Little Mushroom

Then there was the sound of something breaking. Tang Lan frowned and strode out. The screams continued and there was the sound of fighting. The boy flinched sharply and grabbed An Zhe's arm like he was seeking protection. However, he still staid, "Don't be afraid. Someone has become a monster but Brother Tang can fight it."

They looked out the open door and saw a human figure rolling in the open space in the centre. Dense tentacles grew on his back and his facial features were distorted and deformed into a mass of grey swelling. His limbs attacked wildly as another part of his body turned into a vine to fight. Tang Lan joined in and subdued the monster without much effort.

"Lock it up," Tang Lan ordered. The thing was taken down and Tang Lan came back to the room.

"We have human consciousness now but we don't know when it will be gone," the boy whispered. "That's why I cherish the time when I can be a person."

Just then, a sound came from the window. An Zhe looked down and saw a large instrument in the open space in front of the building lighting up.

"Mr Polly seems to be doing this these days. It looks different from the previous research." The boy muttered.

An Zhe looked over there and saw a red light from the machine as it lit up. He asked, "What is that?"

Tang Lan didn't speak and just stared out the window. At the top of the mountain, the aurora and the starry sky became so low that it seemed they could reach out and touch it. There was silence in the room. A long time passed before Tang Lan opened his mouth.

"Mr Polly is a fusion scientist," Tang Lan explained softly. "The fusionists believe that one day, we can find a way to peacefully fuse human and monster genes. People won't become monsters with only instincts but will also possess a strong body and can adapt to the harsh environment.

"Like this." He showed An Zhe his arm which was faintly covered with black scales. "The human body is really too fragile."

"Later, it didn't succeed. A fusion experiment ran away and the giant leech infected the base's water source. Half of the entire base died because of this so the base no longer allowed any similar experiments. The fusion scientists became the sinners of the base. However, other research was also fruitless. Only fusion seemed like it had a small bit of hope. Therefore, the fusion scientists defected and left the base to find another place to continue experimenting."

"If they want to study fusion then they must do live experiments. Once they do experiments, they will create intelligent monsters who have acquired human thinking but aren't human. The base can't allow this to happen so they have been sending troops to intercept and kill. In the end, the fusion scientists found this place." Tang Lan stared up at the starry sky. "The Highland Research Institute is a place where the artificial magnetic pole was previously studied. It is behind the Abyss, the terrain is high and armoured vehicles can't be driven here. There are also many ready-made equipment, some of which can cause magnetic interference and render the military aircrafts and radar ineffective. After settling down here, the scientists protected the heterogeneous species while continuing the research and it has continued to the present day."

An Zhe wondered, "Have you found a way to integrate them now?"

Tang Lan shook his head.

"No rule can be found. In the beginning, they thought it was related to willpower. Later, they thought it was related to the type of foreign gene but they were incorrect. People with a weak will can wake up in a confused manner and plants with weak pollution ability can devour people. A weak-willed person after being infected by a very powerful monster won't necessarily lose consciousness. The reason for retaining your will is just luck. Later, the magnetic poles failed and the comprehensive pollution proved that this is irrelevant to genes. Gold and iron can also pollute each other. Under a microscope, an iron atom becomes something we can't understand. Mr Polly's previous research was all wrong and he is resolved to find a new way."

An Zhe had heard the same argument from Dr Ji and he said, "The base also thinks so."

Tang Lan didn't speak for a long time.

"An Zhe." Tang Lan suddenly called out his name. "Can you feel a type of volatility?"

An Zhe nodded. He could always feel it.

"After becoming a heterogeneous, many people can feel it." Tang Lan whispered, "In addition, it is becoming stronger and stronger."

In the morning, An Zhe opened his eyes in the bed. He had a headache and his dreams were filled with the wilderness, the howls that filled his ears, the sound of beast claws stepping in mud and crying—he didn't know who was crying. In the forest, the fluorescence of a beast's eyes was quietly reflected. He ran away like crazy, looking for something, but he could never escape and never find it. The huge, ethereal wave was still entangled over him like a shadow. It seemed that everything in the world, even the dewdrops on the tip of the leaves, was its incarnation.

An Zhe used his arms to support his body and sat up with much difficulty. His body seemed to have rusted. Not only was he unable to move flexibly, he also became thin and brittle. With every move, he suspected that he would stop forever. This was how he knew that he was one step closer to the irresistible death.

An Zhe hugged the quilt and sat in bed for a long time before feeling that his condition had recovered somewhat. He stared at this warm room. What happened yesterday was like a dream and only today did he acquire some feeling of realness. He had come to a human world in a different sense and the people here treated him well—but his original intention of leaving Lu Feng was to prevent Lu Feng from seeing his death.

What about the people here who were kind to him?

An Zhe's nose was a bit sour. He felt guilty but before he could make any further choices, someone knocked on his door. It was the boy from yesterday who brought a tray of breakfast. The tray was filled with a steaming hot cup of liquid and a bowl.

"You didn't wake up in the morning so we didn't call you," the boy told him. "Uncle Shu has cooked potato soup again. You should drink it."

An Zhe thanked him.

The boy put the tray on the table and An Zhe looked down at the bowl of rich soup. Small pieces of potatoes floated up and down in the soup and the bacon gave off a generous aroma. The aroma was mixed in with the white mist and he stumbled across the room.

The curious coincidence meant he never got the thought of leaving again.

Life at the research institute wasn't as methodical as the base. People didn't have fixed tasks or positions but they had a spontaneous division of labour. The institute accepted him so he knew he had to give something in return. He wanted to do something since the institute's people were so welcoming.

At first, he would go out to collect edible plants with the boy in a safe area. Later, his body couldn't bear the cold wind and he could only stay at the base to help with planting or cooking. After that, he couldn't even support such work. People at the institute thought he was suffering from an unidentifiable disease. This was a common thing. In this world, any disease could happen. Even the entire world was ill.

One day, Polly came to see him. From that day, An Zhe followed Polly Joan to a white building on the west side of the main building. Although his body was gradually weakening, his mind was still clear enough to be qualified as an assistant. There was also a silent Indian man working as an assistant in Polly's laboratory. He was good at repairing various equipment.

This was a rigorous laboratory, filled with machines on all sides and displays connected to the machines. The largest one had an optical cable line that extended from the laboratory to the ground and was connected to a device called a 'Simpson Cage' outside.

The main components of the Simpson Cage were four mechanical towers that were five metres high, just like the scaled-down versions of the two white towers outside the institute. An Zhe watched them for a long time and confirmed there were many similarities with the huge artificial magnetic pole at the base. He immediately thought about how the Highland Research Institute was originally the place where the artificial magnetic poles were first developed.

The four towers formed a rectangle that was 10 metres long and 20 metres wide. Once the Simpson Cage was activated, the entire cubic rectangular space would be filled with a glowing red light similar to a high-frequency laser, like a scarlet sea of fire. Everyone at the institute knew that they couldn't walk into the open Simpson Cage or they would die in an unsightly manner.

From the laboratory's manual, An Zhe learned that the Simpson Cage was the most cutting-edge masterpiece in the field of high-energy physics at the height of human science and it directly contributed to the success of the artificial magnetic poles.

"Until now, we don't know the cause of the geomagnetic field. Some people think it is due to the flow of molten iron in the Earth's liquid core and others think it is due to the rotation of the electric layer in the mantle, but there is no strong enough evidence. We don't know the reason why it is produced so it is impossible to know why it disappeared. This is beyond the limits of our cognition. Similarly, we can't produce the electromagnetic field unless we create a magnet half the size of the Earth." Polly explained to him. "Still, one of the physical laws we have is that magnetism is generated by electricity and the movement of the electric charges generates a magnetic field."

"One of the contributions of the Simpson Cage is that it can show the wave dynamic field between basic particles, thereby analyzing the way they interact and reproducing some phenomena. Thus, we got the idea of the artificial magnetic poles. You lack knowledge of physics so I can't explain it more deeply. In short, the two artificial magnetic poles emit pulse waves of special frequencies, causing the resonance of charged particles in the solar wind. It is like we are holding a horn and telling them to please go there. The resonance and motion of the particles creates a magnetic field and the planet is protected."

An Zhe nodded. He understood but it was only this level of understanding. His work didn't require him to have a deep knowledge of physics. He just needed to look at the instrument.

Sometimes, Polly corrected the frequency of the Simpson Cage outside and another assistant would follow, leaving An Zhe to be the only one in the white building. He sat there, the low night shining outside the window. The machines beeped monotonously and the spectrometer connected to the Simpson Cage drew complex curves, although it was unknown what they were recording.

The curves were noisy and tangled together without any regularity. An Zhe couldn't help thinking of the chaotic and scary lines that Sinan had drawn on paper in the Garden of Eden. Closing his eyes, An Zhe felt the empty fluctuations becoming more and more intense. He felt the passing of his life every day. He was afraid but sometimes, he felt that he was gradually approaching eternity.

Polly returned and started to analyze the chaotic curves. An Zhe picked up a kettle and poured him a cup of hot water.

"What are you doing?" he finally asked.

"I want to find that thing," Polly replied.

Looking at the screen, An Zhe asked again, "…What is it?"

"Something that causes the world to change."

"It must be everywhere. If it is in this world, it must be in the Simpson Cage," Polly muttered.

An Zhe frowned.

Polly picked up a compass. "We can never see the magnetic field but the direction of the compass tells us that it exists. This is also true for other invisible things in the world. Our knowledge is too shallow and we can only trace the appearance they project into the world."

"Look here." Polly highlighted a smooth curve. "Everything in the world interacts and there is a lot of information from the traces of interaction. For example, this line is like the compass and represents a magnetic field."

"We assume that the world is changing because something huge is coming… but the magnetic field can resist it to a certain extent. Since the magnetic field can resist it, it must have a similar presentation to the magnetic field." Polly's grey-blue eyes were staring at the cluttered screen with fascination. "It is huge, beyond our perception. It changes the essence of this world but it is here. I think there must be a specific receiving frequency and then we will be able to see the shadow it casts on the world."

"And then?"

Polly shook his head slowly. "We must first know what it is before we can think about how to deal with it."

Still, could they really find it? An Zhe stared at the screen in a loss. Polly opened his mouth as if he knew what An Zhe was thinking.

"It might be very slim but…" Polly only spoke half his sentence before sighing softly. "After all, we have created many masterpieces previously unimaginable to humans."

An Zhe read the fluctuations in his tone and repeated the words. "A masterpiece that is unimaginable to humans."

Then he saw the flickering light in Polly's eyes. Polly Joan stared out at the boundless wilderness outside the window, at the grey haze that covered the sky and the howling of beasts that came from all directions. There were strange fluctuations in the sound and the human spectrum couldn't interpret them.

"Just for humans," he whispered. "Before we were broken, we thought we had learned about the whole world."

In this moment, An Zhe saw loneliness that spanned all of eternity in his eyes.