【Ma Ai】Island of Illusion

The sun was shining.Just when Ace was weaving his first straw hat, on the other side of the cliff, Yizang and Harta encountered something unexpected.After arranging the rest of the team members, they headed west along the foot of the cliff.It wasn't long before they ran into a small group of players led by Bramank.Their luck is not very good, some people have been left behind by the phantom, and they had an unpleasant dispute during the search process, and the atmosphere was quite low.

As soon as Harta saw Bramank, he yelled and jumped on him, and it took him a long time to get him off.

"What's the matter with him?" Bramank asked out of breath.He was in a bad mood, but compared to Yi Zang, it could only be regarded as a fruit platter before a big appetizer.Yizang felt that he was about to explode, and he beat Harta out of his head without even looking at it.

"This guy has been acting coquettishly since just now, even if he is a real brat, he should pay attention to his identity. The captain of the Whitebeard fleet is not a brat with a snot in his nose clamoring to go to the playground to play in front of him."

"Halta doesn't usually act like this." Bramanke said with a glance at the squad leader who was rolling on the ground.Yizang frowned and said, "I know he's not like this usually, it's really strange. What's going on with this island?"

Bramank is a good detector, and it is impossible to find possible gaps in this cliff by manpower alone.Yizang temporarily put Harta aside, and after telling Bramanke in detail what happened not long ago, he discussed with him the possibility of crossing the cliff.At this moment, waves of vibrations came from the ground.

"Is it an earthquake? Or Dad?" Yizang raised his head, and saw that the trees around him began to tremble faintly.

"Captain Yizang, Captain Bramanke, something is coming." A crew member rushed to report.Yizang grabbed Harta from the ground, the vibration of the ground was getting bigger and bigger, and some team members could not stand still and sat on the ground.

"Everyone take your weapons, this shock doesn't look like Dad's."

The source of the vibration was less than a hundred meters away from them.A large group of dark things was rushing towards them at high speed.

"What? A boar?"

Yizang fired a shot at the most prominent point, and the thing let out a mournful cry, stumbled and twisted in the other direction.But those behind it are still coming like a tide.Yizang picked up Harta, and the other team members also jumped into the trees to hide.Bramank took out his sledgehammer and shouted at Yizang, "Stay away—"

"Don't worry! They're changing direction!"

The group of frightened animals turned neatly like soldiers and ran towards the huge cliff.The trees that were hit collapsed one after another, causing a domino effect that quickly affected the crew at the top.There was a wide gap in the tree cover above them, and the sunlight poured in like a spring.

"What are you still doing there? Get out of the way!" Yizang said.Bramank saw the timing and got in front of a huge fern tree that was about to be affected by the chain effect, and used his shoulders to support the already bent tree body, temporarily stopping the large-scale collapse of the tree.The stagnant sunlight fell on his broad back.He only had time to take a look at Harta who was struggling in Yizang's arms.

The crew began to retreat one after another.Yizang threw Harta back to his team members, and returned to Bramanke with his gun.Bramank closed his eyes tightly, and the place where his shoulders touched the tree trunk was faintly red.

"Leave quickly, the crew is in a safe place."

Bramank nodded and said, "Pay attention to those animals, we also encountered them just now. Yizang, this island is very strange!" He closed his eyes and raised his head to meet the sun, "All the animals on this island are as messy as if they had no eyes. It’s as if something is calling them ahead, and once the order is given, they will rush towards the same place.”

"Even the players are the same, something is eating their sanity and making them act like blind flies. I believe Harta is also becoming abnormal because of this."

"No eyes?" Yizang asked in surprise.He turned his head and saw that the group of crazy animals had reached the bottom of the cliff, and if they continued, they would hit the smooth surface of the cliff head-on.However, something unbelievable happened at this time—the animals disappeared one after another.

It is to disappear completely—the only way to use this extreme word is to hide it in later retelling.A large group of black and large beasts disappeared when they hit the cliff, one after another, disintegrating one by one like a space that was cut into pieces.Occasionally, broken limbs fall, and they will immediately fall into the invisible vortex and disappear.Yizang stared dumbfounded at this strange event that seemed long but was actually only a few minutes long. The splashed blood left strange traces on the cliff, reminding him of the blood splashed on the kitchen roof when Harta was playing with Ace. tomato juice.If there wasn't something beneath the cliff—something completely invisible to the naked eye—there was something wrong with the cliff itself.It has been silently waiting, waiting for the prey to come to the door.

"What's wrong with you? What happened?" Bramanke, who had kept his eyes closed, felt an unusual movement, and Yizang's sudden silence aggravated his anxiety.

"Bramanke, hurry up, something will happen if you stay any longer, this ghostly place can even eat people with stones—" He thought of Saqi and his gang not far away, they didn't know anything, maybe they were hovering around now Before this damned stone, they discussed how to turn over.Yizang fought a cold war, and the hot feeling just now subsided completely.

"Oh, what about this tree?"

"Never mind, they're all running away!"

The ground began to shake again.This time the shock was more obvious than the previous one. It was as if someone had detonated a large box of shells underground.

"What's the mess in this place anyway?" Yizang ran into the depths of the forest with Bramanke's collar in his hands.Bramank was so strangled that he couldn't speak.The trees began to collapse again, and a huge creature emerged from under the tree that Bramank was supporting.

"Asshole." Yi Zang stopped.He threw Bramank to the ground and fired several rounds, all of which buried themselves in the forelegs of the giant beast.

"I've had enough of this place!" he said angrily, "Whitebeard's crew would be driven all over the place? It's ridiculous!" The vibrations on the ground continued to come, regardless of whether there was a collapse ahead The trees and sunlight rushed straight to the wobbly monster.

A whistle suddenly sounded in the sky.

Yizang was surprised.He stopped and looked up to find the source of the sound.The sun shot into his eyes at this moment, and his eyes quickly turned pale.But this only lasted for a few seconds. Sach's tall body fell from the sky. He was like a huge monkey. Beside Bramank.

"Sage!" Yizang sat down on the ground with his feet unsteady.Only then did he see a brown bear running out of nowhere just to the upper right of the direction he was heading.He was so careless that he didn't even notice this - he just felt extremely depressed all of a sudden.

Saqi held a dagger temporarily taken from his subordinates, jumped in front of the enemy after a few ups and downs.Although the knife was not as sharp as his own, it was enough to pierce the heart of a big bear.After finishing one side, he looked back at the monster that Yizang had shot several times.It still had the strength to howl, but it obviously wanted to run away.

"Now I can rehabilitate myself." He came to Yizang with a smile, "It should be you who are not clear-headed, not me, captain of the sixteenth team." His hair was neatly combed in front of his forehead again. Into one big curl - nicknamed the hairstyle of pizza head.Yizang opened his eyes wide.He suddenly remembered a seemingly insignificant thing - when he first came to the island, Sage didn't have time to comb his signature curly hair because of a hangover.Now the spotlight of the sun fell on the neat and somewhat funny hair, casting a playful shadow.

"Sarge... are you not hallucinating?"

"A hallucination? What a pity, I'm so sober now." Sachs beamed with pride, "With the light of Vista's red wine, my hairstyle is back. Of course, this is just one of the key points."

"The other is that it's time for you to wake up and hide."

"What is the taste?"

Marco couldn't help correcting Ace's bad language: "It's not the taste, it's the smell." Ace swallowed, his withered stomach was rumbling to him in protest.Because the materials needed to weave the hat were too far away, there was still a distance for the two of them to walk back to the food side.Taking advantage of this time, Marco decided to sort out his chaotic thoughts.

"Think about it, you should smell it too. I haven't encountered the place before your lunch. Although it is very subtle, it is easy to catch the smell."

"I can't think of it... How does this have anything to do with the invisible enemy you said?"

"I'm just speculating from my own point of view. Before I smell this, you know I've been in a bad state." Marco touched his chin.In just a few hours, he experienced unprecedented mood swings, such as losing his temper, as if he had been angry since he arrived on the island, and inexplicable anxiety.But in fact nothing happened, this emotion was completely unreasonable, as if it had been forced in. "I've been losing my temper to you guys all the time, but I've hardly gotten angry at anyone else in the past few years. Assuming this kind of thing is a latent existence, it means that there is something on this island that induces it and makes it expand rapidly .We can't control the situation, we don't even know what's wrong with us, and if we get out of control, we will become self-destructive."

"Induce a latent personality? So Marco, who has always been meek, becomes a fire-breathing dragon..." Ace answered lazily.

Marco knew he was joking.Ace has always been unwilling to think about problems rationally. The most terrifying thing about a person who survives only on intuition is that when you are still calculating endlessly, he has already gone to extremes.It is difficult for Ace to agree with and participate in his own thinking. What's more, this guy is hungry, and the only thing left to attract his attention is the smell of meat in his head, which had no power to work.

Marco wasn't sure how much of what he said would pass through his brain, but he chose to continue: "But the smell just now calmed me down. I'm not sensitive to smells, and I won't relax just because I like this smell." , then I suddenly relaxed because this smell suppressed that restless force. On the other hand, I wonder if our invisible enemy also exists in the same form, where does it exist?"

Ace finally became interested. He straightened up like a patient who suddenly woke up, looked at Marco and said, "It's the smell!"

"What stink?"

"I don't know if it's true, but when you say this, my first reaction is this-I saw strange flowers when Harta and I climbed over that cliff, it was on the top of the cliff, and the smell was terrible Harta also made a special nasal congestion." He subconsciously clicked his nose, only to realize that the nasal congestion had fallen off long ago.

"Is it red with big petals?"

"I can find a hundred kinds of flowers with the characteristics you mentioned." Ace tore one from the flower hat on his head and threw it in front of Marco, "It's pink to be precise, I forgot the shape... I just remember that it stinks, the smell you mentioned is not from that kind of flower, is it?"

"I'm just guessing too, and I don't think it's a stink, but rather a strong aroma. Do you remember that strong aroma we smelled when we came to the island? It was called "Jocordia" "The smell of carnivorous flowers, it is said that the creature can send out a scented kiss to confuse prey, but it is small in size and can only hunt insects.",

"...Oh, there are indeed many small animals circling around those flowers, so that is the so-called Jocodia..."

Marco glanced at Ace and found that the other party's attention had completely shifted from this boring topic to the front.The knocked down giant lunch is quietly waiting for the arrival of guests.

"Ace, are you listening?"

Ace stared forward, and responded casually: "What?"

"We're going to find that kind of thing. Whether it's Jocordia or something else, we also have to find the source that can suppress that invisible force." According to my inference, the other members eight or nine Every tenth will be disturbed.Except for the old man and the team captains, the rest of the people may be bewitched.

"Okay." Ace replied nonchalantly.Marko felt his left eyelid twitch, he took a breath and said, "This may sound troublesome, but as the captain, we have to do it."

"I said yes, Marco," Ace said.He was scratching his cheek vigorously, where a big bump was formed by the mosquito bite.

"You don't like this?"

"No, as long as it is an enemy, it should be blown away with a punch." Ace paused and said, "But don't you think you are too worried? I don't think as much as you, but as you said, you were led out Emotions are your own thing, so is there anything to panic about?"

"The problem is it just keeps expanding, to a point where you can't control it."

"You're out of control now?"

"It's just not for the time being, maybe I can't help but kick you away in the next second. The situation is so complicated, so we have to stop it before it gets out of control." Marko's forehead has already There was a dull pain, and beads of sweat slid down the neck all the way to the collarbone.In the past, he would have been happy to argue with Ace—after all, Ace is rarely a problem baby like he is now—but the fact that this meaningless exchange is currently making his emotions continue to deteriorate.

"Okay, then you'll turn the possibility into reality." Ace said, looking at him, who quickly looked away.

"Feel sorry."

"You said you wouldn't apologize to the kid again." Ace smiled slightly, "And what I want to say most is that I don't hate you for losing your temper. Dad often said that people cry and laugh Only when you get angry can you be called a complete person, and it is not good to control yourself too much."

A shivering sensation crawled up Marco's back like an electric shock, shaking him all over.Ace whistled nonchalantly, his lunch was just around the corner.

"You...why do you always say things that make people speechless for no reason? Don't you like me before? At least I'm gentle, right? I don't lose my temper, I'm mean, I won't kick you suddenly..." Marko's ears were very hot.Is this the first time he has lost his composure since he came to the island?

"You misunderstood, whether it is you who are gentle or angry, I have no problem."

Ace strode onto the prey's back and shouted to Marko over his shoulder.

"I just like being real."

However, his ideal outdoor barbecue failed.Just as he raised his hand to light the fire, the fainted monster woke up at some point and began to struggle.Just as Esmo was saying thank you for resting in peace and trying to finish it off with a punch, the very front end of the large animal's head hanging above the water started to disappear.A layer of blood floated on the surface of the water, the monster struggled violently, kicked on all fours, and moved its butt back with difficulty.Marco flew to Ace, stared at the water, and said, "There's something in the water."

The thing was dragging the monster into the water.Marco squatted down and observed for a while, except for the incomplete head of the monster, there was only scattered blood.The water in the lake is very clear, and there is nothing unusual about the bottom of the water from Marco's perspective.

"Well, it doesn't look like there's anything, that's weird." He muttered softly, and turned his head to find that Ace, who was by his side just now, was gone.

"No matter who it is, my uncle is not allowed to come and grab food from me!!" The second captain, who was drooling, jumped to the back of the prey a few steps earlier.He hugged the monster's tail and pulled it back vigorously while roaring.His strength was amazing, and the unknown thing in the water couldn't bear it and began to spit out the scarred head of the monster.

"Give it back to me, you bastard!" Ace, who continued to rage, held back his anger, and dragged the monster out of the water in a few seconds.Marco flew above the water surface, and the unknown object that was forcibly taken out of the water showed a clear outline in the sunlight.

"Let me just say..." Marco grinned, "I found you."