On the Ark.

These words pierced Lin Ye's heart like a knife. He immediately stood up and said, "No, we have to go tonight. We absolutely cannot wait until tomorrow morning."

"But we don't have a boat..."

"How could there not be boats on the beach?" Chūmaru said, arms crossed. "I've seen several before. They're small boats, but they're definitely safe."

Shuangye raised her hand: "I have a question. Are we really not going to take care of our partners here? Although I don't care, but..."

Lin Ye thought for a moment and said, "This distance, even at sea, is enough time to make a round trip in one night. If we can't find Skadi but only find the communicator, we'll return before dawn. If we find Skadi, then it doesn't matter."

Shuangye thought for a moment, then lowered her raised hand.

"Ha, so we're going to make a move?" Chūmaru was a little excited. "I knew it. No matter what kind of monster it is, all talk and no action is useless. I have no idea what the point of the meeting this morning was. I almost fell asleep listening to it."

Blue Poison warned, "Large-scale biological classes are not small monsters; they are extremely dangerous and should not be underestimated. Although it's probably not here right now."

Lin Ye looked at Blue Poison: "Why do you say that?"

“The Ursus faction has been here for several days. If a large creature were still here, there would be a reason why we haven’t found anything,” Blue Poison said. “I’m not saying it has returned to the deep sea. I mean, at least for the past few days, it hasn’t been here.”

Lin Ye took a deep breath and then looked at everyone: "Then there's nothing more to say. I want to set off now. What are your opinions? Does anyone object?"

The group exchanged glances but remained silent, though Magellan looked somewhat worried.

“Let’s go then.” Lin Ye made the decision. “If Skadi really gets into trouble, we absolutely cannot just stand by and watch.”

When he said those words, his mind suddenly went blank.

He thought he heard Kal'tsit say to him, "You need to bring them all back."

He seemed to hear someone laughing in his ear, the laughter full of mockery and sarcasm.

When he came to his senses, all he could hear was the whooshing sound of the sea breeze blowing across the water, like someone sobbing.

……

……

Author's note: Getting to the point, there are still 35 chapters to go.

Chapter 318 Arrival on the Island (3K)

"Haha, see? I told you so! How could you not find a boat in a seaside town?" "Shh! Can you keep your voice down?"

"Ah, sorry, sorry." Chūmaru's laughter subsided slightly.

Just as Chōmaru had said before, there was no shortage of boats in Harlan town. They searched the beach for less than ten minutes and found one. Although it was a small boat, it was more than enough to seat five people.

"We haven't been discovered, have we?" Lin Ye asked Lan Du.

“Hmm, no,” Blue Poison said. “There aren’t any sentries around here.”

"Because no one would expect us to go out to sea at this time," Shuangye shrugged. "By the way, does anyone here know how to row? I certainly don't."

"Don't worry, I can still do this kind of physical work," Chūmaru said with a smile.

Lin Ye then looked towards the sea.

It was 9:27 PM, far from being late at night, but the sea was eerily dark. There was no moon, no stars, only a light drizzle. It was definitely not a good time to go out to sea; the air seemed to be filled with a depressing atmosphere.

"Let's get on the ship," Magellan said softly. "Let's go early and come back early. In this weather, the sentries won't be able to see us as long as we leave the coast."

Everyone nodded and together pushed the boat into the water before boarding. Blue Poison and Enmaru used oars to slowly steer the boat away from the town's coastline. Lin Ye knew little about the ocean and didn't know if the tide was rising or falling; he only knew the waves were very large, and their small boat was rocking violently, as if it might capsize at any moment.

“Southeast... um, about two kilometers.” Magellan said, looking at the instruments. “Miss Skadi’s communicator still has a signal.”

"understood."

"learn."

Blue Poison and Ch'en advanced under Magellan's command. Lin Ye couldn't get a word in edgewise, so he remained silent. But before leaving, he glanced back at Harlan Town, and then saw a flash of orange light disappear from the corner of his eye, which made him freeze in surprise.

"What's wrong?" Shuangye noticed Lin Ye's gaze and asked, "What are you looking at?"

Lin Ye pointed to the shore and said, "There seemed to be someone there just now."

"Is someone there?" Shuangye immediately looked in the direction Lin Ye pointed, but saw nothing; it was pitch black there. "No, right? I didn't see anything."

Lin Ye was also a little unsure: "Maybe I saw it wrong."

Shuangye was silent for a moment, then said, "It's hard to say, there might really be someone."

Lin Ye looked at Shuangye.

Frostleaf shrugged: "But we can't turn back now, can we? Since we've already made the decision, we can only pray that the Ursus people don't see it."

Lin Ye thought about it and felt that Shuangye made sense. Even if they were discovered, they would never turn back at this point. Moreover, there was something he hadn't told Shuangye: even from just a fleeting glance, Lin Ye was certain that the other person wasn't a soldier from Ursus.

Because she was a woman.

Aside from Rhodes Island, the only other women participating in this joint operation were Swire and the sorceress named Skyfire. Lin Ye didn't know which of them would be the worst to discover him; it would probably be Skyfire, since she was a woman who was somewhat hostile towards them. But he still hoped that she wouldn't inform on him.

Lin Ye prayed silently.

The group sailed in silence for half an hour. Apart from Magellan occasionally pointing out directions, the only sound they could hear was the crashing waves. Lin Ye had never found the ocean such a dull and boring place; there was nothing but churning water. Then he thought about how Skadi had been trapped here for a long time, and his anxiety grew.

"Haven't we arrived yet?" Lin Ye couldn't help but ask.

The answer he received was a muffled thud; the boat had struck something. He turned his head and saw that it was the shore.

“We’ve arrived.” Magellan showed his phone to everyone. On the screen, the dot representing their location and the dot representing Skadi’s communicator location were superimposed. “This is the island.”

Because there was no moon, they couldn't see what the island looked like.

"Wait a moment." Magellan unpacked his backpack. "I'll scout ahead."

As soon as she finished speaking, a buzzing sound came from her backpack.

The next second, a small drone wobbled out of the backpack.

"Wow." Chūmaru looked surprised. "That looks amazing."

"Hmm...it's alright." Magellan responded modestly as she released three drones. Under her control, the three drones, with their searchlights on, flew away. "There aren't any large islands in this area, and this island should be no exception. I'll be able to gather the information soon. Before you go, you should prepare yourselves."

Everyone nodded, and then began distributing and putting on their equipment. Due to the special nature of this mission, Rhodes Island provided each member with a complete set of equipment. Lin Ye put it on and felt like a miner, with the headlight on his helmet shining far into the distance.

Next, he tucked the [Maple] into his back, adjusted its position to ensure he could draw it immediately in case of any unforeseen circumstances. Then, he took out the Vector from his backpack and put three magazines filled with Originium bullets into his pocket. Lin Ye knew very well that in this kind of place, guns were far more useful than melee weapons like swords.

About ten minutes later, Magellan's drone flew back.

“Nothing unusual was found,” Magellan said. “However, I take back what I just said.”

"what?"

“This island is quite large, about one kilometer in diameter,” Magellan said.

Blue Poison then asked, "Have you found any traces of large creatures?"

Magellan shook his head: "Not on the surface."

"On the surface?"

“Yes, because I discovered a cave.” Magellan showed everyone footage taken by one of the drones. “This is it. I didn’t let the drone go in.”

The crowd gathered around, looking at the cave in the photo. Under the drone's searchlight, the cave looked like the open mouth of a giant beast, with the rocks on the walls resembling sharp fangs, as if it were about to swallow the drone whole.

"This doesn't look like a good place," Chūmaru muttered. "Is Skadi's communicator inside?"

"This one……"

"What's wrong?" Lin Ye looked at Magellan.

Magellan said softly, "What I was just about to tell you is that Miss Skadi's communicator lost signal three minutes ago."

Everyone looked surprised.

"Losing signal? Really?" Chūmaru said. "Is your machine broken?"

Magellan shook his head: "That's impossible."

"Is Skadi's communicator out of power?" Lin Ye asked. "Or is there some other reason?"

“The most likely explanation is that Miss Skadi’s communicator has run out of power or is damaged,” Magellan said. “Judging from the battery life of the communicator Miss Skadi uses, it can only last for up to ten days. Considering the timeframe, that’s about one or two days, which is why I support taking action as soon as possible.”

"Since there's no power, there's nothing strange about that, right? We're already on this island, so why worry about not finding it?" Chūmaru was clearly not worried and was the first to disembark. "We're already here, are we just going to turn back because the communicator is out of power?"

Returning was obviously impossible, everyone knew that, so they all disembarked.

But Lin Ye felt uneasy. Skadi's communicator battery hadn't run out earlier or later, but precisely when they arrived at the island. Was this really a coincidence? If so, it was a very bad omen.

They lost signal as soon as they arrived, almost as if they were being lured here, and once they were here, the mission was complete.

Thinking this, Lin Ye felt even more uneasy. He didn't know why, but ever since he went to sea, his heart had been beating very fast, like a heavy drum being pounded. He really didn't like this feeling.

Once the boat was pushed ashore and it was confirmed that it wouldn't be carried away by the waves, everyone was ready to begin their work.

“I think it would be better if we went straight to the cave,” Magellan said. “My drones have already scouted the island, and there’s nothing special about it, nor have we found Miss Skadi. And if we’re just looking for Miss Skadi’s communicator on the island, that would be too time-consuming.”

Lin Ye nodded, agreeing to Magellan's suggestion.

“Then let me lead the way.” Chūmaru took the guandao from his back. “You just follow behind me.”

Everyone nodded. The guards led the way, there was nothing to say about that. So Chūmaru and Frostleaf walked at the front, the technician Magellan walked in the middle, and the sniper operator Blue Poison and Lin Ye, who was temporarily acting as a sniper operator, brought up the rear.

As they walked toward the cave, Lin Ye noticed that Lan Du's brows were tightly furrowed, as if he were deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" Lin Ye asked.

Blue Poison glanced at Lin Ye, then said softly, "I just feel something's a little strange."

"strangeness?"

“Yes, as Miss Magellan just mentioned, the island is one kilometer in diameter,” Blue Poison said.

"Hmm, what's wrong with one kilometer?"

“One kilometer is no longer a small island; it should at least be marked on a map.”

Lin Ye was stunned for a moment: "You mean..."

“Hmm, I haven’t seen this island on the map of Harlan Town,” Blue Poison said softly. “I don’t know if it was overlooked by the town’s residents, or… appeared out of nowhere.”

Chapter 319 The Face Underwater (3K)

Ten minutes later, the group arrived at the cave Magellan had described.