The slightly feminine scream was mixed with some unintelligible tones, seemingly an actual language.
Others were surprised by the dwarf's gender. After all, based solely on appearance, there was nothing linking it to femininity.
What Pyon focused on wasn't the gender, but the tones mixed into the dwarf's scream.
When the dwarf made the sound, her pupils instinctively contracted to pinpoints, and her entire being entered a state of intense concentration.
In that instant, even an extremely brief tonal word was clearly recorded in her mind.
Now, she was gazing at the dwarf, who was screaming incessantly out of fear, with a rather focused look.
People unfamiliar with her would be drawn in by her serious and concentrated demeanor at this moment.
Those familiar with her would only feel deep astonishment, as it was completely opposite to her usual behavior.
The dwarf's relatively sharp, fearful cries directly disturbed the resting team members in the camp, even causing Cheadle, who was processing materials, to come out of her room, looking surprised at the scene.
Noticing the dwarf's screams were affecting the team members' rest, Botobai looked at Netero and asked, "Should we stop it?"
Netero first glanced at Pyon, who was intently listening to the dwarf's screams, thought for a moment, and decided whether to stop it should be Pyon's decision. So he shook his head at Botobai.
Seeing this, Botobai let the dwarf continue screaming at the top of its lungs.
This was the very edge of the forest, so there wasn't much need for concern.
As for the possibility of the dwarf's cries attracting its companions, that didn't need too much worry either. Because the dwarf's combat ability wasn't strong.
The dwarf's lung capacity was clearly good… its continuous screaming for several minutes didn't pause at all. The consequence was that everyone resting in the wooden houses came out, gathering here.
"What's going on?"
Those who hadn't slept enough looked displeased.
Zuzhi also came out of the kitchen, and upon seeing Menchi, who had also emerged from a wooden house, silently turned around and walked back into the kitchen.
Being Gourmet Hunters on the same team, they naturally saw each other often, but due to certain past events, he always felt awkward and uncomfortable whenever he saw Menchi.
Who asked him to have once hit Menchi when she was still young? He hadn't expected Menchi to become one of the Association's top Gourmet Hunters back then.
"@%#￥#￥!"
While screaming, the dwarf struggled violently.
Then, Botobai immediately broke the dwarf's limbs, making its voice even more piercing.
Pyon, who was listening intently, suddenly raised her right hand and swung it to her side.
Kanzai, who was standing there, couldn't help but lean his upper body back, looking at Pyon, whose expression was gradually turning serious, and asked in confusion, "What?"
"Move!"
Pyon stared at the dwarf, not looking away.
"..."
The flesh on Kanzai's cheek twitched. He first glanced at the large empty space to Pyon's left, then stepped aside, feeling wronged.
After Kanzai cleared the space, Pyon somehow pulled out a thin wooden stick and directly started writing words no one else understood on the ground.
Soon, the available space wasn't enough for Pyon to continue writing, so everyone consciously stepped back, clearing a large area.
Five minutes later, Pyon casually threw away the stick, looked down at the words she had written, and said, "Make her shut up."
Botobai promptly knocked the dwarf unconscious, and the annoying noise finally stopped.
Then, Netero asked, "Any discoveries?"
"Not yet, and it's a bit... strange."
Pyon bit her thumb hard, staring intently at the large expanse of words she had written.
That was her extracting, from all the languages she knew, all words with similar tones and pronunciations based on the five sentences the dwarf kept repeating, and writing them on the ground.
Including languages currently in use and languages only seen in ancient books and ruins.
As long as she knew it, she wrote it down.
Now, she had to gradually filter them. Although there might not be a result, this was a necessary process.
"This one's not... that one's not either..."
Under everyone's gaze, Pyon kept using her feet to erase the different words written on the ground.
Filter, filter again...!
Among all present, only she was the most orthodox linguist. So among so many words, they could at most recognize two or three.
They just watched as Pyon kept erasing words, eventually leaving one row, consisting of eleven characters.
After finishing this, Pyon deflated like a balloon. The focused, strong-woman expression on her face instantly vanished, reverting to her usual lazy demeanor.
"Got a result?" Netero couldn't help but narrow his eyes.
"One last step is missing!" Pyon stared closely at the final filtered characters.
"What step?"
Kanzai asked curiously.
The others also looked at Pyon.
"Ding-a-ling-a-ling!"
Pyon took out her pink phone with rabbit ears.
Everyone looked at Pyon holding up the pink rabbit-eared phone, suddenly getting the sense that Pyon was about to unleash a big move.
"Open the scanner, then scan it!"
Pyon aimed the phone's camera at the words on the ground and scanned.
Ding.
The most likely derived text appeared.
"Having a universal translator would save so much trouble," Pyon said softly, looking at the words displayed on her phone screen. "Only one word in the end? Huh? Scarecrow?"
She muttered to herself there, only then noticing how quiet the scene was. She looked strangely at her companions beside her, seeing almost everyone's faces had darkened.
"You... what's wrong with you all?" Pyon asked, puzzled.
"Why... didn't you just use your phone to scan the words you wrote from the beginning?"
"Ah?"
Pyon was stunned, then made a thoughtful sound while touching her chin, sweat secretly beading on the back of her head.
'It seems... that's true.'
"Let's talk about why this dwarf was shouting 'scarecrow'. Eh, if only we had a universal translator, we wouldn't have to work so hard just to translate one word."
Pyon looked seriously at everyone.
'This topic shift... was really low-level.'
Everyone thought silently.
'By the way, why was the dwarf muttering the word 'scarecrow'?'
'Also, was the translation result 100% accurate?'
Thinking of this, they suddenly agreed with Pyon's words.
Having a universal translator would indeed play a valuable role in a place filled with various strange species.
…
Deep in the dark sea, within the pitch-black, icy seafloor, the turtle kept paddling its limbs, swimming forward.
Inside the turtle shell room, in a purely enclosed space, a pile of charcoal was burning.
Law and the others were... barbecuing.
The ingredients, naturally, were monster meat from the Dark Waters… delicacies absolutely impossible to eat on the Six Continents.
"Achoo!"
Suddenly, Knov, Biscuit, and Bruna sneezed almost simultaneously, and even sneezed several times in a row.
"Choked by pepper powder?" Law looked at them strangely.
'Knov and Biscuit sneezing was one thing, but even Bruna sneezed?'
Biscuit rubbed her slightly itchy nose and said, "Could someone be thinking of me?"
"Cough."
Tonpa, who was eating barbecue, almost choked.
Biscuit immediately shot a glare filled with murderous intent.
Tonpa froze immediately.
Knov glanced at Biscuit and muttered to himself, "Someone's cursing me?"
Bruna crouched on Law's shoulder, puzzled, "Our Blu Tribe never sneeze."
"It must be the pepper powder then."
Law looked at Bruna and said seriously.
Although Bruna found it strange, this was the only explanation.