"It turned into a liquid like water?" Logan looked at Ethan and instinctively pulled Laura back. "You mean this stuff isn't actually water?"
He didn't fully understand what Ethan had said before, it sounded too unbelievable. He suspected he might have misheard something, or maybe his grasp of Ethan's terminology still wasn't solid.
"In terms of composition, this definitely isn't water..." Ethan felt a chill run down his spine as well. The data displayed on his glasses was becoming more detailed, and with his perfectly functional intellect, there was no way he could misunderstand the readings. All the analytical data pointed to one conclusion—this substance was a living organism. But externally, it showed no signs of life at all. More importantly, he couldn't detect a soul presence from it.
"No soul, no spiritual will… which means no self-awareness. Or maybe it once had one, but it's completely dissipated."
The part that baffled him was, if the spiritual will had truly dissipated, how was the vitality being maintained? Any living being that loses its soul will eventually die, but after observing for a while, Ethan could tell the life force in the liquid hadn't diminished at all.
Ethan explained his speculations and shared the data with Logan. Logan, who already had a headache trying to keep up, just felt increasingly unsettled. The urge to lie down and sleep was growing stronger, and the conflicting emotions inside him were making him more and more uneasy.
"It's probably a psychic disturbance."
Ethan wasn't sure if the mental interference was coming from a living organism or if it was an inherent property of the environment itself. And he had no way of telling which scenario would be worse.
"If it's some kind of undetectable creature, maybe we can solve the threat by eliminating it." But so far, they hadn't seen any sign of living creatures. The only organic entity present was the strange liquid in front of them. "If the mental interference is coming from the environment itself, then we just need to leave this place to get rid of the influence."
"Are we heading back?" Logan's understanding of this world came mostly from Ethan's explanations. He had no idea if what they were experiencing was normal, or if they still needed to try finding supplies on the island.
"There's no need to yet."
Ethan pulled a few charms from his ring and handed them to Logan and Laura.
"Wear these close to your body, they can offer some degree of protection."
These charms could resist a certain level of mental interference. If a strong psychic attack occurred, they would give a clear "warning" signal. Additionally, while shielding the user from harm, they would remind them that this was their last line of defense and they'd need to make a quick decision about whether to press on or retreat.
As of now, both the creature and environmental interference were minor. Ethan believed the influence was being deliberately kept at this level so that the victims wouldn't even notice they were being affected. Still, he couldn't guarantee things wouldn't escalate. Just in case, he gave each of them a talisman.
"I really didn't expect these charms would be used so much in this world."
First the ghost ship, now this strange island. He had originally thought these charms would mostly be used while traveling through space, but it turned out the exact opposite.
Once Logan and Laura had placed the charms on their bodies, the group continued toward the center of the island.
At the moment, the situation was troublesome but still manageable. It wasn't serious enough to make them retreat. Ethan still wanted to investigate what was at the island's center. Was the mental interference growing stronger the deeper they went? If so, that would suggest the disturbance was rooted in the island itself.
He continued using his staff to part the tall grass and explore the path ahead. As they advanced, the grass eventually reached up to their waists. The shortest among them, Laura, now sat on Logan's shoulders to avoid getting lost in the grass. From her high vantage point, she also used a telescope to help scout the surroundings.
"See anything?"
They had been walking for quite a while, and the view hadn't changed, it was just more grass, getting taller and denser. Logan, never the most patient type, was beginning to lose his temper. At this point, he even hoped for some kind of threat to appear. Anything would be better than the monotony they were experiencing.
"No, still just grass. Same as before."
Laura's response made Logan sigh. He suddenly had the urge to raise his rifle and fire into the sky. At that moment, Ethan, who was walking in front, suddenly stopped and turned around with a serious expression.
"You see something?"
"No… but your emotional state is off." Ethan's face darkened. He realized that his own mood had started fluctuating violently. That, and the fact that their minds were once again being heavily disturbed, meant that the talismans had lost their protective effect. Yet the backup alarm they were supposed to trigger hadn't gone off either.
This wasn't impossible. Ethan had only ever considered it a theoretical risk, and now an island had proven him wrong so quickly.
"The charms can no longer protect us. For our safety, retreating now is the smarter choice."
Seeing that Ethan wasn't joking, Logan immediately nodded and turned to leave.
But as he moved, he noticed something was wrong—Laura, who had been riding on his shoulders just moments ago, had disappeared. He hadn't even noticed when she vanished.
"Laura?"
Logan began parting the grass on both sides in search of her, but found nothing. The green grass was still just grass, and only bare soil was visible underneath. There weren't even any footprints.
"Ethan, did you notice when Laura…"
He turned to ask Ethan but to his shock, Ethan had also disappeared. Looking around, there was no trace of him at all, as if he had vanished into thin air.
"Damn it!"
Logan angrily kicked the grass in front of him, then quickly readjusted his equipment, switched off the firearm safety, and refrained from moving blindly.
As a seasoned fighter, he knew there was no point in running around in confusion. He needed to stay calm and figure out an appropriate course of action.
"First, I need to determine whether Ethan and Laura are still able to move freely…"
He decided to retreat for now. If neither of his companions returned to the ship, that would indicate their movements were restricted and then it would be time to plan a search and rescue. But just as Logan tried to head back, he realized the surrounding area now looked identical in every direction, and even the faint view of the coast had vanished…
At the same time, Ethan was facing the same trouble. Just as he was preparing to leave the island, Logan and Laura had suddenly disappeared, and the surrounding scenery had become indistinguishable. He could barely tell which direction he'd come from.
"Yeah, this is serious trouble."
The worse the situation, the more important it was to stay calm. Ethan didn't move, instead standing in place and using his glasses to collect data. But no matter how much he scanned, the results remained perfectly normal.
"No abnormalities… which is the biggest abnormality. This means my perception is being heavily disrupted or even completely controlled. The data being shown on the glasses is probably exactly what this mysterious force wants me to see, meaning it can no longer be trusted."
He removed the glasses and put them away. Ethan was certain now, he had lost reliable vision.
"My sense of smell and hearing are also being distorted, and touch can't be trusted either… So what, am I supposed to burn my Cosmos and awaken the Seventh Sense to become a Gold Saint now?"
He tried to adjust his mindset with humor, to ease his nerves and avoid making rash decisions in a state of panic.
"My thoughts are still clear. That means the charms I made is still working to some degree. The previous mental interference that gave me the urge to sleep hasn't returned—only a sudden wave of anxiety earlier."
Ethan was sure that it had been his own anxiety that made him realize something was wrong. That was what triggered his decision to leave, and it likely alerted the mysterious force that direct interference with his thoughts wouldn't work, prompting it to switch to a new tactic against him and the others.
"In other words, the only thing I can trust now is my own mental power?"
Given the situation, the best method of observation would be scanning with mental power. However, Ethan had only ever used mental power to sense or detect energy fluctuations, he had never used it as a scanning method, like radar or sonar. Whether he could pull it off under pressure remained to be seen.
"Well, there's no choice but to try."
After calming himself and taking a deep breath, Ethan began to mobilize his mental power, slowly spreading it throughout his entire body.
He didn't rush to scan his surroundings right away. First, he had to confirm that his body wasn't being manipulated. With vision, hearing, smell, and touch all compromised, he couldn't even be sure of his own physical state anymore.
This internal check revealed something alarming. Ethan realized that he wasn't standing at all—he was lying down. And he couldn't even be sure where he was lying.
Continuing the inspection, he discovered something was wrapped around his wrists and ankles. These things were emitting an extremely gentle and subtle fluctuation. If Ethan hadn't repeatedly checked, he never would've noticed them.
"This is worse than I thought."
(To be continued.)
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