Deep Sea Embers

Climbing the rope ladder, Lawrence climbed up the black oak's dark hull as if it had been roasted by something, and came to the deck of the ship.

As soon as he landed, he bent down, put his hands on his knees, and took several breaths to catch his breath—this made him laugh and shake his head with a self-deprecating smile.

I am really old, and I have reached the point where I have to stop and rest after climbing a rope ladder for a while. If I put it in the past...

Another sound of footsteps came from behind, and Lawrence put away irrelevant thoughts, turned around and saw that Anomaly 077 had also climbed up after him—this terrifying mummy stood cautiously on the edge of the ship, looking honest look.

It, or he - this journey is really cooperative, and it is a bit weird that a terrifying high-ranking anomaly is so honest, but when I think of this mummy as my only "companion" in this expedition Lawrence restrained the weird feeling in his heart again, and made his expression serious.

"Is the boat fixed?" He looked at Anomaly 077, dealing with this special "sailor" just like he usually talked with his sailors.

"It's fixed," the mummy nodded immediately, and said in a hoarse voice, then he raised his head again, looked around quickly, with a slight hesitation in his tone, "...there seems to be no one here, Captain."

"I'm not blind." Lawrence said lightly, while looking at the situation on the deck.

After stepping on the deck of the Black Oak, the surrounding weird dense fog and shadow texture still exist, but there is no sign of further thickening. In the floating fog, he can vaguely see the scene on the ship—everything is like a memory As shown in the picture, the facilities of the Black Oak are roughly the same as those of the White Oak, but they have a texture that seems to have been abandoned for many years. The paint on the railings has been mottled and peeled off, and deformation and warping can be seen in some places on the deck. , the exterior of the superstructure in the distance can still be seen covered with rust-like stains.

Strip away the eerie mist, and the ship feels like just another White Oak—a poorly maintained "version" that's been abandoned for years at sea.

And just like Anomaly 077 said, there is no one to be seen on this ship.

"There is no one on board, so who threw down the rope ladder just now?" Anomaly 077 grumbled, "And when you gave the order to signal this ship, it responded with lights—the one who responded to the signal at that time was who?"

"As an 'abnormal', your thinking is quite organized," Lawrence couldn't help but glanced back at the "sailor", with a rather surprised tone, "but you don't think it's very logical to think about a ghost ship. Is it strange?"

Anomaly 077 shrugged and fell silent.

But Lawrence didn't give the mummy a chance to be silent—he didn't bring the mummy to the Black Oak just to avoid the danger caused by this guy staying on the White Oak, but to let him be useful to some extent.

"Can your ability take effect on this ship?" Lawrence stared into the eyes of abnormality 077, "Can you control this ship?"

"You want me to 'take over' it?" Anomaly 077 was a little surprised.

"You can't 'take' it away—but I want you to confirm whether your ability can take effect here," Lawrence said with a serious face, "perceive the state of this ship."

Anomaly 077-Sailor, the greatest ability of this anomaly is to control and take over things with the concept of "ship". ability, then... In the eyes of the "sailor", will this Black Oak show some "special features"?

Starting from this line of thinking, maybe Anomaly 077 can help him uncover the truth here.

The mummy obeyed the order. He stood on the deck, opened his hands, and closed his eyes slightly as if he wanted to feel the wind in the fog. Not far from him, Lawrence looked at the familiar people on the deck with somewhat complicated eyes. thing.

The Black Oak...he is standing on this ship now, no matter how many times he dreams of going back to the past, he can't forget the scenes on this ship, no matter how many times he sails, he still has the paranoid idea of ​​finding this ship ——But at this moment, really standing here, he had to question everything repeatedly, questioning his own judgment, questioning his own perception, and even questioning the existence of this ship.

Because the appearance of the Black Oak was too suspicious and weird, and its state at the moment was absolutely abnormal. Although he was unwilling to admit it emotionally, his rationality told him... It was very likely that this was not the "black ship" he was looking for at all. The Oak".

This is just a... "phenomenon" created by some kind of out-of-control extraordinary vision.

Lawrence's mind was full of thoughts, until the "sailor" beside him suddenly opened his eyes and made a suspicious sound, his messy thoughts finally stopped.

"What's the matter?" Lawrence asked immediately.

"I... don't know how to explain it..." The sailor lowered his head in astonishment, staring at the deck he stepped on, "Captain, I... I can't feel the existence of this ship..."

"What do you mean?! You can't feel the existence of this ship?" Lawrence's eyes widened in an instant. He thought that the strength of the "sailor" might not be enough to control this weird ghost ship, but he didn't expect that the other party would directly give The answer came out, "So where are we standing now?"

"So I don't know how to explain it..." The sailor seemed to be taken aback by Lawrence's expression, but he continued to bite the bullet, "We are standing here, there is no doubt that it exists, but in my In perception, it doesn't actually exist, at least... at least it's not here..."

Lawrence frowned. He knew that the mummy in front of him shouldn't be deceiving him. This was what the other party was really thinking at the moment, but...it didn't do anything to alleviate the suspicion in his heart.

After pondering for a while, he took a breath, held the lantern in one hand, and turned his head to look in a certain direction at the end of the deck.

The soft yellow light emitted by the lantern fluttered in the mist, as if guiding an invisible path.

"Captain, where are we going?"

"The bridge," Lawrence said calmly, "the captain should be on the bridge."

Before he finished speaking, he had already stepped towards the direction illuminated by the light, and the "sailor" was stunned for a moment before quickly following up, and while walking a little bit, he asked curiously: "You mean... this ship The captain of the ship? Do you know the captain of this ship?"

Lawrence paused for a moment, then walked forward: "I know, very familiar."

The sailor groaned, and then became obediently quiet again.

A moment later, Lawrence had arrived at the gate leading to the bridge.

The red metal door opened a gap slightly in front of him, as if inviting him to enter.

"Go and open the door."

Lawrence held the lantern in one hand, and pulled out the revolver from his waist with the other hand, signaling the mummy beside him to come forward with his eyes.

"Oh... yes."

The mummy sighed quite humanely, stepped forward and grabbed the handle of the door, and without seeing how hard he was, pushed the door open.

Lawrence looked inside.

The bridge was empty, no one could be seen, only a thin mist floating between the chairs and the control equipment, and on the bridge at the front end of the bridge, the unmanned steering wheel was swaying slightly from side to side, as if Fine-tuning the course.

"There's no one here." The mummy muttered beside him.

"I'm not blind." Lawrence said, and walked into the bridge.

He raised the lantern and used the light to disperse the darkness around him. His eyes swept over the mottled and old equipment and seats, and then he slowly came to the steering wheel.

The captain should stand here.

But there is no sign of the captain here.

Lawrence stood quietly for a while, and he didn't know whether he was disappointed or sighed in relief: "Oh, you are not here."

"No, I'm here."

A slightly cold female voice came from the side.

Lawrence was shocked instantly, and even the faint green flame that could not be extinguished on his body suddenly rose several inches, and the next second he suddenly looked in the direction of the sound——

Wearing the captain's uniform, with slightly curly long hair hanging behind her head, the still young looking female adventurer was standing there with her arms crossed, looking at this side with a calm expression and helplessness.

"Ah, there's a woman coming out," Anomaly 077 said in astonishment, and then seemed to realize something, and quickly glanced at Lawrence, "Captain, do I need to keep quiet?"

Lawrence glanced at the mummy: "Yes, be quiet."

"Yes, Captain."

Although this interruption by Abnormality 077 was inappropriate, it more or less diluted the awkward and stiff atmosphere just now. Lawrence took the opportunity to try to calm himself down, and then he was thinking quickly about how to speak—what should the first sentence be?

In the past days, he had talked with "Martha" countless times, and they had been together for many, many years in hallucinations, but at this moment, Lawrence suddenly realized that he was stuck—he couldn't imagine Get along with Martha as naturally as I used to when I was hallucinating.

But it was this momentary jam that made him suddenly realize one thing.

The Martha in front of him...is an "individual" that has nothing to do with his subconscious mind and is acting independently!