Charles was thinking further ahead. Rats are always at the bottom of the food chain, and with so many rats around, there must be other predators on the island. As for what they were, he didn't know yet, but he was sure they weren't cats.
As Charles was mulling it over, the rats had already ebbed away, leaving not even half a fish bone on the yellowish-white sand.
"Sailors, drop anchor and bring your weapons and explosives. Prepare to disembark," Charles commanded, and the crew sprang into action.
For this exploration, he had prepared even more explosives. Although gunpowder might not be useful, it was better to have it than not.
If the only danger on the island were those rats, then these explosives would surely come in handy.
Two wooden boats were lowered to the sea's surface. Apart from the bandaged who were left to watch the vessel, everyone else disembarked, with a strip of cloth tied around their shoulders.
Their names and duties were written on the strip to ensure that when it was time to return to the ship, there would be no silent discrepancy in their number.
The crowd slowly moved among the rocks, the old sailors who had been through this before were relatively calm; the newcomers, however, were more emotionally unstable, startling at even the slightest rustle.
The farther inland they went, the looser the rocks became, and scattered animal skeletons began appearing on the ground.
Charles's face showed a hint of disappointment; it appeared that the passage to Earth's surface was not to be found here.
As Charles hesitated about whether to continue moving inward, suddenly, a red light drifted among the rocks in the distance.
Charles shrank behind a huge boulder and whispered to the others, "Quick, put out all the fires!"
Although the other crew members didn't know why, they still followed the captain's order.
With the torches extinguished, the red color in the distance became even clearer, the bright hue flickering in and out of sight among the rocks, drifting in their direction.
When it neared, everyone clearly saw what the color was.
The creature looked like a bloated locust, about five meters in length. The red light was emitted from luminous spots buried under its semi-transparent skin, flashing on and off, quite terrifying.
The locust, albeit without wings, could seemingly glide freely through the air. It appeared to be searching for something, and the six stalks with eyes growing at the front of its body kept twisting, surveying all around.
The humans huddled behind the rocks, daring not even to breathe heavily, some of the more faint-hearted even closing their eyes and starting to tremble.
Charles stared hard at those eye stalks, knowing just from its appearance that it wasn't a creature that favored peace. It was best not to provoke it if possible.
"Gurgle" Someone's stomach suddenly made a noise, soft yet undeniably thunderous in the silent environment.
"Whoosh!" The locust's eye stalks instantly swept towards the humans, and its mouth bristling with sharp points let out a terrifying growl. After a slight flash of its semi-transparent body, it vanished on the spot.
"Damn it! That thing can turn invisible, it's coming this way!!"
Charles gripped the explosives at his waist, his whole body tense, his expression resolute, ready to engage the monster in a battle to the death.
The other crew members also clenched their weapons tight, each one's heartbeat accelerating.
Charles counted the seconds in his mind, and just as he was about to throw the dynamite in his hand, the pitch-black environment lit up with the red light. The locust reappeared above a rock, its eye stalks looking into the distance.
"Squeak, squeak, squeak~" The sound of rats squealing came from that direction, growing louder, as if deliberately produced.
The locust twisted its swollen body and quickly swam towards the sound, the red light fading away.
In the darkness, Charles, sweating coldly, exhaled a breath, never expecting that he would actually be rescued by rats.
He turned to speak to the person next to him only to discover a pair of faint green eyes appearing to his left.
But that was just the beginning. Pairs of eyes began to light up, more and more, with layers upon layers of eyes giving people the chills.
Charles took out a match and struck it hard against the rock wall, the light illuminating the surroundings, revealing innumerable rats piled up on top of each other surrounding them; they were encircled by rats!
"Hello there! My name is Lili, and I'm pleased to meet you!"
The sudden female voice froze everyone's instinctive actions to attack.
After a moment of discernment, Charles saw that the speaker was a white rat standing amidst the horde of rats. The white rat moved with a grace unlike its kin, its eyes filled with intelligence.
The rats seemed to recognize that Charles was their leader and one jumped in front of him, looking up. "Hello, I'm Lily, what's your name?"
Charles looked around at the surrounding rats and spoke softly, "Charles."
Just as the two had completed their initial conversation, from the direction where the flying locust had left, a fierce roar suddenly sounded.
"Oh no! Hurry, my friend could only hold it off for a moment, that thing is coming back, I'll take you to my home," said the white rat before leading the other rats in a rapid retreat.
Seeing the red glow rising again in the distance, Charles didn't dare to stay put and hurriedly led his crew to follow.
Compared to that monster, at least there was the possibility of communication with these rats.
In the midst of darkness, Charles and his group followed the rats, darting through confusing paths, until they arrived at a tunnel slightly more than a meter high.
As those holding torches crawled in, pairs of eyes in the darkness firmly fixed on the humans entering their cave, with constant rustling sounds.
A dozen torches were lit and thrown into the air, illuminating everything in this football field-sized cave filled with blackish-brown rats staring intently at them.
Rats were not unusual, but some holding bone tools like humans was somewhat eerie.
Their neatly spaced low dome-shaped houses were arrayed in order, and Charles even saw a large rat teaching young rats how to count! He felt as though he had suddenly entered a kingdom of little people.
The white rat pulled over a toy-sized stool from somewhere, jumped onto it, and sat down, "Can you take me home? I miss my mom."
A swarm of rats surged forward, placing a bowl of brown liquid in front of each human, seemingly as a gesture of hospitality.
Home? Charles looked around at the peculiar rat holes. "Isn't this your home?"
"Of course not, I'm not a rat! I'm human!" the white rat argued fiercely, standing on the stool.
"Human?" All the crew members widened their eyes at the small rat before them, unable to see a human in it at all.
Sensing their disbelief, the white rat Lily quickly began to explain.
"I really am human, my parents took me on a boat to He Fang Island to see Grandpa, then we encountered a whirlpool, I fell into the sea, and when I woke up, I found myself like this, I don't know why."