The world is divided into two kinds.

One is the world within cognition, and the other is the world outside cognition.

Six continents, explored seas, undeveloped seas, imaginary continents, dark seas, dark continents.

The real world is made up of these.

But each "part of the world" is divided by a boundary.

This line can represent taboos, dangers, and isolations......

Human perception of the world today is the result of boundaries.

Boundaries can divide the world as well as regions.

Just like the boundary-guarding plant in front of you, it is the embodiment of a certain boundary.

Its existence......

Is it necessary?

Don Flix has thought about this question, but has never come to a conclusion.

He was too small for the entire Dark Continent.

It's as small as an inconspicuous cell in a person's body.

He couldn't judge the significance of the existence of the Boundary-Guarding Plant, but he knew that the ecological circle of the Dark Continent was unimaginably complex, and the level of chaos could not be reasoned with.

How to find a trace of order in this chaos, perhaps the meaning of the existence of the boundary plant?

The answer is unknown.

Don Flex's gaze retracted from one direction, instead staring silently at the thick roots of the trees lying across the hillside.

This boundary can divide the region and even the ecosystem, but it cannot stop the human footsteps and many more intelligent other creatures.

Click-Click

East Fulux walked over to the thick roots of the tree and raised his hand to tear off a rattan that pulsed like a pulse from the "lichen" that was parasitic on the surface of his body.

“……”

After pausing for a few seconds in front of the tree roots, East Fulux suddenly threw the rattan in his hand into the air.

In an instant, the roots of the tree, which had the meaning of the boundary as its existence, suddenly boiled and changed, and tentacles were born in the boiling phenomenon, and then spread to the lichen rattan that was thrown into the air by East Fulix.

Don Fulix, on the other hand, fearlessly walked head-on to the roots of the tree, which had turned into a boiling liquid.

I saw that the roots of the tree that were rising and boiling were actually taking the initiative to open a hole that could be crossed by Don Fulix.

Meanwhile.

The dense tentacles that climbed upwards devoured the lichen vines, and then retracted to the ground at a rapid pace, turning back to their original roots.

At this moment, East Flexix has crossed the line and stepped into an area with many coral-like rocks.

Instead of looking back at the root-like guarding plants, he walked in one direction.

He wanted to meet the humans who were traveling this route.

Walking through the many coral-like rocks, you can clearly feel the changes in the terrain.

There is a steep and difficult part of the road, but after a few hundred meters it is a downhill course.

This route changes over and over again, like a wavy line that goes up and down.

Sunlight shines through the hollow caves on the coral rocks, casting a strange light on the rocky ground.

The party walked through it, and they didn't encounter any creatures along the way.

Despite this, everyone was always vigilant as they went.

Now that I have traveled to many places, I have a new understanding of the term vastness.

The coral-like rock area that is currently being trekked is also an area that may take at least half a month to cross.

Moyu was mentally prepared.

Now, he just hopes to meet a creature with the possibility of communication soon.

The team is moving forward steadily.

It wasn't until dusk that the team was passing by a hollowed-out coral-like rock block tens of meters high when they suddenly heard a faint ticking sound.

"Huh?"

A wisp of color flashed in everyone's eyes, and they quickly glanced at each other.

Kang Jae was the first to ask, "Did you hear anything?" ”

"Yes."

"It's a small sound, it sounds like a pendulum clock."

"It's like a pendulum bell."

Everyone, you say a word to me.

They all heard the faint sound of the bell.

Mo You frowned and said, "I can't hear which direction it's coming from, don't be careless." ”

"You know, you don't need to be reminded of this kind of thing."

Kang Jae's eyes suddenly became serious.

For them who have already seen the horrors of the Dark Continent, not to mention the ticking sound of the pendulum clock, even the sound of a small pebble rolling down the hillside, it is worth their attention and vigilance.

Bisji thought for a moment and proposed, "To be on the safe side, plug your ears first, or go to the reading space to avoid it first." ”

It was only because he heard a faint ticking sound from out of nowhere that he made this suggestion, not because Bisji was a frightened bird.

Rather, the Dark Continent itself is an unreasonable place, and it must follow the iron rule of being careful and not making a big mistake.

"Well, let's go to the space, just take a break."

Moyu very much agreed with Bisji's proposal.

Suddenly encountering a voice of unknown origin in a specific environment, this kind of thing requires a high degree of vigilance even if it is placed on the six continents.

After all, some people who release or operate the ability to release or operate the mind system only use "sound" as a condition for activation......

For example, the melody in the original book.

She is a dual-system telepathizer who emits and manipulates the system, and can create the effect of the operation system just by the sound of the instrument she plays.

With such a stark example of reference, it is necessary to beware of the sudden ticking of the pendulum clock.

At this point, Mo Yu manipulated a shadow unit that was always ready, and soon materialized a passage to the "Shadow World" at his feet.

"Enter."

Mo You urged quickly.

Hearing this, Sambika immediately walked towards the shadow space passage.

She is the person who needs to be protected the most in the whole team, so every time she takes emergency refuge, she is the first to enter the shadow space.

But for some reason, she took two steps and then suddenly stopped, standing still in place.

At this moment, Mo You noticed that the ticking sound coming from nowhere was much clearer than just now, and then saw Sambica's strange appearance, and his heart suddenly felt bad.

"Is it a similar ability to operate a system......

The figure of the melody flew through Mo You's mind, his eyes changed, and he hurriedly looked at the other teammates.

But I saw that everyone was as sluggish as Sambica, standing still in place.

This phenomenon suddenly shook Mo You's heart.

Just vaguely hearing a ticking sound, and as a result, you just fell straight into this state?

Isn't that too domineering?

Do you want to send them into the mindspace, or find the source of the sound?

Or ...... the remembrance?

No, the number of times of repetition is only three times, which is not enough at all.

It's unclear what the effects of this sound are.

Just as Mo You was quickly thinking about countermeasures, Kang Jae, who was standing not far in front of him, suddenly fell to his knees, and then kowtowed to him!

Boom!

With a dull sound, the hard rock ground was suddenly knocked out of a gap by Kang Jae.

“？？？”

Mo Yu was caught off guard by Kang Jae's sudden kowtowing.

Before he could react, Kang Jae kowtowed his head again, and in an instant, the rubble splattered.

If it weren't for the protection of the mental qi wrapped around the body, Kang Jae's fierce momentum when he kowtowed, he would have to knock out a hole in his forehead.

Moyu then realizes that Kang Jae's kowtow is more like self-harm......

"It should be the ability effect of the ticking operation, but after the ability conditions are achieved, it can't revoke the manipulated target's mental state, and the way of manipulating self-harm is a bit of a child's play."

Watching Kang Jae's self-harm behavior of kowtowing several times in a row, Mo You's fear of the ticking sound has decreased a lot.

If you can't revoke the mental energy on the manipulated target, it means that the ability effect is not coercive, but more suggestive.

Compared to the manipulation ability that can directly erase the target's consciousness, the implicit ability has more room for salvation.

Mo Yu didn't immediately stop Kang Jae from kowtowing.

Because Kang Jae is self-harming at the moment, he has the protection of his mind, and he will not have to worry about safety for a while.

He remained vigilant and kept an eye on the rest of the team.

Perhaps it was the effect of the ticking sound that began to kick in, and everyone other than Kang Jae also began to do various forms of self-harm.

It's just that everyone has a layer of "hard" as protection, and the way of self-harm is quite child's play and sloppy, so there is no need to worry about safety for the time being.

At the same time, Moyu noticed that the ticking sound echoing in his ears became louder and louder, and the frequency began to become rapid.

I don't know why—

Moyu felt a sense of impatience from the faster ticking sound.

"Is it because you saw that I didn't win the bid?"

Listening to the louder and louder ticks, Moyu kept an eye on his teammates as he tried to find out where the sound source was.

He didn't delve too much into why he wasn't affected by sound.

I think it's the mental toughness effect of "when the stars of humanity shine".

This may be the first time he has enjoyed the benefits of mental toughness.

And the most important thing at the moment is to find the unknown object hidden in the shadows as soon as possible.

Mo Yu decided to take the risk, concentrated, and tried to discern the direction of the sound source.

Tick, tick –

The voice grew more and more irritable, as if it was trying to shove all the discontent into Moyu's ears.

But no matter how the voice changed, Moyu remained unaffected.

186% mental toughness makes him immune to manipulation from ticks.

"Found it."

As the presence of the ticking sound grew stronger, Moyu finally confirmed the direction of the sound.

It's just that he didn't act immediately, but quietly controlled the shadow that used "hidden" to eliminate traces and quietly touched the source of the sound.

At this time.

The last rays of the afterglow of heaven and earth cover the coral-like rocks that can be seen everywhere, and the numerous hollow openings shape the orange-red glow into a thousand strange balls of light, which are reflected obliquely on the ground.

A figure swept through the orange light.

The figure was about the size of a basketball, and its upper body was a small quaint pendulum clock surrounded by thick branches, and many gritty points of light shimmered under the pendulum that was swaying from side to side.

And under the pendulum clock, there is an oval-shaped copper base, which is held up by slender mechanical feet.

If you only look at the bottom half, you just think it's some kind of peculiar crab.

The ticking sound that Mo You and his party heard came from it.

It sped through the interior of the coral-like rocks that reflected the balls of light, and the pendulum in the pendulum clock on the base was shaking rapidly, and the ticking sound was getting faster and faster.

From an onlooker's point of view, it does appear to be a little impatient.

As for the reason -

It was exactly as Moyu had guessed.

Because the ticking sound doesn't have an effect on Moyu, it becomes agitated.

In order to control Moyu, it sped up the frequency of the pendulum bell and moved closer to Moyu's side.

And this move of it instead exposes its own position.

Mo Yu saw this unidentified object that could barely be called a pendulum clock through the vision of the shadow clone, and immediately manipulated the shadow clone to attack the pendulum clock from behind without hesitation.

The pendulum clock moves much like a crab and is quite fast.

But it was apparently unaware of the shadow clone's approach, and it was only after the shadow clone's attack came that it was able to react.

And at this time, even if you react, there is no point.

The shadow clone punched the pendulum clock.

Click!

At this attack, the pendulum clock, surrounded by branches, suddenly split, and many points of light flickering within it fell to the ground like gravel.

The elliptical chassis, which had been walking with a pendulum clock, stumbled forward a few steps before slowly falling to the ground.

After manipulating the shadow clone to shatter the pendulum clock, Mo Yu quickly looked at his teammates.

I saw Kang Jae's forehead hit the ground heavily, and then suddenly stopped moving.

The same was true for the others, who stopped self-harming.

"It should be lifted......

Looking at the changes in everyone, Mo You could only wait for the final result to come out.

But at this moment, a slight wind sound came from above, and it was a human figure falling straight down from the sky.

Mo You's pupils shrank, and although he didn't feel any killing intent, he was still ready to fight back as soon as possible.

However, the figure did not mean to attack Mo You in the slightest, but landed on its head on the ground, like a green onion planted straight on the ground.

"...... people?"

Mo You's heart was shocked, and he looked at this person who suddenly fell from the sky.

The other party's body was wrapped in tight vines, and even his face was mostly covered, revealing only a pair of eyes.

But I can barely tell that the other party is a human being.

But why did this person appear with his head on the ground?

Something new?

Suddenly, Moyu thought of a possibility.

Could it be that this person was also affected by the sound of the pendulum bell and then resorted to self-harm by falling from a height and landing his head on the ground?

If he had solved the pendulum clock a second earlier, maybe this person wouldn't have to, right?

Not right-

What should be considered now is the origin of this person.

Could it be the indigenous humans of the Dark Continent?

Mo You's thoughts spun quickly, carefully looking at the person who had fallen from the sky in front of him.

While feeling vigilant, it was a little pleasantly surprised.

He is in dire need of intelligence now.

This person who fell from the sky is Don Fulix, who has been pursued all the way.

Indeed, as Mo You speculated, Don Fulis, who had just chased here, was also manipulated by the sound of the pendulum bell, and then adopted a "jumping off-building" self-harm method.

Now, he's a little embarrassed......

"I'm ...... Why? ”

Kang Jae's dazed voice came from the side.

Mo You squinted at Kang Jae and replied enthusiastically, "Kowtow." ”

“？？？”

(End of chapter)