Chapter 562

Chapter 562: Another Fragment.

Now, about that red light, Duncan already had two pieces of information:

First, before the Great Annihilation happened, before Doomsday fell upon those Old Worlds, a Deep Crimson like darkened blood would first appear in the sky. Its true body was projected somewhere deep in space, but the way it spread did not follow normal optical laws. No matter where you stood on the planet, you could see it at a fixed spot in the sky, and that spot did not change with the planet’s rotation, as if it was drawn directly into the observer’s vision or mind.

Second, that red light did not seem to show any direct destructive power. It was more like a phenomenon or feature that the universe itself produced during the Doomsday stage. It was a sign of collapse, not the collapse itself.

Third, Doomsday did not happen and end in an instant. The whole destruction process lasted for a period of time. As a world moved toward Doomsday, more and more strange phenomena appeared, and the rules kept twisting and mutating, until the underlying laws of the world could no longer bear that distortion. Because of this, the warrior and his companions had a last bit of time to start their journey, and the ship named the New Hope had enough time to lift off and depart.

For Duncan, this third point was especially important.

Doomsday did not happen in an instant. That meant people before Doomsday came had enough time to see that red light appear. Yet in his memory, he had never seen that streak of Deep Crimson.

He had been trapped in that “studio apartment” overnight. Before that, he had not seen any eerie red glow or any supernatural phenomenon, and after that he had not seen anything like it outside the window either…

Studio apartment?

Duncan’s memory suddenly stalled. After a moment, his brows slowly furrowed.

What exactly was that “studio apartment” of his?

All this time, he had thought that beyond the door of The Lost Ones lay his homeland. Outside his studio apartment, somewhere past that thick fog, there were still Earth’s busy crowds and calm, ordinary days. He had only been trapped in one room, separated from home by a single wall. But as the Moon appeared and the World Aggregation Theory kept being proven, that possibility had already dropped close to zero.

If he had had a faint feeling about this before, then now that feeling was clearly confirmed. He knew he could not go back.

But only now did he suddenly think of another question: if the other side of The Lost Ones’ door was not his homeland, then what, in essence, was that “studio apartment” that had been left behind?

Every time he “went back”… where exactly had he been going back to?

Duncan frowned hard. In the pale sunlight spreading outside the window, a long sword suddenly flashed in his mind, as well as that lump of living metal that had once been a “human”…

“Another piece of a world fragment…” He seemed to understand something, but his expression grew even more complicated. “What is the true nature of a world fragment, anyway?”

His thoughts became a mess. Memories and guesses rose and fell in his heart like small overlapping waves. Duncan paced slowly around the room to calm himself and sort his thoughts. Then he went back to the desk, pulled out a sheet of paper at random, and began to doodle on it. He had not meant to write or draw anything. He only traced lines over and over and smeared out shapes.

Then he suddenly stopped.

He looked at what he had drawn on the paper without thinking… a rough sketch of the Moon, outlined by messy strokes.

It was as if he were looking at a homeland that was right in front of him, yet one he could never return to.

Alice had said that if the symbol of home appeared in a place, then that place was home. She was not very clever, yet sometimes she could hit the heart of the problem with the simplest, purest thought. In a way, she had actually been right.

Home was right here, yet it was neither complete nor in the form Duncan knew. It was just a small fragment, and like that “warrior” who had turned into living metal, it had long since become something people could hardly understand.

Duncan unconsciously reached out a finger and touched the “Moon” on the paper, as if asking someone a question. He murmured softly: “Yes, what else could be left…”

The flapping of wings suddenly came from the side and broke Duncan’s daze. The chubby white dove dropped down from the top of a nearby wardrobe. It waddled over in front of Duncan, tilted its head, then lowered it and pecked hard at the Moon drawn on the paper with its beak.

It pecked a hole in the “Moon”, then lifted its head and squawked: “Raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon, raising my head, I gaze at the bright moon, raising my head…”

It suddenly stopped and kept tilting its head to look at Duncan.

Duncan also stared blankly at it. He looked at this dove that for some reason had suddenly “mutated” out of the spirit compass, this silly bird that had inexplicably followed him and was especially obedient and affectionate.

“AI-F, Ai-ee, Ai…” The dove flapped its wings, making loud and strange sounds. “AI-F…”

Duncan’s eyes suddenly widened. He reached out and grabbed AI-F’s body, but then quickly loosened his grip, as if afraid he might crush this small “creature” by accident. His breathing grew fast and his heart pounded. The dove in his palm tilted its head and looked at him with a dull expression.

Duncan finally opened his mouth: “…AI-F?”

The dove nodded. “Coo.”

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

The dove nodded quickly. “Coo.”

Duncan drew in a slow breath: “Internet Explorer…?”

The dove yanked out its wings with force and flapped even harder. At that moment it seemed more excited than ever, as if it had countless more excited words it wanted to say.

Yet after beating its wings hard for a long time, all it managed to make was loud, meaningless cooing.

Duncan gently let go and watched the fat dove happily walk back and forth on the desk. From time to time it stopped, tilted its head, and curiously watched its Master. In its little bean-like eyes there always seemed to flicker the light of a broken network connection and a frozen process. After a long time, he finally sighed softly, and a complicated smile appeared on his face.

The answer had been right in front of him from the beginning.

This silly bird was another tiny leftover fragment from his homeland that had suddenly gone dark.

He could not go back. He really could not go back.

Duncan sat quietly in the chair like a stone statue for a long time. He did not move, his face did not change, and he did not make a sound.

After who knew how long, he suddenly seemed to “come back to life”. He blinked, then began to think, or rather, forced himself to keep thinking:

If AI-F really was Internet Explorer, then what exactly was its “source” supposed to be? Those lines of code? The huge mass of data that had built up? The countless pieces of hardware that had once kept Internet Explorer running? Or the abstract idea behind that name?

Or… did it stand for a brief spark in the development of some civilization?

Maybe a world fragment did not have to match some physical object. It might even be a huge concept, a concept drawn out of the existence of the Mortal Realm.

Then did this guess also work the other way around?

Would the real, solid things that had once existed in those Old Worlds stay behind after the Great Annihilation and the coming of the Deep Sea age, only in the form of abstract concepts? Today, on this Boundless Sea, there were countless Anomaly Visions, and countless formless things and forbidden knowledge born around those Anomaly Visions. What… had they once been?

And most crucial of all—what lay behind these changes? What were the true rules at work? What were the true nature of the Great Annihilation, and of that red light?

The new answers brought new questions. One question followed another, and it seemed they would never reach the end of the truth. Duncan felt that his thoughts had already reached a dead end. Until more clues appeared, he could not find any way to keep digging deeper.

Just then, a light knock sounded behind him, cutting off his deeper, heavier thoughts.

Duncan quickly came back to his senses. He felt the presence outside the door, so he let out a slow breath and calmed himself bit by bit: “Come in, Alice.”

The door opened and the doll-like young lady walked in. She held a large tray in her hands. On it was the dinner Duncan had missed.

“Captain,” Alice’s voice carried a hint of worry. “You did not eat dinner.”

For some reason, just seeing Alice’s face, which always seemed so free of any shadow, calmed Duncan’s tangled thoughts a lot.

He showed a small smile: “Thank you. Put it on the table.”

“Oh.” Alice set the tray down, then quickly added, “Do not worry, all of this is very normal food. It is made to suit an ordinary person’s taste. Nina said the ‘traditional dishes’ in this place are not for people to eat at all…”

As she spoke, she looked up again to study Duncan’s expression: “Are you all right?”

“I am fine now.” Duncan let out a long breath. He sorted out the questions he had just figured out, and a smile slowly appeared on his face. “It is true. With so much we have gained, I should be happy.”

“Oh.” Alice half understood and half did not, but she did feel that the captain’s mood had really improved a lot, so she was relieved. “They were a bit worried about you, so they asked me to come up and take a look. As long as you are fine.”

Duncan nodded lightly, but he suddenly felt a bit moved inside.

In this large house, there were indeed many people who were always worried about his “state”, and those worries all came with their own reasons. Perhaps only this doll, who usually looked so simple and silly, worried about him without a single trace of anything mixed in.

If he had to name another, Nina might be one too.

With that feeling in his heart, Duncan smiled and shook his head, then suddenly thought of something else.

“Alice.” He turned his gaze and looked into the doll’s eyes. “I need your help with something.”

Alice did not even think: “Ah? Sure!”

Duncan nodded. He reached into his pocket and took out the brass key he always carried with him.

“Alice, I want to use this key one more time.”

“All right!”