"What a coincidence."
Why this one?
Mo Ling didn’t understand either. He couldn’t see the connection between this title and what the Ancient Mine Race had talked about.
Li Luo was clearly just as confused by her own title. After a mont of scrutiny, she put the naplate down, her face a mask of bewildernt.
The naplate had been created by so relic. The titles Mo Ling had seen before were all related to their bearers’ abilities.
’Is it about more than just abilities?’ Mo Ling couldn’t figure it out.
But this wasn’t the ti to dwell on the naplate’s title. Mo Ling noticed a strange movent up ahead.
A figure was charging straight toward Li Luo. It was a Hunter!
The Hunter wore thick, windproof goggles and was bundled up from head to toe.
The Hunter rushed up to Li Luo, skidding to a halt. He glanced at her and the Block behind her, then asked hurriedly, "New here?"
Li Luo nodded.
The Hunter didn’t linger. He tossed out two words and then charged past her.
"Run away!"
His hurried words echoed in Mo Ling’s ears.
What did that an?
The Hunter had moved so fast that Mo Ling had barely heard him.
Only after a mont did he realize he hadn’t misheard.
’He’s telling Li Luo to run away? Is sothing chasing him?’
’Is it so powerful creature?’ Mo Ling waited a mont, but he saw no pursuers.
Li Luo also seed baffled by the Hunter’s bizarre behavior, standing rooted to the spot, at a loss.
Worried there might actually be danger ahead, Li Luo took out a spherical observation drone and sent it flying forward. But even as it neared the black tower, it reported that everything was normal.
Just as he was puzzling over this, a figure reappeared in Mo Ling’s field of vision. It was the sa Hunter, running back from the direction he had just fled.
Now what?
The Hunter was clearly shocked to find Li Luo still there. He stumbled to a stop in front of her again, panting, and gasped, "I told you to run away! I’m not kidding!"
He was breathing so hard that his words were slightly slurred.
Then, before Li Luo could ask a question, he took off running toward the black tower again.
He ran a few steps, caught sight of the black tower ahead, and promptly spun around to run in a different direction.
"..."
’Where is he trying to go?’ Watching the Hunter run around like a headless chicken, Mo Ling was utterly confused.
Li Luo’s observation drone circled the area once more. Everything was still normal. No sign of danger.
’He’s not going to co running back again, is he?’
Sure enough, it wasn’t long before the Hunter ca running back from the direction he had just disappeared in.
He looked exhausted. He stopped in front of Li Luo, gritting his teeth as he gasped for air, his goggles completely fogged over.
"What are you running from?" Li Luo asked, seizing the opportunity while he caught his breath.
The Hunter was panting too hard to speak. He just raised a hand and pointed at the black tower.
Li Luo followed his finger with her gaze and asked in disbelief, "The black tower?"
Hearing this, the Hunter nodded vigorously.
When he finally caught his breath, he started talking again in a rush, but his speech was laced with strange words.
"There’s a mango inside the zebra, it will change your radar. If you don’t run, you’ll find this mango soon. It must be an area-of-effect mango. Ugh, anyway, just run!"
After saying this, he scanned his surroundings, picked a direction, and hastily fled.
Now, Mo Ling was even more confused.
Zebra?
Mango?
Radar?
Were these so kind of relics?
Li Luo brought up her electronic screen and ran a search, but she found no relics matching those terms.
The search ca up empty.
Just then, the Hunter appeared yet again. This ti, he seed too exhausted to run, sweat pouring down his face as he staggered forward with his arms hanging limply.
The sight of Li Luo made his face fall into despair. Seeing her still searching on her electronic screen, he shook his head and approached.
But this ti, the Hunter’s words were even stranger, like a random jumble of words.
"Stop singing, there’s no such thing as a mouse mango. Just learn it, a pile of cardboard boxes inside the zebra won’t help..."
As he spoke, Li Luo backed away from the strange Hunter.
Finally, the Hunter seed to realize sothing was wrong. He abruptly stopped his bizarre rambling, swung his backpack around to his front, and began to rummage frantically through it.
The Hunter pulled out an electronic screen and began to draw on it.
His drawing skills were terrible, but it was just possible to make out a stick figure. The figure was running as fast as it could away from the black tower, with long speed lines trailing behind it.
The Hunter then held the screen up for Li Luo to see, pointing at the drawing, then at her, and miming the act of running.
As if worried she still wouldn’t understand, he rummaged through his pack again and found a tattered piece of white paper.
He hurriedly unfolded the paper, gave the words on it a strange look, but after a mont’s hesitation, he resolutely held it up for Li Luo to see.
He jabbed his finger frantically at the paper. On it were the sa two familiar words:
"Run away!"
Finally, Li Luo nodded.
Seeing that Li Luo finally understood, the Hunter was ecstatic. He carefully put his piece of paper away, zipped up his backpack, and resud his flight.
It seed there really was so kind of danger in the black tower. That must be what had made the Hunter so strange.
Was it so kind of distortion?
Better safe than sorry. Li Luo didn’t hesitate. She imdiately changed direction and moved away from the black tower.
But after walking for so ti, Li Luo stopped in her tracks.
The icon on her map was spinning wildly.
Mo Ling hadn’t felt anything unusual, but with his limited vision and the repetitive scenery of sand dunes, he could only follow along as Li Luo kept changing her course.
But the map’s orientation on the electronic screen kept shifting, and the observation drone’s feed would suddenly jump. It was as if they were trapped in this area.
No matter which way they went, they were always heading toward the black tower.
No wonder the Hunter had been running back and forth. It seed he couldn’t find a way out either, trapped by the sa disorienting effect.
’When did we enter this area?’
Mo Ling tried to recall their journey, but he couldn’t pinpoint anything out of the ordinary. They had been thodically following the route on the official map the whole ti.
All the landmarks and topography had matched the map perfectly.
It seed the effect had already enveloped the area without them realizing it, trapping anyone within a certain radius.
’What a powerful distortion.’
Li Luo’s expression was grave. She stared at the black tower in the distance, her thoughts unreadable.
Perhaps the black tower’s distortion had been active for a long ti, but because of this inescapable trap, the outside world remained oblivious.
The distortion within might be far more severe than they imagined.
Was it caused by so kind of relic?
Recalling the Hunter’s bizarre sentences, Mo Ling had a theory. ’It’s a distortion targeting language, or perhaps cognition.’
With this thought, he imdiately flew in front of Li Luo, typed a ssage on the electronic screen, and sent it to her.
"Can you understand what I’m writing? I’m going to give you a small test. One of the answers will be obviously strange. I need you to pick it."
"A. Strawberry, red."
"B. Grape, Purple."
"C. Orange, orange."
"D. Obtuse angle."
Li Luo stared at the screen for a long ti, her expression growing stranger and stranger, as if the question was incredibly difficult. After a while, she replied with a serious look:
"I don’t understand."
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