Chapter 68

Chapter 68: Reliable Pigeon Courier

A cool sea breeze suddenly swept across the deck, making Captain Lawrence-M, who had just stepped out from inside, rub his arms without thinking. He did not even know whether this urge to get goosebumps came from the cool wind, or from what that young Inquisitor had just told him.

Anomaly 099, the Doll spirit coffin, after entering a runaway state, not only gained the ability to move and a strong tendency to escape its container, but also kept expanding its range of influence. Inside that range it would constantly check for humanoid targets and carry out unconditional Decapitation. Only the Saint might be able to resist this almost causal Decapitation effect…

During the past half-month of sailing, he and his crew members had been living side by side with this dangerous Anomaly. Although in fact, aside from running into the Vanished at the end, nothing truly dangerous had happened during this escort voyage, when Lawrence-M thought back on it now, he still felt a little shaken.

But it was only a lingering fear, nothing more.

He was a member of the Explorer Association, a veteran ocean explorer. His job was to deal with the Boundless Sea. Unlike those fishermen who only worked in the safe nearshore waters, more than half of his seafaring life had been spent dealing with all kinds of Anomalies and even Visions.

Whenever he accepted a transport job involving an Anomaly, the authority or the Church would warn him in advance about the danger of the trip. That part of the commission contract was always the shortest section, usually only one line: this task is deadly; specific details cannot be disclosed.

Every captain who made a living sailing between city-states knew what they were facing. More than half of them spent their later years haunted by this deadly career. After many years dealing with the Boundless Sea, Anomalies and Visions always left something on your fate.

Many colleagues of his age had already retired. Some were trapped in endless nightmares. Some had mental problems from different degrees of the curse. Some came back from long voyages with maimed limbs… or ended even worse.

Captains and sailors on deep-sea ships earned pay far beyond what any city-state resident could imagine, and they also carried “occupational diseases” far worse than in any other profession.

Captain Lawrence-M felt he was not a very noble person. He did this job mainly to earn money. Of course, when he was young, he had a strong passion to explore the sea. But like most people, the passion of youth was hard to carry through a whole life. And now… he felt that last bit of passion was almost burned out.

While his mind was still sound, while the Boundless Sea had not fully tangled itself around his fate, he should find a time to retire.

Lawrence-M let out a small sigh, turned around, and slowly walked toward the captain’s cabin.

The priests’ search and questioning of the whole ship had not finished yet. Before that, he still could not leave the White Oak. After that, he and everyone else would be transferred to the Cathedral for Quarantine Observation and a series of mental evaluations.

His gaze swept over the familiar fittings around the ship.

It was a very good ship, and very new. He had commanded her for only five years. As the captains on the Boundless Sea liked to say, “the honeymoon between captain and ship isn’t even over yet.” To be honest, he felt quite reluctant to retire from her.

But retiring now was still better than dying in some future voyage, or spending the rest of his life in an asylum.

…

In the Lower City of the city-state, inside Duncan’s old, shabby antique shop, the middle-aged man lying in the bed on the second floor slowly opened his eyes. The slightly old and moldy ceiling reflected into Duncan’s vision.

“Whew…”

Duncan let out a light breath. The senses from this body quickly became clear and steady. He felt his way of controlling this body shift from remote manipulation to direct command. After two or three seconds, he braced himself with his arms and pushed his body up.

The pigeon AI fluttered over, rubbed its beak on the headboard by his pillow, and noisily squawked: “Darling, welcome home. Do you want to eat first, or bathe first, or…”

Duncan had just been about to stretch when that one line from the pigeon almost made him cramp. He slapped a hand down on AI’s head at once: “Why do you know all that kind of phrasing?!”

AI was clearly no ordinary bird. After being smacked by Duncan, it acted as if nothing had happened. It cheerfully paced a few steps to the side, still chattering: “With one punch, it landed right on his nose, blood spraying everywhere, his nose knocked to one side, as if he’d opened a sauce shop…”

Duncan simply set this not-quite-right-in-the-head bird aside and stopped paying attention to it. He got out of bed and looked toward the nearby table.

On the table quietly lay all the test items he had prepared earlier on the Vanished:

The Sun Charm amulet, a dagger, a piece of cheese, a cannonball, and a salted fish.

Everything was there. With so many random and unrelated things piled together, AI had not “lost a package.”

This pigeon was actually more reliable than Duncan had expected.

Duncan walked over and checked each item on the table. After making sure every item was present and undamaged, he could not help glancing back at the pigeon pacing on the bed. A bit of praise rose in his heart for the bird.

Then he saw AI pacing in a neat square at the head of the bed. It had already gotten to the line: “When Luda looked, he saw Zento lying straight on the ground”…

Duncan: “…”

He hid his praise deep in his heart, then sat down at the table and began checking the “goods” one by one.

First was the Sun Charm amulet. It had not changed at all. As an supernatural item that had already been fully reworked and controlled by the fire of his spirit form, the gentle power inside it still flowed quietly. Two consecutive trips walking through the Spirit Realm did not seem to affect the nature of this item.

The dagger, which did not have any supernatural properties, also did not look changed. Aside from its old-fashioned style, its blade was still sharp, and the sheath was still well maintained.

Duncan’s eyes fell on the piece of cheese he had taken from the Vanished’s galley.

The cheese showed no sign of being an Anomaly. It was still in that unfit-for-eating state. It did not rot quickly or vanish in thin air after leaving the Vanished, as Duncan had imagined.

He then looked at the cannonball.

The cannonball sat quietly on the table and showed no reaction to the captain’s gaze.

Duncan nudged the cannonball and knocked on its cast-iron shell.

Its supernatural traits had faded away.

On the Vanished, even the cannonballs were “active.” Of course, that did not mean each cannonball had its own independent “mind.” It meant the ship’s entire ammunition system was controlled by a unified “consciousness.” As a sub-unit of that consciousness, every cannonball on the Vanished would immediately adjust its position and line up for “inspection” whenever the captain used his gaze on them.

From Duncan’s observations over some time, there were probably two “consciousnesses” controlling the combat systems of the Vanished. One belonged to the ammunition system, and one belonged to the dozens of cannons under the deck. These two consciousnesses seemed to be in charge of loading and firing during battle, each controlling every “member” inside its own system.

The cannonball in front of him had clearly fallen out of that higher consciousness’s control after leaving the Vanished and had become a plain, ordinary lump of iron.

Duncan became thoughtful.

If he brought this cannonball back to the Vanished, would it rejoin the ammunition storage? Would the Vanished still “recognize” this sub-unit that had gone away and returned?

His thoughts stretched out further. The ammunition on the Vanished was limited. The cannonballs it fired would not come back. (The eight cannonballs he had used earlier to weigh down Alice’s coffin had not come back either.) So… could the ship’s ammunition be resupplied? And how did new ammunition added to the ship become sub-units of the Vanished?

His thinking expanded another step: could the Vanished upgrade its artillery system? Could more advanced cannons and more advanced shells work if they were mounted on that ship?

The Vanished was a ghost ship. That meant it was hard for it to resupply or “upgrade” as easily as an ordinary vessel. Anything carried aboard was just an “external item.” If it could not smoothly become a part of the Vanished, then these external items could not gain the convenient “self-operating” traits that the rest of the ship’s systems had.

But if there was a way to turn those things into parts of the Vanished itself… that ghost ship might wield an even greater power.

And at the same time have far better living conditions.

Duncan could not help thinking a lot along these lines.

The more he came into contact with modern Pland, the more he felt that the Vanished from a century ago was not as glorious and perfect as its fearsome reputation.

That ship might have eerie and terrifying power, but it did not even have electric lights, and it certainly did not have fries. Its weapon system still used old muzzle-loading cannons. Who knew how strong they really were? And again, there were no fries.

The sails of spirit form were useful, but having a steam engine as backup power would clearly be nice too. Yet the ship did not even have a boiler to heat water.

And still no fries.

Duncan silently glanced at the pigeon that had hopped up onto the windowsill and was staring blankly outside.

The pigeon turned its head back and blinked its tiny green-bean eyes at him: “Want to go down to the docks and get some fries?”

“Shut up. Don’t mention fries.” Duncan turned the bird down with mixed feelings, then finally shifted his attention to the last item.

The salted fish was a pure natural food, processed from a delicious gift hooked out of the Deep Sea. It tasted pretty good and was one of the few things that counted as “from outside the Vanished.”

After walking through the Spirit Realm, this salted fish also did not look any different.

[Let’s use it to make soup for Nina tonight.]