The Broken Utensil at the Center of the Island

Thus, the three deducers, deciding to let loose and explore the plot, began an operation that terrified the NPCs.

Yu Xing was alright. After communicating with Carlos's paper doll on the third day, he wandered around the ship, collecting the data that Zhou Jing and the paranormal researchers, geographers and others had painstakingly compiled.

Nightmare and Carlos left the camp and headed back towards the center of the island along the route they had taken the next day.

Since they would have to start from the camp every day, they knew they wouldn't have time to get to the very center. Since they weren't afraid, they decided to sleep in the jungle at night to speed things up.

Wu Runhao was shocked again—after the experimenters, who were photographed by his brother-in-law as being affected by the undead, went missing, Long Zhou and A Bai, whom he had finally managed to rescue, also disappeared.

He immediately came up with a new rule: anyone who has had direct contact with the undead will very likely be summoned back to the island by the undead!

After hurriedly confirming that Fang Xiaoyu was still on the ship, Wu Runhao breathed a sigh of relief. Thank goodness, Fang Xiaoyu should be one of the few who made the exception.

However, he was too quick to celebrate.

Yu Xing was utterly heartless. After enjoying a comfortable day of eating and drinking right under Fang Yao's nose, he secretly slipped off the ship in the early hours of the fourth day to meet up with Carlos and Yan.

The little paper doll was still on him. He was dressed in casual clothes, sweatpants, and sneakers, carrying a backpack full of high-calorie food and essential survival tools, having abandoned Fang Yao and Wu Runhao, who had been worrying him sick.

After all, this is just a simulation Yugi. No matter how sincere the older sister and brother- Fang Xiaoyu, it has nothing to do with Yu Xing.

They're all fake.

Yu Xing stepped onto the shore and glanced back at the giant ship, her eyelids drooping slightly, repeating to herself: It's just a fake.

Based on Carlos's description on the other side of the paper doll, he caught up with Carlos and Nightmare, who had deliberately slowed down, using a shortcut.

The two people, regardless of gender, became jealous when they saw how clean he was, and they argued and bickered all the way, making quite a scene.

The hallucinations become more intense closer to the center, and since it hasn't rained for the past two days, the dark clouds have been piling up, further expanding the spiral's range.

After the big trees and graveyards, there are abandoned houses, abandoned rice paddies covered in human blood, and scarecrows made of flesh and blood, etc.

After a series of close calls, on the fifth day, amidst the ever-present artificial traces, they reached the center of the island.

The low trees gradually become denser, and towering trees stand side by side among them, completely obscuring the sky and blocking the view from satellites, making the buildings within undetectable.

But Yu Xing and his group still managed to discover it.

In the very center, there was an organization that covered an area the size of two football fields. The buildings within the organization were not scattered, and each building was no more than three stories high. There was also land available for food production.

However, these places are now completely abandoned. Weeds cover the ground, and the buildings are covered with unknown ivy-like vines. In the gaps between the vines and leaves live the only creature on the island besides outsiders—moths.

One by one, the moths quietly curled their wings and clung to the wall. Yan, not paying attention, accidentally touched the vine, and as a result, countless moths fluttered their wings and flew away. They didn't fly far, but fluttered in groups in front of the leaves for a while before neatly settling down on another vine.

The sound of flapping wings sent chills down the spines of all three. Nightmare, who was closest and had been touched, cried out in terror, "What the hell is that?!"

Yu Xing frowned. If he wasn't mistaken, the wings of these densely packed moths seemed to have patterns resembling human faces.

It didn't seem to be anything good. After the pollen kicked up by the moths had all fallen to the ground, they carefully parted the vines on the building doors and went inside to check.

Some buildings are dormitories, while others resemble laboratories, containing many cylindrical, one-person-high vessels with broken glass, and traces of dried unknown liquid remaining on the outside of the broken glass.

Upon seeing the broken glassware, Yu Xing, who was walking at the back, changed her expression.

His heart suddenly tightened, followed by a momentary sharp pain that made him freeze involuntarily.

His gaze suddenly turned cold and menacing without anyone noticing.

"What was originally here? Where did it go?" Nightmare scrutinized the rows of glassware with a critical eye. "In movies and horror Yugi, these places either contained mutated human test subjects or monsters. If they're broken, it means the people or monsters inside escaped."

"But apart from those moths outside, there are no other creatures on the island... or monsters." Carlos stroked his chin, quite intrigued.

"Didn't we hear that the people here are using some supernatural methods to raise corpses? Could these be some of the already raised corpses, brought here for the second stage?"

After waiting for several seconds without hearing Xing join the discussion, he turned around in confusion.

Fortunately, his complexion appeared normal.

"What do you think, San?" Carlos asked.

Yu Xing's tone was as calm as ever, with a hint of detached indifference. "I guess there wasn't originally a corpse in here."

Nightmare's eyes lit up. "What's that?"

"A monster. A monster we haven't seen in this simulation." Yu Xing looked up, even smiling, as if the chilling atmosphere from just moments before was merely an illusion. "Those ferocious corpses are just food prepared for the monster in the vessel."

"This institution was conducting some kind of dangerous research, but one day things spiraled out of control. The people in the institution ran away, and the contents of the containers were left unattended. Soon after, they broke through the glass and escaped..."

As Yan listened, she grew suspicious. "Wow, that's so detailed, it's like you saw it with your own eyes..."

Yu Xing shook his head. "It's just a reasonable guess. We've looked at so many buildings, and none of them had bloodstains or even looked messy. Based on this, we can conclude that the people from the organization were not injured. And the monster that escaped at least has self-awareness and knows not to damage the layout here. It's not something like a ferocious corpse that acts on instinct or is driven by something."

"That makes sense, so I can guess that what was originally inside the glass was also a humanoid creature, right?" Carlos observed Yu Xing's expression discreetly. "Beast-like creatures wouldn't be this smart, hiss... Could it be a ghost? Is it a ghost being kept inside?"

Nightmare glanced at the vessel again, feeling something was off.

But before she could articulate her thoughts, Xing said, "Or perhaps 'spirits'. These aren't the vengeful ghosts or vengeful spirits we usually think of, but rather something with a physical form, more in line with the Western definition of ghosts."

Nightmare nodded: That's right! That's exactly what she wanted to say!

The entire simulation took place on the Dead Spirit Island. She had wanted to say this for a while: although all the NPCs had Chinese faces, aside from the Five Elements knowledge proposed by Xing, their behavior patterns and equipment did not conform to Chinese tradition.

Perhaps this is related to the background of the Absurd World in which this simulation takes place, something they can't figure out right now.

So now there's another question... where did everything inside go?