Rhodes Island does not exist.

After much deliberation, he finally decided to step forward and open one of the black doors.

Extend your right hand and grasp the wooden handle.

A faint sound, like the chirping of insects, came from behind the crack in the door where a sliver of light was filtering through.

The words left behind by Exia eventually sparked the Doctor's curiosity, to the point that he could no longer ignore them.

He wanted to know what could be worse than being killed.

So, the doctor took a deep breath and pushed open the black door in front of him.

"Ohh Ohh ohh……"

The sound coming from under the door was crying.

In the dimly lit, empty room, the ghostly figure of a young girl crouched on the floor, her back to the professor, sobbing. Her voice was sorrowful and helpless.

Like Exia, she had no specific form, only a vague black outline.

Then the doctor spoke.

"Who are you?" he asked, standing behind the girl.

The girl didn't answer, she just continued to cry, as if she hadn't heard the doctor's voice at all.

So the doctor spoke again.

"Why are you crying?" His tone was so calm, it didn't sound like he was comforting someone, but rather like a police officer interrogating a criminal.

The girl still did not answer.

So the doctor stepped forward and reached out his hand to the human figure formed by the illusory image, as if he were communicating with a normal person.

He wanted to put his hand on the girl's shoulder to get her attention.

However, such an action will not be achieved.

Because the girl has no physical form, his hand would only pass through the illusory figure upon touching it, sinking into the mist.

"Boom."

The shadow dissipated.

As the doctor's hand passed through her, the girl's form was blurred into a mist that mingled with the air.

But the sound of weeping still lingers.

This time, however, the owner of the voice responded to him.

"Why did you disturb my mourning?" The voice, distorted and elongated, drifted through the room, and even just hearing it was torture.

“I just wanted to know why you were crying,” the doctor replied honestly.

“Because I am mourning,” the girl’s voice replied. “Because I am mourning, I must cry.”

"For whom are we offering our condolences?" the doctor asked.

“I mourn for a fallen hero, I mourn for the administrators here, and I mourn for myself.” The girl’s voice trembled and wavered.

"Then who are you?" the doctor continued to ask.

"And who are you—you are—?" the girl's voice asked rhetorically, but before she could even finish the question, her already distorted voice suddenly became shrill.

The doctor's ears had never been subjected to such torment.

"Who are you—why did you come here—??? Why—???"

The sounds drifting through the room suddenly transformed into painful howls, unleashing a continuous, high-frequency roar across different frequency bands on the doctor's auditory system.

"Get out! Get out now! Get out of here!!! Don't ever come back!!!"

The piercing sound, like needles and threads, danced inside and outside the doctor's eardrums, attempting to embroider a scene reminiscent of the Qingming Scroll.

"Sinner! Sinner! Sinner!"

The waves of sound continued to relentlessly push the doctor back.

The sound waves continued to emanate, spreading out of the room through the thin door panel.

In an instant, all the surrounding rooms resonated together.

"Sinner! Sinner! Sinner!"

"Get out! Get out! Get out!"

"Get out of here! Get out of here!"

The illusory black light drifted like a neon-lit night sky, rising and falling with the bursts of sound, shining above the doors of the corridor like a heavy metal concert with a visual module installed.

"I don't know why I offended you, but I will leave immediately."

The doctor left those words behind and quickly exited the room.

The doctor could sense that the voices were hostile but not murderous.

They had no intention of harming the doctor, but they genuinely wanted to drive him away and expel him from the hall of the polar night.

They won't kill you, but things might get worse than that.

Exia's words flashed through his mind again.

But to be honest, the Doctor couldn't understand the feelings that Exia was describing at all.

Perhaps it's because the information he currently possesses isn't enough for him to understand the roars of those strange beings and the meaning hidden in their words.

So he could only clutch his pickaxe and run through the jeers and scorn from the rooms on either side, covered in dust and grime.

"Snapped."

He slammed his missing left hand heavily on the call button next to the elevator.

A bright red upward arrow icon then appears on the screen, with a number next to the arrow.

3.

It turned out that the elevator started on the third floor, the professor pondered to himself amidst the surrounding noise.

Come to think of it, how did I know there was an elevator on the thirteenth floor that went down to the lower floors?

The doctor suddenly realized the problem.

But his hazy memories prevented him from investigating the origins of this intelligence, much like most things he had forgotten in his past dealings with Ghost Shark.

Was similar information recorded in a certain room, or did he/she have been here before and came based on intuition? After all, Exia said she knew him/her.

The doctor wove threads of information in his mind, trying to unravel them.

However, deciphering this nonsensical information is far more difficult than untangling a tangled headphone cord. Without specific clues, it's impossible to deduce the result out of thin air, no matter how much you think about it.

"Damn it, if only I could have a chance to get my memories back." The doctor lamented, feeling the cacophony of voices around him.

-

Happy New Year to everyone! Although it's already 10 p.m., New Year's Day is still New Year's Day.

Now, the usual thank-you segment begins.

Thank you for the monthly pass.

Thanks again to Blade, and thank you everyone.

Chapter 49. The greatest pain is not feeling pain.

The elevator is sinking.

The doctor eventually left the thirteenth floor.

The downward arrow on the screen was flashing, but the numbers didn't change.

This is unreasonable, yet perfectly normal.

After all, the numbers hadn't changed when it came up.

It's probably because there are only three buttons in this elevator.

13, 14, 3.

Besides being able to descend to the thirteenth floor, it can also ascend to the fourteenth floor. However, for the PhD student, this is probably unnecessary.

"Buzzing—"

The sound of downward friction traveled through the edges of the car, telling the doctor that he was not standing still.

Maybe, but who knows?

In Rhodes Island, where the sense of space is completely chaotic, such an operation is utterly meaningless.

Perhaps the elevator itself is not moving, but rather creating the illusion of movement for the people inside by rubbing and shaking the car.

The actual change in the outside world after the elevator reaches its destination is simply because the elevator altered the outside world during the time it was closed.

Such an irresponsible idea is of course nonsense.

But on Rhodes Island, the Doctor always felt that all the nonsense might actually come true.

Therefore, the only thing that can stop the doctor from believing these wild thoughts as reality is probably the feeling of weightlessness caused by sinking.

"Sizzle".

The light bulbs overhead flickered on and off.

The surrounding atmosphere began to be tinged with a deep, dark black.

The elevator is still descending.

"Tick."

There is the sound of liquid falling onto a flat surface and then breaking.

However, the fluctuating light made it impossible for the doctor to carefully examine the location of the sound source.

At this moment, he had only one thing on his mind.

If some strange entity were to infiltrate the elevator and attack him, his pickaxe would be severely hampered by the confined space.

But it's hard to say.

Because everything depends on the enemy's condition.

"Buzzing—"

The elevator car began to shake.

Generally speaking, a normal elevator probably wouldn't do this when it's going down, right?

Although the PhD student hadn't ridden an elevator many times, he possessed this level of common sense.

"Di."

Fine black water droplets began to seep from the walls of the compartment.

Then, just as the water droplet hit the ground, the doctor caught a glimpse of it out of the corner of his eye.

"Whoosh-"

A gnarled arm covered with irregular clumps suddenly leaped out from the wall of the compartment, where water droplets had gathered, like a firing pin, and attacked in his direction.

"Hold."

The doctor dodged to the side with a mere centimeter's margin, narrowly avoiding the sudden attack.

The bony arm brushed past the doctor and crashed into the other side of the compartment wall.

For the doctor, a successful dodge is an opportunity to strike.

So without the slightest hesitation, he gripped the pickaxe in his hand and swung it directly at the base of his outstretched arm.

"Boom!"

Metals collide with each other.

Amidst the flashing sparks, thick, black sap gushed from the roots.

"hiss--"

The strange creature, struck hard at the base of its arm, immediately reacted with pain and began to violently thrash about, spraying all the tissue fluid from its skin within the elevator.

"Boom!"