The Shenlo Sea.
That's what people called the ocean.
This world had two main continents - Fogland and Sheran. They faced each other across the sea, like two lungs of the whole world, pretty symmetrical. The long strip of sea between them was called the Rift Scar.
Beyond the continents, except for a few scattered islands, the rest of the world was covered by vast oceans. Even now, no one knew where the ocean ended.
Back when the Fog Wall still existed, people never imagined exploring the ocean. They thought they'd be trapped by the fog forever. But things changed. Not long after the fog wall disappeared, "exploration fever" became the hottest topic in Sheran.
Fogland's appearance brought endless wealth, and countless people rushed towards it, full of ambition.
Anyone heading out to sea had to deal with the Shenlo Association. During the day, the Shenlo Association was naturally grand and bustling.
But at night?
Dulmi stopped and looked at this building that stood out even in the Outer Zone... No, not a building. He thought it looked more like a ship, floating in a sea of buildings and darkness.
A faint mist lingered nearby, like the Fog Wall hadn't fully disappeared, making the black silhouette of the ship look even more terrifying.
At the entrance, twisted black thorns gave off a stench - a mix of salty seawater and rotting fish. They formed a locked door.
Dulmi couldn't get in.
He walked around the ship and noticed a light still on in a second-floor window.
"Is anyone there?" Dulmi called out, drawing out his words as he gazed up at the window.
His voice stirred nearby creatures. He sensed their movements, but he didn't care. His adventurous spirit was itching for something before leaving Nightingale behind.
After a while, the window opened. "Who's there?" It was a man's voice—soft, but quickly laced with caution."Keep it down! Kid, today's not the day for your foolishness."
"What's up with today?"
Though super curious, Dulmi lowered his voice too - but hey, he was in the Outer Zone after all.
Being careful here was pointless anyway.
He glanced back the way he had come and saw the path had melted into the swirling night. The road was gone—there was no going back.
Dulmi rubbed his face, sighed, then muttered to himself, "Right, I just heard Nightingale has some uninvited guests."
"...Do you really have to say that right at our door?"
"Huh?" Dulmi was stunned for a second, then it hit him, and he asked excitedly, "So, they're your guests?"
The man didn't answer him again, like he'd gone to do something else.
After a while, the door opened.
A group of people came out. Leading them was an older woman.
Her face, though wrinkled, still had the familiar features of a human—eyes, nose, mouth, ears. But the rest of her body, wrapped in a white robe, was grotesquely swollen, like a huge pimple ready to burst, full of blood and pus.
...
Dulmi's face twisted in disbelief for a moment.
The Outer Zone had seriously messed with his perception, like completely warped it.
Behind the lady were more people in white robes. They all had their heads down, faces hidden. The only thing they had in common was that their bodies were all a bit "swollen" like the lady's, just not as obvious.
Next to the lady was a... person? With a fish head and a human body.
The fish lips were puckered and moving, and as weird as it looked, the voice that came out was strangely familiar—yep, it was the same guy who had been talking to Dulmi just a minute ago.
But his tone, gotta say, was totally different now - all respectful and soft: "...Ma'am, we've arranged a ship for you... It'll take quite a while to get to Fogland, of course, and we've also set up an escort team..."
They paused when they spotted Dulmi standing there with a really weird look on his face.
"...Uh." Dulmi tilted his head. "Am I interrupting something?"
There was an awkward pause, thick with tension.
Then the lady looked away and said, "Just an ordinary person."
"Of course, of course, Nightingale is full of ordinary people."
"Deal with him," the lady's voice was dreamy and casual, like it was coming from another world. "I don't want to leave any traces..."
The white-robed people behind her suddenly looked up.
Each face was covered in a faint glow, making it impossible to see their real features.
Dulmi blinked, feeling the hairs on the back of his neck stand up.
"Hold up, let me get this straight." Dulmi raised an eyebrow in disbelief. "Just because I happened to wander by this stinky Senro Association on this god-awful night, you - want to kill me?"
He'd died plenty of times in the Outer Zone before, more than he could count, but this... this was a new one.
Dulmi couldn't help but chuckle to himself, remembering all the bizarre, random ways he had met his end in the Outer Zone.
Once, he had gone night fishing by the sea, bored out of his mind, and caught a mutant fish that bit him to death - he wasn't mad at the fish! He just found its dried-up corpse on the beach the next day and casually took it home to make soup.
But this lady? She didn't want to leave any traces, but wasn't she openly showing up at the Shenlo Association?
The fish-head guy quickly said, "Ma'am, this isn't really... Please let the Association handle this."
"The Shenlo Association plans to kill me?" Dulmi butted in again.
"...Of course not. We have our own ways of dealing with things."
The lady didn't respond, but her gaze had already moved indifferently from Dulmi. Behind her, the white-robed figures seemed to get the unspoken order, bowing their heads and retreating quietly into the background.
But Dulmi suddenly got interested, pointing at the big black ship and asking, "So, can I go in now?"
He'd never been to the Shenlo Association before! Not during the day, and definitely not at night. If he could check out this big ship, Dulmi thought that'd be pretty cool.
...
The fish-head guy seemed speechless.
His empty, fish-like eyes looked Dulmi over carefully. Maybe he was starting to suspect Dulmi had been waiting here on purpose. Come to think of it, Dulmi had mentioned "uninvited guests" earlier.
But no matter how many times he looked, all he could see was that this black-haired, green-eyed young man was indeed ordinary, with no special powers. He just had this unusual, over-the-top curiosity that made him excited even in such an awkward situation.
...Or maybe... the fish-head guy thought, it's because this young man doesn't know who these white-robed people really are.
Dulmi immediately walked over to the fish-head guy.
Together, they watched the group of white-robed people slowly walk into the darkness at the end of the street, then completely disappear.
He suspected that from the fish-head guy's view, the group had just walked away. But from his perspective, it was like a monstrous dark mouth had swallowed everything.
...It was getting darker all around.
In contrast, the black ship behind them now gave off a weird sense of protection.
So Dulmi asked, "Can we go in now?"