“Even if it is wrong, it is still correct.”
The Trial Court’s work office was connected to the training area, with the words ‘human interests takes precedence over everything else’ on one side and the above sentence written on the other side.
Below this sentence was a row of silver photo frames. The first photo frame was blank and then continued forward. The second photo frame contained a black and white photo and showed an officer approximately in his 30s, wearing a judge’s uniform. The wall was engraved with his date and birth and date of death under the frame. He was 36 years old and died seven years ago.
The next frame was still a black and white photo with the date of birth and date of death. An Zhe moved forward. The next photos were similar in the years of birth and death and the age of their lives was moving forward. Thus, An Zhe knew these were photos of the previous judges and the blank photo frame at the very edge was undoubtedly left for Lu Feng.
Thinking of this, An Zhe stopped for a moment, an indescribable weight pressed on his heart. If he could, he hoped that Lu Feng’s photo wouldn’t be hung up anything soon. Just like when Lu Feng boarded the plane tonight, he had hoped this person could stay, stay in a safe place.
Still, Lu Feng had made his choice.
An Zhe followed Seraing and continued to move forward. Then a strange scene appeared at the end of the photo gallery.
On the grey-white wall, there was a rectangular area that was white and around the size of a photo frame. There was nail marks at the four corners of the white area and it seemed that this place once had a photo frame but it was taken off. Below, the place where the date of birth and date of death were engraved as also scraped away, leaving only mottled traces. An Zhe worked hard to identify it but could only see that it was a string of letters beginning with the capital P.
Seraing saw him stop here and explained, “It is said that thsi was the first judge and the person who introduced the Judge’s Act and established the trial system.”
An Zhe wondered, “His photo has been taken away?”
“Yes.” Seraing explained, “In the end, he questioned the legitimacy of the judge system and betrayed the base.”
An Zhe nodded. The human mind was hard to fathom and he didn’t ask.
Seraing put him in a lounge. The geomagnetic field had disappeared and everything was in chaos. The logistics department and emergency response department must be in a state of chaos. All the residents living at the base were panic stricken but they had to sleep first and wait for the military’s refuge arrangements.
Footsteps could be heard upstairs and next door, Seraing was talking to people like he was arranging the follow-up work of the Trial Court.
In the dark room where the outside couldn’t be seen, An Zhe could only hear his heart beating. Inexplicably, there was a strange feeling. He looked up into the depths of darkness and the feeling was indescribable. He seemed to feel a huge wave. He, Seraing, the entire human base and everything in the world were just a tiny part of the indescribable wave, which vibrated and changed, making tiny ripples. There was a saying in the textbook called ‘the torrent of fate.’ An Zhe thought this was very appropriate. The only thing that wasn’t appropriate was that the fluctuations seemed to exist around the entire world and it wasn’t just a metaphor or his imagination.
Just then, his communicator rang. It was a call from the doctor.
The doctor asked him, “Lu Feng took off. Where are you?”
An Zhe truthfully told him.
“Just be safe. I finished the emergency meeting at the Lighthouse and will be going back to the laboratory to rest. You should also have a good rest.”
“Okay.”
The doctor seemed to be climbing the stairs. After a while, he spoke again, “I was thinking about Sinan’s actions this morning. He reminded Lily to return to the Garden of Eden. Did he predict the disappearance of the magnetic field? Heterogeneous species have different sensing organs and perhaps certain organisms have a sensitivity to the magnetic field.”
An Zhe said, “Maybe.”
Thinking about it, he added, “But it is far away.”
He naturally knew that every species was different. In the Abyss, some monsters had great hearing and sensitivity. Some could smell prey thousands of metres away or hear their breathing. However, it was a bit unreasonable for Sinan to sense a heterogeneous invasion occurring all the way on the other side of the world from the Northern Base. There was no long-wave communication technology between the heterogeneous species.
The doctor didn’t reply to him. There was only an uneven breathing sound on the other side and An Zhe thought this person might be walking. Then after three minutes, the doctor didn’t reply but his breathing became more rapid. The sound was a bit unsettling in the darkness.
An Zhe asked, “Doctor?”
There was still no reply. An Zhe frowned. Then at this moment, he heard the doctor speaking really quickly. “Let Seraing answer the phone.”
An Zhe quickly walked out of the lounge. Seraing answered the communicator and soon frowned before hurriedly saying, “I’ll be right there.”
Then he grabbed his gun on the table, called a few people and strode out. An Zhe glanced in the direction Seraing headed to and chose to follow. However, these people were too fast. He climbed the stairs too slowly and was one step late.
By the time he came to the corridor where the doctor’s laboratory was located, he heard a gunshot in the depths and the sound of a body falling to the ground. The doctor was standing in the middle of the corridor and walked over to An Zhe.
“I… I saw him in the distance and he didn’t look quite right.” The doctor gasped, pupils slightly enlarged and his face pale with a frightened expression. An Zhe looked forward and saw Seraing putting away his gun. The man who had fallen to the ground was the doctor’s assistant. This person had worked with the doctor this afternoon to repeatedly check Sinan’s video.
Seraing told the doctor, “The infection is confirmed. Was it an experiment exposure?”
Infection? An Zhe immediately thought of the only source of infection in this place, Sinan.
“Impossible.” The doctor exclaimed. “He doesn’t have permission to open the glass cover and he can’t touch the heterogeneous species.”
Seraing told him, “I’ll go in and see.”
“No!” The doctor suddenly raised his voice. “Don’t go.”
Seraing stopped and stared at the doctor.
“Do you remember when I said that if one day, we are infected without having any contact with a heterogeneous species at all?” The doctor’s voice was trembling. “This is so abnormal that… we have to prepare for the worst.”
Seraing frowned, “What do you have to support your point of view?”
“There is no way to prove it.” The doctor shook his head. “However, you also know that when a monster’s tissue fluid is injected into the tail of the experimental animal, the gene change can be observed at the same time from the head of the animal. These tissue fluids didn’t enter the body’s fluid circulation system at all yet all the genes in the animal’s body were changed. Since this thing can happen, why can’t we be infected without touching the monster?”
At this point, his entire body was trembling.
“Seraing.” The doctor’s voice was completely hoarse. “Downstairs is full of live heterogeneous species and at least 100 staff.”
Seraing looked solemn. “I’ll go down right away.”
“Protect yourself. The further away you are from all living things there, the better.”
He didn’t say heterogenous or humans. He said ‘living things.’
Seraing nodded and moved quickly downstairs.
In the silent corridor, only An Zhe and the doctor were left. The doctor seemed to collapse. He leaned against the icy wall and An Zhe supported him.
In the silence, the doctor suddenly opened his mouth. “Aren’t you afraid?”
An Zhe shook his head. The doctor stared at him. “You seem to have something… people in this era don’t have.”
An Zhe didn’t speak and quietly listened to him. The doctor’s eyes rested on An Zhe for a long time before he took a short breath, his lips trembling like he gained some extraordinary inspiration. “You are naive and… seem like a bystander.”
“Everyone lives in fear but you are calm. It is out of place with everyone else.”
Then he seemed to smile. “I know why Lu Feng likes to be with you.”
An Zhe watched the doctor. The doctor’s young face revealed a faint gauntness and he looked tired. An Zhe wondered, “Is there anything I can do to help you?”
“Thank you.” The doctor stared into his eyes and shook. “You… just live safely.”
An Zhe thought about it. “I will try.”
He didn’t talk anymore. In the corridor, the doctor’s words to himself echoed. “No physical contact and no air transmission. Will this type of thing really happen?”
No one answered him but there was the clear sound of gunshots downstairs. Then there was the second sound.
A third.
The sound continued nonstop, reverberating in the building for a long time. With one gunshot after another, the theoretical system that humans used to explain this world completely collapsed.
The doctor’s hand on An Zhe’s arm was tense and his fingers shook. “…Why?”
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