A doll, a doll so delicate and lifelike that Duncan could hardly tell it apart at first glance - she lay quietly in the gorgeous wooden box, like a lady sleeping in a coffin, waiting for someone to wake her up.
Duncan really felt that the other party would wake up in the next second.
But this was just an illusion. The doll just lay quietly in the box, with no reaction to the surrounding environment.
Duncan watched this strange... "thing" vigilantly and carefully: a doll itself was nothing strange, but the other party's appearance that was too close to a real person and the coffin-like wooden box made him instinctively feel a sense of danger. When he thought about how the box inexplicably appeared on the Lost Homeland, it was no wonder that he became alert.
After observing for a long time, Duncan finally confirmed that the gorgeous Gothic doll in the box would not suddenly jump up and give him a surprise. He was slightly relieved, and then he frowned and asked Goat Head: "What do you think is going on?"
"This should be the important cargo escorted by the previous ship," the goat head replied immediately. Although it had previously stated that it did not recognize the strange wooden box that suddenly appeared on the deck, it was obviously more experienced in maritime affairs than Duncan, the fake captain. "There are symbols pointing to gods on the surface of the wooden box, and there are pins around the box for fixing chains, which may mean that it was once in a sealed state. Transporting sealed objects on the vast ocean is an extremely risky thing. That ship seems to have some background."
"Seal?" Duncan's eyelids jumped subconsciously, and then he looked at the lid of the box that he had completely opened. The lid was broken when he came to the Lost Homeland, so he could easily push it. Although he didn't understand things like seals, he believed that the seal of this thing must have failed. "So this thing is dangerous?"
"It is dangerous for ordinary people who are vulnerable, but I don't think it will pose any threat to you. This kind of 'abnormality' that can be sealed with special techniques cannot resist the power of Captain Duncan."
Duncan remained silent, his expression serious, but his mind was full of thoughts.
Goat-Head's compliment sounded quite pleasing to him - if he was really "Captain Duncan", he might actually believe it, but he was not, so he was very nervous now.
Because Goat Head's words have made it clear that the puppet lying in the coffin is a "dangerous item"! It's just that it can't threaten the real captain!
Although he now bears the title of Captain Duncan, and even seems to have occupied the other party's body and mastered some of his power, "Zhou Ming" is quite self-aware - he does not think that this will make him the same as the "real Captain Duncan".
He knew too little about this world, this ship, and even his current body.
In addition, he also keenly noticed that a new strange word appeared in Goat Head's words just now - "abnormal".
Abnormal is unconventional. It sounds like a very common word, but the special emphasis in Goat Head's words made him vaguely realize that this word seems to have a special meaning here.
Perhaps, in this world, the word "abnormal" not only means "out of the ordinary", but also refers to a certain type of thing? For example... a doll lying in a coffin.
Unfortunately, he had no good reason to ask about something that should be "common sense" here.
After feeling that he still needed to carefully collect intelligence and accumulate knowledge, Duncan frowned and took one last look at the puppet, as if he had made up his mind: "I should throw it back into the sea."
There was a hint of hesitation in his heart when he said this, especially when he was looking at the doll, this hesitation was particularly obvious.
This was certainly not for a simple reason like "this doll is beautiful", but because... "she" really looked too much like a living person sleeping in a coffin. When Duncan thought about throwing it back into the sea, he even felt like he was throwing a living person off the boat.
But this hesitation eventually strengthened his determination.
Because he already knew that there were many strange and bizarre things in this world. Although he had only encountered the Lost Homeland in this world so far, even on this ship, he had seen a talking goat head, a mast that could hoist its own sail, a ship light that never went out, as well as the strange and dangerous sea, the frightening spirit world, and the endless sea fog...
And just now, he bumped into a mechanical ship that was transporting sealed objects on this strange sea, and the things that the ship was "escorting" were strangely landed on the deck of the Lost Hometown.
As a rational and cautious person, he couldn't keep something that was likely to contain strange and dangerous powers just because the doll looked pretty.
Regretful as he was, Duncan finally firmly closed the lid of the "coffin". Because he was still worried, he found nails and a hammer in the cabin and carefully put another circle of iron nails on the coffin.
Finally, he pushed the "coffin" containing the puppet to the edge of the deck.
The voice of the goat head came into his ears: "You can dispose of your spoils as you please, but I will still respectfully and humbly make suggestions. You don't need to be so cautious. The Lost Homeland has not increased its spoils for a long time..."
"Shut up." Duncan simply pinched the goat's head and cut off the balabala.
The Goat-Head fell silent, and Duncan kicked the "coffin" hard, kicking it directly into the sea.
The heavy wooden box fell straight down from the edge of the deck and landed directly in the sea, which had returned to its normal color. It floated up from the water with a dull sound and gradually drifted towards the stern of the Lost Hometown.
Duncan watched the box drifting away with the waves, and only breathed a sigh of relief when it was completely obscured by the stern of the ship. Then he raised his head and looked into the distance, and saw that the mist on the sea had completely dissipated, and the blue sea was slowly rising and falling around the Lost Homeland.
The ship has completely left the "spiritual world" and returned to the real dimension.
On the nearby sea, there was no trace of the mechanical ship that had briefly encountered the Lost Homeland.
Duncan frowned slightly and made a simple estimate of the time it would take for the two ships to meet and the speed of each ship.
According to the current situation on the sea, the ship should not disappear from sight so quickly.
"… Is this also because of this strange sea? Or is it related to the so-called 'spiritual voyage'?"
Duncan began to murmur in his heart, but soon his attention was attracted by other things -
He saw a ray of golden light suddenly appear from the depths of the dark clouds that had never dispersed over the sea.
The bright golden sunlight gradually filled the sky, and the clouds that looked like thick curtains gradually dissipated as if being brushed away by invisible hands. The sea surface that had been gloomy for who knows how long was gradually illuminated by the sunlight. Duncan stood on the bow of the Lost Homeland, staring at the scenery as the clouds dissipated with wide eyes. At this moment, he suddenly felt an inexplicable touch.
Ever since he learned of the existence of "this side" many days ago, and since the first time he explored this strange ship, the lingering dark clouds have always shrouded the entire ocean, to the point that he almost believed that there was no sunshine in this world at all, and that this world was always shrouded in dark clouds.
He had been away from the sunshine for too long. Even across the "door", in Zhou Ming's single apartment, the thick fog outside the window had long blocked the sun.
But now, the boundless sea has cleared up.
After being away from the sun for a long time, he finally felt like he was seeing the light of day again in the world "this side".
Duncan subconsciously took a deep breath and opened his arms towards the direction of the sunlight. The thick clouds quickly dissipated and faded away as if in response. At the brightest moment of the sky, a huge sphere shrouded by countless twisted golden light streams appeared in Duncan's eyes.
All of Duncan's expressions froze at the moment he opened his arms to welcome the sunshine.
He stared at the sky. The sunlight was dazzling, but not as dazzling as he was familiar with. He could clearly see the object hanging in the sky, its spherical shell that seemed to have countless densely packed lines, the brilliant light streams emanating from it, and against the background of the interweaving of light streams, there were two slowly rotating circular ring structures distributed in concentric circles with the central sphere as the center.
Duncan narrowed his eyes. He could vaguely distinguish that the two circles seemed to be connected by countless intricate runes, as if some supreme power had engraved an eternal bond in the sky, imprisoning the "sun" in the sky.
Duncan failed to embrace the sunshine he had longed for.
There is no sunshine in this world.
"What is that?" he whispered, his voice low and cold.
"Of course it's the sun, Captain." Goat-Head's voice was as calm as ever.
(Oh my god!
I will try my best to maintain a double update these days... until my stockpiled articles are exhausted or my energy can no longer keep up 23333)