Xia Chuan once again dreamed of the deep, swaying sea and the pale faces that kept floating up.

In the endlessly repeating dream, he still couldn't make out the features of those faces, and as always, the death loop abruptly ended with him accidentally falling into the sea.

His consciousness was gradually pulled back from the somewhat frightening remnants of the dream. The buzzing in his ears slowly diminished and finally disappeared, replaced by the faint sounds of water and wind. He slowly opened his eyes in an environment that was not noisy, even quite quiet.

Long-lost sunlight seeped in bit by bit, dazzlingly white and somewhat glaring.

He squinted for a long time before he could barely adapt. As his field of vision expanded, his sight gradually became clearer. While seeing a few large birds circling high overhead, he felt the edges and texture of the reef rock beneath him.

After about a few seconds of daze, Xia Chuan frowned, enduring the aching soreness of his overworked muscles all over his body, and sat up on the reef rock. The first thing he saw was the seemingly boundless sea, and the huge creature floating quietly nearby with its back exposed on the surface...

Xia Chuan: "..."

This scene was so familiar it made one's heart skip a beat!

For a moment, Xia Chuan had the illusion that "all the experiences were just an absurd dream" - in fact, he and Dennis were still lying on that reef rock in the sea, just passed out from being suddenly frightened by the appearance of the Mosasaurus? Although in his nearly 30 years of life, the probability of "fainting from fright" was zero...

However, this idea was obviously just an aftereffect of his not-quite-clear consciousness, and disappeared in a few seconds. This scene was indeed very similar to what he saw when he woke up in the sea at the beginning, but now on this reef rock, there was only him sitting alone, with no trace of Dennis.

Just at that moment of his daze, the huge Mosasaurus thrashed up in the water, then bent its body and dived back into the sea with a powerful plunge, splashing up a large spray of water, as if to help Xia Chuan wake up his brain, pouring down on his head.

Xia Chuan propped himself up on the surface of the reef rock, too lazy to move, so he didn't dodge and was soaked through to the bone. Then, with his eyes half-squinted and covered in water droplets, he looked at the sea where the Mosasaurus was thrashing about wildly, with little expression. Before long, Shen Lan's head emerged from the heavy ripples.

He raised his hand to wipe the water from his face, swam a couple of steps to grab the edge of the reef rock, then exerted force with his hands to flip himself up from the sea. After landing, he lifted his head and happened to meet Xia Chuan's gaze head-on, who was completely drenched.

Shen Lan: "..."

"You just can't stand seeing me with dry clothes, can you?" Xia Chuan barely lifted his eyelids, with an expression of I really don't want to say anything to you.

Shen Lan shook his head innocently, "No, no, no, I just saw you wake up and wanted to express my joyful mood."

This man always spoke too bluntly, saying whatever came to his mind, not knowing how to be tactful at all, and not caring if his words sounded a bit off. Xia Chuan was stumped by him, unable to think of a comeback, so he could only turn his gaze away while changing the subject, "When did you wake up? Where are the others?"

He scanned the sea and saw neither any opening nor any other reef rocks big enough to sit on, finally confirming that Dennis and the others were indeed not there. He remembered that when he and Shen Lan took the lead in jumping into the sea, the others had also mustered up the courage to run towards that sea area, just a few steps away from jumping.

Could it be that in the end they didn't dare to jump in? Or did they accidentally deviate and fail to jump into the correct area?

Obviously Shen Lan was also unclear about the situation, and just shook his head, "I don't know, I woke up a bit earlier than you, and at that time I didn't see any sign of the others."

Xia Chuan frowned and scanned the sea again, finally nodding, "Perhaps we jumped at different times, and we got separated."

He was a person who rarely showed his emotions outwardly, dealing with matters so decisively that it seemed quite cold. But in fact, he was not someone devoid of emotional fluctuations, it's just that his ever-present rationality made him accustomed to first analyzing the possibilities in his mind before reaching a conclusion, and by that time the most intense emotions had often passed.

It was the same this time. Rather than "not daring to jump into the sea", Xia Chuan felt that with Dennis and the others' personalities, it was impossible for them to give up the opportunity at the last moment due to a temporary lack of courage.

After comparing various aspects, he still felt that they had all jumped in, just with a time difference, so they woke up in different places.

It's just that this time, even though he rationally deduced a result with the highest possibility that wasn't too bad, Xia Chuan still narrowed his eyes and was lost in thought for a long time while looking at the sea.

When talking to Xia Chuan, Shen Lan liked to stare at Xia Chuan's eyes with his deep blue eyes, looking especially sincere most of the time, but sometimes quite creepy too. Of course, the formation of this habit was likely because the focus of his eyes were way off.

On this reef rock, he still did the same - he sat cross-legged in a position facing Xia Chuan, seemingly for the convenience of talking to him.

However, this reef rock was really a bit small, and it was quite a squeeze to have two tall and sturdy men on it at the same time. With Shen Lan sitting like this, his knees were almost touching Xia Chuan's knees, and the distance between their faces was only about 30 centimeters, completely blocking Xia Chuan's view as he spaced out, ingeniously filling his entire field of vision.

Xia Chuan: "..."

If it weren't for Shen Lan's relatively easy-on-the-eyes appearance, he would have slapped him back into the sea long ago to avoid him blocking the light.

Shen Lan himself was used to being blind, and had no understanding of Xia Chuan's somewhat awkward feeling of being stared at. Instead, he patted Xia Chuan's knee and asked, "Are you afraid of the sea?" Although it was a question, the tone didn't rise at the end at all, completely in the tone of a statement.

"What?" Xia Chuan didn't follow his jumping thoughts for a moment.

"I mean--" Shen Lan repeated, "Do you have a fear of the sea?"

Xia Chuan was stunned for a moment, then said, "I used to go freediving a few times a year when I had time, how could I possibly be afraid of the sea."

Freediving is a very dangerous activity - diving deep into the sea without any breathing apparatus, relying on a single breath, reaching the maximum depth one can bear before turning back.

For people with a fear of the sea, playing freediving is simply seeking death.

After hearing Xia Chuan's answer, Shen Lan recalled the look in his eyes and his expression the moment before he fell into the water. He felt there was some truth to it, yet it also seemed somewhat contradictory... In any case, he couldn't quite describe it.

The Overlord never dwelled too much on issues he couldn't immediately understand, so he decisively shut his mouth and pondered it in his heart.

The fatigue and hypoxia from the previous alternate world still had some lingering effects. So Xia Chuan rested on the reef for a while longer before patting Shen Lan and pointing to a place so distant that only a line could be seen, "Let's go, first to the shore, then I'll take you to my place to stay."