Little Mushroom

Maybe three seconds, maybe four seconds later, Lu Feng's fingers left his face and the temperature was fleeting in the evening wind, quickly dissipating.

An Zhe opened his eyes again and saw this person's back leaving, just like at the gate of the base that day.

At this moment, white lights suddenly lit up the square. An Zhe squinted. Lu Feng's figure in his vision blurred and once his vision cleared again, the black figure was lost in the vast sea of people. Soldiers from the city's defense station came forward and took away Du Sai's body. Her long brown hair flowed like honey under her light. Her eyes were closed and her expression very serene. It was unknown what she was thinking at the last moment. An Zhe didn't know and perhaps even she didn't know.

Many people were looking to this side. Once the city's soldiers went away, they started to whisper. An Zhe's hearing was good and he captured a few words. Many people knew the hostess of the third underground floor of the black market. Some of them lamented the departure of a beautiful woman while some of them were afraid they were infected by the monster.

Soon, the guidance of the mechanical female voice rang out. "Please stay where you are. After 30 minutes, the Trial Court will begin to examine each one of you."

The voice was soft but no one appreciated. People glanced at each other briefly and then seemed to realize that at this time, no one knew if the person around them was a real human or not. The crowd squirmed like an ant colony as everyone tried to separate from the people around them, whether they knew the person or not. Eventually, the chaotic crowd became a sparse square. An Zhe stood at the edge, beside the blood stains left by Du Sai. His eyes were gazing at the trembling expressions of the humans around him. The human base was fundamentally no different from the Abyss.

A shrill voice was suddenly heard in the distance. "There's something on his face!"

Then came the sound of action, as if someone had hit out. After that, there was a loud argument and 30 seconds later, a gunshot ended it all.

There was dead silence. The silent atmosphere enveloped the square and even the sound of breathing was quiet. If someone told An Zhe that his current location was actually a cemetery and the people around him were actually tombstones then he wouldn't doubt the truth of this sentence.

He glanced around, wondering where Lu Feng was. However, there were too many people and he couldn't find Lu Feng. At last, An Zhe retracted his gaze and looked at the marble floor of the square which was illuminated by the white light.

Suddenly, his gaze stopped. Five metres in front of him, at the foot of a man, was a small flash of brass. His first reaction was that the bullet casing around his neck had fallen off. He quickly touched his neck and found something cylindrical across the layer of shirt. It wasn't lost.

He stared at the ground and took a few steps forward. The man next to him scolded An Zhe and distanced himself.

"I'm sorry, I dropped something," An Zhe explained.

After walking past a few people, he arrived there. He crouched down and picked up the brass-coloured, cylindrical bullet casing from the ground. The moment he got it, his hand trembled slightly. It was his. The weight, pattern and size were all very familiar. He couldn't tell the difference between the one he was holding and the one around his neck. His heart beat hard a few times. He gripped it and got up.

He thought about how five minutes ago, Du Sai touched the blister on her head that was caused by the parasitic worm. She realized that she couldn't survive and would be executed by the Judge. Yet while afraid, she seemed to want to be closer to the Judge, taking a few steps in that direction. Before she could reach Lu Feng, the bullet penetrated her body.

Where was Lu Feng at that time? An Zhe looked at the dark blood on the ground not far away. At that time, Lu Feng had been standing where An Zhe stood, or not far away, and fired.

What was a bullet casing? It was the coat of the bullet, he knew. An Ze had similar knowledge in his memories. Once the bullet left the barrel and shot out, the casing would be ejected backward and land on the ground.

There was no doubt that the casing he picked up now belonged to Lu Feng, the master of the Trial Court. What about the exact bullet casing An Zhe picked up in the wilderness where his spore was taken? Did it have something to do with the Trial Court?

An unspeakable feeling rushed into An Zhe's heart. He felt a type of fear that couldn't be accurately described. If the spore was related to the Trial Court, he could imagine the difficulty of recovering it. He couldn't directly ask. Asking about the spore was no different from admitting that he was a mushroom.

In the midst of such thoughts, the 30 minutes were over. The mechanical voice was heard again. "The buffer time is over. Please queue in an orderly manner to receive the infection screening. After passing the screening, please leave by yourself."

The instructions played out repeatedly and a large light shone on the opposite side of the square. People started to move in that direction for screening. Standing next to An Zhe appeared to be a father and son. One of them was older with a beard while the other was a 13 year old underage boy.

He heard the boy ask, "Why wait 30 minutes?"

"The judges aren't machines. They can't see that you have been infected after just being bitten by a bug." The father whispered. "You haven't been to the gate which also has 30 minutes of queuing time."

"Oh."

Then he wondered, "How will it appear?"

"Don't ask me," his father replied. "I don't know how they see it."

"I heard they just want to kill—"

"Shut up." The father's voice was filled with a hint of fear. "Do you want to be shot?"

As if to verify the father's words, a gunshot rang out at the end of the square. They immediately fell silent.

The judges were quick to check the crowd and an interval between gunshots occurred. For a period of time, it was very uniform. Every 10 minutes, there was at least one gunshot, sometimes several consecutive ones. After these consecutive ones, the judges no longer shot for a long time. The father beside An Zhe said, "it's almost over."

The moment he spoke, there was the sound of gunfire again and the boy trembled.

Humans who were judged to be infected were killed on the spot while people judged to be safe left through openings. There were fewer and fewer people in the square. People spontaneously gathered into loose teams and slowly moved forward. Every time a shot rang out, An Zhe counted. By the time he was approaching the exit, the number had reached 73. He saw the stone pillar at the exit and saw Lu Feng leaning against it, a slender silhouette under the light. Two judges were by his side and further to the side, there were soldiers of the city defense station with bloodstains on the ground in front of them.

No, there was more than blood. There were brass-coloured bullet casings scattered on the ground.

The father and son soon passed through the safe passage. An Zhe was next. He took a few steps forward and stopped in front of Lu Feng. Lu Feng was taller than him. An Zhe had to look up to gaze into Lu Feng's eyes. Then he felt Lu Feng's eyes scanning him from top to bottom. "What's in your hand?"

An Zhe hadn't expected that even such a small thing in his hand would be found. In front of the Judge's cold eyes, he could only raise his hand and open his five fingers to reveal the casing lying in his palm. It was like those scattered casings on the ground, representing a human who was executed by the Judge.

Silence spread among them.

After a long time, An Zhe heard Lu Feng's voice. "Go."

The wind was too strong in the middle of the night and the sound was also blown away. Lu Feng's voice transmitted to his ears was lower than usual. An Zhe silently turned and walked into the deep, dark night.