Moving and a Warning

Territory of the Resentful Eater Snake.

Kevin and his group returned, looking travel-worn.

"You're back. Judging from the looks of it, you must have found a suitable place?"

Koto, who was extracting liquid in the camp, looked at Kevin and the others who had rushed back and said with a smile.

Since the main force has gone out to explore, the six people left behind at the camp will not go out unless absolutely necessary.

Stay obediently in the camp and finish up the unfinished work left behind.

After all, if they encounter danger outside, no one can come back to help them.

This territory belongs to a powerful Lord, and so far no one has dared to invade it, not even Sand Worm.

"Okay, we can start packing and getting ready to move."

Keep in mind that they have lived here for two years, and all sorts of supplies they brought are piled up here, so transporting them over is no easy task.

Soon, the other people in the camp also came over.

Kevin assigned tasks to everyone.

The members who returned with them were Morel, Bianluoke, Killua, Rukira.

"Morel, take Rukira to the beach and get the boat ready."

Morel nodded, and after making some preparations, he led Rukira to the seaside.

The others also sprang into action.

The supplies were sorted, packaged, and labeled with colors and numbers, then Shalnark collected them.

She can remember quite a Shalnark colors and numbers, so if she packages them like this, she won't forget them in a short time.

The plants are the most difficult to transport, Koto will have to spend a lot of time processing them.

Kevin found Little Wang first.

"It's been a while since I've seen you, you seem to have grown a little more?"

Looking at Little Wang now, Kevin said uncertainly, then touched the other's scales, and like petting a dog, hugged its head and shook it.

We need to prepare to leave.

Hiss!

"It's not about returning to the human world; it's about finding a territory of our own."

"Hiss?"

"It's not far, but it's not exactly close either, but it won't be long before you get here."

Upon hearing Kevin's answer, Little Wang lost interest; it wasn't that far away.

"And don't worry, we'll definitely come here from time to time."

Giant Beast Kingdom, Gale Grassland, Unmanned Stone Range.

These are all important sources of resources, so it's impossible to completely abandon them.

They will definitely need to form teams from time to time to acquire resources.

Having explored such a vast area so far, we haven't yet encountered a gathering place of large creatures comparable to the Giant Beast Kingdom.

In other regions, a single behemoth or a group can essentially occupy a large area.

Unlike the Giant Beast Kingdom, where so many monsters huddle together.

If such a region truly existed under natural conditions, there would only be one possibility: that region must have been extremely rich in resources to attract so many giant beasts to live there and compete for them.

Even on the Dark Continent, the habits of living beings remain unchanged; most creatures are driven by self-interest and avoidance of harm.

In addition, the area here is so large.

Why should a powerful behemoth fight against even more behemoths?

You can live a good life anywhere, even if you just find a large piece of land.

Unless absolutely necessary, we must seize it.

After saying goodbye to Little Wang, Kevin went to find Tuck.

"You're leaving? According to the rules of the transaction—"

Kevin raised his hand to interrupt.

"Don't worry, we're not leaving the Dark Continent to return to human society; we've simply found a new territory."

He then described the specific area and direction to the other party.

"There is a record of it, at the edge of the Stone Tablet Land."

Tuck was clearly aware of the distinctive geographical feature of the Stone Tablet Land.

After exchanging a few words, Kevin pondered for a moment, then looked at Tuck seriously and said, "If nothing unexpected happens, I might want to make a trip to your homeland."

"Homeland? Request to follow."

"Of course, you'll have to give directions. I mainly want to know the current situation of your home, since you said you've lost contact with it for a long time."

Tuck nodded.

"Thank you, but with my current strength, I can't travel that far."

A distance of four thousand kilometers.

For Kevin now, it won't take too long to get there.

Moreover, Kevin's current strength has reached the Lord Level, and he is Lord with real power recognized by the Overlord.

Tuck also said that their homeland originally belonged to the Overlord.

"Tuck, it may be presumptuous of me to ask, but could you tell me how many Machine Lifeform existed in your home before you left?"

Kevin wanted to know their population size.

"53123."

Precise quantity.

Fifty thousand?

This is already considered a very large population.

To be honest, it was much more than Kevin had imagined.

Because these Machine Lifeform are actually quite powerful.

Take the Bronze Tower, for example.

The Self-Alchemy Mechanical Bodies surrounding the Bronze Tower possessed weapons of such power and defensive capabilities that some individuals could definitely be considered Knight Rank.

This is after a century without any maintenance.

In other words, the power generated by their mechanical manufacturing capabilities is extremely strong.

Perhaps none of them have reached the Lord Level, but even these Knight Rank are already incredibly powerful.

Because these Knight Rank mechanical bodies should be mass-producible, even if the number is not large.

But a few hundred should still be no problem.

Is this considered a form of avoidance?

That's right, Kevin was asking for this information because he wanted to understand the population limits of organisms.

For a species with such long-distance communication capabilities, contact was lost at a distance of only four thousand kilometers.

It's obvious that there's a problem within the community.

What problems might arise?

Before understanding the rules governing population size, one could only imagine attacks from powerful enemies.

And now.

It's hard not to think this way.

Do you know about population size limits?

"Search, what's that?"

Tuck searched his database but found no relevant information, and then inquired.

Kevin gave a brief explanation.

Tuck remained silent.

There is no relevant information.

Clearly, the other party couldn't help but have doubts as well.

"Forget it, let's talk about this later. We can discuss it again after our territory is mostly developed."

After making arrangements with Tuck, Kevin returned to the camp.

After several days of organizing at the camp, we finally finished packing all the supplies.

Bellolight used her mechanical body to create a large truck and loaded the remaining supplies onto it.

These are all plants in flowerpots, cultivated by the Koto), and are hard to part with; they are all useful to everyone.

Bianluoke always uses bubbles to wrap up items that are not easy to carry, thus controlling them to float in mid-air, which counts as transportation.

After all, the people Kevin brought along were all useful.

Just then, the Metal Ant in Kevin's hand transmitted a communication signal.

Kevin reached out and tapped it.

Morel's voice came through.

"There's been a problem here, I think you'd better come and take a look."

Morel's voice was silent like never before.

Kevin frowned.

At least from what I've said, there's no danger.

But the matter seems rather urgent.

After hanging up, he looked at the people behind him and said.

"I'll head over there first. Remember to contact me if there are any problems."

The group nodded.

Here, basic security can be guaranteed.

And the others are no slouch either.

It won't take Kevin long to get from here to the coast; if he runs at full speed, he can make a round trip in less than half a day.

After giving his instructions, he immediately disappeared from the spot.

After a full-speed dash, Kevin spotted the sea in the distance by mid-afternoon.

They ran all the way to the shore.

Rukira was already waiting, and flew down from the sky.

"What happened?"

The ship was marked.

Kevin was stunned by these words, and his brows furrowed.

"Mark?"

"Right."

Kevin didn't ask any more questions, but quickened his pace and soon arrived at the cave of the longship.

The cliff caves along the coast are very well hidden; you have to jump down from the top of the cliff and walk along a small path to get inside.

Or you can swim in from the sea.

Normally, apart from some marine creatures, no other creatures should enter the cave.

Inside the cave, Morel was sitting on a pile of rocks on the shore, looking at the boat in front of him.

Kevin looked over.

Morel's beloved ship showed no signs of damage, and Morel had previously had Bellolight perform some maintenance on it, so it looked to be in excellent condition.

Looking at Kevin approaching, Morel pointed to the bow of the ship.

Kevin looked over.

Three claw marks were imprinted on the side of the bow.

"Animal scratches?"

While it might be a deliberate mark, is there really any need to panic like this?

There's more on deck.

Upon hearing this, Kevin jumped onto the deck and immediately spotted something very obvious.

An animal's head.

The animal's head was rotting, surrounded by a pool of filth, with most of the bones exposed.

This skull clearly shows that it is a type of Ape- like skull.

Warn.

An unmistakable warning.

Moreover, the chosen head, in a sense, might be considered a close relative of humans.

At least among so many animal populations, this is already considered a similar type.

Morel also jumped onto the deck and said.

"Based on the signs of decay and the surrounding environment, it can be inferred that the markings and warnings were placed more than ten days ago."

As he spoke, Morel pointed to the corner of the cave.

Kevin looked over.

A broken flowerpot, where a Cyclops Flower once stood.

The eyes bear Pairo's mark, allowing him to monitor the area in real time.

"Just over ten days ago, wasn't that exactly when I was exploring the edge of the Folded Zone?"

That was precisely when Pairo's eyesight failed.

Because even after the mark is engraved on Pairo's eyes, there is actually a limit to the distance he can see. However, in human society, he can be seen from any corner, so the limit is unknown.

However, once they arrived at the Dark Continent, with its vast area, the limit of what the markings could readily access became limited.

Once outside the Folded Zone, the area expands significantly, causing it to become ineffective.

But they didn't pay much attention to that at the time.

However, the coincidence of these events piling up together speaks volumes.

"A group of intelligent beings is warning us, and this warning is clearly meant to urge us to leave, not to engage in conflict with us, yet they are searching for us when they are hiding themselves."

For a moment, Kevin couldn't understand why.

First of all, there were only about twenty of them, so they couldn't possibly cause any damage to the environment.

Secondly, they spend most of their time in and around the territory of the Resentful Eater Snake.

To put it bluntly, this is also considered snake territory.

The owners of this territory have a good relationship with them, so how could other intelligent beings dare to threaten them?

Especially since Kevin had absolutely no idea what they had done to deserve this.

An intelligent species, and extremely secretive.

Did Kevin and his team do something that made the other side feel extremely threatened?

Most importantly, they didn't appear in front of the Cyclops Flower, meaning they knew the place was being monitored.

They only appeared and destroyed the surveillance system the moment it failed, and then issued a warning.

What is the significance?

Kevin racked his brains but couldn't figure out who they would clash with.

However, this is, after all, the Dark Continent.

The fact that the other party only issued a warning instead of a direct confrontation clearly indicates a degree of fear.

I don't understand.

At this moment, Morel said, "There is a possibility, as Pairo mentioned before, now that I think about it, perhaps we can make contact."

"Pairo?"

Kevin was puzzled for a moment, then suddenly slapped his forehead.

You don't mean the Folded Zone, do you?

Morel nodded.

"Based on the previous map survey, Pairo deduced that the Folded Zone must have an external connection interface."

"The purpose of the Folded Zone is to conceal itself, so its external connections must also be hidden, ideally connected to the sea."

As he spoke, he pointed to the cave.

"This place is perfect, isn't it?"

As he spoke, he looked at the Ape's skull.

"This behavior also fits the predicted profile."

Upon hearing this conjecture, Rukira couldn't hold back.

"You mean we just happened to moor our boat in front of someone's house and then kept surveillance right there?"

Upon hearing this, Morel immediately realized what was happening.

He nodded.

"If this is the case, then it is indeed so."

Kevin pondered for a moment.

"Let's get the boat out there first."

After Morel steered the boat away, Kevin stood still, and suddenly his mental energy spread outwards.

This method can be used even when there is a language barrier, to communicate with intelligent and powerful beings.

Kevin carried out indiscriminate diffusion.

The gist of it was an apology, followed by an explanation.

This was not intentional.

Then he took out a clean piece of cloth, an animal pelt.

A piece of Thick White Milk Brick was cut off, wrapped, and placed aside.

Only then did they leave.

A long time passed.

The calm water surface rippled, and a strange creature poked its head out.

Judging from the other person's expression, they seemed to breathe a sigh of relief.

Kevin also sensed something was amiss.

"The thing was taken? It really was."