"Why are these two still out so late?"
Whispers echoed through the woods.
Almost the instant it sounded, one of the figures running paused slightly.
Then it continued to fall.
"I don't know, do you think they might be lost?" another voice replied from the woods.
"Lost? How did you get lost here?" a third voice rang out.
Who says you can't get lost and end up here?
"This place is so far from their homes, and it's not even between their workplaces and rest areas. Even if they were going to get lost, they wouldn't get lost here, would they?"
"Maybe they came out to have fun and got lost on their way back?" a fourth voice said.
"But what time is it?! We'd be lost by now..."
"They're all lost, and you still..."
"Over here..."
The sounds of conversation kept ringing in my ears.
Shen Heng continued running forward, his gaze growing increasingly serious as he gathered information from his surroundings.
The sound didn't come from afar; it came from right beside them and stayed with them the whole time.
but...
His gaze slowly moved around.
The trees stood tall, overgrown with weeds, and the dark woods, whispered in the air, seemed even more serene.
Is it because there is real danger at night that the Black Rat don't move around at night?
But no other traces of creatures were found. Why?
Someone like Qin Yu, with exceptional stealth abilities?
Or is it something that cannot be directly seen or perceived?
One thought after another flashed through Shen Heng's mind. His face was grim, and he continued walking forward.
The sound still echoed in my ears.
"... Regardless of what they are really like, what should we do now?"
"They're still not home this late; they must be bad kids. Let's just arrest them!"
"But what if they really are lost?"
"Getting lost makes you a bad kid!"
"But if it's not voluntary..."
Shen Heng ran forward, his brain listening to the conversations around him while simultaneously modeling the sound waves that were transmitted back.
But still, nothing was found.
Within a radius of several hundred meters, there was nothing but them.
No, it's not that there isn't any.
Besides them, there were only those scattered trees in the forest...
As if suddenly remembering something, Shen Heng stopped.
His gaze swept around.
One tree after another stood quietly on the side, just like ordinary trees.
but...
"... Huh? Why did they suddenly stop?" The arguing around me suddenly stopped.
Shen Heng looked at a giant tree about seven or eight meters away.
"I don't know, are you tired from running?" another voice asked.
Shen Heng's gaze followed... his gaze paused slightly, stopping halfway, but out of the corner of his eye, he looked in the direction from which the sound had just come.
An ancient tree with a crooked neck stood there quietly.
A third voice rang out, "Who cares if they're tired! What are we going to do now? Arrest them? Or let them go...?"
I think...
One voice after another rang in my ears.
Shen Heng stood still, his peripheral vision slowly moving towards the direction from which the sound had come.
The trees still stand quietly by, showing no sign of life.
But the sound.
Indeed, each sound corresponds to the location of one of the trees.
His gaze darkened.
So, are these trees alive?
No, it's alive at night!
Why is it still alive? Probably due to the Distortion power left behind by Jörmungandr.
Why live at all?
I'm not sure, but judging from the fact that even the Black Rat themselves are keeping themselves from coming out at night...
"Bad kid..."
"Lost..."
"Bad kid..."
"Lost..."
"Bad kid..."
"Fan..."
The arguing continued in my ears.
Finally, a voice rang out.
"Alright, let's give them a chance!"
The surrounding trees fell silent for a moment, and everyone's gaze fell on one of the giant trees covered with five-pointed leaves.
"Give them twenty minutes. If they can't find their way back within twenty minutes, then we'll capture them!"
"Emm... okay!"
"Twenty minutes! That's plenty of time. If they still can't go back, then they must be bad kids!"
"Yes, that's right, bad kids should be..."
One echo after another resounded through the woods.
"Team leader?"
A question came from the side.
Qin Yu looked at the captain with some confusion.
The captain had just stopped suddenly, and she realized he might have heard something, so she waited nearby without disturbing him.
And that seemed to be true afterward; the captain's gaze kept shifting, but...
The observation didn't seem to suggest that the sound came from a single, isolated spot, and the person looked over there.
Thinking of this, Qin Yu's eyes revealed even more doubt as she looked at the captain.
Under her gaze, the captain slowly looked over.
His gaze wandered for a moment, then sharpened again.
"Let's go, let's head down to the foot of that mountain!"
"Hmm? Go back?..." Qin Yu was a little confused. Before she could ask, she saw the captain suddenly run quickly back to the bottom of the mountain wall.
She paused for only a moment before quickly following after him.
My gaze lifted midway, but all I saw was the captain's solemn expression.
Qin Yu hesitated for a moment, but did not ask.
The problem was clear: danger was approaching. The captain noticed this and made a decision.
The problem, that is...
"Uh, what's going on?" A voice echoed in my mind, filled with surprise and confusion.
"I don't know, but the captain must have heard something, that's why he did that," Qin Yu thought to herself.
"A commotion? That danger?" The voice in my mind rose in pitch.
"I'm afraid so!" Qin Yu replied slowly.
"No, there really is! And you actually ran into one!" the voice in your mind said in surprise.
There was no response; Qin Yu kept her eyes downcast.
She was also somewhat surprised, but more than that, she felt as if a huge weight had been lifted off her shoulders.
Now, the question is, how do we escape?
"Could it be those Black Rat?" the voice in his mind said at that moment.
Qin Yu thought for a moment and replied, "It shouldn't be. Those Black Rat didn't explore the mountains after nightfall, so they probably wouldn't be searching the forest either."
"What is that?" a voice echoed in my mind.
"I don't know. The captain probably doesn't know either. The sound might only be coming from the edge of his current audibility range, so he can only judge that there is danger, but he has no way of knowing exactly what it is," Qin Yu said.