Little Mushroom - Chap 26
After the train moved at a high speed for 10 minutes, the city was completely left behind. Lu Feng retracted his right hand and An Zhe saw there was a thick cloud in the direction they came from. The fighter jets had returned to the main city, flying over the top of the train with a whistling sound and disappearing from view.
An Zhe didn’t say anything. After staring quietly for dozens of seconds, he returned to his original position and sat down.
The moment he had gone on the train, he was still thinking that he would inform Boss Shaw about his whereabouts once communication was restored. Now it seemed unnecessary.
He looked out and saw a black figure. Lu Feng had sat down in the seat next to him and the young judge following Lu Feng was on the other side.
“Colonel, there is news from the Trial Court. 21 people were evacuated from the Trial Court. Nine people died and four were infected and killed.”
Lu Feng asked, “What about the city’s defense station?”
“There is no data at this time.”
Next, there was no sound. An Zhe stared out the window but there was really nothing to see. In the fog and rain, only the empty concrete floor could be seen.
This was a buffer zone. From the gate to the outer city. Even each area in the outer city had a huge buffer zone with no buildings. The purpose was that in the event of a large-scale invasion, it would earn precious time for the military to respond without allowing the heterogenous species to rush directly into populated areas.
Some time passed and there was noise in the carriage. it was Colin regaining his consciousness after he fainted for a while. He got up from the aisle and returned to his original position. He was pale as he bowed his head. He took out a pair of black-rimmed glasses and repeatedly wiped them on his clothes, never speaking again. At this moment, An Zhe felt that this body was different from the person he had originally met.
An Zhe turned his head and looked at Lu Feng. Just then, Lu Feng retracted his gaze from Colin and glanced at An Zhe. They stared at each other while An Zhe grasped his clothes with anxiety. Lu Feng only glanced at him lightly before looking away. An Zhe felt that Lu Feng was strange this time, even though they had slept on the same bed all of last night.
Thinking about it, An Zhe questioned, “What’s next?”
Lu Feng answered, “Based on the courses you have learned, you might teach children to recognize words.”
“What about you?”
“I will listen to the arrangement of the main city.”
An Zhe raised his courage. “Will you go to the Lighthouse?”
He knew there was a high probability that the spore would be in the lighthouse. Lu Feng glanced at him. An Zhe felt like Lu Feng was looking at someone intellectually handicapped. Lu Feng told him, “I belong to the military. The next task is to recover the dispersal centre.”
“Oh.”
He whispered, “Then you refuel.”
Lu Feng quietly watched him for a few seconds. “Thank you.”
They didn’t speak anymore. An Zhe wondered if the colonel might not be very talkative. After 10 minutes, the train arrived at the station and Lu Feng went to the beginning of the train. At the same time, there was a broadcast in the carriage. “Dear passengers, in order to ensure the safety of the main city, please line up for a second inspection.”
The people on the train started to line up with An Zhe and Colin coming last. The second test was a genetic test using a machine and the person testing was still the young blond doctor in a white coat. After An Zhe and Colin had blood drawn, the doctor turned on the machine and said, “Wait for five minutes.”
An Zhe obediently pressed a cotton swab to the place where blood was drawn and stood aside. The doctor smiled, “It’s you again.”
An Zhe greeted him. “Hello.”
The doctor told him, “The Judge actually took someone to do a genetic test. Our entire testing department was surprised.”
An Zhe told him, “Now he believes I’m human.”
“He might’ve just been looking for a fault.” The doctor shrugged. “The people of the Trial Court will always have a mental problem.”
“He is okay.”
The doctor cast an admiring look at him. “You are the first person I have ever met who spoke up for Colonel Lu.”
Then the doctor’s eyes moved to his left arm again. “Are you injured?”
An Zhe noticed that his relatively large movements had pulled up his sleeve, exposing his left arm wrapped with a bandage.
“Yes.”
“It is time to change the medicine.” The doctor lifted the medical box next to him and pulled out a new roll of bandages. “I’ll put it on you.”
The doctor seemed to be an easygoing and kind-hearted man. An Zhe whispered, “Thank you.”
The doctor removed his original bandage while praising, “This knot is good.”
An Zhe thought about it and decided not to tell the doctor that Lu Feng had done this for him or the inspection department might be surprised again. They seemed to think that Lu Feng was a type of bad guy with no bottom line.
The moment this thought came out, An Zhe suddenly frowned. At this moment, he seemed to understand why Lu Feng didn’t talk to others. The Judge’s position was destined to be like this. He was thinking so when he heard Colin call out from next to him, “Doctor.”
The doctor bandaged An Zhe and looked at him. “Yes?”
“Now the outer city has fallen, there is no need for the Trial Court to exist.” Colin requested, “Can we know the principles of the trial?”
An Zhe thought that Colin was really a firm opposition party.
“Why do you want to know? The doctor leaned against the detection car and watched him with folded arms. “Do you have any family or friends killed by Lu Feng?”
“My mother,” Colin replied. “She went to the wild and never left the armoured car all the way.”
“There are a few tiny monsters so it isn’t impossible.”
“However, she didn’t look or act differently.”
“Hmm.” The doctor hummed lightly. “So? If all relatives of those killed by the Trial Court asked the inspection department for a statement then we won’t have time to ensure the security of the front gate.”
“However, it is different now. You have time.” Colin raised his voice. “I just want to know why.”
Looking at him, the doctor smiled.
“You’re right, it’s different now.” The doctor spoke gently. “You are now a person of the main city and will slowly know a lot more information.”
He casually wondered, “Do you think that after being infected, the human body is slowly eroded?”
“Otherwise?”
“No.” The doctor stared up at the sky. “Once the infection occurs, your DNA strands—all the DNA structures will change in an instant. You are doomed the moment an infection occurs.”
“Impossible.”Colin refuted. “I have studied biology. A virus needs time to spread and there will be a latency period.”
The doctor directly interrupted him.
“Next, the structures of the DNA strand affects the composition of RNA. The changes in RNA affect the production of proteins and the biological characteristics of humans start to change. These things will happen in a short period of time. Your skin, appearance, expression, movement, ways of thinking, language skills… all of this will change. The training that judges receive before becoming formal judges is how to observe this difference with the naked eye.” He smiled and continued, “Once the accuracy rate reaches 80%, they will graduate and be formally employed. Do you think that your shallow observation of human behaviour can compare to their 10 years of training?”
“80%.” Colin raised his eyes. “Then the Trial Court can’t completely screen heterogeneous species and there is no guarantee that they aren’t doing large-scale indiscriminate killing, right?”
“I’m sorry, I have to tell you one thing.” The doctor stared at Colin. “Lu Feng’s score is 100%.”
Colin stood in place for a few seconds before muttering, “…No way.”
“I hope you don’t use mediocre criteria to determine the limit of other people’s abilities, especially after entering the main city.” The doctor’s voice was light. He was speaking to Colin but his eyes were on An Zhe. “At least, whenever his judgment was checked, he has never been wrong once. The detection department and the Trial Court are closely linked. I have seen his assessment results and all indicators for the Judge are full marks. However, this might not be the reason he could find heterogeneous species with a 100% accuracy.”
“He seems to have an innate talent, an intuition. After discovering his talent in this rea, the detection department will draw his blood once a month. Unfortunately, we couldn’t find any results.”
“No…” Colin frowned. “This is against science. Intuition can’t be used as a scientific basis and the infection method you said at the beginning is also—”
There was a short ringing sound and the machine lit up with a green light.
“Here are your new ID cards and communicators. Get in the car and the main city will assign you a place to live.” The doctor put two blue chips and communication devices into their hands. “Wait for news from the communicator.”
Colin took it. “But…”
“I know it goes against some of the principles of biological science but the scariest thing about this era is—” The doctor stared at Colin, blue eyes seemingly covered with frost as he clearly enunciated every word. “We found that the system of human science isn’t worth mentioning.”
