Little Mushroom - Chap 42
An Zhe watched his spore stretch out the mycelium to touch Lu Feng across the glass. Once Lu Feng’s hand left, the mycelium drooped and there was a faint sense of loss.
Seeing the spore’s behaviour, An Zhe felt a bit sad like he had experienced it in person. When Lu Feng raised his hand, An Zhe didn’t want him to be close to the spore but when he let go, An Zhe wanted him to stay longer.
In the short span of a second, the camera switched to a researcher in a white coat who said that the sample showed an unprecedented inertia when it came to infection variation.
“After four months of analysis and research, the sample extract has never been infected by any organism. Similar, when we infected the sample with a mutated biological extract, we didn’t observe any changes in its structure.” The Lighthouse researcher explained. “The Lighthouse thinks this might be the breakthrough point for us to overcome the variation.”
An Zhe tightly clenched the handle of the thermos. Humans said that his spore was the breakthrough to overcome the variation. This showed that his spore would be protected very tightly. Finally, the broadcaster summed up the news with a positive tone and said that the future of the base was bright, thanking the researchers for their efforts.
The news time was over and it was followed by the weather forecast. According to the observation of the Lighthouse, the area where the base was located would experience significant warming in the next three days. They reminded all areas, especially the Lighthouse laboratories and the Eden crop breeding area to pay attention to their responses.
An Zhe was unable to listen anymore. He left the house and got on the shuttle bus. Along the way, he was thinking about how to get close to his spore. First, he needed to know the exact location of the laboratory. Then he needed to observe the working rules of the researchers. Generally, the researchers wouldn’t stay in the laboratory for 24 hours a day. If he could get into the lab through the ventilation pipe when no one was around, he could try to recover the spore.
Then he could find a way to get out of the human base and return to the Abyss. The experimental sample was stolen and the humans were bound to pursue it to the end. An Zhe would have no choice but to escape.
Thinking up to here, An Zhe turned his head blankly and saw the brightly lit city through the glass of the bus. The aurora had risen and the green light was rolling through the night sky, rapidly changing, just like the passing of time.
There was the radio broadcast and he arrived at the Twin Towers.
An Zhe held the thermoses and opened the door with Lu Feng’s ID card. He entered the corridor and went upstairs. In the silver corridor, every laboratory was brightly lit and different instruments emitted sounds of different frequencies, coming and going. An Zhe found the doctor’s laboratory but only Dr Ji and his assistant were inside.
“You’re here.” The doctor looked up at him. “Lu Feng will come back later.”
“Okay.” An Zhe placed the thermoses on the table, opened on and gave the doctor a bowl. The performance of the thermos was excellent and the soup was still hot. The strong aroma escaped with the steaming white mist, filling the entire laboratory.
“Oh my god.” The doctor picked up the cutlery that was handed over. “You’re so kind.”
An Zhe smiled.
The doctor wondered, “Aren’t you eating?”
“I’ll wait for him to come back.”
“Tsk.”
“I’m not waiting for him,” the doctor muttered before looking at his assistant. “Keep playing it.”
The assistant replied, “Okay.”
An Zhe looked at the computer interface in front of the doctor. The central window was playing Sinan’s video. Under this was another window that was partially covered. He could said the mailing list. Dr Ji was sending an email to the ‘Underground Base’ and ‘Research Institute’ respectively.
An Zhe’s eyes shifted back to the video of Sinan. Lily was chatting endlessly with the grey bee. One second, she asked, “Do you have honey?” The next second, it became, “Is it more fun to be a human or a bee?”
He opened his mouth. “It is getting bigger.”
It was easy to notice that the bee was getting bigger.
The doctor ate a piece of chicken and squinted at the screen. “Yes.”
The assistant added in a timely manner, “It has gained 10 kg.”
The doctor wondered, “What did it eat?”
“It doesn’t eat.”
The doctor ordered, “I see.”
He continued, “I shouldn’t have thought about it at mealtime. I was happy.”
An Zhe asked them, “What’s wrong?”
“The changes and growth of heterogeneous species not only violate the pre-existing definition of biology, they also challenge the law of conservation of energy.” The doctor watched Sinan. “Living things take energy from the outside world and transform it inside themselves. Then when a human becomes a heterogeneous species, their body size can increase tenfold and their muscle mass is many times higher than a human. Where does all that energy come from? Human flesh and blood is their petri dish and can’t provide so much. Thus, it comes from nothing.”
An Zhe didn’t speak. He didn’t have any knowledge but the creatures in the Abyss were indeed very large.
“Forget it.” The doctor sighed. “Our knowledge system is completely ineffective and it isn’t something that can be determined in one or two days.”
He continued to eat the bowl of delicious mushroom soup but his eyes remained on the screen. Once he was almost finished, An Zhe asked, “Do you want any more?”
The doctor didn’t answer. An Zhe glanced over and found him staring at the screen.
“Replay,” the doctor ordered.
The assistant played the video back to one minute ago. Lily was leaning against the glass wall, speaking in a tired manner. “Don’t hit the wall. It hurts.”
Then she said, “Talking might be tiring but the Lighthouse is more interesting than the Garden of Eden.”
Just then, Sinan regained a brief sense of soberness and his lips, covered with fur and thorns, tapped gently on the glass.
Lily said, “You’re awake.”
The limbs trembled gently and knocked several times in a row. The doctor raised his eyebrows. “Replay it at 0.5 times the speed.”
The screen zoomed in and slowed down, focusing on the tapping on the glass.
“The interval between the first and second taps is the same. Then there is a long pause before there is a tap and another long pause.” The doctor took out a notebook and quickly wrote in it with a pen. “After this pause, it taps three times in succession at the same interval.”
He recorded the numbers 2, 1, 3 on the paper.
Once the video finished, the doctor said, “Play the next video where it is sober.”
The assistant started to adjust the pace. He looked like a Ph.D student as he asked, “Do you suspect it is delivering a message with the frequency of tapping?”
The doctor muttered, “This absolutely isn’t normal… but he is just a six year old child.”
He asked An Zhe, “What do you teach in your math and logic courses?”
An Zhe replied, “Arithmetic, geometry and reasoning.”
“Do you tell them any extracurricular stories? For example, radio codes or something.”
Then he continued without waiting for a reply. “No. He didn’t get into Class A so he wouldn’t have such a high IQ.”
An Zhe told him, “He gets full marks on his test papers. He couldn’t enter Class A due to a psychological factor.”
The doctor nodded to show he understood and started watching the next video. In the video, Sinan’s time of awareness was short and he quickly knocked twice at different intervals than before. The doctor wrote two points on the paper that were very close together. “The next video.”
In the next video, Sinan knocked seven times at the same time interval.
In the next video, Sinan was aware for a full five seconds. The first half of the video was amazingly consistent with the first video: 2. 1. 3. Once the third tap was completed, he paused for a short period of time and then quickly tapped twice. This video was like the first and second ones were joined together.
The doctor recorded it in his notebook and the video continued to play. In the fifth video, he tapped seven times in a row. In all subsequent sober episodes, his tapping maintained such a cycle until 5 o’clock when Lily was taken back to the Garden of Eden.
The doctor’s notebook recorded a string of numbers.
2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 7, 2, 1, 3, 1, 1, 7, 2…
The assistant suggested, “Should we found someone in the mathematical department to decrypt it?”
“No,” the doctor replied. “The message he wants to convey is very short and it shouldn’t be difficult… let me think.”
An Zhe frowned and looked at the string of numbers. Humans communicated through language and he didn’t know how numbers should take on the function of transmitting information unless there was some text in the numbers.
“2, 1, 3…” The doctor’s frown loosened slightly.
An Zhe hesitated for a moment before suggesting, “B, A, C?”
“The alphabet.” The doctor quickly wrote the three letters ‘bac’ on the paper. An Zhe looked at the previous notes. After 2, 1, 3, Sinan had tapped twice in succession so it should be ‘bacaa.’ The sixth letter was 7 and 7 corresponded to the letter ‘g’ in the alphabet.
Consistent with his thinking, the doctor wrote ‘bacaag’ but drew a line under the two consecutive ‘a.’
The assistant opened his mouth. “The interval between the two taps is very short and might be expressing something else.”
“11.” The doctor suddenly said. “The two short strokes don’t represent two separate ‘1’ but the number 11.”
The letter corresponding to 11 was ‘g’ and the string of characters became ‘backg.’
The doctor questioned, “How is his English?”
An Zhe answered, “It is also full points.”
A foreign language accounted for almost 50% of the content in the language and literature classes. If these children grew up and entered the Lighthouse, they could check the records of human civilization and high language skills were needed.”
“Back.” The doctor read out a word before moving the ‘g’ to the front. “Go back. It is a very concise sentence and wouldn’t be so short in other languages. And…”
The assistant added, “Based on Lily’s understand, if she can notice then she would understand.”
The doctor nodded. “He wants her to go back. What does that mean?”
The video continued and Lily spoke in a lethargic manner, “The doctor said the base is currently in danger. You have to help us or everyone will become a monster. It is terrible.”
The assistant said, “If they’re good friends, it means Eden is a safe place. He knows or predicts that the outside world is dangerous so he will have her go back.”
“However, the boy was infected in the Garden of Eden and became a heterogeneous species.” The doctor pondered on it. “Is it that the first heterogeneous infection occurred in the Garden of Eden and once the Trial Court’s investigation moved there, it headed somewhere else? It is the strategy of threatening the east to strike in the west?”
The assistant asked, “Do you want to have a meeting to discuss it?”
The doctor glanced at the door of the laboratory. “Why hasn’t Lu Feng come back yet?”
He took out his communicator to call but there was a busy tone. The assistant said, “Maybe he entered a signal-shielded laboratory.’
An Zhe was keenly aware of the opportunity and asked, “What is he doing?”
“It is the afternoon project.” The doctor explained. “They found that the colonel can promote the growth of a sample. He has to go over there and take care of the child.”
An Zhe suggested, “I can go to him.”
The doctor smiled. “The two of you have very good feelings.”
He continued, “Okay, go and bring him back. This way, the two of you can also eat dinner. The laboratory is a high level one and it is a combination of the military and the Lighthouse. Take the elevator to the 13th floor, cross the bridge and look for room D1344.”
“Okay.”
He turned and left the laboratory. Obviously, Lu Feng was with his spore again. Perhaps this person was close to the glass water tank or extending his hand and playing the game of touching each other with the spore. He didn’t know why this happened but he absolutely didn’t believe that Lu Feng was promoting the growth of the spore. It was just that when the spore was taken, it wasn’t yet mature enough to grow on its own. It could only grow inside or around An Zhe.
The elevator arrived. There were two other people inside, two researchers who were talking about the recent weather.
“The temperature rose after the strong wind. The weather recently has been very extreme.”
“Summer is here and it is normal. The base of more afraid of the cold than the temperature rising.”
“That is true.”
“Still, I heard that this is due to the fluctuation of the magnetic field’s strength.”
“Is there a problem with the artificial magnetic poles?”
“The lab next door detected several abnormal fluctuations. There isn’t a problem with our eastern magnetic pole so everyone agreed that the western magnetic pole must be adjusting the frequency manually.”
The researcher smiled. “Has there been any new advances in the technology of the Underground City Base?”
“That is my guess, otherwise no one would dare to move the magnetic poles. They have teamed up with the System Warfare Centre an applied to start the high-frequency, short-wave communication to the Underground Base.”
“Everything is getting better.”
Everything was really getting better. An Zhe was going to see his spore. The elevator door opened and An Zhe got out.
The bridge that connected the Lighthouse and the United Front Centre was wide and transparent on both sides, made of glass or other materials. The D1344 laboratory was easy to find and he knocked on the door.
A female voice was heard. “Please come in.”
The moment An Zhe entered, he saw the glass water tank in the middle. It was exactly the same as it was on the news, with a small white object. Next to the white object was Lu Feng in a black uniform. He put his finger on the water tank and the spore wandered over to find him. Then the man removed his finger and placed his fingertip at another distant location. The spore slowly shifted its direction and went to the new location. Once it was about to catch up, Lu Feng changed positions again, taking care not to let it touch.
An Zhe saw this scene and was so angry that he forgot to breathe. Lu Feng’s expression seemed impassive but he was completely happy. He seemed to be having fun bullying the spore.
Just then, Lu Feng glanced at him and raised an eyebrow. Surrounded by sophisticated instruments, surveillance equipment and dozens of researchers, An Zhe was doomed to only look at the spore from a distance. No, he could do something else and take this spore-bullying man away.
He walked to the water tank but hatefully, the spore didn’t approach him. Rather, it still lingered near Lu Feng.
Lu Feng’s tone was light. “What is it?”
An Zhe’s tone was very bad as he told this person, “You should go back to eat.”
Lu Feng looked at him with a bit of a smile. Bullying the spore had given this person so much happiness.
He saw Lu Feng walk to a researcher and say, “I’m going.”
“Please come again tomorrow.”
An Zhe gritted his teeth and finally glanced helplessly at the spore floating in the nutrient solution. Then the door of the laboratory closed mercilessly in front of him. He and Lu Feng walked down the corridor. He asked, “Are you coming here again tomorrow?”
“Yes.”
“Are you playing with the sample?”
Lu Feng answered, “I’m cooperating with research.”
An Zhe wouldn’t believe his evil words. Silently, they turned a corner and reached the bridge leading to the Lighthouse, lined by the night lights of the city and the aurora in the sky. Lu Feng seemed to feel his emotions. “Are you unhappy?”
An Zhe didn’t speak. Lu Feng stopped and looked at him. An Zhe turned to glance at the aurora outside and the entire world seemed quiet for a second. Just then—
An Zhe’s pupils shrunk!
At this moment, a tingling sensation covered his body. The light was too strong and he subconsciously closed his eyes. The aurora in the sky burst out like daylight, like green lightning cutting through the sky.
The next moment, Lu Feng grabbed his shoulders and pulled him down with a lot of force. He was crushed to the ground and the two of them rolled on the ground. This all happened in a few seconds.
An Zhe wasn’t hurt because Lu Feng’s arm protected him. He opened his eyes and found himself back in the corridor. Lu Feng pulled him up.
An Zhe’s head buzzed as the glanced at the bridge before freezing.
The aurora was dissipating—all the aurora. After the brief explosion just now, the aurora was like the tide escaping from the night sky. The colour faded in just 10 seconds and then disappeared completely. A brilliant galaxy crossed the blue-purple night sky.
He had never seen such a scene before. Then An Zhe’s eyes moved down and the lights of the entire human city flickered, reflecting the galaxy. The corridor lights went out madly and chaos came from the laboratories as several researchers ran out.
Lu Feng dragged An Zhe back to a place where the outside couldn’t be seen. He faced a researcher who hurried out and asked in a deep voice, “—What about the magnetic field?”
