Led by Bernard, the group arrived at a stone house in the town.
The house looked no different from the surroundings.
Seeing the house, Baggett, who had been following them, shook his head in disdain. "I'm leaving first."
With that, he turned and left.
All that could be heard was the clatter of his golden leg against the stone as he walked away.
"This is the home of the mayor, and he can be considered our leader," Bernard said.
He knocked on the door.
Then a slightly gruff, bright voice rang from within.
"Bernard? Come in."
With that, the door opened, and the group saw what lay inside.
It looked like an ordinary room.
Everyone entered, and Pororo, hunched over, barely squeezed in.
This so-called mayor was also a skeleton, but the size of his frame suggested he must have been quite robust in life.
He was also wearing simple soft armor.
In the room sat a statue of a deity, presumably used for prayer.
The figure wore a hood and its clothing was somewhat tattered. One hand held a tangled chain, and the other held a scythe of the Grim Reaper.
Clearly, this didn't resemble any normal faith.
Looking at the emblem, Alka felt a sense of familiarity. Wasn't this the emblem of the Undertaker they had just seen?
"Ah, stranger, it's been ages since I last saw you. Hello, I'm the mayor here. You can just call me Code.
I hope my people didn't scare you. Hahaha."
The skeleton smiled at Alka and the others.
Although their facial expressions couldn't be seen, their tone of voice gave a rough idea of their emotions.
"Alka, I don't really care about race or appearance. I just didn't realize there was such an island," Alka said with a smile.
"If you don't mind, could you tell us about it?" asked Lucelia, who was sitting on Alka's shoulder.
She was genuinely curious about the island.
Hearing this, Code nodded: "Of course, everyone, please take a seat. This isn't something worth hiding."
As everyone sat down, Code scratched his head and said, somewhat embarrassedly: "Sorry, we don't have any tea at the moment. Please forgive me."
"Of course, I understand," Alka said with a wave of his hand.
Code nodded and began to narrate: "We awakened around five or six thousand years ago, during a period of chaos. Later, through the stories and understanding of outsiders, and after a long period of adaptation, we finally accepted our identities and understood the current state of the world.
Of course, that era was still very chaotic.
Some of us naturally wanted to leave, but unfortunately, as you can see, there was something clearly wrong with our current state.
Although we could leave the island, we couldn't even escape the thick fog at sea."
"Can't leave? No wonder," Alka said. No wonder they hadn't heard of these races outside.
This meant that people like them, in a state of half-life, could never leave the fog-shrouded area.
Of course, it could be fake.
But Alka couldn't judge, so he assumed it was true for now.
"Will we die if we leave? Or will we be pulled back?" Lucelia asked curiously.
Bernard, standing nearby, said, "It's like dying, turning into a pile of bones, and then being dragged back."
After hearing this simple explanation, everyone nodded in understanding; it was easy to understand.
In other words, for thousands of years, they've lived like undead, sleepless, without food or water, and even unable to leave this place. It's surprising they haven't gone completely insane yet. That's a little strange. Many of the undead who just passed by, while seemingly in good condition, all had various mental issues.
Though these various issues seemed understandable.
"I believe you've seen along the way that my people are gradually sinking into madness under this torture,"
Code suddenly said.
Hearing this, everyone was at a loss for words.
They didn't understand, nor could they empathize.
They couldn't express what they understood.
"Thousands of years of torture! It seems Baggett was outside just now? You must have been stopped by him. Please forgive him."
At this point, a hint of sadness could be heard in Code's tone.
"His ship is full of those who have gone completely mad, or even nearly insane.
Not all outsiders are as friendly as you. Over thousands of years, we've welcomed countless strangers.
Some are just as friendly as you, while others treat us as monsters, some as experimental subjects, some verbally abuse us, and some attempt to purify us, but all this serves no purpose other than to inflict more suffering on us.
That's why his pirate groups attack all ships attempting to reach the island, and we the dead have acquiesced.
The ships they drive off cannot withstand our appearance or change our lives."
The mayor stood up and said, "If you wish to purchase goods or harvest supplies, please forgive us; there's nothing suitable here.
If you're curious about this island and want to explore it, please don't disturb these suffering people.
This island holds no secrets. You can wander freely, as long as you don't disturb the residents."
He then walked directly to the statue and suddenly began to pray.
Watching this scene, Bernard turned to the crowd and made a shushing gesture. Then he quietly led them out of the room, closing the door behind them.
"Please forgive his courtesy. He's endured enough pressure over the past few thousand years, and sometimes he needs to pray to vent.
Reminiscence isn't good for him."
Everyone nodded indifferently. The undead here were indeed somewhat mentally unstable, and they could easily get used to it.
And this wasn't rude at all; rather, these undead were a bit too polite.
Jason looked at Bernard as he spoke. "What about you? Why do you seem like the most normal person we've met?"
Bernard, who had been leading them around, didn't display much abnormal behavior.
"Hahahaha, of course it's this," he said, shaking the fishing rod he'd been carrying on his shoulder. He looked very proud.
"I was obsessed with fishing when I was alive, so I had few friends, not even any family.
Fishing is everything to me; I live by it. So I was already abnormal when I was alive, so how could I be more abnormal in death?"
Bernard said with a carefree smile.
At this moment, Simon keenly realized something and asked, "Did those undead who were with you have their own hobbies?"
Hearing this, Bernard stared at him with his skull eyes, burning with soul fire. "You're quite perceptive, indeed. Narissa was obsessed with painting, Sabog excelled at sculpture, and Wall-E was deeply involved in dancing."
"So, having a passionate hobby can sustain your spirit after death, keeping you in a positive state of mind."
Compared to others," Simon said. Bernard nodded. "Indeed, you figured it out so quickly. That's quite impressive.
Yes, it's a shame we're the only ones with such an obsessive hobby, still obsessed even after death.
Many have given up on it in the endless torment of time. Those who still have a hobby are either perfectly fine or completely insane."
With that, he led the others slowly in another direction.
As they walked, they chatted.
Clearly, Alka and the other rare outsiders had become the skeleton's confidants.
He truly needed some normal people to chat with, to ease his emotions.
Everyone else needed understanding, too, and they weren't completely opposed to it.
"If it weren't for these hobbies, we would have gone crazy long ago, becoming pirates on ghost ships.
So sometimes I really admire Baggett and Code. Even though they're always arguing and their ideologies differ, they're the most normal ones, relying on their own will."
"Is Baggett normal?" Jason asked uncertainly from the side.
"Of course. He's always been like this, so doesn't that make him normal?"
That being said, it seemed to be true.
If someone's personality was abnormal from the beginning, and it hasn't changed much over the past thousand years, doesn't that mean they're actually normal?
It was strange, but it was true.
They soon arrived at an area with many houses, but few undead villagers.
"Just find a few houses here to stay. Of course, I think you might prefer to live on your ship.
After all, this is the abode of the dead. Although we were once normal humans, many habits have changed over the millennia."
"Why are there so many empty houses here?" Sofia asked.
And they seem to be clustered together.
"It's because those crazy residents joined the pirates and naturally drifted here."
"By the way, if you need me, you can find me by the lighthouse or the harbor. I usually fish there.
Of course, if you need any supplies, you can also find me. I usually release my catch, so you can take them if you want."
After a few more casual words, Bernardo, who had been leading them, left.
Of course, the group didn't enter the houses to rest. They took a quick look, confirmed that they had indeed been uninhabited for a long time, and then left.
"What should we do now? Should we draw a map of this island? Or leave?"
Sofia said as he walked towards the boat on the shore.
Hearing this, Alka couldn't help but ponder. He wasn't quite sure at the moment. There must be something strange going on for this place to be like this, but they had their own things to do.
After a moment's thought, he said, "Let's just draw it. We're already here."
Besides, the island isn't very big, so it's easy to explore.
And with his special ability to see through secrets, Alka felt a faint red tinge in the sky.
Sofia nodded and joined the others in strolling. After all, they had nothing better to do.
As they walked, they observed and chatted.
"So, what exactly caused this island to become like this?" Jason asked, somewhat curiously.
"The chaotic environment," Julia said.
She remained silent the entire way, relying solely on her senses to absorb the unique characteristics of her surroundings.
At least she sensed something different.
Facing the curious gazes of the crowd, she spoke as she walked, "It's simple. Just like the extreme thinness and chaos of space in the Broken Sea.
Here, in this foggy area, death becomes extremely debilitating, even completely absent.
In this area, the concept of death may no longer exist."
"So, you can't truly die here?" Jason asked, frowning.
Is it really that outrageous?
Julia shook her head. "No, that's not the case. Immortality refers to the immortality of the soul, not the incorruption of the body.
When you die, your soul remains immortal, attached to your body. But your body is already dead, so when you leave this fog, you'll likely suffer the death and decay of your flesh.
Death won't leave you forever. It will catch you at the right place and strangle you."
"Does that mean you'll become a ghost like them?" Lucelia asked.
"I don't know, but it's a possibility. More likely, you'll die completely once you leave this area, and you might not even return like they did."
"Don't forget, they didn't wake up until tens of thousands of years after their death," Alka reminded him, turning around.
Who knows what this place has been through in those tens of thousands of years.
That means even after they die, they might have to wait that long before they can revive.
So, basically, dead is dead.
No one would risk their own death; it's pointless.
"So even if death here were to disappear, it wouldn't be like theirs. They're bound to this area for other reasons," Julia said, then shook her head, indicating that was all she knew.
"I'm more concerned about this thing than anything you're talking about," Simon said, standing beneath a large tree and gazing at it.
Perhaps it was because this area was filled with the death that couldn't leave, or perhaps it was for some other reason.
The plants on the island looked slightly worn and withered, yet they were truly alive.
Like the tree before them, completely devoid of green leaves, it was as dry as a completely withered tree.
Yet, it was undoubtedly a living tree.
"What's wrong with this thing?" Jason asked curiously.
"Death rebirth," Simon said as he climbed up the tree. Then, amidst a cluster of dry, withered wood, he spotted a sprout.
The sprout was about the size of a fingernail.
Looking at the young leaf, Simon began to pull out various devices and unfold it.
"What do you mean?" Jason asked, puzzled.
"That's the material we need," Alka said, recalling.
They needed this material for the device they were researching that would imbue the doll girl with a soul.
One of the materials, which they had no idea where to find, was a deeply mystical substance—the life of death.
It was something deeply symbolic.
Simon's research went a little deeper than what he had explored here.
Then, under the gaze of the crowd, Simon severed the sprout, along with a broken branch beneath it, and immediately encapsulated it with magical protection.
Then he gathered the devices and jumped down. "Following fate's voyage is indeed useful, isn't it?" Simon said with a smile, looking at the sprout in the bottle in his hand.
Alka looked at the sprout in the bottle, his eyes slightly blurred, wanting to see more.
Then he saw that the sprout carried the brokenness and resistance of death.
Life pressed upon death, and then emerged from death.
Then, his eyes felt slightly sore, and Alka closed them.
He rested for a while.
Seeing things he couldn't see much at this stage would cause him to experience this kind of situation; it was a warning.
"So, this thing..." Alka seemed to have a thought, and a leg bone appeared in his hand.
It was the same bone he had taken from the thigh of the undead that had emerged from the coffin earlier, the bone that held memories of death.
Considering the resurrection of those undead, he wondered if the skeleton would be missing a leg?
"Memories after death?" Alka was a little unsure.
But he did see some similar meaning in this bone.
Alka and Simon exchanged a glance as they spoke.
The strange phenomena in this area might actually allow them to gain something.
Thinking of this, Alka said directly, "The island might hold the materials we need. Keep an eye out and explore the surroundings."
Suddenly, the group felt motivated and began observing their surroundings as they followed Sofia in drawing a map.
Strange areas naturally produce even more scarce materials.
…
Time slipped by quickly.
Alka and the others were doing boring things on the island.
"Are you ready to leave?" Bernard asked, sitting on a boulder on the shore, fishing rod in hand.
Sitting next to him were Pororo, Jason, and Juanlu.
They had the same appearance as Bernard.
"Right, we might have to leave soon," Jason said.
Then, as if sensing a fish approaching, he calmly began to pull with the rod, then exerted a strong force.
A large fish was pulled up, probably at the second stage of strength.
Then, Jason seized the opportunity to knock the fish unconscious with a punch and toss it into the nearby fish box.
It was a huge, ice-lined box.
It was already filled with a dense mass of fish, all the ones they had caught that day.
"What a shame! I still have so many fishing tips I haven't passed on to you," Bernard said somewhat helplessly.
It was rare to meet someone like him.
The time they had spent together was enough for him to reminisce for centuries.
"What you've taught us is enough. Let us figure out the rest on our own," Juanlu said solemnly.
"Speaking of which, are your other companions..." Bernard pointed to his own skull, his consciousness clearly evident.
This statement and action left the three of them feeling slightly awkward. They didn't know how to explain themselves.
"Um... maybe. Or maybe they're just curious."
"Really? I haven't seen outsiders in years, so I don't know much about the outside world. Forgive me."
"It's okay, it's okay. But they do have some mental issues," Jason said with a nonchalant smile.
At this moment, the beat of drums could be heard from the small harbor in the distance.
Hearing the sound, the three of them stood up.
"We'll take our leave now. Perhaps we'll meet again sometime."
"Of course. If possible, come and free us if you can."