An Zhe looked at the screen as well. Was it possible to obtain the secrets of the distortion calamity by analyzing these lines? His eyes had a perplexed look to them.
Or perhaps this endless chaos was the truth in another sense of the word.
A heavy silence enveloped the laboratory. An Zhe bowed his head. The fate of humankind was as vague as that wad of lines. Perhaps all of this had nothing to do with mushrooms, but sometimes he would also feel that breathing was difficult.
It was difficult to explain the reason, but as he faced the communication channel linked to the Northern Base, he placed his fingers on the keyboard.
The movements of his fingers were no longer dexterous, just like how his hyphae could no longer extend. When he tapped the keys, his fingertips trembled uncontrollably.
Without fiber optics or base stations, the cost of communicating was very high. As though he were using humankind's undersea telegraph communications from centuries ago, he had to be sparing with his words.
He sent it.
"How's the situation at the base?"
Like an absurd coincidence, the communication channel lit up at almost the same time. A similar message had come from the Northern Base.
"What's the status of the research institute?"
The Northern Base could sacrifice everything for the purity of human genes. They despised monsters, and the Trial Court showed it absolutely did not tolerate xenogenics. It seemed that only the kind scientist Dr. Ji tolerated the Fusion Faction's existence and cared about the status of things at the research institute.
An Zhe replied, "Everything is fine."
Pretending that all was well seemed to be a skill unique to humankind, and he had learned it.
A few seconds later, the other party replied, "Likewise with the base."
Facing the communication interface, An Zhe was deep in thought for a long time before he slowly typed, "Is the Arbiter doing well?"
After some contemplation, he pressed the backspace key and made a few revisions.
Right as he was revising his message, one came in from the Northern Base.
"Has the research institute discovered any new types of xenogenics recently?"
An Zhe thought for a moment, then replied, "Not yet."
After replying, he sent the revised sentence.
"Is the Trial Court doing well?"
The other party replied, "The Trial Court is operating as normal."
An Zhe relaxed.
"Wishing you all the best." He politely sent a closing remark. "Goodnight."
The other party's reply was also only one word.
"Goodnight."
While looking at that word, An Zhe lifted his fingers from the keyboard and took out the silver badge. His body's decline was speeding up, and it had already reached its final moments. With stiff finger joints, he tried hard to hold the badge in his hand.
The sound of movement came from the stairs, for Pauli had come up. Rather than returning to the room, though, he silently stood by the corridor railing, his back toward An Zhe.
An Zhe got up and walked over to Pauli. The music stopped. Downstairs, the Simpson cage was burning fiercely, and the night washed over them. From the dark remote skies came a long howl.
Pauli asked, "You aren't going to stay inside?"
An Zhe shook his head, thinking of Tang Lan's earlier words.
"Sir," he asked, "have you already realized something?"
Pauli looked at him.
"Sometimes I feel like your capacity for acceptance is higher than that of all other people," Pauli said. "You're very special. You seem to be more fragile than anyone else, yet you also seem to be afraid of nothing."
An Zhe slowly lowered his gaze.
"Mm," he said.
"But I haven't gotten the final answer yet." Pauli reached out and buttoned the first line of buttons on An Zhe's coat. "Would you like to hear me tell a very simple story?"
An Zhe said, "I would."
"It was a very long time ago, a scientist's imaginings." In the cold wind, Pauli's voice was warm.
"Supposing that you traveled through time today and arrived at a year from now. There, you traveled through time again and returned to one year ago, arriving here," Pauli said. "Then right in front of me would be two identical versions of you."
An Zhe thought for a while, then said, "Mm."
"You know that matter consists of units known as atoms, and inside atoms are electrons. In this world, no two leaves are alike, but all atoms are identical. In that case, how can you tell that two electrons are two different ones?"
After thinking some more, An Zhe said, "They're in different spots."
"But space is not necessarily a metric of location, nor is time. These two things hold meaning only for four-dimensional humans. In higher dimensions, time and space are likewise just the horizontal and vertical axes on a sheet of white paper, just like this." Pauli took out a piece of chalk from his pocket and drew a dot on the railing in front of them. "An electron moves freely through time and space. The left side is backward, the right side is forward. Now it passes through time, traveling forward by one second."
As he spoke, he used the chalk to draw a line on the right that slanted downward and add another dot. "After passing through time, it is here."
"Then it passes through time again, going one second backward, and stops here." The chalk drew a line to the left and downward, then added another dot.
Now there were three dots and two lines on the railing. They formed an acute angle that opened leftward, and the two dots on the left lay on a vertical line. Pauli drew the vertical line. "Our time is right here, at this second. At this time, what do we observe?"
An Zhe thought for a very long time.