Happy Doomsday

Chapter 5: Resurrection

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A magazine from the year before the world was destroyed.

Ruan Xian almost dropped the circuit board to the ground.
After making sure the tablet he spat back into his palm wasn’t exposed, Ruan Xian gritted his teeth and tensed his face for a long time…

He was positive that Ding Zepeng wasn’t lying.

“…Xiao Ding.
I won’t waste your time, so I’ll ask you a question.” The boy looked simple, so it wasn’t good to ask complicated questions.
Ruan Xian quickly found the right breakthrough.

“Okay, Ruan Ge, ask.”

“Are there any side effects to that medicine I took just now? What do you mean by ‘fleshy brain’?”

Hearing this question, Ding Zepeng’s expression instantly relaxed by a lot.
“Chi Ge is afraid that the androids in the city will sneak in.
What that pill does is it could destroy their circuits… Oh, the electronic brain.
As soon as the brain is fried, their performance will look off immediately, so it’ll be easy to tell.”

“Androids in the city?”

“Yes, but it’s recently been getting less.
Ruan Ge, you really don’t have to worry.
Chi Ge is a little rough, but the medicine doesn’t hurt humans.” Ding Zepeng rubbed his hands.
“I’m going to Chi Ge’s side.
We’re on the hill not far from the tent.
Just tell 231 if you’re uncomfortable and he’ll take care of you.”

He planned to continue this topic, but seeing Ding Zepeng step out, Ruan Xian swallowed back the question that was about to slip from his lips.

Since androids exists…

However, the object of his suspicious was nearby, which wasn’t a good time to inquire.

Watching Ding Zepeng leave the tent, Ruan Xian put the circuit board on his lap, broke a small piece of cake off and stuff it into his mouth.
While silently chewing the dry and bitter cake, he touched a thin dry branch from the ground, broke it, and pierce his fingers with the sharp wooden tip.

His consciousness was almost back to normal, and he had to make sure that what happened in the ruins wasn’t an illusion.

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A bead of blood came out from his wound and just as Ruan Xian was about to breath a sigh of relief, it tremblingly absorbed back into his skin again, leaving no trace of broken skin on his finger.

Nothing had changed.

Ruan Xian closed his eyes and gently tapped his thighs under the thin blanket with his fingertips that should’ve been injured.
On the whole, he was quite comfortable, besides for the sweat that was sticking to his body.

The stagnation of his thinking completely disappeared, and the solid sense of control returned again.
His memories were like well-classified documents, neat and organized.

Twelve years ago, his research partner, Fan Linsong, undoubtedly shot him in the head after an argument.

The surveillance of the institute was so strict that it was heinous, so Fan Linsong wouldn’t be stupid enough to try and transport the body out.
Now that he thought about it, there were all kinds of unnatural aspects in their argument.
He had been trying to convince Fan Linsong the entire time, but the other man looked like he was simply venting his anger.

His research partner wasn’t the type to kill in the heat of passion.
Fan Linsong had definitely calculated the time and place, and even called helpers in advance to disguise themselves as assistants.

If it was him, how would he handle the body of an adult male?

His fingertips tapped faster, and more details were fished out from the bottom of his memories.

There was one way to deal with corpses in Lab No.
7— a container full of nanobots α-092.
At the time of the argument, he was making improvements to α-092.

α-092 was originally used for preservation of transplanted organs, which could dissolve and preserve living tissue for a long time.
As long as the appropriate command was given, it would reassemble the dissolve organs, while quickly repairing the damage cells so that the transplanted organs could reach their theoretical peak state.

It wasn’t that no one had propose to use α-092 as a treatment for the entire human body, but it was unable to execute commands that were too complex.
Successfully repairing a single organ was its limits.

At that time, Ruan Xian was focused on expanding its availability.
However, the thing in actual development wasn’t stable.
They could only be regarded as a semi-finished product that wasn’t even close to be use for animal testing.

But if it was simply use to destroy a body, things would be quite simple.
It could break down everything, including bone and hair, without leaving a trace.
Then as soon as this test product was declared obsolete, the metal bin would be transported to the deepest basement and destroyed by a specialized personnel after taking samples.

With Fan Linsong’s authority, it wasn’t difficult to do this.

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Although he didn’t know why the experimental solution wasn’t destroyed, this idea could indeed explain a lot of things.
After being activated with α-092, it quickly repaired and enhanced his body that should’ve died.
The enhanced sensor perception when he just woke up and the high fever after less than half a day could all be explained from this.

It was a sample that he made himself, so Ruan Xian knew its limits.

Even if the perception and resilience were enhanced for a certain period of time, and even his health was restored on the surface, the performance of α-092 couldn’t be adapted to complex human bodies.
In simple terms, his body wasn’t completely “put together”, but was forcibly glued by α-092, just like a sandcastle on the beach.
No matter how fine it was, it wasn’t comparable to a real fortress made of rocks.

A simple wave could tear it apart.

Ruan Xian opened his eyes and looked at his hands.

The high fever and burning thirst while in the underground ruins were just his body’s reaction to the collapse.
Theoretically, within two hours after the attack, his skin and flesh would liquefy, and his entire body would turn into a few clumps of rotten meat hanging on the bones.

The problem was, he was still alive and wasn’t experiencing any discomfort.

These anomalies may be related to the so-called “S-type initial machine”.
The fastest way was naturally to consult Tang Yibu.
It was just that it wasn’t a good idea to ask for help from an unpredictable guy prematurely.
As for the rescuers, with Tang Yibu watching, it was better to keep a low profile until he could thoroughly analyze the current environment…

Ruan Xian picked up the cake left by Ding Zepeng and chewed it numbly; the rough and bitter taste stuck to his mouth.
The air was fresh and crisp, with a hint of grass.
No matter how he looked at it, this wasn’t like the so-called “doomsday”.

Twelve years had passed, and he didn’t even know if Fan Linsong was still alive.
Ruan Xian wasn’t curious about the other party’s motives for killing him.
If he guessed correctly, Fan Linsong had already screamed them out during the argument.

After eating the cake, Ruan Xian put the pill he coughed up into his pocket.
He hesitated for a while before grabbing the circuit board left by Ding Zepeng.

Ruan Xian recognized this thing.
Twelve years ago, it didn’t have the conditions for widespread commercialization.
During the period when he was unconscious, people obviously made a ton of improvements.
Nowadays, it was only as thick as up to two pages of paper and could be easily rolled up, and the videos and words on it was crystal clear.

Ding Zepeng was obviously not a high-tech enthusiast.
Most of the materials in it were just songs and dance videos of beautiful girls, essays and sketches of popular aesthetics, and many short stories.

Ruan Xian was so absorbed that he quickly filled his brain will all the information.

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Just as he was carefully looking at a girl’s electronic wristband to deduce the technology level, Tang Yibu entered the tent.
Ruan Xian’s movement stopped in the air, and the figure of a half-naked girl projected on the light screen stopped instantly.

Tang Yibu: “……”

Ruan Xian turned off the light screen stiffly.
He wasn’t sure that there was any other meaning in the blank face of the other party.

Seeing the projection disappeared, Tang Yibu took a step forward.
Seeing as he was about to grab his collar again, Ruan Xian vigilantly blocked the hand.

“I need to determine your physical condition.
Oral sampling is the fastest.” Tang Yibu, who was pushed away, had a serious tone that even contained a subtle hint of sincerity.

“I’m fine,” Ruan Xian said quickly.

“Okay, although I think it’s most appropriate to record data regularly,” when he said this, Tang Yibu looked regretful.
For some reason, Ruan Xian suddenly wanted to punch him.

“If something is uncomfortable, please be sure to tell me,” Tang Yibu added, and his tone became even more sincere.

Perhaps he would consider it when he was on the verge of death.
The polite smile on Ruan Xian’s face froze for a few seconds.
“Speaking of which, I want to ask you—”

The sound of cloth tearing rang out as a familiar and annoying foot pierced the tent and inserted directly between the two of them.
Yesterday, in the ruins of the corridor, he was almost stabbed in the head by this thing.

Ruan Xian: “……”

Tang Yibu reacted faster than him.
He neatly put on bag in the corner on his back, threw something the size of a saucer on the ground, and then picked up Ruan Xian.

As soon as the two rushed out of the tent not far away, there was a series of loud noises behind them, mixed with the screams of monsters.
The originally calm air suddenly turned into an oncoming hurricane, and the surrounding rubble quickly receded behind them at a terrifying speed, like…

“Contraction implosion,” Ruan Xian whispered.

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“Normal explosions are too obvious.” Tang Yibu didn’t stop moving his feet and rushed towards the hill closest to the tent.
“Implosion is better.
It won’t attract unnecessary attention.”

“Unnecessary attention?”

Tang Yibu stopped, turned around, and silently motioned Ruan Xian to look into the distance.

The weather was very good, the air was fine and crisp, and the scenery in the distance was extremely clear.
The two of them were standing on an uphill road, and they could see the appearance of a city.

For a few seconds, Ruan Xian almost thought this was a continuation of his nightmare.
When he heard the word doomsday, he had made a lot of conjectures, and at least prepared his mind for the appearance of S City, which was the closet city to the institute.
He thought about the abandoned empty city, the ruins of war, and even scorched explosion pits.

But he never thought about this.

The gray city stood in the distance.
The buildings towered into the clouds, glowing metallically in the sunlight.
It was closer to the sky than the S City in Ruan Xian’s memory.
It was just the shape was no longer a regular cube, but closer to a gray crystal cluster.
Countless geometric objects moved regularly on the building’s spire, leaving a series of flashing light trails.
Tubular curved tunnels ran through the complex, interconnecting with each other like network of veins stripped of flesh.

Floating in the air were light screens that overlapped each other; brightly and constantly being extinguished, which still looked conspicuous from this distance.

Not far from the complex, a high black fence was erected.
Further up, was a huge device— or creature, Ruan Xian couldn’t tell— With its dark twelve long feet that stepped over the wall, almost covering the entire city under its body.
As time passed, the thing would move its body from time to time, like it was a giant daddy-long legs spider that couldn’t be distinguish between its head and abdomen.

“Let’s go.
Follow me to save people.
Humans are now an endangered species.”

Seeing Ruan Xian fall into silence, Tang Yibu turned back and moved towards the top of the hill again.

“I don’t know what ‘experience’ you have been pre-programmed with, and maybe you’re still being affected by the memory data, but there’s one thing I must tell you up front— Don’t get close to humans.”

The author has something to say:

Tip: For friends who are afraid of insects, don’t go to Baidu and search for pictures of the daddy-long legs (…

Ruan thinks Tang is a human, Tang thinks Ruan is an android√