Chapter 47 - "When you Walk Gentle into that Good Night."
With engines roaring, the PL1109 gradually took flight.
It was accompanied by the entire fighter fleet. Together, they made up the base's aerial combat force.
Upon the vast flatland, waves of monsters surged toward the base.
Through the porthole, Lu Feng looked northwest of the base.
Amidst the monsters' howling, the closest ones came not from outside, but within the base, where the military base was located.
Earlier, they had demanded the abolition of the Trial Court's absolute power over life and death along with the transfer of suspected mutants to the military camp for supervision. For the sake of demonstrating the correctness and nobility of the move, Colin, the organizer of the antitrial movement, and the other core members volunteered to become their observers and guards.
So when the distortion arrived, that became the first monster outbreak site. It was too far to see clearly, but one could imagine the scene of carnage.
But nobody was in any position to care. The xenogenics that humans mutated into were nothing more than the weakest type of monster.
A slimy and grotesque octopus as tall as the Twin Towers wrapped around the buildings of the Twin Towers with its tentacles. The lights inside the towers blinked wildly, and its tentacles pierced through the glass. As it devoured humans with its razor-sharp teeth, screams filled the air. It could be heard even in the air.
With a tremendous noise, the glass corridor bridge connecting the Twin Towers collapsed, and several black human shapes fell with the debris. They were caught in the monster's gaping, toothy maw, and the sounds of the buildings toppling covered up the sounds of bones and flesh being chewed.
"Do we bomb it?"
"Yes."
No longer in any position to care about what kinds of serious consequences it would cause, all they could do was drop bombs. If the monster was allowed to continue attacking, humankind's final refuge would also turn into ruins.
Large uranium shells were dropped, and in the mushroom clouds, the monster's body broke into countless segments that slammed into the ground. The two lofty towers gradually tilted, crashed into each other, and collapsed.
Dust filled the air.
The frenzied assault and resistance lasted for an hour.
Then they could no longer continue bombing.
Apart from where the artificial magnetic pole was, the other parts of the base had either been occupied by monsters or razed to the ground. Perhaps they had been occupied first before getting razed to the ground. Only ruins remained in the thick fog of smoke.
The monsters' sole objective was living humans.
Now, they were all aiming for the entrance to the Magnetic Field Center, which was humankind's final wartime encampment. In order to protect the magnetic pole, the defenses there were of the highest standards, forming a virtual bastion of steel.
Thus, those hordes of massive and ugly creatures that defied description securely surrounded the Magnetic Field Center and rammed their way in.
The airborne fleet could not drop even a single more shell because the light shells they had been equipped with were depleted. Now, all they had left were a few heavy thermonuclear weapons.
If they wanted to wipe out the huge monsters around the Magnetic Field Center, the aftereffects of thermonuclear weapons would level the entire artificial magnetic pole. Even if they controlled the scope and didn't harm the magnetic pole, the tremendous destructive power of the thermonuclear weapons would also directly destroy the base's power supply system and accelerate the deaths of the people in the Magnetic Field Center.
Now, all the ground combatants had sacrificed themselves.
The situation inside the Magnetic Field Center was unknown.
Except for the thousand or so people who had been temporarily transferred to the Magnetic Field Center, the base had no survivors.
And the airborne fleet could do nothing about it.
What was even more spine-chilling was that this was now the age of distortion, and distortion meant thatsubstances would change at a fundamental level. Perhaps in the following second, the airplanes would crash, the magnetic pole would break down, or contactless infection would occur among the thousand people in the Magnetic Field Center, leading to the magnetic pole being compromised from within.
Compared to dying, personally witnessing the utter downfall of this city was even more cruel.
The aircraft fleet quietly hovered up above, like ghosts drifting away after the death of the entire base.
A communicator rang.
It was a message from the Magnetic Field Center's provisional commanding office.
"This is the Magnetic Field Center. The military is defending the entrance to the last. Half of our firepower has been consumed. Ruling out other unforeseen events, defense is expected to last three hours."
"Although we don't know why the base has become the target of a monster attack, the current situation is not something we can handle, nor is it something the airborne fleet can combat."
"Please cease the combat mission immediately, otherwise it will only burden the base's defense."
"Furthermore, we have detected that a large number of flying monsters are heading toward the base. For the sakeof preserving humankind's vital forces, please leave the base immediately and find a safe place to land."
"Although we do not know how long you can survive for, please live on."
"Please immediately withdraw from the base."
The aircraft fleet hovered for a long time.
"I repeat, this is an order. Please immediately withdraw from the base."
"The base gives you its blessings. Good luck."
The communication ended.
The channel was silent. In the cabin, all that could be heard were the sounds of suppressed and tense breathing.
The officers fixedly observed the blighted land below, and it was difficult to say whether the expressions in their eyes were of hatred, despair, or perhaps something akin to cinders.
At last, another aircraft pilot's voice came from the fleet's communication channel.
"PJ143 to PL1109."
"Where are we withdrawing to?"
The PL1109's officer looked at Lu Feng.
"Colonel Lu has an abundance of wilderness experience," he said.
The implication was that Lu Feng would decide where to withdraw to.
Lu Feng took the communicator.
"Highland 7, the military's six-star refuge, has facilities to support life."
"Canyon 313 in the northwest region of the central basin is devoid of strong and deadly monsters, and there is water."
"If the fighter planes have enough fuel, we can consider the Underground City Base."
He mentioned the three places in a flat tone of voice, then said, "Please choose for yourself."
"PJ179 requests to know PL1109's destination."
Lu Feng paused.
His gaze swept over the people in the cabin.
"The Abyss," he said. "To aid the Highland Research Institute."
"The place where the Fusion Faction is?" An officer jerked his head up. "That's the xenogenics' territory."
"I am aware of that," Lu Feng said.
Similar questions sounded in the communication channel.
"Aiding the enemy?"
"Won't the area self-governed by the xenogenics be even more dangerous?"
"Requesting to know the reason behind this decision."
"It's my individual decision. The Highland Research Institute is the only existing human settlement outside of the bases," Lu Feng said flatly. "Please choose your destinations for yourselves."
The PL1109's crew commander raised no objections. After a brief hesitation, he manipulated the flight controls, and the engines roared as the fighter plane slowly turned to the south.
A voice came once more from the communication channel.
"Excuse me... You are—?"
"Trial Court, Lu Feng."
Silence.
The PL1109 climbed to a high altitude and flew through the boundless night in the direction of the Abyss, its wing lights glowing.
Above the base, within the hovering fleet, a fighter plane followed the PL1109 southward.
Then a second one.
Then a third one.
In the canopy of night, the wing lights and taillights converged into a flowing river of light.
Until only two remained.
"PJ254 and PJ113 have decided to stand by and await orders. We will survive or perish with the base."
"May you prevail."
PL1109's crew commander replied, "May we have a bright future."
"Take care, and good luck."
———
The Abyss, Highland Research Institute.
After the magnetic field failed, the image on the screen changed.
All of the chaos had disappeared, leaving behind only a screen full of evenly distributed image noise. By no means could it be said to have a pattern or no pattern. Because it was excessively chaotic, it instead exhibited a tidiness that was hard to describe.
Just like that, Pauli stared at his screen. He was clearly only looking at the screen, but An Zhe felt that he was looking through the screen at some massive and indescribable thing.
An Zhe recalled what Tang Lan had said to Pauli an hour ago. At that time, Tang Lan had asked him if he had already realized something and just wasn't willing to tell thembecause the truth was something they were unable to handle.
Now, facing Pauli's gaze, the same thought sprang up in his mind.
"Have you realized something?" An Zhe asked.
In the silence, Pauli said, "Perhaps not quite, but it's frequencies."
"Frequencies?"
"Atoms, electrons, and photons. Matter is composed of elementary particles, but what are elementary particles formed from? Strings. Strings are lines of energy in two dimensional space. It's only when they begin to vibrate at certain frequencies that they become particles in our space-time."
"The Simpson cage is a masterpiece in the field of particle physics. In the beginning, people used it to verify the correctness of string theory. Now, it may indeed be correct."
An Zhe murmured, "I don't understand."
"That's all right, I'll give an example," Pauli said. "When you pick up a violin and pluck different strings, the strings will vibrate because they were plucked, and different vibrations emit different sounds. We call those units of energy that can be found throughout the universe 'strings,' and the strings' various vibration frequencies produce different particles, forming our world."
"The reason why our world's laws of physics have previously been stable is because our strings have alwaysbeen playing an unchanging piece of music. Therefore, electrons were electrons, atoms were atoms, and physics equations have always been those equations. But now—"
An Zhe's eyes widened slightly. Through this metaphor, he understood what Pauli wished to say.
"The most terrifying thing is not that this theory is correct, but rather... It's now time to change to a different melody," Pauli said. "The strings of the universe are about to be played in a different way. Or perhaps the frequency of the universe was disordered in the first place andhumankind just happened to emerge during a brief period of stability. Once the age of stability ends, everything will return to chaos and disorder."
The world's most fundamental components, those laws of physics, were a symphony played according to the sheet music. Now the old melody had taken its final bows, and a new prelude was about to begin.
There had never been immutable laws, only eternal and chaotic terror.
An Zhe looked blankly out the window.
An ashen glow slowly lit up the sky.
It seemed like only three or four hours of the night had passed, but dawn had begun to rise.
"All laws are falling apart, and matter is beginning todistort from its fundamental properties. You, me, the earth, the sun, and the Milky Way. The rotation is speeding up," Pauli said.
An Zhe asked, "What will it be like in the end?"
"I don't know." Pauli shook his head slowly. "Living and non-living things will mix together, all tangible things willchange, and all of time and space will bend. Everything will take on another appearance that we're unable to understand. There's only one thing that's certain."
An Zhe waited for him to finish.
"We will all die," he said.
An Zhe began coughing violently once more. It seemed like he was going to cough up all the blood in his body, with the deterioration of his body being faster than thedistortion of matter. He curled up in a chair near the fireplace with his arms wrapped around his knees. Surprisingly, he was still alive. It seemed like he was destined to witness the extinction of humankind at the final moments of his own life.
Tang Lan went out. The research institute consisted of half-human, half-monster xenogenics. Some of them had a high level of combat prowess, while others were justordinary animals and plants that were even slower and clumsier than humans.
Every arm of the massive vine that surrounded the entire research institute lifted up, its branches and leaves standing on end like the fine hairs on a human body, in a stance filled with aggression.
Rustling shadows climbed up from the Abyss like a rising tide of black water. The monsters that could only crawl were slightly slower, while the flying monsters had already circled their way up to the mountaintop and dived down. Why had they gathered to attack the human basesonly after the wave had triumphed over the magnetic field? Was there something special about this timing? Or was it merely because human bodies were weak, making them easily preyed upon?
That shouldn't have been the case.
Pauli muttered to himself, "What do they wish to gain from attacking this place?"
From the nearby walkie-talkie came the whistling wind and Tang Lan's voice. "Half of the Abyss's monsters are leaving the Abyss, and the other half are coming here. The ones that have come up first are the flying monsters."
"We can't hold out, sir. What do we do?"
The Highland Research Institute had its own small reserves of armaments. A gunshot rang out, and a bird plummeted into the center of the Simpson cage.
The glow of the Simpson cage was too bright, so An Zhe could clearly see what had occurred. Its wingtips had come into contact with the crimson lasers and flames first, instantly turning into glittering powder, and its neck arched up. It seemed to want to scream, but its body fell swiftly under the effect of gravity into the sea of flames.
Then its body completely disintegrated in an instant, and the glittering dust filled the Simpson cage like a springtime sandstorm with a crackling burst of sparks like that of firewood burning in a fireplace.
A life disappeared just like that, from its body to its soul.
An Zhe curled in on himself and took a few arduous breaths. This may not be a clean way to die, but it was better that time itself was killing him little by little.
Pauli helped him up and fed him a mouthful of glucose water, but the flow of the warm liquid into his esophagus was also like the cruel torture of being sliced open.
He leaned against Pauli.
"The Simpson cage is a strong force field and stream of high-energy particles. It is too energetic."
An Zhe nodded. Only after witnessing the bird's death did he understand why Pauli strictly prohibited the people of the research institute from approaching the Simpson cage.
Rum, who had been staring at the screen the entire time, chose that moment to speak up. "Sir."
An Zhe looked in his direction.
On the screen, amidst the image noise and chaotic curves, several distinct white lines suddenly appeared. In a strange yet orderly way, they intertwined and slowly rotated.
At the same time, the sparks in the Simpson cage went out, and the last traces of the bird also disappeared completely.
On the screen, the lines slowly disappeared.
Pauli Jones shot to his feet, his pupils sharply contracted and his voice tremulous as he muttered, "This... this is..."
"Let me think—" Pauli threw himself at the console. As he hit the buttons at top speed, he babbled, "We must lure all the other monsters into the Simpson cage."
He put his words into action. The people of the research institute had been provided with a dozen or so simple communicators to facilitate communication. The xenogenics led by Tang Lan temporarily obstructed the outside world's monsters a hundred meters away, and Pauli commanded the ones with no fighting capabilities to transfer into the white building, behind the Simpson Cage.
The monsters were aiming precisely at the people inside the research institute. After they did all that, the target of the monsters' attacks obviously shifted.
Pauli told Tang Lan to create an opening, and a monsterthat had a star-shaped arrangement of tentacles yet could still fly dove straight down toward it. But the raging blaze of the Simpson cage blocked the entrance to the whitebuilding. If the monster wished to charge at the white building, it had to pass straight through it.
Without any hesitation, it chose an angle that was minimally affected by the sea of flames and glided down.
Several clear curves suddenly appeared on the screen again.
They intertwined, appearing as distinct as the long ripples in a swimming duck's wake.
Pauli stared at those curves.
When the monster's body completely disappeared, the curves disappeared as well, once again changing into irregular snow-white visual noise.
"There had been other times when monsters or xenogenics were incinerated by the Simpson cage, but the curves back then were very disordered. It seems that that was also because of the magnetic field's influence," he said.
"Therefore, these curves represent the monster's innate frequency. If different monsters enter—"
Before he finished speaking, there was a dull sound. The person on the ground who had sniped the monster shot a smaller monster, and it also fell into the Simpson cage's boundaries.
A similar burst of glittering dust scattered into the air, and several lines distinctly different from the previous creature's but still clearly visible appeared on the big screen.
Pauli's breathing quickened.
"In this world formed of elementary particles, every creature has its own frequency, and every substance—every element also has its own frequency," he said. "They are independent of each other in stable waves, and they infect each other in disordered waves."
As he looked at the dancing curves and calculated parameters on the screen, the expression on his face could have been described as manic. "The frequencies captured by the Simpson cage can be reproduced with the magnetic field generator. At the beginning, this was exactly how we simulated the geomagnetic field. If we transmit a captured monster frequency, then the creatures within the artificial magnetic field will be infected by this frequency."
He said blankly, "At the very end, God has finally allowed me to glimpse a fraction of the truth. Should I thank Him?"
It was like he had received some sort of divine instruction or had an illuminating epiphany.
"Are properties and even the classifications of species themselves also strings of numbers that can be expressed using parameters? Can we also use a few words to summarize them in either a high-dimensional or low-dimensional world?"
"We had studied the geomagnetic field's frequencies, so we obtained the frequency that represents protection and resistance, which enabled us to cling to life for over a hundred years in this age. In fact, we have already come into contact with a portion of the truth ages ago."
He wrote and drew on the paper again and again. An Zhe quietly looked at Pauli from behind. Even though deathwas almost upon them, the truth was that important to humankind. But to him, it was meaningless. Humans used various complex theories to represent the world, but in his eyes, the world was the world. There weren't so many things to be analyzed or explained, only a complex manifestation.
But Pauli continued to talk.
"One frequency's wave covers another frequency's wave. There are strong waves and weak waves. There exist the strongest waves that can cover up everything, as well as the weak waves that have always been covered up. The wave inherent to humankind is weak, so it is easy for them to be infected by other creatures and lose consciousness."
As he watched the hordes of oncoming monsters, an almost neurotic look showed in his gray-blue eyes. An Zhe knew that it meant that his scientist's brain was spinning at a manic pace. He was handling and receiving too much information, so he could only sort out his thoughts by swiftly verbalizing them. Pauli muttered, "What do they wish to obtain? The most powerful frequency? Or have they sensed that the magnetic field generator can emit specific waves?"
"Or, or..." His eyes widened. "In that case, could there be an absolutely stable frequency?"
He seized a piece of paper that was within reach. "Jibran once told me that the Northern Base had found a sample that exhibited absolute inertia—"
He picked up the communication device.
An Zhe quietly watched.
He actually didn't understand much of what Pauli said.
But he understood some of it.
Long ago, how did he come to have his own consciousness? He didn't remember. It must have been a coincidental mutation, a trifling ripple in this vast wave.
So he came into being.
So his destiny came into being.
Then he met An Ze.
The destiny of humankind was also like a shifting and uncertain piece of music.
With a slight cough, he stood up from his chair. If hepaid it no heed, the physical pain was actually a trivial thing.
Pauli heard him get up, and even though he was so excited, he still said in a warm tone, "Don't get up, there's nothing here you need to help with. Rest up."
But right away, he became utterly absorbed in his research and discoveries again.
After picking up a piece of paper, An Zhe wrote down a few words on it with a pen, folded it up, and handed it to Rum, then walked toward the door. Rum opened his mouth, but An Zhe gently gestured for him to keep silent. Standing on the other side of the door, An Zhe gently and sorrowfully looked at Pauli through its translucent glass.
With a click, he locked the door from the outside.
The sound startled Pauli, who had been immersed in his research, and he looked up in the direction of the sound.
An Zhe turned and walked down the stairs, his footsteps slightly unsteady and his internal organs feeling like they were being scorched by an inferno.
Lastly, he threaded his way through the people on the first floor of the white building, descended the stairs in front of the building, and came to the Simpson cage's brilliant inferno.
He originally shouldn't have been here.
He was a member of the Abyss, and it was the ones currently attacking the humans who were his kindred.
But now the situation was reversed, for he stoodtogether with the humans. They had acknowledged him and treated him well.
The curling flames heated his face, and he bent double and coughed out a few more mouthfuls of blood.
A xenogenic shouldn't have stood here in the first place.
Have I felt happiness or suffering as a result of joining the human population? he wondered.
The withering of a mushroom took time, for the dissolution of its hyphae was a gradual process. He hadclosed his eyes countless times, always feeling like they would not open again, but they still opened.
What was it that had allowed him to stay until now? Chance? Pauli had said that chance was destiny.
Then let it be destiny that brought him here!
The vine protecting the research institute thudded to the ground. Bleeding from one wing, Tang Lan rose unsteadily into the air and fought with an eagle that had dived down. Its sharp beak pierced his shoulder, and blood gushed out. He didn't even groan as he pressed down on the bleeding wound with one hand and transformed his other hand into gleaming claws that he used to stab the eagle in the eye.
Blood dripped onto the ground.
Humans had happiness and suffering different from other creatures, yet did he regret it?
Smiling, An Zhe took another step toward the Simpson cage. Tongues of flame licked his face, as hot as a scorching summer day.
The sounds of something thumping against glass came from the white building, but he didn't turn back to look.
Along with the Simpson cage, the sunset at the edge of the sky burned as well. The huge sun sank, and its magnificent red-gold light illuminated half the sky. The fighting at the research institute continued, with howling, explosions, blood, the sun's rays, and firelight mixing together.
Uncle Shu, who had once cooked potato soup for him,was picked up and hurled back down by a monster. His body hit the ground hard, and his gaze froze while blood flowed from the rims of his eyes.
On the blood-covered ground, death was everywhere.
In his eyes, everything slowed down. An Zhe took another step forward.
"Don't..." Uncle Shu rasped, and he let out a few heart-wrenching coughs. "Don't kill yourself..."
A creature's instinct was to live, and a species' instinct was to perpetuate itself.
Humankind had never gone gentle into that good night.
Facing the Simpson cage, An Zhe also felt the terror of impending death at last. He looked at Uncle Shu and softly asked him—though it seemed like he was asking himself,
"But will you all still be able to keep living?"
Uncle Shu's consciousness was already fading. He slowly shook his head, then looked toward the distant horizon.
His gaze suddenly became fixed in place. After two seconds of silence, he suddenly broke out into a few wheezing laughs, and an excited expression showed on his face.
A low droning that was different from the monsters' howls came from the sky, and An Zhe suddenly looked up.
Above the resplendent golden horizon, a neatly arranged group of distant black shadows were coming smoothly toward the research institute, leaving behind long and feathery trails as they flew through the clouds.
"Air... airplanes," An Zhe heard Uncle Shu say.
He knew those were airplanes. Looking up at the familiar shapes, An Zhe suddenly felt a wholehearted joy.
They hadn't sent any distress signal to the Northern Base, but the Northern Base's fighter fleet had come to aid the research institute. In a conversation with Tang Lan not long ago, Pauli had urged them to disregard old grievances and go help the base when the research institute no longer existed. But now, it was the base who had disregarded old grievances and come to help the research institute.
Right at the time when everything was destined to end.
Pauli's words were correct. His species was both contemptible yet noble. You could make conjectures about humans' actions using the greatest ill intent, or you could believe to the maximum extent in humans' kindness and leniency.
But the artificial magnetic pole had failed, so what would happen to the base?
What would happen to Lu Feng? Or did the base no longer exist? Where would he be? He knew that Lu Feng would give up everything for the base until the day the base no longer needed him.
A trickle of tears fell from An Zhe's eyes. In this vast Judgment Day, his love and hatred seemed all but worthless. Lu Feng had his own mission, and he himself had his own destiny.
He took another step.
"Boom."
A micro nuclear bomb was released from the PL1109'sbomb bay, and with a tremendous noise, it cut off the upward trajectory of the monsters below. The mountain peak—such a mountain peak was bound to become a target, but it was also bound to be easy to defend and difficult to attack.
"Open the cabin door," a cold and calm voice said.
"Prepare your hang gliders."
"There's a bit of an issue. Please wait a moment," the flight technician said.
The fighter plane was nosediving, and the cabin door creaked as it opened mechanically.
Lu Feng accepted the hang glider that a soldier handed over.
"You're going down?" Hubbard asked.
"Mm-hm," Lu Feng said.
"When aiding the Underground City, it was for humankind's interests." Hubbard looked at him. "What about now? Will the Trial Court come to help the xenogenics?"
Lu Feng only watched as this mercenary team captain also accepted a hang glider and started adjusting it. He asked flatly, "And why are you here?"
"I don't know." Hubbard murmured. "I just felt that I would regret it if I didn't come."
"Click."
The cabin door sprang open.
"Good heavens." The flight technician backed up. "A fire? What is that?"
Fierce winds poured in from the outside, and Lu Feng looked down as he stood at the cabin exit.
Suddenly, he was stunned.
In front of the sea of flames, An Zhe lifted his head and
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looked at the visitors from the Northern Base.
At that moment, it seemed as if time had come to a standstill.
One looked at the other, and the other looked back.
An Zhe began to tremble violently as he directly met Lu Feng's eyes.
Their parting had been planned out long in advance, but their meeting was beyond all expectations.
But he hadn't expected to see Lu Feng here, and he knew that Lu Feng hadn't expected to see him here either.
The wind raised by the fighter plane clawed at the edges of his clothes. In a movement that seemed unconscious, he slowly reached out.
In that manner, those green eyes gazed at him. The Arbiter, whose mission was to exterminate xenogenics, had come to aid the Fusion Faction's base, and a monster wasstanding in the exact center of the humans' research institute.
The whole thing was absurd, but the glorious morning sunlight came pouring down, and they suddenly became brightly lit in each other's eyes.
Indeed, Lu Feng was this sort of person.
An Zhe's eyes curved as he smiled at Lu Feng. In his limited memory, he had never shown such an expression to Lu Feng before.
They were separated by such a long distance, but he saw those green eyes slowly become suffused with a smile as well—seemingly containing infinite tenderness.
A gunshot rang out as Hubbard fired at a monster in the air. The fighter planes dropped uranium shells in the vicinity of the research institute in a fierce bombardment,and the sounds of combat, explosions, and howling combined into a grand noise that merged with this symphony from the universe's depths.
But the monsters from the Abyss continually surged forth.
The sandstorms that followed the magnetic field's disappearance were almost here.
The last human territory was falling. Humankind—was on the verge of extinction.
They locked eyes for a long time, seemingly erecting the deepest mutual hatred, yet also seemingly dispelling past grievances in an instant.
On this day, they would once again be together and once again, freely—
Freely—
An Zhe slowly closed his eyes and leaned forward.
Like a leaf fallen from its branch withering in late autumn.
In the raging blaze of the Simpson cage, at the moment
when the morning sun was slowly rising and the setting sun of humankind was slowly sinking, his body turned into swirls of glittering dust that dispersed, fluttered in the air, and ended.
In the laboratory, on the screen that was covered with visual noise, those trembling and erratic dots suddenly gathered together and spun. The analysis program started up, and three seconds later, several slowly intertwining frequency curves appeared little by little on the screen.
As though it were destiny.
While looking at the parameters jumping on the screen, Pauli Jones switched the communication channel to the emergency channel connected to the Northern Base and
Underground City Base. Without knowing if they could hear him, he suppressed the tremor in his voice and spoke.
"This is the Highland Research Institute."
"Please adjust the emission frequencies of the artificial magnetic poles."
"Channel A1, 2, 5, 2.7."
"Channel A2, 9.13, 5, 3, 1."
"Channel D3, 4, 0, 7."
"Runge wave, level 6."
"Adams property, lattice 3."
"Configuration complete, please activate."
"Repeat."
"Channel A1, 2, 5, 2.7."
"Channel A2, 9.13, 5, 3, 1."
"Channel D3..."
Behind him, Rum finished adjusting those parameters with near-trembling fingers and pressed the round button in the middle.
The tops of the white towers at either of the Highland Research Institute shone with glaring light.
Imperceptible silent waves radiated outward like ripples from between the two white towers.
In the east and west, the humans' two magnetic poles emitted grand waves.
Like the first bell toll of the new year.
Everything fell silent.