Chapter 32
“Preliminary infection, 20 units of the infection process, 13 animal targets, pointing to an arthropod mutation.” The doctor came over with a thick stack of report sheets and placed it in front of Lu Feng. “Where did you go and why is there a heterogenous species?”
Lu Feng picked up the report.
The doctor folded his arms. “You didn’t shoot him on the spot.”
“I’m not familiar with the infection characteristics of children,” Lu Feng answered.
“Then don’t kill him and leave him to me as a sample.”
“Feel free.”
“It is an arthropod mutation and there is nothing to say.” The doctor looked at the stack of report sheets in the other person’s hand. “Get ready for the meeting. An infected person actually appeared in the main city and it is a child of the Garden of Eden. I have reported it and it isn’t a small matter.”
“Arthropod.” Lu Feng wondered, “Is there a connection with the previous events?”
“The final results of the insect tide event was just released today. It was characterized as a collective behaviour of the mutation insects under the pressure of the breeding season.” The doctor’s voice was low and his expression was serious. “However, we don’t know how they are connected together or if there was a commander.”
“Even so… the main city is solid from top to bottom and things from outside can’t come in.” The doctor took a deep breath and thought while closing his eyes, “Even if something happened in the main city, it should be a heterogenous sample at the Lighthouse escaping. Why is it a child of Eden?”
Lu Feng read the report once again before glancing at An Zhe. As Sinan’s teacher, An Zhe had the responsibility to go to the Lighthouse with them.
“Where has he been?” Lu Feng questioned.
“He is always with the other children,” An Zhe replied. “When I got off work yesterday, they were watching the news together before sleeping. There was an exam in the classroom this morning and then we went to the military base in the afternoon.”
Lu Feng ordered, “Contact his teacher and life teacher.”
An Zhe agreed. After calling Lin Zuo to explain the situation, An Zhe had a thought. “I can ask him… he is very clever.”
Lu Feng hummed in reply. Therefore, An Zhe walked to the glass-sealed door. Sinan was isolated from others as an infected person and he was now in a silver-white laboratory.
In the laboratory was a very small figure. Sinan sat alone on the silver-white dissection table with his head slightly lowered. He still had the same expression, like everything that happened outside had nothing to do with himself.
There was a noise behind An Zhe. It was Lu Feng’s communicator ringing wildly which showed that the situation was serious. In only a few minutes, three groups of people had come to him. Lu Feng said something to the doctor and walked out to the corridor.
There was a sound transmission device inside and outside the door. An Zhe picked up the device. “Sinan.”
Sinan looked at him.
“Do you know what’s wrong with you?” An Zhe asked.
Sinan nodded.
“Then do you know why? Did you encounter anything strange in the Garden of Eden?”
Sinan’s black eyes stared straight at him, seemingly penetrating him. At this moment, An Zhe suddenly understood why a heterogenous species could be distinguished from humans with the naked eye. This look was like… something different from humans. He wouldn’t feel strange if such eyes existed on a monster in the Abyss.
After a minute of silence, Sinan replied, “No.”
“Think again,” An Zhe tried to guide the child. “What did you do yesterday? Were you with your classmates?”
Sinan just looked at him with a dark expression and stopped talking, no matter what An Zhe asked. Just as they were deadlocked, the doctor’s communicator rang and An Zhe glanced over.
The doctor pressed the speakerphone and Lin Zuo’s voice was heard. His tone was smooth but the speed was extremely fast. An Zhe knew that this was the man pretending to be calm.
“We’ve retrieved all video from the past three days. He has been with other people and will leave the surveillance area when going to the toilet or during occasional free time. This is normal. The maximum time he left the surveillance for was only three minutes and he could only move on the corridor of our floor.” Lin Zuo reported. “There is nothing abnormal at Eden. Did it happen on the way to the training base or at the training base? I heard the infection rate of children will be much faster than that of adults.”
“I’m sorry Mr Lin. A child’s infection rate might be faster than that of adults but according to the degree of morphological changes in his tissue cells, it has been at least 15~20 hours since he has been infected.
Lin Zuo’s side was silent for a moment. “In this case, he was indeed infected in the Garden of Eden. Nevertheless, the other children and teachers of Eden are normal and there are no signs of infection.”
“Please don’t panic,” the doctor reassured him. “We are awaiting further orders from our superiors. By 3 o’clock at the latest, the Lighthouse will join with the Trial Court in screening the children who have been active on the sixth floor during that time. Please be prepared to cooperate.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you for understanding. If there is nothing else then…”
Lin Zuo called out, “Wait.”
“Do you have any other clues?”
“Not a clue but I hope it helps you.” Lin Zuo explained, “Sinan has always been a strange child. His IQ is very high but his mental state has always been very… free. I watched him grow up and I am sure that his cognition or senses are different from other children.”
“Thank you for telling me. I will study it.” The doctor answered. “The Judge is back and we’re about to leave. We will talk after meeting in person.”
“Okay.”
Lu Feng walked back into the room.
“How is it?” The doctor asked.
“The Garden of Eden and the training base are already under martial law. The number of people is being counted and we will leave in 10 minutes.”
“Okay.”
Lu Feng looked at Sinan in the laboratory. “How is he?”
The doctor shrugged.
Lu Feng walked forward and stood next to An Zhe. Sinan’s eyes slowly shifted to Lu Feng. At this time, An Zhe found that the originally black eyes had a faint radial pattern, like spider webs extending outward.
Lu Feng stated, “10 hours.”
An Zhe was stunned because he knew what Lu Feng meant. In 10 hours, Sinan would transform from a human child to an irrational monster. An Zhe tried to communicate with Sinan a bit more and shouted his name. However, Sinan’s eyes stayed focused on Lu Feng and didn’t move. Lu Feng stared back.
Sinan opened his mouth. It was a child’s tender voice but the words were spat out in a cold tone. “You will all die.”
Lu Feng smiled. He took the communication device from An Zhe and declared, “No one will die. Humans will live.”
After saying that, he hung up and turned away. An Zhe made a comparison. When it came to a cold expression and tone of voice, the colonel was better.
Some researchers took over the handling of Sinan and the partition door rose. The doctor declared, “The child is weird.”
Lu Feng suggested, “I’ll come someone in to question him.”
“Thank you for the effort.”
At this time, the wind sound was once again heard in An Zhe’s ears. He looked around and found a similarly hidden round hole at the junction of the ceiling and the wall.
“Lu Feng.” An Zhe gently pulled at Lu Feng’s sleeve. “What is that?”
Lu Feng followed his gaze to the ceiling. “The vents.”
An Zhe blinked.
“You haven’t seen it before?” The doctor wondered. “The outer city doesn’t have it because it was built later.”
The doctor was always willing to explain things to people to An Zhe continued to ask, “What does it do?”
“Supply air.” The doctor’s answer was very simple and then he explained, “The magnetic field hadn’t completely disappeared when the main city was built and the industrial capacity of human beings was still at its peak. In order to build a base that can resist cosmic radiation and solar wind to the greatest extent, the walls of all buildings are four or five times thicker than ordinary buildings and the materials are special materials. It is totally enclosed and the ventilation system provides clean air.”
“The main city can survive and the ventilation system is at least first-class.” The doctor smiled. “Once the artificial magnetic poles were built, various variations began. Before the disperser was invented, the insects were everywhere. In the main city, a three-layered filtration and strangulation system was added to the ventilation system to ensure that no insects could contaminate the air supply.”
“So no matter what, as long as we control the city gates, the main city is absolutely safe.” He tapped out an email on the computer while talking to himself, “Why is there an infection? It doesn’t make sense at all. In addition, the other children in Eden are fine.”
Then his eyes shifted to Lu Feng. “I heard that a girl escaped from Eden yesterday.”
“I asked. The girl is fine.”
The doctor’s frown increased as he tapped out some information on the keyboard. Lu Feng looked at the computer screen. “Are you in contact with the Underground City Base?”
“Several things have happened recently and I’m a bit… scared.” The doctor took a deep breath before continuing, “I want to know to what extent the monsters on the North American side have evolved. However, the emergency channel between our two bases has always been a matter of fate and I can’t wait for the reply.”
Then he clicked send. An Zhe saw that he had sent the same file to another recipient with the note ‘Research Institute.’
“Okay,” The doctor turned off the interface and said, “I’m going to coordinate the instruments.”
Lu Feng told him, “I’ll go to the Garden of Eden first.”
The corridor of the Lighthouse was long and white, illuminated by a cold light. There was a tea room in the corridor and as they pushed open the door, two researchers in white were kissing in the tea room. After hearing the footsteps outside, one person holding the other turned and their figures disappeared into the depths of the tea room.
The scene seemed to arouse Lu Feng’s disgust and he frowned. “Where is their discipline?”
“There is no way,” The doctor stated. “The more we study, the more disappointed we become. The atmosphere of timely fun is now spreading from the top of the bottom of the Lighthouse. We can’t ask us for the discipline of the military. Sometimes I feel desperate myself.”
Lu Feng didn’t say anything. He just took An Zhe and the doctor forward in a different direction.
The following afternoon, An Zhe blindly followed Lu Feng because he didn’t know where he should go. He was only a temporary worker of the Garden of Eden and hadn’t received any orders or instructions. Nevertheless, Lu Feng didn’t seem unhappy about being followed by him. Even when the man checked the children of Eden one by one, he let An Zhe rest in the lobby.
Thus, An Zhe sat on a sofa in the lobby and read a book. On the wall opposite him, there was the blood-red slogan of ‘human interests above all else.’ At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the doctor brought people to the Garden of Eden. He was a bit depressed as he set up the detection equipment in the lobby with a few of his men.
Seraing was sent by Lu Feng to cooperate with the doctor’s work. The young judge saw the instrument in the middle of the hall and frowned. “Only one?”
“Otherwise? The other one is staying at the main city’s entrance to receive the mercenaries returning back to the city.” The doctor explained.
“This means there were only two instruments in the entire base?” Seraing wondered.
“Baby, do you have any misunderstandings about our current industrial production capacity? For a high-precision instrument such as the tester, two is already the limit.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You go through it first and then we will use the instrument to screen it slowly.” The doctor explained.
Seraing stated, “The Trial Court didn’t have any special training for children.”
“I believe that the Judge’s eyesight will be able to determine the infected people.
Once he finished speaking, Lu Feng’s footsteps were heard.
“The investigation of the fifth, sixth and seventh floors are complete.” Lu Feng was speaking into his communicator. “No suspected infection has been found.”
An Zhe saw the doctor’s hand shake as he debugged the detection instrument.
Lu Feng walked over to him. “I will hand it to you.”
The doctor’s face was somehow pale. “Okay.”
Then he added, “There are many different samples in the Lighthouse and the Garden of Eden has been infected. I’m afraid that something will happen to the Lighthouse. Can I apply to the United Front Centre for the judgment of the Trial Court?”
Lu Feng wondered, “My level of authority?”
“You and I have the same authority,” the doctor replied.
“Okay.”
He went to the elevator’s entrance.
An Zhe silently greeted him. He saw the man look back at him. The look was saying, ‘Come here.’ An Zhe put down his book and obediently followed. This was when it happened.
“Lu Feng.” The doctor suddenly called out.
Lu Feng didn’t look back. “What is it?”
An Zhe turned back and saw the doctor was looking over here, his blue eyes blank and eyes slightly red.
“100 years ago, people only had a 30% chance of being infected. They wouldn’t change at all from minor scratches or stab wounds. However, the situation has been worsening over the years. In particular, the infection rate has increased dramatically this year. Even a wound the size of a needle’s eye can cause infection. I keep thinking if there will be a day when we do nothing yet our genes will mutate and we will become a heterogeneous species.”
Lu Feng didn’t move and didn’t speak. There was just a ding as the elevator arrived and the silver door smoothly opened.
The doctor’s voice trembled slightly, “There are no monsters or heterogeneous species in Eden. This child’s infection happened for no reason. We don’t know what caused the infection and how it spreads. The Lighthouse can’t catch this virus nor do we know how to defend against it. If this reaches us like an epidemic… then the most vulnerable child will be infected first because of their physical constitution.”
He gasped. “So what are we going to do?”
“Dr Ji,” Lu Feng’s voice was cold. “You are wavering.”
Then he put his right hand on An Zhe’s shoulder and led him into the elevator without turning back.
Lu Feng picked up the report.
The doctor folded his arms. “You didn’t shoot him on the spot.”
“I’m not familiar with the infection characteristics of children,” Lu Feng answered.
“Then don’t kill him and leave him to me as a sample.”
“Feel free.”
“It is an arthropod mutation and there is nothing to say.” The doctor looked at the stack of report sheets in the other person’s hand. “Get ready for the meeting. An infected person actually appeared in the main city and it is a child of the Garden of Eden. I have reported it and it isn’t a small matter.”
“Arthropod.” Lu Feng wondered, “Is there a connection with the previous events?”
“The final results of the insect tide event was just released today. It was characterized as a collective behaviour of the mutation insects under the pressure of the breeding season.” The doctor’s voice was low and his expression was serious. “However, we don’t know how they are connected together or if there was a commander.”
“Even so… the main city is solid from top to bottom and things from outside can’t come in.” The doctor took a deep breath and thought while closing his eyes, “Even if something happened in the main city, it should be a heterogenous sample at the Lighthouse escaping. Why is it a child of Eden?”
Lu Feng read the report once again before glancing at An Zhe. As Sinan’s teacher, An Zhe had the responsibility to go to the Lighthouse with them.
“Where has he been?” Lu Feng questioned.
“He is always with the other children,” An Zhe replied. “When I got off work yesterday, they were watching the news together before sleeping. There was an exam in the classroom this morning and then we went to the military base in the afternoon.”
Lu Feng ordered, “Contact his teacher and life teacher.”
An Zhe agreed. After calling Lin Zuo to explain the situation, An Zhe had a thought. “I can ask him… he is very clever.”
Lu Feng hummed in reply. Therefore, An Zhe walked to the glass-sealed door. Sinan was isolated from others as an infected person and he was now in a silver-white laboratory.
In the laboratory was a very small figure. Sinan sat alone on the silver-white dissection table with his head slightly lowered. He still had the same expression, like everything that happened outside had nothing to do with himself.
There was a noise behind An Zhe. It was Lu Feng’s communicator ringing wildly which showed that the situation was serious. In only a few minutes, three groups of people had come to him. Lu Feng said something to the doctor and walked out to the corridor.
There was a sound transmission device inside and outside the door. An Zhe picked up the device. “Sinan.”
Sinan looked at him.
“Do you know what’s wrong with you?” An Zhe asked.
Sinan nodded.
“Then do you know why? Did you encounter anything strange in the Garden of Eden?”
Sinan’s black eyes stared straight at him, seemingly penetrating him. At this moment, An Zhe suddenly understood why a heterogenous species could be distinguished from humans with the naked eye. This look was like… something different from humans. He wouldn’t feel strange if such eyes existed on a monster in the Abyss.
After a minute of silence, Sinan replied, “No.”
“Think again,” An Zhe tried to guide the child. “What did you do yesterday? Were you with your classmates?”
Sinan just looked at him with a dark expression and stopped talking, no matter what An Zhe asked. Just as they were deadlocked, the doctor’s communicator rang and An Zhe glanced over.
The doctor pressed the speakerphone and Lin Zuo’s voice was heard. His tone was smooth but the speed was extremely fast. An Zhe knew that this was the man pretending to be calm.
“We’ve retrieved all video from the past three days. He has been with other people and will leave the surveillance area when going to the toilet or during occasional free time. This is normal. The maximum time he left the surveillance for was only three minutes and he could only move on the corridor of our floor.” Lin Zuo reported. “There is nothing abnormal at Eden. Did it happen on the way to the training base or at the training base? I heard the infection rate of children will be much faster than that of adults.”
“I’m sorry Mr Lin. A child’s infection rate might be faster than that of adults but according to the degree of morphological changes in his tissue cells, it has been at least 15~20 hours since he has been infected.
Lin Zuo’s side was silent for a moment. “In this case, he was indeed infected in the Garden of Eden. Nevertheless, the other children and teachers of Eden are normal and there are no signs of infection.”
“Please don’t panic,” the doctor reassured him. “We are awaiting further orders from our superiors. By 3 o’clock at the latest, the Lighthouse will join with the Trial Court in screening the children who have been active on the sixth floor during that time. Please be prepared to cooperate.”
“Okay.”
“Thank you for understanding. If there is nothing else then…”
Lin Zuo called out, “Wait.”
“Do you have any other clues?”
“Not a clue but I hope it helps you.” Lin Zuo explained, “Sinan has always been a strange child. His IQ is very high but his mental state has always been very… free. I watched him grow up and I am sure that his cognition or senses are different from other children.”
“Thank you for telling me. I will study it.” The doctor answered. “The Judge is back and we’re about to leave. We will talk after meeting in person.”
“Okay.”
Lu Feng walked back into the room.
“How is it?” The doctor asked.
“The Garden of Eden and the training base are already under martial law. The number of people is being counted and we will leave in 10 minutes.”
“Okay.”
Lu Feng looked at Sinan in the laboratory. “How is he?”
The doctor shrugged.
Lu Feng walked forward and stood next to An Zhe. Sinan’s eyes slowly shifted to Lu Feng. At this time, An Zhe found that the originally black eyes had a faint radial pattern, like spider webs extending outward.
Lu Feng stated, “10 hours.”
An Zhe was stunned because he knew what Lu Feng meant. In 10 hours, Sinan would transform from a human child to an irrational monster. An Zhe tried to communicate with Sinan a bit more and shouted his name. However, Sinan’s eyes stayed focused on Lu Feng and didn’t move. Lu Feng stared back.
Sinan opened his mouth. It was a child’s tender voice but the words were spat out in a cold tone. “You will all die.”
Lu Feng smiled. He took the communication device from An Zhe and declared, “No one will die. Humans will live.”
After saying that, he hung up and turned away. An Zhe made a comparison. When it came to a cold expression and tone of voice, the colonel was better.
Some researchers took over the handling of Sinan and the partition door rose. The doctor declared, “The child is weird.”
Lu Feng suggested, “I’ll come someone in to question him.”
“Thank you for the effort.”
At this time, the wind sound was once again heard in An Zhe’s ears. He looked around and found a similarly hidden round hole at the junction of the ceiling and the wall.
“Lu Feng.” An Zhe gently pulled at Lu Feng’s sleeve. “What is that?”
Lu Feng followed his gaze to the ceiling. “The vents.”
An Zhe blinked.
“You haven’t seen it before?” The doctor wondered. “The outer city doesn’t have it because it was built later.”
The doctor was always willing to explain things to people to An Zhe continued to ask, “What does it do?”
“Supply air.” The doctor’s answer was very simple and then he explained, “The magnetic field hadn’t completely disappeared when the main city was built and the industrial capacity of human beings was still at its peak. In order to build a base that can resist cosmic radiation and solar wind to the greatest extent, the walls of all buildings are four or five times thicker than ordinary buildings and the materials are special materials. It is totally enclosed and the ventilation system provides clean air.”
“The main city can survive and the ventilation system is at least first-class.” The doctor smiled. “Once the artificial magnetic poles were built, various variations began. Before the disperser was invented, the insects were everywhere. In the main city, a three-layered filtration and strangulation system was added to the ventilation system to ensure that no insects could contaminate the air supply.”
“So no matter what, as long as we control the city gates, the main city is absolutely safe.” He tapped out an email on the computer while talking to himself, “Why is there an infection? It doesn’t make sense at all. In addition, the other children in Eden are fine.”
Then his eyes shifted to Lu Feng. “I heard that a girl escaped from Eden yesterday.”
“I asked. The girl is fine.”
The doctor’s frown increased as he tapped out some information on the keyboard. Lu Feng looked at the computer screen. “Are you in contact with the Underground City Base?”
“Several things have happened recently and I’m a bit… scared.” The doctor took a deep breath before continuing, “I want to know to what extent the monsters on the North American side have evolved. However, the emergency channel between our two bases has always been a matter of fate and I can’t wait for the reply.”
Then he clicked send. An Zhe saw that he had sent the same file to another recipient with the note ‘Research Institute.’
“Okay,” The doctor turned off the interface and said, “I’m going to coordinate the instruments.”
Lu Feng told him, “I’ll go to the Garden of Eden first.”
The corridor of the Lighthouse was long and white, illuminated by a cold light. There was a tea room in the corridor and as they pushed open the door, two researchers in white were kissing in the tea room. After hearing the footsteps outside, one person holding the other turned and their figures disappeared into the depths of the tea room.
The scene seemed to arouse Lu Feng’s disgust and he frowned. “Where is their discipline?”
“There is no way,” The doctor stated. “The more we study, the more disappointed we become. The atmosphere of timely fun is now spreading from the top of the bottom of the Lighthouse. We can’t ask us for the discipline of the military. Sometimes I feel desperate myself.”
Lu Feng didn’t say anything. He just took An Zhe and the doctor forward in a different direction.
The following afternoon, An Zhe blindly followed Lu Feng because he didn’t know where he should go. He was only a temporary worker of the Garden of Eden and hadn’t received any orders or instructions. Nevertheless, Lu Feng didn’t seem unhappy about being followed by him. Even when the man checked the children of Eden one by one, he let An Zhe rest in the lobby.
Thus, An Zhe sat on a sofa in the lobby and read a book. On the wall opposite him, there was the blood-red slogan of ‘human interests above all else.’ At 4 o’clock in the afternoon, the doctor brought people to the Garden of Eden. He was a bit depressed as he set up the detection equipment in the lobby with a few of his men.
Seraing was sent by Lu Feng to cooperate with the doctor’s work. The young judge saw the instrument in the middle of the hall and frowned. “Only one?”
“Otherwise? The other one is staying at the main city’s entrance to receive the mercenaries returning back to the city.” The doctor explained.
“This means there were only two instruments in the entire base?” Seraing wondered.
“Baby, do you have any misunderstandings about our current industrial production capacity? For a high-precision instrument such as the tester, two is already the limit.”
“Sorry.”
“It’s okay. You go through it first and then we will use the instrument to screen it slowly.” The doctor explained.
Seraing stated, “The Trial Court didn’t have any special training for children.”
“I believe that the Judge’s eyesight will be able to determine the infected people.
Once he finished speaking, Lu Feng’s footsteps were heard.
“The investigation of the fifth, sixth and seventh floors are complete.” Lu Feng was speaking into his communicator. “No suspected infection has been found.”
An Zhe saw the doctor’s hand shake as he debugged the detection instrument.
Lu Feng walked over to him. “I will hand it to you.”
The doctor’s face was somehow pale. “Okay.”
Then he added, “There are many different samples in the Lighthouse and the Garden of Eden has been infected. I’m afraid that something will happen to the Lighthouse. Can I apply to the United Front Centre for the judgment of the Trial Court?”
Lu Feng wondered, “My level of authority?”
“You and I have the same authority,” the doctor replied.
“Okay.”
He went to the elevator’s entrance.
An Zhe silently greeted him. He saw the man look back at him. The look was saying, ‘Come here.’ An Zhe put down his book and obediently followed. This was when it happened.
“Lu Feng.” The doctor suddenly called out.
Lu Feng didn’t look back. “What is it?”
An Zhe turned back and saw the doctor was looking over here, his blue eyes blank and eyes slightly red.
“100 years ago, people only had a 30% chance of being infected. They wouldn’t change at all from minor scratches or stab wounds. However, the situation has been worsening over the years. In particular, the infection rate has increased dramatically this year. Even a wound the size of a needle’s eye can cause infection. I keep thinking if there will be a day when we do nothing yet our genes will mutate and we will become a heterogeneous species.”
Lu Feng didn’t move and didn’t speak. There was just a ding as the elevator arrived and the silver door smoothly opened.
The doctor’s voice trembled slightly, “There are no monsters or heterogeneous species in Eden. This child’s infection happened for no reason. We don’t know what caused the infection and how it spreads. The Lighthouse can’t catch this virus nor do we know how to defend against it. If this reaches us like an epidemic… then the most vulnerable child will be infected first because of their physical constitution.”
He gasped. “So what are we going to do?”
“Dr Ji,” Lu Feng’s voice was cold. “You are wavering.”
Then he put his right hand on An Zhe’s shoulder and led him into the elevator without turning back.
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