The End of the Universe Is Live-Streaming E-commerce – CH64

Chapter 64: The 64th Day of Livestream Selling

Plane D—3600.

When Mr. Dandelion flew past the abandoned tollbooth, it saw that human cub for the first time.

At the time, this pale green dandelion was hanging on a row of crooked telephone wires with a flock of chattering sparrows, observing a vigorous cluster of wildflowers growing out of the rusty weighing equipment. Then, that tiny figure named Duoduo appeared on Route 66, walking closer and closer.

He was humming some unknown nursery rhyme, carrying a yellow canvas satchel on his back, wearing the blue plastic rain boots he had only recently changed into. When he walked, they made little pattering sounds. In an apocalypse so silent it seemed only the wind and yellow sand remained, he was like a little rubber ball being pressed down and bouncing back up again and again.

The child looked about five or six years old. Mr. Dandelion’s way of judging humans was never very accurate. It only knew that Duoduo’s eyes looked very bright, as bright as the starry sky it had once seen back home.

In Duoduo’s little cloth bag, there was his plastic water bottle, some food supplies he had barely managed to find along the way, and a photo of him with his mom and dad. It was tucked beside a badly faded toy rabbit that was missing an arm and a leg. That was his Beibei, which he had had since he was very small, and also his only toy.

This was the tenth year since the apocalypse began.

And the third day since six-year-old Duoduo had begun searching for his mom and dad.

He had grown up in Dawn Base Two. He had been born in the fourth year after the apocalypse. He had never seen what a normal society looked like, nor did he know what normal parents were supposed to be like. He only knew that his mom and dad loved him very much. No matter where he hid, his mom could always find him, and his dad would always bring back food.

Until one day, Dad was gone, Mom disappeared too, and even Dawn Base was no more.

Duoduo’s happy life came to an abrupt end.

But it did not matter. Little Duoduo, who always had a plan for everything, dug out a rare hand-colored little map from the ruins of the base and decided that this time, it would be his turn to find Mom and Dad.

“Where are you going?” Mr. Dandelion drifted in front of Duoduo. Its pale green fluff glowed beautifully in the afternoon sunlight.

Duoduo stopped. There was no surprise on his slightly thin little face, as if running into a talking dandelion on an apocalyptic highway were the most normal thing in the world. He rummaged through his little cloth bag and took out the map he had folded very carefully. Its edges were somewhat worn, but not badly, showing that he had really taken good care of it. Pointing at the place marked with a little star, he said to Mr. Dandelion, “Here. I’m going to the Lighthouse in the north.”

That was the largest known surviving human base. Legends of the Lighthouse circulated throughout all the major bases. They said that one day, a beam of strong light descended, and the Lighthouse received divine revelation. From then on, they had an endless supply of electricity, unbreakable walls, and a pure land that mutated zombies had never managed to breach.

It was the last Eden of the apocalypse.

Many people chose to head there after they could no longer hold on. Duoduo firmly believed that his mom and dad must be there too.

“May I come with you?” Mr. Dandelion asked. It had no goal, and nowhere it absolutely had to go. It simply followed the direction of the wind and began a purposeless journey. Its greatest dream was to go everywhere and see everything.

“To see scenery completely different from my hometown.”

“Of course, I don’t mean my hometown is bad,” the pale purple Mr. Dandelion said. “In fact, my hometown, Miye, is wonderful. It has the most abundant sunlight in the world and the richest water sources. It’s just that opening my eyes every day to the exact same scenery is really far too quiet.”

It did not like things that never changed, so it began to travel. It had already forgotten how many years had passed since it left home, but it did not regret it. It liked the randomness and unpredictability brought by an uncertain fate.

And so, they hit it off and became traveling companions. After Duoduo carefully put the map away again, they began their apocalyptic journey together.

They followed Route 66 north, along a road lined everywhere with abandoned vehicles.

They passed through small villages amid crisscrossing fields and saw wild wheat ears glowing with a pearly sheen. They crossed shopping centers in cities, where creeping plants threaded through escalators that had long stopped running. They also saw deer—not apocalyptic mutant deer, but real deer. One stood by a broken bridge and glanced back. Then, in two or three light bounds, it leapt behind some unknown mountain.

Mr. Dandelion was very powerful.

Whether they encountered zombies or people with ill intentions, it only needed to gently shake the pale green fluff on its head, and the fluff would shoot out like arrows. A few seconds later, those bodies, whether once alive or already dead, would no longer move. Thin green stems would grow from inside them, and tiny pale green flowers would bloom at the top.

“Will they still move?” Duoduo asked.

“No,” Mr. Dandelion said. “Now they are flowerpots.”

They walked and planted as they went, leaving who knew how many similar flowerpots along Route 66. Duoduo felt that they did not seem like two traveling companions. They seemed more like two gardeners, diligently decorating the world and making it especially beautiful.

Along the way, stopping and walking, Duoduo would take out the map from time to time, even though he actually could not understand anything on it.

“Are we almost there?” Mr. Dandelion flew beside his head and asked curiously.

Little Duoduo, who had made himself a small cape out of a bedsheet, nodded solemnly in the sunlight. “We’ve probably already walked half the way. After another stretch as long as before, we’ll reach the Lighthouse.”

They stopped at a gas station because the sky was gradually getting late, and it was time for Duoduo to rest. He had no way to be tireless like Mr. Dandelion, even though his stamina had already improved by who knew how much after all these long days of walking.

Mr. Dandelion wove a huge glowing net with its powerful mental strength, covering the little supermarket where they were sheltering. The supplies inside had been looted over and over again during the apocalypse. Even the floorboards had been pried up. It was like locusts had swept through; nothing remained. Of course, there were no zombies either.

Duoduo curled into his half-old sleeping bag and looked at the starry sky through the glowing net.

“Mom and Dad used to protect me like this too,” he said. They would always protect him so tightly that nothing could get through.

“Of course. All parents do,” Mr. Dandelion said as it floated to the side. Although it actually could not truly understand what “parents” were in the real sense. It was a plant, drifting all over the world. It had never seen a mother, nor had it seen a father. But it liked observing humans. It liked this life-form that needed one another to become complete.

Duoduo could not sleep today, so he simply sat up, cross-legged in the supermarket, and began rummaging through his little cloth bag, organizing the treasures he had collected along the way.

There was a car side mirror that could reflect light, a plastic button printed with a smiling face, and more than half a bottle of rainbow candy stuck in the crack of a drainage ditch.

Mr. Dandelion helped him clean these objects, using fine fluff to brush away all viruses and stains. Duoduo split half of the rainbow candy with Mr. Dandelion, letting its fluff rest for a while on the melting surface of the candy, allowing it to taste a vague sweetness.

It thought, humans are truly strange creatures. In such a messy world, they still treasure these useless things.

When Lin Zhao appeared, this was the scene he saw.

It was a little different from the apocalypse he had expected, where large amounts of survival supplies would be needed. The entire basketful of explanations he had prepared was also completely useless, because just as Duoduo did not think there was anything strange about a talking dandelion, he also did not think there was anything wrong with a beautiful brother suddenly appearing in a light screen out of nowhere.

He simply introduced himself happily, saying his name was Duoduo, that he was a human child, and that the pale green one was his good friend Mr. Dandelion. They were on the road together, searching for his mom and dad.

Like a game of passing the flower, when it was Lin Zhao’s turn, he unconsciously followed the same conversational format and introduced himself too. He said his name was Lin Zhao, that he was a plane merchant, and that he was looking everywhere for business opportunities.

Unfortunately, Duoduo lacked neither food nor mineral water. Mr. Dandelion had really raised the child very well.

Although two planes had been opened, Lin Zhao still only had one prop-camera that could view plane content. Since the apocalypse did not need anything for the moment, after saying goodbye to Duoduo, Lin Zhao checked the situation in the other plane.

It was raining there.

Amid layers upon layers of tropical plants, sunlight passed through the canopy of giant trees at least a hundred meters tall, forming slanted pillars of light in the misty forest. The trunks of those unknown giant trees were unbelievably thick, covered in moss, lichens, and twisting vines like blood vessels.

Lin Zhao had only seen such scenes in tropical rainforest documentaries. Supposedly, it was a wonder where a single tree could form a forest.

As far as the eye could see, the whole world was a lush green. If one had to say there was anything strange here, it was probably that this world was far too quiet. Apart from the pitter-patter of rain, there was no other sound.

There were no bird calls that a jungle should have, and there did not even seem to be traces of any living creatures moving about.

Just as Lin Zhao was feeling puzzled and was about to try speaking, three passionflowers with leaves as thin as paper and flowers shaped like little umbrellas leaned toward the camera one after another, sneaky like little cats.

Only, before Lin Zhao could speak, they had already spoken first, saying neatly in unison, “Hello, Lin Zhao.”

Lin Zhao: “!!!”

Reinhardt, who had been quietly accompanying Lin Zhao at work the whole time, immediately narrowed his alert eyes. They had only just arrived in this world. No one here should know Lin Zhao’s name.

But the passionflower sisters said, “We just met. Do you still remember?”

Lin Zhao: ?

He tentatively called out, unsure, “Mr. Dandelion?”

“It’s me.” ×3.

The three beautiful passionflowers swayed in the light rain, doing their best to stretch their graceful bodies. “Welcome to my hometown, Miye. Isn’t it just like I told you? It’s wonderful here, but it really is far too quiet.”

Because the entire world was it.

Over hundreds of millions of years of evolution, they had tangled and entwined together to form a lichen-like symbiotic civilization, gradually developing a hive-like collective consciousness. One was all things, and all things were one.

They did not need any communication to easily reach consensus, because the dandelion was the passionflower, and the passionflower was the dandelion. They shared thoughts, shared perspectives, and had no disputes or differences. Such days were peaceful, but also truly far too boring. So one day, they had the thought of wanting to go outside and take a look.

And they succeeded.

No wonder it was a stellar civilization. This was practically close to traveling through the universe.

“Have you found the sturdy backpack Duoduo wants?” the deep purple passionflower said.

The pale purple passionflower said, “I can trade my fruit with you, but please don’t tell him, all right? I’m afraid he’ll think the fruit is my child. He definitely wouldn’t want me to trade my child for a backpack.”

The last passionflower, whose leaves were mostly white but whose flower was the largest, said, “Human cubs truly have so many whimsical ideas, don’t they?”

Lin Zhao: =?=.

They really seemed to love talking to people. Just as Mr. Dandelion had said, Miye was far too quiet. They liked liveliness, liked being able to communicate with others, and liked different scenery.

“Of course. I’ll work hard to find a sturdy backpack suitable for a child, and I’ll help you keep the secret. Uh, aside from these, is there anything else you need?” When Lin Zhao asked this, he actually did not hold much hope. Although plant civilization was magical, such a society seemed completely self-sufficient. It likely had no troubles and perhaps did not need trade.

But the dragon blood tree beside the passionflowers spoke. “Oh, yes, I do. It would be wonderful if you could help me. If you can’t, please don’t force yourself or feel sad.”

“What is it?”

“We are suffering from an alien invasion.”

Lin Zhao followed the branch of the dragon blood tree and raised the camera. Like Moses parting the sea, the trees opened up a gap in the rain, allowing him to see directly to the horizon.

There, only waves of energy were repeatedly attempting to strike this world.

Lin Zhao: “!!!” For key issues like this, say it earlier next time, big brother!!!

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