EDEH Chapter 100

There was nothing more to say to Hao Hui.

Huo Yanji turned around and said coldly: “Watch him.”

Soldier: “Yes!”

Sang Jue pulled at Huo Yanji’s shirt corner and followed him as he turned. While Huo Yanji was instructing his subordinates, he still looked back and said: “If you don’t want to live, just lead by example yourself. Why drag others along?”

Hao Hui smiled: “People often dare not face death because of fear and can only live in pain. At such times, they just need external force to give them a push, and everyone will be happy.”

Sang Jue said seriously: “But I still want to live and don’t feel suffering.”

Hao Hui said unmoved: “Those standing on high naturally can’t feel the struggles at the bottom.”

What really made him determined to execute the plan with Evelyn was three months after his wife’s death. Knowing he had been muddled for too many years, he decided to see the reality of the outside world.

Using his authority, he went out and mixed around for a month. To be honest, the first time he faced a giant monster alone, he was so scared he collapsed on the spot, his whole body paralyzed and unable to move, even wetting himself.

A deviant mercenary saved him without mocking. They became friends after surviving together in the forest for a month.

The other person had come on a mission, traveling thousands of miles to the Thousand Wolf Mountains for the next few months’ livelihood, gambling for a chance at survival, but all his companions died.

Hao Hui experienced many things with him that were hard to describe one by one.

But what impressed Hao Hui most was what that deviant said in his final moments before losing control due to chaotic contamination indices—

“In the eyes of those high and mighty people who think they understand righteousness, there’s only some damn dawn and civilizational continuation. They don’t know that we people stepping in muddy ditches use all our strength just to stay alive…

“But when we muster courage to try hard to live, in those people’s eyes it’s just a joke.”

Previously, Hao Hui couldn’t understand why there were opposing rebels under the circumstances of safe zones with security, stable order, and relatively peaceful lives, and even in large numbers.

Were they all mentally ill? Even living like dogs in resource-scarce city ruins, they wouldn’t return to the collective. Did they all have bombs installed in their brains that would kill them if they didn’t obey?

Later Hao Hui understood.

From when he really began surviving as an ordinary person.

These people first had to face the monsters before them and couldn’t look up to see the red fire on the horizon.

But those in high positions would only talk big—for the dawn, all sacrifices were worth it.

But the dawn wasn’t theirs—what meaning would it have when it came?

Huo Yanji followed the shirt corner to take Sang Jue’s hand and led him away without looking back. The last thing he heard was Hao Hui suddenly raising his voice: “General Huo, I never thought you were wrong! It’s just that your ideals are too illusory, like a dream!”

With a “bang,” the door was slammed shut.

Sang Jue obediently followed: “Are you angry?”

The atmosphere around Huo Yanji felt very low.

“No.” Huo Yanji said calmly: “Setting aside his actions, in some ways he’s not wrong either.”

Sang Jue hummed with a rising tone, not understanding.

Huo Yanji said: “But that doesn’t mean we’re wrong. Some things… someone always has to do them.”

Perhaps this was why, over nearly ten years, Huo Yanji’s subordinate soldiers had the highest loyalty and fewest deserters. Because their general was consistently firm and rational from beginning to end, yet never held himself above others—while staying firm in his own beliefs, he could also understand others’ philosophies.

“Posterity” and “dawn” were abstract nouns, while current survivors and people were concrete.

Huo Yanji’s desire to love the people of today while also hoping for the future only seemed dreamlike.

But one could only say: those with different paths cannot work together.

Sang Jue asked quietly: “So what should we do now? Can we really not get out at all?”

Even an evil dragon couldn’t break through the sealed dome to return to the surface.

They had no passage authority and couldn’t contact surface people, unable to get effective support. Even if surface people quickly discovered something was wrong and captured the masterminds, would Evelyn really compromise?

Huo Yanji said: “I’ve already sent programming experts to the main control room to see if there’s a way to terminate it.”

Sang Jue hummed: “What if there’s no way?”

Huo Yanji didn’t even furrow his brow, saying flatly: “Then I can only burden you with spending the final ten years underground together.”

Huo Yanji rarely “painted rosy pictures.” He always examined everything with an objective attitude, analyzed all possibilities, then fully accepted them.

They got in the car. The adjutant in the driver’s seat asked: “Sir, where to now?”

Huo Yanji didn’t speak for a moment.

He leaned against the seat back, looking at the ‘night scene’ outside the window. In this high-tech city buried deep underground, there was rarely such chaotic circumstances.

People walked out of their homes, children pressed against collective classroom windows, looking up at the huge countdown on the dome with panic, numbness, or confusion.

From birth they knew the sky was fake, the sunlight was fake, and the stars were fake too, but this was the first time they had such direct awareness.

Under the darkness, even the city’s neon lights seemed dimmer.

Huo Yanji watched everyone within his sight, observing their expressions. After a long while, he said: “If we really could terminate the self-destruct program, what would their reaction be?”

The adjutant was stunned: “They should be relieved? Isn’t it good to live a bit longer?”

For people like them who lived on the edge in the outside world, whether they could live a full ten years was unknown, but for underground city residents, that was definitely achievable unless all humanity was destroyed.

Huo Yanji asked back: “Are you happy being alive?”

“I don’t know how to put it, but at least it’s not very painful.” The adjutant hesitated: “Sir, if I may say so, underground city residents have been protected too well and have poor stress tolerance, which is why Engineer Hao… especially Madam.”

For people living on the surface, death was the most common thing. Tragedies of losing friends and lovers happened every day. If everyone who lost someone wanted to destroy everything, humanity would have self-destructed long ago without monsters lifting a finger.

Sang Jue puzzledly interjected: “Why do you say they have poor stress tolerance?”

The adjutant didn’t understand: “…What?”

Sang Jue said: “Doc… someone told me that human stress tolerance is linked to experience. You confined a small group in the underground city to contribute to the dawn, which restricted their experiences and lives, their horizons and thoughts…”

Huo Yanji turned to look at Sang Jue and flatly added: “Thinking.”

Sang Jue nodded: “Their thinking was forcibly, forcibly…”

“Disciplined.” Huo Yanji touched his lips and laughed, the heavy atmosphere lightening somewhat.

Sang Jue glared at Huo Yanji—mocking him again. But his mood was secretly good; his human was very understanding and always knew what he wanted to say.

Then Sang Jue continued: “Their horizons and thinking were forcibly disciplined within this circle. This wasn’t their choice, so how can people who jumped out of this circle take it for granted to blame them?”

The adjutant: “…”

He was quite surprised that Sang Jue, who seemed to have nothing but good looks, could say such things.

After all, Sang Jue was an observer.

Just like when he previously supported District Seven and spoke to Bao Cang, because he wasn’t involved, he could fairly and objectively examine and evaluate.

Huo Yanji curved his fingers and slowly tapped the armrest, looking at the numbers gradually decreasing in the sky, flatly stating a series of figures: “The average lifespan of underground city residents is about forty-seven years.”

The adjutant was stunned.

He had previously been well-versed in death statistics for safe zone deviants and residents, but knew nothing about the underground city.

He couldn’t quite understand why the underground city, which was comprehensively protected and wouldn’t suffer monster attacks, had such a low average lifespan.

“Multiple births greatly affect lifespan, plus psychological and artificial environment factors.” Huo Yanji said flatly: “But the former council didn’t care about this average lifespan, because regardless of gender, once old they lost value—staying alive was purely wasting resources.”

The adjutant was silent for a while: “Safe zones are the same.”

The apocalypse was like this. Most of the time in collective life, people without value had no meaning in staying alive.

Just like when the meteor season first arrived, humans hid in underground cities, keeping a small portion of valuable people and abandoning the meaningless majority.

Was this right? Hard to say.

Was this wrong? It seemed quite right.

Sang Jue played with Huo Yanji’s fingers and said honestly: “It’s okay. If humanity thinks you’ve lost value and doesn’t want you, I’ll take care of you. Huo Yanji will always have value to Sang Jue.”

The adjutant in the front couldn’t help but look back, feeling something inexplicably odd about that statement.

Huo Yanji’s expression was natural: “How would you support me?”

Sang Jue thought about it: “Whatever you want, as long as it exists, I’ll work hard to get it for you.”

Huo Yanji said: “Don’t need anything else, but at least one gem per day.”

The evil dragon stiffened. He didn’t even eat one gem per day himself—this was too expensive.

He hesitated for a second, wavering between giving up the idea of supporting his wife, then suggested: “Then I’ll go rob a few mines in advance?”

“To the main control room.” Huo Yanji first gestured to the adjutant in the driver’s seat who was trying not to laugh, then said to Sang Jue: “No need to rob. Currently, humanity has only developed less than one ten-thousandth of the planet’s total mineral resources. Wild mineral deposits are countless.”

Sang Jue mumbled quietly: “If I dig myself, my dragon claws will be ruined.”

The adjutant didn’t hear this, and Huo Yanji pretended not to hear it, leaving Sang Jue alone to struggle with how to afford supporting his wife.

The car shuttled through crowds with various expressions. The emotions Sang Jue captured weren’t complex. Most residents, after brief panic and confusion, didn’t care much about the countdown.

At least there were still ten years, right?

At least with the self-destruct program activated, there was no need to fulfill their “duties” anymore.

The main control room was underground in the upper district of the underground city, requiring multiple levels of authorization to reach.

Huo Yanji only had visiting authority and military authority—he had no power to handle anything else.

AI 005 was everywhere. The moment Huo Yanji stepped into the main control room, her cold mechanical voice sounded: “Good morning, General Huo, welcome to the main control room.”

Huo Yanji seemed to be asking the air: “How can we terminate the self-destruct program and open the passages?”

005 said: “I will strictly execute according to executor authority and cannot terminate.”

The programming expert over there looked at Huo Yanji and shook his head dejectedly.

With their current technology, they couldn’t reverse 005’s programmed decisions.

Huo Yanji looked up at the main control screen: “No possibility at all?”

005 represented the highest authority in the current surviving civilization’s network domain. It was fair, rigorous, and never made mistakes.

005 remained calm: “To terminate the self-destruct program requires operation from the main control room, but the passages are sealed. Currently, only Madam Evelyn still has authority and she’s on the surface. Even if she had the heart to change her mind, she cannot enter the underground city—perhaps this is why she escaped, to eliminate all possibilities of reversing the situation.”

Everyone caught the key word in its statement: “Only two?? Who’s the other one!?”

005 paused for a while, as if calculating, then said: “The probability of you finding him is extremely slim, approximately one in ten million. Even if found, he, like Madam Evelyn, cannot enter the underground city unless he’s already in the underground city.”

The screen flashed through dense digital code, then returned to calm order after ten seconds.

005’s mechanical voice came through the speakers: “The probability of him being in the underground city is—0.000000007134%.”

**