Deep Sea Embers - Chapter 565

[Chapter 563 Another bit of crumbs]

Now, Duncan has mastered two pieces of information about that red light:

First, before the Great Annihilation occurred, before the doomsday came to those “old worlds”, there was a deep red light like dark blood. Red will first appear in the sky – its “body” is mapped deep in the universe, but its propagation method does not comply with the laws of optics. It can be seen appearing at a specific location in the sky from any place on the planet. And this position will not change as the planet rotates, just like it is directly reflected in the observer’s vision or mind.

Secondly, the red light does not seem to show any direct “destructiveness”. It is more like a “phenomenon” or “feature” produced by the universe itself during the doomsday stage. It is a symptom of collapse, not the collapse itself. .

Third, the end of the world does not happen and end instantly. The entire process of destruction will last for a certain period of time. The process of the end of the world is accompanied by an increase in various strange phenomena and the continuous distortion and mutation of “rules” until the underlying laws of the world can no longer bear it. Due to this distortion, the warrior and his companions have the last time to start a journey, and the spaceship named New Hope has the last time to take off and set sail.

For Duncan, this third point is particularly critical.

The doomsday does not happen instantly, which means that people before the doomsday have enough time to observe the appearance of the “red light” – but in his memory, he has never seen that deep red light.

He was trapped in that “bachelor apartment” one night. Before that, he didn’t see any strange red light or supernatural phenomena. After that, he didn’t see anything outside the window…bachelor apartment

?

Duncan’s memory suddenly stuck, and after a moment, his brows wrinkled little by little.

My “single apartment”…what exactly is it?

He has always believed that his hometown is opposite the Gate of the Homeless. Outside his single apartment, deep in the thick fog, there are still bustling crowds of people on the earth. In ordinary and peaceful daily life, he is just Trapped in a room, separated from my hometown by a wall – but with the emergence of the “moon” and the gradual verification of the “world aggregation theory”, this possibility has actually been infinitely close to zero.

If he had a premonition about this before, then this premonition has obviously been verified now – he knows that he can’t go back.

But it wasn’t until now that he suddenly thought of another question: If the opposite side of the Homeless Gate was not his hometown, then what kind of place should his remaining “bachelor apartment” be?

Whenever I “go back”…where do I “go back” to?

Duncan frowned tightly. In the faint “sunlight” that diffused outside the window, his mind suddenly thought of the long sword and the living metal that was once a “human being”… “Another part of the world

” Fragments…” If he had some realization, his expression became more complicated, “What is the essence of the fragments of the world…what exactly is it?” Thoughts

in his mind were turbulent, and memories and speculations were rising and falling in his mind like continuous waves. Duncan slowly Manchu walked around the room, calming and sorting out his thoughts in this way. Then he returned to the table, casually took out a piece of paper from the side, and nonchalantly sketched a pattern on it – he did not think of it. When writing or drawing something, I just draw lines and apply patterns over and over again.

Then, he suddenly stopped.

He looked at what he had unconsciously drawn on the paper…a moon outlined by messy lines.

It’s as if I’m looking at a hometown that’s so close before my eyes, but I can never go back to.

Alice said that if the symbol of hometown appears in a place, then this place is hometown… She is not very smart, but occasionally she can get to the core of the problem with the simplest and simplest ideas. In a sense, she said is actually right.

My hometown is here, but it is neither the whole thing nor the appearance that Duncan is familiar with. It is just a small fragment, and just like the “warrior” that turned into living metal – it has long become an incomprehensible thing. thing.

Duncan subconsciously stretched out his fingers and touched the “moon” on the paper, as if asking someone, and whispered to himself: “Yeah, what else is left…” The sound of flapping wings suddenly came

from the side. came, interrupting Duncan’s distraction, the fat white pigeon fell from the top of the nearby wardrobe. It wandered up to Duncan, tilted its head, then lowered its head, and used its mouth to Bang bang pecked at the moon drawn on the paper.

It pecked a hole in the “moon”, raised its head and shouted: “Raise your head to look at the bright moon, raise your head to look at the bright moon, raise your head…”

It suddenly stopped and continued to tilt its head to look at Duncan.

Duncan also looked at it blankly, at this pigeon that suddenly “mutated” from the compass for some reason, at this silly bird that followed him inexplicably and was extremely obedient and affectionate.

“Ai, Ai-I, Ai -” the pigeon flapped its wings and made a loud and strange sound, “Ai -“

Duncan’s eyes suddenly widened, and he stretched out his hand to grab Ai’s body, but tightly Then he quickly relaxed a little, as if he was afraid of accidentally squeezing this little “creature” to death. He felt that his breathing became rapid and his heart was beating fast. The dove in his hand tilted his head and looked at it with a look. He looked here with a dull expression.

Duncan finally opened his mouth: “…Eye?”

Pigeon nodded: “Gu Gu.”

Duncan hesitated for a moment and changed to a more accurate pronunciation: “…IE?”

Pigeon nodded quickly: “Gu Gu. Gu.”

Duncan took a breath and said, “Internet Explorer…?”

The pigeon pulled out its wings with force and flapped it harder. At this moment, it seemed to be more excited than ever before, and it even seemed to have countless more exciting things to say.

However, after flapping its wings for a long time, it only made a loud, meaningless “coo” sound.

Duncan gently let go of his hand and watched the fat pigeon walking happily around the table, stopping from time to time and tilting his head to observe his “master” curiously. The network connection interruption seemed to flash in his mung bean eyes forever. For a long time, he finally sighed softly, with a complicated smile appearing on his face.

It turns out the answer was written on the question from the beginning.

This stupid bird is just another fragment of his hometown that suddenly died out.

There is no going back, indeed there is no going back.

Duncan sat quietly on the chair, like a stone statue, without any movement, expression or sound for a long time.

After going on like this for an unknown amount of time, he blinked his eyes as if he suddenly “came alive”, and then began to think – or rather, forced himself to continue thinking: If

Ai is really Internet Explorer, then its corresponding “source” What exactly should it be? Those codes? Is it the huge amount of data accumulated? Is it the myriad of hardware that once powered Internet Explorer? Or is it the abstract description behind the word?

Or… it symbolizes a brief burst of fire in the development process of a certain civilization.

Perhaps the world fragment does not necessarily correspond to some kind of “entity”, it may even be a huge concept – a concept abstracted from real existence.

So does this conjecture also hold true in reverse?

Will those entities that did exist in the “old world” survive in the form of “abstract concepts” in the deep-sea era after the Great Annihilation? There are countless abnormal phenomena in this boundless sea today, as well as countless invisible objects and taboo knowledge that were born around the abnormal phenomena. What were they… once?

And most importantly – what are the principles behind these changes? What is the Great Annihilation and the nature of that red light?

The new answers brought new questions, one after another, and it seemed that they would never reach the end of the truth. Duncan felt as if his thinking had entered a dead end. Before more clues appeared, it was impossible for him to solve the problem. Found the direction to continue going deeper.

At this moment, a gentle knock on the door suddenly came from behind, interrupting his increasingly in-depth and difficult thinking.

Duncan came back to his senses quickly. He sensed the breath outside the door, so he breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down little by little: “Come in, Alice.” The door opened, and the

doll girl walked in, holding her hand Inside was a large plate with Duncan’s missed dinner on it.

“Captain,” Alice’s tone was a little worried, “You haven’t had dinner.”

For some reason, just seeing Alice’s seemingly innocent expression, Duncan felt that his chaotic mind had calmed down a lot.

He showed a smile: “Thank you, put it on the table.”

“Oh,” Alice put the plate down casually, and then quickly added, “Don’t worry, these are very normal foods, according to ordinary people’s tastes – Nina said that the ‘traditional food’ here is not for human consumption…”

After saying that, she looked up and observed Duncan’s expression: “Are you okay?”

“I’m fine now,” Duncan said. Taking a long breath, he sorted out the questions he had just figured out, and a smile gradually appeared on his face, “Indeed, after having gained so much… you should be happy.” “Oh,”

Alice half understood. She listened understandingly, but she did feel that the captain’s mood seemed to have really improved a lot, so she felt relieved and said, “They were a little worried about you, so they asked me to come up and take a look. As long as you’re okay.” Duncan said softly

. He nodded lightly, but suddenly felt a little emotional in his heart.

In this big house, there are indeed many people who are always worried about his “state”, and these worries are diverse. Perhaps the only one in front of him who usually looks innocent… is never worried about him at all. Impurities.

If anything, Nina might be the other one.

With emotion in his heart, Duncan smiled and shook his head, and then suddenly thought of another thing.

“Alice,” he turned his gaze and looked into the eyes of the Gothic doll, “I need your help with something.”

Alice said without even thinking about it: “Ah? Okay!”

Duncan nodded and put his hand in his pocket. He dug around and took out the brass key that he had always carried with him.

“Alice, I want to use this key again.”

“Okay!”

(End of Chapter)