Once We Lived in Nanjing

First Base is the safest chamber within Nanjing City; if there is any place safer than it, it would only be Second Base.

Inside each of the two bases, there is a data center, a gift sent to the future by people, and the only witnesses and recorders of the apocalyptic disaster. The two bases will survive calamities and last to the very end, becoming the only database Ban Xia can access in the post-apocalyptic era.

This is a vast reconnaissance operation, and the reconnaissance soldier will advance alone through the river of time. Humanity will perish in the disaster, but the bases will not. They will traverse through long periods of solitude, waiting for the one they've always been waiting for, hoping to unravel all mysteries and find a sliver of hope from it.

This is what they call PlayerUnknown's Battlegrounds, no more, no less.

And what Ban Xia needs to do is very simple: she just needs to enter the base and wake up the dormant computer.

The only operation required is to poke a button.

If poking once doesn't work, poke it twice.

Once the dormant base is awakened, it will immediately enter its operational state, and the awoken system will extend high-gain satellite antennas, uploading all the data to the relay satellite.

From beginning to end, it's as simple as a fool's operation. Once the girl is done, she can head back, switch the radio at home to satellite mode and call it a day.

"Is it really just a poke?"

"Really, just a poke." Bai Yang nodded, "Although server databases and such are very complex, their actual operation has been greatly simplified. Miss, once you're down there, you should see a very conspicuous button. Just hammer it, and it will power on, OVER."

Bai Yang remembered how the engineering team had described it, assuring him there was no need to worry about not finding the power button, nor about overly complex operations. The engineers swore confidently that the button would be very conspicuous, truly very conspicuous, so much so that even a blind person could find it.

(Bai Yang still underestimated the engineering team's definition of 'conspicuous', for when Ban Xia entered First Base, she saw a red button as big as a rice bowl.)

"There won't be any code input steps, right?" Ban Xia asked.

"No, the engineering team assured me that all operations won't go beyond poking, pressing, and hammering these three types," Bai Yang replied, "The required IQ age for operation should not exceed nine years old, and animal behavior experts have evaluated it. They believe that even trained monkeys could complete all the steps, OVER."

"What about monkeys that haven't been trained?"

"Untrained monkeys can receive training in the base." Bai Yang said, "Miss, where are you now? OVER."

"I think I'm getting close to Yixian Bridge, but it's way too dark outside tonight, not a trace of moonlight. Do you know how dark it is over here? If I stretch my hand out and it was a bit longer, I wouldn't be able to see how many fingers I have."

Ban Xia slowed her pace, walking on the curb, unable to see exactly what she was stepping on below her feet. The asphalt was filled with black mud, animal feces, and rotten branches. Ban Xia judged what she had stepped on based on the sound and feedback—softness for mud, a firm-then-soft sensation for feces, a "crack" for branches and wood. With the surrounding silence so profound that not a single noise was heard, the sound after stepping on a branch was particularly clear and resonant.

Ban Xia had never been out this far at night; she observed her surroundings very cautiously. Along the way, there were many scrapped, broken car shells, which all turned into indistinguishable dark shapes in the night, frightening Ban Xia every time she encountered them. Normally, Zhongshan East Road is a major thoroughfare, and the girl was quite familiar with it, but it seemed to turn into a different city once darkness fell.

Is that cluster of buildings the Nanyuan District?

Or the Fifty-fifth Research Institute?

Vaguely, there were large, tall dark silhouettes standing in the distance, obscured by the lush foliage. To get a clear view of what it was, one would have to go down to the base of the buildings. With a layer of black veil over the familiar Nanjing City, Ban Xia couldn't recognize it anymore.

"BG, how much time do I have left?"

"Seven minutes, OVER."

Ban Xia slowly exhaled, stopping to hide behind a burned-out car shell, squatting on the curb and knocking her shoe soles off, pulling the straps of her backpack tight.

"BG, will you sing me a song?"

Bai Yang was startled.

The plan was to check-in every five minutes, but clearly, nobody was sticking to that rule. Ban Xia had been constantly talking since the action began, chattering non-stop. She said that walking alone at night through wilderness and rugged terrain, it would be truly eerie not to find someone to talk to.

"I won't be scared if you sing a song."

"Uh..." Bai Yang hesitated for a moment, "Miss, what do you want to hear?"

He wondered if he should go with the kind of songs the lady usually sang. Should he give her a rendition of "Blue-faced Dou'er Dun stealing the royal horse—?"

Don't joke around, right now who knows how many people are listening to the conversation. This is almost a public channel, and if Bai Yang were to break into song with "Blue-faced Dou'er Dun stealing the royal horse, red-faced Guan Yu battling Changsha—" on the public channel, the next second someone would call headquarters, saying they're friendly forces, so please don't open fire.

"Sing this." Ban Xia hummed a tune, "Do you know how to sing it?"

"Yes."

"Then sing!"

Bai Yang scratched the corner of his forehead awkwardly, as he hadn't initially stated that his duties included this.

Nevertheless, he sang:

"I can catch the moon, with countless dreams, I'll prop up numerous oars."

"With courage and wisdom as my paddles,"

"I row the moonlit boat towards the distant horizon."

"I can't remember the lyrics after that, Miss."

The girl on the other end giggled, she tapped the microphone of the console, signifying applause.

Bai Yang inwardly sighed for his lost reputation in this life.

"Miss, where are you now? OVER."

"I should be at Panda Building." Ban Xia looked into the distance at the dark building under the night sky, "Passing the Panda Building should lead to Yixian Bridge, right? I'm almost there."

"Yes, turn right before Yixian Bridge into Longpan Middle Road, then continue straight along Longpan Middle Road, you have three minutes, OVER."

"Got it, turn right at Yixian Bridge onto Longpan Middle Road... wait a second."

The girl's voice suddenly changed.

"What's wrong?" Bai Yang instantly became alert.

"Not right... something's wrong, this doesn't seem like Panda Building..."

The girl was puzzled, surprised, and also bewildered.

"Not Panda Building?"

"Wait, let me get closer to see, maybe I'm mistaken, strange, it doesn't look like Panda Building... Let me get a bit closer, a bit closer, no, BG!"

The girl's voice suddenly rose in pitch.

"This is Nanjing Library! BG, I'm at the Nanjing Library!"

Nanjing Library's tall glass façade was still distinctly visible under the night sky. Unknowingly, Ban Xia had reached the bottom of Nanjing Library.

She had walked too far!

Ban Xia subconsciously turned her head to look back, Yixian Bridge? Had she already passed Yixian Bridge?

She abruptly realized she had gone too far. Under the pitch-black night that didn't allow for visual positioning, she had misjudged her walking speed, unsure whether she had walked four kilometers or five.

She didn't know when she had started mistaking the landmarks, perhaps much earlier.

Mistakes weren't made just by Ban Xia, but also by the command center. They thought Yixian Bridge was a clear reference point, but this bridge no longer existed in the future, it had been blocked and filled in, forgotten by time and lack of maintenance. At night, standing on the bridge gave no indication it was a bridge, which was not evident on satellite images.

Ban Xia, eager to find this bridge, hurried along, walking straight down Zhongshan East Road, passed Yixian Bridge without realizing it, and thus, wandered too far in her confusion.

The computer team had designated the safety zone to be outside a two-kilometer radius of Xinjiekou within forty minutes. From Xinjiekou to Yixian Bridge was exactly two kilometers, meaning that as long as Ban Xia turned at Yixian Bridge, she could avoid the Big Eyes.

But at this moment, she had strayed into the Big Eyes' activity range, walking one kilometer further, all the way to the bottom of Nanjing Library.

Nanjing Library was only one kilometer away from Xinjiekou.

Standing at the bottom of Nanjing Library, one could see the rooftop of Xinbai Building at Xinjiekou.

Under the night sky, Ban Xia couldn't see Xinbai Building, but she knew it was there because she could see that high and lofty, dark red, firefly-like glowing eye.