Little Mushroom

After finishing speaking, An Zhe ignored him and walked straight forward.

There was no sound of footsteps behind him, until he opened the door with his ID card, Josie rushed over here and grabbed his shoulder: "Are you really Anze? But you—"

An Zhe picked up the stack of genetic test reports on the desktop and handed it to Josie.

Josie said, "This is..."

An Zhe lowered his head and found that the outermost piece of paper was the phrase "against the atrocities of the judge".

He slowly took the paper away.Josie looked at the report card.

"You..." He glanced hurriedly, then looked up at An Zhe: "You really escaped from the abyss?"

"I was saved." An Zhe said, "I forgot about the others."

Josie's hand holding the gene report trembled, then she twitched the corner of her mouth, looked at him, and smiled: "I...I'm so excited, I didn't expect you to come back."

He put the genetic report on the table, leaned towards An Zhe, even the muscles at the brows were twitching slightly, with a slightly excited expression: "How much... have you forgotten?"

An Zhe took a step back.

"Forget it all." He said, "Please don't disturb my life."

"Don't you remember who I am?" Josie's voice lowered a little: "We grew up together."

"Thank you." An Zhe: "Can you go out now?"

"I—" Josie, who was opposite, obviously didn't expect him to treat herself with such an attitude, and was taken aback for a moment before saying, "You were not like this before."

But after a while, his attitude softened again: "I won't disturb you, you have a good rest, I will come to see you tomorrow. I am so happy. Anze, we are the closest people in the world."

An Zhe remained silent until Josie turned and left, and gently closed the door for him.

He felt it was unrealistic that Josie could let him go so easily and leave the room, but it could also be that Josie was too guilty to escape.

The room returned to silence, An Zhe slowly leaned against the bed, hugging the pillow, he felt a kind of discomfort like light smoke.This kind of discomfort is not for himself, but for Anze.

The agreement between human beings is probably so fragile, Josie will not be Anze's closest person.When he retrieves the spores, he will return to the abyss, find that quiet cave, take root next to Anze's snow-white skeleton, and spend the rest of his life as a mushroom.

……spore.

Outside the window, the night was already deep, and the aurora rolled across the dark sky as always. An Zhe sat at the table and turned on the lamp.

First, he had to find a job so that he would not starve to death.At the same time, he was looking for news about the spores, and the only clue was the brass-colored bullet casing.

Thinking of this, An Zhe fumbled for his pocket anxiously. He was always afraid of losing this item—fortunately, it was still there.Mushrooms can hide it in the body, but humans can't. It is too small, as if it may slip out of the pocket at any time.

In the end, An Zhe found a small black leather rope in the drawer of the room, and hung the cartridge case around his neck.

There is also a small black machine in the drawer. He tried hard to observe the details of its appearance, and finally found some information from his memory. This is a communicator. Everyone's ID number is the communication number. Humans can use communicators to communicate over long distances. But only inside the base - because there is no signal outside.

He recharged the communicator—it wasn't necessary, but the fact that it had power seemed to give humans great pleasure.

After doing this, he finally settled down and began to look at the desk.

The notebook on the desktop contained what Anze had written, and the handwriting was beautiful.On the side near the wall are more than [-] books, most of which Anze loved to read in the past.An Zhe scanned the names on the spine of the book, and reached out to pick up a poorly bound gray book titled "Base Manual".

He opened it, and there was only one sentence on the title page.

Human interests are above all else.

An Zhe pursed his lips subconsciously, and continued to turn back. The second page was the table of contents. The entire manual was divided into four parts: base law, base life rules, functional area introduction, and map.

An Zhe skipped the legal part, he knew that he was a law-abiding mushroom, and a law-abiding mushroom would not violate the laws of any species.The part of life rules explains the work and rest time in the living area in detail.Power supply, water and food for one hour at six o'clock in the morning, one hour of power supply, water and food at twelve o'clock at noon, dinner at six o'clock in the evening, the power supply time is a little longer, and the power will not be cut off until nine o'clock in the evening .Each residential area is equipped with a tall alarm tower. There are three types of alarms, namely "assembly", "evacuation" and "emergency evacuation". The assembly alarm is a short high-frequency sound, and the evacuation alarm is a wave-gradient sound signal. The evacuation alarm is a long and sharp sound.Residents of the base must abide by the rules of life and the instructions of the alarm tower, and the rest of the lifestyle can be controlled by themselves.

When he saw this, An Zhe was slightly puzzled. He felt that under such a rule, everyone just needs to lie in the room and eat and drink regularly—but he soon realized the intention of the base.

Although everyone can live freely, life on the base must be paid for, and there is a fee.In order to obtain the currency circulating in the base, people must go out to find jobs, or become mercenaries, collect valuable materials from outside and hand them over to the base in exchange for rewards.

But... In this case, it would be fine for everyone to go to the place with the lowest level of danger, grab something casually, and maintain the needs of food and water.

An Zhe continues to turn back, the next part is the introduction of the functional area.

The first area that appears in this part is called "supply station". The supply station is divided into No. 1, No. 2 and No. 3. Among them, No. 1 and No. 2 belong to the military and are built at the entrance and exit of the base, responsible for currency and combat readiness. For the approval and exchange of materials, when each mercenary team returns from the field, the staff at the supply station will calculate the materials they harvested as currency and distribute them, while the rest of the lethal weapons and armored vehicles will be detained and not allowed to be brought into the city until The mercenary team can only reapply for use next time.The mercenary team uses currency to exchange guns, bullets, armor, fuel, etc. required for field expeditions, and can even purchase different types of armored vehicles.

Different from the first two supply stations, the No. 3 supply station is located in the city. It is responsible for the exchange of civilian supplies, using base currency, and can exchange daily necessities, food and ingredients, spirits, electronic products, and many other items in the supply station. , Housing transactions can also be carried out.

Opposite the No. 3 Supply Station is the "Free Market". Sometimes, what the mercenary team obtains from human ruins is not what the military needs. At this time, they can bring items that are confirmed safe into the city and trade them freely. .

At this time, An Zhe saw a small line of notes below.

Note: The free market is not an official facility of the base, and all actions are at your own risk.

Note: Employment and contractual relationships established through the free market are not protected by the law of the base, and you will be responsible for the consequences.

Nothing else, An Zhe only saw the word "employment".

That said, the free market is also a place where careers can be offered.

Continuing down is the brief introduction of each residential area. The densely populated areas are Districts 6 and 7. The rest of the area has very few people and vacant buildings. District 8 is a centralized refuge with complete safety facilities.

Afterwards, there is an introduction to the Tribunal.

An Zhe thought of the Colonel Judge with cold green eyes, and his reading speed slowed down a lot, and he began to read word by word.

The duty of the Tribunal is not limited to identifying different species at the city gate, they will also conduct daily patrols in densely populated areas of the city, conduct secondary screening, and eliminate hidden dangers.The main patrol point is around the supply station, but residential buildings will also be checked from time to time-especially those humans who behave abnormally and are reported.

Inexplicably, An Zhe remembered the phrase "You'd better be".

If possible, An Zhe hoped that Lu Feng would stay at the city gate forever, so that the judge would not have to condescend to come to the residential building.

Turning back, other areas don't have much to do with him—such as the city affairs office, city defense office, and the main city.According to the above, the base is composed of the outer city, or Acropolis, and the main city. The main city is the location of the base's important scientific research, military facilities, energy, and political centers. Unless you have a special pass or residence permit, everyone is prohibited from entering.

After browsing the map of the base, An Zhe closed the book.He realized again that humans are a different creature from mushrooms.

The second book he opened was called "Supply Station Assessment Manual". As soon as he saw the cover, memories related to it came to his mind, much clearer than other memories.An Zhe thought, maybe this means that for Anze, going to the supply station is very important.

In this case, why did he promise Josie to go to the wild with him?

He thought for a long time, and finally thought, Anze is such a human being.

An Ze missed the exam. The supply station's recruitment assessment for this year was held fifteen days ago, and he was already a dead bone by then.

But it doesn't matter, An Zhe thought.A year later, when the supply station recruits people again, if he is still alive in the human base, he will give it a try.In this way, after returning to the cave, he can tell Anze what it is like there.

Reading for a long time consumed a lot of his energy. After trying to read two pages of the "Assessment Manual", An Zhe was already drowsy and finally went to bed.The next morning, in order to avoid meeting Josie, he left the room at four o'clock in the morning, went downstairs, came to the traffic point, and took the train to the supply station-he was going to find a job at the free market opposite.

It was seven o'clock in the morning when I got off the bus, and there was still a thin white mist in the air.Liberty Market is a large circular building with four entrances and exits, and he enters from the nearest one.

The smell of spirits entered his nostrils.

There are four long tables set up at the entrance. People dressed as mercenaries are fisting and talking loudly in front of the long tables. There is wine in front of them. From time to time, someone asks for more wine. At this time, the waiter will fill up the spirits and take out The small machine is affixed to the ID card handed out by the customer to charge.

A strong dark-skinned mercenary was drinking alone. Seeing him, he raised his eyebrows, grinned, and shook the cup in his hand: "Child, what are you looking at? Come and learn how to drink?"

A short-haired woman beside him immediately bumped his chest with her elbow, her voice was hoarse but full of joy: "No. 30 Ertiao, minors are not allowed to drink alcohol."

The man said: "Just drink it, will it still be taken away by the judge?"

The woman laughed loudly: "Underage children don't know how powerful the judge is."

"He's about to find out."

An Zhe stood by the side, trying to say "I'm not a minor," but just as he was thinking about his words, the two were already hugging each other, lips to lips, entangled.He realizes that no one really cares about him.

So he looked away from here and looked elsewhere.

The smell of potato soup came from the right side of the door—but it was much richer than the potato soup served in the lobby on the first floor of the residence building, and mixed with a meaty smell that could make humans feel happy.A mercenary was eating his breakfast in a white plastic soup bowl.

This smell made An Zhe a little hungry, and he didn't have breakfast.

Further inside, there are similar scenes. The lively atmosphere is crowded in the hall. Apart from the long tables selling food and wine, there are also many small stalls selling clothing, backpacks, and gloves.Going further in, there are fewer and fewer stalls selling fixed items, and there will be many strange and different kinds of sundries on a stall, which An Zhe can't recognize.

"The newly unearthed smartphone in the 511 abandoned city can be turned on when it has power." As he was walking, a young man in black with a backpack jumped up in front of him like a monkey. He was very thin, with narrow eyes and rolling eyes. , the moment he stopped An Zhe, he quickly took out a black cuboid from his satchel, and shook it in front of An Zhe: "Want to take a look? I'll give you a [-]% discount and send you a charging cable. You can play games."

An Zhe: "Thank you, no need."

The young man quickly took out another white one from his bag: "Change another model, this color suits you, it's new, it's the last fruit machine before the era of catastrophe, it cost [-] at that time, now [-] is enough .”

An Zhe: "Thank you, I don't need it."

But the man continued to take out another object: "No need? You have a mobile phone, do you need a power bank? You can use this to charge when the base is out of power. The large capacity is sold out, and this one can only be charged twice. I'll give you a discount, only thirty."

An Zhe stared at him and said honestly, "I don't have any money."

The expression of the young man in black froze. He put his things back into his backpack in an instant, turned around, raised his legs, and was about to leave. He muttered softly, "I don't have money to come to the black market."

"Wait." An Zhe stopped him.

He turned his head, but his attitude was extremely negative: "What's wrong?"

"I... want to find a job." An Zhe said, "Do you know where I'm going?"

The young man frowned, turned back, and looked him over carefully from head to toe: "...so he was looking for a job."

An Zhe answered truthfully: "Yes."

"Then your aptitude is quite good." The young man said, "If you have money, remember to buy a mobile phone from me. I will stay in the black market this month."

An Zhe: "..."

"Then where am I going?" he asked.

"Here, over there," the young man pointed to a direction in the corner: "Go down, the third basement, and find the proprietress."

An Zhe was very grateful and smiled at him: "Thank you."

The young man said: "You are good-looking, find a reliable one, remember to buy a mobile phone from me when you are well-off!"

An Zhe: "...Okay."

Three floors underground.

Humidity—this was An Zhe's first impression of this place. Mushrooms should like this kind of air with plenty of moisture, but the pungent scent that came with the humidity made him frown.

Looking around, under the dim light, this is a honeycomb-like space. The corridors are winding and winding. Simple plastic panels are used to form countless small compartments on the walls. Densely packed with tiny drops of water.The whole space emits a subtle buzzing sound like the tide. Listen carefully, it is the effect of the aggregation and reverberation of the voices of many people talking in low voices, sometimes mixed with high-pitched laughter.

An Zhe hesitated for a moment, then took a few steps forward.

He looked at the cubicles on both sides, the one on the left was empty, and the one on the right was a long-haired woman with her head down. After hearing his footsteps, she raised her head and looked down again.

An Zhe continued to move forward. He heard voices, first of all a woman.

"What's the climate like in Basin No. [-]?"

"It's okay." This time it was a soft male voice, a little sticky, with a long tail. An Zhe suspected that his nose was blocked. "The weather is very comfortable, but there are too many earthquakes. We met in a month." Three earthquakes, the worst one, they were all outside, I was alone in the car, almost thought they would not come back."

The woman's voice smiled: "They can't come back, you drive the car away."

"In the team I was with last time, the captain said he would teach me how to drive, but in the end, he was not coaxing me. He said he would bring me next time, and he was also coaxing me. I stayed with them for a month, and the total was only [-] yuan. , is this still expensive?"

"Just listen to what the mercenary has to say." The woman said, "Aren't you used to being deceived yet?"

An Zhe's footsteps stopped.

——He recalled Huo Sen's face and greedy and salivating eyes, and suddenly knew what was going on with the work on the third basement floor.

And the sentence in the base manual - the employment and contractual relationship established through the free market is not protected by the base law, and the consequences are at your own risk.

He didn't want to take the consequences for himself.

An Zhe was about to leave silently, but as soon as he turned around, he bumped into a soft body unexpectedly.

"Yo," a high-pitched female voice rang out, "Little baby, is this your first time here?"

The word "little baby" cast a deep shadow on him, and An Zhe reflexively took two steps back.

In front of him was a tall woman with honey-colored skin and blue eyes. Her long brown hair curled at the end, and the corners of her eyes were slender and upturned. She was smiling at him with her lips raised.

"Are you buying someone? Or selling yourself?" The woman blew in his ear and smiled.