Following the original markings, An Ling carefully retraced her steps, double-checking the signs along the way to prevent being misled.
But after walking for half an hour, her expression had grown completely serious.
Even without yesterday’s prayer ritual, having replenished her energy and restored her strength, no matter how slow her pace, half an hour should have been enough to cover two hundred meters.
Yet at this moment, she found no trace of any lit campfire.
That left only one possibility: someone had left earlier than her and had hidden their tracks.
The instant this thought crossed her mind, An Ling froze, a wave of fear instantly engulfing her heart.
The trees before her thinned out, revealing a small clearing overgrown with weeds.
And there, unmistakably, stood a dilapidated, rotting wooden cabin!
She had followed the markers all the way here—there was no way she had taken a wrong turn.
Besides, she had walked this route once already yesterday, and there had been no wooden cabin here then.
An Ling cautiously approached the cabin, doing her best not to make a sound.
At the side of the cabin, she peered through a window to see inside. It was empty, though she couldn’t rule out someone hiding in a blind spot.
Slowly, she moved to the front and silently reached the door.
Holding her breath, she took a deep breath.
Bang!
The rickety wooden door came off its hinges with the force of her kick, flying into the cabin’s interior.
An Ling immediately raised her gun, aiming inside.
No one was there.
Relieved, she stepped inside the cabin.
But the moment her left foot crossed the threshold, she noticed ash stuck to her white shoes—ashes left over from a burned campfire.
The cabin’s layout was exactly the same as her own cabin.
As for where to light a campfire, any sensible person would have chosen the same spot, so that was no surprise.
What puzzled her was why this cabin had suddenly appeared here, and where the person who had been following her last night had gone.
But when An Ling’s eyes landed on the simple wooden bed inside, she was shocked.
There lay an empty Mineral Water Bottle—the very same one she had left after breakfast this morning.
This wasn’t someone else’s cabin. It was her own!
An Ling’s mind went blank.
She immediately backed out and checked both the forest directions in front and behind the cabin.
Without a doubt, the markings she had made earlier were on both sides.
She quickly retraced her path.
Half an hour later, she was back at the cabin she had left that morning—exactly the same, and its wooden door was also lying inside, fallen.
Further ahead, more markings had been made!
For a moment, she couldn’t tell which way was forward and which was backward.
“How is this possible?”
Everything was too bizarre for her, a staunch materialist, to accept.
An Ling forced herself to calm down, thinking carefully about where the problem might lie.
Suddenly, she recalled a story her Grandmother had told her when she was a child.
“Could this be a Ghost Wall?”
Still unwilling to believe in superstition, An Ling chose to move forward—toward the center of the island.
Her heart was filled with unease.
Sure enough, the cabin appeared again before her eyes.
But this time, unlike before, a person was standing beside the cabin.
Was this the one who had been following her, or another Survivor?
An Ling’s suspicion made her tuck her pistol into her hoodie pocket, her right hand tightly gripping the handle as she cautiously approached.
The person appeared to be a boy about her age, with a scholarly look and round glasses.
He wore a green knitted vest over a light blue autumn shirt, paired with gray jeans.
He was even shorter than An Ling, roughly around 165 centimeters.
When he saw An Ling walking toward him with a cold expression, he was startled.
But An Ling was not fooled by his fragile appearance.
She kept a safe distance—about five meters—and stopped.
His expression was complicated, a mix of worry and fear.
He did not speak first, clearly not a normal Survivor.
If two Survivors met, they would have shown joy, not this reaction.
“Why have you been following me? Are you a Survivor? How many days have you been here?” An Ling barked three questions at him, unwilling to reveal her identity easily after last time’s experience.
“I… I…” The boy seemed confused by the barrage of questions, not knowing how to answer.
“Speak!”
An Ling glared at him, almost drawing her gun to threaten him, but that was her last card—she couldn’t reveal it unless absolutely necessary, and killing him outright would alert most of the island.
She wasn’t impulsive enough for that.
“Sis… please… don’t be so fierce.”
The boy timidly said, stepping back unconsciously.
He couldn’t understand why the first person he met after arriving on the island acted so strangely.
“Cut the crap and answer me!” Seeing him retreat, An Ling stepped forward and fixed him with a sharp gaze.
“Isn’t today the second day? Sis, I just arrived here too, I’m not following you…”
He truly couldn’t understand why An Ling asked how many days he’d been here.
“Really a coincidence?” An Ling was now certain he was a Survivor, but remained cautious because they were in the middle of a Ghost Wall.
“How did you get here?”
“Uh? I… I just kept walking and somehow ended up here…” He looked puzzled.
An Ling was stunned.
She must have misunderstood him.
Judging from his behavior, he seemed timid and unlikely to be the person following her.
Or perhaps the fire she saw last night was actually her own?
But that would be even more absurd—were there two An Lings?
“I’m sorry, I may have misunderstood you. I apologize. I’ve been caught in a Ghost Wall and suspected someone was following me. You happened to appear near the cabin, which made me jump to conclusions.”
Her tone softened as she apologized for her earlier outburst.
“It’s okay…” The boy finally relaxed, letting out a long breath that An Ling could see.
“A Ghost Wall happens when a person, lacking clear reference points and unfamiliar with their surroundings, experiences visual and auditory confusion. It’s a complex mix of physiological and psychological factors.”
He pushed up his thick glasses.
“It’s usually caused by multiple factors, heavily related to the person’s mental state.”
His professional explanation surprised An Ling.
“You mean it’s caused by me?”