Chapter 123.1 - Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (2.1)
Ch123.1 – Raising a Big Cat in the Apocalypse (2.1)
A fortnight later, Chi Xiaochi stopped resting and accepted the transmission.
After opening his eyes, the scene before him made Chi Xiaochi stiffen in shock.
Having experienced the bone fracture of the second world, the schoolyard bullying of the third world, the imprisonment of the fourth world, and the ghosts of the fifth world, the beginning of the sixth world was simply the very model of love and peace.
Looking at the time, it was currently 15:00 on the dot. The air conditioner in the sterile room was at just the right temperature. Warm air blew slowly into the room, making the light brown tassels on the curtains rustle.
The automatic humidifier to his right showed the number of people in the room, their body temperature, and the temperature of the room. Through multiple calculations, it would determine the most suitable humidity level, as well as the exact amount of cold, fragrant mist to slowly release into the air.
From the looks of it, the original host had dozed off in an animal nursery.
In this nursery, there was only him on duty, and also only one thing he was watching over, a little black cat.
Currently sleeping in the incubator, it was incredibly tiny, its coat of fur only just having grown in, but its tail still a pale pink, swishing around on the soft velvet cushion.
The little guy absently smacked his lips, sleeping soundly.
Chi Xiaochi called out tentatively, “Liu-laoshi?”
061 answered, “En, I’m here.”
Other than relief, Chi Xiaochi felt like 061’s tone was a little strange.
He asked, “The story of this world?”
061 did his best to be concise. “Just a moment, receiving.”
Chi Xiaochi asked, “Liu-laoshi, are you alright?”
061 didn’t try to hide it. “This world is making me feel very uncomfortable, be careful.”
Chi Xiaochi decided to go to the toilet to try to suppress his shock.
The restroom was a left turn and thirty metres away from the main entrance to the nursery.
On the electronic screen facing the door to the nursery was a reminder: when entering and exiting, they must replace their sterile clothes, shoe covers and gloves.
The reminder on the electronic screen was sufficiently eye-catching, and the colour and size of the letters were just right, not at all piercing. It could be said that it was quite humanised.
After exiting, he glanced at the number plate hanging on the door.
On it showed, this was Nursery No. 16.
Time: 9/27, 9:00 to 16:00
Staff on duty: Ding Qiuyun.
Chi Xiaochi did as the rules instructed, taking off the entire set of cumbersome equipment, before walking straight to the restroom.
He first glanced at the mirror.
The person in the mirror should be Ding Qiuyun, no mistake, a young man of around twenty-four or twenty-five years of age, unexpectedly handsome with an attractive confidence. He had a buzzcut, and a faded scar on the right side of his forehead. A black turtleneck sweater outlined his beautiful neck and the lines of his waist. On his lower half was a standard pair of trousers.
However, that average pair of straight-leg trousers couldn’t hide that pair of long, slender yet powerful legs.
……From his looks alone, Ding Qiuyun was absolutely the type of person who was liked by both people of the opposite gender as well as people of the same gender.
Chi Xiaochi didn’t stay surprised by this face for very long.
In contrast, he was more surprised by the technology level of this world.
He curiously felt around everywhere, inspecting the automatic fragrance dispenser and the toilet lid that could open automatically.
In the end, facing the singing urinal, an involuntary sense of reverence arose in his heart.
He had just gone to the toilet, but it was like he’d gone to light incense at a temple.
When Chi Xiaochi left, he almost expected it to say “we look forward to serving you again” to him.
Just as he returned to the nursery, 061 finally received the full story of this world.
There were many possible causes for the end of the human race.
Natural disasters, such as earthquakes, floods, global cooling, or a stupid meteorite slamming directly into the earth.
Human-made disasters, such as war, nuclear bombs, the break out of an epidemic, or a damned zombie virus accidentally released by some drug research centre.
Of course, it was also possible for various small factors to add up to form a big problem, leading to population reduction and the gradual end of mankind.
But the cause of this world’s end was a little special.
With the radiating popularisation of science and technology throughout society, the usefulness of the natural environment for humanity began to decline, and the boundary between cities and rural areas became blurred.
When millet, rice and cabbage could all be planted, harvested, sorted and sold by completely automatic systems, labour lost its meaning.
Humanity began to learn to enjoy life, but for today’s humans, life was truly too short.
Even worse, changes in the natural environment led to certain changes in the human body.
Ding Qiuyun was born in such a world.
Ding Qiuyun was good-looking, came from a decently well-off family, and had a sort of ease when dealing with others.
At the release of the national university entrance exam results, it was revealed that he’d scored 618 points. Therefore, he chose to study veterinary science in an agricultural university, for the sole reason that he liked animals.
His parents supported his decision, so that was what he studied.
After getting two straight years of scholarships, he spotted a military recruitment advertisement in school. Feeling like he would look extremely handsome in a military uniform, he signed up. After returning to his dormitory, he contacted his parents and told them about it, and considered the matter settled.
The implementation of science and technology in the military had already been fully realised, but he chose to join the toughest, most difficult training force, to train how to fight without technology.
In this era, even using guns without automatic aiming was unthinkable, much less using knives and other such close combat weapons or surviving in the wilderness, because there was no need for that. Even the single-person tents carried around by soldiers were fully automatic.
But Ding Qiuyun wasn’t willing to rely on intangible AIs, he liked the feeling of having everything depend on himself.
In group training, he was always ranked second. There was a young man by the name of Gu Xinzhi who came in first every time.
However, because everyone preferred the confident, cheerful Ding Qiuyun, he was elected as team captain, while Gu Xinzhi served as the vice captain.
Gu Xinzhi had no objections to this.
Unlike the sociable Ding Qiuyun, even though Gu Xinzhi was outstanding, his personality was quiet, and he didn’t like to stand out. He also didn’t have many friends. Worried about him being lonely, Ding Qiuyun would always take the initiative to eat with him.
And towards this, he didn’t express any particular opinions, properly keeping his head down and picking up the okra on his plate with his chopsticks.
Ding Qiuyun tried to strike up a conversation. “You like okra?”
Gu Xinzhi, “En.”
What followed was a long, awkward silence.
Ding Qiuyun didn’t feel any embarrassment, taking the initiative to share the okra on his plate with him before continuing to eat his own food.
Ding Qiuyun was someone who could really break up a silence, but he also knew how to get along with different types of people.
His parents had given him the freedom of choice, so he cherished that freedom and used it to make his own choices.
Gu Xinzhi didn’t like to talk, so he wouldn’t deliberately tease him.
Ding Qiuyun was naturally bent.
It had to be said, Gu Xinzhi’s sort of delicate appearance was exactly Ding Qiuyun’s type. However, Gu Xinzhi didn’t seem to be interested in him that way, being usually quite docile, only occasionally knocking down a door when he received a love letter from someone of the same sex. He didn’t know if he hated homosexuals, or if he hated those love letters.
Ding Qiuyun ahd never been one to force others, so he simply maintained a gentleman’s friendship with him.
Until a certain hostage-saving simulation exercise.
Ding Qiuyun’s team was launching an attack on a building, when the robots responsible for fighting them collectively went out of control and began to attack them indiscriminately.
With great difficulty, Ding Qiuyun managed to cover for the rest of his teammates’ escape, but learned that Gu Xinzhi was trapped inside.
Gu Xinzhi said through the ancient wireless radio to Ding Qiuyun, “Don’t come over. I’ve already been completely blocked off.”
Ding Qiuyun only said two words, “Just wait.”
Then, he rushed headlong into the tube-shaped apartments.
When he brought Gu Xinzhi out, a stray bullet had shot a hole through Ding Qiuyun’s right arm, and a knife had been plunged into his left shoulder from the back. Only the handle remained outside.
As soon as he came out, he pushed the group into running towards an open area. Only after they confirmed that they were completely out of danger, did the group finally notice the knife in his back.
Ding Qiuyun hurriedly checked everyone else’s injuries, his mouth repeating “I’m fine, I’m fine”. In the end, after only checking a few people, he wasn’t able to hold on any longer, his legs softening and sending him into Gu Xinzhi’s arms and fainting.
After the examination, it was concluded that Ding Qiuyun’s injury would have an impact on his career advancement.
After the approval process, his early retirement notice came.
Ding Qiuyun was very upset, but when he faced the his team on the eve of his departure, he was still smiling happily, “Look, after this, your Captain Ding will be the negative example they hang up on the wall for everyone to see.”
After disbanding the group, Gu Xinzhi turned and left without a word.
When Ding Qiuyun managed to find him, he was running rounds around the field.
Ding Qiuyun caught up to him from behind, and began running side-by-side with him.
Gu Xinzhi saw him, but pretended not to notice.
Ding Qiuyun greeted him, “Hi~”
Gu Xinzhi didn’t respond.
Ding Qiuyun, “Hi hi~~”
Gu Xinzhi suddenly moved, grabbing Ding Qiuyun by the collar and pressing him down onto the grass in the centre of the track. He squashed him down with his body, kissing Ding Qiuyun until he was out of breath.
Ding Qiuyun was both excited yet pained, “Don’t don’t don’t, deputy Gu, my leg’s cramping, aiyo……”
Gu Xinzhi grabbed his calf. His quiet gaze burned with an intensity Ding Qiuyun couldn’t quite understand. “Captain Ding.”
Ding Qiuyun wrapped his arms around his neck, wincing as he exercised his calf. “Ah?”
“Captain Ding likes me.” There was some unspeakable emotion in Gu Xinzhi’s voice. “Otherwise he wouldn’t have gone to save me.”
Ding Qiuyun replied honestly, “In that kind of situation, I would have gone to save them no matter who it was.”
Gu Xinzhi cupped his hand around his face, his peach-blossom eyes boring straight into him with their gaze. “Is that so, Captain Ding?”
Ding Qiuyun was amused. “But I needed to save you especially.”
The two were both adults. Since they had pierced that layer of window paper, they naturally got together in a heartbeat.
Ding Qiuyun returned to where he came from, finished his remaining two years of university, and successfully secured a place in graduate school.
In his fourth year, he went to work in a zoo in the city as a zookeeper, in what could be considered an internship.
With the current level of science and technology they were at, the role of a zookeeper was no longer merely feeding animals.
On his first day, the old administrator introduced, “Since you were recommended by Qiao-laoshi, you’ll be responsible for managing the leopard park. Food and water are all supplied at fixed times in fixed amounts, and the AI in charge of observing them will write a daily observation log. All you need to do everyday is to check the system, and confirm that the system is running normally.”
This job seemed a little boring. Ding Qiuyun asked, “What if the leopard falls sick?”
The old administrator looked at him through his glasses for longsightedness. “The medical AI will treat it, you only need to make sure that the system is operating normally.”
Ding Qiuyun let out a slight sigh.
He really didn’t like this kind of fully automated system. It seemed far too impersonal. In fact, there wasn’t actually much of a difference between each profession, as long as you recruited a student who studied information management, they could move between all walks of life.
But that was the general trend in society now, he had no choice.
The old administrator brought him to a nursery. He pointed at a little baby leopard that was loudly nursing and said, “Right, there’s also the duty of watching over the newborn leopards, which is also yours.”
As Ding Qiuyun looked at this kitten-like little leopard, just as he broke into a smile, he heard the old administrator say, “This one’s going to be dealt with today, but that doesn’t have much to do with you, you just need to look after it.”
Ding Qiuyun didn’t understand what he meant. “Dealt with how?”
The old administrator said, “We’ve done a full-body examination of this leopard. It doesn’t have cancer, so it needs to be dissected and studied.”
Ding Qiuyun felt like this logic was a little muddled.
The old administrator peered at him from over his glasses, “About what’s going on with cancer, have you not heard about it?”
If he was talking about the evolution of cancer cells, Ding Qiuyun had of course heard about it.
With the changes in the natural and medical environment, in order to resist all kinds of drugs, cancer cells too had evolved.
Previously, the global cases of cancer in humans had already reached 17% of the population, and had been very difficult to cure.
But through the old administrator’s words, only then did Ding Qiuyun learn just how terrifying a degree cancer had developed to in just two years.
Cancer cells, having gone through a long struggle against anti-cancer drugs, coupled with the effects of the decline and pollution of the natural environment, had finally completely revealed a new, previously not obvious trait—— heritability.
If, say, in the past, cancer just had a chance of being inherited, now, the heritability of cancer was over 80%.
This trait was first observed in the reproduction and proliferation of leopards. Later on, the same situation occurred with other animals.
Especially in artificially bred animals, eighty to ninety percent of newborns would carry congenital cancer genes.
With the rapid spread of such symptoms, they soon started to occur in humans as well.
When a string of eight less than four-month-old babies died due to complication from malignant congenital tumours, the medical community panicked.
They started testing on animals, trying to speed up the pace of overcoming these evolved cancer cells, and began to dissect baby animals that didn’t carry cancer cells after birth, so as to produce a preventative drug like the DPT vaccine to be injected into pregnant women to stop the impact of cancer on the next generation.
After hearing the old administrator’s explanation, Ding Qiuyun felt a little uncomfortable.
Especially after the old administrator left, and he saw the baby leopard bite on the little velvet cushion beneath it and squeaking, utterly unaware of what was going to happen, it was really hard for him to accept.
He wanted to save this little thing, but after he brought it out, where could he go?
To the wild, where it could grow, and release it there?
……But where was the wild now?
The development of the environment had already reached its peak. Humans had left their footprints in every corner of the world they could reach.
Many new species had been discovered by human beings, who placed them into science publications, attracting the praise of enthusiasts, but very few people bothered to think about whether they’d wanted to be disturbed or not.
Each creature’s habitat had been delineated by fences, and every creature had its own serial number. Even creatures living more than 2000 metres deep in the sea were being monitored.
Through thermal and activity sensing devices, the AI would automatically scan new animals, and add them to the register.
To humans, other creatures had completely lost their mystery. Jackals and wolves, tigers and leopards, bugs and snakes, whales and sharks, had all become human beings’, or rather AI’s playthings and test subjects.
This job had been introduced to him by his tutor, but from his first day of practice, Ding Qiuyun lost his initial enthusiasm.
He often had a vague sense of danger.
His parents had once told him, a long time ago, humans hadn’t had this level of technology, but neither had the people of the past had such a strong sense of superiority.
If the things that people nowadays relied on were to disappear overnight……
At such times, he would always feel especially nostalgic for his time in the army.
So he contacted Gu Xinzhi, and told him about his troubles.
Gu Xinzhi said, I’ll come see you.
Ding Qiuyun said, no, you’re busy, I’ll come visit you when my internship ends.
Who would’ve thought, this agreement would be completely shattered after two months.