After a long while, he finally spoke, "I’m a bit panicked."
"What? You’re panicking?"
"The desire to return home is what set me on this journey," Lu Yuan continued, "Along the way, I often hesitated, because the Pangu Continent is so vast, and I was also afraid of accidents."
"Not to mention anomalies, just a poisonous insect could have killed me."
"Sometimes I think about just lying flat in a safe place."
Lu Yuan added, "If the civilization here welcomes me to settle, don’t you think I should stay here for the long term? What if they are very beautiful and meet my aesthetic? I’m afraid my confidence is wavering."
"So I only gave them 10 days... Of course, they might already be dead... Ah, that’s my true feeling."
Old Cat also fell silent.
The guy was so logical that it couldn’t speak for a while.
"10 days, only giving the other party just over two hours to respond," Old Cat waved its paw, "But your decision is reasonable. After all, you’re just passing through, and if this civilization doesn’t contact you, you can find the next one."
"There are plenty of civilizations out there, just like weeds."
"You, an Early Epoch traveler, are the real treasure."
Lu Yuan immediately looked distressed and stopped Old Cat’s backhanded compliment, "Don’t set this flag, I beg you, I just want to find an alien civilization to have a casual chat... "
He thought of something, took out a black charcoal pencil, ran outside the tent, and scribbled some charcoal doodles on the metal ball.
These included smiley faces, handshakes, fishing, cars, and such, made very artistic by a Crash Artist with craftsmanship skills.
Then he placed a gold necklace on a nearby rock—naturally, it was junk picked up from the Meida civilization.
"Hey! If you want to contact me, hurry up! Don’t hesitate there!"
"If you don’t contact me, I’m leaving!" he yelled across the river a few times.
"Old Cat, can we manage a radio?"
"We can indeed..." as Old Cat crawled into the Communicator and started fiddling with something, "But don’t expect me to crack their language instantly."
The waiting time was always anxiety-inducing, and 10 days passed quickly...
Nothing much happened over these ten days, just fishing, drinking hot tea, playing with groundhogs, writing in his journal, and then crawling into the tent to sleep for a day... and no nightmares occurred.
Lu Yuan didn’t destroy the Dream, but instead, built a dream around the Tree of Life. He hoped Dream Ability Users would come into his dream, but they didn’t...
Time quietly slipped away.
Meanwhile, Old Cat was tinkering with its radio tool, a small device assembled by itself, with parts taken from the Communicator.
There was also a magnet generator, so it kept shaking it, amusing itself.
Old Cat really liked to tinker with electronic junk.
It must be admitted, a little long vacation was really beneficial for relaxation of body and mind.
Lu Yuan really slept well.
Old Wolf, with wobbly legs, slowly regained his lost Essence, and once again became the wildly charming wolf, regaining his spirit to rush forward!
"Old Lu, there’s still no radio signal, I’m sorry."
"I’ve already sent a series over, just ordinary sine waves, couldn’t they at least send back a sine wave? Are they that scared?"
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Old Cat quite enjoyed the schadenfreude.
"Since there really is no civilization here, let’s go." Lu Yuan also had no words, adjusted his mindset, having never received, thus not disappointed.
He hoisted his large backpack onto his back.
Old Cat twisted about, somewhat helplessly saying, "Really leaving? You only gave them 2.4 hours, maybe they are in a meeting. You should understand, whether it’s a feudal system, a parliamentary system, or a dictatorship, they all damn well have meetings."
"Even the great Cat Mama has to waste a lot of damn opportunities in meetings... beep—"
It got forcibly silenced for violating the robot laws.
"2.4 hours is not too little." Lu Yuan sighed, "If they haven’t found someone with Divine Skill to breach the Safe Zone to contact me by now, it says they are not a very powerful civilization."
"Or perhaps this civilization simply doesn’t exist, staying here is just wasting time."
"Let’s go, Old Wolf, let us cross this arid land together!"
However, just as he was about to step forward and leave, a mosquito-like sound came to his ears.
So slow it’s like a sheep bleating!
Suddenly, Lu Yuan’s eyes widened as he sprung up from the rock.
He instinctively looked around.
But there was no one nearby.
Those syllables, like tadpole scripts, trembled into his ears one after another, shaking about once every half a minute.
He was both shocked and delighted, having listened for quite a while, it seemed to mean "hello"?
Ignoring distance, ignoring race, communicating directly.
"He~si~dao~gou" (Speak slower.)
Lu Yuan kept listening, wandering, jumping, stepping, and finally sighed softly.
This might be the result of time flowing 100 times faster.
In the Safe Zone, saying a word takes 10 seconds, but for Lu Yuan, it stretched 100 times, turning it into 1,000 seconds.
Meanwhile, Lu Yuan’s 100 seconds, on the other side, were only 1 second, he had to speak very, very slowly!
This communication is useless!
20 minutes to say one sentence, it’s maddening!
Lu Yuan complained, "Just now, a life form was trying to communicate with me through telepathy."
"Hmm... The telegraph has also echoed!" Old Cat fiddled with its device in the backpack, "That qualifies this civilization. If their minds are sane, they wouldn’t ignore a passing traveler."
Lu Yuan panted, "But how do we communicate? This speed is way too slow."
Old Cat kept scratching itself, boastfully saying, "Your side being slow is normal, over here, I can be very fast. Electromagnetic waves can transmit a lot of information."
"Under the condition of sufficient grammar, I am quite capable. We have a built-in translator in our communicator..."
"The problem is, the other party clearly can’t send a lot of information."
"Well..." Lu Yuan elongated his words, looking across the river, extremely annoyed.
He deliberately elongated his voice: "You... hello!"
"Ga~Ding~Ou~Ga~Ma!" (Hello!)
Although we aren’t far apart, it feels like a light-year away.
Inside the Safe Zone, outside the Safe Zone, are two different dimensions of time and space.
You are on that side, I am on this side.
Moreover, for some reason, a subtle unease arose deep in his heart.
As night fell, this unease slowly intensified.
The Extraordinary Fire inside him pulsed vigorously, its frequency much higher than usual.
Lu Yuan had been here for a full ten days, very comfortably... but the nightmares that occurred in his dreams always reminded him that there were monsters here, it wasn’t without risk.
"If your sixth sense is very strong, you can leave here first." Old Cat said, "Since we’ve already made contact, you’re not in a hurry for a day or two."
Lu Yuan nodded, "That’s true, let’s avoid trouble for now. I’ll return to the Primitive Forest."
He made several gestures toward the direction of the river: "Then, I’m taking off first!"
The Metal Communicator is left here; its parts have already been removed, it’s just a metal shell, not worth much.
Then, he walked towards the forest direction with Old Wolf.
The waterfall’s water rushed down from above, the "roaring" sound echoing from ancient times to the present.
After crossing the waterfall, there were more trees and animals, birds’ chirping was constant, mice scurried through the layer of fallen leaves, and the poisonous snakes, geckos, and frogs perched on the branches brought Lu Yuan a subtle sense of safety.