After speaking, An Zhe ignored him and went straight forward. No footsteps were heard behind him until he used his ID card to open the door. Then Josie hurried to this side and grabbed his shoulder. “Are you really An Ze? But you—”
The stack of genetic test reports on the table was delivered to Josie.
Josie muttered, “This is…”
An Zhe lowered his head and found the outermost piece of paper had the phrase about resisting the judges. He slowly yanked the paper away and Josie looked at the genetic test report.
“You…” He glanced through it hurriedly before looking up at An Zhe. “You really escaped from the Abyss?”
“I was saved.” An Zhe replied. “I forgot other things.”
Josie’s hands trembled as he held the genetic report. The corners of his mouth rose as he looked up and smiled. “I… I’m so excited. I didn’t expect you to come back.”
He put the genetic report on the table. Then he leaned toward An Zhe, the muscles of his brow twitching as he looked slightly excited. “You… how much have you forgotten?”
An Zhe took a step back.
“I have forgotten everything.” He declared, “Please don’t disturb my life.”
“Don’t you remember who I am?” Josie’s voice lowered a bit. “We grew up together.”
“Thank you. Can you go out now?”
“I—” Josie obviously hadn’t expected the other person to treat him with such an attitude. “You weren’t like this before.”
Then after a moment, his attitude softened again. “I won’t disturb you. Have a good rest and I’ll come to see you tomorrow. I’m so happy. An Ze, we are the closest people in the world.”
An Zhe remained silent and didn’t speak until Josie turned away. Then he gently closed the door. He felt it was unrealistic that Josie let him go so easily and left the room, but perhaps Josie had fled because of guilt.
The room was quiet again. An Ze leaned slowly against the bed, hugging the pillow as he felt a smoke-like discomfort. This discomfort wasn’t for himself but for An Ze. The agreement between humans and humans was probably so fragile. Josie wouldn’t be the person closest to An Ze. Once An Zhe retrieved his spore, he would return to the Abyss, find the quiet cave and take root next to An Ze’s white bones, spending the rest of his life as a mushroom.
…His spore.
Outside the window, it was night and the aurora was rolling in the dark sky as always. An Zhe sat at the table and turned on the lamp.
First, he had to find a job so he didn’t starve to death. At the same time, he had to look for information on his spore. The only clue was the brass-coloured casing.
Thinking of this, An Zhe anxiously touched his pocket. He was always afraid that this thing would be lost—okay, still there. As a mushroom, he could hide it on his body but this wasn’t possible as a human. It was too small and might slip out of his pocket at any time. Eventually, An Zhe opened a drawer in his room and found a black leather rope, hanging the bullet casing from it.
There was a small black machine in the drawer. He tried to observe the details of its appearance and finally found some information from his memories. This was a communication device. Everyone’s ID number was the communication number. Humans could use the communicator to talk over long distances. However, this was only inside the base because there was no signal outside.
He charged the communicator. He didn’t use it but just seeing it ‘powered up’ seemed to make humans feel a great pleasure. Having done this, he finally settled down and started to look at the desk.
The notebook on the desk was something An Ze had written in and his handwriting was beautiful. On the side near the wall, more than two dozen books were placed. This was probably because An Ze previously loved to read. An Zhe browsed the names on the spine of the books before reaching out and picking up a simple grey book with the title ‘Base Manual.’
He turned the page and saw only one sentence: Human interests takes precedence over everything else.
An Zhe subconsciously pursed his lips and turned to the next page. The second page was the table of contents. The entire manual was divided into four parts: Base law, the rules of life in the base, the functional areas introduction and a map.
An Zhe skipped the base law part. He knew he was a safe and secure mushroom. A mushroom that was safe and secure wouldn’t violate the rules of any species. The section on the rules of life explained in detail the schedule of the living area. Every day at 6 o’clock in the morning, power would turn on and water and food would be available for one hour. For dinner, it would start at 6 o’clock in the evening. The power supply time was a bit longer and wouldn’t be cut off until 9 o’clock in the evening. Every residential area was equipped with a tall alarm tower. There were three types of alarms, namely ‘assembly’, ‘evacuation’ and ’emergency evacuation.’ The assembly alarm was a short high-frequency beeping while the evacuation alarm was a gradual wave sound signal. The emergency evacuation alarm was sharp and long. Residents of the base must follow these rules of living and the instructions of the alarm tower. The rest of their lifestyle was up to them.
An Zhe was a bit puzzled when he saw this. He felt that under such rules, everyone could lie down in their room and eat and drink regularly. Then he soon realized the intentions of the base.
Although everyone could live freely, living at the base required paying a cost. In order to obtain the currency circulating around the base, people had to go out to find work or become mercenaries, collecting valuable materials from the outside and handing it over to the base in exchange for compensation.
However… in cases where everyone went to the least dangerous area and just grabbed something, it would be enough to maintain their eating and drinking needs.
An Zhe continued to flip through the book. The next section was an introduction to the functional areas of the base.
The first area that appeared in the book was about the ‘supply station.’ The supply stations were divided into 1, 2 and 3, of which 1 and 2 were owned by the military and were built at the entrance and exit of the base, responsible for currency, combat readiness and the verification and exchange of materials. Every time a mercenary team returned from the field, the staff at the supply station would calculate the materials they harvested into currency while the weapons and armoured vehicles were confiscated. They weren’t allowed in the city and wouldn’t be regained until the mercenary team re-applied to go outside. The mercenary teams could also exchange currency for guns, bullets, armour, fuel or even buy armoured vehicles of different models.
Unlike the first two supply stations, the location of the 3rd supply station was in the city. It was responsible for the exchange of civilian goods. Using the base currency, civilians could exchange for living supplies, food and ingredients, alcohol, electronics and many other items. They could also conduct housing transactions.
Opposite the 3rd supply station was the ‘free market’. Sometimes, the things that mercenaries got from human remained weren’t needed by the military. At this time, they could bring the confirmed safe goods into the city and trade them freely.
At this point, An Zhe saw a small line of notes below.
Note: The free market isn’t an official base facility.
Note: Employment and contractual relationships established through the free market aren’t protected by base law. The consequences are at your own risk.
An Zhe only saw the word ’employment’ and nothing else. In other words, the free market was a place that offered jobs.
He continued down and there was a brief introduction of each residential area. The densely populated areas were Districts 6 and 7. The remaining areas had very few humans and the buildings were vacant while District 8 was a centralized refuge with complete safety facilities.
After that, it was a briefing of the Trial Court. An Zhe remembered the judge colonel with cold green eyes and read slowly, reading word by word.
The court’s role wasn’t only to identify the heterogenous at the city gates. They would also conduct daily patrols in densely populated areas of the city, conducting a secondary screening and eliminating hidden dangers. The main patrol route was around the supply station but the residential buildings would also be inspected from time to time, especially if abnormal behaviour was reported.
Inexplicably, An Zhe thought of the sentence, ‘You better be.’
If possible, An Zhe hoped that Lu Feng would stay at the gate forever and that the judge didn’t have to lower his pride to come to the residential buildings.
Looking through, the other areas had little to do with him. For example, the city affairs office, the city defense office, the main city, etc. As mentioned above, the base consisted of the outer city, or Acropolis, and the main city. The main city was an important base for scientific research. The energy and military facilities were located here and it was the political centre of the base. All people were forbidden to enter unless they held special permits or a residence permit.
Finally, after browsing the base map, An Zhe closed the book. He once again realized that humans were different creatures from mushrooms.
The second book he opened was ‘Supply Station Assessment Manual.’ As soon as he saw the cover, the memories related to it came to mind, much clearer than other memories. An Zhe thought that maybe this meant it was very important for An Ze to go to the supply station.
In that case, why promise Josie to go out to the wild with him? He thought for a long time before finally coming to the conclusion, ‘An Ze is such a human.’
An Ze missed the test. This year’s recruitment test for the supply stations was held 15 days ago when An Ze had already turned to white bones. Still, it didn’t matter. One year later when the supply station recruited people again, An Zhe would try it if he was still alive in the human base. In this way, he could tell An Ze what it was like after returning to the cave.
Reading for a long time consumed a lot of his energy. After attempting to read two pages of the assessment manual, An Zhe was sleepy and finally went to bed. The next morning, in order to avoid meeting Josie, he left his room at four in the morning. He went downstairs and took a train to the supply station. He was going to the free market opposite it to find a job.
It was 7 o’clock in the morning when he got off the train and there was still a thin white mist in the air. The free market was a large circular building with four entrances and exits. He entered from the nearest one.
The smell of hard alcohol penetrated into his nasal cavity. Four long tables were set up at the entrance. People dressed as mercenaries slammed their fists on the table and talked loudly, alcohol in front of them. Sometimes, someone would ask for more alcohol. Then the waiter would fill the alcohol and take out a small machine, sticking the ID card to it before handing the charges to the customer.
A dark-skinned mercenary was drinking alone. He saw An Zhe and raised his eyebrows with a grin, shaking the glass in his hand. “Child, what are you looking for? Did you come to learn how to drink?”
A short-haired woman next to him immediately hit him on the chest with her elbow, voice hoarse but full of joy. “Article 32, minors can’t drink.”
The man replied, “Drinking is drinking. Will he be taken away by the judge?”
The woman burst out laughing. “An underage child doesn’t know the judges’ strength.”
“He’ll know soon.”
An Zhe stood beside them, trying to say that he wasn’t a minor. However, in the gap when he thought of these words, the two of them were pressed together, lips to lips and all wrapped around each other. He realized that no one really cared.
Thus, he looked away from here and looked elsewhere.
The smell of potato soup wafted from the right doorway. It was much richer than the potato soup served in the lobby on the first floor of the residential building. It was mixed with a meaty scent that made humans happy. A mercenary was buried in a white, plastic soup bowl for his breakfast.
The smell made An Zhe a bit hungry since he hadn’t eaten breakfast.
Further down, there were similar scenes. The hall was filled with a lively atmosphere and in addition to the long tables selling food and alcohol, there were many stalls selling clothing, backpacks and gloves. Going further, there were fewer and fewer stalls selling fixed items. Instead, there were many strange and miscellaneous things at the stalls that An Zhe couldn’t recognize.
“This is the newly unearthed smartphone from Waste City 511 that can be powered on with electricity.” As An Zhe was walking, a young man in black clothes and a backpack appeared in front of him like a monkey. The man was very thin with narrow eyes. The moment after he stopped An Zhe, he quickly pulled out a black cuboid from his back and shook it in front of An Zhe. “Look at it? I’ll give you a 10% discount and give you the charging cable. You can play games with it.”
An Zhe replied, “Thank you, no need.”
The young man quickly took out something white from his bag. “Then I’ll change the model. This colour is very suitable for you. It is new and the last fruit machine before the apocalypse. The price used to be 10,000 but now it is 100.”
“Thank you, I don’t need it.”
The man continued pulling out another object. “No need? If you have a phone then do you need a power bank? It can be used to charge your phone in cases of a power failure at the base. The capacity of this one has run out and it can only be charged twice more. I’ll give you a discount. It is only 30R.”
An Zhe told him honestly, “I don’t have any money.”
The expression of the young man in black instantly stiffened and he returned the things to his backpack. He raised his legs, ready to leave as he whispered, “Why come to the black market if you have no money?”
“Wait a minute,” An Zhe stopped him.
He turned around but his attitude was extremely negative. “What is it?”
“I… I’m looking for a job.” An Zhe asked, “Do you know where to go?”
The young man frowned. He turned back and examined An Zhe from head to toe. “It turns out that you’re a job seeker.”
“Yes,” An Zhe replied truthfully.
“Then your qualifications are good.” The young man said. “Once you gain money, remember to buy a mobile phone from me. Oh, I’m staying at the black market this month.”
An Zhe, “……”
He asked, “So where should I go?”
“Yes, over there.” The young man pointed to one corner. “Go down to the third underground floor and look for the boss.”
An Zhe was grateful and smiled at him. “Thank you.”
“You look good. Find a reliable person. If you develop well then remember to buy a phone from me!”
“…Okay.”
Three floors below the ground.
Humid—this was the first impression An Zhe had of this place. A mushroom should like this type of water-rich air but the pungent smell that came with the humidity made him frown.
He looked around. In the dim light, this was a beehive-like space. The corridor twisted and turned and the walls were made of countless narrow compartments with simply plastic sheeting. There was no air flowing and water vapour condensed on the plastic sheets, dense and small drops of water. The entire space emitted a subtle buzzing. Listening carefully, it was the effect of many people’s whispering voices converging and echoing, with occasional high-pitched laughter.
An Zhe hesitated before taking a few steps forward.
He looked at the small compartments on both sides. The left hand side was empty while the right contained a long-haired woman with her head down. Once she heard his footsteps, she looked up before looking down again.
An Zhe continued and heard the voice of a woman.
“What is the climate like in Basin 2?”
“It’s okay.” This time, it was a low and soft male voice, a little sticky. The end syllable was dragged out a long time and it was suspected that his nose was blocked. “The weather was comfortable but there were too many earthquakes. We encountered three earthquakes in a month. The worst one was when everyone was outside. I was alone in the car and almost thought they wouldn’t be able to come back.”
The woman laughed. “They can’t come back but you can drive away.”
“The last time I talked to the team, the captain said he was going to teach me to drive. As a result, it turned out he was just coaxing me. He said he would bring me next time and coaxed me. I stayed with them for a month and only got 300. Is this still expensive?”
“You just listened to the soldier’s words.” The woman asked, “You aren’t used to being cheated yet?”
An Zhe’s footsteps stopped.
He recalled Horsen’s face and greedy eyes and suddenly knew what type of work was done on the third underground floor. In addition, there was the note in the manual: employment and contractual relationships established through the free market aren’t protected by base law. The consequences are at your own risk.
He didn’t want to find out the consequences.
An Zhe was quietly planning to leave. He had just turned around when he bumped into a soft body.
“Yo.” A high-pitched female voice was heard. “Baby, is this your first time?”
The word ‘baby’ was deep shadow for him and An Zhe reflexively stepped back. In front of him was a tall woman with honey-coloured skin and blue eyes. Her long brown hair was curled at the ends and her eyes were slender and upturned as she smiled at him.
“Are you a buyer? Or are you here to sell yourself?” The woman blew in his ear and smiled.
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