There are some jokes in this world that you just don’t make.
As the outer city districts fell one after another, countless isolation walls were raised in succession.
Once their ventilation systems were disconnected, they would become the strongest barrier against the spread of the beast horde.
But the humans trapped behind those walls with the surging tide of beasts would be devoured in helplessness and despair, or become the next infected mutants.
Base biologists had once said that whether a human was devoured by a mutated beast or became infected and mutated, a genetic fusion occurred that human science, to this day, could not explain.
The mutated beasts born in this new ecosystem possessed an innate infectivity. Their genes were like a malignant virus, capable of destroying any orderly physiological structure and recombining it in a near-chaotic manner, evolving into a new species while retaining certain original characteristics.
In the past fifty-plus years, they had preyed on surface creatures and been preyed upon in turn.
Whether they ate or were eaten, they were constantly fusing and evolving, like a handful of clay in the hands of a “Creator God,” which could be molded into any shape and undergo a thousand transformations.
More than fifty years had passed since the great surface catastrophe, and most of the Old World’s creatures had long since been fused into all sorts of bizarre mutated beasts over the long years.
The human Base worked hard to collect mutated beast samples and repeatedly conducted live experiments related to them. They tried countless times to compile an illustrated encyclopedia of mutated beasts, only to find that humanity’s pace of research was far outstripped by the speed of the beasts’ mutual fusion and evolution.
Their changes were too unpredictable. Even an infection source spread by a single mutated beast, targeting only one type of host species, had a significant chance of mutating into multiple types of new beasts.
For this reason, some scholars pessimistically believed that if the genetic fusion and mutation truly followed no rules, then humanity would never be able to understand the mutated beasts, let alone defeat them.
The scholar who published this view was soon after sentenced to life in prison for sedition.
The Base always held firm to the belief that humanity had a bright future.
But at the same time, it was indeed helpless in the face of the ever-worsening surface ecology.
The outer city was now like a breeding ground for mutated ecology.
Given enough time, it could incubate more and more incomprehensible, indescribable, unknown horrors.
When that moment truly arrived, how long could the outer city’s isolation walls hold them back? And how long could the main city’s defenses hold them back?
If they were to stop the Base from activating the outer city’s self-destruct sequence for a sliver of hope they couldn’t see or touch, then every price the Base subsequently paid would be a debt they couldn’t bear even if they gave their lives.
“We can’t do this,” Chai Yuening said in a low voice, looking out the window and letting out a long sigh.
The human Base could not fall to the beast horde.
Human civilization should not be buried underground.
The Base’s decision was founded on the collective interests of humanity.
In the face of the continuation of human civilization, the lives of individuals were simply insignificant.
That night, the main city military provided the Thirteenth Mercenary Team with six well-appointed rooms. Chu Ci, however, seemed not to hear the military’s arrangements, silently following behind Chai Yuening as usual and naturally staying in her room.
The main city did not cut power at night like the outer city did.
Past eleven o’clock, the sound of running water from someone showering came from the bathroom.
In the living room, the white casing of the radio had already yellowed. Chai Yuening turned it on and sat absently on the sofa, lost in thought.
The Base’s outer city had already fallen, yet the main city’s broadcast still reported on a bright future.
With less than three days until the outer city’s self-destruction, the Base still hadn’t mentioned a word of it, only saying that to accelerate development in all aspects, the Base was recruiting practical talents from the outer city to the main city.
Practical talents…
Chai Yuening suddenly felt that the Base was like a giant machine, and humans were the tiny cogs that made it up. If you were useful to the Base, you ran day after day. If you were useless, you could be discarded at any time.
“We have now been granted access to the research center and will be interviewing Dr. Ge Heguang shortly to see what the doctor thinks about this recent mutated beast invasion.”
“Dr. Ge Heguang, we hear you’ve already conducted the first round of dissection and research on the batch of mutated samples brought back from the outer city by the military. Are there any results you can disclose to us at this time?”
“…”
“Doctor? Um… are this time’s mutated samples different from previous ones in any way?”
“Among the mutated beasts that appeared in the outer city, there is a type of spineless human-skin worm whose brain structure is very similar to that of humans. Their genetic similarity to humans is 82.63%. Before this, the highest genetic similarity between a mutated beast and a human was the Thornstone Newt, at 54.77%.”
“Does this mean that during the process of infection and mutation, humans have retained a larger portion of what belongs to them?”
“You don’t understand… The genetic similarity between humans is as high as 99.9%, and the similarity between humans and mice is 85%, but a human will never become a mouse, and a mouse will never become a human.” Ge Heguang’s voice carried a hint of bewilderment. “But mutated beasts are different. Fusing and evolving with other species is their innate ability. An increase in genetic similarity between humans and mutated beasts doesn’t mean human genes gain any advantage during the infection and mutation process. On the contrary, there’s a worse possibility: it means that human genes can be more easily assimilated by this new type of mutated beast.”
“This…”
Ge Heguang’s tone grew more agitated. “If we can’t stop this beast from continuing to evolve, in the near future, they could very well possess human intelligence, while humans will…”
Hiss—
With a burst of static, the doctor’s voice on the broadcast became unclear.
A dozen seconds later, the static faded, and the broadcast became clear again. The doctor’s words were no longer as agitated as before.
He said that there was nothing to worry about, that the Base already had a way to deal with it. Everyone should believe in the Base, believe in science, and believe that humanity’s future was bright.
The bathroom door was gently pulled open, and Chu Ci walked out, wrapped in a wide, long bath towel.
She looked at Chai Yuening, her eyes seeming to flicker with an inscrutable, strange emotion.
Chai Yuening reached out and turned off the radio, then looked back at her.
Chu Ci said faintly, “You could actually hand me over to the Base, to that doctor. Maybe he could get something from me, and then humans wouldn’t have to be afraid of the mutated beasts.”
Chai Yuening’s mouth opened, and she stared blankly for a good while before finally shaking her head.
Chai Yuening: “Once you go into that place, no one will treat you like a person anymore.”
Chu Ci: “Do you think I count as a person?”
Chai Yuening: “If you’re not a person, after being in such close contact with you for so long, don’t I qualify to lie on the dissection table with you?”
Chu Ci couldn’t help but let out a soft laugh.
Looking at those smiling eyes, Chai Yuening couldn’t help but lift the corners of her lips into a faint smile as well.
The bed in the temporary lodging wasn’t as big as the one in You Lan’s hotel, but it was enough for two people to lie down.
On their first night in the main city, they lay flat on their backs together, their arms lightly touching, feeling the warmth from each other.
Chu Ci asked Chai Yuening, “After tonight, what will you do?”
Chai Yuening thought for a moment and said, “Follow the military’s arrangements, I guess. Go to the outer city to search for samples, or escort personnel transferring to the main city. Anything is fine.”
Chu Ci: “Will you be sad?”
Chai Yuening: “Didn’t you say it wasn’t my fault?”
Chu Ci: “You will be sad, won’t you?”
Chai Yuening paused, then asked back, “Why do you say that?”
Chu Ci thought for a moment, then said softly, “I don’t really understand your emotions, but if I’m not mistaken, the emotion you’re feeling right now should be called—sadness.”
Chai Yuening: “Are you learning?”
Chu Ci: “Will you teach me?”
She asked softly, turning on her side amidst the creaking of the loose bed frame, gazing at the silhouette of the person beside her in the pitch-black darkness.
Chai Yuening was silent for a long time before she slowly spoke. “It’s not just sadness, there’s a bit of something else, too. Emotion isn’t a singular thing. It’s complex, and not absolute.”
Chu Ci: “Mm.”
Chai Yuening: “Like right now, I seem to be very sad, but I also seem to be quite happy.”
Chu Ci: “Isn’t that a conflict?”
Chai Yuening: “Hmm… how to put it. There’s an emotion called bittersweet, a mix of sorrow and joy. That’s what I am right now. On one hand, I feel sad because I’m not strong enough, powerless to change the situation. On the other hand, I’m grateful that I survived, that most of my companions survived, that no one blames me for being incompetent, and that I have a place to pour out all my self-blame, with someone trying to soothe it for me… I’m luckier than so many people.”
Chu Ci: “So, the lucky things make you stop caring about the unlucky ones?”
Chai Yuening: “You could say that, but it’s not that I don’t care. It’s just that caring is useless anyway, so I might as well think about something happy… When you’re alive, being happy is what’s most important.”
Chu Ci: “I think I understand a little.”
Chai Yuening wanted to say more, but just as she turned to face Chu Ci, she saw Chu Ci lie flat on her back and close her eyes.
She felt a bit awkward, but then realized there wasn’t much else to talk about anyway. So she pouted, lay flat on her back again, and closed her eyes, trying to summon sleep.
Chai Yuening thought that after tonight, she should probably ask the military for something to do.
The feeling of being completely unable to help was making the guilt in her heart grow heavier by the day.
But if she were to go help in the outer city, it would be best to go alone with a military convoy, without letting everyone know, especially Lu Qi.
The defenses in the outer city were down now, and it could be dangerous at any moment.
That Major General Xue Zhou, who had worried himself sick, had finally managed to get the kid back to the main city. If she took him out again, he’d probably cough up blood from anger.
As she thought about it, drowsiness crept over her.
She wasn’t sure if it was her imagination, but in a daze, she kept feeling something touching her.
It was cool and icy, wrapped right around her fingertips.
Author’s Notes:
This is very close contact.
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