After seeing that scrawled and sharp line of lettering, Lawrence and his first mate were both stunned.

"Humans have only two eyes… Why is that written here?" The first mate widened his eyes, staring at the line for a long time before turning his head in confusion. "Isn't that perfectly normal?

"Except for extremely rare congenital deformities, who doesn't have two eyes?"

Lawrence didn't speak immediately but broke the silence after a long moment of contemplation, "Who do you think left this line of writing?"

"…The island's natives?" The first mate said uncertainly, "There used to be people on this island?"

"This island is hard to say, but there are definitely people on Dagger Island in the real world," Lawrence said slowly, reaching out to gently touch the engravings on the wall. The rough and tangible sensation came from his fingertips, as if conveying the strong emotions and thoughts etched into the words. "Humans have only two eyes. Someone specifically carved this sentence on the wall, which probably indicates one thing…"

"Indicates one thing?"

"On this island, there once appeared something that wasn't 'having only two eyes' but looked like humans," Lawrence slowly raised his head, looking at the surrounding dense fog and the shadowy distant views within it. "And they mixed among humans, yet couldn't be easily detected."

The first mate took a light breath and hesitantly said, "Then… where did the person who left this sentence go?"

"I don't know," Lawrence shook his head. For some reason, he thought of the black mud he had seen along the way and the empty dock area, but he quickly put these unrelated thoughts aside and placed his hand on the doorknob of the port office. "Be on alert."

The sound of gun safeties being released came from behind. Lawrence steadied himself, exerted a little force in his hand, and pushed the door open.

He quickly dodged to the side to avoid exposing his body to anything that might be hiding inside the building. The first mate stepped forward, pointing the muzzle of his rifle into the room in a half-crouch. The sailors behind him also raised their guns, aiming at the door from various angles.

There was no movement inside the building.

The first mate standing at the door composed himself and cautiously peered into the room.

"No one inside," he turned his head. "It's an empty office with the lights on."

Lawrence waved his hand to the sailors and entered the room with the first mate leading the way.

This was a vacant office. Several tables took up about half of the space, and several chairs were casually placed in front of the tables, as if someone had been sitting on them just a moment ago. The electric lights on the ceiling and the gas lamps on the wall were all on, making the room particularly bright. And on the floor… that strange and suspicious black mud was everywhere.

"This disgusting stuff is all over the place here too…" The first mate frowned, looking at the black substance in the room, his disgust evident. He carefully bypassed the mud on the floor and came to the desks, his eyes scanning the mess of files and office supplies scattered on top. "These things… Captain, do you want to take a look?"

"They're all forms and reports that the port needs to handle daily: material entry and exit, personnel transfers, facility inspections, and inspection reports for machinery and equipment…" Lawrence came to the desks, looking at the documents on them, his brow slowly furrowing. "The dates… just a few days ago?"

"It's like someone was working here not long ago," a sailor swallowed nervously, muttering softly, "And then everyone evacuated in a hurry, without even having time to pack up their things…"

"Evacuated in a hurry?" Lawrence murmured, his eyes sweeping across the table. A half-finished cup of coffee sat on the table, covered with a thin layer of dust. Next to this table, a pool of black mud had dried, with a small amount of black substance still remaining on the seat. His expression gradually became solemn. "Is it really an evacuation…"

The first mate noticed the change in the old captain's tone. "Captain, have you thought of something?"

Lawrence thought for a moment and was about to say something when a piercing noise suddenly came from outside the room—it sounded like it was coming from the direction of the port plaza, the static noise of a public address loudspeaker suddenly being activated!

"Buzz—"

The piercing noise startled everyone. The sailors hurriedly turned their eyes to the window, and the next moment, a discontinuous, distorted broadcast, mixed with interference, resounded throughout the port area. It sounded like a slightly aged voice: "Announcement… we have been contaminated… this island… cannot be saved… will initiate Procedure Twenty-Two… honored to have worked with everyone… we will meet again at the Gates of Bartok."

Accompanied by a burst of piercing noise, the broadcast from the plaza came to an abrupt end. The first mate stared in astonishment, turning his head to look at Lawrence. "Captain, what's going on…"

Before he could finish speaking, a roar like thunder suddenly came from the distance!

And accompanying that thunderous roar were more thunderous sounds, like the sky collapsing and the earth splitting!

One after another, explosions instantly swept through the entire Dagger Island, shaking everyone's minds. Lawrence reacted almost instantly to what was happening—

This wasn't thunder. It was explosives, the self-destruct devices of certain facilities on the island were detonating everything!

"Get out of the building!" Lawrence suddenly shouted, raising his pistol and firing a shot at the ceiling. "There are explosives!"

The captain's shout was almost drowned out by the explosions, but the sound of the gunshot did awaken the surrounding sailors. A group of people immediately rushed towards the door.

A dozen people rushed out of the door, ran down the slope, and sprinted towards the open space. But the dense explosions continued to come from all directions, as if the entire island was being torn to pieces in a massive explosion. However, halfway through the sprint, Lawrence suddenly felt that something was wrong.

"Stop!" He suddenly stopped, shouting loudly while firing into the sky. "Stop!"

The sailors stopped in a panic, and then they also noticed something was wrong.

Only the sound of explosions came from all around—but neither smoke nor flashes of light could be seen in the direction of the explosions, and not even any tremors could be felt.

Only the thunderous sound echoed throughout the island.

Then, after a while, the sound of the explosions gradually subsided, and the surroundings returned to the silent appearance within the thick fog, as if the earth-shattering explosions had just been a collective hallucination for everyone.

"Only sound?" The first mate looked around in disbelief, his expression uncertain.

"It's an echo," Lawrence's heartbeat gradually calmed down, and he made a quick judgment—although he didn't know if his judgment was correct, as the captain, he now had to give everyone a judgment. "That should have just been something that happened on this island in the past, replaying in our ears in the form of an echo. It wasn't a real explosion."

"I was scared to death just now," one of the sailors muttered, "I thought there really was a big explosion…"

"The closest explosion to here was in that direction," the first mate raised his head, confirming the direction, and finally pointed to the other end of the port plaza. "Should we go over there and take a look?"

"Go check out the situation," Lawrence made a quick decision. "If something really happened here, there should still be traces left."

The exploration team immediately set off towards the thick fog, this time advancing more cautiously than before.

After an unknown amount of time, a collapsed large building appeared before Lawrence.

This building was located on the inner edge of a small bay, backed by a solid rocky cliff, and judging from the damage to the building… it was clearly completely destroyed by a massive explosion from the inside out.

The first mate stood on a high point, staring in astonishment at the ruins.

"What kind of facility was this used for… it's incredible…"

"We should be more curious about what kind of terrible things happened here, so that such a facility would be blown up without hesitation," Lawrence said in a deep voice, slowly taking two steps forward. "If the people on this island…"

"Stop."

A voice suddenly came from the side, and Lawrence stopped instantly.

"Martha?!"

He suddenly looked in the direction of the voice, calling out in surprise and nervousness.

But there was only a slowly undulating fog, and the familiar figure couldn't be seen at all.

"Captain?" The first mate noticed the captain's abnormal reaction and immediately jumped off the rock, coming to Lawrence's side nervously. "What's wrong?"

"…Hallucination," Lawrence said immediately, his expression particularly serious. "You didn't hear a sound, did you?"

"We didn't hear anything," the sailors looked at each other, one of them said.

"We probably shouldn't go any further," Lawrence frowned. "Let's go back to the port first, and then…"

Martha's voice entered his ears again, this time the voice was closer. "Back to the ship, now."

Lawrence was stunned for a moment, restraining himself from looking in the direction of the voice again. He still wanted to continue speaking, but the next moment, Martha's voice came again, this time almost next to his ear, her tone with a hint of urgency. "Back to the White Oak, immediately—Lawrence, they're coming!"

Lawrence widened his eyes slightly and subconsciously said, "Who? Who's coming?"

The first mate supported Lawrence's arm with concern. "Captain, who are you talking to?"

Lawrence didn't speak, but suddenly raised his head to look in the direction of the White Oak's berth.

A sense of unease surged into his heart.

And the next moment, as if to confirm this unease, a muffled rumble suddenly came faintly from that direction.

It was the sound of cannons.

"Someone's firing cannons…" The first mate reacted instantly. "There are enemies!"

"Back to the ship!" Lawrence shouted, leading the team and running towards the port. And in the sound of the wind rushing past his ears, Martha's voice brushed past his ear like a soft whisper: "The Petrel is coming…"