Chapter 67

Chapter 67: New Connections

Goathead was a dangerous fellow. Duncan had known that from the start. Its danger was not only that it was an Anomaly with unclear origins, but also that it had once sworn loyalty to the real Captain Duncan and even now still acted and thought according to the old rules.

In Goathead’s eyes, the city-states on land were meaningless, the mortals in the city-states were ignorant and laughable, the weak city-state fleets were all food, and plundering and hunting them down was the Vanished’s natural “daily routine”.

Duncan did not know how long it would take to adjust Goathead’s way of thinking, but he knew the process had to be subtle. Using reasonable excuses to change his own behavior and the Vanished’s style of action was the safest way.

He cast one last glance at Goathead, who was quietly on standby on the chart table, and confirmed that it had already taken over the Vanished’s sails and steering system. Only then did he push open the door and walk into his cabin.

This afternoon, Nina would return to the antique shop, and before that, he needed pigeon AI to complete more test tasks.

The door leading to the captain’s room closed. In the dim light, Goathead quietly fixed its gaze on the door for a long, silent time. Only after it was sure the captain’s consciousness had set out on a Spirit Realm walk did it mutter to itself softly: “Truly not affected by Subspace…”

In the gloom, the wooden Goathead creaked as it turned. It seemed to be looking around the room, yet also as if its gaze passed through the walls and swept over the whole ship.

“Oh, Vanished, Vanished… just what terrifying thing did you dredge up back then…”

…

Duncan had already returned to that familiar dark space. He felt his will stretch out among countless starlights and faint light lines. The two ends of its path were the Vanished and the antique shop in the city-state of Pland.

It seemed that as this “double connection” lasted longer, the feeling grew clearer as well. Now he did not even need to focus on purpose to sense what was happening on the antique shop’s side, and he could even remotely control the body in the shop to do some simple daily activities.

That was obviously a good thing. An antique shopkeeper who “slept” in the store more than half the time would clearly arouse suspicion. Even if that body just got up now and then to move around and stood at the door for a minute or two, it would dispel many unnecessary gazes.

Duncan did not immediately transfer his main consciousness to Pland. Instead, he stopped in the dark space, carefully feeling the changes within it, then turned to look beside him.

In the vast darkness, AI, in her bone-pigeon form, was circling silently. Her ghostly body scattered flecks of green fire as she flew. At the center of the area where AI circled were a few vague phantoms.

Among those phantoms were the Sun charm amulet he had brought aboard the Vanished earlier, an old, simple short dagger, a piece of cheese, a round cannonball, and a stiff dried salted fish.

These were all “test items” he had prepared before setting out, meant to further test AI’s ability to carry objects and any changes during the process.

The short dagger had been found in the cabins and might once have belonged to a sailor. It was a mindless “ordinary item”. The cheese was taken from the kitchen and had the property of not spoiling. The cannonball came from the magazine. The dried fish was one of the catches from the last fishing trip, just dried in the last two days. It was not fully dried yet, but already hard as a board.

Duncan watched AI circling around those phantoms and nodded slightly: “So this is how you carry objects every time.”

AI flapped her wings and gave a hoarse, sharp cry: “Hold on tight, hold on tight!”

Duncan chuckled, then focused his mind, ready to project his main consciousness.

But the instant he gathered his attention, he suddenly saw a strange glimmer appear at the end of the stream of light pointing toward Pland.

Duncan stopped at once and stared in surprise at that light which was now shining among the countless dim stars. It seemed the glow had already been there all along, but only turned from dark to bright in the instant he focused, as if being noticed had made it start to give off a clear sense of presence.

What was that?

Puzzled, Duncan tried to move toward that glimmer. With just a thought, he crossed the vast darkness. The glimmer swelled quickly before his eyes and turned into a flowing stream of light.

Only then did he see that between himself and that flowing light there was a faint line of connection, just like the link between his real body on the Vanished and the spare body in the antique shop.

Was this… another spare vessel waiting to be chosen?

Such a thought surfaced in Duncan’s mind, but he soon shook his head. The flowing light in front of him was on a much larger scale than the light points that represented bodies. With such a broad glow, it was more likely not a vessel, but some huge object that had formed a connection with him.

Hesitating, he finally made up his mind and reached out to carefully touch that light…

The next second, a vast and unfamiliar sensation surged into his mind. He could not see the things around him, but he felt sea wind brushing over his body and waves gently rising and falling around him. He felt many people moving around him, even walking on his body. He heard voices talking from all directions, but all the sounds were mixed together and seemed to come through thick curtains, completely unclear.

He vaguely realized that he was sensing the environment through the perspective of some huge object. But this giant was not suitable for his spirit to descend into directly, or perhaps some power was protecting it and blocking his power from fully entering. Because of that, all his senses felt delayed and muffled.

This giant seemed to be resting on the sea near the shore, with many people gathered there.

A tense and serious atmosphere filled the crowd. They seemed to be solemnly dealing with some dangerous factor, and everyone’s conversations were low and brief.

Duncan tried hard to focus, wanting to hear what exactly those voices, muffled as if through thick curtains, were talking about.

He worked at it for a long time before he finally picked out a single word that kept being repeated from the overlapping buzzing voices – the White Oak.

Duncan drew back the hand touching the light stream and stared, a bit stunned, at the floating glow before him.

The glow drifted in the darkness, faintly forming the outline of a ship.

The White Oak… The name sounded somewhat familiar, but he could not remember when he had heard it.

Duncan thought hard, digging through his memories until some rough impressions surfaced. He recalled the ship he had crashed into while he was steering for the first time in the Spirit Realm. He remembered that when the Vanished passed straight through it, he seemed to have seen its name on one side of the hull… That ship seemed to be called the White Oak.

Right after that, he remembered the newspaper he had bought in Pland. In an inconspicuous section, it had mentioned this as well, saying that the long-distance ship White Oak, missing for several days, would be docking soon…

Duncan stared blankly at the floating glow before him.

This was the White Oak, the White Oak that had been responsible for escorting Anomaly 099.

It seemed that the old captain who had tried to shout at him and his crew members had finally reached Pland safely. That was actually quite pleasing.

Clearly, he had formed a connection with this ship.

Had the connection been formed after that Spirit Realm collision back then? Because the flames of the Vanished had spread onto the White Oak at the time?

A faint guess rose in Duncan’s heart, and he used it to speculate about all the properties of his spirit form flames. At the same time, he thought about whether his link with this steamship could be put to use.

After drifting on the Vanished for so long, he treasured every single thread of connection between himself and the civilized world.

Now it seemed that although the White Oak had docked, it was still under some kind of lockdown and surveillance. Those tense people were probably professionals from the city-state who specialized in dealing with supernatural Visions.

Clearly, for the people in the city-state, a ship that had been lost at sea carried a dangerous risk, and its experience of having had zero-distance contact with the Vanished was probably another major issue waiting for review.

Duncan was quite aware of his own fearsome reputation and that of the Vanished.

After thinking it over, Duncan cautiously backed away and did not touch the cloud of light again.

As the number one boss on the Boundless Sea, he had no intention of dealing with the Guardians of the City-State. And while he still did not know what those Occult Specialists were like, he also did not want to expose the fact that the White Oak had already formed a connection with “Captain Duncan”.

He definitely did not want anyone to discover and sever his link with this steamship. The connection was already in place, as firm as an anchor chain beneath the waves. He could be patient. One day, the surveillance on the White Oak would be lifted.

By then, he might even be able to have a calm chat with that old captain.

He could ask what exactly the old captain had been shouting at him back then when the wind and waves were so strong.