EDEH Chapter 103

Surface human survivors fell into successive chaos they couldn’t handle.

 

District Six, District Eleven, District Fourteen, and others… Unable to directly confront the human leadership, they wouldn’t adapt their mindset multiple times in a short period like main city residents. They were still trapped in the aftermath of the Dawn Plan’s revelation, with divided popular sentiment and continuous disorder.

 

Deviants were controlled by anger, ordinary people lived in constant fear, wrapped in terror and unease, feeling even more that the conservative faction’s past rhetoric of “those not of our kind must have different hearts” had been conclusively proven.

 

Killing, looting, endless conflict.

 

Meanwhile, District Five, District Twelve, and District Thirty-Three were all suffering from monster wave attacks. District Five had support from the main city, but the other two districts weren’t so fortunate—they were too far away, being areas built only for local resources.

 

Once disaster struck, it was hard to escape.

 

But compared to mindless monsters, disasters created by humans themselves were the most troublesome—

 

Soon, all safe zones faced deadly predicaments.

 

Large numbers of rebels lurking in the ruins approached the safe zones, using stockpiled weapons and contamination sources to create successive disasters for the safe zones.

 

Most terrifying was that some high-ranking official you once trusted might also be a rebel member, delivering a backstab when everyone was at their most vulnerable.

 

—Huo Jiangmian, who had once claimed to despise himself and everyone else, was once again pushed into the spotlight.

 

Could someone who said such things really have done nothing to betray humanity?

 

Had he really not participated in Dawn Plan 2, not harmed the lives and interests of the people?

 

If the main city could still resolve disputes and rebel persecution on its own, some smaller safe zones could only be the “beasts” in a desperate struggle under rebel persecution.

 

On top of this, news that the underground city had sealed itself off, was about to abandon all humanity, and would make a comeback after all safe zones were destroyed spread like wildfire, silently sweeping through all safe zones.

 

Survivors completely panicked, at a loss.

 

They were born in the underground city, traveled thousands or even tens of thousands of miles at ten-plus years old to reach strange and dilapidated safe zones with cruel and cold survival rules. The underground city was like a warm harbor that only existed in dreams.

 

And now, the underground city had abandoned them.

 

After various attempts, when safe zones truly couldn’t contact the underground city, they fell into complete turmoil.

 

At this moment, whether deviants or ordinary people, they all had only one thought—

 

“The underground city doesn’t want us anymore.”

 

Like children abandoned by their parents.

 

Main City.

 

The atmosphere in the conference room was heavy. When the last high-ranking official sat down, he said gravely: “Still can’t make contact. Communications are completely cut off.”

 

“…” Everyone discussed in low voices: “This whole thing feels wrong somehow.”

 

“Contacted other districts, they’re all spreading this news. It’s too coincidental—I wouldn’t believe it if someone wasn’t deliberately orchestrating this.”

 

“Major General Bernie says the underground city passages are also sealed. They can’t get in, people inside can’t get out, and there are contaminated monsters lurking outside. The situation is extremely urgent.”

 

“What is the underground city doing? Really planning to abandon the current situation and wait a hundred years to start over?”

 

“Others might believe this theory, but you believe it too?” The old general slowly looked up: “Given the current radiation situation in the underground city’s dome, is there still a chance for a comeback?”

 

Everyone fell silent for a while.

 

Actually, if you ignored the lives of those millions of residents in the underground city, whether it truly abandoned the safe zone survivors really didn’t make much difference.

 

Even if it didn’t abandon them, the underground city could no longer serve as humanity’s backup.

 

Liao Te’s face, covered in proliferative scars, twitched as he slowly looked up: “The general is also in the underground city. He couldn’t possibly allow the underground city to seal itself off. There must be something fishy about this.”

 

Most held this view. Unlike the inscrutable Huo Jiangmian, most people still trusted Huo Yanji’s character, especially after experiencing so much recently.

 

“Could it be that the council regained control from General Huo?” someone speculated. “Starting to act recklessly and desperately?”

 

“Hard to say…”

 

“It’s not impossible. General Huo was trapped by the mountain fire for several days—if the situation got out of control, who knows…”

 

But all this was speculation without conclusion. They were thousands of kilometers from the underground city, unable to immediately clarify the on-site situation. They could only be like ants on a hot pan, anxiously helpless.

 

Huo Jiangmian, who hadn’t spoken, suddenly asked: “Major General Wei Lan also can’t be contacted?”

 

“No, the T3 station couldn’t connect to signals.”

 

Huo Jiangmian paused slightly: “I’ll go to the underground city.”

 

Everyone’s gazes simultaneously turned to him. After a two-second pause, they tactfully whispered among themselves or communicated with various glances.

 

Theoretically, Huo Jiangmian had completed retirement procedures. His previous staged death followed by return to temporarily resume a leadership role had indeed stabilized the battle situation, but it was still hard to gain others’ trust.

 

After all, his previous statements in the interrogation room were too shocking.

 

And now the main city was already short on military strength. If they let Huo Jiangmian independently lead troops to the underground city, what if he had ulterior motives…

 

Finally, the old general made the decision: “Then so be it. We hope the general will bring Yanji back safely.”

 

In terms of address, the intimacy and distance were immediately clear.

 

Huo Jiangmian didn’t care. He stood up and, without looking back, casually dropped a line: “Don’t worry, I care about him more than any of you do.”

 

Among all these people present, how many actually cared about Huo Yanji?

 

No, they only cared about the General Huo, the former Supreme Executive, who currently held high standing among the people and could drive safe zone development.

 

·

 

Scale after scale of black scales covered the skin. The evil dragon’s horns extended backward, but his head faced the wall with resistance, doing his utmost to ignore the human behind him.

 

His tail would irritably slap twice from time to time, showing his unwillingness to listen.

 

When Huo Yanji reached the “Nuwa Plan,” he turned around and said flatly: “Since you don’t want to listen, I won’t say more.”

 

“…” The little evil dragon turned his head slightly, opened his pink mouth, and let out a low roar: “Roar!!”

 

The tone had changed somewhat, not as fierce as before, indicating he had listened to some of what was said.

 

Huo Yanji looked down: “Want to know the specifics?”

 

Little evil dragon: “…”

 

Huo Yanji said: “Come keep me company for a nap.”

 

Black round dragon eyes stared at him. Because of anger, his overall aura was also different, the rough evil dragon skin appearing more fierce.

 

If it were someone else, they might have already wet themselves with fear, but this person was Huo Yanji who understood dragons well.

 

Huo Yanji turned back slightly: “Coming or not?”

 

“…” The little evil dragon lifted his claws, stepped out of the bathtub split in half, and walked out step by step, his wing joints raised and wing membranes slightly spread, looking extremely fierce and aggressive.

 

Huo Yanji sat lying on the bed, his eyebrow jumping: “You plan to get on the bed like this?”

 

The little evil dragon stiffened, looked back at the cracked bathtub, and after a while turned his head to stare at the bed, seemingly considering whether it could bear his weight.

 

He moved over and first lifted one hind claw, carefully pressing it on the bed.

 

Very cute.

 

But it made Huo Yanji’s eyes darken somewhat.

 

Sang Jue seemed to lack ‘humanity,’ but had actually been taught too many human habits. Destructiveness was the instinct of many creatures—whether prehistoric animals or current mutant monsters, they never felt anxious and uneasy about damaging something like humans did.

 

Some might say this was because they had no thoughts and were only driven by single instincts to survive… but were humans with thoughts really more noble?

 

For Sang Jue, regardless of what his true form was, would being a human really be happier than being an evil dragon?

 

“Come up.” Huo Yanji no longer coaxed Sang Jue to change back to human form. “The bed’s weight capacity is stronger than the bathtub. The bathtub bottom was suspended—cracking is normal.”

 

Only then did the little evil dragon occupy half the bed. Obviously used to human sleeping positions, he initially even instinctively lay flat, until feeling uncomfortable and realizing he should curl up on one side, wrapping himself with wings and tail, only exposing half his dragon face and round black eyes.

 

Huo Yanji caressed his hard and rough forehead: “Sleep for a while, don’t think about other things first.”

 

What was Sang Jue thinking about?

 

Thinking about the daily interactions with the doctor over the past ten-plus years, thinking about his eighteenth birthday when the doctor said she hoped her little evil dragon would be happy and joyful?

 

Sang Jue previously didn’t understand the meaning of death, but after experiencing three or four months on ‘this planet,’ he understood death’s meaning very clearly.

 

Dead meant never being able to see or touch again, never hearing her voice or seeing her smile.

 

Her life and achievements, along with her personality and gentleness, were all buried in the long river of history, becoming past that could be remembered but never retrieved.

 

Heavy eyelids drooped down. In the little evil dragon’s final moment before closing his eyes, he thought—

 

When the doctor died, he was sleeping peacefully in the aircraft like a silly fool.

 

…

 

Huo Yanji rested his arm on the dragon’s wing and napped for a while.

 

He suddenly woke because his arm lost weight abruptly. Opening his eyes, the evil dragon under his arm was gone, and half of naked Sang Jue’s face was pressed against his chest, with most of his body having slid outside.

 

Huo Yanji paused and gently brushed the soft hair, but Sang Jue woke immediately.

 

He didn’t have the haziness humans had upon waking, nor did he have his past paper-like purity. He just leaned back against Huo Yanji’s heart and stated: “You don’t know the specific ‘Nuwa Plan’ either.”

 

Huo Yanji paused: “Mm, just speculation.”

 

After all, he had heard the “rumor” from Councilman Lance. Rumors were rumors precisely because they weren’t certain enough. After coming to the underground city, he had indeed reviewed large amounts of materials, trying to clarify what Dr. Anya had done before humans migrated to the underground city, but related materials were very scarce, mostly hearsay.

 

Sang Jue said: “Do you think I’m the person with authority that 005 mentioned?”

 

Huo Yanji denied: “I think the possibility is small, but now we can only try.”

 

Sang Jue didn’t ask why Huo Yanji thought the hope was slim, only saying: “I can try, but you need to let me stay in the main control room for a while.”

 

Huo Yanji paused slightly: “Alright.”

 

Sang Jue wasn’t really stupid. He had thought for a long time—007 suddenly disappeared, where could it have gone?

 

It was equivalent to a god in the network domain, omnipresent and all-reaching. Why did it suddenly ignore him?

 

007 wasn’t human and wouldn’t avoid him out of guilt, so there must be something unavoidable that caused it to disconnect from him.

 

007 was more advanced and intelligent than 005. Since the doctor wanted to save human civilization and bound 007 to the aircraft to come to the world over a hundred years later, she must have anticipated the possibility of humans still surviving.

 

That’s why there was the “Observation Plan” corresponding to the “Nuwa Plan”—selecting quality humans among current survivors as new leaders for the survivors.

 

Over a hundred years ago, when the doctor wasn’t sure if humans could survive, she had already made plans to overthrow the Supreme Council for the future. It’s just that these things 007 should have done were all accomplished by humans themselves and Huo Yanji.

 

Once the slim hope of human survival truly appeared, 007 would ultimately return to its duty of serving humanity.

 

It was born from humanity and would ultimately dedicate its long life to serving humanity.

 

They soon arrived at the main control room.

 

The moment they stepped through the electronic doors, Huo Yanji sensed something was wrong. There were no visible changes here, just intuition from years of life-and-death experience.

 

Huo Yanji blocked Sang Jue behind him and slowly walked up the steps: “005?”

 

He was answered by silence.

 

In that instant, Huo Yanji’s thoughts raced. Evelyn had used her authority to activate the self-destruct program and close the passages, but hadn’t directly destroyed the underground city, indicating she still had some feelings for the underground city’s residents. There was no reason to destroy 005 as well.

 

005’s importance to the underground city was self-evident. Most of the underground city’s systems relied on 005’s monitoring and operation. Once 005 disappeared, the underground city’s system would collapse directly.

 

This was also one of Dr. Anya’s most outstanding contributions. It was said that 005 wasn’t even the most advanced AI she had created. Though intelligent, its activities were restricted, bound for life to the underground city’s main control room, unable to be relocated.

 

However, rumors remained rumors. Humanity had only managed to operate the underground city to this day with 005’s assistance. Its importance far exceeded any individual human in the underground city.

 

Only Sang Jue quietly watched the disappeared code on the main screen. After a long while, he suddenly called softly: “007.”

 

“I’m here, little evil dragon.” A traceless female voice suddenly responded to Sang Jue’s call.

 

This voice was similar to 005’s but not cold, closer to human emotional fluctuations—peaceful and gentle.

 

Huo Yanji looked up to see the main screen suddenly display [System update complete, progress 100%…(■■■■■■■■■■)].

 

**

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