An unimaginably rich abundance of resources.
An inexhaustible supply of food sources.
This was the fundamental reason the V5 so eagerly coveted the Dark Continent.
To obtain these fantastical objects of hope, the V5 spared no expense, pouring in countless manpower and resources in a constant attempt to breach the border.
And this obsession also allowed the Gatekeepers to clearly see humanity's endless desires.
The Gatekeepers understood that it was better to guide than to block.
Rather than letting humans try every conceivable method to reach the Dark Continent regardless of the cost, it was better to proactively guide them and let them witness the true face of the Dark Continent for themselves.
This would make humans realize that the Dark Continent was by no means a place they could set foot in.
If personally experiencing the terror was still not enough to curb human greed, the Gatekeepers would choose an opportune moment to inflict a calamity upon them as a clear warning.
This was both a deterrent and an admonition.
This approach had indeed proven effective.
Over the past century, the number of human voyages could be counted on one hand.
Even if humans were still determined to go to the Dark Continent, they would usually negotiate with the Gatekeepers to obtain the assistance of a Guide.
In this way, the Gatekeepers could keep track of humanity's exploration movements at all times and decide whether to issue a warning based on the specific situation.
However, even with this strategy, the Gatekeepers could not completely track the whereabouts of all humans.
The border separating the six continents from the Dark Continent, the endlessly stretching Land of Walls, was simply too vast. With their limited numbers, the Gatekeepers could hardly cover every inch of the area.
They could only increase the number of individuals they could dispatch by creating "conjured Nen Beasts."
Typically, one Gatekeeper could conjure multiple demi-human Nen Beasts with independent intelligence.
Although these conjured demi-human Nen Beasts were collectively called Guides, their duties were not limited to just guiding; they also undertook tasks such as investigation and monitoring.
Once the ecological balance of the Dark Continent showed signs of imbalance in a certain area, the Gatekeeper responsible for that region would dispatch a team of Guides to investigate and confirm the situation, preventing it from worsening.
This was the celestial duty of the Gatekeepers as a tribe of magical beasts, and it was also inextricably linked to their race's survival and continuation.
The sudden death of the "black hand" alerted the Gatekeeper responsible for that area to an anomaly.
After a period of gradual investigation, the Gatekeeper finally confirmed that another human team had landed on the Dark Continent.
Yet, none of the buoys set up in the Dark Waters had detected any voyage information.
The Gatekeepers were not surprised by this, as they knew that voyages were never the only means for humans to reach the Dark Continent.
As far back as ancient times, in order to migrate to Lake Mobius, humans had spared no cost, pouring in countless efforts and manpower to build hidden portals that could directly "cross the risks."
Although these portals had many usage restrictions, quite a few had survived to this day, mostly buried deep within ancient ruins hidden from the light of day.
Some of these portals were also scattered around Lake Mobius.
In the last few hundred years alone, several groups of humans had used them to bypass the conventional routes and step directly onto the soil of the Dark Continent.
While the Gatekeepers were not surprised by how this current human team had landed, they were still utterly shocked by the death of the "black hand" and the fact that a large amount of Nitro Rice had been harvested.
Because no human had ever been able to accomplish such a feat.
"Let the Entropy Bird deliver Zobae, the Immortality Disease, to that group of humans."
The Gatekeeper, with its skull partially exposed, beast-like features, and a pair of golden beast eyes, stood quietly atop the Land of Walls, gazing expressionlessly in a certain direction on the Dark Continent.
The Entropy Bird was a symbiotic creature that fed on "coincidence."
It had no fixed form; its entire body seemed to be a blurry silhouette pieced together from countless mosaic-like fragments.
Once it selected a target, it would quietly perch on the person's shoulder, in an invisible state, and silently gaze at them.
It essentially fed on the randomly fluctuating information entropy in the environment, the energy of coincidence.
When it had absorbed a sufficiently high concentration of coincidence, it would shake off a feather that would briefly become visible.
At that moment, its "gaze" would be caught by the chosen person.
And when that feather landed, the chosen person's fate would begin to cycle between "good luck" and "bad luck."
The Gatekeepers certainly didn't mind bringing "good luck" to that group of humans.
Because in an environment like the Dark Continent, humans could enjoy good luck many times, but they could not bear the price of a single stroke of bad luck.
There was another very important point.
Over the long years, the Gatekeepers had gradually come to understand and master a great deal of information about "calamities" and "hopes."
This allowed them to better maintain order and balance.
The Entropy Bird was a being that the Gatekeepers could control well, and using it to warn humans was the most suitable and subtle method.
—--
On the day they successfully harvested a batch of Nitro Rice, the team distributed it immediately after leaving the swamp.
Each person received nine stalks.
This was the distribution rule set in advance, which would not change based on an individual's contribution during the exploration.
From the moment each member accepted the invitation and willingly took the immense risk to set foot on this continent with Morrow, they earned the right to share the spoils equally.
After distributing the Nitro Rice, everyone thought about eating one stalk first.
Although they had the information from the Lakeside Tribe's Old man as assurance, out of caution, Menchi first used her "God's Tongue" to test the safety of the Nitro Rice.
Once it was confirmed to be safe, everyone ate one stalk.
Unexpectedly, the abundant aura contained within the Nitro Rice could simultaneously enhance both their potential aura and their aura output, and the effect was quite significant.
Morrow's level jumped directly from Lv.104 to Lv.107, a full three-level increase.
This unexpected joy was truly invigorating.
Although for a fleeting moment they wanted to devour all the Nitro Rice in their hands, reason ultimately overcame impulse.
Everyone used the extra Toothed Leaves they had saved to wrap the Nitro Rice, and then they set off on their journey back to the six continents.
With Kalluto's living paper doll leading the way, the team didn't have to worry about getting lost.
Ten whole days passed in a flash.
During this period, Chimera's flight was not smooth.
Even while carefully controlling its altitude, it was repeatedly harassed by swarms of flying creatures on its way to the coastline.
Chimera's size had become a problem.
Without the ability to dominate the Dark Continent's flying creatures with its size, its presence only became more conspicuous, like a prominent target.
Therefore, to avoid the frequent attacks from flying swarms, Chimera had to repeatedly take detours or land on the ground to temporarily avoid them.
This back and forth not only added many unpredictable dangers but also slowed their progress back to the six continents.
But this was, after all, an unavoidable consequence of the environment.
In any case, a slower return journey was no big deal for the team; safety was the top priority.
What's more, even if they successfully reached the coastline of the Dark Continent, the perilous Dark Waters still awaited them.
These were all hardships they were bound to face.
—--
The next day, it was the 46th day since the team had landed on the Dark Continent.
Chimera flew over a vast forest.
The trees in the forest grew extremely lushly. Each one seemed to have stood for a thousand years, not only towering and massive, but their canopies were also so tightly interwoven that they blocked almost all gaps.
Just looking at this impenetrable green dome was enough to imagine how dark it was below.
Upon seeing the endless forest below, Morrow immediately had Chimera ascend higher.
When the team had flown over another forest area before, they had been attacked by a type of Poison Dart Frog in the truest sense.
Those creatures had long, narrow bodies like arrows and seemed to possess unimaginable elasticity, able to launch themselves from the ground into the high sky.
Their heads were as sharp as arrowheads and covered in poison glands.
What was more terrifying was that they were social creatures. Once they launched from the forest, they were like an overwhelming rain of arrows, extremely intimidating.
Faced with this kind of attack, if one was even slightly grazed, even if the wound wasn't deep, it would likely be impossible to resist the potent venom that followed.
Chimera had nearly been pierced through by them.
After that incident, whenever they flew over a forest area, Morrow would have Chimera ascend to a higher altitude.
Moreover, the dense canopy of the forest before them obscured everything, and no one could peer into what lurked beneath the deep green.
Chimera ascended and flew forward steadily.
However, at that moment, a sharp, piercing screech came from above the clouds.
Morrow instantly looked toward the source of the sound in alarm, while quickly stomping on Chimera's back, signaling it to remain vigilant.
The others in the team also followed the sound with their gazes.
The next second, a giant dragon with fleshy wings and a head covered in tumors came tumbling frantically out of the clouds.
In hot pursuit was a swarm of flying creatures with slender, dragonfly-like bodies, three pairs of transparent cicada wings, and a ferocious giant thorn on their heads.
The giant dragon, several times larger than Chimera, seemed to realize it couldn't shake its pursuers in the air. After tumbling out of the clouds, it chose to dive straight down toward the forest below.
However, its disadvantage in speed and numbers meant that before it could even touch the canopy, it was completely entangled by the swarm of ghostly flying creatures.
They charged like kamikazes, fearlessly plunging the sharp thorns on their heads deep into the giant dragon's body.
The giant dragon let out a pained roar, thrashing its body wildly.
The immense force directly snapped the heads off the flying creatures that had pierced its body.
In an instant, headless corpses of the creatures rained down from the sky, and thick blood splattered, like a sudden downpour of crimson.
Through this suicidal assault, the giant dragon's struggles visibly weakened, and its massive body was soon covered in Giant Spiny Dragonflies.
From a distance, it looked like a carcass swarmed by ants.
Seeing this, Chimera didn't even need Morrow's command and decisively dived toward the forest below.
There were two reasons for its decision.
First, there were simply too many of these Giant Spiny Dragonflies.
Second, its flight speed was nowhere near fast enough to shake them off.
Morrow naturally saw this as well. As Chimera dived toward the forest floor, he gathered his Nen for an attack in the palm of his hand.
They had encountered similar situations more than once.
Often, when evading danger, they were forced to choose the lesser of two evils.
For instance, right now, compared to facing this swarm of flying creatures that could easily hunt a giant dragon in the open air, delving into the unknown forest on the ground was perhaps a safer retreat.
Chimera's size was conspicuous.
After completely ending the giant dragon's struggles, the swarm of Giant Spiny Dragonflies, with almost no pause, immediately turned their attention to the diving Chimera.
As the astonishing number of Giant Spiny Dragonflies dispersed from the giant dragon's body, the people on Chimera's back could see that the dragon, which had originally looked bloated, was now nothing but a tattered, hole-ridden hide, like a discarded, ruined airbag, slowly drifting and falling through the air.
'————!'
Such a gruesome sight clearly meant that the Giant Spiny Dragonflies had sucked it dry of all its flesh and blood in an extremely short amount of time.
However, everyone in the team remained calm.
After all, since arriving on the Dark Continent, they had mostly traveled by air and had encountered no small number of flying creatures. While not immune to such scenes, they had grown accustomed to them.
Chimera's decision was exceptionally decisive, allowing it to plunge into the dense canopy a step ahead, before the swarm of flying creatures could surround it.
Rustle!
The moment they passed through the canopy, the world was suddenly plunged into darkness.
The branches and leaves above were so dense that they blocked out almost all sunlight.
This caused the sunlight to pour madly through the gap Chimera had crashed through, instantly converging into a pillar of light that pierced the darkness, slanting down toward the ground below.
And at the end of that pillar of light, a dark mass of creatures, like a swarm of insects, was startled by the sudden light and scattered in panic.
Although the canopy was nearly three hundred meters above the ground, in that fleeting glimpse, Morrow's enhanced vision still allowed him to see what they looked like.
It seemed to be a swarm of crustacean-like insects, each the size of a calf.
But their carapaces were broken and damaged in many places, vaguely revealing empty structures inside. Some individuals were even missing more than half of their heads.
Yet these broken husks seemed to still be alive, moving through the dark forest at astonishing speeds.
"Chimera, breathe fire!"
Morrow's gaze hardened. He grabbed a handful of high-temperature-resistant grass fluff from his backpack, quickly tore it up, and scattered it downward.
This grass fluff had peculiar properties; its ignition point was extremely high.
But once lit, it could burn for a very long time.
Chimera twisted its neck and accurately shot globs of scorching magma-like flames at the falling fluff.
Sizzle!
The fluff ignited on contact with the fire, instantly bursting into bright, long-lasting flames.
The firelight rapidly expanded, illuminating the dark space under the canopy until it was as bright as day.
However, as the light dispelled the darkness, the scene that met their eyes sent a chill down everyone's spine.
Dense black shadows were writhing below like a tide, covering every visible corner.
These black shadows were not just the beetles they had seen earlier, but a congregation of all sorts of broken and tattered creature carcasses.
They crawled and moved about restlessly, like a living sea of remains.
And within this sea of wreckage, a few strangely shaped plants were scattered on the ground.
They resembled pitcher plants, with pitcher-like traps emitting a hazy white light hanging from the ends of their branches and leaves.
The restless, mangled creatures scurrying around seemed to possess some kind of instinct, consciously avoiding these glowing plants and forming a strange vacuum zone around them.
Just as the group noticed this bizarre scene, a clump of burning grass fluff happened to drift down next to one of the glowing plants.
Suddenly, fine roots burst from the soil. Unafraid of the high temperature of the flames, they wrapped around the burning fluff in an almost gentle manner, encasing it tightly.
Before their astonished eyes, the ball formed by the roots began to shrivel at a visible rate.
It was as if it was absorbing the burning flame, along with the matter itself, as nutrients.
Before everyone could process their thoughts, the top of the strange plant's pitcher suddenly flipped open.
With a puff, it spat out a piece of wood that was still burning.
"What is–?!"
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Bonus chapter @400powerstones