July, Xia Country, Donghua City.
The sun was like a burning fireball up in the sky and with no wind generated for miles, the inhabitants there were sweating like pigs.
At that moment, two young men were in heavy discussion at the foot of a mountain.
"Since we're already here, we should at least make a trip up the mountain."
The other young man hastily rejected his idea. "It's too tiring. If not for this damn task, I would rather stay at home and enjoy the aircon!"
"In that case… I'll go up myself!"
Sunlight pierced through layers of dense leaves and branches, allowing coin-sized spots of light to reflect off the ground.
Beneath his foot was genuine soil that was firm and solid. No matter how hard he jumped, there was no need to worry that the mountain peak might collapse. The clean oxygen he breathed into his lungs was also an ecological by-product of photosynthesis.
"As expected, our home planet is the best!"
It was six in the evening when Zhang Yuan arrived at the peak of the mountain.
He sat on a boulder while gasping for breath as he wiped the sweat trickling down from his forehead.
It was rare for someone to be as crazy as him who would climb a mountain just to enjoy the view of a sunset —especially when it was the hottest season.
The sun descended over the horizon rather slowly, dyeing it a beautiful amber-red color. Several birds could be seen flying by freely and leisurely while chirping happily.
These beautiful sceneries were impossible to find in outer space.
"There's still… another 30 days?" Zhang Yuan sighed deeply.
He opened his bucket list on the phone and crossed off one item on the list, which was to 'personally witness a sunset.'
Soon, the word 'Completed' was reflected on his screen.
Currently, Zhang Yuan was somewhat confused whether he was here for a vacation or to complete a mission issued by his superior.
There were many modest goals listed on this strange bucket list, such as, 'have an exquisite meal', 'climb a mountain', 'get drenched in a light rain shower', 'personally witness a sunset', 'participate in a marathon', and more…
The bucket list was filled with all sorts of random goals.
After collecting all their personal data, the medical artificial intelligence (AI) named 'Green Spirit' had specially designed a bucket list for each of them.
Based on the simplified explanation from experts, the rationale behind the bucket list was to have them leave without any regrets and reduce the probability that any mental illnesses might suddenly pop up.
But, in Zhang Yuan's case, he did not have any serious illnesses, suicidal tendencies, or debt of one hundred million dollars and the impulsive thought of wanting to elope with his sister-in-law.
The 'leave' was referring to them leaving Earth, particularly the solar system they were in right now. Soon, they would be riding on the spaceship, 'Earth Age', to leave for the planet named Gliese
It was 20.42 light-years for goodness sake!
Anyone who had the slightest knowledge about space would know that 20.42 light-years was an astronomical number.
It was a long journey and with the spaceship flying at the speed of one-hundredth the speed of light, the whole journey would take… 3000 years!
Mankind had prepared for this deep space colonization for ages. The most technologically advanced spaceship, 'Earth Age', together with half a million carefully selected volunteers from all walks of life would be undertaking the huge responsibility of restarting civilization on Gliese 581g
Speaking of which, regardless of how well they prepared, a 3000-year-long interstellar journey was an expedition that had never been accomplished before by mankind, so no one could guarantee its success.
Therefore, with the excuse of humanitarian concern, almost all the volunteers would be given a long vacation after the completion of their adaptive training to space. It was so that they could experience their last moments on Earth.
Precisely due to that reason, Zhang Yuan was currently enjoying his last month of vacation.
"I wonder how would Earth's civilization develop after 3000 years?"
"I believe they would become very, very powerful…"
"Perhaps, the spaceships of the future might even catch up the first spaceship!"
Zhang Yuan sighed and imagined the beautiful future of humans. The thought that they would be pioneers of human civilization on another planet left him with lofty sentiments and aspirations.
While such wandering thoughts were going through his head, the sun gradually disappeared from his view…
After Zhang Yuan descended the mountains, a young man with malt-colored skin came running over quickly as he wiped the sweat off his face.
His name was Li Zhendong, and just like Zhang Yuan, he was one of the astronauts that was about to leave the solar system.
Li Zhendong's resistance to heat was inferior to Zhang Yuan. Even though he had not climbed the mountain, the amount of sweat on his body made it seem as if he had just been fished out from a lake.
While he used his palm to fan himself, he complained, "As I've already said, we can see the sunset at the foot of the mountain, but you insisted on climbing up the mountain. Anyway, what shitty bucket list is this? Can we skip the tasks? We finally got a vacation with great difficulty but we still have to complete all these useless tasks—it's like work all over again. Plus, isn't watching the sunset something old men do?"
Zhang Yuan was also suffering from the heat. He shook his head in response. "Well, we should finish whatever tasks we can. Maybe these troublesome tasks might become a beautiful memory to look back on in the future."
He shifted his gaze to the horizon flooded with amber red clouds and said, "After all, unless we were to reincarnate, there's no other way for us to return to the solar system. We are now a one-way train to somewhere very, very far away. There is no medicine for regret now."
After he said that, Zhang Yuan took a breath and continued to look through his bucket list. "Alright, this has been done. Let me see what's the next task…"
When his fingers tapped on the screen, he saw the next task, and the following words could be seen…
Find a girl you like and become a real man!
What the?
Zhang Yuan's heart skipped a beat and he secretly cursed. The AI who designed this bucket list must have had a screw loose!
What kind of psychological counseling was this? He only had one month left in his vacation, how was he supposed to date someone?
There was also a line explanation that was provided by 'Green Spirit' for this specific task. "Women are men's best teachers and also the spiritual pillars in their hearts. Deep space voyage is extremely lonely. Mr. Zhang Yuan, since you have yet to…"
He did not even bother to finish reading it all and hastily tapped the screen in an attempt to view the next task.
However, he did not expect Li Zhendong's eyes to be so sharp and when he saw the few words on Zhang Yuan's phone, his expression was as if he had made a major discovery.
"Hahaha! Oh my god, Zhang Yuan! You're unexpectedly still a virgin? You have never been in love? Haha, how embarrassing!"
His loud laughter was so loud that it even attracted the attention of passers-by as they turned their heads in their direction from time to time.
As a medical AI who had been in operation for more than five decades, 'Green Spirit' had served billions of humans, making the accuracy of its analysis extremely high. After so long, it had a good rating system of 61.69%.
Such a rating was considered pretty good in the harsh medical system.
Since it was written in Zhang Yuan's bucket list for him to become a 'true man', without a doubt, he was still a virgin!
"Shut up! Hurry and shut your mouth!" Zhang Yuan's face turned red as embarrassment spread through his heart.
There were many college students who had dated numerous times, to the extent it was uncountable with two hands.
For someone like Zhang Yuan who had lived for 23 years but was still a virgin, he would easily be assumed to have some sort of physiological problems that were hard to express in words.
"Hey, even I have dated x number of times already, alright?" Li Zhendong bragged as he continued laughing out loud.
He stretched out his finger by finger and waved it before Zhang Yuan, as if to show the number of times he had been with different girls in the past.
When Zhang Yuan noticed Li Zhendong was looking at him as if he was 'incapable', he could not help but put up a bold face and retorted, "What are you thinking of? For goodness sake, I've also dated before in high school!"
He pulled out a photo from his wallet that looked to have been taken quite some time back and said, "Take a look, this is my partner in high school. Isn't she very soft-looking and cute?"
When Li Zhendong took a glance, it was really a picture of Zhang Yuan and another girl. Both of them were intimately snuggled together as they happily smiled before the camera.
"Your girl is pretty good-looking… don't tell me she's your blood-related sister?"
Zhang Yuan said angrily. "Please, when have I ever had a blood-related sister?"
"What happened after that?"
"… We broke up after graduation. In any case, it was due to all sorts of different reasons."
"Eh, boring~"
Li Zhendong seems to have recalled something as he said, "If you really have any unspeakable illnesses, you better treat it as soon as possible. There are only crappy AI doctors on the spaceship and there are not many specialists that can treat infertility on board!"
"Get lost, I'm perfectly fine!" Zhang Yuan threw out a kick, but Li Zhendong nimbly dodged to the side.
"I have some business to settle, I'll be going first."
Zhang Yuan briskly walked to an electric car parked in one corner and made his way in.
The left signal flickered for a moment before the car slowly started.
"Bye!"
After sending away the white-colored electric car, Li Zhendong breathed a long sigh of relief.
He wet his lips, narrowed his eyes, and looked from left to right. His behavior was similar to a thief's
He carefully opened his personal bucket list before immediately trembling as he saw a familiar sentence on his note. Find a girl you like and become a real man!
Li Zhendong muttered to himself, "F*ck. This… AI is really mentally retarded!"
...