Yang Wanqing started complaining.
"This place is way too barren, isn't it? There should at least be a conch for me to pick up by the sea, right? When I went to the beach as a kid... there were so many shells they covered the sand."
"This isn't Blue Star."
"I know! But... not even one? Not even a single crab burrow?" Yang Wanqing kicked the sand. "Not even a strand of seaweed for me?"
Chen Siyao read the live comments as she walked.
"Does Yang Wanqing want to go beachcombing?"
"A sea without seafood has no soul."
"This sea looks like it's been disinfected with concentrated salt water."
"Yaoyao, keep walking and see if you find anything."
"Could it have something to do with that giant sky whale? It's so huge, did it eat everything in this whole stretch of sea?"
Chen Siyao tucked her phone back into her pocket.
They walked another two hundred meters or so.
Yang Wanqing suddenly stopped.
"Yaoyao."
"Hmm?"
Yang Wanqing wasn't looking at the sea. She was looking inland... to the right of the coastline, about two or three hundred meters in, stood a stretch of low hills.
Sparse shrubs and unfamiliar plants grew on the gently rolling hills.
"Over there..." Yang Wanqing squinted in one direction. "Look at that."
Chen Siyao looked where she was pointing.
Somewhere on the hills... a thin grayish-white thread was rising from the ground.
A gust of wind bent the thread and dispersed it a little, but it kept rising.
Smoke.
It was smoke.
Before Chen Siyao could react, the live comments erupted.
"Smoke!!" "That's cooking smoke, right?" "Someone's up ahead??" "Aliens spotted!" "Holy crap, this Otherworld has intelligent life?" "Now it's getting exciting!" "Blue Star's greatest discovery is here!!"
"Wait..." Chen Siyao looked down at the