"I've observed six cases of similar situations. Unlike your initial prediction, the monsters have not been each occupying their own territories and refusing to budge. They've been moving around in the Abyss, feeling each other out, and then separating." Tang Lan's tone became solemn and grim. "I suspect that the worst has happened, sir. They seem to be communicating, but I don't know what the content of those messages are. Whenever contact occurs between them, I can feel that the waves on their bodies become stronger."
He continued, "I suspect that they are feeling each other out and probing to see whether or not the other party has the genes they need."
"It's very possible," Pauli said. "As for the 'wave,' you're one of the ones with the most acute sense of it within the research institute."
"Lately, I've been more and more sensitive to it." Tang Lan's face was slightly pale. "It's everywhere in the air, and every monster's body has it as well. Sometimes I feel like even the rocks on the ground are vibrating. It's getting harder and harder for me to keep thinking. I wasn't supposed to come back so soon, but I felt the waves of my own body being integrated into them. Sir, my… my consciousness is a bit abnormal."
Pauli held his hand and said calmly, "Don't be afraid."
"A hundred years ago, in the age when biological gene sequences were the most stable, there were already some species that were particularly sensitive to changes in the magnetic field. You just happened to fuse with such a creature," he said.
"But it's not the magnetic field. I can feel it. The magnetic field is a different kind of wave." Tang Lan closed his eyes. Getting down on one knee, he rested his forehead against the back of Pauli's hand. His voice was hoarse as he asked, "Sir, have you already realized something? When I was talking, you weren't surprised at all."
He continued, "But you won't tell us because the truth is something we're unable to handle," he said. "But I truly…"
His voice became more broken and hoarse the more he spoke, and in the end he could not continue.
"Don't be afraid, don't be afraid… child," Pauli said in a voice that was like a gentle and vast ocean as he slowly clasped Tang Lan's shoulder with his right hand, "I will protect all of you up until my final moment."
Tang Lan lifted his head and looked straight at Pauli Jones. As though he were making a solemn oath, he said, "We will also protect you and the research institute up until the final moment."
"I've never made demands of any of you, but supposing the day comes when the research institute no longer exists," Pauli said slowly, "I beg you all to not join the torrent of xenogenics and monsters, but rather to go north and protect the human base."
Tang Lan said, "But the Arbiter will shoot all xenogenics. The base won't ever accept us."
Pauli looked at the boundless twilight outside.
"But even during our final moments, I'm still willing to believe to the greatest possible extent in humankind's kindness and leniency," he said.
The corners of Tang Lan's mouth twitched, and he looked up at Pauli Jones. "That's because you are of noble character and honest."
Pauli shook his head with a fond smile.
After Tang Lan left, the Simpson cage's power reserves also reached a critical value. The wide platform at the bottom of the white building shone with a harsh scarlet light and radiated waves of heat. If it was not clear that this was a high-energy field produced by machines and used to capture the vibration frequencies and interaction trajectories of elementary particles, An Zhe would have thought that it was a raging sea of fire downstairs.
The large screen in the laboratory was the Simpson cage's terminal and console, but due to defects in its design, sometimes it was necessary to go downstairs and manually adjust the levers of certain precision instruments in order to adjust its parameters.
On the big screen, the lines were still a confused mess, but they were by no means unchanging. Every time Pauli adjusted the parameters, the tangled lines would change from one kind of mess to another kind of mess.
But in the end, it was still all a mess.
Just as before, Pauli repeatedly analyzed the lines, calculated the functions, adjusted the parameters, and changed the receiving frequency. Just like that, the shifting lines danced on the screen.
Music interrupted An Zhe's thoughts. In the corridor, the old-fashioned tape recorder was playing the tempestuous Symphony No. 5. Rum stood by the window, a book of sheet music propped up in front of him. He played the harmonica while facing the score, imitating the symphony's melody. After some time, he stopped.
"Do you understand music?" he asked.
An Zhe shook his head.
Rum pointed to the tape recorder. "After listening to one piece, are you able to know how to play it?"
An Zhe shook his head a little more quickly. For such a complex symphony, it was all he could do to appreciate one-ten-thousandth of its rises and falls, much less reproduce it.
"You have to have a score," Rum murmured as he turned over a page of the sheet music.
But at the word "score," his gaze was directed at the screen in the middle of the laboratory.
As though a formless string had been gently plucked, his chaotic and complex thoughts instantly became clear. All of a sudden, An Zhe's eyes widened slightly.
"The wave is a symphony," he said. "Mr. Pauli wants to work out its score. Then… then it will be possible to do many things."
Rum looked at him with his deep, dark gaze. "You're smarter than me."