Chapter 42

Chapter 42

An Zhe watched helplessly as his spore extended mycelium to touch Lu Fen through the glass barrier. Even when Lu Fen's hand retreated, the mycelium drooped, seemingly expressing a hint of loss.

Seeing the spore's reaction, An Zhe felt a pang of sadness as if he had personally experienced it. He didn't want Lu Fen to approach the spore when he lifted his hand, but then wished for him to stay longer when he let go.

In that brief second, the camera shifted to a researcher in a lab coat who announced that the sample exhibited an unprecedented inertia towards infection mutation.

"After four months of analysis, we've found that the extract from the sample doesn't infect any living organisms. Likewise, when we exposed the sample to extracts from mutated organisms, no structural changes were observed," the researcher explained. "The Lighthouse believes this could be the breakthrough in overcoming mutation."

An Zhe gripped the thermos handle tightly. The humans considered his spore to be the key to overcoming mutation, implying that it would be heavily guarded.

Finally, the news anchor concluded the segment with an optimistic tone, praising the promising future of the base and thanking the researchers for their efforts.

As the news ended, the weather forecast followed. According to the Lighthouse's observation, the base's region was expected to experience a significant temperature rise within the next three days. A reminder was issued to all sectors, especially the Lighthouse laboratories and the Eden crop cultivation center, to prepare accordingly.

An Zhe lost interest and left his home, boarding the shuttle. Throughout the journey, he pondered how to get closer to his spore. First, he needed to locate the exact position of the laboratory and study the researchers' work patterns. Typically, researchers wouldn't stay in the lab 24/7. If he could enter the lab undetected via the ventilation system and then retrieve the spore back into his body—

He could devise a plan to leave the human base and return to the Abyss.

With the experimental specimen stolen, humanity would undoubtedly pursue it relentlessly. Apart from escape, he seemed to have no other choice.

At this thought, An Zhe turned his head blankly, gazing through the shuttle's glass window at the brightly lit city beneath the night sky. The aurora had risen, its green glow sweeping across the darkness, swiftly shifting like the passage of time itself.

The announcement sounded: They had arrived at the Twin Towers.

An Zhe alighted with the thermos flask in hand, using Lu Fen's ID card to swipe open the door and entering the lobby. He ascended the floors. In the silver corridors, every laboratory was illuminated, each filled with the sounds of various instruments operating at different frequencies, echoing back and forth in harmony. He found the doctor's lab, but only Dr. Ji and his assistant were inside.

"You're here," Dr. Ji looked up and said, "Lu Fen will be back soon."

"Alright," An Zhe placed the thermos on the workbench, unscrewed it, and poured a bowl for the doctor. The insulation was excellent; the soup was boiling hot, its rich aroma wafting with the rising steam, filling the entire laboratory.

"Wow," the doctor took the offered utensils, "you're so thoughtful."

An Zhe smiled.

Doctor: "Aren't you eating?"

An Zhe: "I'll wait for him to come back."

Doctor: "Tsk."

"I'm not waiting for him," the Doctor said, then turned to his assistant. "Keep playing it."

Assistant: "Understood."

An Zhe looked at the computer screen in front of the Doctor. The central window was displaying Si Nan's video message. Below it was another window, partially hidden, showing an email send list. The Doctor had just sent separate emails to recipients labeled "Dungeon" and "Research Institute."

His gaze returned to the video of Si Nan, the gray bee. Lily was engaging him in casual conversation. One moment she asked, "Do you have honey?" The next, she changed the topic. "Is it more fun being human or a bee?"

He commented, "It's grown."

And it was a noticeable increase.

The Doctor chewed on a piece of chicken, squinting at the screen. "Indeed."

The assistant chimed in at the right moment, "It gained 10 kilograms."

Doctor: "What did it eat?"

AssistantAssistantAssistantAssistant:Assistant: "They haven't eaten."

The doctor said, "Again."

"I shouldn't be pondering this during mealtime," he said. "I was actually quite happy."

An Zhe asked, "What's wrong?"

"The transformation and growth of these creatures defy not only the existing definitions in biology but also the law of energy conservation," the doctor said, looking at Si Nan. "Living beings absorb energy from the environment to sustain themselves. But when humans turn into these creatures, their size can increase tenfold, with muscle mass far exceeding that of a human. Where does all that energy come from? Human flesh as a medium can't provide that much. It's almost like they're creating something out of nothing."

An Zhe didn't respond. He lacked the knowledge, but it was true that the creatures in the Abyss were enormous.

"Sigh," the doctor said with a sigh. "Our entire body of knowledge has been rendered obsolete for quite some time now."

He continued to savor the delicious mushroom soup, but his gaze remained fixed on the screen.

As he neared the end of his bowl, An Zhe asked, "Do you want more?"

The doctor didn't reply. An Zhe looked into his eyes and noticed that he was intently staring at the screen.

"Rewind," he instructed.

The assistant played the video back one minute.

Lily, worn out from speaking, leaned against the glass wall. "Stop hitting the wall, it hurts."

She continued, "Though talking nonstop is tiring, the Lighthouse is more fun than Eden."

Just then, Si Nan regained a moment of lucidity. His furry and spiky chelae gently tapped against the glass.

Lily remarked, "You're awake."

The chelae trembled slightly, tapping the glass repeatedly.

The doctor furrowed his brow.

"Play it at half speed, and rewind again."

The footage zoomed in and slowed down, focusing on its motion of tapping the glass.

"The intervals between the first and second taps were identical. After a long pause, there was another tap, followed by another long pause," the Doctor took out a notebook and quickly marked it with a ballpoint pen. "This time, after the pause, he tapped three times in a row with equal intervals."

As he spoke, he jotted down the numbers 2, 1, and 3 on the paper.

When the video ended, the Doctor said, "Let's move on to the next lucid recording."

The assistant, who seemed to be a student of the Doctor's, began adjusting the playback and asked, "Do you suspect he might be using the tapping rhythm to convey a message?"

Doctor: "This is definitely abnormal... but he's just a six-year-old child."

He turned to An Zhe, "What kind of math and logic classes do you have?"

An Zhe replied, "Arithmetic, geometry, and reasoning."

"Do they tell them stories outside of the curriculum?" the Doctor asked. "Like stories about Morse code or such?"

"No," he corrected himself. "He didn't make it into Class A, so he couldn't have that high an IQ."

An Zhe: "He scored full marks on his tests. The reason he didn't enter Class A is psychological."

The doctor nodded in acknowledgment and proceeded to watch the next video. In this footage, Si Nan was conscious for only a brief moment, swiftly tapping twice with an interval different from before.

The professor sketched two points exceedingly close together on the paper. "Next paragraph."

In the following passage, Si Nan struck the wall seven times at intervals, maintaining a consistent rhythm.

In the following clip – which captures a full five seconds of consciousness – its actions during the first half mirror the initial footage with uncanny precision: two taps, one, then three. Upon completing the third tap, there's a significant pause before it swiftly strikes twice more. This segment is a seamless blend of the first two recordings.

The doctor made notes in his notebook as the video rolled on. In the fifth clip, he struck the surface seven times in a consistent, rhythmic pattern. Throughout all subsequent segments where he was conscious, he maintained this cycle of taps, until Lily was finally retrieved by Eden's staff at five o'clock.

The doctoral candidate's notebook was adorned with a sequence of numbers:

2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 7, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 7, 2...

The assistant suggested, "Should we seek help from someone in the field of mathematics to decipher it?"

"No need," the doctor replied. "The message he wants to convey is short, so it shouldn't be too complicated... Let me think."

An Zhe frowned at the string of digits. Humans communicated through language, and he was unsure how numbers could bear the responsibility of conveying information unless these digits held some hidden textual meaning.

"2, 1, 3..." The crease between the doctor's brows seemed to ease slightly.

After a moment of hesitation, An Zhe said, "b, a, c?"

"The alphabet," the doctor swiftly scribbled down bac on the paper. An Zhe glanced at his previous notes. After 2, 1, 3, Si Nan had tapped twice more, so it should be bacaa. The sixth tap was seven beats, corresponding to the letter g in the alphabet.

In line with his thinking, the doctor wrote down bacaag, but under the two consecutive a's, he drew a line.

The assistant commented, "Those two taps were very close together. It might represent another language's way of expression."

"11," the doctor suddenly said. "Two short taps don't mean two separate 1s. It could denote the tens digit, 11."

11 corresponded to the letter k, and thus the sequence transformed into backg.

The doctor asked, "How's his English?"

An Zhe replied, "Also perfect."

Foreign languages and literature accounted for almost half of their curriculum. If these children entered the Lighthouse in the future, they would need strong linguistic skills to access and comprehend human civilization's documents and resources.

"Back," the Doctor uttered a single word, then shifted the 'g' to the front, squinting his eyes, "Go back, a concise expression that wouldn't be as succinct in other languages. And..."

The assistant continued, "Moreover, it's within Lily's comprehension. If she notices, she'll understand."

The Doctor nodded. "He wants her to return. What does that imply?"

The recording played on, with Lily, looking dispirited, addressing the wildly fluttering Si Nan, "Doctor said the base is dangerous now. You need to help us, or else we'll all turn into monsters, and that would be terrifying."

The assistant translated, "If they're good friends, this implies that Eden is a safe place, and he either knows or foresees that the outside world is perilous, hence his urging for her to return."

"Yet, this boy was precisely infected in Eden," the doctor mused. "Could it be that the first Zeta appeared in Eden, drawing the Tribunal's investigation there, only for it to be a distraction?"

The assistant asked, "Should we hold a meeting to discuss this?"

The doctor glanced at the entrance of the laboratory. "Why hasn't Lu Fen returned yet?"

He took out his communicator and dialed, but only heard a busy signal. The assistant commented, "He might have entered a lab with signal interference."

An Zhe, sharp as he was, seized the opportunity and interjected, "What was he doing?"

"It's still that afternoon project," the Doctor said. "They're convinced that Colonel Lu Fen can promote the growth of a sample, so they insist on having him there to 'babysit' it."

An Zhe replied without hesitation, "I can go get him."

The Doctor smiled and looked at him. "You two really have a good relationship, don't you?"

"Sure, bring him back and have dinner while you're at it," the Doctor continued. "That lab is highly classified – a joint operation between the military and the Lighthouse. Take the elevator to the 13th floor, cross the sky bridge, and look for room D1344."

An Zhe nodded. "Okay."

He turned to leave the lab – it was clear that Lu Fen was now with his spore again. Perhaps the man was standing close by the glass tank, or even reaching out to play that touch game with the spore. He had no idea why this was happening, but he absolutely didn't believe the nonsense about "Colonel Lu Fen promoting spore growth." The spore hadn't been mature enough to grow on its own when it was extracted; it could only develop within his body or in his presence.

The elevator arrived, and inside were two researchers discussing the recent weather.

"After the strong winds, the temperature has been fluctuating wildly. The weather lately has been extremely extreme."

"It's summer, so it's not entirely unexpected. The base fears a drop in temperature more than a rise."

"Indeed."

"I've heard it's due to fluctuations in magnetic intensity."

"Could it be an issue with the artificial magnet poles?"

"The neighboring lab has detected several abnormal oscillations. Our eastern pole is fine, so everyone suspects that the western one is undergoing manual frequency adjustments."

"Wow," the researcher chuckled. "Has the technology in the underground city base advanced?"

"I suppose so. Otherwise, no one would dare to tamper with the poles. They've already contacted the Unification Center to request opening a high-frequency shortwave communication channel for a conversation with the underground city."

"Everything seems to be improving."

Indeed, everything was getting better. He was about to see his spore. The elevator doors slid open, and An Zhe stepped out.

The walkway connecting the Lighthouse and the Unification Center was broad, with transparent walls made of glass or some other material on both sides.

Lab D1344 was easy to locate. He knocked on the door.

A feminine voice responded, "Come in."

Upon entering, An Zhe immediately spotted the central glass aquarium – identical to the one in the news. And within it, that tiny cluster of white –

Beside the cluster, clad in a black uniform, was Lu Fen. He placed his finger on the tank, and the spores would sway leisurely towards him – then, he would withdraw his finger and place its tip at a distant spot.

The spores would then slowly redirect their course, heading for this new location.

Just as they were about to catch up, Lu Fen would shift position again, deliberately evading their touch.

Watching this scene unfold, An Zhe was so infuriated that he nearly forgot to breathe – whereas Lu Fen's expression appeared calm, yet he was clearly deriving pleasure from tormenting the spores, finding amusement in manipulating them.

At that moment, Lu Fen looked up and caught sight of him, raising an eyebrow in response.

An Zhe surveyed the surroundings, with their intricate instruments and monitoring equipment, as well as the dozen researchers present. This meant that he was destined to only catch a distant glimpse of the spore.

No, he was capable of one more thing: to take away the person who bullied the spores.

He approached the water tank, but to his irritation, the spores didn't approach him; instead, they continued to linger around Lu Fen.

Lu Fen's tone was gentle. "What's the matter?"

An Zhe spoke with a hostile tone, "You should go back and eat."

In Lu Fen's gaze, there seemed to be a hint of amusement. Playing with the spores had apparently brought this person so much joy.

Lu Fen walked over to his side and said to one of the researchers, "I'm leaving."

Researcher: "Please do come again tomorrow."

Clenching his teeth, An Zhe gave one last glance at the helpless little spore floating in the nutrient solution as the lab door coldly shut before him.

They walked together down the corridor.

An Zhe asked, "Are you coming here tomorrow too?"

Lu Fen replied, "Mm-hmm."

An Zhe: "Were you just playing with the sample?"

Lu Fen: "Assisting with the research."

An Zhe wouldn't buy his nonsense. He remained silent as they turned a corner, arriving at the footbridge leading to the lighthouse. On either side were the city's nocturnal scenery and the aurora borealis stretching across the sky.

Lu Fen seemed to sense An Zhe's mood. "You're not happy?"

An Zhe didn't respond.

Lu Fen paused, looking at him.

An Zhe turned his head to gaze at the aurora outside. The entire world seemed to fall silent for a moment.

Just then—

An Zhe's pupils dilated!

In that instant, a sharp pain shot through his entire body. The light was too intense, causing him to instinctively shut his eyes. The aurora had erupted into a blinding brightness, resembling a green bolt of lightning splitting the sky.

The next moment, Lu Fen grabbed his shoulders with force, pulling him down to the ground. They both tumbled, all within a fraction of a second.

An Zhe didn't suffer any injuries. Lu Fen's arm had shielded him. As he opened his eyes, he found himself back inside the corridor.

Lu Fen pulled him to his feet.

An Zhe's mind was buzzing. He gazed outside the skywalk, stunned.

The aurora was fading—every bit of it.

After that brief outburst just now, they seemed to recede like retreating ocean waters, scattering across the night sky. Their colors faded within mere seconds before vanishing entirely.

A brilliant Milky Way stretched across the blue-violet night sky.

He had never seen such a sight before. His gaze then descended, and he saw the entire human city aglow with flickering lights, mirroring the galaxy above.

The corridor lights flickered wildly, and chaotic sounds echoed from the laboratory as several researchers rushed out.

Lu Fen dragged An Zhe back to a spot where they couldn't be seen from outside. Facing the hurried researchers, he asked in a grave tone, "What about the magnetic field?"