"Not here this time?"

"Dead." Fan Si said, "Two months ago, he was killed by the Inquisitor at the gate of the base."

Inquisitor, this was the third time Anzhe heard this word.

The first time he met Anze, he was trying to dissuade him from going to the human base, saying "You can't escape the eyes of the Inquisitor."

The second time he met Anthony, he didn't want him to join the team, saying "We don't know the Inquisitor, so we can't be 100% sure he's a real person."

And in the memories of Anze he obtained, this seemed to be a term that appeared very frequently.

Then he repeated, "...Judge?"

"You don't know?" Fan Si raised his voice with surprise, "Where on earth did you come from?"

An Zhe whispered, "I don't interact with others before."

"Look, it's coming." Fan Si turned a knob on the wall of the car, and a dim white light came on from the top of the wall, barely illuminating the small space. He took dry food from the grid on the wall, and An Zhe also took food and water from his backpack and sat down opposite Fan Si.

Then he heard Fan Si say: "The base has a system called the Judge Act, and then there is an organization, which is under the military and has a high level, called the Tribunal. The members of the Tribunal are judges." Fan Si said: "They usually take turns at the gate of the base. Everyone has a license to kill, and killing is not illegal."

After hearing this, An Zhe vaguely remembered that he found something related in the memory he got from An Ze.

He said: "... How do they judge whether the people entering the base are humans or infected people?"

Fan Si: "Well, in addition to the infected people who can be seen, there are some people who can't be seen. The mutation process has not started yet, or the mutation level is too high, and the appearance is no different from that of humans. The base calls such people aliens."

An Zhe's eyes widened.

If that's the case, then he is an alien.

Fans unbuttoned his coat and put it aside, opened the bottle of the kettle, and continued: "The population of the base is too dense. After the aliens enter the base, they will kill crazily, and then there will be a large-scale infection. The responsibility of the tribunal is to judge whether everyone who enters the city is a human or an alien. The judgment process is called 'trial'."

"Then..." An Zhe: "What if the alien is found?"

"What else can we do?" Fans raised his eyebrows and said, "Kill it on the spot."

An Zhe didn't say anything, lowered his head and took a bite of the compressed biscuit. He had just learned to eat the human way. Human food was a bit rough for him, and his mouth and throat would be scratched when swallowing. He ate slowly, but his heart beat fast.

After a while, he asked again: "Can you really recognize all the aliens?"

Fan Si took a big sip of water, leaned against the car wall, closed his eyes, and said with a hint of sadness: "Who knows, there is no evidence. No one knows whether those who were killed are really aliens, my brother is like that."

An Zhe didn't say anything, Fan Si seemed to be answering a question that didn't concern him, but he still listened quietly.

"He... I went to the First Field with you that time. The pollution level there was lower than that of the Second Field. You kept watching him and you could confirm that he was not injured." Vance smiled, but his voice was hoarse: "Back at the gate of the base, the judge on duty that day was not an ordinary judge. He was their boss, and everyone called him 'the Judge'. Other judges would give reasons for killing people, but he didn't. He didn't need a reason to kill anyone, and he didn't accept any defense, even if it was a senior executive of the base. He just killed him. He was like that that day. He took one look at his brother and shot him."

"You don't believe it, but there is nothing I can do. There are many such things. He has killed many people. There are too many people in the base who hate him, and one more person won't make a difference. Maybe one day, he will beat you to death."

After saying that, Vance stared at his right hand for a while, then threw the kettle aside, lay down with his arm resting on it, but his eyes were still looking at the top of the car. He finally got back on track and answered An Zhe's initial question: "They would rather kill by mistake than let go. If a real alien sneaks into the base, it will definitely be discovered. There was only one alien attack incident in the whole year of 2017."

An Zhe felt uneasy. In order to hide this uneasiness, he closed his eyes and rubbed his eyes with his left hand.

Fan Si said, "Go to bed, kid."

An Zhe lay down next to him. No matter what happened tomorrow, at least he was safe tonight. There were no monsters, no Huo Sen, and there was Fan Si who was very kind to him.

Before going to bed, he held the shell and looked at the car door at the end of the aisle.

If - if he quietly opened the car door now, got out of the car and left, and returned to the wilderness full of monsters, he could still be alive, would not face trial, and would not be killed on the spot. He didn't know how long he could live, but it would definitely be longer than tomorrow.

But, are spores more important than life?

——Yes.

For creatures in the abyss, death is the most insignificant thing. And in this short day outside the abyss, he witnessed Anthony's transformation and Huo Sen's death, and human life is not precious.

Anzhe closed his eyes, he knew he had to go to the northern base.

The next morning, they continued to drive towards the base. Because Fan Si was driving alone and lacked energy, their rest time became irregular. They started to rest in the afternoon of this day and continued to drive north at midnight on the third day. When the aurora began to dim and the sky turned white, Fan Si said, "We are almost there."

An Zhe looked ahead. In the gray morning mist, a round city gradually emerged from the horizon.

City, he knew this word. Humans live in cities like mushrooms live in the rainy season.

The armored vehicle continued to move forward. After the morning mist gradually dissipated, more details ahead appeared. The circular city has a gray steel wall, as high as the tallest mushroom. Even if twenty people stacked up, one person stepped on the shoulders of another person, they might not be able to climb over the wall. There are also some steel fangs and thorns extending from the wall, the color is sharp and cold, like the rocks and soil in the sky.

The edge of the wall is full of surveillance equipment and laser devices, and intruders will be discovered immediately. The two gates are the only way to enter, one can enter, and the other can not be exited. Now they are in the one that cannot be entered.

Afterwards, An Zhe saw many teams similar to Fan Si coming back from all directions. Some of them were lightly equipped, while others were wearing heavy equipment and holding weapons. They drove similar armored vehicles in designated areas, stopped in groups or in teams, and then got off and walked into the city gate. The vehicles and people were checked separately.

Fan Si got off the car first, and An Zhe jumped out of the car holding his arm. He felt that Fan Si's arm was a little tight, and he thought that this city gate might have brought back Fan Si's bad memories about his brother.

They walked towards the city gate together. There was a long queue there. The head of the queue was a little chaotic, but the situation was not clear. People were entering one by one.

An Zhe followed Fan Si and walked towards the queue, looking around as he walked.

Soldiers in black uniforms stood on both sides of the city gate, with two guns on their waists, one hot weapon and one laser rifle. Behind them were huge heavy weapons facing the city gate. It can be imagined that if a monster tries to invade, it will be blown to pieces by these heavy weapons.

After looking around, he was attracted by a black figure - in an empty space under the city wall in the distance, the man was also wearing a black uniform. He seemed to be a sloppy and undisciplined soldier who was not standing guard like his colleagues. Instead, he was half leaning on the city wall, lowering his head and slowly wiping a black gun.

However, his uniform with a black background and silver tassels seemed to be much more refined and upright than others, or perhaps because of his slender and well-proportioned figure.

Vance glanced over there, and somehow his pace quickened a lot, pulling him straight forward. Just when they were about to join the end of the team,

Anzhe saw the man in the distance slowly raise his head.

Under the brim of the black uniform hat, a pair of cold green eyes were exposed.

In an instant, Anzhe's footsteps suddenly stopped, and he felt the surroundings cold, as if frozen.

Vance turned around and said, "What are you doing--"

His voice stopped abruptly.

A gunshot rang out.

Vance's tall body swayed in place, and fell to the ground with a thud. His eyes were wide open, his throat was crackling, blood was flowing from his temples, and his body twitched a few times before there was no movement.

But Anzhe couldn't even reach out and grab a piece of his clothes, nor did he have any spare time to think about what happened in the past moment. He couldn't raise his head and look at the officer in black uniform, because at this moment, the officer was slowly turning the muzzle of the black gun - pointing at him.