Three years had passed since the final battle.
That day, the East Pole and the West Pole had emitted the absolutely stable frequency. Since then, monsters no longer persisted in attacking the human bases, substances no longer polluted each other, and humans found constancy in the distortion. Later, that frequency was called the "bell toll."
And the Highland Research Institute and Mr. Pauli Jones, who had discovered the "bell toll," were forever recorded within the milestones of human history.
Highland Research Institute, white building.
Green vines climbed all over the windows and railings. The vine that had always been guarding the research institute died naturally a year ago, and its seeds that had scattered all over the soil of the research institute sprouted and grew this spring. The distant mountains were covered with a layer of snow-white mist, and within the mist was a wild profusion of flourishing greenery. Everything was normal and everything was calm, as though it were a day in the spring of 2020.
In the corridor outside the laboratory, there was a wheelchair.
Pauli Jones was sitting in it. A primeval wind traveled through the Abyss, climbed up to the mountaintop, and stirred his head of white hair.
At his side stood Lu Feng.
"In 2020, I was fifteen years old and majoring in physics at university." An elderly voice sounded. "Later, I often dreamed that I had returned to that year and was standing at the podium, in the advisor's office, or in the middle of the sports ground. I'd loudly tell them that the geomagnetic field was about to disappear and that we had to take precautions ahead of time."
He paused, a hint of a resigned smile appearing at the corners of his lips. "Sometimes they'd believe me and sometimes they wouldn't, but when I opened my eyes each morning, what I saw was still this awful world."
"Fortunately, although the world is still so awful, or even worse than before, at least there's no need to count down the days until extinction."
Pauli Jones lowered his head. In his hand was a copy of Base Alliance Daily with the date and time on the cover, April 2164.
One hundred thirty-four years after the calamity occurred, humankind seemed to have finally been integrated into this violent world.
Many people would mention the last war. The Northern Base had chosen to assist the Highland Research Institute, otherwise, the Highland Research Institute couldn't possibly have persevered until the moment the stable frequency was found. The Underground City Base had chosen to aid the East Pole, otherwise, the magnetic pole would have collapsed and fallen to the enemy, and there would have been no way to emit the frequency. The two decisions were both made on account of humankind's inner kindness, and they narrowly achieved victory.
And the ones who had assisted the Highland Research Institute only had one fighter fleet, while the ones who assisted the Northern Base had only a thousand paratroopers. Humankind's final struggle as it moved toward its own demise was not a magnificent war but a dull cry. Although humankind believed its existence, evolution, and demise to be of vital importance among the world's changes, they had proved their own weakness and insignificance again and again.
Indeed, the human race had actually met its demise.
After being infected by the "absolutely stable frequency," they had finally obtained a permanent and stable immunity. Sometimes, there was even a chance of them being able to obtain a monster's genes, obtaining those powerful physical features and shapes while still maintaining clear wills. This may have been the Fusion Faction's victory—although the theories and methods used were not the Fusion Faction's.
After the peaceful fusion with monster genes, humankind's own strength had been enhanced, and they no longer depended so much on the limited quantities of weapons and equipment. They began using the monsters' methods to fight monsters, using plain methods to attack and defend. Some humans chose to leave the bases, either returning to the ruined cities or forming small settlements in the wilderness.
All in all, the cities disintegrated.
Around the world, there remained fewer than five thousand survivors. They could no longer form grand social structures or armies—those kinds of things. Centered around the East Pole, West Pole, and Highland Research Institute, small settlements radiated outward in star-like shapes.
The monsters of the external world who needed food still eyed them greedily, but they no longer coveted human genes, or to put it another way, most of the monsters who survived up until now had already obtained human genes. Viewed from a different angle, under that all-encompassing frequency, both humans and monsters had achieved stability. It was an undeniable fact that humankind's intellectual superiority had come to an end long ago.
The bell tolled, allowing humankind to survive but proclaiming the end of the age of humans. It seemed as though they had started being an ordinary species, living arduously in this world.
"Some people say it's a fall, but I think it's an ascension." Pauli looked forward. "We are simply retreading the journey that humankind's ancestors once took with new accomplishments and knowledge."
On the open space in front of the white building, young scientists clad in white coats traveled back and forth between instruments.
Suddenly there was a jubilant commotion, and a young man in the middle raised aloft a beaker full of water. The situation was crystal clear: by sampling and reproducing the frequencies of substances, they successfully infected other substances with the frequency of distilled water, turning the pitch-black muddy water in the beaker into a cup of clear pure water.
Many things were being redefined, and a new theoretical framework was beginning to emerge. Whether it was correct or not was a mystery, but it was indeed slowly progressing.
"I still don't understand exactly what these frequencies are. Do they represent a substance's fundamental composition? Or are they just terms referring to a substance's properties?" Pauli Jones's voice had become hoarse due to his advanced age. "Obtaining the frequencies of specific substances and then being able to alter the real world is even more of an expectation-exceeding accomplishment."
"We are still insignificant, only obtaining a superficial projection of the real world via simple and crude methods, but even a mere projection is enough to temporarily shelter humankind itself."
Facing the boundless wilderness, he muttered to himself, "In a hundred years, a thousand years, will we know more?"
Lu Feng pushed his wheelchair over to the waterfall-like vines. On this spring day when everything was coming back to life, tiny white flowers grew thickly all over the oddly shaped vines. The flowers came in a variety of shapes and hues ranging from dark to light, but they all coexisted on a single vine.
"Am I being too optimistic?" Pauli smiled. "Even the question of whether humankind still exists in a hundred years is a difficult one to answer."
Survival was as precarious as before, and dark clouds were still circling. There was still no effective solution to the issues of fertility and reproduction.
The copy of Alliance Daily in Pauli Jones's hand, which had already started going fuzzy at the edges from frequent perusal, was stopped on the third page, where two things were reported.
The first report stated that a scientist who had happened to fuse with a bird had laid an egg while in bird form, but the chick that hatched suddenly changed into human form after it turned one year old. The second report stated that a fertile woman from the Underground City Base had declared that when her life came to an end, she would be willing to walk into the Simpson cage and donate her own frequency for research.
"My life is coming to an end," he said and closed the Daily.