Chapter 75

Chapter 75

The warning from the Northern Base was concise.

Boli said, "They've noticed us too."

An Zhe looked outside.

The Highland Institute stood atop the highest peak, offering a panoramic view of the abyss below. The massive fault line was like a grotesque scar on the ashen skin of the earth, with the dense forests and swamps acting as the blood and pus seeping from it. In the distance—on the distant eastern shore—lay either an ocean or a vast lake, either way, it stretched out endlessly. Amidst the silence, whispers mixed with the wind, and faint roars of waves could be discerned through the mist.

In short, it was like a monster quietly lurking on the ground.

This wasn't the abyss that An Zhe was familiar with. He had sensed this before. In the past, the abyss was a place filled with blood and plunder, never having known such tranquility.

A black silhouette appeared on the horizon, growing larger as it approached until it hovered above the white building.

With a swoosh, Tang Lan folded his wings and landed directly on the corridor outside, pushing open the laboratory door.

"I'm back, sir," he said, then turned to Rum and asked, "Have there been any recent attacks?"

Rum replied, "None."

Boli Joan lifted her head, surveying him from top to bottom, seemingly assessing his wellbeing. If Lu Fen were the one performing this action, An Zhe would have felt as though he was being judged, with his fate hanging on whether he'd be spared or executed. However, with Boli's gentle gray-blue eyes fixed on Tang Lan, he was certain that this was merely a benevolent elder's concern, checking if Tang Lan had suffered any harm outside.

Sure enough, Boli asked, "Did you encounter danger outside?"

"There's danger, but no injuries," Tang Lan assured. "I have more experience in that area."

Boli said, "You've always given me great reassurance."

Tang Lan smiled, his sharp and handsome features exuding a subtle, icy sternness. Recalling that Hubbard was the most outstanding team leader among mercenaries, An Zhe deduced that his second-in-command must also be no ordinary individual.

Boli Joan inquired, "How is it outside?"

"Pretty much as you predicted," Tang Lan replied. "They're in balance."

As he spoke, he yanked a cable from a drawer and connected the microcamera in his hand to the computer, loading hundreds of images that projected onto a large screen beside them.

At first glance, the images appeared devoid of any substance, depicting only the indescribably peculiar vistas that were characteristic of the abyss, as if they were mere landscape paintings captured by curious travelers seeking novelty. Yet upon closer inspection, they left one breathless.

The most striking image depicted an aerial view of a vast frozen lake, its ice surface preserving the brown algae, scattered limbs, and fallen leaves beneath a blanket of frost. Beneath this barren expanse, however, a massive, irregular black silhouette could be discerned — the back of an aquatic creature lying still underwater. Its shadow resembled an abstract painting.

On the lakeshore, withered branches in the dense forest were entwined with large, grayish-red vines. The following photograph zoomed in on one of these, revealing a smooth, earthworm-like exterior adorned with radial, star-shaped patterns beneath its skin. Countless, pulsating black veins seemed to beat rhythmically. An Zhe instantly realized that these were not ordinary plants; the entire jungle was infested with tentacle-like creatures.

"Only one shot here; it noticed me," Tang Lan commented.

Boli flipped through the photos using a remote control.

"They've been through three months of carnage. Now, only the larger monsters remain; the smaller ones have vanished entirely," Tang Lan explained. "I've engaged a few of them. Sir, I'm certain that I'm the only one in the research facility capable of escaping their clutches. However, I can't engage them head-on. Besides, most creatures from the Abyss are polymorphic. I can't be sure just how terrifying they've become."

"I understand," Boli nodded slowly, his gray-blue eyes betraying a grave demeanor. "If genes are a resource, they have completed their consolidation within the abyss. Now, the monsters have also reached a balance of power among themselves, and their intelligence has vastly improved during this integration process, comprehending that conflict could lead to mutual destruction. If this hypothesis holds true, it's likely that some of these monsters have already started leaving the abyss to hunt beyond its borders. Humanity is undoubtedly one of their targets, though they have yet to direct their attention our way. We must be prepared to defend against a potential collective assault from these creatures at all times."

"Indeed," Tang Lan agreed. "But there's one point that differs from your assumption."

Boli inquired, "What did you discover?"

Tang Lan manipulated the computer, bringing up an image. It was an unimaginably grotesque picture—An Zhe didn't have a well-defined sense of aesthetics, but he was certain that "ugly" was the appropriate word to describe it, for it assaulted one's senses to the utmost degree. Two densely packed, squishy creatures were covered in organs describable and indescribable by human language, their mucous-dripping tentacles reaching out to touch one another. In the next image, their tentacles separated, and in the following, one of them moved away from the other in a different direction.

"Six instances of similar occurrences have been observed. The creatures aren't behaving as per your initial prediction, Mr. Tang Lan, where they would each stake out their territories and enter a stalemate. They move about in the abyss, probing one another, and then separate." Tang Lan's voice grew somber and grave. "I fear the worst might be unfolding, sir. It seems they're communicating — I can't discern the content of their communication. Whenever there's contact between them, I sense an intensification of the vibrations emanating from their beings."

He continued, "I suspect they're sensing each other, probing for the genetic elements they need in their counterparts."

"Possibly," Boli replied. "When it comes to 'Vibrations,' you have the most acute senses in the research institute."

"Recently, my sensitivity to them has increased," Tang Lan's complexion was slightly pale. "They're everywhere in the air, on every monster. Sometimes, I even feel as if the rocks on the ground are pulsating. It's becoming harder for me to maintain my thoughts. I shouldn't have returned so soon, but I sense my own vibrations merging with theirs. Sir, I... my mind doesn't seem quite right."

Boli took his hand, his voice soothing. "Don't be afraid."

"A century ago, during the most stable era of biological gene sequences, there were already certain species that were exceptionally sensitive to magnetic shifts. You just happen to have integrated with one of those creatures," he explained.

"But it's not a magnetic field. I can sense that. It's a different kind of vibration," Tang Lan closed his eyes, kneeling on one knee with his forehead touching the back of Boli's hand. His voice was raspy. "Sir, have you perhaps grasped something? You don't seem surprised by what I'm saying."

"Yet you wouldn't share it with us, for the truth is something we cannot bear," he said. "But I truly..."

His voice grew increasingly rough and hoarse until he could no longer continue.

"Don't be afraid, don't be scared, my child," Boli's right hand gently clasped Tang Lan's shoulder, his voice as soothing as an expansive ocean, "I will shield you until my very last breath."

Tang Lan lifted his head, meeting Boli Joan's gaze with a solemn vow: "We will also protect you and the research institute until the very end."

"I've never made demands of you, but if there comes a day when the institute no longer exists," Boli spoke thoughtfully, "I implore you not to cast yourselves into the tide of hybrids and monstrosities. Instead, head north to safeguard the human settlements."

Tang Lan: "But the Judges will terminate all hybrids. The base would never accept us."

Boli gazed at the vast, dusky expanse outside.

"Yet, in the final moments, I still choose to have faith, to the greatest extent possible, in humanity's kindness and tolerance," he said.

Tang Lan's lips curved upward slightly as he gazed up at Boli Joan. "That is because of your noble character and upstanding nature, sir."

Boli smiled and shook his head.

*

After Tang Lan departed, the power reserve of Simpson's cage reached its critical threshold. On the spacious platform beneath the white building, a dazzling scarlet light illuminated the area, accompanied by a wave of heat that assailed the face. Had An Zhe not known this was a high-energy field generated by machinery designed to capture the vibration frequencies and interaction trajectories of elementary particles, he would almost have believed the scene below to be a raging sea of flames.

The laboratory's large screen served as the terminal and control console for the Simpson cage, but due to flaws in its design, adjusting the cage's parameters sometimes necessitated descending to the lower level to manually manipulate the levers of certain delicate mechanisms.

On the large screen, the lines remained chaotic, but they were not static. Each time Boli adjusted a parameter, the entangled lines would shift from one kind of disorder to another—eventually returning to a jumbled mess.

Yet Boli persisted, analyzing the fluctuations, calculating functions, adjusting parameters, and altering reception frequencies. The capricious lines danced across the screen.

The melody interrupted An Zhe's thoughts; an old tape recorder in the hallway played Beethoven's tumultuous Symphony No. 5. Rum stood by the window with a sheet of sheet music propped up before him. He harmonica'd along with the score, mimicking the symphony's melody. After an indeterminate amount of time, he stopped.

"Do you understand music?" he asked.

An Zhe shook his head.

Rum pointed at the recorder. "After listening to a piece, could you reproduce it on the harmonica?"

An Zhe shook his head more vigorously. With such a complex symphony, it was already his limit to grasp one ten-thousandth of its nuances, let alone recreate it.

"Needs sheet music," Rum flipped a page of the score, speaking softly.

As he spoke of "sheet music," his gaze shifted to the central screen in the laboratory.

It was as if a single string had been plucked in the air, instantly clarifying his jumbled thoughts. Suddenly, An Zhe's eyes widened slightly.

"Variations are like a symphony," he said. "Sir wants to decipher its score. Then... then many things can be done."

Rum's dark gaze studied him deeply. "You're smarter than me."

An Zhe also turned to the screen, hoping to decipher the secret of the Catastrophe from these lines. His gaze was perplexed.

Or perhaps, this endless chaos was truth in another sense.

An eerie silence enveloped the laboratory. Lowering his head, An Zhe felt humanity's fate as uncertain as that tangle of lines. Perhaps it had nothing to do with the mushrooms, but at times, he found it hard to breathe.

Unable to articulate the reason, he placed his fingers on the keyboard, facing the communication channel to the Northern Base.

His fingers were no longer dexterous, much like how his mycelium could no longer stretch and move. As he struck the keys, his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.

Without optical fibers or base stations, communication was costly, akin to the telegraph communications of human history's long voyages – every word had to be economized.

He typed,

"How is the base?"

In a bizarre coincidence, almost simultaneously, the communication channel flickered to life, delivering the same inquiry from the Northern Base.

"How is the research facility?"

The Northern Base was willing to sacrifice everything for the purity of human genes; they despised monsters. The Judgement Court showed no tolerance for hybrids. It seemed that only Dr. Ji, with his kind-hearted scientific nature, would acknowledge the existence of the Fusionists and concern himself with their plight.

An Zhe replied, "Everything is well."

sugarcoating troubles seemed to be a unique skill of humans, one he had learned.

Seconds later, the other party responded, "The same here at the base."

Staring at the communication interface, An Zhe pondered for a long while before slowly typing, "Is the Adjudicator doing well?"

After some thought, he hit the backspace key and made a few revisions.

While he was editing, the Northern Base sent another message.

"Has the research institute recently discovered any new mutated individuals?"

An Zhe contemplated for a moment before responding, "Not yet."

After sending that reply, he finally dispatched the revised message he had been working on.

-"Is the Court of Judgement in order?"

The response came: "The Court of Judgement is functioning normally."

An Zhe felt somewhat relieved.

He sent a polite closing message, "Wishing you well." "Good night."

The reply from the other end was equally brief.

"Goodnight."

Gazing at the two characters, An Zhe removed his fingers from the keyboard. He took out the silver badge, aware that his body was weakening at an accelerated pace; the end was near. With stiff knuckles, he struggled to hold the badge in his hand.

Footsteps echoed from the staircase, and Boli ascended, but instead of returning to his room, he stood silently by the railing of the corridor, his back turned to this spot.

An Zhe rose, pushing the door open to join Boli's side. The music ceased, and below, Simpson's cage was engulfed in raging flames. The night surged forward, bringing with it a distant howl echoing across the darkened horizon.

Boli asked, "Aren't you staying inside?"

An Zhe shook his head, recalling Tang Lan's previous words.

"Sir," he said, "have you figured something out?"

Boli gazed at him.

"At times, I feel your capacity to comprehend surpasses everyone else's," Boli remarked. "You're extraordinary. It's as if you're more vulnerable than anyone, yet unafraid of anything."

An Zhe lowered his eyes slightly.

"Hmm," he acknowledged.

"Yet, I haven't reached the final conclusion," Boli said, buttoning up the first row of An Zhe's coat. "Would you like to hear a very simple story?"

An Zhe replied, "I would."

"It's an old hypothetical from a scientist," Boli's voice was warm despite the cold breeze. "Suppose today, you traveled through time and ended up a year in the future. There, you'd travel back in time again, returning to a year ago, landing right here." Boli continued, "Then, two identical versions of you would stand before me right now."

Thoughtfully, An Zhe replied, "Mm-hmm."

"You know that atoms are the building blocks of matter, and within atoms are electrons. No two leaves in the world are identical, but all electrons are identical. So, how would you distinguish two electrons as separate entities?"

An Zhe pondered and answered, "They're in different positions."

"But space isn't a measure of location, neither is time. These concepts only hold meaning for four-dimensional beings like us. In higher dimensions, time and space are merely the x and y axes on a piece of paper, like this." Boli pulled out a chalk from his pocket and drew a dot on the railing before them. He explained, "An electron freely moves through time and space. Left is behind, right is ahead. Now, it travels forward in time by one second."

As he spoke, he drew a diagonal line downward to the right, marking the point, "After traveling through time, it arrives here."

"Then, it travels back in time by one second and stops here." The chalk traced a line downward to the left, adding another point.

Now, there were three points and two lines on the railing forming an acute angle opening to the left. The two points on the left were aligned vertically. Boli drew this vertical line, saying, "This is our moment in time. What do we see at this instant?"

An Zhe thought deeply for a long while.

Eventually, he said, "Two electrons."

"Yes, we see two identical electrons. But fundamentally, they are one and the same, just appearing in two different locations at the same time." Boli then dotted countless star-like electrons around them, "Approximately, our Earth contains 10 to the power of 51 identical electrons that make up the matter we can see. How would you prove that this isn't actually the same electron oscillating back and forth along the timeline billions of times?"

"By the same token, how can you prove that the entire universe we see isn't the result of one or a few fundamental particles dancing through space and time?"

An Zhe furrowed his brow. He couldn't provide such proof.

He struggled to digest this concept with his limited understanding.

"So, are you saying Mr. Boli and I are just the same electron?"

Boli smiled warmly. He reached out and gently embraced An Zhe's slender shoulders, like an elder comforting an innocent child.

"This is merely one of many speculations about the essence of the world, not the truth, or perhaps it's entirely opposite to the truth. It's just that we can't verify it," he explained. "I used this example to illustrate that our bodies, thoughts, and wills, as well as the existence of the entire Earth, are even more insignificant when measured on a grander scale than a single electron."

An Zhe gazed into the distance. As a simple mushroom without a scientific mind or extensive knowledge, he lacked the multidimensional perspective to grasp such a concept. All he knew was that the world before him was real. Softly, he said, "But we are all real."

As his words faded, his expression suddenly went blank for a moment. His brows knitted together, and a searing pain tore through his chest.

Clutching the railing tightly, his body trembled violently as he spat out a mouthful of blood and collapsed forward.

Boli's arms shook as he caught An Zhe's weakening form, pulling him into his embrace.

"Rum!" he called out toward the laboratory, his voice laced with urgency.

An Zhe was aware that Boli would attempt to heal him again, or search for the cause of his ailment, resorting to measures like temperature control, antibiotics, defibrillation... those tools.

He spat out more blood, and Boli reached out to wipe it away with his sleeve.

Blood stained the corners of his pristine white shirt sleeves. An Zhe looked at Boli and managed a weak smile.

"No need," he said, gently gripping Boli's arm. He caught his breath and whispered, "Really, there's no need."

Boli clung to him insistently. "Just hold on a little longer."

"I…" An Zhe gazed into his eyes, as if he saw an endless expanse of sea and sky.

In truth, he was still manageable; he hadn't reached his weakest point yet. At the very least, he could still move, and his thoughts were clear.

But he would eventually die—either today or tomorrow—he could simply let death take him. Boli was the best elder in this world, treating him like a beloved child with so much kindness… In his final moments, he could pass away with such tender affection, something that others in this era dared not even dream of. But if he died like this, Boli would be left to grapple with his inexplicable death. He wouldn't find the cause, and there would be nothing he could do. An Zhe knew that for human scientists, unsolvable mysteries and unexplainable truths were the most profound sources of frustration.

He could also die as a monster—he wasn't afraid of Boli's hatred. What Boli had given him was more than enough.

"I'm sorry... I'm so sorry," he said to Boli, feeling a weight lifted off his shoulders after making that decision. The pain in his body was insignificant now. He repeated, "I'm sorry, Boli."

Boli gazed at him intently.

"I..." An Zhe smiled, but a bout of coughing interrupted him. Tears trickled down his face, their temperature mirroring the blood. Struggling for breath, he told Boli, "I... lied to you. I wasn't infected by a monster. I am one. I'm not human. I just... consumed someone's genes. I just... look like a human."

Boli seemed taken aback for a moment. Then, his gray-blue eyes filled with a gentler sorrow, "No matter what you are, can you hang on a little longer, please?"

An Zhe shook his head.

"I don't have a disease," he said. "My lifespan... is just this long. It can't be changed... Don't try to save me."

As he finished speaking, Boli hugged him tightly. They locked eyes, sinking into a mournful silence.

Compared to illnesses and injuries, the predetermined lifespan of a species was an even more unyielding force. From the moment of birth, the end was set, a threshold no one could cross – a barrier God had supposedly erected, if God truly existed.

In this wordless silence, the howling wind carried Boli's voice. Amidst the gusts, An Zhe heard him say something.

— Upon hearing those words, his heart jolted. They were so familiar, as if he had traveled back three months to that night when he faced Lu Fen. The wind had been strong that day too.

Boli Joan inquired, "What do you have there in your hand?"

With An Zhe, there was nothing else he needed to conceal. He slowly unfolded his fingers.

In the palm of the hand lay a silent silver badge, the emblem of the Arbiter's authority.

Boli's gaze fell upon the badge, and An Zhe swore he saw a vast, melancholic depth in those gray-blue eyes.

Then, Boli Joan reached into a concealed pocket of her blouse and withdrew an item, holding it firmly in the palm of her hand.

An Zhe's eyes widened slightly.

It was also a silver badge.

-Almost an identical badge.

"You..." An Zhe froze. "You're... a Judge?"

"Once upon a time," Boli said softly. "I am a deserter."

Author's Note:

The theory referred to is Feynman's hypothesis of a universe with a single electron.

Not part of the narrative world of this text.