Rhodes Island does not exist.

"Yes," the doctor admitted.

“If that’s the case, then I don’t think your testimony is actually credible.” Skadi shook her head. “Because in that environment, facing both dehydration and hunger, you were actually not rational enough. Perhaps you were able to resolve your problems through a flash of inspiration and negotiation at the end, but before that, you weren’t in a state of calm enough to use your senses to calculate time, so I don’t think it’s credible.”

"……you're right."

The doctor was persuaded by Skadi.

He even began to doubt whether some of the time he had spent in the spiral staircase was a figment of his imagination.

After all, the fatigue resulting from the combination of dehydration, hunger, and excessive exercise is deadly.

“In Rhodes Island, you have to trust your senses, because anything other than yourself could be false,” Skadi said. “But at the same time, you can’t trust your senses too much, because the information your senses themselves give you could also be false.”

"Does that mean we can't trust anything?"

The doctor was surprised and puzzled by Skadi's words.

“That’s right, because when you stop believing in anything, you can leave here.” Skadi looked into the Doctor’s eyes and said, “If you want to leave here, you have to deny, persistently deny everything, until you deny even your own existence. Only in this way will you not be bound by anything.”

"But at the same time, you'll also negate all your efforts and the goals you want to achieve, making everything meaningless... Can you accept such an outcome?"

Skadi interrogated the doctor.

"If that's the case... then maybe I rejected everything back then, which is how I became who I am today."

The doctor lowered his head and muttered to himself.

"So what do you plan to do?" Skadi asked.

His red eyes flashed.

-

Thank you segment.

Thank you, Dr., for the restoration and the monthly pass.

Chapter 165, Chapter 164: No other choice but to move forward.

The maze-like streets were lit by eerie blue lights, and the shop windows on both sides were empty, with only singing echoing from somewhere.

【 , .】

I have a house, but I don't have the key.

【 , .】

I have the sun, but it is being eroded by dark clouds.

【, .】

I have a head, but no shoulders.

【 , .】

But I saw the light piercing through the clouds.

The professor hummed along softly to the tune.

Even though he had never heard the song before.

"What song is this?" Skadi asked, noticing the Doctor's keen interest.

"I don't know," the doctor shook his head, "I just think the lyrics are kind of interesting."

"Can you understand the lyrics?" Skadi frowned slightly.

"can."

"What language is it?" she asked again.

“Ursus language,” the doctor replied.

"So you're from Ursus?" Skadi sized up the Doctor with her eyes.

“No, I only understand Ursus.” The Doctor shook his head, denying Skadi’s speculation.

“Alright, then tell me the meaning of the lyrics too.” Skadi turned her head back up the road and looked at the ever-expanding maze path as she spoke.

"Okay." The doctor agreed to her request without hesitation.

During the translation, the doctor recalled Skadi from a few minutes earlier.

At the time, she aggressively asked herself several questions, which were full of statements about denial and belief, causing the PhD student to back down.

However, she can't remember now.

It was as if those words didn't come from her, but from someone else.

Perhaps I'll look like this when I completely surrender to madness.

But why did Skadi suddenly become like that?

The doctor didn't know.

He only knew that either he himself was abnormal in answering the question, or she was abnormal in asking the question, or everyone was abnormal.

Forget it, seriously thinking about these things is like joking. What normal people could possibly be on Rhodes Island?

The music continued to flow through the streets.

Even though the two had walked quite a distance, the music did not change at all.

There was nothing around. The shops on both sides of the street had signs for fashion boutiques written in Ursus. The shop windows were empty, with only a bunch of naked mannequins staring at each other in meaningless poses.

Although they stand among people, they are alienated and lonely.

【 , .】

I have words, but the letters are nowhere to be found.

【 , .】

I have a forest, but I have no axe to chop it.

【 , , 】

I have the time, but I no longer have the energy to wait.

【 , .】

I have nights, but dreams are slow to come.

The doctor continued translating for Skadi.

Sometimes even he himself was surprised that he possessed such an awe-inspiring talent for languages, able to repeat almost instinctively all the words inputted into his mind in a language Skadi could understand.

“It’s a really good song,” Skadi commented.

“If I didn’t know the lyrics, I probably wouldn’t have paid attention to them, but your translation has helped me understand the beauty of the language behind the notes.” She looked at the professor.

"Can I take that as you saying thank you?" The doctor met her gaze.

Their eyes met.

“Okay.” Skadi nodded.

“However, I think this is probably better than thank you.” The doctor accepted her thanks.

At this point, the song enters its interlude.

The electric guitar begins its solo against a background of bass chords.

The professor didn't understand music theory, and he didn't know what could be considered showing off skills or what could be considered basic skills. He only knew that the notes that drifted into his ears carried a lively spirit.

That kind of vibrancy doesn't belong here; it's a life that contrasts with Rhodes Island.

Beside him, Skadi, like him, was immersed in the brief music.

He didn't know what Skadi had gone through on Rhodes Island, nor did he know what he had gone through, but at this moment, perhaps they should both rest for a while to this out-of-season music.

"PhD."

Skadi suddenly spoke up.

Her voice stood out particularly well during the silent interlude.

"What?" the doctor replied.

"Do you still have memories of the sea?" she asked.

"No, although I have seen the seawater," the doctor answered honestly.

“We’ve all met before,” Skadi smiled.

The doctor wasn't sure if that could be considered a smile.

After all, he had never seen Skadi smile before, and the expression she made just now could only be described as a twitch of the muscles at the corner of her mouth.

Even so, he tried to interpret the change in his muscles as a smile.

“A tiny ripple floats in a tiny bottle.” Skadi’s gaze pierced through the labyrinth and rose beyond the walls. “But that is only a very, very small part of the ocean, like a mustard seed compared to Mount Sumeru. You could even say that the ocean’s daily evaporation is enough to fill thousands upon thousands of such tiny bottles.”

"I'm sorry," the doctor shook his head, "I can't imagine it."

Because he had only ever seen seawater.

In his eyes, seawater is not a water resource, but a poison.

It can attract the supernatural, drive one mad, and even make a being like the Ghost Shark reveal its bare scales.

Therefore, he could not imagine what the world would be like if it were filled with such toxins.

“I still have the memory of the sea.” Skadi gazed into the distance. “Although I have lost a lot, I have not lost it.”

"I just don't think this is a good place." After thinking for a moment, the professor shook his head.

“It is indeed not a good place,” Skadi said. “The children she gave birth to spend their whole lives wanting to leave her, and normal creatures are corrupted and changed as soon as they get close to her. The disasters she brings are too numerous to count, but her beauty remains undeniable.”

The background music gradually came to an end as Skadi spoke.

【 , , . 】

I still have the daylight, the white mountains, and the white ice.

"So, if there's a chance, if we can leave this place again." Her gaze returned from the distant horizon and slowly descended onto the doctor's shoulder.

【, 】

But all I need are a few words.

"Even just once, I hope to take you to see what the ocean looks like."

【.】

There is no other choice but to move forward.

Chapter 166, Part 165: A Few Things About Substitutes

The sixth floor was unexpectedly peaceful.

After leaving the street where the song had just been played and turning at several confusing intersections, the doctor couldn't help but sigh inwardly.

He had asked Skadi if she had encountered anything strange on the way to his rescue.

The answer is no.

The lavender coiled around his right arm never issued another warning after the initial enormous and bizarre death; it simply lay there docilely, like a prickly kitten.

"The sixth floor is a large shopping mall, or at least it looks like it."

Skadi, carrying the greatsword on her back, walked heavily, leaving the Doctor half a body length behind.

She wasn't in a hurry to get anywhere, nor was she deliberately avoiding walking alongside the Doctor; it was just that she was used to walking this fast, and the Doctor didn't need to adapt to that pace.

“Ursus, the big shopping mall, looks like this is Gummy,” the Doctor said, looking at the signs written in Ursus script on the street.

“Gummy?” Skadi glanced back at the Doctor.

"The full name is Saint-Germain National Department Store, or National Department Store." The Doctor answered Skadi's question, drawing on all sorts of strange knowledge in his mind. "If you spell it out in Ursus script and take the pronunciation of the first three letters, that's Gummy. It's kind of a nickname the locals use for this department store."

"I see, nickname."

Skadi's focus seems to have fallen on a more inconspicuous place than on the origin of the department store.

"What do you think of the act of giving people nicknames?" Skadi shifted the topic, throwing the question back at the Doctor.

The two turned a corner from the street and came to a circular plaza that was similar to the previous intersection.