This cave wasn't very deep, and once inside, it wasn't the straight up-and-down shaft Clark had imagined, but rather a sloping tunnel.
Although the lake above the cave mouth meant that every passage was filled with water, Clark found that after walking along this tunnel for some distance, all the water flowing down from the lake above was blocked by what appeared to be a thin layer of air film. Not a single drop could flow forward.
Following the current, Clark arrived at the air film. Gazing at it, he stretched out his left hand. As expected, his hand passed straight through the film and reached the other side, which was completely free of water.
Clark wasn't surprised. After all, the skeletal lizards could fall to the ground through this passage, which meant they could pass through this barrier. If they could, so could he.
He took a step forward, passed through the film, and entered the underground passage. Strangely, after crossing it, all the water on his body was gone. Even his hair was completely dry, as if it had just been blown with a hair dryer.
After running a hand through his hair, Clark turned to look at the barrier behind him. He guessed that this film must have the ability to detect and block water molecules. Otherwise, it wouldn't be possible for him and his clothes to pass through while the water in his hair was completely removed.
Fortunately, it seemed to only filter out water molecules on the outside of the body, having no effect on the water inside. Otherwise, its lethality would be terrifying. Still, the existence of such a barrier suggested that Skull Island was anything but ordinary. This sort of thing didn't seem naturally occurring.
After thinking about the strange film for a while, Clark stopped dwelling on it and decided to explore further.
When he entered Skull Island's underground space, Clark had expected it to be pitch-black with not a trace of light. But what he found was different.
Although the light was dim, there were still some sources of illumination here. Looking around, Clark saw that all the light came from moss-like plants. Unlike surface moss, these subterranean mosses had evolved the ability to glow due to their unique living environment.
The presence or absence of light didn't really affect Clark—thanks to his night vision, his eyesight wouldn't be impaired no matter the conditions—but this was still better than nothing.
Following the tunnel, Clark advanced for a long distance. Perhaps because when the previous passage appeared all the skeletal lizards had been on the surface, he didn't encounter any along the way.
The whole tunnel was extremely monotonous. Although it was fairly spacious, aside from the glowing moss on the walls, there was nothing—no other plants, no small animals, nothing at all.
"What do these skeletal lizards eat when they live underground?" Clark muttered in annoyance after walking so far. He decided to quicken his pace, since who knew how vast the underground space beneath Skull Island might be?
He closed his eyes and focused all his attention on his hearing. Just as people selectively filter out a lot of noise in everyday life, Clark could filter what he heard. Otherwise, with his level of hearing, his ears would be ringing constantly.
Once he focused, it was as if a world made of sound waves appeared in his mind. As he picked up sounds from farther away, this sonic world expanded in his consciousness.
Clark knew this sound-wave world was just his imagination—he wasn't actually seeing it. His brain, upon receiving auditory information, automatically simulated these images using memories of things he had seen before.
It was like dreaming—when you dream, you don't actually see anything; your brain just fills in images according to the electrical activity at the time. This is why dreams often feel blurry when we wake up.
The sound-wave world in Clark's mind was formed the same way, because everything in the world is unique. For example, no two leaves are exactly the same. Because of differences in shape and texture, each thing produces a distinct echo.
We might not consciously notice this, but our brains record such information subconsciously, storing it in areas we don't normally use, without taking up space in our active memory.
Clark, however, was different. Even if something only flashed by in his peripheral vision, he could recall it in perfect detail. Thus, when he heard a sound, his brain could instantly match it to the thing it belonged to and create a visual simulation in his mind. That was the origin of the sound-wave world he "saw."
The first thing Clark noticed in this sound-world was Diana and Coulson, only a few hundred meters away. With Wonder Woman by his side, Coulson, along with Ward, was clearly much braver.
At the moment, Coulson was leading Ward and Diana through the forest, taking pictures and collecting plants. Clark also saw that Ward had a tightly bound bird-like creature on his arm. If he remembered correctly, this was a Skull Island-exclusive monster called the "Wings of Icarus." It was probably the only monster they could actually catch.
Once he confirmed that Coulson and the others were fine, Clark expanded his sound-wave world outward. Before long, he picked up the movements of skeletal lizards in the underground world.
There were a lot of them—within the range of sounds he detected, there were hundreds of skeletal lizards of all sizes. The smallest was only about half a meter long, still a hatchling. The largest, Clark estimated, was about the same height as Kong. Including its tail, its total body length exceeded nearly 400 meters.
And 400 meters? That's roughly the length of four football fields.
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