The night winds bellowed stronger in the open wilderness than during the day. The bonfire built from broken twigs and dead leaves jumped and flickered in the wind, and the column of smoke scattered in the air before even reaching the sky.
Apart from the small bonfire, there wasn't a single source of light on the horizon—even the dimly lit stars from before had been concealed entirely by a thick layer of clouds. In the darkness, six people and B. Rabbit huddled around the fire. The wavering flames illuminated each of their solemn expressions. No one spoke for quite a while.
It had already been six hours since the disappearance of Bai Xiaoke and the two others.
Although no one explicitly spelled it out, everyone knew clearly that the hope of rescuing them alive wasn't all that great.
Finally, B. Rabbit looked to his left and right before breaking the silence, asking for the nth time, "Green Melon, are you sure you didn't see anything strange when you were in the air that day?"
"I'm telling you the truth, Boss," Green Melon showed a despondent expression, sounding dispirited and dazed, "How would I dare to miss a single sign of disturbance! But there was nothing besides those endless rows of ridges. I didn't even see a single bug, let alone traces of human activity."
When Lin Sanjiu's Dog's Frisbee lit up this afternoon, they stopped their tracks after leaving the danger zone. Lin Sanjiu had Green Melon wear his [Cloud Mimicry Raincoat] to fly up to the skies and survey the situation.
Although [Cloud Mimicry Raincoat] could only allow its user to rise straight from where he was standing and not much other mobility, Green Melon might discover something if he had an eagle's view of the place. However, they were swiftly met with disappointment.
Even though they didn't dare to step into that area rashly, they exhausted all other possibilities, using every suitable special item at their disposal to scout the area. When the items came back empty-handed, they spent a considerable amount of effort to capture two bugs. They tied the bugs and threw them into the area.
While Green Melon monitored the situation from the sky, Lin Sanjiu called out her Diary Card. Ignoring its constant display of "Oh gosh, this is so disgusting" and other complaints, she tied the card and the worms together before releasing them into the danger zone.
When they pulled back the string, the bugs had disappeared as expected, whereas the Diary Card was left dangling from the string. Lin Sanjiu suppressed her sudden excitement. She removed the card and noticed that her Diary Card only recorded a single sentence: "5:04 pm, the disgusting bugs suddenly disappeared."
Then, she called Green Melon down to question him.
"I only saw two little shadows rolling before they disappeared... I didn't catch how they disappeared. It happened in the blink of an eye."
With that, they were completely at a loss for what to do next. After quite a while, someone heaved a long sigh.
"This is all my fault," Lin Sanjiu said. She lowered her head, staring fixed at the small piece of land before her, "If I didn't bring all of you here recklessly, they wouldn't have just... disappeared."
One of the twins, it wasn't clear which, suddenly let out a loud sniffle.
"It wasn't your fault, Sister Lin," Hui Chuyan consoled anxiously. "We all agreed to come here. You even told us to be on alert when we were nearing the area. But this situation is illogical; no one would ever expect this to happen."
Lin Sanjiu patted Hui Chuyan's hand lightly in appreciation but said nothing, disagreeing.
There was still something buried deep in her heart that she had not told the others.
The point where the LED lights blinked again was not the same location where they first stopped. It was at least two to three hundred meters from the first boundary. No matter how hard Lin Sanjiu thought about it, she couldn't think of an explanation for this phenomenon. To make things worse, the more she thought about it, the more she doubted her memory.
After all, the landscape that surrounded them had already been barren for a long time. It was littered with ruins and sparse vegetation, which looked more or less the same but lacked any prominent landmarks. Besides, she was in a hurry; she could have remembered the first spot wrongly. The fact that the others seemed unaware of this was perhaps proof of this suspicion.
"Let's analyze this for a bit," Lin Sanjiu said with a sigh, rubbing her face. She knew that no amount of regret would bring those people back. The best choice of action was to try a little harder.
"The bugs and my Diary Card were released together. The bugs disappeared, yet the card remained. This probably means that only living organisms would disappear?" She gave everyone a sweeping glance, who held a faint hint of anticipation.
"That appears to be the case," B. Rabbit replied. "Moreover, only things on the ground will disappear."
"There is something odd about this... The people and bugs disappeared in different locations, with significant distance between them," Xueqin said. "If something attacked them, could there be more than one of those things?"
"That's impossible," Green Melon said. "I would have detected it if there was even one, let alone a few of them."
Their discussion reached a dead-end once again. Lin Sanjiu scratched her head impatiently, considering many possibilities. 'Was it a mutated organism? A duoluozhong? A special item? A pocket dimension?'
She immediately looked up, drawing everyone's attention.
"Is this... a pocket dimension?" Lin Sanjiu said, her heart pounding at the possible small breakthrough.
"Fuck, it is possible!" B. Rabbit instantly perked up. "Some pocket dimensions start without any warning, sucking you in even without you knowing."
Everyone became enthusiastic except for Xueqin, who evolved not long ago and didn't know what a pocket dimension was. The gloomy atmosphere in the air dissipated as they had a lively discussion about the possibility that they were in a pocket dimension.
As everyone seemed less perplexed, B. Rabbit got straight to the point, addressing the main worry in their hearts. "A pocket dimension doesn't follow the natural order of things, so for now, there isn't a risk of them dying. We still have time."
The feelings of guilt weighing Lin Sanjiu down lightened. With that, her thoughts ran faster, and she added, "Although we don't know what type of pocket dimension it is, there must be a second stage. We must be prepared... Hmm, how about this? I've retrieved quite several items from the Garden of Eden Laboratories. Let's distribute them tonight. It will boost our combat abilities in a short time."
Before escaping the Garden of Eden, she had already instructed the ladies around her to carry a large bag. Those who couldn't find a bag bundled their items in large bed sheets. Since Lin Sanjiu had a conversion limit of 16 items a day, she chose to immediately convert only the large, hard-to-carry items, while converting the rest in the following days.
Lin Sanjiu took out all the possibly handy items and spread the cards out on the ground in a straight row. Xueqin shifted her gaze to one of the cards and picked it up. [Bubbles Blowing Girl] was the same item that caused them a lot of trouble during their mission in the Garden of Eden.
"We can use this to guard us at night!" she said excitedly.
[Bubbles Blowing Girl]
Developed by the Technology Department in the Garden of Eden Laboratories, this product has the sturdy appearance of a 1.8m kindergarten girl blowing bubbles while holding a bottle of soapy water. The bottle of soapy water contains an intensive energy compression device. Thus, the bubbles created can cause mini-explosions.
However, the most impressive part of it would be the "Enemy homing ability" integrated with the bubbles. The bubbles would automatically pursue the targeted enemies and only explode after honing in the target. The robot's towering shadow brought some sense of security to everyone.
While Xueqin studied the robot to figure out how it operated, the others looked at the remaining cards before distributing them according to their needs.
With a new direction, everyone was more mentally prepared. After they tested the items for some time, the older twin, Metaphysics, said, "Boss, there's still some time before dawn. Wouldn't it be better if we all rested a bit?"
Since no one knew what to expect next from the pocket dimension, waiting for something to happen wasn't the smartest course of action. B. Rabbit thought for a while before saying, "I agree. Everyone should recuperate and conserve their energy. Green Melon, you will stand guard for two hours before changing shifts with... Uh, what's your name? Hui Chuyan?"
Since B. Rabbit had everything in order, Lin Sanjiu took a rucksack out and used it as a pillow before lying near the bonfire.
"Take a head count every thirty minutes. We don't want to lose another person!" B. Rabbit concluded. Then, he found a comfortable resting spot, curling himself into a ball.
'He does have a semblance of a boss,' Lin Sanjiu thought.
Apart from Green Melon, who was on the night watch, everybody lay down on the ground in small groups. It quickly grew quiet, although no one had fallen asleep yet. Soon, they could even hear each other's breathing.
After staring at the night sky for a considerable amount of time, half-alert, Lin Sanjiu finally drifted off to a restful sleep. It was peacefully quiet, and nothing strange happened.
The sky was still dark when she woke up. The bonfire had already died down, so it was pitch black all around. She could only make out a few figures in the near distance and the large [Bubbles Blowing Girl] standing beside her.
'Nothing happened.' Lin Sanjiu rubbed her eyes and sat up. "Who's on the night watch now?"
Her question was met with silence; she heard the passing breeze.
Lin Sanjiu's palms began to sweat. She looked again carefully and realized that the shadows belonged to the sleeping bags, which had a slight depression but did not carry a single soul.
'Whe-where is everyone?'
She took out her [Dog's Frisbee] and put it in her mouth.
Despite her wishes, the lights did not flash.