Chapter 100: Starlight

The meteor hammer failed to activate, and the mechanical arm fell silent once more. The little red hooded girl hesitantly stepped forward, crossing the villa's threshold, "Master Pi Fu, where are you?"

"I'm here."

Voices drifted from within the mist, and Jin Huiying gritted her teeth, then dashed out of the house toward the thick fog.

At the edge of the fog stood a two-meter-tall black metal door, equipped with a dial and hinges, resembling a submarine's watertight hatch.

"The earliest eliminated, Irvin, even Harley, didn't die. They were transported away."

Li Cheng tapped the metal door with his knuckles; the sound was dull and hollow. He clenched his fist, shrinking the mist concealment technique's radius, turned, and walked to the fog's edge, gazing back at the villa. He spoke to the mechanical arm left behind: "And if Annie and Leonardo hadn't messed around, no one would've had to die even by the end of the reality show. Am I right?"

"." The broadcast narrator fell silent, saying nothing.

"Playing the cold aloof type?" Li Cheng smirked, pulling out a detonator. "This device can simultaneously trigger all the IEDs buried in the villa, blowing the remaining buildings sky-high. Even with today's post-apocalyptic tech, rebuilding a villa with 21st-century aesthetics would take considerable effort."

The broadcast trembled slightly, and a calm narrator's voice emerged: ". What do you want."

"A cozy eighty-square-meter apartment, a gentle good wife, kids who can smoothly get into university and land good jobs after graduation."

At the narrator's question, Li Cheng instinctively began singing—then realized the setting was wrong. Amid the bewildered stares of Little Red Hood and Jin Huiying, he awkwardly coughed a few times and straightened his expression: "I have only two demands. First, tell me what lies beyond this sealed door."

"Second, let me see what your so-called new humans look like."

Time dripped away slowly; the atmosphere grew oppressive, like an ice cellar. Finally, the mechanical arm moved, extending a TV screen out from the villa. From it came the narrator's voice: "Beyond the door lies only misfortune and suffering. Once you open it, you can never return."

"Conversely, if you remain inside the villa, you can still live a peaceful, happy life as ordinary people."

Li Cheng grinned. "Huh? You're keeping us locked up like livestock? Is this the 'mysterious gift' your show promised?"

Jin Huiying's heart stirred. This mission's goal was merely to follow the game's rules and survive until its end. Following the narrator's advice now would guarantee clearing the game.

She subtly tugged at Li Cheng's sleeve in a corner unseen by cameras, but he stepped back two paces, returned to the watertight door, and leaned against it calmly: "I don't believe the outside is a kilometer-deep, high-pressure ocean floor, nor a radioactive wasteland teeming with mutated creatures."

"Just as I don't believe you're human."

Li Cheng's tone was calm—not accusing the show's inhuman actions, but stating a fact.

"." The narrator fell silent again.

"Won't you speak?"

Li Cheng smiled and turned to Little Red Hood. "Do you remember the reality show's background?"

"I do."

Little Red Hood tilted her head, straining to recall: "【In 2077, the increasing depletion of oil resources triggered a final war. Tens of thousands of nuclear bombs crisscrossed the atmosphere, sowing artificial suns. Radiation clouds blotted out the sky. Humanity faced its end.】

【A genius scientist emerged, solving all problems except those caused by mutants, pulling the dying Earth civilization back onto the right path. All tribes and city-states on the wasteland hailed him as the Messiah and Savior. Order was restored, cities revived, and even starships were built in space bases, launching plans for extraterrestrial colonization.】

【The only remaining problem: how to sustain human civilization.】

【That was: the post-apocalyptic dating reality show.】"

"Complete—but incorrect," Li Cheng corrected with a smile. "The last sentence came from the broadcast system."

"?!" Little Red Hood suddenly remembered, her face filled with shock. "The broadcast's background audio borrowed from the briefing?"

"Exactly. This setup was designed to make us misunderstand."

In the script's mission, only the briefing was absolutely true. Li Cheng said: "Once you recognize this, a subtle answer emerges."

Little Red Hood was still pondering, but Jin Huiying had already realized it—her eyes widened.

"Conventionally, to sustain human civilization, they host this post-apocalyptic dating show to set romantic examples for young men and women, boosting marriage and birth rates."

"But the evidence above proves that old and new humans are entirely different species. Summoning old humans to film a dating show for new humans to watch is as absurd as trying to maintain marriage rates by raising divorce thresholds."

"Unless the meaning is literal: we—the contestants of this reality show—are the ones who must sustain 【human civilization】."

He deliberately emphasized the last four words. Even slow-witted Little Red Hood grasped it: "We're human civilization?!"

"More precisely," Li Cheng whistled, grinning at the distant TV screen, "we are pre-human civilization."

Finally,

Zzzt—

The screen lit up—not with an advertisement, but with a face. A cat-girl's face.

It had a humanoid skull contour, larger and rounder eye sockets than a human's, vertical green pupils, normal human ears, and a pair of animal ears emerging from her hair.

Her cheeks were covered with a faint layer of gray-white fur, her mouth trilobed, with whiskers on either side.

Compared to Earth's fictional depictions of ear-creature girls (like in "Wolf and Spice" or "Chocolate and Vanilla"), her feline traits were slightly more pronounced, but not enough to trigger the uncanny valley effect.

The cat-girl wore a suit with a bowtie. Beside her were other subhumans with cat and dog features, bustling about as if in a studio.

Several of them glowed faintly—clearly they'd recently consumed quantum cola.

"Heh. So that's what 'new humans' means."

Li Cheng nodded with a smile. "Then what about us old humans..."

The suited cat-girl spoke calmly: "You are all purebred humans from before the nuclear war, preserved in cryogenic facilities."

In real Earth's 1960s, America published a book titled "The Prospect of Immortality," sparking a cryogenic preservation craze.

Some who pre-ordered cryo-packages were immediately transported to cryo-facilities after death. Their blood and bodily fluids were replaced with low-temperature protectants, then solidified into glass-like matter to prevent cellular damage from ice crystals. Finally, their bodies were placed in constant low-temperature chambers, with liquid nitrogen replenished regularly for long-term preservation.

Those who pre-ordered hoped that, fifty, a hundred, or two hundred years later, advanced technology would revive them.

Not just the terminally ill, but wealthy patients with incurable diseases, and even some healthy elites who simply felt they'd exhausted the present world and wished to "time-travel" to the future to keep enjoying life.

But—on real Earth today—this technology remains far from mature. Even reviving a freshly frozen person is impossible, let alone thawing a fifty-year-old ice block.

Moreover, social problems arose: today, if a common person tried to withdraw astronomical interest from an eighty-year-old bankbook, the bank wouldn't even bother.

How could anyone expect cryo-facilities to maintain ironclad business ethics for one or two centuries, meticulously caring for every ice block and frozen meat?

In this script's world, anything is possible. Li Cheng no longer dwelled on plausibility. He crossed his arms before him. "Are there no purebred humans left outside?"

"Wild purebred humans? None remain."

The suited cat-girl said: "Before the nuclear war, human society popularized brain-modification surgeries on pets to enhance their intelligence."

After the war, the vast majority of surviving purebred humans mutated into ghouls or bloodthirsty cannibal mutants under radiation dust."

Smaller creatures like cats and dogs, however, had better radiation resistance. They survived—and, with the help of a human genius scientist, fused their genes with human DNA to become subhumans, taking up the torch of civilization."

A cat-and-dog version of "Rise of the Planet of the Apes"?

Li Cheng raised an eyebrow and said, "What's the name of that genius scientist? Where is she now? Could you introduce us?"

"Her name is Lynn. According to the old human civilization's maps, she's currently in a palace in the Himalayas. As for an introduction, I'm sorry, but it's not possible for now."

Lynn, Lin En?

Li Cheng noted down the name and nodded, saying, "Cats and dogs, once human pets, upon becoming subhumans, naturally inherit the priority right to civilization."

For some reason, you decided to thaw and revive pre-human beings who had been frozen for dozens or even hundreds of years from pre-nuclear-war cryogenic facilities."

This revival isn't about creating a zoo, keeping humans caged for entertainment—it's truly about letting the pre-humans reproduce and rebuild human civilization."

The so-called 'Post-Apocalyptic Dating Reality Show' is also part of the screening process—you're looking for the most beautiful, the most intelligent, and in some ways, the most rational and cold-blooded pair of men and women."

The rules of the dating show guarantee that the program will be filled with deceit, betrayal, and sabotage. To survive, you can be kind—but you cannot be foolish."

"You're right."

The suit-wearing cat-girl's tone grew peculiar, "At the start of the show, the production team predicted your chance of passing was under ten percent. We never expected you'd be the one to survive until the end."

"Heh, what can I say? I'm just this kind of deeply talented treasure boy. I mastered music, chess, calligraphy, painting, poetry, and song during fetal education; learned literature at three, science at five, graduated with a Ph. D. at seven, founded and successfully listed a multinational corporation at thirteen, and took over national-level engineering projects at sixteen. As for my daily life… MULTIPLE IMAGE WARNING! MULTIPLE IMAGE WARNING! MULTIPLE IMAGE WARNING! Say it three times!"

【IMAGE】【IMAGE】【IMAGE】

————

Thanks to the comment section friends for the reminder—I've revised the original answer. People today are just too hostile; they can't stand others doing well.

————

So many netizens in the comments are jealous and skeptical, thinking I'm bragging. All I can say is: all injustice in the world stems from the victim's own inadequacy. Too many acquaintances in the circle, too many vested interests—I'm signing off."

After delivering this long stream of boasts, the suit-wearing cat-girl stood with her mouth open, speechless; Little Red Riding Hood and Jin Huiying were frozen in shock—they might have thought this was some content platform.

Are you some internet influencer, a million-follower KOL?

"Cough, cough."

The suit-wearing cat-girl cleared her throat to cover her embarrassment, then said slowly, "As new humans, we've ended the era of desperate survival and have preliminarily restored the post-apocalyptic ecosystem. But we don't intend to remain on Earth indefinitely—we plan to board starships and venture into the stars and seas, to explore, to conquer."

At the same time, we will grant humanity—the companion and ancestral civilization that walked beside us for ten thousand years—a second chance."

If you choose to stay in this villa, you will enjoy the meticulous care of automated mechanical arms, never again needing to worry about food, drink, or entertainment."

But if you open that door, you will be exiled into the true wilderness, forced to start from scratch, with no assistance, to rebuild human civilization."

"."

Li Cheng fell silent for a moment, then smiled, "The old humans destroyed Earth's ecosystem in the nuclear war, and shattered their own proud civilization. To be given another chance is already rare—what more could we ask for?"

"As for my choice…"

He raised his palm and pressed it against the rotary dial of the watertight door, then turned to smile at the suit-wearing cat-girl, "Perhaps our next meeting—between old and new humanity—will be among the stars, a thousand years from now."

The cat-girl drew a deep breath, "Good luck to you."

"Good luck to you too."

As the communication cut off and the TV screen plunged into darkness, Li Cheng, Little Red Riding Hood, and Jin Huiying turned the dial together and pushed open the massive door.

Whoosh—

A strong wind howled across the barren wasteland, dust swirling everywhere; far above, in the pale blue sky, fleets of starships and space stations glided past. The three figures standing under the blazing sun looked like abandoned children of the world.

Li Cheng bent down and gently brushed his palm over the green leaves of a wild grass.

Fortunately, hope still remains.

————

"Dr. Lin En,"

On the other side of Earth, in a fortress atop the Himalayas, the suit-wearing cat-girl was reporting via remote video to a female human scientist seated in a wheelchair, "Three pre-humans from Shelter #3 have passed the test and chosen to leave the shelter, heading into the wilderness to survive."

"So soon?"

The scientist named Lin En raised an eyebrow slightly, "What about the other shelters?"

The cat-girl replied, "They're still in the reality show selection phase."

"I understand. Don't disturb them. Keep pushing the plan forward."

Lin En noncommittally ended the video call, then, through the helmet on her head—covered in electrode patches—sent an electrical signal to levitate her anti-gravity wheelchair, gliding it to the window.

From atop the Himalayas, she could see more clearly the spectacular sight of millions of ships blasting off with eerie blue propulsion flames, leaving Earth behind.

"Master,"

In the bunker, a mechanical arm—identical in design to the villa's but clearly far more advanced—hesitated, asking, "Will the plan really succeed?"

Lin En glanced at the arm; its AI program was written by her own hands, utterly free of betrayal risk—she could confide its deepest secrets to it.

Since arriving in this world, Lin En had spent decades guiding and controlling exactly four billion new humans, leading them collectively aboard starships to depart Earth and venture into the stars and seas.

This wasn't purely out of romanticism—it was mostly to test Lin En's hypothesis: that the killzone-created script-world was not a complete universe, but rather a virtual one with physical boundaries.

The collective exodus of four billion new humans might trigger the killzone's emergency protocol. At that moment, would it be destruction? Rewind? Or would it simply allow the new humans to proceed, further expanding the universe's space?

"The plan will succeed. The plan must succeed."

Lin En's expression was blank; her glasses reflected strange glimmers as she sighed softly, "Only by uncovering the secrets behind the killzone can we achieve that goal."

The mechanical arm ventured cautiously, "Step by step, becoming supreme?"

"Pfft!" Lin En rolled her eyes, "I want to fucking cure my paralysis! I don't want to sit in this wheelchair for another second! Damn killzone, damn toy factory—this setup's just like some anime trope, forcing me to be paralyzed!

I made a cane—it broke for no reason.

I implanted mechanical prosthetics—the system crashed.

Even if I built a Gundam, the moment I sat inside, its legs would immediately fail and collapse right there.

Killzone, Akili, don't let me find your physical form—if I do, I'll rip off your headgear, slap your face, *******"

The bunker echoed with Lin En's curses.

(End of Chapter)