Splash.

The surging river repeatedly crashed against the riverbank, the splashes falling on the cold stone surface, and then seeping into the damp soil through the cracks, leaving dark rings of water.

Luokuke held up a flashlight, the beam shooting along the riverbank, lightly skimming over row upon row of Crab-men.

The blue-gray crab claws swayed slightly, like waves rising and falling, densely packed together, making one’s scalp tingle.

Even more suffocating were the eyes on stalks extending from the eye sockets of the Crab-men, turning in unison towards the group of people on the path.

Countless cold, hollow gazes slowly moved, firmly locking onto each person’s face, as if even their breathing were frozen by this chill.

In a certain moment, Cheng Ye even wished his eyesight were worse, at least so he wouldn’t see the horrific scene so clearly.

But reality allowed him no escape. As the flashlight beam moved, his gaze involuntarily followed it, landing on the mud-covered faces of the Crab-men, even the bizarre curvature frozen at the corners of their mouths was clearly visible.

He looked over, the Crab-men looked back.

A pair of human eyes, and countless eerie eyes on stalks, silently confronted each other in the night.

"Inspector Cheng?" Luokuke sensed something amiss and turned his head in surprise.

He discovered Cheng Ye’s face was covered in sweat, dripping down along the edge of his mask.

His lips trembled slightly, and his eyes seemed abnormally bulged, as if witnessing a terrifying scene beyond comprehension.

"Shh... don’t make a sound." Cheng Ye pressed down his breath, his voice so faint it was almost inaudible, as he quietly took a step back.

At this moment, he couldn’t even bring himself to reach for the weapon at his waist.

An indescribable fear loomed overhead, making him want to flee, to leave this place immediately.

However.

Unexpectedly, the Crab-men on the shore showed no violent reaction, quite a few of the stalk eyes slowly retracted, turning to focus on others instead, no longer concentrating on him.

"Didn’t notice me?"

Cheng Ye’s heart stirred, and he tentatively took another step back.

In an instant, more eyes drew back, as if he, the "intruder," did not exist at all, completely ignored.

Hmm?

Cheng Ye suddenly had a conjecture. After taking a deep breath, he abruptly stepped forward.

Swish.

In that split second, the retracted eyes on stalks all shot out, like a triggered mechanism, locking onto him again.

Even the Crab-men further away, which had been quiet, turned their heads towards him, enveloping him once more in their dense gaze.

"Is there a trigger distance?"

Cheng Ye’s heart shook, he hesitated no more, retreating seven or eight steps back, to twice the previous distance.

This time, all the Crab-men retracted their stalk eyes, no gaze fell upon him again, as if that moment of intense watching had just been an illusion.

"What’s going on?" Cheng Ye was a bit dazed.

The scene before him was completely beyond comprehension, he couldn’t even sort out two key questions:

Where did so many Ghost Water Cave Crab Infected Bodies come from?

Why were they standing so neatly by the shore, what exactly were they doing?

Thinking it over, he frowned, reaching for the infection source detector at his waist, long-pressing the switch to activate the device.

As expected.

The detector’s screen instantly lit up with a dazzling red light, casting an eerie glow on his mask.

What was a mix of yellow and red on the riverbank during the day had now become an entire red corridor, extending from before him into the distant darkness, within the detection range were countless flickering red dots, dense, impossible to count.

"What light is on my face?" He looked at Luokuke, pointing at the red light reflected on his mask.

Luokuke was momentarily stunned, his expression suddenly turning grim, as if dusted over, with a sinking tone: "It’s... green!"

"Are you colorblind to red and green?"

Cheng Ye couldn’t help but swear.

Since getting this detector, he had only ever seen yellow and red, where did green come from?

"I..."

Luokuke’s voice trembled, "I haven’t seen green on the detector either..."

As soon as he said this, he felt as if he had been struck hard in the chest, freezing in place, his face turning pale as paper.

His cognitive processes felt like tangled paste, buzzing, and his legs gave way, involuntarily dropping to one knee, supporting himself on the ground to stay upright.

Several seconds later, he turned shakily, relocating the flashlight beam on the riverbank, his voice tremulous: "There... what’s there?"

"That’s the tracking powder you scattered in the day, untouched and intact." Cheng Ye’s tone was calm.

"Is it?" Luokuke suddenly seemed in a daze, his gaze filled with confusion.

"Yes, come over here, don’t get close to the riverbank anymore."

Cheng Ye waved, and not until Huang Liang led all the team members to his side did he quietly exhale in relief.

Luokuke’s condition was clearly a cognitive distortion.

But it wasn’t the kind of thorough alteration he imagined, more like the body’s protective mechanism being triggered, automatically avoiding threatening information, masking danger with false images.

But why would seeing green on the radio automatically be assumed as red?

Could it be that sending information to the outside world was the danger?

Cheng Ye froze for a moment, withdrawing his finger from the radio communication button, suppressing the urge to press it immediately.

Everything happening now was clearly beyond what he, an Intern Inspector, could handle.