Deep Sea Embers

In Duncan's eyes, the complex and chaotic dark shadows have "collapsed" into the heroic female adventurer again, and in the depths of the mirror, the layers of silhouettes are no longer trembling disorderly.

Duncan watched this scene quietly, without speaking for a long time.

Martha in the mirror was still for a while after re-condensing—just like the freeze before the movie officially started, after two or three seconds, the lively and lively look returned to her face, she felt a little bit He looked down at himself blankly, then raised his head belatedly: "What... did you do?"

Duncan temporarily ended his contemplation, and shook his head lightly: "It's nothing, just a welcome."

Then he paused, and after sorting out his thoughts for a while, he said, "If you will always be 'Martha' from now on, are you still going to tell Lawrence the truth?"

"Maybe...he already knew it," Martha hesitated, and said slowly, "I told him something insincerely. I told him that I took Martha as the main body, and from his memory With Lawrence's keenness and experience in the extraordinary field, plus I have revealed a lot of information beyond the necessary, it should not be difficult for him to deduce... Since 'Martha' can hold a memory, then It can hold countless copies, after all..."

The female adventurer paused for a moment, with a complicated smile on her face: "After all, I seemed to know too much when I was in the mirror city."

"How did he react?"

"He... doesn't care," Martha shook her head, "but I don't know if he ever will."

Duncan looked at her in silence for a moment, then suddenly laughed.

"You will care about this, it seems that I really don't have to worry about it," he said with a relaxed tone, "then put these aside, ma'am, there are countless dark and weird things in this vast sea, so any A little warmth is more cherished—Lawrence knows that very well.”

In the mirror, the female adventurer showed a thoughtful look, and Duncan outside the mirror continued after a short pause, "What else do you know about the deep sea below the frost?"

"Deep sea..." Martha frowned, she immediately restrained her thoughts, and said slowly while sorting out her huge memory, "I do have some...'memories' about the deep sea, but most of them are dark and fuzzy. Mixed with the fear of sinking and the absurd hallucinations produced in the cold and suffocating, these things probably cannot be used as practical references, but..."

Duncan raised his eyebrows: "But?"

Martha in the mirror thought for a while and opened her hands.

Her figure suddenly dissipated in the mirror, like ink stains blurred in an instant, black lines spread rapidly in the mirror, and then, a shadowy figure emerged from the darkness.

A huge shadow seems to be floating in the endless nothingness, like an isolated island, like a lump with irregular edges, and countless fine things can be seen around the shadow, like cracks from the surface of the irregular lump. Debris", floating around the island.

And in the center of the floating "isolated island", you can see something huge like a pillar, extending infinitely upwards and downwards in the darkness, as if penetrating the shadow, and then penetrating the entire nothingness.

Martha's voice came from the depths of the mirror:

"I went through all the memories pointing to the deep sea. The great fear experienced by countless devoured minds during the sinking process was superimposed into this scene. I don't know how to interpret this scene-it looks like a large floating in the deep sea. Object, pierced by a massive 'pillar', but due to lack of reference, I don't know how big the object is nor how big the pillar is."

Duncan stared at the scene in the mirror for a long time, without saying a word for a long time.

But what emerged in his mind were countless pieces of information related to the Abyss Project - the submersible that never returned, the crazy deep-diving advance team, the description of the madness under the sea abyss, and... The huge hole at the center, and the ancient god's tentacles that crossed the boundary between reality and reality, pierced deeply into the Frost City-State.

In the deep sea, there is indeed an entity.

The illusion in the mirror dissipated, and Martha's figure reappeared in front of Duncan: "That's all I know. Although I keep a lot of memories, there are not many that can point to the deep sea while relatively awake. You... ..."

"It's okay, ma'am," Duncan said softly, interrupting the female adventurer, "I'll go and see for myself."

...

On the deck, Alice and the mummy "sailor" had already found the second bug, and the two "people" continued to poke around.

But such a game is obviously not as interesting as fighting with pots and pans in the kitchen.

"I'm starting to feel bored," Alice threw away the small wooden stick in her hand, and looked up at the deck, which was still quite unfamiliar to her, "Why hasn't the captain come back..."

"Sailor" visibly trembled when he heard the word "captain" from the puppet lady, he raised his head and opened his mouth to hesitate for a long time before speaking: "You are usually with him... you are not afraid?"

"Don't be afraid," Alice turned her head and looked at the ugly mummy with a bewildered look on her face. "I like being with the captain, why should I be afraid of him?"

"That's the subspace! Subspace, do you understand!" The mummy had a horrified expression on his face, "When I saw him, I felt that my sanity would 'drop', and you dare to stick with him all day—I think You should be the one numbered 077, you are more wicked than me."

Alice scratched her hair, ignored the mummy, but looked up curiously at Lawrence not far away.

Lawrence with his first mate, Gus.

"Suddenly, the flames on everyone can be controlled freely," the first mate Gus opened his palm, showing a cluster of small flames jumping quietly in the palm in front of his captain. At the position where the flame touched the palm, You can vaguely see the clear texture of flesh and blood transformed into a spirit body, but outside the range of the flames is a normal flesh and blood body, "Do you have any clues?"

"I don't know either," Lawrence frowned slightly. He snapped his fingers, watched the spirit fire jumping at his fingertips, and then waved his hand, and the flame dissipated without a sound. "The change is on Captain Duncan. What happened shortly after the ship...maybe there is some connection?"

"Maybe...but anyway, it's a good thing," said the first mate, Gus. "Before, the flames on everyone's bodies would always appear suddenly, as if they were stimulated by something, but they couldn't find the reason. To be honest, It's quite nerve-wracking - some people worry that we will never be able to go ashore normally in the future, after all, not every city is as 'experienced' like Frost and Prand..."

"In the future..." Lawrence's tone was filled with emotion and thought. He subconsciously clenched his fist and opened it again, feeling the power of the flames running peacefully in his body, while thinking about the future of himself and all the members of the White Oak, "Yes It's time to think about the future..."

He lowered his head and rubbed his fingers, the spiritual fire flowed through his fingertips like water.

A deep and majestic voice came from behind him: "Is it fun?"

Lawrence and Gus shuddered instantly at the same time, and flames shot up two to three meters high from their bodies...

In the next second, Lawrence quickly suppressed the flames on his body, and turned his head to look in the direction of the sound - Duncan stood there, looking at this side with a subtle expression on his face.

Duncan sighed silently.

As soon as he came out, he saw Anomaly 077 and Anomaly 099 squatting on the deck to poke bugs, and saw the captain and first mate of his new ship playing with the fire at the door——Those who knew this was the Lost Fleet, but those who didn’t knew it thought it was The boat is heading for the kindergarten... What kind of people are gathered around me?

"Dun...Captain Duncan!" Gus straightened his body in an instant, and said hastily as he patted off the last spark on the hem of his clothes, "I...we are studying how to control the power of the flame, so as to prevent it from happening again in the future. Like a city-state..."

"The same situation? Are you referring to the fact that the captain was arrested by the local sheriff with a whole marine team, and finally asked my emissary to go to the Sheriff's Bureau to find people?" Duncan pressed his forehead and waved his hand, "Forget it, As long as you are happy..."

While he was talking, Alice on the side had already run over, shouting and shaking his arm vigorously: "Captain! You are finally back! Are you done?"

"I'm done, I'm done—stop shaking, don't drag any of your joints off," Duncan said while holding down the somewhat overexcited Miss Doll, then set his eyes on Lawrence, gently She nodded lightly, "Don't worry, Martha's condition is fine, and I have officially accepted her as a member of the Lost Fleet."

Lawrence was startled, and then noticed the solemnity and profound meaning in Duncan's words.

"You... see that she is actually..."

"You don't want to care, she doesn't care, as for me... I don't mind," Duncan said with a smile in his eyes, "The Boundless Sea is huge, and the Lost Fleet has always been with all kinds of weird things. Dealing with it—an extra harmless ghost ship isn't a big deal."

Lawrence opened his mouth, but said nothing. In the end, he just took a breath and bowed his head deeply in front of Duncan.

"All in all, welcome to my fleet," Duncan laughed, and patted Lawrence on the shoulder casually. "Speaking of which, I seem to have heard you talking about... the future? Do you have any plans?"

"In the future..." Lawrence hesitated for a moment, with a complicated expression on his face, "I'm really thinking about this, do you think... can we return to the normal port like in the past?"

Listening to Lawrence's words full of hesitation and entanglement, Duncan sighed softly.

The future of the White Oak... is indeed in question.