Chapter 116: Chapter 114: The Weird Black Tower

"Replaced by other words..."

Mo Ling recalled what the Hunter had said earlier. Certain words had indeed been completely replaced.

He could understand every word, but the sentences were completely incomprehensible.

’How strange.’

"Did that Hunter absorb some kind of pictograph?"

But if it was the price of a relic, why would he run away? The more Mo Ling thought about it, the more something felt off.

Li Luo began checking herself, but there were no strange pictographs on her body.

If what the Hunter said was true, this language disorder phenomenon had to be area-of-effect, which didn’t fit with how pictographs worked.

Li Luo changed her search parameters again, but she couldn’t find any other relic phenomena that matched.

Mo Ling then thought of the red headscarf. Its price was able to override Li Luo’s language disorder and return her to normal. Didn’t that prove the Black Tower caused a distortion of identity recognition?

The more he thought, the more confused he became. Mo Ling decided he simply had too little information.

After their search turned up nothing, Li Luo led Mo Ling away from the Black Tower for a while longer.

However, even with the headscarf on, Li Luo still couldn’t escape the Black Tower’s range. It seemed the headscarf was useless against this disorienting effect.

After thinking it over, there was only one option left: head toward the Black Tower.

Since they were now immune to the distortion, it was best to enter the Black Tower and investigate.

After discussing it, the two decided to stop running and advanced toward the Black Tower’s interior.

Soon, a small, black, coral reef-like tower appeared in Mo Ling’s vision.

Just as the pictures depicted, the place was teeming with life. All sorts of plants grew from the holes.

Countless small animals darted through the gaps between the towers.

The plants and animals all looked perfectly normal, with no abnormalities whatsoever.

Li Luo even pulled up a biological database for the area near the Black Tower and compared it with the flora and fauna one by one. Their appearance and behavior were a perfect match.

"It doesn’t affect plants and animals?"

’Is this a distortion that only targets humans? Or does it target any creature with language?’

With questions in their minds, the two continued forward. They passed through the gaps between the towers and soon came to a towering wall.

"Where are we?"

Mo Ling’s view was restricted, and he couldn’t see the edge of the high wall, but he noticed Li Luo was already looking up.

This *was* the Black Tower!

Mo Ling suddenly understood. The Black Tower was so immense that he could only see a fraction of it, which was why he had mistaken it for a wall!

The holes in this wall were also very spacious, extending deep inside.

"No wonder it could be used as a monitoring station. The space inside is enormous."

Mo Ling also saw signs of human activity. Some silvery-white metal footplates had been set up over uneven areas within the holes, and ladders were placed outside some holes with large differences in height.

These were all facilities built to help people get around, but Mo Ling didn’t see a single person here.

Outside the holes were structures resembling sentry posts, and surveillance cameras were installed in some hidden spots. But the posts were empty, and there was no way to know if the cameras were even working.

’Where did everyone go?’

Finding a spacious opening, Li Luo climbed up a ladder.

The man-made traces were even more obvious here. A wide walkway stretched inward, flanked by rows of lighting fixtures.

But perhaps due to a lack of maintenance, some of the lights were broken.

Li Luo proceeded cautiously along the walkway, discovering that the space grew larger the deeper she went.

As the space within the hole expanded, the signs of human construction became more pronounced. Simple buildings appeared on both sides of the path; judging by their layout, they were likely used as storage rooms.

Some were for storing weapons, but the weapons inside were all gone, leaving only some discarded parts.

Other buildings were likely for food storage. The items inside were still there—piles of canned goods, neatly arranged and not yet expired, were still edible.

However, some other mushroom-like foods had completely rotted. These were probably harvested by the Black Tower’s inhabitants from within the tower itself.

Beyond that were storerooms for daily supplies. These items were also left here untouched, taken by no one.

"Only the weapons are gone?" Mo Ling had a bad feeling.

This was a very dangerous sign. It meant the people here had been in a great hurry, only able to move the weapons.

Or perhaps, they only had enough time to grab their weapons and fight back.

Mo Ling was confused again. If it was just a language distortion, why would the people here have taken up arms?

"What were they planning to attack?"

Li Luo walked forward with a vigilant expression and came to an open junction of several holes. It connected all the surrounding passages and served as a sort of hub.

She opened her electronic screen. The map showed a plaza ahead—the place where the first people to arrive at the Black Tower had settled.

Sure enough, before they even reached the center, they could see densely packed buildings. Based on their internal structure, these buildings were likely residences.

The outer walls of these residences showed signs of repeated expansions, likely modified over time from temporary housing.

The facilities inside the houses were fully equipped, including refrigerators and all kinds of kitchen utensils. Mo Ling even saw pipes for a running water system and central heating, suggesting it had all been systematically planned.

Beneath the residential area, Mo Ling also saw a sewer system formed by connecting natural holes.

This could no longer be considered a temporary settlement; it was an area fully prepared for long-term habitation.

However, these residential areas, clearly built for the long term, were still empty.

Inside the houses, food left on the tables had completely spoiled, as if the residents had suddenly left in a hurry, unprepared for anything.

These houses were also in perfect condition, showing no signs of an attack.

"Where on earth did they go?"

The two of them passed through the winding alleys between the houses, heading toward the plaza up ahead. 𝐟𝚛𝕖𝚎𝕨𝗲𝐛𝚗𝐨𝐯𝐞𝕝.𝐜𝗼𝗺

Just then, the sound of a crowd came from ahead.

Li Luo was extremely cautious. Instead of rushing closer, she took out another probe and carefully piloted it forward.

The probe slipped through the narrow mouth of the alley and into the plaza.

The scene on the electronic screen made them both hold their breath.

"What are they doing?"

A large group of Hunters were wearing standard combat suits underneath, but over them, they had donned loose, uniform-like robes.

They could have used lighting equipment, but these people insisted on holding torches, bathing the plaza in a red glow, like the scene of some religious ritual.

A tall Hunter in a robe stood on a high platform in the plaza, speaking gibberish with great passion and expression. The sentences, composed of various familiar words, were utterly meaningless.

Mo Ling suddenly realized—this person’s language was distorted!

Every time the robed figure on the platform said something, the crowd below would cheer, waving their torches back and forth in an enthusiastic response.

Their responsive shouts were also completely unintelligible. Mo Ling listened closely and realized their sentences were also a jumble of various words. He knew the meaning of each word, but when combined, they had no actual significance.

More language disorder.

But as Mo Ling watched the screen, he suddenly realized this language disorder might be completely different from what he had imagined.

These robed people could actually understand each other!

In other words, the words that were being replaced were being replaced with the *same* new words for everyone. For them, it was as if they were simply communicating with a different vocabulary; the meaning hadn’t changed at all.

If two people both used the word "towel" to mean "cell phone,"

then they would have no communication barriers between them at all!