Chapter 519: Island

"I've never seen these two."

The little girl pointed the handle of her jump rope at the photo of the white horse tombstone and Gray Rain, then pointed at the astronaut, "I've seen this one—he went to the town hall on the hill an hour ago."

There are guards there; no outsiders are allowed inside, unless—"

Her tone shifted subtly in the second half; Claudia understood instantly and pulled out a large bag of luxurious, exquisitely packaged candies—high-level transcendents metabolize far faster than ordinary people and often carry high-calorie snacks like energy bars, Snickers, and five-nut mooncakes.

Unexpectedly, the little girl glanced at the candies with disdain and said to Claudia in a tone far too old for her age: "I'm already dead, you know? What use are living people's food to me?"

What?

Claudia froze, and the players hiding around the corner also blinked, scratching their heads in confusion.

In many horror and supernatural-themed works, when the protagonist exposes the fact that an NPC has long been dead, the NPC immediately transforms into a vengeful ghost, triggering a bad ending.

But for an NPC to voluntarily state they're dead—this is like Liu Lu's blind date with Dong Xuelian—uncommon indeed.

Ding-dong-dong—

At that moment, a long, resonant bell rang from the top of the clock tower.

The little girl looked up at the clock tower and said coldly, "It's five p. m. now. If you want to know how to enter the town hall, bring me a matcha ice cream before seven. Robinson's Store on the east side of town has it."

With that, she gave Claudia no chance to ask further and vanished instantly.

"."

Claudia stared at the spot where the girl had disappeared, frowned, and walked toward the corner of the street, "Did you see that?"

"We saw it."

Wanli Fengdao mused, "We can be certain—she isn't a ghost in the usual sense."

Xiao Dao Ge entered the Dao through martial means, completed countless classical fantasy and folk supernatural quest scenarios, and slain no fewer than a thousand undead creatures.

That little jump-rope girl had not a trace of malevolent energy or resentment—completely inconsistent with the traits of a dead soul.

"What I'm more concerned about is the time she mentioned."

Mian Yue squinted, "It's five p. m. now, and she demands the ice cream before seven. If this is a quest, then such a generous two-hour window implies—"

"It implies we're expected to encounter trouble on the way."

Li Cheng summarized, "For now, with no further clues, we should follow the NPC's instructions. But before that, there's another matter to attend to."

He adjusted his information-integration glasses, sprinted to the base of the clock tower, and climbed it with the agility of a monkey, swiftly inspecting it.

The clock tower's timekeeping system is powered by a steam turbine, which draws high-pressure, high-temperature water to the surface; due to pressure drop, some water instantly "flash-vaporizes" into steam, driving the turbine to generate electricity.

Thus, the clock tower serves not only to tell time for the town but also as its power station and substation.

Because it uses geothermal energy, the timekeeping system can operate autonomously for long periods without maintenance.

The only pity is that the turbine's power structure is hidden inside a sealed compartment; like other rooms in the town, the compartment is locked by invisible forces, unbreakable, so the exact time cannot be verified.

"Classic door—can't open from this side. Let's explore the front area later."

Li Cheng shrugged, unsurprised, climbed out the window, and descended the clock tower, "Phew, why do I feel kinda tired?"

Since absorbing the massive genome cluster, he hadn't felt fatigue in a long time—his muscle cells utilized ATP with maximum efficiency, never accumulating lactic acid.

Combined with his assembled puppet, he could even implant stored fat directly into his body when needed.

This fatigue isn't an illusion; since his player panel won't open, he can't see detailed stamina data.

Li Cheng held his breath, focused, and extracted the fluorescent protein gene from the genome cluster generously gifted by Da Qun, then read his internal data via fluorescent skin patterns on his right forearm.

"After just a little while, my stamina's already down to 85%?"

————

"So tired."

At the same moment, on a sunlit beach, Gray Rain—transformed into a swimsuit—sat beneath a coconut tree, sipping coconut juice while roasting freshly caught fish over a fire.

From the mountain of shells, shrimp, crabs, and sea urchins beside her, it was clear she'd been eating for quite some time.

Perhaps because the Entropy Devourer Cloud itself lacks strong individual will, the dreamland it created was unusually peaceful—a truly harmless, abundantly rich tropical island.

Gray Rain immediately applied knowledge she'd learned from survival reality shows: friction fire (mostly brute force), foraging seafood from the sea.

At first, she pretended to use liquid metal to craft a fishing rod and line; when that failed, she switched tactics instantly, becoming a trawl net and scooping directly from the seabed.

While gorging herself, the griffin flapped back from afar and shook its head at Bai Ma Mubei, who waited on the beach.

The entire sea, including the seabed, was covered by a metal dome of unknown thickness—players couldn't escape by force.

"This is bad."

Bai Ma Mubei instinctively clenched the sand in his hand, crushing it into finer dust; from prior communication with Master Pi Fu, they clearly had been transported to another specific dreamland.

Mubei and the others were effectively excluded.

The helplessness of losing control over initiative was unsettling; both players sighed simultaneously. The griffin glanced at Gray Rain's carefree demeanor and asked, "Aren't you worried about Master Pi Fu and the others?"

Gray Rain chewed octopus tentacles, mumbling, "First, this isn't the real world. Second, we're sealed under this dome—worrying won't help. Third, I don't think any situation can truly trap Master Pi Fu."

"You really have faith in him."

The griffin's eyelid twitched, "Aren't you afraid the plot might go haywire—that the fake seal becomes a real dead end, trapping him under the dome, frozen in time?"

"If that happens, I'll go find him."

Gray Rain didn't look up, saying calmly, "I'm a robot—I don't need to breathe, and I can extract energy directly from matter. No matter how thick this dome is, in a hundred years, a thousand, ten thousand—I'll drill through it."

"."

The two players exchanged glances; Gray Rain's tone was calm and soft, yet carried an unyielding resolve.

Watching her cut open a coconut to use as a flask, muttering, "Drunk, drink more from the coconut cup,"

the griffin lowered his voice and asked, "Is she actually an idiot?"

"Probably a wise fool."

Bai Ma Mubei sighed, pulled out a beach chair, a barbecue grill, and a picnic tablecloth, and walked toward Gray Rain, "Mind if I join you?"