Caught Her Interest-Finding Some Fun

"Tsk, tsk. We've already confirmed the third possibility."

After chatting for a few minutes, Arthur went off to direct the others as they set up camp.

Lan Qingyou gazed out at the swamp and asked Alisa beside her.

"It's simple. Just check what goods are being sold in the surrounding cities, especially whether there's any unusual movement in everyday necessities."

"Then estimate how long the people entering and leaving this place stayed. That should give us a rough idea of whether anyone has been lingering here."

For Alisa,

this sort of investigation and statistical analysis was far too easy.

She'd done it all the time in college, so it posed no challenge at all.

"What if they're self-sufficient in there?"

Lan Qingyou didn't seem convinced.

"Self-sufficient in a swamp? Fishing and hunting?"

"Why not?"

"A small group might manage it, but I don't think a group of hundreds could sustain themselves that way."

Alisa shook her head.

There was no denying that the swamp was vast.

It could support not just a few hundred people, but even a few thousand.

But that assumed they were spread out.

If they gathered in one place, their range of activity would be limited.

Unless...

"They move around regularly?"

"Exactly!"

Lan Qingyou looked at her as if she were a promising student.

But Alisa didn't bother looking at her smug, irritating expression.

"Although migration could solve problems like food supply, it wouldn't explain why not a single person who entered has ever come out alive."

"After all, the whole idea depends on them doing something shady in this swamp."

That was right.

It was a prerequisite.

Alisa's theory rested on one major assumption:

that the people here were carrying out some kind of secret activity.

Without that assumption, the theory itself would have to