This Game Is Too Realistic-Chapter 586.2: This Is Too Extreme

"... Mr. Yore, sorry to have let you sleep so long. I kept hesitating whether to wake you on your 80th birthday, but then I remembered what you said. You wanted to see a beautiful new world. That might take a little longer..."

"It’s 2174 now, the 45th of the Wasteland Era. When you’ll see this letter, I can’t say... Maybe it will be 2229? I hope not. No one should sleep that long."

"My body is failing. Even with bionic organs, everything else ages. Lately, everything’s a mess. Those fools from 50 years ago still hadn’t had enough, and now they’re fighting again... The Post-War Reconstruction Committee was dissolved. Now it’s the Enterprise, Academy, and Army. Who knows what’s next."

"Ah, you must be confused. Where do I even begin... In short, the Post-War Reconstruction Committee was the body I told you about, set up to rebuild more efficiently. You can see it as a continuation of the Federation. It inherited all the Federation’s bad habits. Of course it had merits too, but that’s irrelevant now. The best age has ended. It ended again."

"Never thought I would live through two apocalypses in one lifetime. Now we stand with the survivors of Singularity City, the refugee camp near the old institute has grown into something real. A few days ago, researchers from the East Coast fled here. I read their work... Honestly, their ideas are wild beyond belief."

"I agree with them. As long as people remain people, they’ll repeat the same mistakes over and over. The only way to end it once and for all is to make humans into a new species, strong, long-lived, intelligent, and docile. They call it being a Complete Human! Such a rare chance... Why not give the new humanity cat ears? Haha, just kidding."

"They’re unbelievably brave, using unstable experimental reagents on themselves. However,the results were stunning. Now we already have strong bodies. Next we must think about how to engrave more excellent traits into DNA."

"You probably think I’ve gone mad. Honestly, I think so too. But... As a researcher, this is the only thing I can do for the rest of my kin."

"Let’s put research aside for now and talk about something happy. The unity shown by the residents of Singularity City gave me hope. They abandoned illusions in such a short time and decided to save themselves. Even the winter shows signs of easing. Perhaps before long we’ll be able to grow more food outside... The outlook is positive. Maybe in another 50 years, everything will be fine again."

"I’m sorry I took it upon myself to extend your hibernation, but please believe it was done with good intentions. I’ve always felt guilty, back then, when you had just stepped into society, I took you to Brocade Lake Municipality, and you spent every day in the lab until the very last day before the end. Sadly, those days can never return, but at least in the future I hope you can live in a beautiful new world... If I could, I’d want to apologize face to face, but after thinking it over, I chose to write it all down in this letter."

"I am too old now, unable to travel through time. This letter may be the last trace I leave in this world."

"I wish you a happy life in the new world."

"To my dearest friend."

"... A friend who chose to remain in the past."

Reading the letter from start to finish, Yore stayed silent for a long time. He took a deep breath, then carefully put the notebook and the letter away.

He was truly alone now.

The only cord still tying him to the world was this letter in his hand, and the unfinished research of his senior.

Behind him, an old man said softly. "Your friend was a respectable researcher."

Yore turned to look at him. "You are...?"

The old man said quietly, "I am Luo Qian, from Shelter 117."

Hearing that name, Chu Guang revealed a look of shock. In contrary, Yore’s expression did not change at all, nor did the word Shelter stir any warmth in him.

Separated by more than two centuries...

Even if the language had not changed, even if they were still human, could they really be called the same species?

"Did you know my senior?" Yore asked.

The old man shook his head, then nodded. "I was born in a shelter. I only escaped from that cage recently. Naturally, I couldn’t know someone who lived more than a century ago." After a pause, he went on. "But if I had the chance to meet him, I believe we would have become very good friends."

Yore shot him a puzzled look. "Why do you think so?"

Luo Qian smiled faintly. "Because thought itself is a subjective act, and research even more so. I understood his research, and through that, I understood him as a person."

"Is that so..."

As Yore fell into thought, Luo Qian continued, "As long as humans remain human, they will repeat the same mistakes. We agree completely with his view. Along the way, we’ve seen too much hopeless stupidity, whether devouring others directly or devising new ways to devour them."

Yore’s face showed no surprise, only a calm statement. "So the outside world has already become like that."

It didn’t surprise him at all.

In fact, when he learned it was two centuries later, he had already guessed the state of the outside world.

Luo Qian nodded gently. "We don’t want to think pessimistically that this is a curse written into our genes, but most of my companions and I are tired."

"Since leaving Shelter 117, we’ve been searching for the seed of a miracle. First in Boulder Town, then other settlements... We traveled more than 800 kilometers, yet never found the faintest shadow of hope. Instead, we lost many excellent people."

"Singularity City is our final stop. We agreed that if even this place failed, then we would give up."

Yore asked, "Did you give up?"

Luo Qian chuckled, "Almost... When we saw those green-skinned monsters, we had already given up. Even if some of those old creatures still kept a trace of human conscience and respect for knowledge and let us go, it couldn’t change their corruption."

"Outside the institute are those who eat people..." Yore glanced at the envelope in his hand and rubbed his chin. "So... My senior’s research failed?"

For some reason, there was no regret in his heart. Instead... he felt a kind of relief.

That way, the choice he had staked his life on would not be meaningless. It might not be the beautiful new world, but at least there was still something left for him to do.

Like now. The meaning of life was in his grasp.

"I wouldn’t call it a failure. It is merely unfinished," Luo Qian said. "He gave the new humans strong bodies, but also planted the seed of violence in their genes. He had planned to solve this in the future, but the seed sprouted before he could. If only we had woken earlier, met him sooner..."

"That coward with the key kept telling us to wait, to put our faith in the Federation that couldn’t even save itself. As if following orders and leaving everything to our children would solve everything."

"We watched the flame go out, little by little, until the endless night swallowed the land. No matter how far we went, there were no miracles, neither light-years away, nor decades later."

At that, Luo Qian looked at Yore with a serious look on his face.

"We intend to end this meaningless journey, and continue his research. If possible, we hope you’ll help us."

"To complete the unfinished Project Complete Human?" Yore thought for a moment, then agreed instantly. "Understood. I’ll help."

Luo Qian looked at him in surprise, then smiled across his wrinkled face.

Collecting his smile, he solemnly extended his right hand. "Thank you for joining us. Our ship to the new world now has another excellent crew member."

"You’re welcome." Yore grasped his hand and gave it a shake.

"My thoughts are the same as yours. If 200 years of sleep couldn’t bring the new world, then waiting another 200 would be no different. If I must be the oar of this ship, then I will be."

After this handshake, Luo Qian bid farewell to Yore and went south with the rest of the Torch Church. They had struck an agreement with the local mutants. The Champion Group would help them research stronger prosthetic implants, and in return, the mutants had to cooperate in experiments.

The elder priests of the Qi tribe were descendants of Singularity City’s survivors. They led the Ancestor Faction, whose reverence for knowledge and scholars exceeded the ordinary, one of the traditions passed down from Singularity City, where a group of technicians had once helped them long ago.

Even the younger mutants, who superstitiously believed brains of the clever tasted better, came to an unusual agreement with the Ancestor Faction’s elders after seeing the power of bionic augmentation, at least they would not eat the researchers.

The experiments continued in an orderly fashion.

When Luo Qian returned again, it was 19 years later, 2339, the 210th year of the Wasteland Era, just one year before Chu Guang woke up.

Feeling the weight of time, Chu Guang suddenly sighed.

Resting his elbow on his knee, Little Seven, perched on his shoulder, turned its face toward him. "What’s wrong, Master?"

Chu Guang replied briefly, "Nothing. Just a bit emotional, seeing the vast changes of this land in the memory of a small man."

The scene continued to flow.

This time, Luo Qian had uploaded his consciousness onto a circuit board, and their meeting place was no longer reality but the virtual Sanctuary.

At the same time, Luo Qian brought new news.

They had already established a theocracy in the south, ruled by the Torch Church.