Daily Life in 2048

Somewhere in the endless expanse of time and space, there was a world similar to yet different from Earth.

In 1999, the eastern nations formed an alliance led by Great Xia—the Hong Alliance.

By 2048, the Hong Alliance economy accounted for more than 35% of global GDP, with a population exceeding two billion.

To counter the formation of the Hong Alliance, European and American nations jointly established the Free Business Alliance in 2025. Its total population exceeded one billion, and its GDP accounted for more than 30% of the world's total.

The story began in the south of the Hong Alliance.

The sun was already high in the sky. Summer sunlight spilled through a gap in the heavy curtains onto the floor, while the air conditioner in the room continued to hum softly.

The young man on the bed opened his eyes and stretched lazily.

An air-conditioned room, a soft bed—another new day.

"One Two Three, what time is it?" the man asked.

A crisp female voice sounded.

"Hello. Capital time is 11:37. The weather is clear. Indoor temperature: 26 degrees Celsius. Outdoor temperature: 36 degrees Celsius. Relative humidity: 75%. Please remember to protect yourself from the sun when going out."

"One Two Three, open the curtains."

"Certainly. At your service."

The dark brown curtains slowly opened, and the summer sunlight illuminated the entire room. The man casually picked up the glasses beside his bed and pressed his right thumb against the right side of the frame.

On the right side of the deep black frame was a wide strip-like device containing a processor and a new energy-storage battery, with a battery life of up to twenty hours. These were this year's newest Googol smart glasses.

"Beep—please complete voice and iris verification."

"I am Li Heng."

Li Heng put on the glasses. Blue and green specks of light appeared on the previously transparent lenses. Once his iris data had been matched and the user confirmed, they transformed into strings of characters floating before his eyes.

"Welcome to the Googol 2nd-Generation Smart Glasses. Severe myopia detected. Would you like to adjust the optics?"

"Yes," Li Heng said. The next instant, his vision went from blurry to clear, and every object in the room became sharply visible. At the same time, new data appeared in the display of his glasses.

"1999 Hong Alliance commemorative curtains, brown model."

"Googol household universal compact charging station."

Li Heng turned his head and focused his gaze on the other side.

"Red glass cup, containing clear water."

"Gesture controls."

"Beep—switching to gesture controls."

Li Heng focused on the red glass cup and tapped "Analyze detailed data" in front of him with his right hand. Within seconds, new information appeared.

"Red glass cup, manufactured at xx Factory, xx City.

Standard weight: 150g

Cup height: 12.5cm, rim diameter: 10cm

Contains 85ml of clear water."

After playing around with the analysis function of his new glasses, Li Heng gradually woke up. Hunger rose from his empty stomach.

"It's already noon. I'll order some takeout."

"A medium serving of fish-fragrant shredded pork over rice for 25 yuan, one roasted duck leg for 7 yuan, some vegetables, and a bottle of Coca-Cola. Done."

He settled lunch in a minute, then looked up and said, "One Two Three, open the door for the takeout later."

After ordering, Li Heng casually opened the browser below. A live news broadcast popped up.

A female anchor in a dark professional suit was speaking gracefully outside a restaurant.

Barely in her twenties, she was at the age of greatest vitality. Her capable yet intelligent image would undoubtedly attract many viewers.

"What everyone is seeing now is a restaurant near xx Street in the residential district of xx City. As we can see, many drones are delivering takeout meals.

"Transportation has become increasingly convenient in modern society, yet people now prefer ordering takeout rather than going to restaurants to eat.

"Meanwhile, large numbers of drones have replaced the delivery workers of the previous era. This is undoubtedly a microcosm of our times.

"Under the tide of the era, artificial intelligence replacing humans in work has truly become an irreversible reality.

"As AI machines gradually replace humans in both physical labor and intellectual work, what meaning of survival will humanity have left in the end?"

Since 2030, the explosive development of 6G wireless communication technology and energy-storage batteries had led to the emergence of many virtual reality and augmented reality products.

At the same time, advances in algorithms had driven the intelligentization of all kinds of products. Most households now chose to equip themselves with an intelligent butler like One Two Three for management.

Intelligent butlers could efficiently manage all kinds of smart products in a home, hold everyday conversations with their owners, and possessed a certain degree of learning ability.

Through daily exchanges and interactions with their owners, they could also learn their preferences and better cater to each user's specific needs.

In modern society, where aging was severe, intelligent butlers were the best helpers and friends in the lives of many elderly people.

Meanwhile, the once-booming takeout industry had shifted from large-scale human delivery to drone delivery.

The energy density of new energy-storage batteries exceeded that of old lithium batteries by a hundredfold. Batteries of the same weight could provide more than three times as much energy as gasoline.

Small drones could carry dozens of kilograms and fly continuously through cities at sixty kilometers per hour for several hours. The 6G signal base stations spread throughout the city could transmit signals between drones and control centers with latency below one millisecond.

New intelligent algorithms allowed these drones to reach every household in a city precisely without causing confusion. Like little bees in a steel forest, they diligently served humanity year-round without rest.

"Ding-dong—your takeout has arrived."

Only a few minutes later, One Two Three spoke. The takeout he had just ordered had already arrived, and Li Heng turned, rolled off the bed, and headed for the door.

"Woof!" The moment he opened the door, a little yellow dog came barking and pounced at him. Li Heng reached out, caught it, and lifted it into his arms.

"Hi, Little Yellow. Good morning. No, I should say good afternoon."

"Woof woof woof!" The puppy wriggled around in Li Heng's arms, its chubby body twisting as its little tail stood up and wagged wildly.

Li Heng had brought Little Yellow back from the farming district outside the city when he visited a friend. At the time, his friend's big dog had given birth to seven puppies, and this little fellow had rolled around at Li Heng's feet the moment they met.

Li Heng felt that this little mutt had an affinity with him, so he simply asked his friend for it and brought it home to raise.

"It's fine. Dinner will come later, and we'll eat together." Carrying the puppy, Li Heng crossed the living room and came to the door. The packaged takeout had already been placed inside through the passage beneath it.

Sitting on the sofa, Li Heng opened the takeout bag. At the same time, various data appeared before his eyes.

"Can of Coca-Cola, 330ml," "cooked green vegetables," "cooked duck leg."

Li Heng opened the icy nerd happiness water beside him and tipped his head back, downing it in one gulp.

"Ahh—refreshing!"

While Li Heng was eating, a chat app window bounced in the upper-left corner of his vision.

He casually opened it. Before him appeared a gentle young man in a white lab coat, with a faint, warm smile on his handsome face.

"Li Heng, are you playing Infinite Horror tonight? I finished my thesis these past two days. You didn't come yesterday, and I kept dying when I played alone."

"Did you go play the small-scale scenarios? None of those newbies know you."

Li Heng said with a smile,

"Other people play games either to fight players or monsters. At worst, they hide and wait to be carried to victory. But you? You go in just to save people, and after saving them, you get killed by them."

"Haha, I'm a doctor. I was originally dragged into Infinite Horror by someone else. Saving people in there now is just practice, preparation for my internship later."

The doctor in the white coat across from him smiled bitterly in helplessness.

"Tell me, Young Master Wang Ziyun, you're not seriously planning to become a struggling frontline doctor after graduation, are you?"

The first time Li Heng met this guy in the game had been in a zombie siege scenario.

At the time, the entire town was full of zombies. The other players were either fighting zombies or looking for safe shelters to hide in, while he alone was crouched by the roadside stopping the bleeding and bandaging wounded players he didn't even know.

Back then, Li Heng thought he was just an ordinary hot-blooded medical student. He was somewhat naïve in his idealism, but it was only a game anyway, so Li Heng couldn't be bothered with how he wanted to play.

Later, after Li Heng played with him a few times and they became familiar, he learned that his real name was Wang Ziyun.

Most people might not be familiar with that name, but his father was a famous figure throughout the Hong Alliance—Wang Fantian, president of Googol Tech's Southern Region in Great Xia.

Googol Tech was a super multinational corporation established by the Hong Alliance in 2025 to counter the Free Business Alliance.

It brought together the most cutting-edge researchers in aerospace, communications, artificial intelligence, energy, materials, bioengineering, and other fields from the Hong Alliance's member states. Its global workforce exceeded one million.

Wang Fantian's father, Wang Ziyun's grandfather, had been one of its core members at the time.

Every other region had only one president, selected by the local government to oversee all of Googol Tech's affairs in that country.

Great Xia, however, was divided into five major regions, each with its own president. The president of the Central Region also served as the overall highest president of Googol Tech.

It could be said that Wang Ziyun belonged to the very top tier of the Hong Alliance, even the world. He had been born with a golden key in his mouth, born in Rome.

"If you really go become a doctor later, won't your dad be furious?" Li Heng asked Wang Ziyun.

"The old man's in great health. He can keep working for another thirty years. I'll study medicine properly and try to help him live to a hundred."

Wang Ziyun smiled. "Are you coming tonight? I finally have a few free days. After that, I'll be busy again."

Li Heng pulled out a black rod several centimeters long from the right frame of his smart glasses, pointed it at himself, and lightly pressed it with his finger. Li Heng's image appeared in the chat app.

"Look at this thirty-yuan boxed meal I'm eating, and this poor little dog at home with nothing to eat. I'm not charging you for carrying you through the game."

Wang Ziyun looked at the little yellow dog, fat as a ball, and was somewhat speechless. He said helplessly,

"Then after we're done, I'll treat you to late-night food in the central district."

"Deal." Li Heng smiled. "See you tonight."