Garden of Eden || Apocalypse Paradise #2 [Complete]

161: Boundary Line

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.