Both of them were stunned for a moment, stopping mid-sentence to listen intently for a couple of seconds. Following the sound, they simultaneously turned their gazes to Dennis' side. His bulging black backpack was lying there.

Since Shen Lan had taken out a set of clothes, the zipper wasn't fully closed, and that strange "zz zz" sound was coming from inside the bag.

Xia Chuan suddenly remembered the black box.

Under the stares of the two, Dennis, who had been in a daze, finally came back to his senses after a while. However, his attention and thoughts were probably still stuck on the moment when Shen Lan turned into a Mosasaurus.

He pointed at Shen Lan with trembling fingers, blurting out several crude curses to express his shock, stuttering "you you you" three times without managing to squeeze out a second coherent sentence.

Xia Chuan, who was closer to his hand, directly slapped it away, saying impatiently, "What's with your reaction time of a tortoise? Check what's making noise in your black box first."

Shen Lan reached out and felt around the edges of the black rock he was sitting on, picking out a pinhole-sized brachiopod fossil. He flicked it in Dennis' direction.

The strange shell with edges and small holes, having hardened on the shore for who knows how long, accurately hit the black backpack with a crisp "pa" sound, drawing Dennis' attention.

He let out an "ah", finally noticing the strange "zz zz" sound. Returning to reality from the fantasy world at last, he slapped his thigh, looking quite excited. He grabbed the black backpack, rummaged inside for a bit, and pulled out the black box.

As soon as it was taken out, the "zz zz" sound was no longer so low and muffled. From Xia Chuan's angle, he could see a small red light on the box's screen, flashing in rhythm with the sound.

"It also made this kind of sound when the day was about to break," Xia Chuan added.

Dennis didn't even bother to raise his head, replying, "Really!" But his tone was very excited.

He was seen holding the black box, raising his hand to pinch a red knob, carefully fine-tuning it while staring intently at the screen, as if it could sprout a flower, with an unprecedented focus and seriousness in his expression.

Shen Lan sat far away on that black rock, watching for a while. Unable to hold back, he lifted his chin in Dennis' direction and asked Xia Chuan, "What is that?"

Xia Chuan shook his head, indicating that he didn't know either. So he pointed at the black box and said to Dennis, "This is?"

Dennis was biting the tip of his tongue, finely adjusting the knob, his brows tightly furrowed. After a good while, he finally spared a moment to answer, "Hard to say, you can think of it as a modified version of a universal oscilloscope."

His mind was entirely on the oscilloscope screen, so he answered offhandedly. Therefore, his voice wasn't loud, and generally speaking, only someone close like Xia Chuan could hear clearly. But after he finished speaking, Shen Lan, who was sitting far away on the black rock, picked his ear and repeated, "Universal oscilloscope?"

Obviously, even sitting so far away, he heard Dennis' words loud and clear. Xia Chuan looked at him in some surprise, but thinking that this person could transform into a Mosasaurus, having good hearing seemed nothing to be astonished by. So he turned his head to Dennis again and said, "So what you're doing now is..."

"Remember that incoming call in the sea cave? At that time, my cell phone signal was very strange, appearing and disappearing. I told you then that this place was fishy, and we might not have simply traversed space and time." Dennis finally deigned to raise his head. He held up the black box in his hand, propped himself up from the ground and stood up, saying, "So I turned this on. Allen made it himself, originally stuffing it to me to take out and test around. Didn't expect it to actually come in handy..."

He paused after saying that, shrugging and adding, "Uh - maybe."

Dennis always spoke whatever came to mind, prone to being long-winded. Xia Chuan couldn't help but remind, "The point."

"Oh right, look at this screen." Seeing that Xia Chuan had also stood up, Dennis brought the "universal oscilloscope" in his hand close to him, explaining in terms Xia Chuan could understand, "When I turned it on in the sea cave, there was only one waveform on the screen, and it was intermittent, appearing and disappearing, perfectly corresponding with my cell phone signal. This indicates that this place is measurable.

"Of course, I don't believe this dinosaur-infested ghostly place would have cell towers, so I'm inclined to believe there are waves very similar to it existing here, although this is also quite... magical."

Xia Chuan listened to his explanation while looking at the screen of the black box.

When the day was about to break, he heard the "zz zz" sound and had taken out this "universal oscilloscope" to look. But by the time he took it out, it was already silent, with only one waveform on the screen.

But now, after it had been "zz zz-ing" non-stop for a while, and after Dennis' fine-tuning, two different waveforms actually appeared on the screen.

Dennis pointed to the relatively more regular waveform and said, "This is the original one, the kind of wave I just mentioned. And this one -"

His finger moved to the other obviously chaotic waveform and continued, "Since we might not have simply traversed space and time, that is to say, this ghostly place may have an end. Since we could enter, we should be able to exit. This end... signifies the junction between one region and another, like the border between countries.

"You know, at such intersections, it's always very chaotic. I believe the closer we get to that end, the more the relatively stable waves here will be affected, becoming disordered, and even other interfering waves will appear -"

As soon as he said this, Xia Chuan instantly understood the reason for his excitement - the other chaotic waveform that appeared on the screen was very likely the interfering element he was hoping for.

If Dennis' guess was correct, then the appearance of this interfering element meant they were one step closer to the "end".

"In that case, being here, we're closer to the end than when in the sea cave -" Xia Chuan looked towards the sea in the distance and continued, "The sea cave is in that direction, so... to go to the end, we should head in this direction."

As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed in the opposite direction of the sea - that perilous forest.

Dennis was so excited about discovering the interference waves that he forgot about this detail. Now, looking at the direction Xia Chuan was pointing, he finally realized where the information from this black box was going to take them. His legs instantly went weak, and he was about to collapse on the spot.

Xia Chuan was just about to speak when a low, slightly hoarse voice suddenly rang out beside his ear: "I advised you to go in long ago."

"Holy shit--" Dennis was startled. Turning around, he saw that Shen Lan, who had been sitting on the black rock just now, had silently stood beside Xia Chuan, looking down at the "universal oscilloscope" with a very curious look.

"How did you--" Xia Chuan began, somewhat speechless. He was about to say something when suddenly there was a rustling sound from the woods ahead.

The three of them looked up, and their eyes met a pair of faint eyes in the woods. Dennis's hand trembled, and he almost threw the precious oscilloscope away.