Chapter 101 100: Hometown
At that moment, gazing down at the planet, Li Qingsong saw it all: the azure oceans, the white clouds hanging high in the sky, the desolate deserts, the rolling mountain ranges, the boundless plains, and the verdant forests and grasslands…
Everything was so familiar, so similar to the scenes he had longed to see for so many years.
Even the shapes of the continents, the individual lakes, and the winding rivers were exactly as he remembered them.
There was just one difference.
Li Qingsong could not see a single trace of humanity on Earth.
'He sighed softly.' Li Qingsong directed tens of thousands of Clones to board over a thousand vessels—landing craft, combat ships, and more. They departed from the massive mothership and began their descent toward the surface below.
These vessels, from landing craft to combat ships, had been designed for the vacuum of space. They had no aerodynamic profiling or optimizations, making them ill-suited for a planet like Earth with its thick atmosphere.
But it didn't matter. It would only affect their performance. He just had to take it slow and descend gradually.
The thousand-plus vessels fanned out, each selecting a different landing site.
The Clone housing Li Qingsong's consciousness, however, piloted its ship toward a place of extraordinary personal significance.
It was a plain.
He remembered growing up in a small village on this very plain.
The village wasn't large, and its people were simple and honest.
He had spent a happy childhood there before leaving home for his studies, eventually embarking on this Deep Space scientific mission.
After landing at the coordinates of his village, the hatch hissed open. The Clone body housing Li Qingsong's consciousness, dressed in light clothing, stepped out onto the earth.
The season was shifting from spring to summer; it wasn't cold, nor was it too hot.
He breathed in the familiar air of his memories and stared at the sea of green before him, a vacant look in his eyes.
Nothing from his memory remained. All that was left were fields of weeds and scattered groves of trees.
Unnamed wildflowers swayed gently in the breeze, and he could see small animals scurrying through the tall grass.
Birds of all kinds circled overhead, their crisp calls echoing through the air.
Everything was so vibrant and full of life.
Li Qingsong sat right down on the ground, staring blankly at the scene before him.
Simultaneously, his consciousness, linked to the other Clones, visited many other locations.
Some of the Clones arrived at another location, a place nestled beside a mountain range.
It was the site of the capital of Human Civilization, as he remembered it.
He had spent a long time there, completing his studies, finding a job, and eventually becoming an astronaut.
But the concrete jungle of the past had vanished as well. The ground was covered by nothing but endless grasslands and forests.
In the mountains bordering the capital, the parks and scenic spots that held so many of his fond memories were all gone.
He even found the spot where a pavilion he remembered should have been. As a young man, he had carved some embarrassingly dramatic words into its frame.
But now, there was no pavilion, only jagged, untouched rocks standing starkly in its place.
Other Clones arrived at the bank of a great river.
Li Qingsong clearly remembered that the Human World had constructed what was once the largest hydraulic engineering project in the world right here.
The dam had held back tens of billions of tons of water, forcing it to flow according to the will of humanity.
But now, the dam was completely gone. The mountainsides nearby bore no marks of ever having been quarried by human hands.
Even the cliffside tombs, which he clearly recalled had been carved by ancestors thousands of years ago, were nowhere to be found.
Hundreds of other teams arrived at every location that, in his memory, had once housed a major man-made structure.
But no matter where they looked, and no matter how prominent the structures in Li Qingsong's memory had been, they could not find a single trace of them.
'Since all superficial traces are gone… could some deeper, less mutable traces still exist?'
As Li Qingsong mulled this over, he had his Clones unpack the vast array of equipment they had brought and began a more thorough investigation.
First, microplastics. Once manufactured, they permeate the seawater, soil, and atmosphere, entering the ecosystem and becoming nearly impossible to eradicate.
Second, nuclear radiation.
Ever since humanity mastered nuclear energy and began conducting tests and detonations, trace amounts of fissionable elements had entered the ecosystem, significantly raising the background radiation level.
This, too, is nearly impossible to eliminate.
If they could detect elevated radiation in Earth's ecosystem, it would also prove the prior existence of the Human World.
Third, geological studies.
Li Qingsong initiated large-scale excavations at sites where he remembered ancient human remains had been discovered. He hoped to find fossils or bones of early hominids, or even modern Homo sapiens, within the geological strata.
And a fourth, a fifth, a sixth…
In total, Li Qingsong devised over a hundred different tests to prove humanity's existence. And so, the Clones got to work.
The research concluded after several days.
But the data that came back told Li Qingsong, once again, that Human Civilization had truly never existed.
Back at the site of his "hometown," the Clone housing Li Qingsong's consciousness let out a soft sigh.
The result was to be expected, he supposed. He had seen it coming all along.
Although the evidence was now more abundant and conclusive than ever, his own conviction did not waver in the slightest.
'Everything I remember has to be real. No matter how much definitive evidence I uncover, I won't change my mind. In fact, the more conclusive the proof, the more I believe this is all a conspiracy.
'I don't have the power to uncover the truth of this conspiracy right now, but I will in the future. I will find out everything. My people… one day, I will bring you all back to Earth, back to our home.'
The preliminary exploration of Earth was complete. There was no reason to remain.
That being the case, it was time to shift his focus back to the Jupiter System and resume construction.
'After all, the Blutuk People's fleet isn't far off.'
Li Qingsong beckoned with his hand, and one of the Clones produced a crossbow, deftly felling a passing wild pheasant.
Pots and pans were brought out. The bird was gutted, seasoned, and put in a pot to stew.
The moment the meat touched his tongue, its taste—so different from the bland flavor of food from the cultivation facilities—was invigorating.
After devouring the entire bird, Li Qingsong took one last, long look at the vast, wild land before him, then turned and re-entered the landing craft.