Chapter 689

Chapter 689: A Neglected “Connection”?

At Lightwind Harbor, faint “sunlight” spread from the surface of the sea and covered the whole city-state under the veil of night. The information carried by the light flowed silently through the sea. Yet there was only one doll who could read that information.

To be honest, even Duncan felt this was a bit unbelievable.

In this doll’s eyes, how many things in the world were different from common understanding? Was the sky blue in her view? Were the leaves green? What shape did humans have in her eyes, and what kind of waves did the sea carry?

And even if she described what she saw—were the colors, sounds, and shapes she spoke of really the same as what ordinary people understood?

This seemed like a puzzle that would always circle around itself and never be solved.

Alice turned her head. The glow of the gas lamp reflected in her large, pretty eyes. She looked at Duncan with a mix of doubt and worry. After a long time, she asked in a small voice: “Captain, the things I see really are useful, right?”

Duncan’s scattered thoughts slowly drew back. He did not let those messy ideas keep spreading. At that moment, he suddenly agreed with something Alice had once said—some annoying questions that clearly have no answer are better left unasked.

So he smiled. His expression relaxed a little: “Of course they’re useful. Besides that information, what else did you see? I mean after the Sun went out. Did you ‘see’ anything that was different from usual?”

Alice quickly understood what he meant. She frowned slightly and tried hard to recall. Then she turned her head and looked around. After a while, she spoke, not very sure: “If I have to say something… I always feel there’s a buzzing sound…”

Duncan frowned: “Buzzing?”

“Yeah. Buzzing. It’s a very soft sound. And I can’t even say for sure that it’s really a ‘sound’,” Alice said, waving her hands as she explained. “I just feel like there’s something making noise in my head all the time. But if I don’t pay attention, I forget it. When I look at that ‘sunlight’, the sound gets a bit stronger…”

Duncan nodded lightly. After a moment, he asked again: “Last time the Sun went out, did you hear this buzzing sound? Did you see those ‘messages’ about the ‘Observer Effect stabilizer anchor’?”

“No,” Alice shook her head, holding her temples. “I only ‘saw’ and heard them this time, after we came to Lightwind Harbor…”

Listening to the doll’s story, Duncan sank into thought.

According to Lucretia, just now, another set of observation equipment in Lightwind Harbor had received faint signals from the extinguished Sun. Their features were exactly the same as the signals released by the glowing geometric body. In other words, during the blackout, the main body of Vision 001 had also been “broadcasting” a report of failure about the “Observer Effect stabilizer anchor”.

Yet Alice said that during the last blackout of the Sun, she had not “seen” this content. She had only read the failure report from the “sunlight” here after she arrived at Lightwind Harbor… Why?

Was it because the malfunction during the last blackout had not been this serious, so the main body of Vision 001 had not sent out a failure report?

If that was the explanation, then the situation was more serious than anyone had expected. That would mean the whole system had suffered further deterioration—and in such a short time.

The living room grew quiet. Lucretia, Morris, and the others had gathered around. They listened to the talk between Duncan and Alice and looked at the changing expression on Duncan’s face with some worry. After a while, Nina finally could not hold back: “Uncle Duncan, do you know what that ‘Observer Effect stabilizer anchor’ means?”

Duncan opened his mouth, but suddenly felt stuck.

In this world, explaining the ideas of planets and the universe was already extremely difficult. How was he supposed to explain the even more abstract “Observer Effect”? How could he explain the strange things that happen between the macroscopic and microscopic worlds?

And more importantly—could the Observer Theory he knew really be used here?

His expression grew complicated as he raised his head and looked out at the world beyond the window.

“I can guess a few things,” he said slowly. “But it’s very different from the ‘Observer Theory’ I know. It should have taken place in the microscopic world, not…”

He stopped, hesitating.

If Vision 001’s other name really was “Observer Effect stabilizer anchor”, then did that explain the true mechanism by which this ancient Vision “suppressed corruption” and “stabilized order”?

Without meaning to, he thought of the truth behind the Great Annihilation. He thought of the conflicts at the bottom of all things, and thought of the various extraordinary manifestations spreading across the whole world because of cognitive corruption. If the microscopic world was the “keystone of order” for each universe, then when those keystones collided and were wiped out, mixing into a vast, chaotic soup of information… would the Observer Effect still be limited to the microscopic world?

At the moment when the mathematical rules of each universe were torn apart, at the instant when the structure of all matter was completely destroyed and everything was reduced back to basic bits of information—perhaps the very ideas of “micro” and “macro” had already vanished!

In that storm-like rush of thoughts, Duncan murmured without meaning to: “…The corruption of information at the bottom of all things, and the clash of laws… might actually be the Observer Effect falling into a runaway state in the macroscopic world?”

Morris and Lucretia looked at each other. A few seconds later, they turned their heads at the same time. “…Huh?”

“…I’ll find a way to explain to you what the ‘Observer Effect’ is, and what I’m guessing about it, but that will take a lot of time and effort,” Duncan waved his hand quickly. “Right now I want to figure out another question.”

Lucretia spoke at once: “Another question?!”

Duncan nodded and looked at the brother-only doll standing beside him, her face pure and harmless—mostly because she still hadn’t caught up.

“Have you ever thought about this,” he asked, “why can Alice see and understand those ‘signals’?”

“Oh, right!” Shirley reacted at once—mainly because this was the only question so far that she fully understood. “It’s one thing for her to ‘see’ them. Those ‘lines’ can only be seen by her anyway. But how can she understand them? There are so many experts and scholars in the city. They’ve been tearing their hair out over this, and no one has figured it out!”

Vanna was sharp enough to notice the serious, thoughtful look on Duncan’s face when he raised the question. “You already have an answer, don’t you?”

Duncan slowly nodded. After a moment of thinking and choosing his words, he brought up what was written in The Blasphemous Tome:

“You should remember that according to that book, after two failed Genesis Protocols, it was the Crawling King who successfully completed the Genesis Protocol during the Third Long Night and opened the Deep Sea era.”

Vanna nodded at once: “Yes, of course we remember that.”

“The ‘construction’ of Vision 001 also happened in that same era,” Duncan went on seriously. “The Crawling King had the Critt clan serve as his assistants. Together they designed and built ‘the Sun’. And the Crawling King is the same being we know as the ‘Abyssal Lord’. Do you remember how Alice was born?”

“Oh, I know this one!” Shirley lit up at once. “The Abyssal Lord’s replicant pinched her together by hand on the seafloor!”

Everyone understood at once.

All their eyes turned to Alice.

Alice listened to everyone talking about her, and only now did she finally catch up. After she confirmed that she had not messed anything up, she did not know what she started thinking about, but her face showed a proud and happy expression.

“…We have always known that, in a sense, Alice is a ‘creation of the Abyssal Deep’,” Duncan said. He looked at the doll, who had somehow grown proud, and thought of that time in the garden of the manor when he had accidentally made contact with the Abyssal Lord. “But most of the time, we only focused on her connection with Queen Ray Nora of Frostholm and ignored that her link with the Abyssal Lord is the real key.

“Now it seems that connection may be more important than we thought. At least one thing is clear. She can understand the ‘system language’ the Abyssal Lord used in that ‘creation blueprint’…”

Nina thought for a moment. “Like how a punch-card analyzer can read the paper tape output from a Sorting Engine?”

“…That’s a fine way to think about it.”

Alice looked at Duncan, then at the others. She seemed to want to ask something, but suddenly she frowned, as if she had heard or seen something. A moment later, she said: “The system has restarted.”

Duncan instantly lifted his head. Almost at the same time, a low, unreal rumbling sounded in everyone’s mind.

With that deep roar that seemed to fill the whole world in an instant, Duncan saw a streak of glow appear in the sky outside the window—

The Sun, which had sunk down near the horizon and gone dark and still, lit up once more.

Shirley was the first to rush to the window. She pressed her head to the glass and looked down at the street. She saw the glow spill over the roofs, and a squad of Knowledge Guards standing watch at the corner, all raising their heads in surprise to look at the sky.

Nearby, some residents who had been hiding at home reacted as well. They opened their windows and peered outside.

Shirley happily waved from the window toward a neighbor who had appeared at another window not far away, but no one answered her—everyone’s attention was fixed on the glow that had returned to the sky.

Soon, faint cheers drifted in from somewhere far away. After a while, the loudspeaker at the intersection crackled to life.

The broadcast announced that the Sun had lit up again. It also reminded the residents not to rush out of their homes. The veil of night would fall soon, and the curfew would remain in force through the night until the Sun rose again as usual the next day.

Duncan listened to the faint broadcast from outside and watched the glow slowly fade from the sky. He let out a slow breath.

The Sun rising as usual… Now, even that had become something uncertain.