“They won’t hurt you,” Polly Joan told An Zhe. “If some of them lose their will and get out of control, the others will control them.”

As he spoke, An Zhe could feel that the eyes of these deformed humans weren’t the cold eyes of beasts and he could understand the meaning in them—curiosity or scrutiny. There was no viciousness at all.

“We are all infected, all heterogeneous species. Fortunately, we have retained part of our will and Mr Polly brought us together.” Tang Lan patted his shoulder. “We will try to control ourselves and not kill others, only fighting against the monsters outside. There is no Trial Court here. You can rest assured.”

Polly Joan coughed a few times before saying, “The members of the institute have no hierarchy. We take care of each other, the strong protecting the weak. You are welcome to join this home.”

An Zhe slowly retracted his gaze.

“Thank you,” he whispered.

Tang Lan asked him how he had become a heterogeneous. After a moment of hesitation, An Zhe replied, “I followed a friend out…”

He knew this was a place where heterogeneous species lived together but he was still different from the people here. They were monster-infected humans and he was a mushroom, so he had to conceal his true identity. This meant he told the story of An Zhe, who came to the wilderness, was injured and then—

“I became like this when I woke up.” He combined it with Tang Lan’s story and made up such a lie.

“Are there any places that are different from a human?”

“No.”

“Then you must’ve got some type of compete polymorphic variation.” Polly looked at him gently and asked, “Do you know what you merged with? Or can you control your transformation?”

An Zhe thought about it and shook his head.

“This isn’t common,” Polly mused. “How did you survive the Abyss?”

“Nothing attacked me,” An Zhe answered truthfully.

Polly thought about it. Just as An Zhe thought he was going to be severely tortured, Polly Joan opened his mouth. “This can be explained.”

An Zhe wondered, “How?”

“The creatures in the Abyss, as well as other powerful species, seem to have another sense. They sometimes don’t judge the racial identity of other monsters using appearance. A powerful polymorphic monster can turn itself into a mouse but other monsters can still sense its huge attack power and avoid it.”

Polly Joan paused before continuing, “If they really aren’t interested in you then this proves you have incorporated with some powerful genes or you aren’t part of their diet.”

“You’re special,” he stated.

An Zhe whispered, “I didn’t know.”