The cave was dark and damp, with only weak fluorescence from the plants providing illumination.
Tangled vines clung to the cliff face. Deep green, purple, and inky black, they resembled snakes tied into large knots.
A black insect with six stiff wings and three proboscises barged into the cave, its flight path erratic.
In the next second, a massive dark purple bulge suddenly appeared amidst the tangled vines and swiftly split open, mouth-like, before snapping shut around the flying insect.
The vines gradually began to wriggle, and the part that had bulged out retreated bit by bit until it returned to its original state.
Within the cave was a sound like that of flapping wings. A drop of mucus, translucent strands trailing in its wake, fell from the ceiling and plopped onto the sticky moss below. The moss began to subtly squirm, and the drop of sparkling mucus vanished into the ground as it was rapidly absorbed.
In a corner lit up by the fluorescence of green fungi, a tide of white poured forth from the crevices in the rocks and soil, blanketing a large area. It was a snow-white mycelium. It grew, spread out, and extended hundreds of millions of tendrils, then crept towards the center of the cave, gathered together, merged, and elongated to form a figure. A single foot stepped upon the thick and delicately soft moss and sank down into it, leaving only a snow-white ankle visible.
An Zhe looked at his ankle. Though his human body was sustained by a skeleton, muscles, blood vessels, and had mobile joints, it was not flexible due to the human skeleton's limitations.
Layers of keratin formed round and translucent fingernails; these were vestigial remnants originating from the sharp claws of beasts.
He lifted a leg and took a step forward. The damp, springy moss pressed down by his foot gathered together again after he left, looking like earthworms standing erect.
This time, he stepped on something different—a skeletal human arm.
In the darkness, An Zhe looked at the skeleton.
Fungi and vines had already taken root in the depths of its bones. Deep green vines wound around the hip and leg bones, while colorful small mushrooms resembling flowers in bloom grew upon the ribs.
Fluorescent mushrooms emerged from its empty eye sockets and sparse teeth. The green glow they gave off was like fine shifting sand, very blurry in the misty cave.
An Zhe looked at it for a long time. At last, he bent down and picked up a backpack made of animal skin that had been laying next to the skeleton. The contents of the backpack were unaffected by moisture. There were a few articles of clothing, human food and water, and a blue electronic chip half the size of a human palm that was engraved with a string of numbers: 3261170514.
Three days ago, this skeleton was still a live human.
"3261170514," the young human rasped brokenly as the weak green fluorescence illuminated the contours of his face. "My ID number. This is my ID card, and only by having it can I go back to the human base."
An Zhe asked, "Can I help you go back there?"
The human smiled, and the fingers of his right hand dropped to rest at his side. The chip tumbled from his hand and disappeared in the uneven moss. As he leaned back against the crags, he lifted his head and pressed his left hand to his chest, where a huge wound had opened up. Pale splinters of bone pierced through his chest, exiting from his back, and the surrounding skin had already festered. Part of it was pale gray, with cottony flesh covering the surface of the bone splinters, while the rest exhibited a blackish green hue and released a continuous drip of dark liquid in time with the rhythm of his breathing.
After taking a few breaths, he said softly, "I can't go back anymore, little mushroom."
His shirt was dyed through, his skin looked pallid, his lips were chapped, and his body trembled at irregular intervals.
An Zhe looked at him, unsure what to say. In the end, he only murmured this young human's name. "An Ze?"
"You've just about learned the human language now." The human looked down at his own body.
Apart from pus and blood, he was also covered with snow-white hyphae, which were part of An Zhe's body. The hyphae meandered along, adhering securely to the wounds on An Ze's limbs and torso. The mushroom's original intent was to stanch the dying human's bleeding, but the hyphae also instinctively absorbed and digested the fresh blood that flowed out at the same time.
"You learned so many things just by eating my genes, huh? The pollution index here is indeed very high," the human said.
Fragmented scraps of knowledge unfolded within An Zhe's mind. After a five-second-long conversion, he understood that the pollution index referred to the speed at which genes transformed. Now, human genes were flowing into his body along with An Ze's blood.
"Perhaps... once I'm dead and you've completely eaten my body... you'll obtain a lot more things." An Ze looked at the cave ceiling, a smile tugging at the corner of his lips. "Then it seems that I will have done something meaningful as well, although I don't know if it will be good or bad for you."
Without saying anything, An Zhe moved his entire body towards An Ze. He hugged An Ze's shoulders with his newly-grown human arm, and many hyphae flowed forth and piled up next to An Ze to support his sagging body.
The only sounds in the quiet cavern came from the dying human's gasping breaths.
After a long time passed, An Ze finally spoke up again. "I'm someone whose life had no meaning.
"... I don't have any outstanding qualities whatsoever, so it's very normal that they abandoned me. In truth, I'm very happy to not go back to the human base. Just like the wilderness, they're both... places where only people with value can live on. I've wanted to die for a long time already. I just didn't think I'd encounter a gentle creature like you before I died, little mushroom."
An Zhe didn't really understand the meaning of those words such as 'value' or 'die'. He only caught that phrase once more: human base.
As he leaned against An Ze's shoulder, he said, "I wish to go to the human base."
"Why?" An Ze asked.
An Zhe lifted his left arm slightly and made a gesture with his fingers, seeming as though he wanted to grab a bit of the air, but he grabbed nothing at all.
It was just like his body.
His body was empty.
A massive void had formed in the innermost depths of his body, impossible to fill and impossible to heal, and in its wake was an infinite hollowness and panic that clung to him day in and day out.
Sorting out the words of the human language, he slowly said, "I lost... my spore."
"Spore?"
"My... seed." He didn't know how to explain.
Every mushroom would have spores in its lifetime. Some would have countless spores while others would have just one. A spore was a mushroom's seed. It would grow out of the lamella, be dispersed by the wind to any random place within the jungle, take root wherever it landed, and turn into a new mushroom. Then this mushroom would also grow up little by little and have its own spores. Raising its spores to maturity was a mushroom's sole lifelong mission, but he had lost his only spore when it was far from maturing.
An Ze slowly turned his head, and An Zhe could hear his bones click like an old piece of human machinery when he did so.
"Don't go there." The human's raspy words sped up. "You'll die."
An Zhe recited that word once again. "... Die?"
"Only humans can enter the human base. You won't be able to escape the Judges’ eyes." An Ze coughed a few times, then drew a labored breath. "Don't go... little mushroom."
Confused, An Zhe said, "I..."
The human abruptly grabbed An Zhe's hyphae with great force, and his harsh breathing became more hurried.
"Listen to me." After violently trembling and gasping for breath, An Ze slowly closed his eyes. In a very soft voice, he said, "You don’t have any attack power or means of defending yourself. You're just... a tiny little mushroom."