Meanwhile,
just as Joyce was still in a dazed state of not understanding what was being said,
the azure coast of Coastal City had long vanished from Su Wen and Jiang Menghan's sight.
The ferry bound for Lorenz Riel carried countless possibilities for those hoping to advance beyond the ordinary as it set out across the vast sea.
Several hours had passed since the two had left Coastal City.
Inside the cabin,
light filtered through the exquisite wooden windows, falling in mottled patches across the two young travelers.
As honored guests of Lorenz Riel, their luxurious lounge had a spacious cabin,
so Su Wen merely sat by the window,
reading economist N. Gregory Mankiw's Principles of Microeconomics amid the tranquil atmosphere.
Since he had borrowed it from the ship's reading room, the book's cover was slightly worn, its edges curled from frequent handling.
A faint aroma of coffee hung in the air,
mingling with the occasional whispers of sea breeze drifting in through the window, creating an oddly peaceful atmosphere.
At that moment,
golden sunlight outlined his sharply defined profile. Su Wen's calm gaze moved between the pages and the turbulent sea outside,
as though he were contemplating some connection between the theories in the book and the real world.
But the next second,
a notification popped up on the phone he had set aside.
The message successfully caught his attention. It was a follow-up report regarding the recent disruption in the flow of Spiritual Energy in the waters near Lorenz Riel:
Latest Analysis of Spiritual Energy Anomalies in Lorenz Riel Waters—An In-Depth Analysis of Chaotic Pacific Current Data
Recently,
the Astronomical Society's Earth Spiritual Energy Monitoring Network had captured a series of unprecedented anomalous readings.
The abnormal signals had begun with the Black Tide pollution in Philippines Manila over