry her on my back, that's settled!"

Daji then agreed to continue flying as arranged yesterday.

Yao Dan didn't forget to take the opportunity to kick Daji while she was down, and said sarcastically, "Look how high the standards are for our boss!"

After flying only a few hundred meters from Yaoxing, Erlang huddled in his backpack and kept barking.

"Is there really something nearby? You rascal, look carefully!"

"There's really nothing particularly noticeable, just a few birds about the size of mynahs foraging on the ground in the distance. Isn't that right, Chang'e?"

Chang'e said, "They are just a few myna birds, my lord, don't be afraid."

Their flight may have startled the myna birds, which suddenly took flight in fright.

They flew quickly and arrived right in front of the myna bird. Only then could they see clearly that the creature looked like a bee, which startled everyone.

Fearing they might sting Yu Qing behind them, Yao Dan raised his hand and used his light blade to cut them into several pieces one by one.

At this moment, Chang'e also remembered what they were and shouted to Yu Qing, "My lord, these are Qin Yuan! They were released from the forest."

"Can you handle it?"

"Its attack power is not strong; we can cut down as many as come."

As soon as Chang'e finished speaking, a dark mass of Qinyuan in the distance swept towards them, overwhelming them. Even if you had ten thousand hands and eight thousand swords, you couldn't stop such a massive force.

Yu Qing tucked his head into his backpack and gripped the seal tightly.

Qin Yuan couldn't hurt Yao Dan and the others, but they couldn't do anything about these fearless little creatures' crazy attacks.

Soon their bodies and wings were covered with clumps and rows of Qin Yuan, piled on top of each other, until they were too G-forced to fly.

First, Daji and the others fell to the ground due to the excessive weight, and then Yaodan and Chang'e also fell to the ground due to the excessive weight.

Although they killed and pushed away countless Qin Yuan, they couldn't stop these little beasts from coming one after another, surging in like a tidal wave.

The stinger couldn't penetrate their skin, but it wrapped them into three large spheres, trapping them tightly and preventing them from moving.

For Yao Dan and the others, it wasn't fatal, but Yu Qing was in a terrible state; he was wrapped around Yao Dan and couldn't breathe.

If Erlang hadn't been barking wildly and pushing his way out of the sphere, occasionally creating a hole in Yu Qing's head, he might have suffocated in the backpack.

Chang'e shouted, "Let's roll back towards Yaoxing first and find a building to hide in!"

Yao Dan understood and said to Yu Qing haltingly, "I'm about to start rolling, darling, if I press down on you, you'd better bear it!"

As she spoke, Qin Yuan would occasionally try to get into her mouth.

Yu Qing only answered with one word: "Okay".

After a while, Yu Qing felt himself being turned upside down and down, making him dizzy.

The worst part is that sometimes a single impact can shake his internal organs to the point of shattering.

Despite suffering countless casualties, Qin Yuan seemed to have no intention of ceasing his attack.

If things continue like this, Yu Qing doesn't know if he'll live to see the moment he escapes.

"My nemesis, these beasts are endless. Can you find a place and start a sea of ​​fire to stop their relentless attacks?"

"My lord, if there's anything flammable, my light blade can cleave it into flames, but there seems to be a forest ahead!"

Yu Qing shouted to Chang'e and Daji, "Follow me, set it on fire! Set it on fire!"

Unable to roll after leaving the road, Yao Dan could only stumble and crawl towards the woods. When she was about twenty or thirty meters away from the woods, Yao Dan raised her hand and set the forest ablaze with her light sword.

The forest quickly caught fire due to the accumulation of dead leaves.

When Yao Dan climbed to a point a few meters away from the fire, Qin Yuan in front of her either flew away or burned to death, leaving only Qin Yuan behind her still struggling.

She moved much more freely, and began to spin around, getting closer to the flames. Chang'e and the others followed her example, gradually shedding most of the Qin Yuan from their bodies.

At this moment, Yu Qing said angrily, "You rascal, are you trying to roast me into a kebab? Why don't you take this opportunity to fly back to Yaoxing..."

Yao Dan quickly replied, "I understand, dear."

Taking advantage of Qin Yuan's hesitation, Yao Dan quickly took to the air and fled towards Yao Xing with all her might.

At this critical moment, every second counted. Yao Dan and Da Ji were both fleeing for their lives, and no one had time to pay attention to the other. Soon they were all scattered.

Yao Dan squeezed through a window of a tall building and quickly found some miscellaneous items to block the area. Only then could she free her hands to remove Qin Yuan, who was stubbornly clinging to her body.

Every now and then, Qin Yuan would squeeze in through the gaps, and Erlang, who had been released from his backpack, would run around and swat these bee-like Qin Yuan to death one by one.

Yao Dan was busy plugging all the loopholes that Qin Yuan might have infiltrated. Only after confirming that there was no immediate risk did she ask Yu Qing to crawl out of the backpack.

Yu Qing fainted before he could even stand up straight. Besides the pressure, there was also the intense heat; it was quite an achievement that he had lasted this long.

Yao Dan held him in her arms and let his head rest on her arm.

But the Qin Yuan did not leave; they surrounded the building.

Before long, the place was completely surrounded, plunging the room into darkness. Yu Qing was both hungry and thirsty, and began to become delirious.

He knew he was now completely surrounded by Qin Yuan, and this time he was probably really going to die.

He stroked Yao Dan's face in the darkness, treating her as a human being again. With her by his side, death was inevitable.

He shed a few tears, not for himself, but out of concern that she would suffer in loneliness after his death.

"My darling, could you light a lamp for me? I'm afraid of the dark."

Yao Dan activated night vision mode and searched the empty room for something to ignite, but found nothing.

She had no choice but to carry him to the next floor.

This floor is full of random things, but nothing on fire.

Fortunately, there was still a ray of light shining in from the gap between it and another building.

Yao Dan carried Yu Qing down seven floors before reaching the bottom.

"Husband, look! How strange! Where is that light on the ground coming from?"

Yu Qing slightly opened his eyes and said, "Let's go closer and take a look."

Unexpectedly, Erlang rushed over and disappeared into the beam of light.

"Hey buddy, look, could that be a hole?"

Yao Dan walked closer and saw that it was indeed a small hole that led to the ground of the building that was being isolated.

The hole was long and narrow, seemingly caused by a localized collapse of the ground.

"Why did Erlang run over there? Is he leading us from here to that building?"

"Husband, we can't squeeze through! Has it discovered something again?"

"There's light coming from over there, which means Qin Yuan didn't pay attention to the building next door, otherwise it would have been completely dark. It's so nice to have some water to drink right now!"

"I'll go look for it."

According to Yao Dan's understanding, places where people are active usually have restrooms, and if you're lucky, you should be able to find water.

But she was unlucky; she didn't know if there was a restroom, and there was most likely no water, because the building hadn't even been put into use yet.

She removed a half-installed interior wall panel and brought it to Yu Qing, saying, "Husband, we couldn't find water, but I think this might be useful to you."

"A board would be useful to me? I honestly don't know."

Take a closer look.

Yu Qing couldn't figure it out at all.

Yao Dan laughed and said, "I forgot you don't know the written language of our kind of people..."

"What? The humanoid Shu even has its own unique writing system? This is quite unexpected."

"What's so surprising about that? This text is actually just some instructions and parameters that humans use to guide our work."

For example, this board in your hand is naturally installed by a humanoid figure, but how exactly it is installed depends on the text in the pattern on the board's surface.

In short, the package contains an instruction manual for the installation team, as well as relevant board parameters such as thickness, specifications, and manufacturing date.

"Manufacturing date? When was this board manufactured?"

"Produced by Shengdi Materials on July 3, 2C35".

"This means this place has been abandoned for less than 30 years! Show me the installation site where you removed the board, and I'll see if I can find anything else."

There was also a large table on site, piled with dozens of decorative screw caps, nothing but dust.

"The renovation was abandoned after only being half completed, so it seems that some kind of unexpected event has occurred. Judging from the ruins and rubble of the entire city, it should be some kind of geological disaster, but it is unlikely to be an earthquake."

If it were such a large earthquake, the small items on the platform wouldn't be piled up like that; they would be scattered everywhere, with some even lying on the ground.

The narrow crack indicated that there had been a collapse underneath.

The ruins also indicate that most of the city's underground area has collapsed, and older houses have simply collapsed.

"My nemesis, check the geological structure here again."

Yao Dan opened the holographic map and found that the geological structure here was basically a single homogeneous rock, and it was unlikely to collapse.

Yu Qing chuckled and sighed, "That must have been caused by some underground engineering project."

To everyone's surprise, Erlang ran back at that moment, carrying a backpack in its mouth containing food and water!
Yu Qing immediately began to wolf down his food.

Yao Dan hugged Erlang tightly and laughed, "It must have smelled the food that Fu Rong was carrying, that's why it found them!"

While eating, Yu Qing asked, "Then can it find Daji and the others?"

"Your belongings are with Yan'er, right? We can definitely find them there. I think we should carry different things with us from now on, so it will be much easier for Erlang to tell us apart."

“You rascals, since you have writing, make a small board and write down our location and situation, so that Erlang can make contact and try to get us together as soon as possible.”

“That’s easy. But without satellite information and no landmarks, I can’t determine my location. Let’s set the rendezvous point on the rooftop of the building where we set off this morning.”

"No, no, no. Wouldn't that be handing those little beasts a chance to attack? It's safer to set up a spot below that rooftop and go quietly at night."

I just don't know if Qin Yuan has night vision.

"They don't."

Yao Dan began carving on a small piece of wood that had been cut off, and then combined it with a small piece of food that Yu Qing had left over, and had Erlang put it in his mouth.

Yu Qing pulled it over and let it smell his clothes, then gently patted it, and it ran off to act as a messenger.

After Erlang left, Yaodan began to work on the narrow crevice, widening its opening so that he could slip from this building into the next building and escape.

By the time Erlang returned after making his rounds, she had only completed half of her work. Yu Qing could only watch, naturally unable to offer any help. However, he discovered that the humanoid Shu was truly indistinguishable from a real person; when he hugged Yao Dan's waist, she immediately worked even harder.

In the dead of night, the hole was finally widened enough for Yu Qing to crawl into the building next door.

Yao Dan gently pushed open the window from the inside. Seeing that Qin Yuan had not noticed her actions, she immediately carried Yu Qing and the dog on her back and quietly slipped out under the cover of night.

After walking half a block, Yao Dan dared to fly up gently to find the location of the building.

However, Yu Qing felt no joy at all after escaping his predicament. Instead, he felt increasingly dependent on Yao Dan and the others, which made him very worried.

But his biggest worry now is that he might have to stay here for a few days. He won't act rashly until he finds a way to control Qin Yuan.

I hope everything goes well for Daji and the others.

(End of this chapter)