Chapter 46 - "Colonel Lu is Confirmed Dead."
"What are you thinking about?" Dr. Ji walked up behind Lu Feng. Lu Feng stood in front of the laboratory window, and before him were the brightly lit Garden of Eden and Twin Towers.
It was only after he got closer that he discovered the Colonel was not aimlessly unfocused. He was playing with a communicator, and the still-lit screen was on the contacts list. Dr. Ji glimpsed an unfamiliar name.
"Hubbard—who is this?" Dr. Ji stood next to him, eyebrows raised. "You have a friend I didn't know about?"
Lu Feng did not answer, and Dr. Ji did not pursue it any further. In front of this Colonel, it was normal for questions to not be answered.
As he said that, the little snow-white spore emerged from Lu Feng's shirt collar, seemed to carefully examine the doctor, and then swiftly dove back in to hide.
"It's so small," Dr. Ji said with a smile.
Lu Feng pulled it out, then put it in the palm of his hand. The spore, which had originally grown to be as big as a human's palm, was now only the size of a jujube pit. It desperately tried to hide itself in Lu Feng's hand, seemingly terrified of Dr. Ji.
"I won't chop you up today," Dr. Ji said. "You've become too small. Be good and eat more of the nutrient solution, and once you get a bit bigger I'll chop you up again."
Lu Feng shot a cold look at Dr. Ji.
Crossing his arms, Dr. Ji drawled, "It's not like you're the one getting chopped up. What're you being so pissy for?"
Over the recent days, the base had realized that there was no way of explaining the reason for the spore's inertia using existing biotechnology. They settled for the fallback option, or in other words, they could only go all in and have all the researchers focus on a different direction. Today, they had finally come up with a way to manufacture hyphae extract. After the extract was diluted, the base planned to sprinkle it on the surfaces of important equipment. They were going to use this method, hoping that the inert spore would produce inert extract and that the inert extract would create a protective layer or that it would simplyinfect the equipment with its inertia, either of which would make it so that there would be no more worries of the equipment getting infected. After all, ever since the distortion began, even glass and wood could infect each other. Since that was the case, the extract was also capable of infecting other substances.
They had even promptly sent twenty liters of the dilution to the Underground City Base by plane.
In this regard, the higher-ups of the Lighthouse had remarked self-mockingly that science had failed and that they'd begun planning to use incomprehensible witchcraft. However, they had no other option because all sciences seemed to have failed, and nobody knew what they should place their hopes in.
Dr. Ji reached out. "Let me play with it for a bit."
Naturally, he didn't obtain anything. Lu Feng didn't even spare him a glance.
But Dr. Ji still stared at the hint of the spore's white hyphae that were still showing. "Tomorrow we can manufacture another liter of extract. It's quite a lot now. The base demanded that we first ensure that the artificial magnetic pole's key apparatus is protected."
Lu Feng curled up his fingers, and not even a hint of the spore's hyphae showed anymore.
"Don't be like this," Dr. Ji said. "Although the relationship between you two is very good, it doesn't mean you need to go so far as to protect it like it were your own son. Colonel Lu, have you noticed that ever since you came back from the wilderness, you've become less devoid of emotion?"
Lu Feng still said not a word, so there was only Dr. Ji's endless chatter within the room. He would always become more talkative when he was nervous. Over the past month, the amount he had spoken shot straight up.
Three minutes later, Lu Feng asked, "When will you start using the extract?"
"The Lighthouse is still discussing it because we have no way of ruling out the possibility that all matter will begin to fuse together after the distortion begins. At that point, the most likely result would be that it has no effect, and the best result would be that it confers its inertia to us. In the worst-case scenario, it'll turn all of our equipment into completely useless mushrooms."
Lu Feng finally spoke, his cold voice sounding like it was frosted over. "If this possibility exists, why use it regardless?"
"Those of you at the Trial Court like to strangle all negative possibilities, but the situation is different now. You know that no matter what we do, the situation will not be worse than it is now. After one more meeting, the Lighthouse will be able to decide whether to use it or not."
"Exactly what is inertia?" Lu Feng asked.
"No infectivity."
The spore emerged from Lu Feng's hand, then climbed along the uniform fabric to just below the epaulet that was on the side farther away from the doctor.
Lu Feng turned slightly, and the subtle movement revealed the vestige of something on the windowsill.
It was a small bottle of liquid with a label pasted on it, and on the label was a handwritten "mixture-III." Next to the bottle was an empty syringe.
Dr. Ji's gaze turned apprehensive.
"That's the extract of a hybrid-class xenogenic. What are you planning to do with it?" he asked. "Don't mess around with the stuff in the laboratory, it's very dangerous."
As Lu Feng looked at him, he said something that really had no discernible connection to their current conversation topic. "When we were at the Underground City base, there was no magnetic field, and contactless infections and distortions were occurring."
For a moment, the doctor didn't follow his train of thought, so he only nodded.
"Many of the soldiers who entered the Underground City together with me to provide assistance were infected, but I wasn't," Lu Feng said.
Seeming to have understood what he wished to say, the doctor didn't speak and just quietly looked at him.
"If the spore exhibits inertia, then An Zhe would also exhibit inertia," Lu Feng said.
Dr. Ji nodded.
"But he could change between mushroom and human form. Furthermore, when he was in human shape, his genetic examination was devoid of abnormalities," he saidflatly. "Therefore, if I've already been infected by him and acquired inertia, there's no way for you to tell."
"Yes, I acknowledge that. We thought of that from the beginning as well," Dr. Ji said. "But what's the point? It'sprecisely because we're unable to detect this type of infection that we made the decision to spray the extract over a wide range. Only when the waters ebb will the rocks show themselves. We won't be able to know whether the extract can protect humankind until the day that complete distortion arrives."
"But there's also the risk of everything turning into fungi," Lu Feng said.
"So what?" The doctor looked at him. As though he had some sort of ominous premonition, his tone of voice became more aggressive.
"Infect me with monster extract. If I'm still human after the half-hour buffer period, it'll prove that An Zhe has already passed on his inertia to me and that there are no adverse reactions. The extract will be usable."
The doctor looked at him without the slightest trace of surprise in his expression, as though he had guessed long before that he would say such a thing. As he looked at Lu Feng, his gaze gradually turned cold and weighty. With a shake of his head, he asked, "Why is it you?"
"The amount of time I spent with him was very long, and I had stayed with him in the period of indiscriminate infection after the incident with the Underground City Base as well," Lu Feng said, his voice flat. "If he was capable of infecting others, then the one most likely to have been infected is me."
"It's me." Dr. Ji let out a grim laugh and looked straight at Lu Feng as he approached the other man and raised his voice. "After the incident with the Underground City, you only accompanied him for a little while before leaving. The one who was with him the entire time was me. We slept in the same room. He was as well behaved as a kitten, we were as close as a man and his shadow, and we've had a lot of intimate contact that you wouldn't want to know about— if you could be infected, then why couldn't I?"
"You still have much to do." Lu Feng was not at all provoked by his words. He said, "You can't take the risk."
"You clearly knew this was a risk, didn't you?" Exasperated, the doctor took a few breaths. In a loud voice, he asked Lu Feng, "I can't take the risk, which means you can? Is self-sacrifice something so commemoration-worthy to you?"
Lu Feng said nothing. Dr. Ji snatched the bottle, which had already been opened, from the windowsill. Then he savagely jammed the needle tip inside and pulled the plunger, swiftly filling the syringe barrel.
"If you insist on performing this experiment, then I'm the only one who can do it." He gripped the syringe, his azure eyes frozen over and his rate of speaking extremely swift. "You've done too many things already, so you better fucking live for me."
Lu Feng didn't hinder any of his movements. He merely looked on in silence, his cold green eyes like lakes that could not be disturbed.
He lifted his own sleeve.
On the vein at his wrist, a pinprick of blood indicated that he had already been injected with something.
"In half an hour, if I'm fine, you guys can use the extract."
The doctor stood in place, chest heaving, and stared at Lu Feng.
"You... you..." The rims of his eyes reddened with fury, and his voice was as hoarse and sharp as glass being ground. "You hopeless... self-harming dumbass."
"The loss of a single scientist will have no effect on the base, but the loss of an Arbiter? Have you not thought about it? "
Lu Feng said nothing. Dr. Ji snatched the bottle, which had already been opened, from the windowsill. Then he savagely jammed the needle tip inside and pulled the plunger, swiftly filling the syringe barrel.
"If you insist on performing this experiment, then I'm the only one who can do it." He gripped the syringe, hisazure eyes frozen over and his rate of speaking extremely swift. "You've done too many things already, so you better fucking live for me."
Lu Feng didn't hinder any of his movements. He merely looked on in silence, his cold green eyes like lakes that could not be disturbed.
He lifted his own sleeve.
On the vein at his wrist, a pinprick of blood indicated that he had already been injected with something.
"In half an hour, if I'm fine, you guys can use the extract."
The doctor stood in place, chest heaving, and stared at Lu Feng.
"You... you..." The rims of his eyes reddened with fury, and his voice was as hoarse and sharp as glass beingground. "You hopeless... self-harming dumbass."
"The loss of a single scientist will have no effect on the base, but the loss of an Arbiter? Have you not thought about it?"
Lu Feng gave no definite answer.
Just then, the harsh noise of a communicator sounded.The doctor's breathing had not yet evened out when he accepted the communication. After listening for three short seconds, his complexion changed.
"I'll head over right now," he said to the other party.
After hanging up, the look on his face was solemn. "Minor distortions have been observed again, and the base has raised the intensity of the magnetic field to its maximum. The moment when our line of defense collapses is upon us. I'm going to go hold an emergency meeting, and it'll take half an hour or so. You stay here and don't go anywhere unless everyone starts evacuating."
With those words, he hurried over to the door.
"Wait," Lu Feng called out. Dr. Ji's footsteps stopped, but in his lingering irritation, he did not turn back.
Behind him, Lu Feng asked, "Will An Zhe be unaffected by the distortion just like the spore?"
"Even if all of humankind dies, he will live."
"Thank you."
The doctor left, slamming the door shut behind him. Still standing in place, Lu Feng turned to look out the window. Beneath the aurora, the dark gray city was an unbroken expanse of jungle. The aurora fluctuated, casting its mysterious gray-green light upon the buildings.
An animal's sharp howl rang out in the city.
That direction was the city's interior, the military's base. The howl that sliced across the sky was only the beginning. A moment later, more bestial roars burst out from that place.
The military base's emergency light suddenly lit up, but it swiftly went out again. At the same time, there came the sounds of sharp whistles and explosions, followed by a high-pitched evacuation alarm that enveloped the entire base.
But Lu Feng's gaze lingered there only briefly. Then he looked at the immense wilderness outside the base.
With a fluttering sound, a massive bat-shaped winged monster took flight from the distant mountains, followed by the rising shadows of thousands of its kindred that blotted out the sky.
The communicator lit up.
Lu Feng tapped out the laboratory's number on the communication interface.
A few seconds later, a message from Hubbard popped up.
"Understood, I'll be there in half an hour."
The total collapse of the magnetic field occurred right in this half hour.
On the open country around the base, monsters suddenly appeared from the skies and earth. It seemed that they had been in hibernation for a long time, and now the moment they had been waiting for arrived. Like a tide, they surged toward the base.
The emergency lights in the corridors flashed wildly. Emerging from the conference room, the doctor hurried in the direction of the laboratory, followed by two servicemen.
"Doctor, please evacuate with us as soon as possible."
"The military cannot protect the entire base. At present, the unmanned drones have already observed that the tide of monsters is advancing toward us. Ultimately, we can only take the artificial magnetic pole as our sole defensive position."
"I need to bring something with me," Dr. Ji said quickly. "Give me five minutes. Colonel Lu is also in the laboratory."
"Please evacuate with us immediately." The serviceman with the United Front Center's logo on his chest started speaking more forcefully. "It's special orders. After all personnel take refuge at the Magnetic Field Center, Colonel Lu's presence would further aggravate the crowd's confusion and trigger unnecessary conflict. Therefore, we can consider—"
"Shut up!"
The emergency alarm sounded at a higher pitch, and the ear-piercing beeps and red light combined. This was the highest level of wartime alarm, reminding people to promptly withdraw toward someplace safe. The corridor was filled with turmoil. The howls of the monsters in the distant wilderness were clearly audible, and the experimentation staff in their white coats and the soldiers were in great confusion.
The laboratory door was near.
But there was suddenly a disbelieving look in Dr. Ji's eyes.
The laboratory door was wide open. Before he had left, he had forgotten to lock the door amidst his heightened emotions.
He strode in and saw a soldier with a black strip of fabric wrapped around his right arm carrying a sniper rifle, his aim trained on a figure standing in front of the windowsill.
His pupils contracted—black fabric on the right arm was the symbol of the anti-trial movement.
The communicator lit up, but he was in no position to pay it any mind. He shouted, "Lu Feng!"
His voice was accompanied by the crack of a gunshot.
The figure by the window swayed, then fell to the ground with a dull thud.
Dr. Ji's eyes widened incredulously and his lips trembled.
"No..."
"Don't move!" The armed soldier was soon brought under control by the two servicemen who had come with him. Dr. Ji strode in. Unable to care about anything, he knocked over some lab equipment on the way over, and fragments of broken test tubes scattered all over the floor. He went around a reaction cabinet and knelt in front of Lu Feng's fallen body while trembling. "Lu Feng? Lu Feng?"
The eyes had not closed, and the limbs remained unmoving. The doctor reached toward the blackened muzzle of the gun.
His communicator flashed once more. With one look at the sender, the doctor's gaze cooled, though he had been trembling all over merely moments ago.
One of the servicemen handcuffed the shooter, then walked towards the doctor.
"There's no need to come here." The doctor's voice rang out coldly in the laboratory. "Colonel Lu is confirmed dead."
The sound of military boots stepping on the ground paused.
"We regret to hear that."
The ashen-faced Dr. Ji gave a tiny smile.
"I'm not very surprised," he said, "with regard to how the Arbiter died."
———
PL1109 cabin.
Hubbard leaned against the cabin wall. He and Lu Feng could not be considered very good friends.
But it seemed that their relationship also counted as one where they'd risk their lives for the other.
"It took no small amount of effort to get that thing from your neighbor's place. I'm surprised you still kept it, though."
"It was well made," Lu Feng said. "According to Shaw Scott's testimony, you provided the specific data."
Hubbard smiled and did not continue this conversation topic.
"How did it feel to be confined?" he asked.
"It was all right," Lu Feng said.
With those words, he glanced at the others in the cabin.
A nearby officer said, "We all came back from the Underground City Base together, Colonel Lu. We guaranteethat we won't report you to the military."
"There's no need to thank them." Hubbard wiped the gun in his hands. "It was only a siege of monsters. We're about to partake in combat again, and your plentiful experience against the enemy in the Underground City was obvious to everyone. We don't mind working with you again, as it's quite a bargain for both parties."
The officer said, "Assuming that the Colonel is still willing to serve the base."
Lu Feng's lips curled up slightly.
"Start checking the equipment," he said.
To one side, Hubbard was cleaning his weapon, a semi-automatic gun that was entirely silver in color. His fingers rested on the gunstock, where there was a scuffed patch with "Tang" faintly etched into it.
His gaze lingered on the string of letters.
The nearby officer asked, "Who is this?"
"A friend," Hubbard said. "I've known him for thirty-three years."
"That's so long."
Hubbard gazed at the word for a long time before smiling. "It's a bit of a pity."
"How come?"
"We were born together, but in the end, we weren't able to die together."
"How could there be something so good?"
"Indeed."
Lu Feng observed their conversation with arms crossed. With his eyes half-closed, no emotion could be discerned, and the others naturally didn't expect the Arbiter to be able to empathize with their feelings.
Not until Hubbard noticed something.
"What happened to your gun?" he asked.
Lu Feng said, "I gave it away."
Hubbard smiled. He seemed to have understood everything. When compared against the military's standardized supplies, this mercenary captain was obviously filthy rich. He took out a black pistol and handed it to Lu Feng, and the moment it was handed over, he murmured, "It'll be okay."
This chapter is updated by freēwēbnovel.com.
"Thank you."