Welcome to Rule City - Chapter 34 - Mysterious Sunburn Island 6

Mu Ai always trusted her instincts, which had helped her avoid many hidden dangers. Since she was certain that an unnameable entity would crawl up from the sea, it was bound to happen.

Imitating the other women, Mu Ai peacefully closed her eyes and lay on her back in her designated spot. There was no one on night watch today because the leader said it wasn’t necessary. Whether it was creatures or humans, civilized people or indigenous people, no one would choose to leave their nests on Sunburn Island at night.

-Humans have traditions, animals have instincts, and these are lessons learned through generations of blood and tears. No one would violate them.

Mu Ai closed her eyes but didn’t fall asleep. The outside was eerily quiet, with the faint sound of waves reaching her ears. She strained to listen, trying to extend her senses outward and focus on those barely perceptible sounds.

The more she tried to catch them, the sleepier she became. Mu Ai felt as if she was entering a strange tunnel, forgetting her surroundings and even who she was, like the mythical figure Kuafu¹ chasing the sun, relentlessly moving towards her goal.

The continuous sound of waves hitting the beach created a natural hypnotic effect. Unknowingly, Mu Ai eventually fell asleep.

She didn’t know how long she had slept when she was suddenly awakened by a whispering sound near her ear. She didn’t dare to move rashly and quietly opened her eyes a sliver, using her peripheral vision to observe her surroundings.

Mu Ai immediately sensed something was off. All the other women in the hut had sat up in their spots, and the whispering she had heard was coming from their mouths.

Seeing that the women had their backs to her, Mu Ai boldly opened her eyes wider and peeked around. She noticed that the women seemed to have undergone some sort of uniform training without her knowledge. They all had their arms crossed over their chests, staring straight ahead, muttering something under their breath.

Their voices were low and their pronunciation was unclear. Even though they spoke Mandarin during the day, they had switched to a strange accent now.

Mu Ai couldn’t make out what they were saying, only catching a few keywords-god, crawling, sacrifice.

It didn’t sound good. Mu Ai thought to herself and closed her eyes again, not caring that she was out of place in the hut.

However, blending in was out of the question. She refused to chant such bizarre things. Even if Mu Ai had religious beliefs, they certainly wouldn’t be something so strange and evil.

Strength, democracy, civilization, harmony, patriotism, dedication, integrity, and friendliness, Mu Ai silently recited these values.

Ugh-enough thinking. Not achieving the rare achievement was more painful than listening to those women whisper.

Mu Ai forced herself to stop thinking and closed her eyes, pondering why these women had become like this. If it was because of the black tentacles, she had them too.

If it was because of what they ate and drank during the day, Mu Ai had eaten the same food as them at dinner… So what was the problem?

Could it be related to whether they had looked at the sea? Mu Ai wasn’t sure. After all, the information that “you shouldn’t look at the sea at night” was given to her by Song Yu. If he could tell a new member, there was no reason not to remind his own people.

Could it be related to the number of tentacles? Mu Ai recalled the number of tentacles she had seen on the others during their evening inspection. She had paid special attention to this, so she remembered clearly how many each person had.

The least was herself, with 2 tentacles, and the most was a girl named Xiao Ning, who had as many as 10 tentacles, growing from top to bottom. The way they wriggled was enough to cause mental distress to anyone who saw them. Except for Mu Ai, everyone else would quickly look away, including Xiao Xie himself, who didn’t dare to look at them for long.

Maybe it was related to how long they had been on the island. Mu Ai couldn’t think of any other reason. The longer they stayed, the higher their Contamination Value would be. Even if they didn’t look at the sea at night, they couldn’t escape it.

Known facts:

1. Today was the fifth night since Song Yu and his group arrived on Sunburn Island, and the second night since Mu Ai and Chu Tiankuo arrived.
2. Xiao Ning had the most tentacles among the women, with 10. Xiao Li had the fewest, with 6.
3. Mu Ai had 2 tentacles, and Chu Tiankuo had 3.
4. Both Mu Ai and Chu Tiankuo had looked at the sea, but Chu Tiankuo had looked longer.
5. The critical point was 15 tentacles.

Calculating the known conditions, Mu Ai silently came up with a rough formula:

1 day equals approximately 1 tentacle.

Looking at the sea, depending on the duration, equals approximately 1-2 tentacles.

Based on the information exchanged earlier, Xiao Ning had participated in the first night’s watch and had stared at the sea for a long time, resulting in an extra 3 tentacles.

Xiao Li hadn’t been on watch and was so timid that she wouldn’t leave the hut at night, even covering her head and sleeping. She had only accidentally seen the sea on the first night, maintaining a daily increase of 1 tentacle.

Mu Ai had looked at the sea for a short time, so she had grown 1 tentacle from time and 1 from the sea. Chu Tiankuo had looked at the sea for a long time, so he had grown 1 from time and 2 from the sea.

If tomorrow, after the sun rises, she had 3 tentacles, Mu Ai would believe her hypothesis was likely correct.

As for why some people got up in the middle of the night to chant while others didn’t, Mu Ai couldn’t figure it out yet. She attributed it to a lack of information and set it aside for now.

Having thought through all this, Mu Ai prepared to continue sleeping. She still had no intention of joining those women. They were too absorbed in their chanting to notice the traitor among them.

A few minutes later, after a long stretch of incomprehensible chanting, the women fell silent for a few seconds before lying down in unison. Their heads hit the makeshift pillows with a dull thud.

Mu Ai instinctively touched the back of her head, suddenly remembering that her head had inexplicably hurt during the night shift change the previous night. She hadn’t paid much attention to it at the time, thinking it was just because her clothes were too thin and she had hit the ground.

Now that she thought about it… maybe she had experienced the same thing?

The more Mu Ai thought about it, the more she believed she had been affected the previous night. Otherwise, there was no way to explain why her head had suddenly hurt. If this continued, the chance of these people dying from a concussion was much higher than from a curse or contamination.

Mu Ai coldly considered this possibility and fell asleep again to the sound of the hypnotic waves.

The next morning, Mu Ai woke up from her sleep, and a new day began.

Leader Song Yu approached with a serious expression, followed by several men who looked equally tense and anxious.

“Xiao Xie is missing,” Song Yu said in a low, tired voice. “No one can come out at night, so no one knows when he left. Although he is already… we worked together. When you go out to gather food, look for him. If you can’t bring him back, at least bring something back to give to his family.”

Song Yu’s words made the women who had just emerged from the hut fall silent. They looked at each other, and the more emotional and fragile ones began to cry, knowing all too well what fate awaited someone who left the hut at night.

With no one on night watch, no one knew when Xiao Xie had left, where he had gone, or what form he was in when he left-whether he still looked human or had mutated into an unnameable entity.

In the end, everyone agreed with Song Yu’s suggestion. No matter what they thought, and whether they would actually look for him while gathering food, no one wanted to tear off the fragile mask of stability that kept the camp together.

Mu Ai took the opportunity to team up with Chu Tiankuo. The two of them deliberately avoided the others in the camp and, once they were in a secluded spot, spoke almost simultaneously.

“Did anyone sit up and chant in your hut last night?”

Mu Ai raised her hand, signaling for him to speak first. Chu Tiankuo didn’t hesitate and, after checking to make sure no one was around, leaned in and whispered about what he had seen the previous night.

“Last night, while I was sleeping, they suddenly sat up, all at once, like they were programmed. It was terrifying. And they were muttering strange things. I couldn’t understand, but it didn’t sound good.”

After quickly recounting his experience, Chu Tiankuo took several deep breaths before continuing, “I think they’ve been deeply contaminated. I was so scared I didn’t dare move!”

“It’s the same on my side,” Mu Ai nodded. “And I suspect we went through the same thing on the first night.”

“That can’t be!” Chu Tiankuo almost jumped, looking at Mu Ai in disbelief.

Mu Ai looked at him with pity. “Does your head hurt? The back of your head?”

Chu Tiankuo touched his head and honestly shook it. “No, it doesn’t.”

Mu Ai looked at him skeptically, making Chu Tiankuo feel uneasy, almost swearing that he really wasn’t in pain.

“Alright, I guess you were on night watch with your eyes open, so you didn’t go through the lying down-sitting up-lying down process, so it doesn’t hurt,” Mu Ai said, becoming more convinced. She pointed to the back of her head. “But I wouldn’t have had a headache for no reason-look at them, their heads hit the ground with a thud. How likely is it that it wouldn’t hurt?”

“Very unlikely,” Chu Tiankuo said, feeling more and more scared as Mu Ai spoke. “So what do we do? Will we become like them?”

Mu Ai calmly explained her reasoning and formula to Chu Tiankuo. After he digested it, she continued, “I now suspect that everyone chants on the first night. After that, it might depend on the number of tentacles you have. The fewest tentacles among them is 5. What about your side?”

“The same, the fewest is 5, which is Song Yu,” Chu Tiankuo confirmed Mu Ai’s suspicion. “You have 3 tentacles now, and I have 4. We’re getting close.”

“So, we need to find clues,” Mu Ai decided on their next course of action. “We don’t have much time. If it comes to it, we’ll have to seek help from the indigenous people and see if they have a way to reduce or suppress the number of tentacles.”

“What about the boat?” Chu Tiankuo asked. “If we go over there, will they still let us on the boat?”

Mu Ai raised two fingers. “It doesn’t matter if they let us or not. We can force our way on if necessary. Besides, if the civilized people have a way to leave, I don’t believe the indigenous people won’t have a way to complete the mission.”

With that, Mu Ai led the way, heading towards the place that leader Song Yu had specifically mentioned as off-limits.

Footnote:

1. Kuafu(夸父): A sun-chasing giant in Chinese myth, representing relentless ambition ending in tragic self-annihilation.