It is no exaggeration to say that Duncan clearly heard a crisp "crack" sound coming from somewhere on the sailor's body - obviously a joint was dislocated when the mummy shivered.
Then the ghostly howls of Abnormal 077 exploded on the rear deck: "Captain! Captain, don't scare me! I am loyal, diligent and honest! If you tell me what I did wrong, I will correct it. Don't scare me with this... Or you can just put me in a cannon and shoot me out..."
The mummy's hoarse voice echoed over the entire rear deck. He kept yelling and trying hard to climb up the railing at the edge of the control panel, as if he was going to jump off at any second. In fact, he did climb over the railing, but just as he was about to jump out, a cable shot out like a sharp arrow, tied directly to his ankles and dragged him back to the control panel, and wrapped around him several times.
Duncan glanced at Abnormal 077 who was still struggling to climb out with a half-smile, then took two steps forward and just watched quietly without saying a word.
Abnormal 077's howling suddenly stopped. He trembled visibly, shrank his neck and stopped moving. After a long pause, he said, "If you are bored, just stew me... I will show you a sit-up in the pot..."
"There's not that much of a cauldron on board," Duncan said casually, then he put away his smile and said seriously, "I'm serious - I need to do some testing"
Noticing the change in the captain's tone and expression, Anomaly 077 finally realized something. He looked up at Duncan in a daze: "... Test?"
"Let him go," Duncan said casually with a nod. The living cables immediately fell off Anomaly 077 one by one, making rustling sounds and retreating to the side.
The sailor got up in doubt, first grasping his thigh and twisting it back into place (Duncan now knew where the "crack" sound just now came from), then nervously followed the captain while looking around to pay attention to the movements of the cables around him - he came to the dark steering wheel, but still did not dare to reach out and touch it. After hesitating for a long time, he could not help but say: "What you want to test is..."
"Route." Duncan said lightly.
The sailor's expression changed slightly, and there was finally a thoughtful look in his eyes.
"I know you can't remember anything about the route—Lucretia has already told me," Duncan turned his head and looked into the sailor's eyes, "but I believe the information Captain Kalani left in the log—strictly speaking, I think when she left the log, she should have considered the changes that might happen to you after you return to the Endless Sea. After all, she once faced the gods and had undergone a fundamental change, and then she 'recovered' from this change—she possesses 'knowledge' that ordinary people cannot understand."
As he spoke, he raised his hand and pointed at the sailor.
"So, I want to understand you now, and the truth behind your various characteristics as Anomaly 077. Just like your shroud records Captain Kalani's log, I think you are also a kind of carrier, and to conduct tests in this regard... the most effective way is to let you exert your own power."
The sailor was stunned, and he lowered his head to look at his hands in thought: "My power..."
"When Anomaly 077 is active, it will try to 'take over' the nearest ship, causing the ship to be randomly teleported across the vast ocean," Duncan said slowly, describing the church's records of the out-of-control characteristics of "Anomaly 077-Sailor." "And every time it teleports, the affected ship will be caught in a storm - now, this feature has aroused my curiosity."
The sailor seemed to gradually understand what the captain meant. He looked up at the dark steering wheel that was slowly and automatically adjusting in the night, but he was still hesitant: "But if I really touched the rudder..."
"Don't worry, the Lost Homeland won't be really affected by you. I just want to use this opportunity to observe how your ability works," Duncan said casually. "And even if 'teleportation' and 'storm' really happen, it's not a big problem. It's no better than a breeze for this ship."
"Uh, that's not what I meant," the sailor shook his head quickly, and looked around with great vigilance, "I mean, this ship won't beat me up, will it? I've observed before, there are too many things on this ship that can beat people up. I saw at least three fights in the two hours I was on board..."
As soon as he finished muttering, Alice at the side puffed out her chest proudly.
Duncan's eyes twitched suddenly, and he looked at the puppet that was standing up inexplicably: "Why are you so proud!"
Alice looked up and said, "I won the fight with the bucket!"
Duncan: “…”
He ignored the puppet lady beside him and looked at Anomaly 077: "I control everything on this ship. Now I allow you to take the helm temporarily. You don't have to worry about the consequences. Of course, if you really object to this plan, I have another 'research plan'."
The sailor's eyes suddenly lit up: "Are there any other plans?"
Duncan didn't say anything, but raised his hand silently, and a bright flame jumped at his fingertips.
The sailor's eyes suddenly went dark: "I still like your first plan..."
Duncan dispersed the flames from his fingertips and signaled to the rudder beside him with his eyes: "Do what you should do before I light the fire."
The sailor finally sighed, knowing that he had no reason to hesitate now.
His shriveled chest puffed up, and he took a deep breath in the night, feeling the cool air flowing out of his body. He gritted his teeth, walked to the steering wheel, closed his eyes and stretched out his hand.
Anomaly 077's dry claw-like hands grasped the steering wheel of the Lost Homeland—
The first mate of the Sea Song took the helm.
Almost at the moment the sailor touched the steering wheel, Duncan heard an unreal and distorted roar - the sound was like the loud noise when a large ship slid from the dock into the sea, as if huge waves were rising around the Lost Homeland, and the sea was shaking and cracking outside the ship's side.
The Lost Homeland was affected by some... "force", and in an instant, Duncan caught the "touch" of this action on the entire ship.
If it was an ordinary ship, it would have been swallowed by some kind of dimensional rift due to this "touch" and teleported to a random place on the vast ocean and caught in a storm - but the Lost Homeland was still sailing steadily on the sea. Under Duncan's conscious control, the unknown force could not really affect the ship's navigation.
Duncan frowned slowly as he sensed the impact on the Lost Homeland. Then he seemed to suddenly sense something and turned his head to look to the side.
A hazy phantom appeared in a corner of the bridge almost at the same time—Agatha, dressed as a female explorer, emerged from the mirror world. She staggered on the handrail beside her and looked at Duncan: "Captain? What happened!? In the spirit world..."
Before Agatha could finish, Duncan walked towards her quickly: "Agatha, I need to borrow your 'eyes'."
Agatha was startled when she heard this, but she reacted immediately and reached out to her eyeballs: "Okay, wait a minute, I'll dig it out..."
Duncan was startled and interrupted quickly: "Stop! No need to dig it out!"
Agatha looked a little confused: "Huh?"
Duncan didn't have time to explain, he immediately ignited a dark green flame and touched Agatha's forehead -
"Don't be nervous, it's harmless."
Before he finished speaking, the flame link was established.
The gatekeeper's vision was reflected in Duncan's eyes.
Everything in front of him seemed to have a rapid and brief "shake", all the light and shadows were dislocated and then reorganized - Duncan felt that his vision was reversed several times, and then stabilized, and then a completely different experience from sharing vision with Alice appeared in his perception.
He saw a world of black, white and gray. He saw the phantom of the Lost Hometown reflected in the sea of the "sky", and invisible waves rising and falling in the boundary between reality and illusion. In all these intertwined and incredible scenery, he saw the sea in the distance... constantly collapsing and reorganizing!
In front of the Lost Hometown, the sea was like an illusion with poor contact, constantly repeating the process of disintegration. Waves suddenly appeared and disappeared, the entire sea surface disappeared in a certain moment, turning into a dark "hole", and was filled and reappeared in the next moment. Dislocated scenery kept emerging in the distance, every minute and every second, this process was repeated, just like... a "process" that kept restarting because it was stuck!
Duncan stood at the stern of the reflected Lost Homeland, staring at the rapidly collapsing and changing "scenery" in the distance, and then he suddenly turned his head and looked in the direction of the rudder.
A hazy phantom stood there - holding the steering wheel tightly, but the face could not be seen clearly, transparent and almost dissipated, as if it was just a lingering echo, tied to the rudder.
Agatha stood next to Duncan, and in the mirror world, her figure seemed extremely real.
Looking at the incredible scene on the sea in the distance, she finally couldn't help asking: "Captain, what is that?"
"…It's the route," Duncan said softly, "the correct route from the 'Border' to the 'Outer Barrier' formed by the gods."
Agatha's eyes widened.
"As Captain Kalani said in her log, she gave the route to her first mate - the route did not disappear," Duncan continued slowly. "Anomaly 077-Sailor, he is the route itself."
The sea surface in the distance reorganized and collapsed once again, and the illusory roar echoed throughout the sea, as if the whole world was resonating with it!
"This is the route. The so-called 'Anomaly 077 takes over and causes the ship to be randomly teleported' is actually just some kind of navigation - the first officer of the Sea Song is trying to guide the ship to the 'destination' in his memory, but this process is simply impossible to complete within the Infinite Ocean, so..."
He paused for a moment and spoke softly.
“That’s why there are those storms.”
(End of this chapter)