“Please queue up first,” the nurse said stubbornly. “The doctor will examine you. Please do not disturb the director without permission.”

As she spoke, she pointed towards the crowd waiting in line.

Just as she turned her head, the nurse’s arm rotated a full circle at the shoulder, pointing toward the people behind her.

A smile still sat on her face as she gazed at them gently, warm and soothing like a spring breeze.

The patients waiting to be seen found nothing strange about the nurse at all. They continued chattering noisily as they queued.

Xia Ye heard them discussing trivial matters such as their children’s grades and how pork had gone up by another three-tenths of a credit, then gave Chi Zhou a slight nod.

Ignoring the nurse’s reprimands, the two of them went around the noisy crowd and entered the stairwell behind them.

“She may have been one of the first people to be contaminated,” Xia Ye said. “She’s completely undergone woodification. Her limbs are packed with fibres on the inside, and their structure is completely different from that of a human’s, so her joints can rotate freely.”

Even without Xia Ye explaining it, Chi Zhou could see those details for himself.

Xia Ye wasn’t someone who talked much, but for some reason, in this dim hospital filled with strange people with grass growing from their heads, he found himself speaking far more than usual.

“Just like the Third Squad, she retained her individual consciousness after being contaminated and continued repeating the work she had always done.”

Chi Zhou glanced back towards the lobby.

The nurse had chased them all the way to the edge of the stairwell. Once she realised she couldn’t stop them, that sweet smile returned, and she went back to serving the patients.

Xia Ye followed his gaze and saw the nurse’s back.

“Why didn’t she follow us?” Xia Ye asked.

“They can’t leave their posts. They should be bound by the rules,” Chi Zhou explained. “There are different rules within extraterrestrial contamination. The infected mutants can only act according to those rules.”

Xia Ye asked, “Is the rule of the human-faced trees about being devoted to one’s job?”

“It’s not impossible.” Chi Zhou was amused by him.

His voice was gentle, and when he glanced at Xia Ye, an indulgent look came into his eyes.

“Don’t worry. She won’t follow us.”

“I wasn’t scared,” Xia Ye said quietly.

He was used to solving problems on his own and wasn’t used to being looked after by others.

Chi Zhou was clearly the sort of captain who took everything upon himself. Whenever Xia Ye was around him, he could distinctly feel that Chi Zhou regarded him as a newcomer who needed special attention.

He wanted to say that he wasn’t.

“I didn’t say you were scared.” Chi Zhou had obviously understood what lay behind his words. “I’m just used to it.”

He was used to shouldering every responsibility himself. During all those years when he had existed as the Alliance’s strongest sentinel, everyone had simply taken it for granted that he should bear it all.

“I don’t know if you dislike that,” Chi Zhou said.

Xia Ye replied, “I never said I disliked it.”

—

He climbed the stairs, always walking half a step ahead of Chi Zhou.

This was the standard formation for a sentinel-guide combination.

The guide walked in front, using their Mental Domain to investigate the surroundings, while the sentinel stayed behind to protect the guide’s back and remain ready for battle at any moment.

Chi Zhou naturally noticed the detail.

“Did you learn that at military school?” Chi Zhou asked abruptly, bringing up an insignificant topic.

He was trying to ease the tension.

The keen intuition unique to guides allowed Xia Ye to sense Chi Zhou’s true intention.

It was difficult for him to imagine what could possibly be inside this building that would make Chi Zhou nervous. After a moment’s hesitation, he said, “I haven’t attended a single class at military school yet.”

Chi Zhou seemed to let out a quiet laugh—or perhaps he hadn’t.

“I forgot you had only just started school when I called you over.” Chi Zhou placed his hand on the fire door. “Looks like I’ll have to teach you myself.”

The heavy fire door was locked with a thick brass chain. It was something that should not have appeared here.

In the year 2048 of the Star Calendar, nothing like this should have existed anywhere in the Human Alliance.

It was already the age of electronic locks, fitted with built-in iris recognition and linked to one’s StarNet identity. No keys were required; anyone with the proper authorisation could open a door.

Xia Ye examined it carefully.

The brass chain gleamed as if countless people had touched it. Its centre was darkened, engraved with exquisite patterns.

He found it absurd. “I’ve only ever seen locks like this in documentaries.”

Xia Ye was not an enthusiast of ancient Earth history. He simply possessed an extraordinary thirst for knowledge of every kind.

During the years he was confined to the orphanage, he read every piece of information he could find, regardless of where it came from.

“I thought no one was interested in history anymore.”

Chi Zhou’s voice was calm and unhurried, carrying an endless sense of tolerance.

His hand rested against the brass chain, faint blue veins visible beneath the skin on the back of his hand. It was a hand filled with strength—Xia Ye had no doubt that with the slightest twist, Chi Zhou could reduce the brass chain to dust.

“Listen carefully.”

Chi Zhou suddenly exerted his strength. Before the immense power of a sentinel, the brass chain merely gave a dull clang before snapping cleanly into two pieces.

“Xia Ye, today is your first lesson.”

—

The fire door swung open, revealing the corridor beyond.

A wave of heat twice as intense as outside surged towards them. The air-conditioning system hummed desperately, clearly already operating at its limit, yet it still could not alleviate the scorching air.

Xia Ye finally understood why the nurse had refused to let them come up.

The entire corridor was filled with branches. Dark-brown trees had grown out of the director’s office, expanding their territory without restraint and long since filling the corridor completely.

The thick leaves were as large as basketballs, even denser than the trees outside on the street.

“Grown like this, you would think we had gone into a tropical rainforest.”

Chi Zhou threw an incendiary grenade towards the front, and the roaring flames immediately illuminated the dim corridor.

“There are some things military school won’t tell you, but you need to know them.”

Standing in the doorway, he watched coldly as the flames licked at the trees’ branches and leaves.

The trees recoiled rapidly from the searing heat. In an instant, more than half the crowded corridor was cleared.

“First, extraterrestrial contamination is far more serious than what the Alliance news reports.”

Xia Ye quietly took a step forward and stood beside him. “I guessed as much.”

“Mm. I thought you would be able to guess.” Chi Zhou said, “You’re very clever.”

He threw another incendiary grenade, this time farther ahead.

It landed precisely where the trees were clustered together, forcing them back towards the director’s office.

Chi Zhou was like a precision instrument, controlling the smoke and flames with absolute mastery. Without wasting a single resource, he had already cleared the entire corridor. He tossed the two grenade rings into a rubbish bin and continued.

“Second, never underestimate your enemy.”

Chi Zhou surveyed the surroundings. Only after confirming that there was no danger did he walk towards the director’s office.

“The military has determined that extraterrestrial organisms have no intelligence. At first, that was indeed the case. But in recent years, we’ve discovered that they possess a collective unconscious.”

There was a hint of mockery in Chi Zhou’s smile as he said, “The military refuses to acknowledge this theory and continues to deal with them using the methods of the past. I believe that’s why the Third Squad died.”

Xia Ye fell silent. He did not know how to respond to Chi Zhou.

There was sorrow hidden in Chi Zhou’s voice.

It was not that Xia Ye could not understand that emotion. It was precisely because he understood it too well that he could not find the words to respond.

During the extraterrestrial contamination incident in District Twelve, he had seen far too many things like this.

Tragedies that could have been prevented. Consequences that could never be undone. The agony of losing everything…

All of it was far too familiar to him.

Chi Zhou did not linger on the subject for long. He had already learnt not to dwell on those who had passed away, and simply continued.

“Extraterrestrial organisms pass consciousness down to their offspring through heredity. Their world has its own set of rules.”

Chi Zhou drew a circle in the air with one finger.

“Within a contaminated zone, all mutants act according to the rules and cannot disobey commands issued by higher-level species. That is their collective unconscious.”

Xia Ye nodded to show that he understood.

He had read about the concept in books before and found Chi Zhou’s explanation easy to understand.

Chi Zhou looked at him, surprised. “You understood?”

Xia Ye answered naturally, “I did. They don’t act purely on instinct as the Alliance says. They have their own consciousness. It’s just that we simply can’t interpret it.”

“Mm.” Chi Zhou’s voice held a little more appreciation. “You have a very strong grasp of things.”

As the Alliance’s symbol, Chi Zhou held an honorary position at the military school.

An honorary professor didn’t actually have to teach classes, but back when Chi Zhou still had hope for the military school, he often held lectures there.

Naturally, the lectures were packed. Enthusiastic students filled the auditorium, each wanting to win the favour of the Alliance’s light.

He had once mistaken that enthusiasm for enthusiasm towards the Alliance.

It didn’t take long for Chi Zhou to realise he had been wrong.

It was enthusiasm for power and status.

Most of the students at the military school came from the upper seven districts. They came from wealthy, powerful families and had never entered the military school for humanity’s sake. They were there to polish their credentials and help their families climb even higher within the Alliance.

Winning the recognition of the Alliance’s strongest sentinel was obviously an excellent way to do that.

Chi Zhou was disappointed; it went against his principles.

With extraterrestrial contamination running rampant, protecting humanity should have been the duty of sentinels and guides.

Using one’s abilities to pursue personal desires was clearly not the conduct of a gentleman.

What disappointed him even more was that these people were all useless good-for-nothings, and it was exceedingly difficult to find anyone with genuine potential among them.

Clearly, after such a long wait, the person he had been looking for had finally appeared.

Xia Ye stood before him, his back straight, carrying the stubbornness unique to youth.

On his very first day in the Special Operations Department, he had already been able to keep pace with him.

“Good thing I snatched you away first,” Chi Zhou sighed. “Xia Ye, someone like you joining the military would be a waste.”

Xia Ye shook his head slightly. “I don’t want to join the military anymore.”

A strange tranquillity filled his eyes. “Good.”

The black dragon soared into the air and appeared behind Chi Zhou, its inorganic eyes gleaming faintly with gold.

“Xia Ye, the final point of your first lesson.”

Chi Zhou idly toyed with the desert eagle in his hand, absolute confidence contained within his languid tone.

“Never leave my side.”

A Magnum round was chambered with a sudden click.

It was a .357 calibre round, specially modified by the research institute. It could penetrate three metres of reinforced flooring in an instant.

His voice was calm, merely stating a fact.

“I can guarantee that you won’t come to any harm.”

The door to the director’s office suddenly exploded open before them. At the long office desk, the ‘people’ wearing military uniforms all turned their heads in unison, their blood-red eyes fixed uniformly upon them. Countless vines had burst from their limbs, intertwining with the dark-brown branches and filling the entire room.

Flowers bloomed at the tips of the vines. The delicate, pale-yellow blossoms almost completely enclosed the heads of those ‘people’ in their petals. Their slender stamens swayed in the air, while thick, sticky sap slowly dripped down, corroding the birchwood floor.

The Third Squad of the District Ten Military Command had undergone complete mutation.

The author’s note:

One question for my little angels:

What was your first impression of Instructor Chi and xiao Xia?

Has your impression of them changed now that you’ve read this far?

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