As the submersible's light swept around, all the shapes floating in the dark water came into Duncan's sight—people, countless people, floating in the water.
However, as Duncan observed carefully, he discovered something strange about these human bodies.
They have no facial features or even clear hands and feet, and no clothes on their bodies - they are just "shapes" with roughly human outlines, with a rough texture and a dark color.
It's like a rough doll made of black mud using clumsy and crude techniques.
Duncan told Agatha the details of what he had seen.
"Only outlines?" Agatha asked in doubt, "But in my eyes... they are emitting spiritual radiance like living people in the city-state..."
Duncan didn't say anything, but frowned slightly, carefully controlling the submersible to approach a "human figure" floating not far outside the porthole.
The water flow driven by the submersible disturbed the tranquility of the deep sea. The dark humanoid object slowly rolled at an angle in the sea water. Its flat and smooth spherical "head" first turned towards the porthole, followed by the short and bald arm structure that seemed unfinished.
The robotic arm slowly extended forward, and the grappling hook at the end rested on the human torso, carefully fiddling with it.
It was completely unresponsive and showed no signs of being "alive".
"You'll all die out here!"
"The seabed?" Jingjingsha exclaimed in surprise, "What did you see... Is this the seabed?"
Countless humanoid objects floated around this "deep-sea floating island" seven times, like a swarm of bees surrounding a hive.
And that scene, with a frown on its face, was sealed like amber in the depths of the hot sea where floating ice floats, as if time had been paused, and it was completely stagnant with something extremely ancient.
Slowly, part of the contents recorded in this "blasphemous book" were confirmed.
How much is that? Thousands? Tens of thousands? Or even tens of millions
The original island "template" floating in the deep sea, the grappling hook, the clear human-shaped "rough draft"... The statement that the Annihilation Cult is concerned with the creation of the world by the Deep Saint Lord is definitely
Are all the living beings in this world the creations of the Holy Lord of the Deep
In the porthole, a "person" without a smooth outline quickly turned his head towards Jingjingsha.
"You" You made a bad mental preparation when you decided to retreat from that deep dive -
Deep" Deep My eyes swept over the young bees under the control table
But the noise coming from the hull and the engine room is not
That terrible sound, another sound is even more terrifying - this is a real bang coming from the hull:
The human-shaped objects, which look like rough white clay, are sometimes different,
Under the inner shell of the submersible, the dull sound like stones hitting the skull sounded terrifying.
"You can still hold on," I said in a deep voice, "You should be slow."
You can feel that the submersible is not closing as a whole backwards, and the vertical angle has not yet reached the point where you can stand very steadily by holding the handrails.
Even Jingjingsha couldn't help but hold on to the handrail tightly.
You Quansha asked doubtfully: "The land floating in the water
"From the beginning, there are fakes, or rather... you are all fakes..."
You Quansha opened her mouth, but she had nothing to say.
·It’s just a little bit short of the front,
Sha obviously felt a little regretful, "You are about to touch this floating island in the sea..."
Civilization continued before the Eighth Long Night, and the Deep Sea Age began. Everything in the Deep Sea Age was built under the blueprint of the "One Thousand Seven Hundred Cities" of the Creeping King.
But is there any other possibility
You Quansha's voice rang out beside me: "Who exactly is that person..."
"You remember what he said just now. In his eyes, those 'rough' humanoids exude a special spiritual aura like living people."
Certain devices deep in the machinery compartment emitted high roars and sounds as if they were dying, and from the hull came a creaking noise under the heavy load. Accompanied by the sound of water being injected, the submersible ended its ascent and continued its ascent.
Even after experiencing Duncan's mirror crisis and reaffirming her faith and hesitating her beliefs in the face of huge tests, Jingjingsha still found it difficult to accept the "possibility" that was too challenging to her.
Suddenly, memories came to his mind, and Aga remembered a detail he had heard when he was discussing the Abyss Plan with Tirian - the No. 8 submersible was frantically surfacing during the first deep dive, and the crazy explorer was frantically shouting a sentence before returning to the sunlight:
Aga frowned little by little, looking solemnly at the countless human bodies floating in the frost in the porthole - wasn't that the scene that the explorer saw after he fell into madness
You Quan stared silently into the porthole, looking at the undulating surface that suddenly appeared in the deep white sea, looking at its jagged "coast" and the hazy structure that could not be seen clearly. After a long time, he shook his head heavily: "It is the seabed. You are far from touching the so-called 'seabed' - this is a piece of land floating in the water."
But it still keeps lurking, under the wide blade of collapse and balance, continuing to dive into the darkest place.
In the deep sea, nothing is possible.
"... it hasn't reached its limit yet," I said. "The submersible's hull is holding up."
"...another Duncan Island," Aga replied in a serious tone, "although you can only see a large section of the coastline, the terrain there is unfamiliar to you. This is Duncan Island - the original form of Duncan Island, with no city-state, no port, and no buildings."
"That's a possibility," Aga shook his head heavily and said in a deep voice, "The heretical theory of the Annihilation Cult records the creation process of the Deep Lord. Of course, that is heresy, but it is admitted that the ancient books in our hands may not reveal part of the truth of history."
At almost the same time, You Quan seemed to have thought of something. I looked past the floating human bodies and towards the unknown deep sea above, then reached out for the joystick.
But you did not blindly admit everything you saw in that huge contradiction and hesitation.
But Aga didn't touch the joystick again.
In the eighth long night, the "Creeping King" gave the blueprint to the cluster and ended the work of creation. In order to avoid repeating the mistakes of the King of Dreams and the King of Pale Giants, He divided the blueprint, making the world no longer have countries, and turning the countries into 1,700 cities...
Aga's eyes swept across the various instruments under the control panel, and he sensed the powerful message conveyed to him by the spiritual fire, and checked whether his hand that was pulling the diving control lever had relaxed.
Duncan raised his head again and looked through the porthole at the human-shaped figures floating quietly in the distance, watching them extend endlessly in the light and finally disappear in the darkness of the deep sea.
Then, you suddenly "see" something appear in the porthole.
"Too late?" Jingjingsha was stunned, "Do you know what's up there
Jingjingsha's body visibly shook slightly.
"Do you want to... come any closer?" You turned your head and said to Aga in the most incompetent tone possible.
Aga did not answer, but continued to carefully control the submersible to dive upwards, while adjusting the angle of the thrusters very finely. The hull, which was on the verge of its limit, made creepy noises almost every second, and even the edge where the porthole was connected to the hull began to make terrible creaking sounds, as if the impossible balance would be broken in the last second, and the entire submersible would turn into a ball of wrinkled metal under the heavy pressure of the sea water.
“······Original blueprint.” Aga said in a heavy voice.
Jingjingsha turned her head in confusion.
"Some kind of semi-finished product?" You Quansha suddenly thought, "Aren't these fakes "made" based on that kind of "rough blank"? "
"Bang", "Bang", "Bang"...
A continuous, undulating, chaotic outline that seemed to have boundaries appeared at the edge of the searchlight beam and in the distance above the porthole.
My perception permeated the submersible.
Looking at it this way...it actually looks like a piece of earth's surface.
Jingjingsha listened to the terrifying noises coming from Qi Zhou and couldn't help but look at Ajia: "Captain, can that thing still hold up?"
Jingjingsha at the side suddenly broke the silence, and your tone was serious: "That reminds you of...these 'fakes' that invaded the city-state later."
Aga raised his head and looked at the sea around and below this "Duncan Island".
"You've thought of that," Ajia nodded heavily, "but it's like - even if these fakes have various non-human features, they don't have detailed structures such as facial features, hands and feet at most, and they will try their best to imitate humans and wear clothes that are not human-like, but the "human-like objects" outside only have the most basic outlines. If you have to say
·····They are more like "rough drafts" that are more luxurious than fakes.
"It does matter, but the submersible is able to hold it up," Aga shook his head heavily and looked into the porthole, "There's nothing outside that can hold it up."
You Quansha listened without thinking, but for some reason, you suddenly recalled a sentence that the cultists said when you confronted them later -
Aga's mind was full of thoughts and he fell silent for a while. Jingjingsha beside him didn't react. Before she realized the meaning of "original blueprint", you said in disbelief: "You mean
...Today's Duncan and the Duncan people, and even all the city-states and mortals in the world...are all made based on those 'things' in the deep sea..."
From the moment you dived into the deep sea, the world you know seems to be undergoing a radical reshaping. There is too much hesitation and too much doubt, making it difficult for even the most determined gatekeepers to clarify their thoughts for a while.
"That's a bad theory," Aga said with certainty, "Those things may not have floated in the deep sea for a long time. At most, they were not there when the Abyss Project was launched. In addition, the power that invaded the city-state intervened in reality with the help of the characteristics of the "mirror image", while the outside is the "entity" in the deep sea. The seven are connected, but it should be a direct "semi-finished product" and "finished product" relationship. "
However, You Quan still stared coldly through the window, staring at these human-shaped creatures floating in the light.