Vance’s blood spread out in An Zhe's peripheral vision, forming a pool of crimson. When the people in line heard the sound, they turned around one after another to look, but after glimpsing this scene, they indifferently turned back again, as if nothing had happened at all.
But Vance was dead. A human had been killed at the human base’s gates, and nobody raised any objection.
Thus, An Zhe suddenly realized that this person was the Arbiter, the person Vance had mentioned to him a day earlier.
He was the master of the Trial Court, determining whether each person entering the city was human or xenogenic. He could decide anyone's fate no matter who they were, needing no justification.
Now it was his own turn to stand trial.
An Zhe's heart thumped wildly at first. The instant that the barrel of the gun pointed at him, he realized that he was really going to die.
But as he looked at the Arbiter's icy green eyes, he gradually calmed down again.
Coming to the Northern Base was his unavoidable decision, so being judged was his fate, no matter the outcome.
He silently counted the seconds in his mind.
One, two, three.
A long time passed with no gunshot ringing out. The Arbiter, keeping the gun trained on him, slowly walked over.
The people in line, seeming to tacitly agree to speed up, spontaneously compressed forward. A moment later, this tiny area was deserted save for An Zhe alone.
Eleven, twelve, thirteen.
After An Zhe counted to the fourteenth second, the Arbiter stopped in front of him, ring finger resting on the gunstock, and lowered the muzzle. Then he put the weapon away.
"Come with me," An Zhe heard him say.
His voice was ice-cold and flat, just like his eyes.
An Zhe stood in place, waiting for him to go, but he didn’t move even after three seconds had gone by.
He lifted his head up uncertainly, then heard the Arbiter's voice turn even colder. "Hold out your hand."
An Zhe obediently held out his hand.
Click.
An ice-cold chill made him shiver.
One end of a silver handcuff was fastened around his wrist, while the other end was in the officer’s hand.
It was in this manner in which An Zhe was led away.
The strange thing was, when Vance got shot, the people in line didn't react at all. Now that he was being taken away by the Arbiter, though, they put their heads together and whispered amongst themselves.
An Zhe only had time to look back at Vance's body lying flat on the ground before he was pulled through the city gate.
Once inside, he discovered that the interior space wasn't a cramped passageway, but rather a vast area divided into several spaces. Bright white lights shone everywhere, the bounce of their glow off the steel walls looking like winter snowfall’s reflected shine cast upon light gray shale.
There were no fewer armed soldiers or heavy weapons compared to the outside. Within the tight encirclement of the heavy weapons and soldiers was a long snow-white table. Three officers in black uniforms just like the Arbiter's—An Zhe guessed they were the Judges—sat behind it, and a human sat across from them. One of the Judges was asking him, "How is the relationship between you and your wife? When you left the city this time, was she not with you?"
From An Ze's memories, An Zhe learned that besides changes to appearance, bearing, and habits, the intelligence and memories of infected humans would be affected as well, so interrogation was also a method of identifying xenogenics.
The person who brought him inside glanced in that direction and said, "Hurry up."
After the Judge in the middle replied with a "yes sir", he looked at the person being tried. "You may go now."
As if he had survived a calamity, the man broke out into a smile, then got up and swiftly walked through the city gate's passageway.
Thus, An Zhe knew that this man who brought him here was indeed none other than the Arbiter, and his "hurry up" was not to hasten the Judges to speed up their interrogation, but rather to show that he had already determined in the span of a moment that the person being tried was human.
The next person to be tried walked from the line towards the long table. The distance between the line and the table was very long, with several door-shaped machines between them and a section that included turns as well as uphill and downhill slopes. An Zhe realized that this was to show the movement characteristics of the person being tried to the Judges to the fullest possible extent.
But he had no more time to see more because in the following second, he was led around a corner and into a long corridor.
That person took out a black communication device and said, "Trial Court, Lu Feng. Requesting genetic examination."
An Zhe guessed that the two words in the middle were his name.
A mechanical door promptly slid open in front of them and Lu Feng walked straight in, the force of his pull making An Zhe stumble before he caught up.
The room was silvery-white. Mysterious mechanical devices were arrayed from floor to ceiling, and six soldiers standing guard were scattered all about. Behind the workbench at one end of the room sat a young male human with short blonde hair and blue eyes clad in a white lab coat.
"What a surprise it is for Colonel Lu to come here." He pushed up the glasses on his nose, the tone of his voice lifting up at the end in provocation. "Don't you always solve all your problems with bullets?"
Lu Feng said coldly, "Please cooperate, Doctor."
The doctor glanced at Lu Feng, a shadow of a smile on his face. Then he got up and said to An Zhe, "Come with me."
After following him, An Zhe was made to lie on a silvery-white platform, and rings around his hands and feet fixed his limbs in place. The doctor said, "Don't move."
Immediately afterwards, An Zhe felt a pain in his arm. He turned his head in that direction and saw the doctor slowly drawing a tube of bright red blood from his body.
The doctor said, "The color of your blood is very healthy."
"Thank you for the compliment," An Zhe replied.
The doctor was amused by his response.
"The blood will be sent for a genetic examination, which will take an hour. The full body enhanced scan is expected to take forty minutes. Don't move."
He finished speaking, and the silver platform began to glow with a blue light. The surroundings emitted a directionless low hum—the source of the sound was every single particle of air. The omnipresent noise made An Zhe recall those distant nights in the Abyss. The faraway ocean gave off the dull lapping sounds of waves, and in the darkest time of the night, the howls of unknown creatures came from that direction. Fluctuations that human language could not possibly describe swept away the entirety of the rain-drenched land.