Even more disturbingly, the vines seemed to be absorbing the turret's energy, emitting faint pulsations every few seconds.

"When did this start?" Shen Jue asked, while activating the scanner.

"Just when the defense system malfunctioned," Jack replied, "they were growing incredibly fast, and our attempts to clear them using conventional methods were completely ineffective."

The scan results made Shen Jue frown. The data showed that these vines contained an unknown energy substance, similar to, yet different from, the source of contamination in the inheritance crystal.

She carefully pushed the purification ball closer to a vine, but the contraction of her dream slapped the purification ball, sending it flying uncontrollably.

After attacking the purification ball, the vines turned and attacked in the direction of Shen Jue.

Shen Jue quickly retreated, activating his Absolute Defense Card at the same time.

"Watch out!" Jack shouted.

More vines began to wriggle, seemingly particularly sensitive to the energy emanating from Shen Jue.

Shen Jue noticed that after he activated the Absolute Defense Card, those special beings seemed even more excited.

Energy is the source that stimulates these black vines!

[Warning! Dark matter reaction detected]

[Absolute Defense Card Effect: Reduces damage by 30%.]

That's ruthless, so they absolutely cannot be allowed to live!

This is the first time in a long time that Shen Jue has encountered an opponent who can reduce the amplification effect of the Absolute Defense Card by 30%.

Such an opponent is only in its infancy. If it is allowed to grow, it will be disastrous. It must be nipped in the bud.

Shen Jue quickly switched tactics, abandoning the gentle purification methods and directly adopting a bombing mode.

High-explosive card, Moon Dew card, and double-stack card—a card stacking game—is thrown towards the black vines.

The cards do not display any energy before their effects are triggered, so the black vines did not specifically intercept the three cards stacked together.

When the card was thrown into the center of the black vines, Shen Jue had already retreated more than a hundred meters away, and the card was detonated directly.

The black vines didn't even have time to react before they were razed to the ground by the high-explosive card, leaving not even a seed of their own clones behind.

After dealing with the black vines, the communicator beeped again, this time not with a message, but with a video link from Balsa.

After connecting, Shen Jue saw the image that Balser was pointing at: black vines, and they were even larger in scale.

"Xiao Jue, I feel something's not right," Balsa said with concern. "These plants... they seem to be absorbing the island's energy."

I tried to contact my older brother, Yang, Xingran, and the others, but the communication system was severely disrupted. Only you were an exception; for some reason, the call actually went through.

Shen Jue watched the wriggling vines through the screen and immediately told 823 to move away from that spot. Right now, these vines were only interested in energy, but if an adult reached maturity, they might pose a fatal danger.

The anomalies in the sea world were not only noticed by the players, but also by the native inhabitants of the sea world.

She brought up the properties panel and found that garbled text had taken up a third of the screen.

Even more disturbingly, she noticed an unfamiliar parameter in the energy readings:

[Dimensional Penetration Index: 0.7%]

What troubles Shen Jue the most is that, with the increasing number of times the game system is displaying garbled text, the game store has now been shut down.

I don't know when it will be open.

She is not in any immediate danger, but she must prioritize rescuing Balsa.

"Jack," Shen Jue turned to the pirate captain and said, "Activate the highest level of defense immediately. I'm going out for a while. During my absence, Qingfeng will be in charge. If you have any questions, ask Qingfeng."

"Understood." Jack nodded solemnly. "We will strengthen our defenses."

Shen Jue took out the landing token and arrived at Balsa's island. She had just reached island number 823 when the alarm message from the life safety alarm device she had left on Balsa was transmitted to her.

Shen Jue immediately checked the location of Balsa's red dot.

Shen Jue sent her a message but did not receive a reply.

Fourth sister, please don't let anything happen to you!