Pauli told Tang Lan to create an opening, and a monster that had a star-shaped arrangement of tentacles yet could still fly dove straight down toward it. But the raging blaze of the Simpson cage blocked the entrance to the white building. If the monster wished to charge at the white building, it had to pass straight through it.
Without any hesitation, it chose an angle that was minimally affected by the sea of flames and glided down.
Several clear curves suddenly appeared on the screen again.
They intertwined, appearing as distinct as the long ripples in a swimming duck's wake.
Pauli stared at those curves.
When the monster's body completely disappeared, the curves disappeared as well, once again changing into irregular snow-white visual noise.
"There had been other times when monsters or xenogenics were incinerated by the Simpson cage, but the curves back then were very disordered. It seems that that was also because of the magnetic field's influence," he said. "Therefore, these curves represent the monster's innate frequency. If different monsters enter—"
Before he finished speaking, there was a dull sound. The person on the ground who had sniped the monster shot a smaller monster, and it also fell into the Simpson cage's boundaries.
A similar burst of glittering dust scattered into the air, and several lines distinctly different from the previous creature's but still clearly visible appeared on the big screen.
Pauli's breathing quickened.
"In this world formed of elementary particles, every creature has its own frequency, and every substance—every element also has its own frequency," he said. "They are independent of each other in stable waves, and they infect each other in disordered waves."
As he looked at the dancing curves and calculated parameters on the screen, the expression on his face could have been described as manic. "The frequencies captured by the Simpson cage can be reproduced with the magnetic field generator. At the beginning, this was exactly how we simulated the geomagnetic field. If we transmit a captured monster frequency, then the creatures within the artificial magnetic field will be infected by this frequency."
He said blankly, "At the very end, God has finally allowed me to glimpse a fraction of the truth. Should I thank Him?"
It was like he had received some sort of divine instruction or had an illuminating epiphany.
"Are properties and even the classifications of species themselves also strings of numbers that can be expressed using parameters? Can we also use a few words to summarize them in either a high-dimensional or low-dimensional world?"
"We had studied the geomagnetic field's frequencies, so we obtained the frequency that represents protection and resistance, which enabled us to cling to life for over a hundred years in this age. In fact, we have already come into contact with a portion of the truth ages ago."
He wrote and drew on the paper again and again. An Zhe quietly looked at Pauli from behind. Even though death was almost upon them, the truth was that important to humankind. But to him, it was meaningless. Humans used various complex theories to represent the world, but in his eyes, the world was the world. There weren't so many things to be analyzed or explained, only a complex manifestation.
But Pauli continued to talk.
"One frequency's wave covers another frequency's wave. There are strong waves and weak waves. There exist the strongest waves that can cover up everything, as well as the weak waves that have always been covered up. The wave inherent to humankind is weak, so it is easy for them to be infected by other creatures and lose consciousness."
As he watched the hordes of oncoming monsters, an almost neurotic look showed in his gray-blue eyes. An Zhe knew that it meant that his scientist's brain was spinning at a manic pace. He was handling and receiving too much information, so he could only sort out his thoughts by swiftly verbalizing them. Pauli muttered, "What do they wish to obtain? The most powerful frequency? Or have they sensed that the magnetic field generator can emit specific waves?"
"Or, or…" His eyes widened. "In that case, could there be an absolutely stable frequency?"
He seized a piece of paper that was within reach. "Jibran once told me that the Northern Base had found a sample that exhibited absolute inertia—"
He picked up the communication device.
An Zhe quietly watched.
He actually didn't understand much of what Pauli said.
But he understood some of it.
Long ago, how did he come to have his own consciousness? He didn't remember. It must have been a coincidental mutation, a trifling ripple in this vast wave.
So he came into being.
So his destiny came into being.
Then he met An Ze.
The destiny of humankind was also like a shifting and uncertain piece of music.
With a slight cough, he stood up from his chair. If he paid it no heed, the physical pain was actually a trivial thing.
Pauli heard him get up, and even though he was so excited, he still said in a warm tone, "Don't get up, there's nothing here you need to help with. Rest up."
But right away, he became utterly absorbed in his research and discoveries again.
After picking up a piece of paper, An Zhe wrote down a few words on it with a pen, folded it up, and handed it to Rum, then walked toward the door. Rum opened his mouth, but An Zhe gently gestured for him to keep silent.
Standing on the other side of the door, An Zhe gently and sorrowfully looked at Pauli through its translucent glass.
With a click, he locked the door from the outside.
The sound startled Pauli, who had been immersed in his research, and he looked up in the direction of the sound.
An Zhe turned and walked down the stairs, his footsteps slightly unsteady and his internal organs feeling like they were being scorched by an inferno.
Lastly, he threaded his way through the people on the first floor of the white building, descended the stairs in front of the building, and came to the Simpson cage's brilliant inferno.
He originally shouldn't have been here.
He was a member of the Abyss, and it was the ones currently attacking the humans who were his kindred.
But now the situation was reversed, for he stood together with the humans. They had acknowledged him and treated him well.
The curling flames heated his face, and he bent double and coughed out a few more mouthfuls of blood.
A xenogenic shouldn't have stood here in the first place.
Have I felt happiness or suffering as a result of joining the human population? he wondered.
The withering of a mushroom took time, for the dissolution of its hyphae was a gradual process. He had closed his eyes countless times, always feeling like they would not open again, but they still opened.
What was it that had allowed him to stay until now? Chance? Pauli had said that chance was destiny.
Then let it be destiny that brought him here!
The vine protecting the research institute thudded to the ground. Bleeding from one wing, Tang Lan rose unsteadily into the air and fought with an eagle that had dived down. Its sharp beak pierced his shoulder, and blood gushed out. He didn't even groan as he pressed down on the bleeding wound with one hand and transformed his other hand into gleaming claws that he used to stab the eagle in the eye.
Blood dripped onto the ground.
Humans had happiness and suffering different from other creatures, yet did he regret it?
Smiling, An Zhe took another step toward the Simpson cage. Tongues of flame licked his face, as hot as a scorching summer day.
The sounds of something thumping against glass came from the white building, but he didn't turn back to look.
Along with the Simpson cage, the sunset at the edge of the sky burned as well. The huge sun sank, and its magnificent red-gold light illuminated half the sky. The fighting at the research institute continued, with howling, explosions, blood, the sun's rays, and firelight mixing together.