EDEH Chapter 105

As soon as Sang Jue returned to the room, he changed back into an evil dragon, walking into the bathroom leaving claw prints, crouching in the bathtub split in half, motionless.

His thick, long tail was also frozen, draped behind him. Unlike the past when he would always clingily seek petting, now whenever Huo Yanji approached, his scales would uniformly bristle.

In concepts humans absorbed from birth, they all understood that everyone around them would die someday, and they had long prepared to face that moment.

But Sang Jue only vaguely understood life’s fragility without knowing how to face it.

This sadness was abstract and unsolvable.

Huo Yanji stood far away at the edge of the sink, his lean waistline more than ten inches higher than the sink. He watched the back of the evil dragon’s head, and the moment he noticed the scales bristling, he stopped approaching.

“Sang Jue, the bathroom isn’t suitable for eating.”

Humans wouldn’t eat in places where they relieved themselves and washed.

But Sang Jue wasn’t human, and he didn’t need to eat anyway.

Why become a human?

A lifespan of just a few decades could disappear in an instant. From birth, they lived on the road waiting for death, and even dragons lived longer than humans.

The footsteps behind gradually moved away. The evil dragon’s head remained turned away. After a while, the familiar scent returned, setting something down with a “clink.”

When Sang Jue looked back, Huo Yanji was already just a retreating figure. On the plate on the sink were two gems.

One was an ordinary blue gem, the other orange-yellow, crystal clear, one in ten thousand among gems—probably the premium one Huo Yanji had mentioned finding on the road to the underground city.

Once his favorite things, now he lacked the motivation to crunch and crush them.

…

Huo Yanji went alone to the main control room again. Currently, aside from him, no one else had discovered 005’s disappearance.

He chatted more with 007 about artificial womb-related issues, the environment and technology needed to nurture life, and the utilization of crop resources…

Though no one was in front of him, he had the illusion of exchanging academic knowledge with an omniscient human.

No matter what kind of question, 007 could provide answers in a humanized tone.

No wonder during humanity’s peak civilization period, some worried that artificial intelligence would kick humans off the top of the food chain.

007 said: “Based on my assessment of the current situation over four months, my recommendation is to temporarily slow external expansion and stabilize internal resource circulation and population.”

Huo Yanji had thought about this.

But the past Supreme Council was too eager for quick success. Before humans had established a firm foothold in the new world, they kept thinking about expanding safe zones, developing from no surface safe zones initially to dozens at the peak.

But what was the result?

The result was that in less than thirty years, more than half the safe zones had fallen, leaving only twenty-seven, plus District Nineteen which fell due to green fungus proliferation—now twenty-six.

And among these twenty-six safe zones, at least a third were in dire straits.

“Besides the most important artificial womb technology, there are also large quantities of crop seeds preserved using special techniques. The prerequisite for opening the crop compartment is being ready for large-scale breeding preparation, otherwise these seeds will lose their germination ability within a year.”

Current people could hardly eat fruits and vegetables. Though through the efforts of Hill and generations of researchers studying mutant plants, people had developed new types of crops, they were still considered “luxury items” due to resource limitations and difficult reproduction.

“And what humanity currently lacks most are technical personnel.”

With 007, there were technical materials and blueprints, but to operate them still required humans themselves.

“Technology needs cultivation—having knowledge alone isn’t enough.” Huo Yanji paused, walked two steps along the computer console, curved his fingers and lightly tapped the surface. “Given the current situation, stabilizing internally would take at least twenty years, and that’s without contaminated creature wave attacks.”

007 said: “Development work is always long and difficult, but as long as we persist with unchanged original intentions, there will always be results.”

Humanity had struggled for nearly a hundred years—could they really achieve a good outcome?

Anyone else knowing about the aircraft’s resources would either be ecstatic or worried about gains and losses. But Huo Yanji calmly accepted all this without much emotional fluctuation.

He closed his eyes, went through everything in his mind, and after organizing his thoughts clearly, said: “We need to announce this to all safe zones to stabilize the situation.”

007 said: “Of course, everything Dr. Anya sacrificed should be remembered by history. However, the situation outside is terrible now. Though we’ve resolved the Supreme Council, the crisis created by the rebels has arrived. You need to gain full control of the aircraft after controlling the situation.”

Huo Yanji’s thoughts were similar, and he had already simulated the battle plan in his mind.

“So, who is the other person with underground city authority besides Evelyn?”

“It’s not Sang Jue as you think.” 007 said: “The doctor wanted Sang Jue to always be safe and happy, and didn’t intend for him to be involved in humanity’s complex affairs.”

In the two plans, if the Nuwa Plan was executed, 007 would select suitable leaders from the first batch of humans nurtured to receive authority.

The other plan was similar—007 would find people with responsibility and qualifications among dozens of observers to possess authority.

Huo Yanji looked up: “I’m the authorized person?”

007 said: “To be precise, you shouldn’t have been the only one. After I landed with the little evil dragon, I formulated corresponding plans and collected sufficient personnel data, selecting at least eight people impartially to jointly manage the underground city and reasonably allocate resources.”

But reality was cruel.

Among the dozens of observers, most were deviants. Their own uncertainty made them unsuitable as leaders… cruel, but unavoidable.

Huo Yanji closed his eyes and lowered his gaze.

“I used to think that although the Dawn Plan was cruel, at least its intention was for the future, and it did bring some hope.”

But what about now?

Those people’s original intention in building the underground city was selfish, so was deceiving all humanity to sacrifice their lives for the so-called future really for dawn, or for themselves?

Or was it to use power for a long time, to stand in high positions and speak shamelessly?

007 couldn’t emotionally understand human subtleties but could understand them programmatically.

It said: “Perhaps you should forget the past and focus on the future.”

Let the truth of the past remain past. Perhaps in the near future, humans living peaceful lives with nothing better to do would dig it up and examine right from wrong, but it couldn’t be exposed now.

Huo Yanji wasn’t someone who would get stuck in dead ends. The suppressed emotions were quickly pushed down: “This is good. The underground city residents are liberated.”

“Such technology is fortunate in the current era, but would be a disaster in peaceful times.”

Huo Yanji, born in the post-apocalyptic world, paused before understanding 007’s meaning.

Peaceful times still had family concepts—parents and children. Once artificial wombs developed, they would inevitably cause ethical paradoxes, even developing into gray industry chains where those with connections, money, and power could have superior offspring, while ordinary people faced the opposite.

There might even be pet-like situations where, without blood bonds, moral sense naturally weakened, leading to abandonment when taken home and found sick or unsatisfactory.

But that wasn’t something to consider now.

Huo Yanji looked at the camera scrutinizingly: “You think about these things too?”

“Thinking facilitates progress—for humans and AIs alike. Of course, my thinking is just controllable behavior within set parameters.” 007 changed topics: “But the above are Dr. Anya’s remarks. I remember every word the doctor said. Artificial womb technology was successfully researched many years ago, but the technical director at that time was willing to give up this honor and suppress the technology, fearing the above social impacts.”

…

Huo Yanji stayed in the main control room for a long time, also seeing surface conditions through 007’s surveillance—extremely terrible.

Major General Bernie, the military commander of the underground city’s surface safe zone, was actually also a rebel member. He firmly controlled the safe zone without intending to directly destroy it, but repeatedly proclaimed that the underground city would abandon survivors, deceiving the main city and major safe zones.

News that the underground city would abandon survivors instantly spread throughout all safe zones. Combined with casualties and chaos maliciously brought by rebels, everything was in complete disorder.

Even if they could open passages to the surface, Huo Yanji couldn’t go out now.

His main force was in a standoff with Major General Bernie in the city, even at a disadvantage. After all, this was someone else’s territory with more personnel. The passage area was full of Bernie’s people—if Huo Yanji went out, it would be walking into a trap.

007 said: “I can contact your subordinates, provided they believe me.”

This was easy—there were naturally many things or codes only their own troops understood.

With 007, everything seemed to become simple.

Currently, the most difficult thing to solve was the autistic evil dragon at home.

007 reminded: “When the little evil dragon was six, due to an incident, he remained in dragon form for a year without changing back to human.”

Huo Yanji looked down: “Is changing back to human the best?”

007 asked: “At least for you and him it would be best.”

Huo Yanji: “…”

The moment the electronic door opened and military boots stepped over the cold threshold, Huo Yanji heard 007’s voice behind him: “Actually, if there were a choice, I don’t think—and I believe Dr. Anya also wouldn’t want—you to become this person with authority.”

But there was no choice.

Huo Yanji walked alone out of the main control room, stepping on the deep corridor. His shallow black shadow swayed obliquely on the ground, approaching the corner, then bent by the baseboard and printed on the cold wall.

The moment he walked out of the building, the false sunlight fell on his skin with no warmth at all.

Huo Yanji raised his hand slightly but quickly lowered it, striding to the car: “Back to residence.”

“Yes!”

Opening the door, his coat followed a parabolic arc onto the sofa. Huo Yanji walked toward the bathroom but found the previously autistic little evil dragon was no longer there, and the gems had also disappeared.

His pupils contracted sharply as he frantically pressed his communicator, but when he reached the doorway, he heard some movement from the closet behind him.

He slowly walked over and opened the closet door. Sang Jue, who had changed back to human form, was curled up in his shirt, wrapped in his coat sleeping. Apparently disturbed by the sound of his return, he slowly opened his eyes.

Those eyes hidden in the shadows were still beautiful, just missing a trace of innocent purity.

His subordinate’s response came through the earpiece: “Sir, what are your orders?”

Huo Yanji exhaled lightly: “Never mind.”

He hung up the communication and crouched down, embracing Sang Jue along with the clothes.

Sang Jue rested his chin on his shoulder, tilting his head, slowly asking without much emotion: “The doctor and 007 are both gone. Will you not want Sang Jue anymore either?”

Huo Yanji paused, thinking he meant being out too long. He simply picked up Sang Jue and explained while walking toward the bed: “I didn’t mean to come back so late. The situation outside is too terrible. I went to the main control room to discuss countermeasures with 007.”

But that wasn’t what Sang Jue meant.

He looked at Huo Yanji with those purely calm eyes and said: “You seem like you don’t want me as your mate anymore.”

Huo Yanji’s movements stiffened: “Why do you think that?”

Sang Jue said: “When you face me, the scent on your body has changed.”

Not much, but enough to make the little evil dragon sensitive at this moment.

“…I’ve never thought that.” Huo Yanji placed Sang Jue on the bed and crouched slightly: “I just sometimes wonder if being a dragon would make you happier than being human?”

But learned emotions couldn’t be discarded, and existing humanity couldn’t be abandoned.

And for Huo Yanji, who knew too many secrets and had seen too much dark human nature, liking Sang Jue seemed like an unavoidable destiny.

**