Chapter 747: Chapter 747: Trash Planet

At seven in the morning, Ronan Kendrick made a point of cleaning the RV’s windshield before they set off. Neither of them knew which direction to go; perhaps if they just kept driving forward, they would find a way out.

Upbeat music played in the RV. Evelyn Ford, dressed in her pajamas, yawned in the passenger seat. Ronan Kendrick told her to go back to bed and sleep a little longer, but she refused, insisting on keeping him company. The ride was a bit bumpy, so Ronan drove very slowly.

The RV ambled across the barren land. Gazing out the window at the desolate surface, Evelyn Ford couldn’t help but sigh. The combined destructive power of all the natural disasters from the past decade couldn’t hold a candle to the terror of this one.

Azure had completely transformed into a gray-black garbage planet.

’How long can we survive on this planet? Can it even be restored?’

A light, cheerful song played on a loop. Evelyn Ford propped her head on her right hand, staring blankly into space. Ronan Kendrick’s expression was grim; even as he drove, he was scanning their surroundings.

At noon, they stopped to rest. Ever since Ronan Kendrick had learned to cook, the task had fallen to him. Evelyn Ford made milk tea beside him. Given their harsh environment, she felt it was important to create little surprises to keep their spirits high. Although there were two of them, so they probably wouldn’t feel lonely, living long-term in this gloomy, gray world was bound to affect a person’s emotions. Sweets could lift one’s mood, and Evelyn felt Ronan needed that more than she did. Since the incident, she sensed he had grown more fragile.

He had become clingier than before, and his mood swings were more pronounced. Evelyn worried it was a sign of post-traumatic stress, so she had been secretly poring over books for the past few days.

The books said that if a partner showed emotional fluctuations or abnormalities, it was crucial to provide immediate care and a sense of security. It wasn’t just women who needed to feel secure; men did, too. That morning, she had woken up to find Ronan Kendrick curled up in her arms. Psychologically, it was a sleeping position that indicated a lack of security.

Moreover, Evelyn Ford could barely leave Ronan Kendrick’s line of sight. Even when she went to the bathroom, he would follow, refusing to be more than a step away.

At first, Evelyn had just thought he was being overly cautious. But after sensing something was wrong, she decided to try and ease Ronan’s tension by proactively relying on him. Every time she initiated contact or drew close, Ronan would relax. Being needed gave him an unprecedented sense of satisfaction. Evelyn finally understood. ’The sense of security he needs is to be needed and relied upon by me, heart and soul.’

Lunch was a lavish spread. Before eating, Evelyn praised all the dishes. After taking a bite from each plate, she began to compliment Ronan Kendrick’s culinary skills. The corners of Ronan’s mouth lifted into a smile. He didn’t say anything, but the delight in his eyes told Evelyn he was incredibly happy.

"Ronan, you’re practically a jack-of-all-trades. Is there anything in this world you can’t do? How do you manage it?"

Ronan Kendrick considered this for a moment, then replied in all seriousness, "I’m not a jack-of-all-trades. There are many things I don’t know how to do. My sense of direction is also weak. When I first started learning to cook, I found it extremely difficult. I still have many shortcomings and need to keep learning."

His answer was so serious and formal that it made Evelyn burst out laughing. She couldn’t help but applaud.

"Ronan, that answer was hilarious."

Ronan Kendrick smiled. "When the person who wrote my program was setting my various parameters, he overlooked the daily habits of a normal person. So I was optimized into a perfect... half-robot. Even though I’m a person of flesh and blood, in some ways, I’m no different from a machine."

He rarely spoke of the past. He almost never revisited his memories of those days in the laboratory. He brought it up today because Ronan had realized he was now regressing to a more normal human state. When his physical abilities were only at fifty percent, without the traits of a genetically edited human, he was just an ordinary person.

These past few days, he had been experiencing unease, panic, loss of composure, and even anxiety. ’An ordinary human’s brain and heart are so fragile,’ he thought. ’The smallest thing can trigger so many emotions. Once it exceeds what the heart can bear, a person becomes sullen, even depressed and agitated.’

His mind was incredibly sharp. If even Evelyn had noticed the changes in him, how could he possibly not have noticed them himself?

This time in his ordinary human form allowed Ronan to truly experience the hardships of a normal person’s life. He felt a deep sense of guilt toward Evelyn. Even when he was a genetically edited human, he had cared deeply about her feelings and well-being, but he could never truly empathize. He was certain there had been times he was neglectful or had fallen short. Now that he had a firsthand understanding of the struggles and difficulties of being human, he vowed to cherish Evelyn even more and never let her suffer again.

Sensing Ronan Kendrick’s gaze, which was filled with self-reproach and guilt, Evelyn was completely bewildered. ’He so rarely shows his emotions. What is he overthinking now? How could he make such a pitiful expression?’

’PTSD is truly terrifying,’ she thought. ’It’s even made someone as aloof as Ronan become so sentimental.’

Evelyn wrapped her arms around him, patting his back comfortingly. "Don’t be afraid. I’m here."

Ronan Kendrick blinked. ’Did Evelyn just steal my line?’

On their eighth day of driving through the barren wasteland, Ronan Kendrick’s body had fully recovered. In fact, his physical condition was now twice as strong as it was before his injury. It seemed the accident had, by a twist of fate, allowed his body to complete an upgrade and metamorphosis.

Evelyn’s body had also recovered to about seventy percent. She could now retrieve and store items in her space with ease.

As their bodies returned to normal, they were also adapting to the outside environment. The wasteland was thick with carbon ash, and they couldn’t wear gas masks forever.

On the tenth day of their journey, Evelyn proposed that they stop every kilometer to dig a hole, stick a piece of wood in it, and tie a strip of cloth to the top as a marker.

Ronan Kendrick thought the cloth strips would be blown away by the wind and suggested using paint instead. No sooner said than done, the two set to work. This would shorten their daily travel distance by a third, but Evelyn felt it was very meaningful. With the markers, they could tell which way they were going if they accidentally circled back. Most importantly, if someone else saw these markers, it might help them out.

On the eleventh day of their journey, Evelyn and Ronan finally saw a burned-out forest. All the trees were just blackened trunks, and carbon ash drifted wantonly through the air. Beneath a pile of charcoal, Evelyn saw a pile of bones that hadn’t been completely burned. They probably belonged to some wild animals. Evelyn kicked the charcoal aside, revealing a few more bones underneath. The bones were extremely brittle, turning to dust with a gentle pinch. Evelyn kicked a nearby tree trunk, which snapped with a sharp CRACK and fell to the ground. The carbon ash on the ground immediately flew into the air, choking Evelyn and sending her into a fit of sneezing and coughing.

"Everything’s been burned clean. Even the rocks are scorched pitch-black. The soil twenty meters down has probably been baked solid."

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