On the Ark.

"Hmm? What is it?"

“About Skadi,” Kal'tsit turned to Lin Ye, “your second-in-command.”

Lin Ye smiled and said, "What deputy? This is just..."

"She has disappeared."

Lin Ye's smile gradually faded: "What did you say?"

“Skadi has disappeared,” Kal'tsit repeated. “It happened three days ago.”

Lin Ye took a deep breath: "What exactly is going on? But you just said..."

“‘Treasures of the Deep Sea,’ what do you think it is?” Kal’tsit said. “A week ago, a seaside town called Harlan was struck by a natural disaster, and the town’s residents vanished overnight. Skadi went to investigate, and I was in remote communication with her at the time, but then the communication was cut off.”

"Was Skadi in that situation?" Lin Ye immediately stood up from his chair. "What happened?"

Kal'tsit shook her head: "I don't know."

"How could I not know?"

“Because she disappeared suddenly, without any warning before she vanished,” Kal'tsit said softly. “Actually, there was something wrong with what I said earlier.”

"What's the problem?"

“I just said the communication was interrupted, right? But in fact, the communication wasn’t interrupted.” Kal’tsit snapped her fingers. “As of now, we’re still connected to Skadi’s communication equipment.”

Still maintaining the connection? What does that mean?

Before Lin Ye could figure it out, a noisy sound suddenly came from the speaker next to him, sounding a bit like the wind and a bit like wailing.

"This is?"

“This is our communication channel with Skadi, and it’s still connected,” Kal’tsit said slowly. “But it’s clear that Skadi isn’t near her communication device.”

Communication remained open, but Skadi was nowhere to be found.

Lin Ye's heart sank.

With Skadi's strength, how could anyone possibly take her away silently? Could this be one of those monsters, more terrifying than gods, that the Messiah spoke of?

"Can you locate the communicator's position?" Lin Ye asked again.

“Sure.” Kal’tsit nodded. “It’s not difficult at all. I located it immediately after Skadi’s accident.”

"Then why don't you go find her?"

Kal'tsit stared at Lin Ye, then slowly spoke: "Do you think Rhodes Island has any operators more powerful than Skadi?"

Lin Ye was momentarily speechless.

"If it's a problem that even Skadi can't solve, then sending a small team over rashly would be futile. Besides, I'm personally in charge of this aspect of the Deep Sea, and 90% of the operators on the island don't know anything about it. In fact, with your strength and experience, you definitely don't meet the standard to understand this kind of thing. But I still told you, do you know why?"

Lin Ye shook his head.

"Because Skadi called your name before she disappeared."

Chapter 304 Choice

rustling...

Can you hear me?

rustling...

"Ah."

"Skadi, reply quickly if you heard me. I need to check the signal and the delay."

"understood."

rustling...

Have you arrived at your destination?

"arrive."

"Have you discovered anything?"

"No."

rustling...

"What's it like working in a psychological counseling room?"

rustling...

Why do you ask that?

……

"Skadi...can you hear me? Skadi, please answer if you hear me, please answer if you hear me."

"Forest……"

"What did you say? What did you see?"

rustling...

Click.

The recording has finished playing.

Lin Ye put down the tape recorder, leaned back on the sofa, and stared blankly at the ceiling.

He got the recording from Kal'tsit, and fearing it would disturb Ansel's rest, he didn't go back to his dormitory but went straight to his office. In his office, he listened to the recording five or six times over, and he almost memorized Skadi and Kal'tsit's brief conversation that night.

The first half of the recording was unremarkable; it was simply Kal'tsit asking about the situation over there, and Skadi answering. Skadi was behaving normally at this point, and her responses were characteristically Skadi: she would use one word if possible, and two words if necessary, and a whole sentence if necessary. Through these brief statements, Lin Ye knew that Skadi hadn't discovered anything at that time.

But things changed after that.

Kal'tsit suddenly asked Skadi about the counseling room.

If Lin Ye remembered correctly, Amiya approved Skadi's hiring at the counseling center, but Amiya also made it clear that Kal'tsit was definitely aware of it. Judging from Kal'tsit's tone in the recording, she didn't object to it and even seemed quite interested.

And it was from this topic that Skadi's replies slowed down.

When Lin Ye first heard it, he thought, like Kal'tsit at the time, that Skadi was simply not interested in the topic and therefore unwilling to answer, her words sounding somewhat perfunctory each time. But after listening five or six times, Lin Ye realized that wasn't the case. Skadi's tone didn't seem to be a matter of being uninterested in the topic and choosing to be perfunctory, but rather that she had discovered something that had distracted her.

For some unknown reason, Skadi never told Kal'tsit about this discovery until she completely lost contact with her. Actually, at the end of the recording, it's clear that Kal'tsit also noticed something amiss, but it was too late. Skadi's last words were a vague syllable that sounded somewhat like Lin Ye's name, which is why Kal'tsit chose to tell Lin Ye about it.

But what does this prove?

Lin Ye couldn't understand it; he had never experienced anything like this before, and now he just felt a headache coming on.

"Dr. Lin Ye?" A familiar female voice came from the doorway. Lin Ye turned around and saw it was Lan Du. "What are you doing here again? Shouldn't you go back to your dormitory to rest?"

"Ah, Blue Poison." Lin Ye sat up straight. "It's nothing, I'm just... because of work."

"Work? So you'll be staying here again tonight?"

Lin Ye hadn't originally planned to spend the night in the office. After all, the office sofa was quite different from the dormitory bed, and there wasn't even a blanket in the office. Sleeping under clothes in the dead of winter wasn't exactly comfortable. But right now, he really didn't have time to think about comfort. After listening to the recording, he felt there was no way he could fall asleep.

Hmm, wait a minute.

Lin Ye suddenly remembered that, according to Ansel, Blue Poison seemed to be an expert in this field as well. Why not ask her?

Having made up his mind, Lin Ye asked Lan Du, "I won't be going back tonight. By the way, are you free? If so, I have some questions I'd like to ask you."

"Ask me for advice?" Blue Poison opened her mouth slightly. "Aren't you afraid of me?"

Lin Ye frowned: "Why should I be afraid of you?"

“Because…no, it’s nothing.” Blue Poison shook her head. “Then please wait for me.”

With that, Lan Du left. Lin Ye wasn't sure if it was just his imagination, but Lan Du seemed a little happy when she heard he was going to stay in his office overnight?

A few minutes later, Blue Poison returned to Lin Ye's office, holding a small box in her hands.

"Dr. Lin Ye, this is a cake I just made." Blue Poison placed the box on the table and looked at Lin Ye with expectant eyes. "I'd like you to try it."

"Oh, that's great! I haven't had dinner yet."

Although he said that, Lin Ye was actually reluctant to eat the cake. After all, he had only eaten Blue Poison's cake in the afternoon to tide him over. Then Kal'tsit dragged him to pretend to be the Doctor, and he learned about Skadi's situation, so he hadn't had a chance to eat anything all day. Although Blue Poison had now offered him another piece of cake, Lin Ye still wanted something hot to fill his stomach.

However, since Blue Poison had already delivered it to his doorstep, Lin Ye couldn't possibly refuse. Under Blue Poison's expectant gaze, he opened the box and took a big bite.

"How is it?" Blue Poison asked nervously.

"I put too much blueberry jam in," Lin Ye said honestly. "It's a bit too sweet."

"Is that so?" Blue Poison was a little disappointed, but quickly cheered up and asked, "Then what kind of sauce do you think would be best?"

"Black pepper, please."

"Ok?"

"I was just kidding." Lin Ye smiled. "I don't hate blueberry jam. A little bit is fine, but too much will make it too sweet."

Blue Poison nodded: "I see, I understand."

To be fair, Blue Poison's cake did taste really good; everyone who tried it said it was delicious. But Lin Ye didn't know if this was Blue Poison's twisted sense of humor. The cake's color scheme looked rather strange, either blue or green. If it were made by an ordinary person, people would probably just find it odd, but since it was made by Blue Poison, it was hard not to suspect that there might be some kind of poison in it.

Therefore, the fact that Blue Poison was harmed by rumors is not solely due to other people's fault.

However, these are not words Lin Ye can say right now. It would be better to bring them up tactfully when he and Lan Du are more familiar with each other. Right now, Lan Du only needs encouragement and recognition, and Lin Ye only needs to provide that. If he is too hasty, things could easily get worse.

Moreover, what he needs to deal with now is Skadi's matter.

After eating a few more bites of cake to fill his stomach a little, Lin Ye put down his plastic fork, looked up at Blue Poison, and asked, "Blue Poison, can I ask you something?"

Blue Poison nodded: "Go ahead and ask."

"Are you also... a deep-sea hunter?"

Blue Poison looked surprised: "Why would you ask that?"

"Is not it?"

Blue Poison shook his head: "Of course not."

“But I’ve heard from others that you, like Skadi, have experience fighting large creatures… Well, it seems that’s just a rumor.”

Lin Ye's words silenced Lan Du.

After a long while, she said softly, "That's not a rumor. I did fight those guys."