"Mm."

Jiang Cheng didn't seem to want to explain further on this issue. He just nodded.

For Fatty, being alive was good enough. He looked at the doctor and asked his last question with a touch of emotion, "Doctor," he asked, "you heard the whale song too, right?"

"Mm."

"Then..." He moved his body, getting closer to the doctor, his cautious appearance almost comical, "Then... what do you think was making that whale song?"

Fatty paused, his face strange. He opened his mouth, but his voice involuntarily lowered, "Doctor, I don't know why, but I always felt that the monster that ate us wasn't the one making the whale song."

"It doesn't seem like it has that kind of size," Fatty continued in a questioning tone.

He moistened his lips, "I've heard the whale song several times, and every time it's been very shocking. It might sound unbelievable, but it felt like it was directly transmitted to my soul. I felt like every cell in my body was trembling, and... and I heard the heartbeat of the guy making the whale song."

He seemed lost in some kind of memory, not even noticing the doctor's increasingly strange expression. "That heartbeat was very slow, very slow, but very powerful. I could even imagine the force of it expanding and squeezing the deep water."

"I think..." He raised his head, his face strange, and swallowed hard. The look in his eyes as he looked at the doctor became somewhat fearful. "Maybe the guys in Black Rock Town weren't lying about this."

"Continue."

A long time later, Fatty heard the doctor's voice. For some reason, the doctor's voice made him feel uneasy.

But Fatty didn't think too much about it and continued to speak according to his inner thoughts, "Doctor, do you remember their description of... it?"

His thoughts gradually surged, and Fatty seemed to be caught in a strange circle of denial and self-denial.

On the one hand, he wanted to forget everything as soon as possible and break free from the mission he had escaped from. On the other hand, the thing that made the whale song kept churning in his mind, making him want to avoid it.

It was as if... everything that happened in that world... wasn't over.

Strangeness and deep fear were intertwined.

He didn't know what he hoped to get from the doctor, but if he didn't say it, he was afraid that the feeling of eeriness in his heart would crush him.

He involuntarily repeated what he had heard before, that string of words similar to the drunken mutterings of an ancient bard.

"No one can behold its true face. Each of the hard scales on its thick body is the size of a small mountain, and its sharp teeth are like the steepest peaks. Standing at its head and tail, one can see the sunrise and sunset respectively."

"It is a being beyond comprehension. Humans are unaware even when they are in its presence. Mortals can only prostrate themselves before it..."

Because the light wasn't on, Jiang Cheng's face was hidden in the darkness, with only a few sharp angles exposed. His ink-like eyes seemed even darker than the night.

Fatty's words obviously had some impact on him, but not because Fatty's words enlightened or explained anything, but... because they reminded him of some things he had selectively forgotten.

"Remember... what Su Xiaoxiao said?" he said softly.

Fatty was stunned. The doctor's words sounded very strange to him, not like he was trying to explain anything, just a calm exchange.

But the doctor was obviously not that kind of person.

"What did you say, Doctor?" Fatty asked again subconsciously.

"Do you remember what Su Xiaoxiao said?" Jiang Cheng said, "About her brother."

"Su An?"

The doctor ignored him and continued, "Su Xiaoxiao said that her brother, Su An, was in the forest, numbering every tree and every rock... in his own way."

"Yes, Doctor," Fatty replied, "I remember her saying that. She also said that in her brother's perception, they... no, I mean those trees, and all the plants in the forest, were constantly changing. They... were alive."

Jiang Cheng shook his head and exhaled, "I think what Su An really wanted to express wasn't that they were alive, but that they were constantly... moving."

"Because the position coordinates were constantly changing, in his perception, everything in the forest was different from what it was a second ago."

Fatty's eyes slowly widened. He didn't understand the doctor's words, but he did smell something emanating from them that was filled with an extremely terrifying aura.

That was... the taste of truth.

"Have you ever thought," Jiang Cheng continued, "that since this island is a projection based on reality, there will also be a similar island in the real world we live in."

His words were not difficult to understand. Since shadows exist, there must be real objects that can form shadows.

This wasn't a logical sophistry similar to the chicken and the egg, but a real phenomenon.

"But since it exists, why hasn't it been recognized by us in reality?" Jiang Cheng continued, "Don't even mention the old woman's team. I'm telling you, if such a strange thing really happened, with the size of the organization behind the old woman, even the greatest losses would be bearable."

"This is an exploration of the unknown, and the significance it represents is beyond our imagination."

Having gotten used to the doctor's frivolous appearance, Fatty wasn't used to him being serious. But what made him even more uncomfortable was the doctor's gaze hidden in the darkness, watching him.

He seemed to have a lot to say to him, but... was unable to say it all at once due to some reason.

Was it because he was worried that his head was too stupid to understand?

Fatty didn't think so. He had a feeling, perhaps... it was just a guess.

The doctor didn't want him to be drawn into a certain vortex, because the doctor himself couldn't stay out of it either.

That was not a field he could touch, and neither could the doctor.

"So..." Fatty's lips trembled, but he still said it.

"They can't find that island," Jiang Cheng's voice also became strange, and his tone was even more odd than before, "The old woman's team was likely the last time they ever came into contact with it."

Fatty's eyes widened. "Can't find it... how is that possible?"

In Fatty's memory, that island was so big that it could probably hold a city.

The backing behind the old woman was the most important organizational form in human society, and the energy and technological power it possessed was beyond imagination.

Almost everything on this planet could not escape its eyes.

"Fatty," Jiang Cheng said, staring into his eyes at the last moment before closing the door, "I think that island is no longer at sea."