Mysterious Zone

Biodata

Geography and Spatial Structure

Four Ocean Entrances

• The Zones initially appeared to satellites as patches of fog across Earth's four major oceans. Survivors near their edges reported clear, sunny skies inside, contradicting the external imagery 2.
• Satellite radio data later established that all four regions connect to the same parallel world. Academician Ge described Earth as having been “embedded” within it through an unknown process 48.
• The four oceans function as entrances rather than four independent worlds 48.
• The sixteen numbered Zones used in survivor reports correspond to the sixteen mirage scenes and stranded groups, distinct from the four major oceanic regions 3 25.

Pacific Boundary

• Azure Pacific water meets the Zone's blue-black water along a sharply defined, winding boundary stretching for thousands of miles into haze 34.
• Crossing the boundary produces watery spatial ripples resembling passage through a thin soap bubble. During the expedition's entry, sunlight refracted strangely and the temperature dropped by two or three degrees 38.
• Investigators rapidly lose their bearings inside. Even when Earth is only a few steps away, they may be unable to find it without a tether linking the two sides 34 48.
• Entry causes intense homesickness, unease, and a sense of separation from humanity. Elite special forces personnel also experienced these effects 34 38.

Interior

• Initial Pacific surveys found seawater, marine life, and fish species unknown on Earth, but no islands or continents within their limited search area 34.
• The brief satellite survey revealed an immense, apparently motionless ocean beneath gray-black clouds and mist. The observers interpreted its desolation as a “graveyard” of worlds and civilizations, rather than establishing that description as a scientific fact 39.
• The atmosphere is unusually deep and turbulent: unexpected drag and powerful winds prevented an expedition rocket from escaping it 38.

Observed Survivor Locations

Supernatural Phenomena

Superpower Awakening

• Early broadcasts reported superpowers in approximately one person per million worldwide, compared with roughly one in ten survivors inside the Zones 11.
• Proximity to a Zone increases the likelihood of awakening abilities and the emergence of mutated creatures 11 35.
• Zone survivors displayed invisibility, fire breathing, electrical discharge, and levitation, while the abilities then identified in Great Xia were predominantly physical enhancements 19.
• Researchers proposed that a higher concentration of an undetectable element called spirit might make complex abilities easier to activate. This remained a hypothesis requiring experimentation 19.
• After 3,000 expedition personnel entered the Zone, approximately 313 fell unconscious. Reported symptoms included fever, irregular heartbeat, cold sweats, vomiting, and diarrhea; affected personnel generally woke within one or two days, with a relatively high probability of gaining an ability 44.

Mutated Food and Strange Objects

• Eating mutated flesh can awaken superpowers. Experiments reported an activation rate around one in ten for professional athletes and one in twenty for ordinary people 35.
• Such food contains substantially more energy than conventional food. Excessive consumption risks indigestion and diarrhea, and repeated consumption ordinarily provides no clear benefit beyond nourishment 31.
• Zhang Ming is an exception: his personal ability extracts attribute points and supernatural abilities from food, including Strength Burst from crab meat and Toxin Resistance from barnacles 17 20 43.
• Researchers predicted that spreading Zone rules could give nonliving objects supernatural properties, naming them strange objects. Wang Fumin subsequently found a Mysterious Drift Bottle capable of reaching a designated creature when thrown into the sea 19.

Mirages

• Sixteen scenes appeared in Earth's skies, initially showing approximately 4,365 stranded people across the four major Zones 3.
• The scenes appeared in different parts of the world and allowed authorities and civilians to observe survivors despite failed conventional communications 2 3.
• Their apparent internal times were synchronized despite the differing time zones of the four oceans 8.
• The mirages are not necessarily passive images: laughter from No. 15 reached observers on Earth and temporarily left them unable to control their bodies 26 27.

Connection to Earthly Disasters

• Early explanations included additional worlds displacing existing space and conflicting physical laws causing geological upheaval. These were presented as hypotheses 11.
• Mount Fuji erupted after the No. 7 group's annihilation, prompting speculation that survivor deaths damaged their homelands' fortunes 16 18 20.
• By the first month's expedition, thirteen of the original sixteen groups had died. Officials reported a repeated pattern of immediate disasters in their home countries, including magnitude 8–9 earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, and massive tornadoes 34.
• After the No. 15 incident, a magnitude 9.7 earthquake struck Great Ang and severely damaged the North Sea oil fields. Experts warned of possible methane release, rapid warming, and major sea-level rise 27.

Zhang Ming's Island

Terrain and Resources

• Zhang Ming's initial satellite coordinates were 10.33° south, 140.45° west, theoretically open ocean with no large island at that location 1.
• Coconut trees reach approximately 100–200 metres in height; individual coconuts can weigh around 150 kilograms 1.
• Tidal flats support thousands of giant crabs, while the surrounding coast includes rocky slopes, a deep bay, and mangrove forest 17 36.
• Available food and useful plants include crabs, barnacles, bird eggs, coconuts, Super Chili Peppers, and fennel bark 17 32 42 45 48.

Fauna and Hazards

• A huge black creature tore open the aircraft wreckage to eat corpses and destroyed Zhang Ming's original radio 6.
• Supernatural sea turtles consume crab shells and display intelligence. Zhang Ming established a partnership offering shell cleaning and cooked food in exchange for seafood 24 42.
• Little White Turtle can transform into white jade through Petrification, becoming harder than steel and resistant to heat and cold 45.
• The Golden Electric Eel is one of the mangrove forest's dominant creatures 45.
• The coast remained comparatively peaceful, but Zhang Ming suspected this reflected a greater danger at the island's centre rather than genuine safety 32 40.

Ruined Civilization

• A pottery shard, dressed bluestone slab, and constructed path led Zhang Ming toward evidence of a former intelligent civilization 39 40.
• The path reached a ruined valley containing fungal colonies and a colossal damaged tower marked with a bloody warning to run 40.
• Fungal whispers exerted a mind-controlling influence. Zhang Ming bit his arm to interrupt their hold and escape 40.
• He considered the civilization probably extinct and suspected its ruins might contain valuable supernatural treasures; neither the civilization's fate nor the supposed treasures was confirmed 40.

Exploration and Rescue History

The Zones appeared alongside worldwide earthquakes, trapping aircraft and ships whose navigation and communications failed. Only a handful of people near the edges escaped. Zhang Ming briefly contacted Earth after his crash, but tsunamis and the difficulty of penetrating the Zones prevented an immediate rescue 1 2.

Great Xia's Special Affairs Processing Department developed an indirect communication method for No. 16: researchers interpreted Zhang Ming's beach writing through the mirage and answered with satellite radio broadcasts. Other stranded groups could not receive those broadcasts 25 26.

A Pacific expedition assembled 26 warships and research vessels, carrying 10,000 military personnel and 3,000 experts. Earlier drones and unmanned submarines had disappeared; manned reconnaissance relied on ropes and short incursions 34.

The expedition launched a rocket from a tethered warship inside the Zone. Unable to escape the atmosphere, it exposed the satellite's instruments before burning up. The satellite operated for only about a dozen seconds, but its radio data established the connection between the four entrances 38 39 48.

The findings helped locate Mirage No. 1 and the Arctic expedition, leading to international rescue plans. Great Xia also announced a research base near the Pacific boundary and proposed five floating platforms to support monthly deployments and participation by neighbouring countries 48 49.

Zhang Ming's island remained unlocated. By his ninety-first day there, he believed rescue was unlikely and began pursuing stronger monsters as part of his effort to become capable of returning by himself 49 50.