Translator: Nyoi-Bo Studio Editor: Nyoi-Bo Studio
The island’s mountains were located in a central area. The border zones were coastal plains. The narrow plains were covered with moss and lichens, and occasionally some arctic foxes and lemmings could be spotted.
Arctic foxes and lemmings were small animals and were not affected by the fog. Hence, they acted as normal.
The fog had been floating very densely above the land and the sea. Steve sighed. “The world is so big, abnormalities are aplenty. The scale of this sea fog is huge. How big do you guys think is the area it covers?”
“Might be the entire island,” Li Du said casually.
The car continued on the path for some time until they arrived at a swamp. Driver felt that something was not right as soon as they drove into it. He quickly stepped on the accelerator to turn the car back around.
Hence, all of them had to alight from the car and look for a new path in the surrounding area.
With the fog obstructing their vision, they could not see well when they looked around. They could only see farther when they lowered themselves to the ground and peered below the fog.
After lowering himself to the ground, Steve shouted, “Hey, God!”
Li Du and the rest asked, “What’s up? Any trouble?”
Steve smiled sneakily. “No, I just saw a gopher and it was very near to me. I just squatted down when it suddenly appeared in front of me.”
Gophers were well adapted to life on the island. They consumed moss and lichens as food, would eat insects, and could catch small fish in river swamps. Hence, they could survive when not many other mammals did.
The gophers had the same reproductive capacity as other similar species. They could breed as long as they had enough food. Therefore, seeing one gopher would mean that there were many other gophers in the surrounding area.
Li Du did not have to lower himself to the ground to check out the road ahead. He released the little bug and could see ahead as far as the little bug could go.
However, in this particular case, the little bug would not necessarily see farther than Steve.
The little bug’s vision was unaffected by light. Day or night, it was able to observe its surrounds. However, its vision, like a human’s, could be blocked by other things.
If it were just a regular night, the little bug would be able to see far ahead. However, it was foggy now, so its vision was hampered.
The little bug floated above the ground and could only see its immediate surrounding. Its body was able to enter any sort of material, but it was a different story with its vision.
Besides, Li Du faced another problem when he wanted to utilize the little bug’s vision. Doing that, he would lose his own vision.
To look farther ahead, Li Du would have to walk forward. As a result, after a few steps, he found himself sinking into a swamp. He quickly recalled the little bug and retreated out of the swamp.
Steve and the rest were on all fours on the ground, deep in an animated discussion.
Li Du bent low as he came nearer to ask, “What are you guys talking about? You sound quite excited.”
Steve said happily, “Come over, buddy, we have a new discovery. Look, do you see the gophers around here?”
There was really quite a number of gophers in the wild. Li Du bent down and scanned the surroundings. He saw five to six of the gophers on the ground, foraging.
“Yes, why?”
“Now the fog is very thick, our vision is hindered, and the world is blurry, right? But when you look at these gophers, you see their lives are unhindered!”
Li Du replied, “Of course, because they are unaffected by the fog.”
Steve clapped his hands together and said, “That’s right. This is like a two-dimensional world and a three-dimensional world. The world where the gophers live is two-dimensional. We are in a three-dimensional world, so when the fog comes, our world is affected, but their world is not.”
Li Du was confused. “What are you talking about? The gophers also live in a three-dimensional world, the same as ours.”
Steve said, “You feel that we live in the same world. However, do the gophers feel the same about time as us? If there’s no time and only space, how can our world be the same?”
“In addition, we just thought of a model. It’s not that the gophers really live in a two-dimensional world, but the multi-dimensional world may not be so far away from the two-dimensional one. It’s just that we have always been living in the fog and have never interacted with it…”
Steve sounded excited, but slowly, Li Du was losing the thread of his explanation. Finally, he could not understand Steve’s words clearly anymore.
It was a strange feeling. He shook his head and it seemed like his consciousness was getting blurry. After the head shaking, he felt much more awake and said, “What’s going on? Seems like I didn’t have a good sleep last night…”
“Oh, sh*t!” A sharp yelp rang out nearby.
Most of them rushed over. Andrey’s face was pale and he was panting heavily.
Steve asked, “What’s going on, buddy?”
Andrey swallowed hard and said, “I saw a few tentacles just now, it looked like one of those d*mned giant squids, you know?”
Steve nodded. “The gigantic squid from the deep sea.”
Andrey nodded. “Yes, that’s it. I saw a few gigantic tentacles just now. There were some red suckers on the tentacles. At least, I think those were suckers, but it might be eyes! God! Could it be the deep sea evil spirit?”
Li Du and the rest broke into laughter. Steve went over and patted Andrey’s shoulder, saying, “Impossible, this must be a superstition. There is no deep sea evil spirit. Even if there were, how could it have dealt with the different pressure on land and in the deep sea?”
Young Ford, who had been silent until then, spoke up, “I think I saw it too.”
Most of them stopped laughing and Steve looked at Young Ford in surprise. “Buddy, are you kidding me?”
Young Ford was confused and said, “The thing looked like the tentacles of a giant squid with red eyes on it. It did look like a sucker on the tentacle…”
Sophie pulled Li Du’s wrist and said, “There’s something weird. Where are the gophers from just now? Why are they all gone?”
Due to the fog, the gophers could not see Li Du and his people. At most, they could see their feet. When a group of people did not come too close to them, they were not afraid. Hence, they would not run away. That had been the reason why their group could see the gophers in the first place.
Hearing Sophie’s words, the rest of them looked down and started to scan the surroundings as they lowered themselves to the ground. Indeed, the gophers were all gone.
Andrey said in fear, “Could the evil spirit have eaten all of them?”
Steve shook his head. “Don’t be silly, buddy, there’s no such thing as a deep sea evil spirit. Where would it be now? The gophers must have run off.”
“Then what could it be that scared them off?” Andrey pressed on anxiously.
“Look, there’s a gopher. They are not all gone.” Li Du spotted a gopher wriggling out from a bush.
Just as he pointed to the gopher, it seemed like something caught the animal. It suddenly struggled and then vanished with a psst!
Then, Li Du faintly saw a thick and long tentacle flash before his eyes near the bush.
