Little Mushroom

On top of the street telephone pole, the radio installed looped a mechanical female voice.

"At present, District 6 has sufficient supplies and normal supply of water and electricity. The garrison has achieved a full range and comprehensive protection for the ultrasonic disperser."

"This is a message from the weather station. The sky is cloudy and there is a probability of heavy rainfall. All residents, please close your doors and windows and reduce your travel."

"The city affairs office's personnel screening for the main city has begun. Residents who meet the requirements should go to the city affairs office as soon as possible. Repeating that residents who meet the requirements…"

There was the only sound apart from An Zhe's footsteps on the entire street. After the incident at the base, the city gates were closed and no one was allowed in and out. Various areas were paralyzed and the atmosphere in District 6 was similarly tense. The road to the city affairs office was empty everywhere. Only the leaflets opposing the Judges' Act were scattered on the ground. After walking a while, An Zhe noticed that occasionally armoured vehicles from the military would pass by at an extremely fast speed, all heading toward the gate.

The base was divided into eight districts. The dispersal centre, the city's defense station and the Trial Court jointly ensured the safety of the city. The city affairs office and the supply station managed the city's affairs. The Trial Court was located by the city gates, the city defense station's headquarters were in District 5 and the dispersal centre was in District 1. The headquarters of the city affairs office was built in District 6. Fortunately, the city affairs office didn't have any casualties and maintained normal operations. They could even recruit people.

The city affairs office was located in the centre of District 6, behind the train station and next to the alarm tower. The main building had seven floors with a large service hall in the centre. At this moment, the sky was completely overcast. It was obviously noon but the atmosphere was so dim it seemed like 5 or 6 in the evening. The dark clouds seemed to pour on the buildings of the city affairs office.

It wasn't until An Zhe entered the hall that he finally felt the breath of living people. There were 500~600 people here, divided into two long lines and all with young faces.

The recruitment requirements were repeated on the radio and An Zhe heard them. They must be between 18~25 years old, have no illness, no disability, no criminal record and no record of inappropriate speech. An Zhe thought about it for a moment. He might've been in jail but he had just been convicted by Lu Feng and perhaps there had been no time to enter it into the system.

Once the basic requirements were met, there were additional requirements: applicants for civilian employment must have completed at least level three of basic education and non-civilians must've received rewards over 5,000 base currency as mercenaries.

These two requirements alone could screen out most of the young people in the base. For example, Josie as a teenager chose not to study the basic courses of the base but trained with a mercenary group. However, his achievements as a mercenary weren't outstanding and the meritorious service hadn't reached over 5,000.

An Zhe walked to the end of the civilian line. Perhaps he had come late or the weather was too bad, because no one else came in behind him.

The man originally at the end of the civilian line heard An Zhe's footsteps and looked back. Their eyes met. An Zhe felt a bit of awkwardness in the air. The next moment, An Zhe shifted his gaze to the wall next to him and the young man quickly turned back to the front.

They could be regarded as acquaintances. This was the boy who first pulled An Zhe into the protest line and called him a 'comrade-in-arms.' Just yesterday at the city gate, he was among those who protested the Judge and he had greeted An Zhe. However, An Zhe was wearing the Judge's clothes and left with the Judge.

He didn't want to talk to An Zhe and An Zhe didn't want to talk to him. They lined up in silence like this. The interviewer was a man with thin silver-rimmed glasses and delicate facial features. Strangely enough, the line was shortened very quickly. Everyone was simply asked a few questions before being led to a passage behind the hall. Occasionally, a few people were asked to leave but the number was very small.

In an hour and a half, the line only had a few people left. Then it was the turn of the boy in front of An Zhe.

The interviewer made a pause gesture and picked up the communicator.

"Can you please trouble Colonel Lu to come as quickly as possible, in at least five minutes." An Zhe heard him say. "We are making an exception to send these people to the main city. The security of the main city is the most important thing and no mistakes can be made. The Judge must be present."

"Main city?" The boy in front of An Zhe was surprised. "We are going to the main city? It isn't the city affairs office?"

"The situation is something we don't want to see. The dramatic changes in the weather can't be predicted and recovery of the dispersal centre isn't something that can be accomplished in a short period of time. In order to ensure the safety of the main city, the judges must evacuate with us. Human interests above everything else. Please remember this sentence."

He put down the communicator as he said this and glanced at the boy in front of him. The boy put the ID card on the sensor and a message jumped out on the screen.

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Name: Colin

Age: 21

ID：3260070412

There was another screen in front of the interviewer and it should contain more detailed information.

Colin said, "I completed basic courses in mathematics, physics and biology."

The interviewer nodded and returned the ID card. "Go to the right."

It was An Zhe's turn next. After swiping the card, he replied according to An Ze's previous experience, "I completed a course in literature, language and economics."

"It is a good result," the interviewer said.

Just then, the sound of heavy rain was suddenly heard from outside. The interviewer stuffed the card back into An Zhe's hand and spoke very quickly. "Go!"

An Zhe quickly followed Colin into the passage on the right. Behind the passage was a glass corridor bridge that was currently being hit by huge and dense raindrops. The outside situation couldn't be seen at all. They hurried forward and saw that the corridor bridge was connected to the platform of the train station. There was a black-clad ground traffic commander next to the platform.

"My dad doesn't know yet!" Colin asked, "Are we going to the main city now?"

The commander grabbed his arm and shoved him into a carriage. "Don't talk nonsense!"

An Zhe was also crammed in. The train was full while Colin frantically dialled a number on his communicator but failed to get through. They went all the way down to the last carriage, which was empty.

An Zhe sat down in a corner, the rear window of the train behind him. The rear scene was clearly visible and the tracks were submerged in the rain and fog. Colin sat the furthest distance away from An Zhe and kept calling on his communicator, muttering to himself, "No, there is something wrong. I have to go back—"

He almost jumped out of his seat when he heard the sound of all the train doors closing at the same time. Colin hammered on the door a few times but it didn't move at all. Instead, it attracted the train staff.

"Sit down!" The conductor was a strong minute. "You will be able to go to the main city in a minute. What's the problem?"

"My dad doesn't know yet!" Colin called out. "I can't just go. Are you hiding something from us?"

The conductor was silent for three seconds before saying, "Your dad will be happy for you."

Colin gasped in his seat. "No, no…"

He repeated 'no' for a long time but didn't say anything else. He just continued to use his communicator.

An Zhe waited quietly in the corner. Five minutes later, there was the sound of a door opening and a few voices. Around 10 minutes later, the entire carriage suddenly became quiet.

"The Judge is here to check." Someone whispered in front of him.

There was the sound of footsteps. There were two people and the distinctive sound of military boots that was easy to recognize. An Zhe looked up as the footsteps got closer. He looked right into Lu Feng's eyes.

"My god." The young judge behind Lu Feng saw him and said, "We thought you weren't here."

"I… am." An Zhe looked into Lu Feng's eyes, a faint uneasiness in his heart as he asked, "What happened?"

It was the first time he had seen this in Lu Feng's expression, even though Lu Feng's appearance didn't look any different from the past. It wasn't cold. It was very…profound.

Lu Feng told him, "It's fine."

A voice came from his communicator. "How's it going?"

Lu Feng replied, "Confirmed the safety."

"Received."

An Zhe's uneasiness magnified as he looked up at Lu Feng. Lu Feng also watched him but remained silent.

Just then, Colin suddenly quivered and spoke hoarsely, "I know… I know…"

He turned to look at the train conductor. "The disperser is still ineffective, isn't it?"

"I have studied physics. Ultrasound. Ultrasonic waves are sound waves. Sound waves are transmitted through a medium. Now that the rain is heavy, the air temperature density and pressure have changed. This means the medium has changed. We need to adjust the frequency parameters again but—" Colin pulled the conductor's arm, eyes red and trembling. "However, the dispersal centre is gone and there is no way to adjust it. Isn't this right? The original frequency has failed in the heavy rain, right?"

His trembling words had just finished when a scream suddenly came from the front carriage.

Bang! The glass next to An Zhe was also hit by something.

A black flying insect was mixed in with the raindrops and slammed onto the glass of the train. An Zhe stared out the window. The six red eyes of the flying insect stared at him. It was as big as a human head. The insect stared at him before it fly up in the rain and hit another window.

The ping-pong impact sounds were heard continuously outside the entire train. After a sharp whistle, An Zhe saw outside the window, the ground commander in a fluorescent uniform making a 'forward' gesture.

There was a shaking sound before the train slowly started moving forward.

Colin yelled and kept pressing something on his communicator.

Meanwhile, the ground commander was swarmed by countless large and small insects. The insects had become a fuzzy shadow due to the rain curtain. Just five or six seconds after the ground commander's body was surrounded by these shadows, he fell toward the ground, blood splashing. The speed of the train increased and after a bend, his figure completely disappeared.

An Zhe watched it all with wide eyes. He stood up and stared out the window behind him.

Shadows.

Overwhelming black shadows that were round, long, and irregular. Huge worms meandered on the ground while insects with huge sickles moved quickly and jumped. When did they come? Perhaps the second the heavy rain started.

The roof rattled and a few cracks appeared in the outer glass of the window, but the inner glass was still intact.

The train sped up, moving forward while An Zhe watched the entire city.

It wasn't rain in the sky. This stuff, a mixture of red and green raindrops was the blood of monsters and humans, monster limbs and human limbs. The window cut off parts of the sound but he still heard screams and the sound of retching in the carriage. After the heavy rain started, he had stayed in the carriage for 10 minutes. He didn't know what type of slaughter was going on outside but he could imagine it.

How many people were alive and how many would die? He couldn't imagine not seeing the whole city.

"The base prepared for the worst yesterday," the young judge whispered. "The transfer of young and effective personnel was a means of emergency but we didn't expect the accident to come to quickly."

His voice was a bit hoarse. "I'm sorry. If we were given a few more days then the army might've taken back the dispersal centre but…"

However. there was no time. No one could predict what happened next. An Zhe wanted to say that it was like the Abyss. No one knew what would happen the next second. He placed a hand on the carriage's glass, blood-stained and mixed with some tissue. He stared outside, short of breath.

In this way, the train quickly left District 6. The blood gradually lightened and the water washed the windows, turning them back to transparent.

In the Abyss, he had seen countless monsters bit, struggle, become wounded and die. However, he had never seen anything like this—a one-sided massacre, an instant fall.

The man in front of him trembled intermittently. "Just… in this way, it is just… gone?"

It was gone. All it took was rain.

An Zhe saw a flock of black birds flying in the upper edge of his vision towards District 6. It took a few seconds before he noticed that the wings of the birds were flat and moving straight forward. They weren't birds but the human jet fighters. They came from the direction of the main city and arrived at District 6 in less than a minute, hovering directly above the alarm tower in District 6.

He thought it might be aid from the main city for the outer city. Thus, he asked, "Do you want to save people?"

"Human genes can't be acquired by monsters," he heard Lu Feng say.

Lu Feng's voice was smooth with a trace of coldness. There were several footsteps as Lu Feng also came to the rear window and stood behind An Zhe. An Zhe could feel his breath. At this close distance, An Zhe just needed to step back a bit and his shoulder would touch Lu Feng's chest.

He heard Lu Feng speak into the transmitter, "Get ready."

Yes, human genes couldn't be obtained by monsters. Every time one person died, there would be one more heterogeneous species with high intelligence in the world. Therefore, whether it was in the wild or at the base, once an infection occurred then the person must be killed immediately, their body destroyed in the incinerator. Therefore, the main city must send troops to save as many people from the outer city as possible, to avoid more people being infected by the insects—An Zhe thought so.

He hummed. "En."

Poet and Boss Shaw were inside. He hoped they could be rescued.

Suddenly, there was the sound of cloth rubbing and Lu Feng extended his hand. An Zhe didn't know what he was going to do and just watched the scene in front of him. The train drove out from the building area and entered the huge buffer zone between the outer city and the main city. The buildings of Districts 6, 7 and 8 were getting further and further away in his field of view, becoming a grey jungle in the rain and fog.

A dazzling white light suddenly lit up from there!

An Zhe instinctively squinted but the strong light still came from his eyelids. His eyes were scarlet and bright before suddenly returning to darkness. Lu Feng's hands had completely covered his eyes.

In the silence and darkness, An Zhe's senses were infinitely enlarged. Three seconds later, the train's floor and the entire ground shook slightly. The silver-white train drove forward along the established track. The moment the last carriage left the outer city area, a huge mushroom cloud rose from District 6.

The author has something to say:

The first volume, Judgment Day is over.

The second volume is called Rose.