After drawing cards, the evil god became my source of吐槽 (tu cao, a form of humorous commentary/criti

Chapter 140 Black Sea Basin (5)

He felt a mix of emotions: relief, jealousy, and an increasingly deep unease.

035 kept comforting himself.

It's safe here, it must be safe here. They're going to their deaths, I'll wait here, we'll definitely get rescued.

He slid down onto a relatively normal-colored rock, hugged himself tightly, and stared intently in the direction where An Jing and the others had disappeared, while occasionally glancing around in terror at the desolate beach and the inky black sea.

On the suspended blanket.

After leaving the coastline, the surrounding fog seemed to thicken, further reducing visibility. Below, the seawater undulated gently like thick ink, and occasionally, extremely faint, fleeting halos of light could be seen in the depths, or huge, blurry shadows slowly gliding by, indistinguishable from real objects or phantoms.

An Jing stood at the forefront, his posture upright, his mental energy highly concentrated, like the most sophisticated radar, continuously scanning the surrounding area and the sea below.

The deeper one goes, the more rapidly the concentration of that eerie, cold, viscous energy, carrying a rotten, sweet, and fishy smell, actually increases.

The mental pollutants in the air are becoming increasingly active, like invisible dust, constantly trying to attach and penetrate.

A thin yet resilient mental barrier naturally formed around her, enveloping her and the blanket and blocking out most of the pollution.

066 and 034 behind them could also feel the pressure increase sharply, making it more difficult to breathe, causing dizziness, and faint auditory hallucinations began to appear in their ears.

Whispering, hollow echoes, or simply an irritating buzz. They could only desperately recall and apply the rudimentary mental stabilization techniques they had learned in school, struggling to maintain their crumbling clarity.

"Concentrate, ignore the noise, treat it as background noise," An Jing reminded him without turning his head, his voice calm and carrying a strange, calming power.

"Sensitize your own core energy, however faint it may be, imagine it as a lamp, and hold onto that light."

Her instructions were concise and practical. 066 followed them immediately, and although it was difficult, she did feel better. 034 also tried hard, and more cold sweat beaded on her forehead.

An Jing's attention was entirely focused on the investigation.

Her mental power, like a sensitive probe, penetrated the viscous energy field and seawater, attempting to capture any unusual fluctuations or structures.

The massive energy core was located directly below and deep down, where the pulsation was even more pronounced, like the heart of a sleeping behemoth.

However, its surface seemed to be covered by a dense, constantly flowing energy stream, hindering further exploration. And the active point that had previously released the song had completely disappeared, as if it had merged into the core.

Besides the core, her mental network also keenly detected other entities.

It is not seen through sight, nor through direct perception of energy forms.

One of An Jing's special abilities is his extreme sensitivity to thought processes or mental fluctuations.

Any being that possesses independent consciousness and can engage in some form of thinking, regardless of how concealed its physical form may be, will leave unique ripples in her network of mental perception.

At that very moment, in the seemingly lifeless but actually turbulent dark sea below and around her, she instantly detected dozens of such locations.

They are scattered at different depths and in different directions, with varying intensities and patterns of mental fluctuations.

Somewhat chaotic and manic, filled with primal hunting instincts.

Some were relatively calm, with a cold sense of observation, while others fluctuated extremely weakly and intermittently, like remnants of consciousness or newly born, ignorant and mysterious prototypes.

There were quite a few. An Jing's eyes darkened slightly.

The pollution and degradation of this sea area were more severe than she had anticipated, and it had formed a small-scale, ecologically complex and mysterious community.

The floating blanket continued to drift forward for a while, and the view of the sea below began to change. It was no longer pure black; instead, the outlines of some floating objects began to appear.

It's a boat.

Several fishing boats of varying sizes floated quietly on the slightly lighter-colored sea.

The boat appeared to be largely intact, with no obvious damage or signs of capsizing, and even the sails were drooping slightly, as if the owner had only temporarily left.

But the ship was deserted, with fishing nets, buckets and other debris scattered on the deck, creating an eerie silence as if time had stood still.

It seems these are the boats of the missing fishermen.

An Jing manipulated the levitation blanket to lower its altitude slightly, slowly circling around two of the larger ships. His mental energy meticulously scanned the interior of the ships and the surrounding waters.

There are no signs of life.

There are no traces of human consciousness remaining; they usually remain briefly shortly after death or after a strong emotional outburst.

On the ship and in the surrounding waters, there was only that pervasive, eerie, polluted atmosphere, and some extremely faint, distorted, and assimilated fragments of despair or fear belonging to the victims.

She looked away and shook her head slightly.

It's hard to imagine that ordinary fishermen could survive when their boats are intact and they are suddenly attacked by such a mysterious force and number of fish.

Perhaps their fate was sealed the moment they disappeared, or even earlier, when they were marked or attracted by this expanding magnetic field.

066 was also trying to look down, but her perception was limited, and she could not sense anything except the floating ships and the even more eerie seawater.

The pervasive mental pressure made her dizzy, forcing her to rely more on her vision. Seeing An Jing shake his head with a grave expression, her heart sank, and she couldn't help but ask in a low voice, "Detective An...did you find anything?"

An Jing's gaze remained fixed on the sea, his voice steady, yet the content sent a chill down the spines of the two people behind him: "Mysterious. Quite a few, scattered at different depths in the surrounding waters."

"Strange, mysterious?!"

034 was so frightened that she almost slipped off the edge of the blanket. She frantically grabbed it, her glasses tilted to one side, and her voice changed.

"Where is it?! I can't see anything!!"

He looked around in terror, only to see gray fog and a sea of ​​ink, which only intensified his fear.

Unknown, unseen threats are often more devastating than visible monsters.

The thought of facing the mysterious for the first time in a real sense made his blood run cold, and his teeth began to chatter uncontrollably.

An Jing glanced at him out of the corner of her eye, feeling a silent dissatisfaction with his terrible mental fortitude.

The current recruitment standards and training quality of the Secret Service are simply playing with human lives and mission safety.

When we get back, I must have a serious talk with Yuri. The research institute can't be like the Special Service; at least in terms of personnel selection and basic resistance training for joint operations, we must establish stricter standards and vetting mechanisms. Otherwise, sending a group of complete novices to handle obviously unusual events like today is practically murder and a waste of resources.