Apocalypse: Last Traveler

The laptop finally charged a quarter of the way, Lu Xi'an opened it to check and confirmed that there was enough memory space, then let Gou lead the file transfer.

After all, this wasn't the usual way of transferring; the two computers connected by a data cable were each isolated, unable to display one machine's memory on the other.

The transfer process was still led by Gou, so Lu Xi'an didn't need to do any dragging or such operations.

Lu Xi'an thought that fortunately there was Gou, otherwise, this couldn't be done today and would have to wait for an opportunity to find an external hard drive, or a USB drive.

He couldn't help but think: Gou is truly all-purpose!

How on earth was it created, and for what kind of application scenario was it made to become so versatile as it is now?

Unable to understand, Lu Xi'an even felt that he might never grasp the truth in his lifetime.

So he stopped overthinking it and started examining the laptop.

Video and audio files were starting to transfer, and after opening the laptop's storage space, Lu Xi'an saw two newly added folders, one "My Videos," and the other "My Music," both filled with many files. However, because the transfer wasn't complete, he couldn't view them yet.

The file transfer seemed to need a little more time.

Lu Xi'an took the opportunity to browse through the computer's contents.

He initially thought something like this Ox Head Mountain Observatory's machine would have some files, like observation data or something, but after thoroughly searching every nook and cranny of the computer, he found nothing.

Such a large laptop space was basically all empty.

As if this computer was a newly issued work device but stayed in the car trunk of the gas station, never having been used.

But Lu Xi'an wasn't giving up, trying to find things elsewhere since he couldn't find them in the memory space.

The desktop icons weren't many, with "My Computer," "Recycle Bin," "Control Panel," " . ", "Browser," and "Solitaire."

Hmm…

There's a solitaire game, that's nice.

On cold days later, you could use this game to kill time.

But for now, Lu Xi'an did not investigate this game.

Having already checked "My Computer" with nothing much inside, and the Recycle Bin was empty, not to mention the Control Panel which didn't need to be looked at, he swiped the touchpad with his finger to double-click the " . " and the browser.

The icon marked with a little dot, perhaps it was once used for monitoring software or to record observation data, anyway after Lu Xi'an clicked it, there was no response, and it wouldn't open no matter what.

He searched in "My Computer," but the things related to the " . " were hidden somewhere unknown, and no matter how he searched, Lu Xi'an just couldn't find it.

He simply gave up and then clicked to view the browser.

The browser opened directly to "Unable to connect to network."

Of course, Lu Xi'an didn't expect this laptop to have any miraculous network signal on its own, not being connected to the internet was normal.

One marvelous thing, just having Gou is enough.

After a brief look, he opened the history; there were many entries, all timestamped 2112/12/9.

It looked like this laptop had been used before, and the last usage ended on that day?

If he remembered correctly, the computers at Mengxin Petroleum all had their dates set to the year 2100, and this laptop was indeed twelve years later.

What had happened to the world in those twelve years?

Lu Xi'an continued to look, most of the history records were all the same domain name, with just the top one being different.

Lu Xi'an attempted to click on one of those same domain names, and it still prompted "Unable to connect to network."

He thought it seemed unlikely and casually tried clicking the top one.

To his surprise, the browser's screen suddenly changed, shifting to a blank page, not "Unable to connect to network," but filled with densely packed text!

Lu Xi'an skimmed through the text and immediately confirmed—it was the last record of the person who used the computer before!

"This is the last record; it's no longer possible to log in, so records can't be made, and observation logs can't be uploaded, only locally…"

He read the text aloud.

Yao Wei heard Lu Xi'an's voice and immediately focused, looking towards the glowing white screen of the laptop.

"Are you reading the words on the computer?"

She asked Lu Xi'an.

"Yes."

Lu Xi'an's eyes remained on the computer screen, without looking at Yao Wei.

But Yao Wei didn't mind, hearing Lu Xi'an's answer was enough for her.

Lu Xi'an said, "Do you want to come take a look?"

Yao Wei replied, "You read it out loud, I'll listen here. Here, I can keep an eye on the road."

"Alright."

Lu Xi'an agreed and continued to read, "But it doesn't matter anymore, can't get online, no one contacts me, all of Ox Head County is gone.

"Perhaps this world is completely dead, secrecy no longer holds any meaning.

"Forget it… the rules must still be followed, so I can't disclose the project's name or content today.

"Since today's log can't be uploaded, I might not destroy it either, maybe it will stay locally…"

So, was this an observation log?

This final observation log felt like an ordinary diary.

Yet the identity of the observer, the method of observation, were somewhat unusual.

According to the confidentiality rules mentioned in the log, observation records were not supposed to be made locally but directly reported to network servers, with the observation log to be uploaded after completion, local files destroyed?

In that case, this observation log that could be directly opened in the browser might be the last words of this laptop's owner...

The person responsible for the observation back then indeed hadn't destroyed this observation log, leaving it locally.

Lu Xi'an imagined the state of mind of that person typing this "last will" on the keyboard, thinking they must have been very desperate and lonely.

The phrase "no one contacts me, all gone," and "secrecy no longer holds any meaning," at first glance, were just unemotional clusters of characters, but when connected, they could convey a profound sense of cold loneliness.

He continued to read to Yao Wei, "The observation software can't be opened; today actually there's no way to observe, let alone record?

"I can't record anymore, the high concentration of X-17 reactions is severe; the pain is excruciating, the skin continuously ulcerating, holding on until now is all thanks to the observation field.

"But now the effect has diminished, I can't hold on, just accidentally dropped the equipment down the mountain.

"It doesn't matter, who would hold me accountable? Who could hold me accountable..."

He stopped here, turned to look at Yao Wei, and seeing her also lost in thought, he asked, "What are you thinking of?"

"Shu?"

Yao Wei said questioningly about her thought.