Chapter 454

Chapter 454: Flow of Information

Ghostly green flame rose in the captain’s cabin. The skeletal bird wrapped in spirit flame flew out of the fire, and the whirling flames behind it formed a doorway like a vortex. When the door opened, Vanna, Alice, and Morris stepped out into the cabin.

As the dizziness from the shift of light and shadow faded, they turned toward the nearby chart table and bowed to Duncan, who sat behind it studying the enchanted sea chart: “Captain.”

“Find a place to sit and rest first. It’s easy to fall if you walk right after teleportation,” Duncan said without looking up. He checked a few more points on the enchanted sea chart, then let out a small breath and straightened to look at Morris: “You brought the book?”

“Yes,” Morris nodded quickly. He reached inside his coat and took out the book with the pitch-black, titleless cover, the Blasphemous Tome, then got up and handed it to Duncan: “Here it is.”

Duncan reached out and took the book. Beside him, Vanna could not help speaking: “Now that Morris, Alice, and I have all returned to the ship, only your avatar form is left in the city-state… is that alright?”

“There won’t be any big trouble in the city anymore. Tyrian will become Frostholm’s new Governor, and with him and Agatha maintaining order, there is nothing to worry about,” Duncan said with a smile. “As far as you three are concerned, your work in Frostholm is done. Any follow-up can be handled by my avatar form.”

As he spoke, Duncan sat back down behind the chart table with the heavy Black Leather Tome in his hand. He set it beside the enchanted sea chart, and his expression grew solemn.

This was the Blasphemous Tome that Morris and Vanna had taken from the low-ranking leader of the Annihilators. It contained records about the Abyssal Lord and seemed to mention certain secrets from before the Gods created the world and before the time node of the Great Annihilation.

From the outside, the book looked ordinary. Aside from its pitch-black, titleless cover, there was nothing special about it, and no hint of any supernatural aura seeped from it.

Vanna, Morris, and Alice had already crowded over in curiosity. Except for carefree Alice, the other two still kept a cautious distance and did not dare look straight at the book.

The Goathead wood carving at the edge of the chart table creaked as it turned its neck. It twisted its head toward the big book in front of Duncan, stared for a long time, then finally could not help speaking: “What is this thing? A book? Is it really worth such solemn treatment?”

“In theory, it’s a missionary manuscript copied by Annihilators,” Duncan said casually. “It seems to contain things related to the Gods creating the world. Most of it is those cultists’ mad theories, but part of it… concerns me.”

“Records of the Gods creating the world?” Goathead froze for a moment, and his tone changed subtly: “Those madmen’s ‘Genesis Protocol of the Abyssal Lord’? With all due respect, their theories are worthless in my eyes. If someone can invent an entire history of the world’s birth without solid evidence or reasoning, then any drunk playwright could explain the foundations of our world. There is even an absurd play that claims this world was stewed out of a great pot of hotchpotch…”

“But when Morris read this book, his mind suffered corruption, and it even drew the attention of the Four Gods,” Duncan said slowly as he lifted his eyelids. “You should know what that means.”

A sharp crack sounded from the base of Goathead’s neck, and he stayed silent for a long moment.

After who knew how long, he finally squeezed out a sentence: “The closer you get to the Truth, the farther you are from sanity…”

“Yes. The first rule of Anomaly and Visions is: the closer you get to the Truth, the farther you are from sanity,” Morris said gravely, nodding. “The more easily an item causes severe mental corruption, the more likely it is that it records the world’s true form. So sometimes scholars even judge the reliability of old scrolls by how damaged their minds feel after reading them.”

Goathead swayed his head where he stood. After thinking for a long time, he still could not hold back: “But massive distortion and pure higher-order supernatural power can cause mental corruption too. In that case, the truth points the other way—the more damaged a mind is, the more it has been deceived.”

He paused, then added: “I’m serious, Morris. Plenty of unfortunates in your line of work died because of this, and the ones who didn’t die all thought they had grasped the Truth when they hit their madness threshold. Most of them are now wanted as heretics on Church posters all over the place. Of course, now that you’ve boarded this ship, if we really want to be precise, you’re on those wanted lists too…”

Goathead’s style was strange, but after spending so long together it was clear he still had some genuine concern for the crew. His words sounded harsh, but the worry in them was real.

Morris knew this, so he did not mind. He spoke honestly to Goathead: “Thank you for the concern. You’re right. This world was very good at fooling mortals, and curiosity often led us the wrong way. That is why we need the captain to make the final call.”

“The captain will…” Goathead faltered, finally noticing that Duncan’s hand already rested on the cover of the Black Leather Tome and that he looked ready to open it. “Huh? Are you sure you want to read it?”

“What else would I do with it?” Duncan looked up. “Did you think I had Morris bring this thing aboard just to use it as your stand?”

Goathead stared blankly for a moment and wobbled his head from side to side: “Well… that wouldn’t be the worst idea…”

Duncan ignored his antics. He had already prepared himself. He drew in a deep breath, letting his mind slowly focus.

A ghostly green blaze rose from within him, and in an instant his body shifted into spirit form. After confirming that the transformation was complete, Duncan opened the first page of the Black Leather Tome.

At first glance, he saw no writing on the page.

At the second glance, he saw boundless darkness suddenly gather from all directions.

In an instant, the light and shadows shifted before he had time to react. Just like the first time he used the spirit compass of the Spirit Realm, Duncan’s consciousness suddenly plunged into a boundless darkness.

He lifted his head in startled confusion. Everything familiar in the captain’s cabin had disappeared. Goathead, Morris, and the others were gone, and even the Black Leather Tome he had been looking at a second earlier had vanished.

He stood in the darkness, frowning as he thought for a few seconds.

Something was wrong—this was not the process Morris had described.

After he opened the book, something completely different had happened compared to when Morris opened it!

Just then, something appeared at the edge of his vision.

Zhou Ming looked over on instinct. He saw tiny white light-shapes floating in midair not far from him. He focused, and finally realized… they were words.

The words became clear—

“After he opened the book, something completely different happened compared to when Morris opened it.”

Zhou Ming froze.

He stood motionless, his gaze fixed on the line of words hanging in the air. For a moment he even forgot to breathe, forgot to think.

Only after who knew how long did he suddenly remember something.

He remembered. He had seen a place like this before. He had once visited a darkness just like this and seen words within it—that had been in Subspace…

“It was in Subspace, aboard the broken Vanished sailing through Subspace. When I pushed open the door to the captain’s cabin, there was a dark place, and words appeared in the darkness, describing…”

Pale words flashed quickly in midair, then gradually faded.

Zhou Ming stopped suddenly. He forced himself to stop thinking wildly. It was very hard, but he stuffed his mind full of random numbers, words, and meaningless scenery from his memories. At last, the words that had appeared in the darkness before him truly vanished.

Then he worked hard to rein in his thoughts and calm his pounding heart.

What on earth was going on? What was this darkness? What were these words that appeared from within it?

They seemed to be describing “himself”… but were they really describing “himself”? And what did this kind of “description” even mean?

Was this some kind of mind-reading process? Or a “reflection” phenomenon on the level of the soul? The last time he had seen a similar dark space had been on the broken Vanished in Subspace, but this time it had happened after opening the book—why did that book have this kind of “power”?

More thoughts rose uncontrollably in his mind, and almost at the same time, new words appeared in the darkness.

But this time, the words did not describe “himself”. They were a few fragments with no beginning or end—

“Manifest… transformation toward the Mortal Realm… the real…”

Zhou Ming frowned and moved closer to the new line of words without thinking. He reached out a finger to try touching them.

His finger passed straight through the phantoms, and only faint ripples spread through the darkness.

As the ripples trembled, he vaguely saw that there seemed to be more words hidden behind the ones he could see!

He hesitated for only a second before reaching out again, stirring those words that were like reflections on water. He widened the ripples, forcing the overlapping symbols to show their true shapes and drawing the other information hidden deep in the darkness into his sight—

Suddenly, he saw several broken lines of text appear in the darkness. They trembled as they stretched downward and shifted.

“Transmission source – Leviathan Queen: the situation… is not optimistic. The Critical Threshold is accelerating…”

“Transmission source – King of Fire: any new records?”

“Transmission source – Bartok: bad news… Node feedback is blurry… suspect the Cluster Controller has begun to copy itself… or has fully entered runaway state…”

“…Source – LH-02: I have relevant information.”

“…Details?”

“…LH-02: observed an individual with Cluster Controller traits approaching. Suspect a mental mutation. Suspect it can communicate with me.”

“Transmission source – Leviathan Queen: astonishing intel! Follow-up?”

“Transmission source – LH-02: no follow-up.”

“Transmission source – Bartok: ?”

“Transmission source – LH-02: that suspicious individual sent a dog-head icon and left.”