Chapter 68

Chapter 68

Armored vehicles.

"Congratulations on your return. We'll be back at the base in 15 hours."

Lu Fen asked, "How's the base?"

"The abnormalities have caused widespread panic and chaos. Some precision instruments are out of order, but the artificial magnetic poles are functioning normally."

"Did the abnormalities occur when the magnetic poles malfunctioned?"

"Yes."

Lu Fen continued, "In the past few days, I've been living with the survivors in a magnetite mine tunnel, and there were no signs of abnormalities there."

"Due to the magnetic field, it can resist abnormalities to some extent," the doctor explained. "Back then, the Lighthouse was in chaos. We held onto our last bit of hope and exchanged all our research findings with the underground city base over the years, but we gained nothing. All their research was based on biological genetics."

"After that, I accessed the communication channel with the research institute again, violating the rules."

Lu Fen raised an eyebrow slightly.

"After discussing together and considering some clues, like the timing of the anomalies' appearance, we believe it might be related to the magnetic field. That's why we temporarily increased the intensity of the artificial magnetic poles," the doctor explained. "It's been effective for now, giving us a little more time to cling on."

Leaning back in the car seat, the doctor continued, "But based on predictions, the anomalies will gradually intensify and defeat us within three months."

Pausing, he gazed at the horizon where gray fog was rising, and a brown eagle circled in the sky. "However, to witness firsthand that all human efforts throughout history to survive have been in vain, and to be a witness to humanity's ultimate demise, is actually a sort of unimaginable honor."

He turned his gaze back to Lu Fen. "To be honest, you seem calmer than I expected."

"Why, did it hit you hard?" He added, "That An Zhe creature is something unknown, slippery as an eel. It managed to escape from the base with its tight security. It's normal that we couldn't catch it. Even if we did, we wouldn't be able to keep it. Don't take it too much to heart."

Lu Fen remained silent.

He extended his hand.

A soft, snow-white ball tumbled out of his sleeve, and the tender, white mycelium affectionately wrapped around his fingers.

He looked at it.

Strangely, a tender emotion washed over him. It was as if he had returned to those moments when An Zhe rested quietly against his chest.

Surprisingly, those were the most cherished days of his life.

The Doctor was stunned. "You retrieved it? You actually managed to retrieve it?"

Lu Feng replied, "Yes."

"What about An Zhe?" The Doctor's words rushed out in quick succession. "Did you... kill him?"

The spore seemed startled by the sudden rise in volume and retreated into the fold of Lu Feng's sleeve.

But soon after, it reappeared at his collar, affectionately brushing against his neck.

Lu Feng spoke softly, "He's gone."

"How could you let him go? What exactly is he?" The Doctor's eyes widened. "Can... can he protect himself?"

With his finger caressing the soft mycelium of the spore, Lu Feng didn't respond. In the dim light, his profile appeared as a solitary silhouette, shrouded in quiet melancholy.

The doctor sized him up but suddenly frowned. "Where's your gun?"

*

On the rooftop.

As the convoy vanished on the horizon, An Zhe stretched his stiff body and rose from behind the flower bed. The previous night's heavy rain had filled the planter with water, and now, some thread-like creatures wriggled within it – a result of yesterday's newfound life.

But after the sun came out, the puddle would soon evaporate, and these ephemeral beings would face eternal death.

All life was like that.

Would his spore survive longer than these creatures that lived but for a day? He hoped so.

An Zhe waited patiently for an opportunity. When the eagle landed to rest, he climbed onto its back – the bird paid no attention to him, perhaps because he was too light and lacked sustenance. An Zhe found a spot on the broad back, where instead of feathers, scales covered the eagle. Between the scales, translucent tendrils intertwined. This eagle foraged around the city, devouring a vine resembling meat and engaging in a half-hour battle with a monstrous creature with bat wings. Defeated, it left the area.

An Zhe oriented himself using Polaris and a map, realizing the flight path had deviated. After sneaking away, he rooted into the soil to absorb nutrients overnight. After much hesitation, he retrieved a pitch-black gun and several bullets from his backpack.

This gun belonged to Lu Fen, but An Zhe only found it in the backpack after his departure – the colonel often used An Zhe's belongings, including the backpack, which likely led to him forgetting the gun.

With the gunshot, he successfully lured a butterfly-winged monster to serve as transportation.

Three days later, he landed once more, and while searching for his next ride, An Zhe encountered an exceedingly grotesque creature with a body resembling that of a centipede. This monster bore many traits of ant-like arthropod creatures and sustained itself on a diet of mushrooms. Desperate to flee, An Zhe found his physical condition severely deteriorated, narrowly escaping complete consumption. It was Lu Fen's gun that came to his rescue, inadvertently striking the soft underbelly of the beast as he fumbled in panic. Seizing the momentary pause this caused in the monster, An Zhe tumbled into a murky stream, thus escapting with his life.

As the chill set in, the creatures susceptible to cold began their southern migration. Of course, they preyed on one another during this journey. Sometimes, across the seemingly endless plains, not a single living creature could be seen, only an occasional colossal victor stood alone. At other times, swarms of social beings moved like a black flood, advancing southward. Among them, An Zhe flowed with the current.

Ten days later, it finally managed to catch a bird flying resolutely southward. More than twenty days after that, as he rode on the bird's soft back, he saw a long, massive shadow emerge on the horizon, like a scar across the world.

As humans describe it, the Abyss's heart is a narrow rift created by an apocalyptic magnitude eight earthquake during the Age of Cataclysm. This region emits extreme radiation, giving birth to countless horrifying creatures. Extending from this central rift, to the north lies an expansive plain, dense with forests and various mushrooms, where numerous monsters lie in wait. To the south, there is a vast highland and mountain range, undulating endlessly.

A feathered creature alights upon the rim of the abyss, weary from its flight. It seeks solace in the embrace of an enormous, withered tree, perching upon its branches to rest.

The branch suddenly trembled, and the feathers of the bird ruffled as it flapped its wings and let out a sharp cry.

- Without anyone noticing, numerous black vines had emerged on the withered tree trunk, tightly coiling around the bird's feet. Amidst the flapping of its wings, the snow-white bird was dragged to the center of the dense branches. Its elegant neck arched high, and its long, sharp beak pointed towards the gray sky. It struggled valiantly, but the vines wrapped around its neck. The flexible vines split open, revealing a mouth with razor-sharp fangs that severed the bird's neck in one bite.

A spurt of blood splattered, and the five or six-meter-long bird's body was severed into two halves. Its tiny feathers and down scattered across the ground.

An Zhe landed on the ground with his backpack, amidst the fallen feathers. He stood up, stepping on the rotten ground where black water flowed. After stumbling a few steps, he lifted his head to witness the bird being devoured by thousands of vines.

Satiated, the vines dispersed.

The dense forest, intertwined vines, and colossal mushrooms concealed the sunlight, as well as the sounds of combat.

This was the Abyss, a place that devoured creatures without mercy. There were no rodents or arthropods here, for they were too weak. The creatures a hundred times more powerful than them were not invincible either—the soil, saturated with flesh and blood, nourished the land, perhaps explaining the abundance of mushrooms.

An Zhe stepped cautiously into this realm. The ground, covered in moss, dead branches, and fallen leaves, was so soft it resembled a marsh, muffling the sound of any creature treading upon it.

He keenly sensed that the atmosphere of the Abyss had shifted. Normally, fierce battles occurred at every moment, with mighty monsters patrolling their territories through the woods. Yet, on his journey today, he'd only encountered a silent, slithering python.

It seemed they were all lying low.

But An Zhe had no interest in the comings and goings of these creatures.

He stood, transfixed by the seemingly endless expanse, a place even sunlight couldn't penetrate.

To his left, a ten-meter-tall dark red mushroom sprawled between several massive boulders. A bloody, sticky liquid continuously dripped from its cap, and the enormous body appeared to breathe, swelling and subsiding in the air.

An Zhe placed his finger on the mushroom's stem, feeling the grooves coated in the viscous fluid.

He had never seen a mushroom like this before.

His eyes suddenly filled with a look of terror as he glanced around, searching elsewhere.

—He didn't recognize it anymore.

His breathing came in ragged gasps as he stumbled and ran through the dense forest. Day turned to night, and night to dawn. Every plain seemed familiar, every cave empty. After an indeterminate time, he could no longer continue. His mycelium was no longer as supple and agile as before; it was melting and breaking apart. His human body, with its life force waning, had become incredibly frail.

By a tranquil lake, a withered vine tripped him.

A sharp rock cut into his palm and knee. He fell to his knees, burying his face in his hands, trembling all over.

He couldn't find it anymore, that cave. It was lost to him.

Mushrooms have but one season. As the old ones die, new ones sprout, and the face of the abyss changes with each generation of fungi. The path he had etched into memory—there was no trace of it now.

Despairingly, he looked up at the sky, surrounded by mushrooms and deadwood. He had no idea, no idea that things could be so—so cruel.

Lu Fen had been right; he had no concept of how vast this world truly was.

Unless he had an abundance of time left, it would be impossible to locate it.

His fate was sealed on the journey to find that cave.

Nothing in this world is eternal.

Not even the initial vows.

He gasped, fixating on the still pond beside him with a dazed expression.

His mind drifted into a haze.

There seemed to be a voice within the water, an indescribable frequency calling him away, making the entire world appear elusive and surreal.

Leap down, and it's all over. The pain will cease.

Happiness and pain, I no longer desire either.

Drawn by the alluring voice, he approached the lake step by step. The water was so clear that it reflected his image. He resembled An Ze so strikingly that as ripples distorted the outline, it seemed as if An Ze himself was calling out to him.

Born with no knowledge, to die with none as well.

A voice suddenly echoed in his ear again. It was his own voice.

"In this mournful peak," the voice whispered softly, "curse me and bless me with your tears."

"Do not go gently into that good night."

"Do not go gently into that good night," he asked, "What does it mean?"

Lin Zuo, the teacher from Eden, replied, "Do not accept extinction with resignation."

After a brief pause, it changed.

"Though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil, for you are with me." He recited the poem softly to someone they had journeyed with for a long time, both unaware of what lay ahead. In that wilderness, as that person led him through the night, under the ancient winds, what had been on their mind?

Did that person, facing an enigmatic fate that was bound to fade away, also feel the same despair as he did? How had they continued forward?

He lowered his head, realizing that without knowing when, he had once again taken the badge of the Judge in his hand. Its edges pierced his already bleeding palm.

The illusionary trance faded instantly, and he took a few hurried steps back.

He wondered, What was I just doing?

A sharp pain shot through his ankle as the stone that had cut his palm earlier struck his foot.

Bending down, he intended to move the protruding, jagged gray stone from the ground so it wouldn't trip any other creatures. That's when he suddenly noticed something.

There was a blackened charcoal mark on the stone, as if written with a charred branch—a crooked, ugly arrow pointing southeast.

Lost in thought, he pondered within the limits of his knowledge—there were no creatures in the Abyss that knew how to draw arrows.

Moreover, he seemed to recall encountering this peculiar gray stone elsewhere in the Abyss, but at the time, he had been fully focused on finding a cave and hadn't paid attention.

Surveying his surroundings, he eventually decided to head in the direction indicated by the arrow. After walking for a long while, another gray stone emerged abruptly from the ground, half buried in soil, half exposed, with an arrow marking its visible half.

An Zhe continued on. Not only were there markings on gray stones, but sometimes on tree trunks or bones as well. Five days later, he realized he had been heading southward in the Abyss, drawing closer to the highlands. The environment there was dry and harsh, rarely visited by monsters.

But on that very same day, he could no longer find any more stones.

Confused, he stood beneath a tree, straining to look around him—doubting if he had taken the wrong path.

Suddenly.

A small pebble struck his shoulder.

"Lost?" A amused male voice sounded behind him.

An Zhe turned around, startled to hear a human voice again.

Beside a tree stood a tall, slender man with striking features and black hair. He held a gray stone in his right hand and winked, saying, "The landmark's with me. Haven't put it down yet."

Looking at him, An Zhe gradually furrowed his brow.

"Tan Lan?" he called out a name.

"You know me?" The man's smile held a hint of casual nonchalance as he sized An Zhe up. "I haven't seen you at the base."

"I haven't seen you either," An Zhe confirmed, studying the man's appearance once more. "I know Hubbard."

The moment the name 'Hubbard' left his lips, the casual smile vanished from the man's face.

Author's Note:

Hubbard has kindly directed my golden fish to Chapters 9 and 10.