An Zhe was up in the front of the vehicle.
The midday sunlight shone down through the armored vehicle's skylight.
Today was his first day going with Lu Feng into the Abyss.
When humans carried out missions in the wilderness, the armored vehicles served as their mobile encampments. The driver's cabin was up in front. A massive storage space took up three-quarters of the vehicle body, and the remaining quarter was at the bottom, a low-ceilinged and oppressive rest cabin in which one could barely stand up straight. The rest cabin was nominally divided up by thin sheets of metal, two people per compartment, and in the middle there was only a tea table for putting water cups on. Because they had not seen sunlight in a long time, the quilts and pillows carried a slightly musty scent. Before arriving at the human base for the first time, An Zhe had sat in Vance's team's vehicle, and An Ze's memories also contained some impressions related to the armored vehicles. Those impressions all had to do with the narrow, humid, dark, and cramped conditions.
This impression was so deeply ingrained in his mind that in the past, as soon as he thought of how the Colonel would have to rest in the armored vehicle for six months out of the year, he would feel that it was difficult toil. Maybe when the Colonel got up from the narrow bed in the rest cabin, he would even bump his head against the ceiling.
Then the Colonel would be in a bad mood.
When the Colonel was in a bad mood, the entire team would live beneath a massive shadow, trembling with fear, and nobody would dare to say a single word.
This atmosphere would make the Colonel's mood worsen and then affect his sleep.
So when the Colonel woke up the next morning, due to lack of sleep, his intelligence would decline by a certain extent and his actions would no longer be immaculate and flawless.
… So he would bump his head again.
Thus, the team's journey within the Abyss would be carried out day after day beneath that massive shadow.
On the first night spent in the Colonel's vehicle, there was a beautiful starry sky outside the skylight. In a roomy space, An Zhe sat on a flat bed, hugging a pillow. As a cool and comfortable breeze blew in from the side window, he described his initial fantasies to the Colonel.
The Colonel looked like he had heard something baffling.
An Zhe had predicted his confusion, but he hadn't predicted the issue that the Colonel paid attention to first.
"Why did you think that my intelligence would decline after waking up in the morning?" Lu Feng asked.
"I expected that you hadn't gotten enough sleep that night," An Zhe replied.
"Even if I don't get enough sleep, that kind of scenario wouldn't happen," the Colonel said. "Furthermore, supposing I bump into the ceiling once, there wouldn't be a second time."
"Then that means you really have bumped into it before," An Zhe said.
This time, he triumphed over Lu Feng in their battle of words.
After a short silence, Lu Feng said, "Such a scenario happened only once, when I was fourteen or fifteen years old."
"But no matter what time it is, my mood and intelligence are always very stable."
"Is that so?" An Zhe looked at him suspiciously. "But a while ago, I often noticed that in the morning, you'd be looking at me and not moving at all, as if your thinking speed was very slow."
"That's because you wake up too late." Lu Feng was expressionless. "If you wake up earlier than me, you can look at me."
What he said was unexpectedly very logical. An Zhe turned his back to Lu Feng, expressing his unwillingness to continue conversing. But three minutes later, he couldn't hold back anymore. He asked Lu Feng, "Why are you treated differently from them?"
The Colonel did not sleep in the rest cabin below. His vehicle had obviously been modified; the roomy and bright space above was the Colonel's actual living area. The four walls of the living area were all a beautiful silvery white, there were windows above and on both sides, and in the limited space, even a separate lavatory had been installed.
Next to the bed was a desk, the setup somewhat resembling that of Outer City's standard rooms. The majority of Lu Feng's extremely perfunctory work notebook was completed on that very desk.
In short, this comfortable and bright scene differed from An Zhe's assumptions.
The Colonel said, "One Arbiter went mad inside his vehicle. There were other reasons for his madness, but the supply depot still upgraded the living environments of the later Arbiters."
"They may have wanted you guys to cheer up a bit," An Zhe said.
"Mm," Lu Feng said. "Later on when I led my men, I had the supply depot modify all of the Trial Court's vehicles and add five more vehicles to store materials."
"You're so nice," An Zhe said.
Lu Feng's tone was unusually flat. "Because I discovered that they often bumped their heads, and then they would be in a bad mood."
Hugging the pillow, An Zhe began to laugh.
Unexpectedly, what Lu Feng said next was, "Have you bumped your head before?"
"I haven't," An Zhe said.
He was different from foolish humans.
Then Lu Feng looked him over from top to bottom.
"I forgot," he said. "You lack the qualification for it."
An Zhe felt that if there came a day when his life got snuffed out, it would definitely be because Lu Feng angered him to death.
An Zhe was on the roof of the car.
The dusk sunlight spilled across the armored vehicle's skylight.
Today was his thirtieth day staying with Lu Feng in the Abyss.
In the Abyss, they had discovered a beautiful valley. Slender blades of verdant grass covered the valley soil, which encircled a clear lake.
The almost-translucent grasses were suffused with a weak fluorescence.
"It's so beautiful," An Zhe said as he looked around.
"No. 29 fine-bladed grass," Lu Feng said, "can secrete strongly-corrosive liquid and begins hunting when night falls. We should go now."
An Zhe got down from the skylight's little ladder, and Lu Feng went to the cabin.
The cabin and the living area were connected. An Zhe could see the Colonel at any time even if he was not sitting in the front passenger seat, and normally he would also stay in the areas that the Colonel could see in the rearview mirror.
In the living area, he read for a while, then began to clean. In fact, though, there wasn't much to clean; it could only be described as tidying up.