Chapter 62

Chapter 62: Interwoven Layers

It was very possible that the bottom of the Vanished had been sailing in Subspace the whole time. This shocking news made Duncan feel very complicated all of a sudden.

He had always known the Vanished was strange and dangerous, but he had never thought it was this strange. He did not know much about Subspace. He might even be less knowledgeable than Nina’s history teacher. But at least he knew that Subspace was the most dangerous thing in this world. It was the “Bottom of All Things” that could keep the Saint awake at night and make the Gods deeply wary. It was so terrifying that on ships about to set sail, some superstitious sailors did not even dare to say the word “Subspace” out loud.

Even though Subspace was not a rational deity and would not turn its gaze on people just because they spoke its name, people still feared to mention that word at sea.

But the Vanished, this ghost ship that had wandered for a century, might have been sailing partly in Subspace the whole time. There was even… a door in its lower hull that led into Subspace.

The dim, ruined cabin on the other side of that door was perhaps the part of the Vanished whose structure had been completely taken over and corrupted by Subspace. And that door itself was a seal.

Duncan lowered his head without thinking and looked at the dark deck beneath his feet. His gaze seemed to want to pierce through the planks, to see that broken cabin and the chaotic light and shadow outside it.

He suddenly felt as if he were standing on a powder keg that had already been lit. The small crack of the door was the fuse, and he still did not know how long that fuse was.

But after a brief moment of shock and tension, Duncan slowly came back to himself. Goathead’s behavior seemed to reveal another piece of information.

Judging from how panicked it became after hearing what Miss Alice said, it seemed that as long as “Captain Duncan” peeped at Subspace through that crack in the door, something truly terrible was sure to happen afterward.

Even now, Goathead was still in the captain’s cabin, asking Miss Alice over and over about the captain’s mental state after that. It kept asking if the captain had said anything on the way back, if he had made any strange sounds, or brought out any unusual shadows.

But Duncan knew his own condition very well. He knew he was completely normal now.

The “vision” behind that door had indeed frightened him for a while. He had even, for a brief moment, thought about opening that door. But all of this was only a change in his mind. During the whole process, he had not felt the slightest touch of… “supernatural power”.

That fleeting thought passed as quickly as it came, and he did not feel that the door had left any long-term effect on him.

Duncan lowered his head and looked at his own hands, silently checking himself again and again.

Here, his name was Duncan Abnomar. He was the captain of the Vanished.

In another time and space, his name was Zhou Ming. He was an ordinary middle school teacher, trapped in a small studio apartment inside the fog.

Maybe… Goathead was just too nervous? It was only a crack in the door, not an open passage into Subspace.

The Vanished rocked gently on the waves. The masts and ropes creaked. The semi-transparent spirit form sails were still a bit unstable, showing the tension and… “dereliction of duty” of the one controlling them.

Duncan looked up at the sails, then steadied his mind and spoke in a deep voice in the back of his mind: “First Mate, hold your wheel and keep the sails steady.”

“C-captain?” Goathead’s voice sounded at once, with a hint of panic. “Ah, yes! Yes, Captain!”

Duncan did not answer. He simply kept his usual silent and serious air in the mental link. He waited for Goathead to speak. Sure enough, after a few seconds Goathead broke the silence: “Captain, I just heard Miss Alice say… the door in the lower hold opened a crack…”

“Yes,” Duncan replied calmly. “I checked it.”

“You did check it. Miss Alice said you confirmed what was on the other side of the door…” Goathead seemed to be picking its words with care. “Do you feel now… I mean, any slight confusion in your mind? On the other side of that door…”

“Subspace, I know,” Duncan cut him off before Goathead finished. “Do I look out of my mind to you right now? Do not talk in such a roundabout way.”

“Of course, you look completely without any anomaly!” Goathead said at once. “Maybe I am just too nervous. After all, this has never happened before. Ever since you sailed the ship back, the barrier between the Vanished and Subspace has always been stable. I… did not expect the situation to change. This is by no means doubt toward you.”

Sailed the ship back? Back from where?

Duncan caught the information hidden in Goathead’s words at once and quickly guessed a bit of the truth. But he did not show any reaction. He only said, as if in passing: “From what I can see, the crack in the door is still stable for now, but it may grow wider. I want to hear your thoughts.”

“…If it is stable now, that is already good news, Captain,” Goathead said, not suspecting anything, but sounding very worried. “As for my advice… to be honest, I do not know what to do. You left that door there with your own hands, and you closed it with your own hands. You never told me what plans you had afterward, and you never said what changes might follow. You have always handled everything in the lower hold yourself…”

“…Right,” Duncan followed along at once. “You probably have no advice to give on this.”

It seemed Goathead also did not know the full story about the door in the lower hold.

It only knew that on the other side of that door was Subspace, and that nothing good would happen once the door opened. More information… was actually in the hands of the “real Captain Duncan”.

But where was he supposed to find the “real Captain Duncan” now?

“Captain…” Goathead’s voice sounded in his mind again. “Do you have any plans for what comes next?”

Plans? What plans? Was he supposed to run onto land? With Captain Duncan’s reputation as the enemy of the whole world, the Vanished would probably draw an entire fleet to hunt it down the moment it appeared near any city-state. Other than drifting on the sea together with this ship, what else could he do?

Duncan rolled his eyes and tilted his head back helplessly to look at the sky. AI, who had flown up to the mast earlier to pretend to stand guard, now flapped down and landed on his shoulder. The pigeon bobbed its head and squawked: “It is a trap! Abandon ship and escape!”

“Escape? Escape my ass…” Duncan blurted out. Then he suddenly realized something. “Wait, you can hear my conversation with Goathead?”

He had been talking with Goathead through the mental link the whole time. Why had this pigeon suddenly flown down just to say something that fit the moment so well?

The pigeon flapped its wings and looked very full of itself: “Damn it, do not talk. I have my own understanding!”

Suddenly, Duncan felt a little curious about what pigeon soup would taste like.

But he had not forgotten that Goathead was still waiting for him to speak. After steadying himself, he ignored the pigeon on his shoulder that clearly needed a good boiling and went on speaking in his mind: “Just do your own job. I will keep an eye on that door from time to time, as always.”

“Yes, Captain!”

The Vanished slowly steadied. The sails adjusted their angle again, letting the huge ship keep moving forward on the Boundless Sea.

The bow cut through the waves. Fine spray slapped against the hull with a rushing sound.

After ending his talk with Goathead, Duncan walked slowly to the edge of the deck and looked down at the dark sea beneath him.

The water reflected the cold, pale glow of the World’s Wound.

He would keep an eye on the door in the lower hold, but simply “watching” that door would not change anything.

He needed more knowledge. He needed to understand and control his power further. Maybe… he also needed some help.

The ship did not have these things. The city-state of Pland might.

Tomorrow, Nina would come back from school. In the days after that, she would return to the antique shop every day after class. Her “Uncle Duncan” would have to be in the shop then.

Before that, he had to move his “main consciousness” back into the city-state. Until he could skillfully control two bodies at the same time, this kind of frequent switch in viewpoint was his only choice.

While making the transfer this time, he also had to let AI run some further tests.

He wanted to see if AI could bring things from the Vanished to that antique shop. If she could, he needed to find out whether there was a limit to what she could carry, and whether “packets” would be dropped if she carried too many items…

All kinds of plans brewed in his mind. At the same time, Duncan let his eyes roam over the rolling waves outside, as if he were casting a gaze on the sea.

The reflection of the World’s Wound in the sea looked hazy and chaotic. The scattered pale light was like formless streams of light.

The World’s Wound?!

Duncan froze. He suddenly felt that the sky reflected in the sea looked vaguely familiar.

He jerked his head up and looked at the huge crack in the sky, like a wound.

Inside that giant “wound”, dim, chaotic light flowed. Around the wound, the sky was filled with drifting luminous mist. Looking closely, that so-called mist was actually made of countless overlapping, tangled, blurry streams of light.

Just like… the scene outside the broken cabin at the very bottom of the Vanished.