Chapter 315 - 312: Investigation on the Island

Chapter 315: Chapter 312: Investigation on the Island

Li Luo left Fire Thief Studio with Block.

"Right now, what’s most important isn’t my memory, but what in the world has happened on this island..."

"We need to find someone to ask. With so many islanders, there has to be someone who’s had the same experience as me. Maybe a lot of people only stayed on this island because their memories were altered."

Mo Ling agreed with Li Luo, but who should they ask?

"Lin Nian?"

"We can’t ask her. She definitely knows something, or she wouldn’t have been so deliberate in guiding me. In fact, we need to keep things from her."

Li Luo had grown very suspicious of Lin Nian.

"We don’t need to go out of our way to find someone. Anyone on this island could be a lead. Since the people on Paradise Island are so friendly, we can use that to our advantage."

As she spoke, Li Luo led Block toward a familiar-looking person.

It was a man on a bicycle, currently stopped at the roadside to drink some water.

A white cycling jersey, a white helmet, and a pure-white bicycle—this strangely dressed person was the same "cyclist" they had seen in the restaurant before.

Because of his unique attire, both Li Luo and Mo Ling remembered him vividly.

"Hello, sorry to bother you. I’m new to the island. May I ask you a few questions?" Li Luo walked up to the cyclist and asked politely.

The cyclist glanced at Li Luo, then at Block behind her. He tightened the cap on his white water bottle and placed it back on its rack.

"Don’t be so formal. Ask anything you want, I’m not in a hurry."

He replied calmly, then removed his white goggles and mask.

Only then was the cyclist’s face revealed to Li Luo.

At first glance, his sturdy build made him seem like a burly man; she never expected to find an old, weathered face beneath the goggles and mask.

However, though his face was covered in wrinkles, the cyclist’s eyes were exceptionally clear and full of life.

His hair and beard were neatly groomed, and he radiated a vitality that was impossible to suppress. If not for a closer look, it would be difficult to realize he was an elderly man.

Seeing the shock in Li Luo’s eyes, the cyclist smiled. "Didn’t expect that, did you? That I’m actually this old. The first time people see me, they’re always surprised for a good long while."

Li Luo quickly shook her head. "I honestly couldn’t tell..."

"It’s fine. Ask whatever questions you have. I’ve been on this island for so long, I’ll tell you anything I can. But if it’s something I don’t know, there’s nothing I can do," the cyclist said humbly.

"Okay." Li Luo nodded. "How did the people on this island find out about Paradise Island? And how did they get here?"

"And why did they choose to stay on Paradise Island?"

Li Luo had asked Lin Nian this question before, but now she wanted to confirm it again. ℴ

The cyclist smiled and nodded upon hearing Li Luo’s question.

"I don’t know much about the others. Can I tell you about my own experience?"

"Of course."

"Alright, I’ll answer your first question: how I found out about Paradise Island..."

The cyclist slowly began to tell Li Luo his story:

He was among the first group of people to reach the 3rd Floor of the Abyss.

In fact, Paradise Island was discovered by his very own exploration team.

Upon arriving on the island, the exploration team discovered its unique property—the ability to "define" one’s identity. They also found that this property could suppress the price paid for using relics.

At the time, the exploration team treated it as a relic-related phenomenon.

However, in the exploration team’s opinion, a phenomenon like this was nothing remarkable.

They had experienced far more terrifying distortions within the Abyss—relics that would devour a person whole. Compared to that, the phenomenon on this island was mere child’s play.

The first time they set foot on the island, it was a vast expanse of pure white, just without the streamlined buildings it has now.

By that time, humanity had already made contact with other intelligent races on the 3rd Floor of the Abyss. The records of these other races mentioned a pure-white island, which they called Paradise Island, so humanity simply adopted the name.

After just recording its location and environment, the exploration team left, leaving subsequent matters for other support teams to handle.

That was the cyclist’s first time on Paradise Island.

"That’s how I knew about Paradise Island—simply because I’d been here before..."

He then began to answer Li Luo’s other questions:

"As for how I got here, I came by ferry, of course. I came to this island with a purpose, because I needed it to suppress the side effects of my relic..."

As humanity gradually explored the Abyss, the cyclist, a member of the vanguard exploration team, was also getting older. Although he was experienced, his physical stamina slowly began to fail him, and he was gradually moved to a secondary role as a member of a support team.

After that, he was transferred to a monitoring station and became its director.

As he said this, the cyclist’s expression clearly grew more somber.

"I wanted to keep going, to see the Bottom of the Abyss, but the spirit was willing and the flesh was weak. All we could do was let future generations finish what we could not..."

At the time, the monitoring station he was in charge of was on the 2nd Floor of the Abyss. It was a very small station, but its location was extremely important, and it shouldered a great deal of responsibility.

It was at the intersection of several regions of quicksand, located on a fortuitously solid sand dune. The monitoring station sat atop this dune, occupying the only solid ground in the area.

For some reason, Hunters coming from the first floor to the second would frequently fall into the quicksand—the probability was very high. The primary responsibility of the Quicksand Monitoring Station was to rescue these Hunters.

The quicksand was also exceptionally rich with life, and the station had been built in that location precisely to study these Abyssal Creatures.

Although it was dangerous, the rewards were immense.

Not only that, but relics would also sometimes surface from the nearby quicksand. The station collected every one of them, using some for research and others to help protect the station.

Compared to other monitoring stations, the Quicksand Monitoring Station, though small and understaffed, was exceptionally formidable.

Furthermore, the cyclist was a veteran explorer with keen judgment for handling all kinds of situations in the Abyss. So, although the Quicksand Monitoring Station was always busy, it continued to operate in an orderly manner.

Until one day, a subordinate came to the cyclist and informed him of a grim fact: the Quicksand Monitoring Station was sinking.

Fortunately, the sinking was extremely slow and wouldn’t affect the station’s normal operations in the short term.

At the time, the cyclist didn’t consider it a major issue. Buildings sinking in the desert were a common occurrence that required timely relocation, but he didn’t feel this was urgent, so he put the matter aside.

This was his standard procedure based on years of experience: deal with more important matters first.

However, this decision planted the seeds of a future disaster...