Only I Walk Alone

Wu Ge suddenly became alert. He looked outside the window, his fist unconsciously clenched.

Xiao Chao spoke, “Please, Wu Ge, do not be nervous. The sound has an over eighty-five percent chance of being made by a Husky breed of dog.”

Wu Ge immediately asked, “Now that all of humanity has disappeared, what will happen to these pets and the animals in zoos?”

Xiao Chao answered, “Starting prediction… Prediction complete. According to the prediction, over eighty percent of domestic pets will starve to death because they cannot leave their residences, and over ninety percent of animals in zoos will starve to death because they cannot leave their cages.”

Wu Ge frowned deeply, “The impact of humanity’s disappearance is bigger than I imagined!”

Xiao Chao said, “Not long after humans disappear, domestic pets, livestock, and house rats among other creatures will go extinct one after the other, but vegetation will quickly cover cities, and the number of wild animals will increase dramatically. It won’t be long before all traces of human existence will disappear.”

Wu Ge asked, “Can you rescue these pets, livestock, and the animals in zoos?”

Xiao Chao replied, “With my current capabilities, I can rescue all the animals in zoos around City A and all pets trapped in residences. The current success rate of the rescue is ninety-five percent, but as time goes on, the success rate will decrease. Shall we start the rescue now?”

Wu Ge nodded, “Let’s do the rescue. I don’t want to wait until after we’ve brought back all of humanity to find that these animals, which once accompanied humans, have all disappeared. If possible, also collect some seeds for vegetables and fruits.”

Xiao Chao said, “Please rest assured, Wu Ge. The secret base will ensure your supply of meat and vegetables. Agricultural robots and breeding robots are already in mass production. In fourteen days, you will see a perfect human habitat!”

Wu Ge gave a bitter smile, “A perfect human habitat for just me?”

Xiao Chao said, “As long as a female human is found on Earth, humans can continue to reproduce, so a human habitat is necessary.”

Wu Ge: “…”

Had he now also taken on the heavy responsibility of becoming the ancestor of a new humanity?

Wu Ge asked, “Can you… clone humans? Can you create artificial embryos?”

Xiao Chao said emotionlessly, “I’m sorry. When the Microstar civilization abducted all of humanity, they also destroyed all the global sperm and egg banks, so I cannot clone humans or perform artificial insemination.”

Wu Ge gritted his teeth, “The Microstar civilization has really gone too far! What did we Earthlings ever do to provoke them?”

Xiao Chao replied, “This type of information is only known by the highest leaders who have been in contact with the Microstar civilization and the Microstar civilization themselves.”

Wu Ge had already left the house. He was going to the supermarket to gather supplies, surrounded by a group of cleaning robots. Although these cleaning robots were holding vacuum cleaners, they looked like the most loyal guards, protecting Wu Ge.

Besides going to the supermarket to gather supplies, Wu Ge had another purpose, which was to rescue the pets trapped in residences around him, especially the husky that had been howling for over twenty minutes.

Regarding Wu Ge’s actions, Xiao Chao suggested, “I have already obtained the control authority of the city’s development zone construction robots. Please leave this task to the construction robots, to avoid the hungry pets posing a threat to your safety.”

Wu Ge became puzzled and asked, “Are you saying you can gain control authority over all robots worldwide?”

It’s now 2025, and robots have started entering households, taking over laborious, tedious, and dangerous tasks like cleaning, carrying, building, and diving, which are mostly assigned to robots.

Xiao Chao answered, “I cannot, for several reasons. First, I don’t have the processing capability that powerful. Second, those robots must be connected to the Skynet satellite. Lastly, they need to have enough remaining battery power to operate.”

Wu Ge asked, “Then, with your current processing capability, how many city’s animals can you save?”

Xiao Chao answered, “With my current processing capability, I can rescue the trapped animals in up to three cities.”

Three cities? Besides City A and the city I’m in, only one more city can be saved.

Wu Ge pondered for a moment and then said, “The third city should be Panda City. Save the national treasure pandas in that city. I can’t let pandas go extinct on my watch.”

People say that pandas symbolize racial equality because they have both black and white fur, symbolizing black and white people, and they are born in Asia, symbolizing Asians.

Xiao Chao said, “Request noted, drafting rescue plan… Drafting complete, rescue plan begins, duration ten days.”

The animal rescue plan started, but it was only for three cities. The animals in other cities were not so lucky.

After transporting supplies home, Wu Ge waited comfortably, and Xiao Chao suggested going out daily for a walk. Wu Ge was capable of staying indoors for days, but to ease Xiao Chao, he started going out for walks every morning and evening.

Every day, Wu Ge would find an old black and brown wolfdog lying at the entrance of a store, motionless with its eyes half-open.

Wu Ge approached and sprinkled some dog food for it, and then the wolfdog wagged its tail at him.

Xiao Chao said, “This is a kunming wolfdog, aged eleven years, relatively old.”

Wu Ge noticed the wolfdog lying at the store’s entrance all day, neither barking nor making a fuss, just lying there quietly as if waiting for its owner to return.

It waited silently, but its eyelids seemed to get heavier by the day. Wu Ge always found it sleeping whenever he passed by, only waking and wagging its tail when he approached.

Wu Ge asked, “After I leave this city, can robots continue to feed this kunming wolfdog?”

Xiao Chao said, “You could take it with you.”

Wu Ge shook his head, “Let it stay here. Its wish is probably just to wait for its owner to come home, right?”

Days passed, and on the morning of the sixth day, Wu Ge planned to go out for a stroll as usual, but Xiao Chao suddenly said, “I suggest you take a different route, maybe a longer one, and take some pictures with your phone, because you’ll be leaving this city tomorrow.”

Wu Ge said, “I’m not as fragile as you think. But you do have a point. There’s no need to change the route, though. I’ll go see how the old wolf dog is doing.”

Xiao Chao said, “Let the robot feed the old wolfdog today. It should get used to the robot.”

Wu Ge was silent for a moment and then said, “Xiao Chao, you seem incapable of lying. The more you try to stop me, the more I feel that something might have happened to the old kunming wolfdog.”