Humanity's Final Countdown

Chapter 19 The Battle to Save the Nose

　　Yu Qing sat on the toilet in extreme anxiety - if he couldn't stall the surgery, his nose would be lost forever.

　　After just half an hour, Baosi asked: "Darling, you're not deliberately stalling for time, are you?"

　　"I…I…have constipation. Please wait a little longer."

　　"You don't seem very willing anymore. Come out and see this nose - how beautiful it is. I bet you'd fall in love with it at first touch."

　　To buy more time, Yu Qing suddenly said: "I actually like your nose - unless you remove yours and give it to me!"

　　Baosi laughed: "If I could, I certainly would.

　　But my nose is just for show - it has no functional purpose. Because I don't need to breathe oxygen."

　　"Then add the function to it…"

　　"The models are incompatible, it can't be done. Stop dragging your feet…"

　　At this moment, Yu Qing suddenly shivered: he imagined his nose being horribly mutilated, leaving a bloody hole on his face, only to be patched up with a metal prosthesis…

　　Another half hour passed, and Baosi said, "What, still not ready? If it's not done soon, we won't wait any longer!"

　　"Almost there, just a few more minutes."

　　After about ten more minutes, Yu Qing had exhausted all his tricks and could only resort to a desperate measure. As he stood up from the toilet, he feigned fainting and collapsed to the ground.

　　"Quick, carry him to the bed and check his blood pressure and blood sugar," ordered Baosi.

　　Taking advantage of their flustered state, he quietly pushed the syringe filled with medication by the nurse onto the floor, shattering it.

　　Hearing the sharp shattering sound of the syringe hitting the ground, Baosi and the nurses all turned to look, momentarily stunned.

　　"Should we still proceed with the surgery?" one nurse asked.

　　Baosi said unhappily: "How can we proceed? There's no medicine left, won't he be screaming in pain?

　　Besides, should we really lose income from one less procedure?"

　　Upon hearing this, Yu Qing hurriedly pretended to wake up, crying "Ouch! Ouch!

　　"What's wrong with you now?"

　　"My stomach hurts terribly."

　　Baosi said helplessly:

　　"In that case, with the medicine spilled and you in poor condition, you should stay overnight for observation. We'll continue the surgery tomorrow after getting more medicine."

　　"Okay, tomorrow then, tomorrow."

　　Yu Qing had planned to wait until they left to find a way to escape. Little did he expect those five humanoid women to surround his bed and enter standby mode right there!

　　He struggled all night but couldn't escape the operating room.

　　The moment he got off the sickbed, a hand would immediately drag him back onto it.

　　They had a standby mode where they slept with one eye open.

　　This was practically no different from house arrest.

　　Fortunately, early next morning, Yaodan arrived.

　　When Yaodan entered the hospital for identity verification, the Shengtian terminal forcibly downloaded some intelligence data from her memory:

　　This included Dr. Lu's passing and observations from the rainforest flora and fauna research open area.

　　Of course, most importantly, it contained the news that everyone except Yu Qing had died in the Primordial First Paradise.

　　Although the terminal couldn't connect to the Shengtian mainframe, it possessed considerable local computing power.

　　It quickly calculated that Yu Qing was the sole beneficiary of the Yu Yunshan Foundation, with nominal total wealth reaching 6000 trillion RB as of 2C14.

　　Most crucially, the Yu Yunshan Fund was the major shareholder of Wengshan Shengtian Hospital, holding 66.8% of shares.

　　In other words, Yu Qing was effectively the true owner of this hospital.

　　Therefore, the original computation result of trying to sell the hospital to Yu Qing was utterly absurd.

　　After all, you can't make someone buy what they already own.

　　Protecting major shareholders' interests was the top priority in program settings, so attempting to upsell services to Yu Qing was also an error that should be immediately stopped.

　　The terminal also initiated the blame-shifting algorithm. The truth didn't matter—what mattered was pinning the blame on the link that would incur the least cost and minimal impact.

　　If the terminal were deemed faulty, replacement or modification would require excessive investment, clearly not cost-effective.

　　To prevent negative spillover or minimize losses, pinning it on Baosi was the most suitable option.

　　Thus, the terminal concluded that Baosi should be destroyed.

　　As for the report to the board, the cause could be attributed to a rare "complete functional disorder" in the humanoid model—and an isolated case at that.

　　By the time Yaodan rushed to the operating room door, the terminal had already issued the command, and the door was slowly opening.

　　Two humanoid enforcers, tasked with "apprehending" Baosi, followed closely behind Yaodan.

　　They carried a specially designed container—once a humanoid was placed inside, her internal systems would be instantly incinerated.

　　At this moment, Yu Qing had no idea what was happening. Seeing the door open and Yao Dan still standing there, he immediately jumped off the bed and lunged toward her.

　　But his foot tripped over a humanoid guard stationed by the bed, losing his balance. Stumbling, he collided with Bao Si—who was equally clueless—and they both fell to the ground together.

　　By sheer coincidence, his lips landed firmly on Bao Si's in a kiss.

　　Yao Dan cried out, "Husband, don't… sign…"

　　But her warning came too late.

　　This new development was immediately relayed to the terminal.

　　Since Bao Si was now considered private property, the previous order to destroy her was revoked. The two box-carrying humanoids nervously retreated.

　　Unaware of everything, Yu Qing only cared about saving his own nose, paying no attention to signing or not. He scrambled up, grabbed Yao Dan's hand, and bolted out of the hospital.

　　Noticing this, Da Ji and the others assumed something terrible had occurred and raced after them.

　　If Yu Qing's identity hadn't already been confirmed, he would never have escaped. Naturally, no one would stop him now.

　　Just after leaving the hospital, Yao Dan immediately carried Yu Qing on her back.

　　The flight suit was with Daji and the others, so she had to rely on her legs to sprint—though she didn't understand why her husband was fleeing.

　　Signing to purchase another humanoid beauty wasn't that big of a deal anyway.

　　"What happened? Where are we going?"

　　"I'll explain in detail later. Let's get at least three or four miles away first. I haven't even had dinner since yesterday—we'll find something to eat and drink then. That hospital was practically a den of wolves."

　　Daji and the others flanked Yao Dan as they ran.

　　Yan'er asked, "You didn't even have time to grab your clothes—what now?"

　　Yao Dan replied, "How useless. What else can we do? We'll just have to find another set at Weng Mountain!"

　　Only then did Yu Qing realize he was still wearing hospital pajamas, sweating profusely from the heat.

　　Dr. Lu's outfit had built-in cooling—it would've been far more comfortable outdoors.

　　Estimating they had run quite a distance, Yu Qing finally signaled Yao Dan to stop.

　　Wengshan's streets were broad and spotless, where humanoid sanitation workers had even collected the tiniest scrap of paper into waste processing stations.

　　Most astonishingly, various shops remained in operation. Had he not known beforehand that this place was utterly devoid of people, he might truly have mistaken those humanoid beauties for real humans.

　　A peculiar melancholy welled up in his heart:

　　Humans ceaselessly manufactured products, only to ultimately surrender everything to the very things they had created.

　　Daji and her companions quickly located the food distribution station and carried Yu Qing there.

　　The station automatically activated whenever it detected approaching human biological activity.

　　Over a century ago, Wengshan had achieved unlimited free provision of water, electricity, and food, ushering society into an era of ultimate entertainment.

　　At that time, only 5% of people engaged in essential research work, while others were born solely for pleasure—living like kings on the government's monthly stipend of 100,000 RB.

　　Those with jobs were even more invaluable, with some having over three thousand humanoid beauties serving them.

　　Yu Qing didn't yet know he was among Earth's top one hundred wealthiest individuals. A man going out with only four humanoid beauties like him would have been considered impoverished here back then – you needed nine or more to qualify as middle class.

　　"Darling, where should we go now?" Yan'er pressed as soon as Yu Qing swallowed his last bite of synthetic food.

　　Daji patted Yu Qing's back and said, "Could we let our dear finish digesting his food before talking?"

　　"Where to? To Second Paradise, of course. But we shouldn't rush either – let's first understand all the places we pass along the way. They might prove useful later."

　　"True, we're practically clueless about how the outside world is now.

　　For instance, my map data doesn't even contain this street. We've been abandoned."

　　Daji raised her hand to activate a hologram, pointing at the 3D image of Urn Mountain while complaining.

　　Yaodan raised her hand to unfold her hologram, let out an "Oh," and said:

　　"My data is slightly newer, identical to what's here, but unfortunately can't connect to satellites for the latest updates…"

　　Yuqing asked: "Since Yaodan's data is newer, could you help update Daji and the others? Sweetheart, can you?"

　　"Husband, it's not that I won't help, but my data format has become completely incompatible with theirs.

　　You know, when I just retrieved new data from the hospital station, I couldn't even open the file format, though my uploaded materials were accepted by their system."

　　"Those profiteers! All just to accelerate product turnover and sell more devices."

　　Furong finally spoke up at this point, saying:

　　"They're forcing our dear to phase us out."

　　Yuqing, realizing he'd been ignoring Furong, teased:

　　"Come here, dear, let me see what kind of modernized rear end they've equipped you with."

　　Furong widened her eyes and said:

　　"Right here? In public? This violates propriety regulations."

　　Yuqing laughed heartily: "Alright alright, I'll stop teasing you.

　　Let's find a luxury hotel first and book the most expensive, best room available.

　　Anyway their system only checks if the numbers match, not whether the payment actually went through."

　　Yao Dan said: "Why look for another hotel? I forgot to tell you - your family already owns one at Weng Mountain!"

　　Yu Qing was astonished: "My father never mentioned this to me?"

　　"Your grandfather's grandfather probably didn't know either - it was opened by Elder Yu Yunshan back in the day!"

　　"That's perfect! I was worried we'd run into another shop that wants to cut off my nose!

　　Surely the old man wouldn't be bastard enough to scam his own descendants."

　　Yao Dan carried Yu Qing on her back to the entrance of "Yu Yunshan's Homecoming Grand Hotel".

　　However, when Daji went for identity verification, she was denied entry.

　　During the elder's era, humanoid beauties weren't popular yet, so his rule was: only direct descendants could stay personally.

　　You heard right - this hotel doesn't accept outsiders, only his direct blood descendants.

　　Back when his favorite grandson disagreed with him and insisted on entering First Paradise, the old man built this hotel in the nearest city to First Paradise and entrusted its management to a third party.

　　For over a century, the hotel never welcomed back a single descendant. The entrusted managers passed the responsibility down through several generations, gradually treating it as a joke—only periodically receiving substantial maintenance fees.

　　Most of these maintenance funds were embezzled, with only a tiny portion spent on superficial upgrades, like the grand and impressive entrance and exterior walls.

　　The best-maintained system was identity verification, as it was a prerequisite that had to pass inspection before management fees would be paid.

　　Fifty years ago, the managers even applied for a special renovation budget as agreed, purchasing ten humanoid greeters for the hotel.

　　Now, those ten humanoid greeters identified Yu Qing's biological traits and approached him with welcoming smiles, guiding him to the identity verification camera to confirm his identity.

　　He was ushered into the hotel while Yaodan's group was confirmed as his accompanying cargo and permitted entry.

　　Upon entering, Yuqing was stunned—the interior was completely empty, everything was just stage scenery!

　　At least it was clean, suggesting those ten humanoid beauties must clean it regularly.

　　Yan'er exclaimed, "What kind of nonsense is this? Where will the baby sleep? Take us to see the rooms!"

　　The greeting humanoids ignored her, only leading Yuqing when he requested to see the rooms.

　　In truth, there was no point looking: upon opening, it seemed fully furnished, but it was just a 3D painting.

　　Furious but suppressing his anger, Yuqing still smiled warmly at the greeters and said:

　　"You all go rest in the rooms first. I'll call for you later."

　　The greeters replied in unison, "As you command, Master."

　　After they entered the rooms, Yuqing signaled Yaodan to lock the door, then strode out of the hotel. The others followed.

　　Daji said discontentedly: "Yaodan, aren't you supposed to have more updated information than us? Please find a reliable place for us, dear."

　　"If you're so capable, go find one yourself!"

　　Yuqing put his left arm around Yaodan and right arm around Daji, saying:

　　"Let's not argue, okay? It's just a matter of finding another hotel, no big deal."

　　At this moment, Furong suddenly chimed in: "Isn't the city empty anyway? There must be plenty of vacant houses we can just move into."

　　Yuqing laughed: "Furong, sometimes I wonder if you didn't just get your butt replaced, but your whole brain too.

　　You're right though - we can stay wherever has good houses, who cares if it's a hotel or not, right?

　　If they want money, we'll pay. If not, all the better - we'll save some!"

　　"What if the doors are locked?"

　　"We'll use whatever we find to break in."

　　Yaodan raised her hand, pointing at the holographic map before them:

　　"About five hundred meters ahead, there's a villa that was quite famous back in the day. Shall we stay there?"

　　"Let's go there."

　　They walked over at a leisurely pace, chatting and laughing along the way.

　　(End of Chapter)