Little Mushroom

The aurora flickered sharply.

Crash.

The sound of glass breaking ripped through the silent night and An Zhe turned back to look at the laboratory. Polly also stared at the window over there. "Rum?"

Fog was attached to the window glass, making what happened inside a blur. Only the shadow of a man could be seen.

"Sir!" Rum's voice was rarely so excited. He slammed open the door with one hand, the shutters making a banging sound as they opened. His voice was clear but had a tremor. "The screen, the screen…"

Polly glanced inside the room. The big screen was still showing the messy patterns like before.

Yet Rum said, "Just now—"

An Zhe coughed a few times and said, "I'm fine."

After confirming he was still awake, Polly strode into the laboratory. An Zhe quietly swallowed blood and followed. His body was in a strange state, weakened to the extreme and painful to the extreme, yet it was because it reached this limit that it seemed empty.

In the laboratory, Rum had dropped a glass bottle filled with antibiotic granules. The shards of glass were scattered everywhere on the ground but no one had the mind to clean it up.

Polly came to the big screen where the lines still waved like a clump of wriggling worms. "What's wrong?"

Rum's lips twitched as he said, "It clearly… it was clear just now."

An Zhe couldn't describe Polly's expression at this moment. It was like too many intense emotions were mixed together, turning it blank. Polly's hand trembled slightly as he placed his right hand on the instrument's joystick. "Are you sure?"

Rum's eyes seemed hesitant or he might be trying to remember. Polly stared at him and three seconds passed before he answered, "I'm sure."

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Polly Joan watched the screen and An Zhe stood behind him. At the height of human science and technology, this experimental institution had been used to study the artificial magnetic poles. Many equipment might've been lost due to years of disrepair but it was still a qualified and functioning physics laboratory. In this breathless silence, he saw Polly using the joystick to pull the wave line back.

Polly asked, "At what time?"

"Just now."

He was silent for a moment as he weighed his words. "It just blinked."

Polly took a deep breath and turned the instrument's recorded time back three minutes ago. Then he played it frame by frame on the small screen.

The beating and wriggling black lines varied in depth. Some formed curves and some were scattered black dots like stars. They were tangled together like this, like fat. Every frame changed their shape but this change was irregular. After spending nearly half a month in the laboratory, An Zhe had long known that what the Simpson Cage captured was the frequency of basic particles interaction. Polly always described it as 'frequency.'

However, the complexity and chaos of this frequency were beyond the scope of humanity's existing science. Polly strove to find a way to receive and process them to make them clearer, just like a person heard a song and tried to write a score or when they constantly adjusted the frequency of the radio to receive a clear signal. It was just that this work had no progress for ages. Polly once said that facing the chaotic lines, he was like a mortal who wanted to hear the will of God, like an ant trying to interpret human language.

An Zhe watched the still-moving big screen and sometimes turned his worried eyes to Polly. He found that Rum was the same. In this protracted experiment, there had been too many failures. If Rum's 'clear' moment couldn't be reproduced then An Zhe would rather that Polly had never received the news.

One frame passed after another. The flames in the fireplace burned and from time to time, the firewood emitted a crackling sound that was especially thrilling in the silent laboratory.

A ghostly image jumped off the screen like a ghost.

An Zhe couldn't resist holding his breath.

On the grey-black background, all the lines suddenly disappeared and this was followed by countless dense, white dots, translucent, faint white dots hidden in the background. Human language couldn't be used to describe what type of shape they had and there seemed to be no regularity. They gathered in some places and spread out in some places. There were no white spots scattered in the centre of the figure but circled it like a crater. The grey and black irregular circle looked like an ominous and sinister eye. It was like—it was like humans in the age of civilization had taken a photo of an immensely magnificent nebula and then turned it into lifeless black and white.

"Yes, it is this one," Rum stated. "Is the machine broken?"

"No…" Polly slowly shook his head. Perhaps his mood was too excessively tight but his pupils were slightly dilated. "This is the unprocessed original picture. The previous lines were removed from the original picture."

An Zhe slowly thought about the meaning of this sentence while Rum tried to give Polly a preventative shot. He thought for a moment before repeating, "That… or the machine is broken."

"No." Polly shook his head and marked a dazzling red star at the time node where this image frame had appeared. He spoke much faster than usual and it was difficult for him to hide his excitement. "If the particle frequency changes suddenly, the analyzer can't get a result in a short time. It will show the original picture for a short time, proving we are right. Call Tang Lan over here."'

Some time later, Tang Lan pushed open the laboratory door, he was a dull black-blue colour. He was obviously a bit weak. "Sir, is there something you needed from me?"

Polly asked, "Were you asleep? I'm sorry to wake you up."

Tang Lan shook his head. "I woke up when Rum called."

"You didn't sleep well?"

"I just wanted to come to you." Tang Lan stated. "The fluctuation suddenly amplified and for a second, I felt a very sharp noise. Then I woke up.'

"How about now?"

"It's okay now."

Polly didn't speak for a long time until Tang Lan questioned, "Sir, what's the matter?"

"Our approach is correct. Once the fluctuation was amplified, it showed this anomaly in real time. This type of wave can be captured by the Simpson Cage in a method similar to the magnetic field." Polly looked solemn.

Tang Lan raised an eyebrow. "Isn't this good news?"

"No, I'm thinking of a question."

No one spoke in the laboratory and only Polly's voice was heard. His gaze moved away from the small screen with the frame capture and shifted to the big screen filled with complex lines. "We want to capture the frequency of the fluctuation and analyze the cause of the distortion. However, what if it is currently showing the artificial magnetic field of Earth struggling with the unknown fluctuation from the universe?"

"I see what you mean." Tang Lan looked up. "The magnetic field can resist the fluctuation but the Simpson Cage receives both of them at the same time. It is a mutual disturbance."

"Yes. I've been thinking. If the magnetic field can completely resist the fluctuation, why is there still genetic infection on Earth? It makes sense if the two of them are deadlocked. The fluctuation has always affected the planet but the magnetic field is also resisting, so that material hasn't been completely distorted. The frequencies of the two are tangled together."

"In that case…" Tang Lan frowned. "Sir, if you want to use the Simpson Cage to analyze the fluctuation then you have to either wait for the fluctuation to overcome the magnetic field or for the artificial magnetic field to no longer work."

"That's right," Polly spoke slowly.

"However, once the fluctuation prevails, material will be distorted and the Simpson Cage will be affected.

"No, there's a way."

Everyone looked at Polly and no one spoke. In the silent laboratory, they only listened as Polly continued, "The Highland Research Institute has its own movable independent magnetic pole that can generate a small magnetic field with a limited range. This is the research result of the past. It was how we can survive when the artificial magnetic poles failed a month ago."

"If the artificial magnetic field that envelopes the planet disappears… we can adjust the position of the independent magnetic poles so that it protects the core equipment of the Simpson Cage while at the same time, exposes the receiving area to the greatest extent." Polly's grey-blue eyes were narrowed slightly as he gazed down at the burning sea of fire.

"Then we can parse the pure frequency of the fluctuations."

"Yes, that's right…" Polly took a deep breath and the fire of hope that filled his eyes went out. "But—"

His words came to an abrupt end before they finished. The room suddenly became silent and no one spoke. Finally, Tang Lan said, "The fluctuation can only be seen… if the artificial magnetic field fails?"

He looked out at the night sky, his voice rough.

Polly sat down slowly in front of the computer, facing the communication channel of the base and he was slow to act. He murmured, "It is only in the face of death that you can see the truth."

Standing in the corner, An Zhe quietly watched as it all happened.

Polly's speculation was well founded. If there was only that strange fluctuation left in the world then the instrument might show its full picture.

In fact, this was possible. Polly was now facing the communication channel and he must be considering his wording. As long as either one of the Northern Base or Underground City Base promised to close the artificial magnetic pole, the truth would be revealed. But then what? What would happen to the two bases after losing the magnetic field? The disaster a month ago directly reduced the surviving population of the Northern Base to 8,000.

An Zhe couldn't imagine what type of struggle Polly was facing now. The benevolent scientist had left the base because he couldn't stand to see a few people sacrificed for the majority. However, the world seemed to be like this. It killed the living, killed the benevolent and made the truth seekers feel despair.

Facing the screen, Polly slowly closed his eyes.

Then Tang Lan interjected. "I'll do it."