The room was quiet again. An Zhe leaned slowly against the bed, hugging the pillow as he felt a smoke-like discomfort. This discomfort wasn’t for himself but for An Ze. The agreement between humans and humans was probably so fragile. Josie wouldn’t be the person closest to An Ze. Once An Zhe retrieved his spore, he would return to the Abyss, find the quiet cave and take root next to An Ze’s white bones, spending the rest of his life as a mushroom.

…His spore.

Outside the window, it was night and the aurora was rolling in the dark sky as always. An Zhe sat at the table and turned on the lamp.

First, he had to find a job so he didn’t starve to death. At the same time, he had to look for information on his spore. The only clue was the brass-coloured casing.

Thinking of this, An Zhe anxiously touched his pocket. He was always afraid that this thing would be lost—okay, still there. As a mushroom, he could hide it on his body but this wasn’t possible as a human. It was too small and might slip out of his pocket at any time. Eventually, An Zhe opened a drawer in his room and found a black leather rope, hanging the bullet casing from it.

There was a small black machine in the drawer. He tried to observe the details of its appearance and finally found some information from his memories. This was a communication device. Everyone’s ID number was the communication number. Humans could use the communicator to talk over long distances. However, this was only inside the base because there was no signal outside.

He charged the communicator. He didn’t use it but just seeing it ‘powered up’ seemed to make humans feel a great pleasure. Having done this, he finally settled down and started to look at the desk.

The notebook on the desk was something An Ze had written in and his handwriting was beautiful. On the side near the wall, more than two dozen books were placed. This was probably because An Ze previously loved to read. An Zhe browsed the names on the spine of the books before reaching out and picking up a simple grey book with the title ‘Base Manual.’

He turned the page and saw only one sentence: Human interests takes precedence over everything else.

An Zhe subconsciously pursed his lips and turned to the next page. The second page was the table of contents. The entire manual was divided into four parts: Base law, the rules of life in the base, the functional areas introduction and a map.