C3 Part1

TL'd by pleasepickthisup on ScribbleHub.

The women’s restroom was indeed much smaller than the men’s restroom.

Yuan Rong stood in front of the men’s restroom, it was at least three times the size of the women’s restroom. He had already searched the women’s restroom, it had been too clean. It looked unused, as if it was newly built

Auderentè walked towards Yuan Rong and shook his head. “I didn’t see anything worth mentioning.”

“Say, do you think that this stadium is newly built and hasn’t been opened yet?”

“But that wouldn’t explain why there are no signs of life.”

No signs of life...

Yuan Rong’s heart stuttered, “I just thought of an unpleasant idea...I’ve been to a world where humans had already gone extinct. In order to commemorate the earth, aliens had transformed an earth-like planet into a museum. The museum didn’t have any signs of life either, but they did have robots which regularly cleaned the place. However, it was much cleaner there than it is here.”

Auderentè’s eyes darkened, “So what you mean to say is that this place is similar to that museum, but it's been abandoned?

Yuan Rong continued, “Ever since I woke up, I’ve been wondering why the moisture levels here are so low. Everything would make sense if this was an artificially made environment.”

Auderentè interrupted Yuan Rong as he thought out loud, “No, there aren’t any.”

“Any what?”

“I checked, there aren’t any intelligent systems here. So, this place has no signs of life and has no advanced technology. I think...the situation here is much more complicated than we originally thought.”

“I agree,” Yuan Rong firmly stated, “the moisture level here is way too low. It’s obviously not a suitable environment for humans to live in.”

“So, I think that...humans have mutated.”

Yuan Rong was surprised.

“You mean...they mutated into a new type of human, and that the new type has an uneven ratio of men and women?”

“Human anatomy has probably changed as well. For instance, their skin might be more adapted to dry environments, or their respiratory systems might be able to deal with low levels of oxygen…”

Yuan Rong didn't dare to delve any further. He felt a chill crawl up his spine. Yuan Rong’s previous worlds only dealt with monster invasions, war outbreaks, or paranormal experiences. The world he’d had the hardest time adapting to was the one with aliens and extinct humans. He had never imagined that humans would mutate.

He found it hard to accept the thought of the bustling crowds from the past transforming into coldblooded 'mutants’.

Auderentè took in his reaction and softly comforted him, “You would’ve eventually run into one of these more collapsed worlds. I think that this world will let you gain some more experience. And, it’s not as bad as some of the others out there.”

Yuan Rong hung his head, “Thanks for worrying. It’s just hard for me to imagine that humanity would eventually face a day like this.”

Even though his original world had had a growing problem of nuclear pollution, he had never imagined that the creations – which were meant to help mankind – would one day backfire.

Yuan Rong’s fleeting emotions of shock, irony, sadness, and sympathy were all keenly caught by Auderentè. He hesitated for a while, not knowing where he should place his hands. One of his hands ended up caressing the soft hair of the young man who was shorter than him.

Yuan Rong’s hair was very thin and felt cool to the touch, like a shallow stream of water flowing over his palm.

The young man looked up, his black eyes widening in shock. He looked baffled.

He was clearly very dignified and powerful. But he always showed a meek and subdued expression in front of Auderentè. It made Auderentè feel a sense of loss.

“You don’t have to be like this.” Auderentè’s throat clenched. “You don’t have to be so careful around me. I’ve already told you, I don’t intend to harm you. I didn’t mean to hurt you earlier, and I won’t do it again in the future. So you don’t have to be so…” careful.

The young man looked at Auderentè like a vigilant deer. He stared with his black eyes for a long time before revealing a smile.

“Okay.”

The two eventually reached an agreement. They would go outside to investigate the outside world, before returning to explore the gymnasium.

The front door was locked. Auderentè let his power devour a human-sized hole. He covered the hole up once the two had exited the gymnasium. Before Yuan Rong could admire Auderentè for his closeness to the 'rules', he had been stunned by the outside world.

This place...seemed to differ from the traditional image of a city.

It was too quiet.

To be honest, it couldn’t even be called “quiet”, a better word to describe it was “dead”. It was as if time had frozen like a stagnant pool of water with no ripples running across its surface.

There was no wind, and no fog. There were only gloomy clouds covering the sun, which hung in the grey sky.

Everything around them was broken and dilapidated, it was unbearable. No amount of negative words could describe the scene in front of them.

The two buildings in front of them had accumulated so much dust that no one could tell what color they had originally been. The buildings were like tombstones, waiting for the next tomb-sweeping to arrive.

Looking at the dilapidated and deserted scene in front of them, it could be seen that the human civilization of this world had been fairly modern. But it had been around 10 yearssince the area had been abandoned.

Yuan Rong checked the moisture levels of the air outside. Sure enough, “The outside world and gymnasium have the same moisture levels.”

Auderentè nodded, “For humans to abandon it, something big must’ve happened here.”

“‘Abandon’ might not be the right word. If it was, why were we sent to the gymnasium? Say, do you think humans could’ve adapted to living in a new environment?”

Yuan Rong faced Auderentè’s deep, unfathomable eyes, and explained. “Like this. In order to adapt to a sudden decrease in moisture, humans started to live underground. Or maybe underwater?”

But Yuan Rong quickly debunked his theory.

Evolution couldn’t occur overnight. The city had been abandoned for around 10 years. That might not be a very short amount of time, but it still wasn’t enough for evolution to occur.

“Let’s say that humans really did mutate, it wouldn’t have been a very drastic mutation.” Yuan Rong scanned the area around him, “Look, the shapes of the buildings, the sizes of the doorways, and the nearby facilities haven’t changed much.”

“If it wasn’t a large mutation, then we only have one possibility left.” Auderentè solemnly said. “The population suddenly decreased.”

This was the most common occurrence in collapsed worlds.

The two had experienced their fair share of worlds where cities had been abandoned due to a sudden decline in the human population after doomsday.

一 worlds always had clues, and they were also always savable. So far, the largest clue they had been handed was the gymnasium.

Looking back at the gymnasium, the dilapidated, blue glass of the stadium’s outer surface was reflecting the gloomy grey sky. If it had been a clear, sunny day, one could only imagine how beautiful the scene would have been.

What sort of disaster would cause a sharp decrease in the human population, and cause a gymnasium to shut down?

The gymnasium had been fully equipped, and it’s interior had been tidy. It hadn’t been shut down right after construction, nor had it been abandoned in a hurry. It definitely was not the remnants of a flood, earthquake, nuclear explosion, or the uprising of a cult.

The two had no other choice but to start searching the streets for clues.

Everything was in a state of disrepair.

A car blocked the middle of the street. It’s windows were broken, and everything inside had been stolen. The nearby shops had broken doors, and all of their items had been cleared out. The two streets closest to the gymnasium were part of downtown; there were no residencies nearby. After walking a whole block, a residential community finally came into view. Human households always had many clues.

The sun was always setting. Yuan Rong guessed that they’d woken up at noon. He estimated that they had already explored for 3 hours, it was going to be dark soon.

“It’s getting late, we should search separately. Let’s meet up at the community gate once the sun completely sets.”

Auderentè nodded. He had stayed silent the whole time, only responding when Yuan Rong speculated out loud. This made Yuan Rong feel at ease.

The community was called Ronghua Tiangcheng, and it was very close to downtown. It was in a very good location. The environment was also very good. Pine trees and sycamore trees grew on the streets, which were densely covered in cobblestone trails. Two stone lions stood on each side of the community’s marble gate. A sign framed in 4k gold said “Ronghua Tiangcheng”. The sign was hung on a marble fountain. There was a tiger-like creature sitting in the middle of the fountain.

But after doomsday, the luxurious decoration had been covered in dust. And the now dry fountain was full of fallen leaves and trash.

A flash of color suddenly caught Yuan Rong’s attention. What is that…? He drew in closer. It was a pile of bones!

This destroyed the way he been viewing the world.

Yuan Rong had assumed that this wasn’t a monster-infested world. He’d already experienced worlds where monsters ran rampant, dead bodies had littered the streets. There’d been both human monsters and strange creatures. Although they were dilapidated, the streets of this world were relatively clean, and there were no signs of human civilization breaking down.

But he had just found a bone in the fountain.

It was fresh and clean. He couldn’t tell if the meat on it had been eaten, or if it had fallen off naturally.

Was it just a coincidence?

Yuan Rong didn't dare to underestimate the enemy. Dilapidated and empty streets did not mean that there wasn’t any danger.

He called on a torrent of water to surround him. Auderentè was nowhere to be seen, he must’ve gone to the other half of the community according to their previous agreement. Yuan Rong glanced at the sky before quickening his pace.

He stepped into a corridor and heard a clear crunch.

He looked down, there was a decayed bone at his feet! The corridor was dimly lit and Yuan Rong had to lean in closely to see clearly. It was a human calf bone.

He looked at the walls surrounding him. He saw a few faint traces of splattered blood.

Did the owner of the calf-bone get injured in the corridor? But too many years had passed, all other traces had disappeared, and only the blood splatters remained.

The high-end residential community was very large. It was split into 4 complexes, each complex had 5 floors, and each floor had one residency. This lowered down Yuan Rong’s scope of exploration by a lot.

He thought of a question: this was a good location situated near downtown, so why did the building have 5 floors? If this had been his original world, there would’ve been at least 10 more floors.

Although the building was dilapidated, it could be seen that it was relatively new. Once the walls were dusted down, they looked as good as new. It could be seen that the building had only been used for a small amount of time.

Such a new residential community only had a few floors. Did the investors not want to earn money?

Yuan Rong could only conclude that the city didn’t have a very developed economy.

The door to the first floor was locked, indicating that the owner had had the time to lock the door before leaving. This let Yuan Rong ease up a bit, if the door had been left unlocked, it would’ve meant that the situation had been very bad.

The translator has something to say:

Dang, this chapter was long that I had to split it into two equal parts (each are about 3000 characters).

Part 2 might be the last chapter I end up doing. Not sure, I've been talking to another user/group (atlass_) who seems to want to pick this up! But something really confusing recently happened to me and they've gone MIA for two days so maybe not...

I'll give you an update on what's going on in the next half of the chapter!

Edit:

No, this is not dropped, at least not for now. Some people are in talks with me about picking this up.