Chapter 26

Ten minutes after the train picked up speed, the city was completely left behind. As Lu Fen retracted his right hand, An Zhe noticed a thick layer of dark clouds looming in the direction they had come from. Fighter jets roared overhead, their engines thundering as they passed over the train's roof before disappearing from sight.

Silent, he gazed at the scene for several seconds before returning to his original seat.

When he boarded the train, he was still contemplating informing Boss Xiao about his whereabouts once communication was restored. Now, it seemed unnecessary.

Leaning against the window, he caught a glimpse of a black figure. Lu Fen sat down one seat away from him, with the young judge who had been following them taking a seat beside him.

"The Colonel, a message from the Court," the judge said. "The Court has evacuated 21 personnel, with 9 fatalities, 4 infected, and all hostile targets neutralized."

Lu Fen asked, "What about the City Defense?"

"Data is not available at the moment."

After that, there was silence. An Zhe continued to gaze out the window—though there was nothing of interest to see. Through the rain and fog, he could only make out the empty concrete ground stretching out.

This was the buffer zone, stretching from the city gates to the outer city, with vast expanses between each area. No structures were built here, so that in case of alien invasions or large-scale warfare, the buffer zones would buy the military precious time to respond swiftly, preventing the aliens from directly charging into densely populated residential areas.

Moments later, sounds emerged from within the compartment. Colin, who had briefly fainted earlier, regained consciousness. He crawled back to his seat from the aisle, sitting down with a pale face. He kept his head low and took out a pair of black-rimmed glasses from his pocket, wiping them repeatedly with the corner of his shirt without saying another word. At that moment, An Zhe felt that this boy was different from the person he had first encountered.

He turned his head to look at Lu Fen.

Just then, Lu Fen also shifted his gaze away from Colin and met An Zhe's eyes.

Their eyes locked, and An Zhe nervously held onto the corner of his clothes.

Lu Fen glanced at him indifferently before looking away. An Zhe found Lu Fen unfamiliar in that moment, even though they had just spent the night in the same bed the previous evening.

After some thought, An Zhe asked, "What do we do next?"

Lu Fen replied, "Based on your education, you might be teaching children how to read."

"And you?"

Lu Fen answered, "I'll follow the City's arrangements."

Mustering his courage, An Zhe asked, "Will you go to the lighthouse?"

— He had a hunch the spore would be at the Lighthouse.

Lu Fen gave him a glance.

An Zhe felt it was a look one would give an idiot.

"I belong to the military," Lu Fen said. "Our next mission is to reclaim and disperse the center."

An Zhe: "...Oh."

He whispered softly, "Then good luck to you."

Lu Fen gazed at him silently for a few seconds before saying, "Thank you."

After that, they didn't speak again. An Zhe somehow sensed that the colonel might not be in the mood for conversation either.

Another dozen minutes later, the train arrived at its destination, and Lu Fen made his way towards the front of the carriage.

At the same time, an announcement echoed through the train, "Dear passengers, for the safety of the main city, please queue up for a second inspection."

The occupants of the vehicle began to form a line, with An Zhe and Colin at the back. The second examination was a genetic scan conducted by a machine, supervised by the same young blond doctor in a lab coat. After drawing blood from both Colin and An Zhe, the doctor activated the machine and said, "Wait for five minutes."

An Zhe obediently applied pressure to his punctured arm with a cotton swab, standing to one side. The doctor smiled and said, "It's you again."

An Zhe replied, "Hello."

"The judge actually brought someone for a genetic test? Tsk," the doctor remarked. "Our entire testing facility was surprised."

An Zhe said, "He now believes I'm human."

"The judges might just be looking for trouble," the doctor shrugged. "They tend to have some issues with their minds, after all."

An Zhe responded, "He's doing alright."

The doctor shot him an admiring look. "You're the first person I've seen defending Colonel Lu."

As he spoke, the doctor's gaze shifted to An Zhe's left arm. "Injured?"

An Zhe noticed that his sleeve button had been pulled up due to his movement, revealing the bandage wrapped around his left arm.

An Zhe: "Mm."

"The dressing needs to be changed." The doctor picked up the medical kit and pulled out a fresh bandage. "Let me attend to it."

The doctor seemed like a friendly and kind individual. An Zhe softly thanked him, "Thank you."

As the doctor removed the old bandage, he casually remarked, "You tied this knot quite well."

An Zhe pondered for a moment before deciding not to speak. He wouldn't tell the doctor that Lu Fen was the one who had dressed his wound. Otherwise, the inspection department might be in for another surprise – they seemed to perceive Lu Fen as an utterly unscrupulous villain.

This thought struck An Zhe suddenly, causing his brows to furrow.

At this moment, he seemed to understand why Lu Fen didn't often engage in conversation with others. The role of a Judge was destined to be such.

As he pondered, Colin spoke softly beside him, "Doctor."

The doctor finished bandaging An Zhe and looked at him. "Hmm?"

"Given that the outer city is now completely fallen, there's no need for the Court of Judgment to exist," Colin said. "Can we know the principle behind how the Court makes its judgments?"

An Zhe mused that Colin truly lived up to his reputation as an unwavering opposition figure.

"Why do you want to know?" The doctor leaned against the cart of instruments, folding his arms as he looked at him. "Do you have family or friends that Lu Fen killed?"

"I had my mother," Colin said. "She never left the armored vehicle during that trip to the wilderness."

"Though small-scale monsters are scarce, they're not nonexistent."

"But she didn't exhibit any unusual behavior or appearance."

"Hmm." The doctor spoke nonchalantly. "So what? If everyone whose relatives were affected demanded answers from the court and the inspection department, we wouldn't have time to ensure the safety of the city gates."

"But it's different now, you have the time." Colin's voice rose. "We just want to know the reason."

Looking at him, the doctor smiled.

"You're right, things are different now," the doctor whispered softly. "Now that you're part of the main city, you'll gradually learn many secrets."

He added casually, "Did you think that infection meant a gradual erosion of the human body?"

Colin asked, "What else could it be?"

"No," the doctor looked up at the sky. "The moment infection occurs, your DNA structure – all of it – changes in an instant. Once infected, a person's fate is sealed."

"It's impossible," Colin said. "I've studied biology. Viruses need time to spread, and there's an incubation period—"

But the doctor interrupted him.

"The change in DNA structure affects the composition of RNA, which in turn influences protein synthesis. A person's biological traits begin to shift, all within a short period. Your skin, appearance, demeanor, mannerisms, thought processes, language abilities… they all transform. All the training a Judge undergoes before becoming official focuses on how to visually detect these differences." He smiled. "When their accuracy rate reaches eighty percent, they graduate and become official Judges. Do you think your superficial understanding of human behavior can match up to their years of training?"

"Eighty percent." Colin lifted his eyes abruptly. "So the Court of Judges can't distinguish hybrids with complete certainty either. They're just killing en masse to ensure no one slips through, right?"

"The unfortunate truth is that I have to tell you something," the doctor said, looking at him. "Lu Fen had a perfect score back then."

Colin stood still for a few seconds, dumbfounded. "…That's impossible."

"I hope you don't set mediocre standards to determine someone's limits, especially after entering the Main City," the doctor said coolly. As he spoke to Colin, his gaze was fixed on An Zhe. "At least when there were means to verify the correctness of his judgments, he never made a mistake. The Testing Bureau and the Court of Judges have close ties; I've seen his assessment results. The Judge's indicators were all perfect back then, but that might not be the reason he could identify hybrids with a hundred percent accuracy."

"He seems to possess an innate talent, a kind of intuition," the doctor said. "After discovering this gift of his, the Testing Bureau would draw his blood once a month, but unfortunately, they didn't make any significant discoveries."

"No..." Colin frowned deeply. "That defies science. Intuition can't serve as the basis for scientific evidence, and the way you initially described the infection—"

A short beep sounded, and the machine lit up with a green light.

"The new ID cards and communicators for both of you. Board the shuttle; the main city will assign you quarters." The doctor handed them two blue chips and the communicators. "After that, wait for messages on the devices."

Colin took the items. "But..."

"I understand that it goes against certain principles of biological science, but the most terrifying aspect of this era is—" The doctor looked at him, his blue eyes seemingly frozen over. He spoke slowly, emphasizing each word, "We've realized that the entire edifice of human science amounts to nothing."