"Ce…nt…er…"

Kai's heart thumped as he turned around, looking at the stone statue with a shocked expression.

"Kai?" The others tilted their heads in confusion because they couldn't see Kai's expression. His next action bewildered them even further.

Kai slowly walked toward the stone statue. After having this extraordinary hearing for almost twenty years, he could certainly pinpoint the location of the sound. However, what he couldn't believe was the fact that the sound came from the statue itself. When he thought everything would be alright, this voice fluttered him.

The voice itself wasn't deep nor high-pitched. The voice was shaking, and it felt like it was coming from a person two to three years older than him.

"Who are you?" Kai muttered in a low voice as he placed his ears on the statue again, wondering if he could listen to that sound again.

"What do you mean by who are you?" As one would expect from the woman who controlled everything from the dark, she managed to read his lips and learned what he wanted to convey.

"!!!" The group widened their eyes. This question certainly brought a big surprise. However, Michelle and Tasha immediately appeared beside Carissa and grabbed her shoulder.

This was something important, and Carissa knew that. She took a deep breath to calm her mind and halted her step.

If Kai were distracted because of the loud noise, it would be their loss. As for an outsider like Sofia, the excitement came in two forms. First, it would be great because she might understand the mystery. The second form came in the form of joyous news for EU Base.

With a stone statue like them having a secret, it would mean those stones that also contained magic power like the ones in here would also have a mystery in them.

If that were the case, Kai's worth went up by a lot because the base would surely ask him to do some investigations like this. The chance would only increase if this mystery led to another great mystery or something that was even more amazing than mystery.

'Don't get too excited… I still have a year with him. In other words, I can learn more about this and bring the news to the EU Base. If possible, we can even do a collaboration project with them, since there are many more mysterious objects around our base.' Sofia shook her head and took a deep breath.

Kai still closed his eyes and tried to hear anything. However, his expression gradually turned worse before he let out a long sigh.

He opened his eyes, looked at his group, and shook his head. "It's not good. I can't hear anything from it… Even though I surely heard it previously."

"What did it say?" Carissa asked with a serious expression.

Kai observed her expression first before saying, "Center."

Carissa looked down and fell into deep thought. She tried to search for all information about the center, which probably meant to be the center of the island. Unfortunately, there was nothing extraordinary in her mind.

"Are you sure it was what the statue said?" Carissa asked again.

"Do you think I have the time to lie to you?" Kai squinted his eyes as if he didn't take her words lightly.

"No. I am not questioning you." Carissa gritted her teeth and sighed. "Alright. Since we have gotten the clue, I will drive you to the center of this island… Not exactly the center, but to the statues near the center."

"No!" Kai stopped her and grabbed her hand. "We will go according to the schedule. For today, I want to cover half of the edge of this island."

"Why… No, I see. I apologize." Carissa immediately corrected herself when she realized something wrong.

"Isn't it a waste of time?" Nicholas, who was usually silent, suddenly spoke his mind. "I mean, it's clear that we need to go to the center of the island. We might even get more clues about it."

"Nicholas! That is enough." Isabelle raised her hand and stopped him from talking. She thought for a moment and said, "You want to confirm everything first?"

"!!!" Nicholas widened his eyes and realized his mistake. "I am sorry."

"Yes. There might be another clue from different statues, so I want to collect those first before walking on the stage." Kai nodded and looked at Carissa. "Can I ask something from you?"

"Depends on what you ask." Carissa nodded.

"The information is updated on a daily basis right?"

"Yes."

"I want you to hold the information for the time being."

"What?! Are you serious? Do you want me to turn a blind eye to this? Do you want me to lie to the president?" She shouted. There was anger mixed in her voice, but it soon dissipated when she saw Kai's serious face. "I need to know the reason. Sometimes I need to postpone the report due to unordinary events. Even though I think this information is necessary to be reported, I want to hear your reason first."

"It's simple. I want freedom for a whole week."

The others tilted their head in confusion, but Carissa seemed to notice the hidden meaning… Albeit, barely. She thought for a moment and said, "Elaborate."

"If the president knows about this, I am not sure if he will send a reinforcement here or not. I don't know the president's temperament, and you might know more than me. So, I don't want to take a risk by telling him about this.

"Also, I believe the other researchers will participate in this information hunting. That way, I don't want them to ruin this peace because it is their job. The reason is the same as the president, I don't know their temperament.

"Just look at us! We are students, no more no less. If we go to those 'Experts', I don't know if they will respect us since they also believe in their skills… What if they said you kids just go there and play around? Thank you for the information, but this is our job. That's going to be suck.

"Hence, I don't want someone to destroy this peace. I simply want to understand this without anyone interfering in this matter. Can you understand this reasoning?" Kai asked with a serious expression.

Carissa didn't answer him for a minute, so Kai added another thing. "Well, I can simply go home if you are reporting it. After that, I will go to my teacher and say I couldn't complete the mission due to interference."

"Is that a threat?" Carissa narrowed her eyes. Not many people dared to threaten her, but this guy just used his teacher to threaten her. She gazed at his group's expressions before saying. "Alright. Take it as I am scared of your threat. The end result is going to be an advantage to the US Base, so I will hide this information for a week. However, I won't take responsibility if the president asks you to do accounts."

"In that case, he will need to talk with my teacher." Kai smiled as if it was nothing.

"You are relying on your teacher's prestige too much," Carissa warned him.

"I know." Kai's expression turned serious. "However, I can only do it because I need to get a high status as soon as possible. Only at that time, I can protect those who are close to me, including my teacher."

"…" Carissa paused for a few seconds and sighed. "Like teacher, like student. I feel you are the same type of your teacher… The one that can go rampage if their close one gets hurt. And we might get the consequences at that time… In other words, you are like a double-edged sword."

"If you are not willing to have him, how about giving him to me?" Sofia interjected as she walked toward her. "We won't mind about this… Well, at least I know I won't mind."

"Ho?! I want to say that you and your EU Base is also one of the possible targets." Carissa sneered.

"So, you are still talking like this? I thought you were thinking of me as a human instead of an object that you can easily trade?" Kai narrowed his eyes and released his killing intent.

"We are! Consider it as a sports player…" They answered at the same time, feeling it was justified.

"…" Kai obviously didn't buy it, but he didn't say anything right now. He simply had no strength to oppose the entire base by himself, and at a time like this, people should unite so they could face the magical beasts. He just recorded this in his mind and would probably take this out when it's time to do account.

"Alright. Since that is the case, how about driving now? Let's not waste our time." Kai clapped his hand without a change of expression.

The girls could only shake their heads. Not a single of them knew Kai enough. The fact that he went with the flow just meant that he took this conversation in a neutral stance, and most of them would surely turn into hostility. Only Ayaka managed to reach the opposite… Albeit barely. Ayaka still remembered when Kai threatened her that he would rape her. She suddenly realized how mad Kai was since he might do so if she continued acting like a baby.

Carissa thought for a moment and nodded, heading toward the car. After that, they began their search again, moving toward the northern part of the island.

They searched everything and made sure not to leave a single clue. They even took the same time as the previous one because the sound might appear at that particular time if not interval.

After a long journey, the group returned before sunset. The island would completely turn dark after all, since there was not a single light. Even Carissa had no confidence in driving in that kind of situation.

The journey didn't take too long since the island wasn't that big, and the group decided to have a meeting as soon as they returned.