One Makes It Up, One Believes It

The Dead Spirit Island is neither too big nor too small; it's a place you could easily walk from one end to the other in three days if you were traveling quickly.

The first and second Armed Unit set off, each with ten people, heading in different directions. The Group Two, along with a Doctor and two cameramen, made a total of thirteen people.

They set off at 1 p. m., and planned to return via the same route at 4:30 p. m., arriving back at camp before 8 p. m.

After this situation continued for more than half a month, the team had thoroughly explored all the areas around the Dead Spirit Island, so they changed their campsite and tried to go deeper.

Anyway, this team of over a hundred people came here with no intention of going back within six months.

Only if they truly establish a research institute here and things stabilize will they retire, leaving the experimental staff behind, and replacing them with more professional protectors and operators to manage the Dead Spirit Island.

The bushes kept receding, Yu Xing reached out to block the branches that were reaching out from the side to prevent the camera from being obstructed.

This island shows no signs of human intervention; there are no paths, and you never know where your foot will land. You might find yourself in a deep pit beneath the fallen leaves.

It was a cloudy day. The afternoon temperature was just right, providing everyone with a relatively comfortable environment for exploration on the first day.

"It's been an hour, and I haven't seen a single bird." Nightmare, gun in hand, relied on his rugged, masculine image to speak with complete abandon, "This godforsaken place can't be devoid of even a bug, can it?"

Her teammate chimed in, "Yeah, even if the sea is deserted, it can't be completely empty. The images they sent back before at least showed signs of some kind of activity."

Yan shrugged, glancing out of the Fang Xiaoyu, whose face was pale and looked exhausted, while the other cameraman, Uncle Liu, was still full of energy.

She thought about it and felt this was a good opportunity.

"Hey, Fang Xiaoyu, aren't you tired?"

Yu Xing wiped the sweat from her brow and said honestly, "I'm tired."

"Everyone, rest in place for ten minutes!" Nightmare shouted the order.

No one objected; this hour felt less like exploration and more like a pure mountain climb.

The surrounding trees are all common species, overgrown with weeds, and occasionally you can see brightly colored poisonous mushrooms and unknown flowers oozing transparent liquid.

Yu Xing "dutifully" photographed all the plants, but didn't see a single ghost.

At that moment, Nightmare sat down next to him.

"Hey, little cameraman, did you get in through the back door?" Yan asked very directly, for reasons unknown.

Yu Xing frowned slightly, then relaxed and readily agreed, "Yes! But my cameramanship is pretty good, and I'm quite daring, so I won't hold you back!"

Nightmare patted him on the shoulder. "I've fallen for your nonsense. Your courage and skills aren't a problem, but your stamina is definitely a hindrance."

Yu Xing, whose physical fitness was criticized again, said, "..."

He glanced at Long Zhou, partially obscured by the camera.

"Is there something you want to ask?" Two seconds later, he temporarily turned off the camera and asked.

When Yan heard that he was being so cooperative, which matched the characteristics of the NPCs who came to deliver information in her previous deductions, she felt even more at ease.

"Let me ask you something," Nightmare leaned closer, "Our mission is to explore an island, but nobody knows what's on it. We still don't understand what the higher-ups mean—are they sending us to find the undead, or to prove they don't exist?"

"You didn't know?" Yu Xing looked surprised.

Yan said, "Well, although we're employed by this project team, we know nothing about it and we're not confident at all."

Yu Xing scratched his head and said, "There really are ghosts here, phantoms, spirits, ghosts, whatever you want to call them. My brother-in-law really didn't tell you? That's impossible, right? Did he tell you but you didn't believe him?"

Nightmare: "Is it really a ghost?"

Yu Xing: "It couldn't be more real."

Seeing a hint of disbelief on Yan's resolute face, Yu Xing pressed on. "Think about it, this place is going to be a research institute. Also, those paranormal researchers left on the ship, do you think they're just for show? But I don't think we need to worry too much..."

"Why do you say that?" Nightmare asked, somewhat surprised.

"In the images that came back from previous travels, there were quite a few showing those indistinct shadows being hit by fighter jets," Yu Xing said. "Judging from those images, the shadows are affected by physics; they at least have a physical form, so your weapons should be effective against them."

Having obtained this important clue, Nightmare nodded.

She had roughly determined her role in this simulation; the ghosts in the simulation posed little threat to her, the important thing was the people.

Because she never expected that she would be the Ghoul's target... that thing's name alone doesn't sound good.

Her choice of Magician as her hunting targets was purely because she possessed a sacrifice called [True Gaze], which had a restraining effect on abilities such as illusions and sleight of hand.

This utter nonsense is giving me the creeps.

[Otherwise, I almost believed him when I saw him enter the Yugi from the preparation space.]

[Yan mistook Xing for an NPC and believed it wholeheartedly, hahaha]

[One dares to ask, one dares to fabricate, and one dares to believe??]

[I really don't know whether to say Xing's acting was too natural or Yan was just too unlucky, these two are hilarious hahaha]

The conversation continued, and Yan stroked his chin and sighed, "I never imagined that real ghosts existed in this world. Hey, Fang Xiaoyu, we have guns, we're not afraid. What about you? Since you have connections, what are you doing on the front lines?"

Yu Xing said matter-of-factly, "It's fun! And if anything happens, you guys will protect me."

"You're really naive, let me tell you." Nightmare's expression suddenly turned serious. "Don't trust others too much. There are plenty of people with ulterior motives even in this team. This is a lesson I learned the hard way over the years in the mercenary world."

Yu Xing asked, bewildered, "What do you mean?"

Yan pointed at Yu Xing's camera and chuckled, "You know yourself that you have to turn off the camera when talking about these things. Even if this project really goes ahead, it will be kept secret. And many of the people who have come to the island now aren't actually involved in any classified work, like logistics or equipment handling. They only know what they're supposed to do, but they don't know what others are doing."

"So, don't tell everyone that our Armed Unit are going to make direct contact with the undead, and that those in the rear are perfectly safe and there's no need to tell them." Nightmare put on a stern face, like an adult admonishing a child. "If anyone asks you again, just say you don't know."

"Oh, I see." Yu Xing understood.

[At least they'll keep a lower profile now?]

[He'll definitely listen to "NPC," right? Maybe he thinks it's a hint from NPC Long Zhou, hahaha]

[How stupid! I want to go to another live stream.]

Yan glanced at her watch; ten minutes were almost up. She wasn't in a hurry to dig out all the clues about Fang Xiaoyu. Building a good relationship would allow her to pinpoint other deducers if someone else asked Fang Xiaoyu the same question later.

Satisfied, she stood up and gave the order—keep going!

What she didn't see was that Yu Xing gave her a strange smile after she turned around.