Zhou Yi's vacation destination was the old Chongqing City at the bottom of the sea to the southeast.

Previously, he had also visited Coral Port in the body of a Kobold, but compared to cities on the surface, he still preferred the underwater cities of Old Humans.

Before leaving, Zhou Yi handed over company affairs to Red Kestrel and Gong Zheng.

Listen to Red Kestrel for external matters, rely on Gong Zheng internally.

After arranging everything, he shouldered a travel bag, mounted his bicycle, and leisurely returned to the Dead Sea.

...

The sea floor was littered with a great deal of dust and rubble, but since the roads were protected by a film of light, they were in good condition. As long as one found the roads built by humans, cycling without obstructions was possible.

Zhou Yi had originally wanted to bring Red Kestrel along.

However, his partner had recently been extremely busy, serving as the head of the company's foreign trade department and scrambling to take online courses, preparing for the annual Zen Test.

In the end, he had to travel alone.

Without Red Kestrel's navigation and view-unveiling guidance, finding the way became much more troublesome.

Fortunately, the Scavenger Team had always been exploring towards the direction of Chongqing, leaving guidance markers along the way, and sticking to the main roads would lead straight to the city.

Though he lacked navigation, he wasn't wrong about the general direction.

If there was any emergency behind him, Red Kestrel would fly to find him.

Zhou Yi cycled to the previous site of RT-Mart, then continued southward. His physical endurance was now fantastic, and he hardly felt any fatigue.

Upon entering the highway, he started to pedal faster.

On the misty and empty expanse of road, there was only this lone bicycle shuttling through.

Zhou Yi summoned the mic master, switched on the music to play out loud.

Xiao Fu was also toggled out to get some air, chatting along the way.

It said, "We, the Reverse Flows, don't have a concept of vacation, which should be an interval between labor, right? If that's the case, then in fact, we do have them."

"However, it's different from how you do it. We Reverse Flows like to find some lower life forms and do blind box simulations."

"Blind box simulation is a kind of random selection, conducted in a relatively enclosed environment, where similar lower life forms are put to interact, collaborate, and survive."

"The key to the blind box is not to observe, as observing will lead to homogenized outcomes. Sometimes the result is destruction, sometimes nothing changes, and sometimes new Intermediate Life forms emerge... Overall, if a new life can be obtained, it's like having nurtured a Spark."

Zhou Yi had thought it was akin to electronic cricket fighting, but it turned out to be more like breeding Gu.

"The Bone Men like Jacob, was it done with this kind of blind box simulation?"

"Yes."

The Reverse Flow explained, "I didn't expect that they would turn to killing each other after developing to a certain extent. It was only later that I changed my strategy, disturbing them, making them into bait to attract external Sparks. The result wasn't quite satisfactory."

Zhou Yi asked further, "What's the principle behind blind box simulation?"

"Just like its name, we don't know the core mechanism. We only know the less we observe, the better the effect, and the more likely special changes will occur."

Xiao Fu spoke, "This is a technology we obtained from a destroyed civilization. They, too, only knew how to apply it without understanding its principles."

"They believed that if you enclose an entire world in blind boxes, the world would eventually give rise to a man-made Great Holy Spirit."

"In other words, they believed that's how the Great Holy Spirit came to be."

Zhou Yi couldn't help being curious, "How did that civilization destroy itself?"

"Also due to blind box simulation."

Xiao Fu said, "The final Spark we collected, along with the related information and the recorders, all confirmed this point."

"The Blind Box Civilization itself was a strong one. They created a large number of blind box areas in their world, even putting core life forms as well as cities and states into them, aiming to break through existing Ranks using this method. In the end, they produced many strange creatures they couldn't control, and those creatures led to their downfall."

Zhou Yi also remarked, "Technology is a double-edged sword; it needs to be used with caution."

"Right."

The Reverse Flow agreed with Zhou Yi on this, "That's why it's safer to use lower life forms."

"It's a random test to stimulate life, good for comparative studies. But if you want to use it to transform an entire civilization and give rise to life that surpasses the current stage, you'll just be increasing everyone's gamble until eventual destruction."

"A life or a civilization can only master the power it understands. Beyond that understanding, it will become a vassal to that power."

"Blind box simulation is a way for us to understand new worlds. For us, it counts as entertainment and vacation time."

Xiao Fu then said, "Previously, some of our kind would choose even lower life forms, equivalent to sand rats and ordinary insects on your side. If we could birth intelligent species through blind box simulation, we would be their creators, able to develop this world through them."

"The catch is the time it takes is too long."

"Sad to say, my test with the Bone Men failed; their intelligence level was slightly too high. The speed at which Bone Men's intelligence and cognition developed was much faster than I had anticipated. They are a truly peculiar species; despite their simple physiological structure, they are not weak in the realm of consciousness."

It sounded somewhat regretful.

Zhou Yi chatted with Xiao Fu all the way.

The bicycle rode along the main artery, following the signs and markers left by the Scavenger Team.

Zhou Yi pedaled over Lanhai Highway, rode from the Shizi Mountain Interchange all the way to Wujiang Interchange, crossed the now shimmering Jialing River, and arrived at the ancient town of Ciqikou.

This was his first stop on the trip.

Zhou Yi had never visited Chongqing before but knew that famous places here included Ciqikou, Hongya Cave, Liberation Monument, and the fiery and beautiful Chongqing women.

What he used to dread most about traveling was crowded tourist spots and the omnipresent noise.

The Wasteland Era had become another extreme of complete desolation, with no people at all, filled with perpetual fog and Death Light, everything else succumbed to silence.

The gate to Ciqikou was a stone archway with several lanterns still hanging on it; the Bone Fish had not smashed it.

Bone Fish and samurai crabs, such sea floor Guangna Species, generally don't engage in pointless destruction. They usually choose to avoid obstacles.

Zhou Yi suddenly found that there were some characters written on the stone lion under the archway.

He stopped the vehicle and looked closely.

On the stone head, there were crooked Chinese characters written.

— Is anyone there? Please reply if you see this.

The text was written with a black, thick oil-based pen, ugly handwriting, but the meaning was clear.

Zhou Yi couldn't help but frown, he looked around and found the same handwriting on the back of the archway's stone plaque.

— I am Chinese.

Huh?

Could it be that some of the countrymen who had survived had come here, searching for other survivors in the former Chongqing City?

Zhou Yi rode on, entering down a stone path thick with accumulated ash.

Along the way, he observed that many buildings, stone pavements, and walls had Chinese writing on them.

— I went to school.

— Hello, teacher.

— Hello, classmate.

— Our country has 56 ethnic groups.

— The sun shines overhead; flowers smile at me.

— Little bird says, good morning.

...

The more Zhou Yi saw, the stranger it seemed.

It was as if a primary school student was scribbling everywhere, writing the characters they had just learned.

These writings also came with guiding arrow symbols.

Following these arrows, Zhou Yi made his way out of Ciqikou, arrived at the Shabin Road outside, and followed the Jialing River eastward.

The houses along this route all bore prominent characters.

But those who were not familiar with the language, would likely not understand the meanings at all.

For example, phrases like "Heaven, Earth, Man," "You, Me, He," and "Sun, Moon, Water, Fire" written on high walls would make no sense even to those who could read Chinese.

Only Zhou Yi, who came from prehistoric humans, understood that these were actually elementary Chinese literacy lessons from language textbooks.

This was akin to a secret code between the Chinese people of the old era.

Zhou Yi rode along, until he came beside a cluster of stilted buildings.

He had actually arrived at Hongya Cave.

The place was dim, illuminated only by the faint light brought by Death Light and mist, not as brightly lit and resplendent as seen on the internet in the past. It had become gloomy and mysterious.

One had to say, good lighting was too important for both people and buildings.

Zhou Yi saw that the outer walls of Hongya Cave were filled with Chinese characters—the large cluster of buildlings built against the mountain appeared like tombstones, as if sealing some monster within.

All the texts ultimately pointed here.

Zhou Yi placed his palm against the building's exterior wall.

Energy input.

Failure.

It wasn't a living building.

That is to say, it was another life form that left these texts behind.

Zhou Yi activated the [Radio], tuning it to channel 5.

Then, a series of scenes that nearly resembled dioramas appeared before him, as if they were scenarios simultaneously starting in different studios.

He looked all around.

In the distance, Bone Fish swam, and samurai crabs crawled and foraged underground... all very common underwater creatures.

The signals they emitted were also very simple: either [I eat I eat I eat] or [find a place to sleep].

The most important scene was inside Hongya Cave.

Inside, a vertical creature was using a brush dipped in red paint to write characters on a white wall.

— To live as a hero, or die and become a legend. Even now I think of Xiang Yu, who refused to cross Jiangdong.

The characters were bold and forceful.

This poet had a long neck, resembling an upright lizard.

It's claws firmly gripped the brush used as a pen, standing steadily, tail serving as a stabilizing support.

This was actually a long-necked crocodile.

It was small in stature, only about 1.4 meters tall even when standing upright.

The long-necked crocodile, writing poetry while standing, wore a black robe and had a white pendant hanging around its neck with a string.

Zhou Yi was utterly confused.

Was this long-necked crocodile self-learning Chinese?

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