Chapter 225

Chapter 225: The Late Sunrise

After putting his new “collection piece” in place, Zhou Ming did not leave the room as usual. Instead, he sat down in the chair opposite the shelf, looking at the Vanished and Pland on it while he fell into thought.

He was trying to sum up and understand what these “collection pieces” meant.

All along, this studio apartment and the world beyond the door had been completely cut off from each other. Only he could pass through that door. Nothing from either world could cross the fog barrier in the doorway. He had tested this many times.

In a way, the models of the Vanished and Pland that appeared in the room had already broken that rule. They clearly had a link to the world beyond the door, and their nature obviously had… “supernatural properties.”

“supernatural” was not supposed to be a concept that appeared on this side of the door.

The two collection pieces both followed a common rule. They were things that had been completely burned by the spirit form fire and then consciously “claimed” by him.

Zhou Ming thought quietly and slowly summed up the pattern. In the end, he decided that “burning” and “claiming” were indeed the two necessary conditions for a collection piece to appear.

The White Oak had once also been burned to ashes by the Vanished’s flames, but at that time he had not actively tried to claim that ship. He had not placed any influence or “orders” on the White Oak. So after the burning, that ship only left behind a strong mark and did not form a matching “collection piece” in the room on this side of the door.

The city-state of Pland had been burned away by spirit flame, and in the burning he had actively taken control of the city-state and carried out purification, even treating it as part of the Vanished. So Pland had become a collection piece here.

Then… what use could this transformation have? What meaning did these things, turned into collection pieces, have for him?

Zhou Ming’s gaze fell on the model of Pland. Then he slowly closed his eyes.

A breeze was blowing over the Harbor district in the southeast of the city-state. Small waves lapped at the shore. The clock tower in the Fourth District had just chimed for the last time, and the steam factories in the Upper City were roaring as they ran.

He opened his eyes again. Things were just as he had expected.

He could sense the state of the entire city-state, down to any building and any streetlight. Although he could not sense the parts that belonged to the “people” in the city-state, the true body of Pland lay before him just like that lifelike model, fully displayed in his mind.

This feeling… was just like his control over the Vanished.

Zhou Ming grew thoughtful and rubbed his chin with his fingers without realizing it. Once he understood just how far his influence over the city-state reached, he naturally began to use the Vanished as a reference.

The Pland of now could already be seen as another Vanished. So whatever he could do on the Vanished, he could undoubtedly do in Pland as well.

He could order every clock tower in the city-state to ring for him, order the city-state to sink into the Spirit Realm, and even…

Zhou Ming stopped rubbing his chin.

…even order the city-state to sink into Subspace.

Zhou Ming’s eyes narrowed. He quickly pulled back and crushed that terrifying thought that had suddenly appeared, but even though he suppressed it, his heart still pounded.

He really could do that, because he could also make the Vanished do it. Subspace was right there. He could clearly sense the “position” of that chaotic dimension. That “promised land” that the Enders longed for yet could never reach felt to him almost like going home…

And not just that. When that frightening idea had just popped into his mind, he immediately felt a faint call, like the strange urge some people feel to jump when they stand on a cliff edge. He had just felt that same urge!

With just one thought, one command, one moment of giving in to that urge, one careless slip, he… could reach the place that was calling him.

At the same time, he would drag down with him anything swept up by him, ruled by him, or corrupted by him, all falling together.

Zhou Ming took a deep breath and slowly stood up from the chair.

The world was right to be deeply afraid of the Vanished and Captain Duncan. People should be afraid.

Zhou Ming gave his collection shelf one last, long look, let out a heavy breath, then turned and walked toward the apartment door.

On the table that held the enchanted sea chart in the captain’s cabin, the dark wooden carving of Goathead heard the sound at the door. It lifted its head and saw Duncan’s tall figure appear at the doorway. Its eyes, carved from obsidian, lit up at once, and it immediately began to chatter fluently: “Ah! The great captain has returned to his loyal First Mate! Your achievements are known to all, your mighty power makes the Boundless Sea…”

Duncan said nothing. He sat down beside the chart table and silently watched Goathead babble on, his expression calm.

In the end it was Goathead who began to feel awkward first. Halfway through its “blah-blah-blah,” it could not help stopping. “Uh… Captain, don’t you usually say ‘shut up’ at this point?”

Duncan’s face stayed calm. “I just suddenly got curious about how long you could keep talking if I didn’t tell you to shut up.”

Goathead perked up at once. It seemed not to hear the teasing in Duncan’s words at all, or it heard and pretended not to. “Then you hit the nail on the head! Your loyal First Mate here is always learned and well-informed. Even if we only talk about recipes on the Boundless Sea, I can go on from morning to night. If you are interested, we can start with the one hundred and thirty-seven types of butter cookies—”

“All right, shut up,” Duncan quickly cut him off, shaking his head helplessly. “I thought you at least had some concept of feeling awkward.”

Goathead shook its head, its neck creaking. Then its pitch-black face finally turned fully toward Duncan, and its empty eye sockets stared at his face. “Captain, you look like something is on your mind. We just finished an unprecedented feat. What could still affect your mood?”

“An unprecedented feat…” Duncan muttered softly, then shook his head. “You can feel it, right? The connection between the city-state of Pland and the Vanished now.”

“Of course!” Goathead answered at once, not forgetting to flatter him. “I never thought there would be such a day—your might is shocking. This time your prey is an entire city-state! So where is the next target? Shall we go to Lunsa first, or Cold Harbor? Or maybe Frostholm as well—”

Duncan waved his hand, and Goathead fell silent at once.

“I’m not interested in ‘prey’ for now. I just want to tell you that I don’t have the energy to watch such a huge place all the time. If you sense something that shouldn’t appear stepping into Pland, you can alert me—of course, only if you have the spare strength. Your main job is still to look after this ship.”

“With pleasure!” Goathead said at once. “That’s easy for me. I definitely won’t let you down…”

Duncan nodded lightly. Then his gaze swept over the Chronometer Clock on the nearby wall and shifted to the window.

Before he knew it, the night had already passed.

A few seconds later, Duncan suddenly turned his head. “What time is it now?!”

Goathead froze for a moment, not quite sure. “It should… be morning, right? The Sun should be rising.”

“…The Sun has not risen,” Duncan said in a deep voice, his expression unusually serious. Then he suddenly turned his head again, staring hard at the ticking Chronometer Clock. “…Sunrise should have been fourteen minutes ago.”

Goathead fell silent at once. Duncan’s eyes stayed fixed on the hands of the Chronometer Clock as they moved step by step, and on the mechanical disk at the top of the clock that marked the Sun’s rise.

In this world, the “Sun,” the super Vision numbered 001, rose every day at a perfectly precise time and set at a perfectly precise time. The Vanished’s Chronometer Clock was linked to the coordinates on the enchanted sea chart and could precisely show at what hour and minute Vision 001 would leap above the sea in the current waters. Since Duncan had come to this world, none of this had ever gone wrong.

Today, the Sun had not risen on time. An ordinary person might not have noticed this change yet, but Duncan had, and the instant he noticed it he suddenly felt a huge… unease.

He did not even know where this unease had suddenly come from.

“Maybe… we just need to wait a little…” Goathead’s voice sounded again then. It seemed a little nervous too. “You see, the weather at sea is always unpredictable. Maybe something is blocking—”

But Duncan was not listening to what Goathead was saying. He was still watching the Chronometer Clock. In the next second, however, a faint ray of golden light suddenly appeared at the edge of his vision.

That ray of gold had shone in through the window.

Duncan turned around at once, took a few quick steps to the window, pushed it open, and looked out over the distant sea.

The Sun had risen. The huge glowing orb, bound by two layers of rune rings, slowly climbed into the sky as always. Its blazing light shone over the entire Boundless Sea and at the same time drove away the cold, pale cast that the World’s Wound left on this world.

He looked back and checked the time one last time.

Today’s sunrise was fifteen minutes later than usual.

Why?

Was it the aftershock of the disaster in Pland? Was it related to the “Creeping Sun Wheel” that the Suntists had summoned? Was it tied to Nina’s awakening and control? Or… was it the sign of another anomaly still to come?

Duncan went back to the table, his thoughts running wild in spite of himself. He knew he might be worrying too much, but after just going through that historic corruption crisis in Pland, he was now especially alert to every unusual sign.

“Maybe it’s just the influence of the weather at sea. Look, the Sun still came up,” Goathead said beside him. “Sometimes large areas of thick fog can refract the light and make—”

“The sunlight in Pland was also fifteen minutes late,” Duncan quietly cut Goathead off. “The weather over there is clear, and the sea is calm. What was late wasn’t the sunlight. It was the Sun itself.”

“…What the hell.”