Deep Sea Embers

Now, Duncan already has two pieces of information about that red light:

First, before the Great Annihilation occurs, before the end comes to those "old worlds", a deep red like dark blood will first appear in the sky - its "body" is mapped in the depths of the universe, but The propagation method does not comply with the laws of optics. From any place on the planet, you can see it appearing at a specific position in the sky, and this position will not change as the planet rotates, just like it is directly reflected in the observer's vision or in mind.

Secondly, the red light does not seem to show any direct "destructiveness". It is more like a "phenomenon" or "feature" produced by the universe itself during the doomsday stage. It is a symptom of collapse, not the collapse itself. .

Third, the end of the world does not happen and end instantly. The entire process of destruction will last for a certain period of time. The process of the end of the world is accompanied by an increase in various strange phenomena and the continuous distortion and mutation of "rules" until the underlying laws of the world can no longer bear it. Due to this distortion, the warrior and his companions have the last time to start a journey, and the spaceship named New Hope has the last time to take off and set sail.

For Duncan, this third point is particularly critical.

The doomsday does not happen instantly, which means that people before the doomsday have enough time to observe the appearance of the "red light" - but in his memory, he has never seen that deep red light.

He was trapped in that "bachelor's apartment" one night. He had not seen any strange red light or supernatural phenomena before that, and he had not seen anything outside the window after that...

single-apartment?

Duncan's memory suddenly stuck, and after a moment, his brows wrinkled little by little.

My "single apartment"...what exactly is it?

He has always believed that his hometown is opposite the Gate of the Homeless. Outside his single apartment, deep in the thick fog, there are still bustling crowds of people on the earth. In ordinary and peaceful daily life, he is just Trapped in a room, separated from my hometown by a wall - but with the emergence of the "moon" and the gradual verification of the "world aggregation theory", this possibility has actually been infinitely close to zero.

If he had a premonition about this before, then this premonition has obviously been verified now - he knows that he can't go back.

But it wasn't until now that he suddenly thought of another question: If the opposite side of the Homeless Gate was not his hometown, then what kind of place should his remaining "bachelor apartment" be?

Whenever I "go back"...where do I "go back" to?

Duncan frowned tightly. In the faint "sunlight" that diffused outside the window, the long sword and the living metal that was once a "human" suddenly appeared in his mind...

"Is there another part of the world fragment..." If he realized something, his expression became more complicated, "What is the essence of the world fragment... exactly?"

Thoughts in his mind were turbulent, and memories and speculations were rising and falling in his mind like a continuous wave. Duncan slowly walked around the room, calming and sorting out his thoughts in this way. Then he returned to the table and casually He took out a piece of paper from the side and drew a pattern on it carelessly - he didn't think about writing or drawing anything, he just drew lines and painted patterns on it over and over again.

Then, he suddenly stopped.

He looked at what he had unconsciously drawn on the paper...a moon outlined by messy lines.

It's as if I'm looking at a hometown that's so close before my eyes, but I can never go back to.

Alice said that if the symbol of hometown appears in a place, then this place is hometown... She is not very smart, but occasionally she can get to the core of the problem with the simplest and simplest ideas. In a sense, she said is actually right.

My hometown is here, but it is neither the whole thing nor the appearance that Duncan is familiar with. It is just a small fragment, and just like the "warrior" that turned into living metal - it has long become an incomprehensible thing. thing.

Duncan subconsciously stretched out his fingers and touched the "moon" on the paper, as if asking someone, and whispered to himself: "Yeah, what else is left..."

The sound of flapping wings suddenly came from the side, interrupting Duncan's distraction. The fat white pigeon fell from the top of the nearby wardrobe. It wandered up to Duncan, tilted its head, and then lowered its head. He raised his head and pecked the moon drawn on the paper with his mouth.

It pecked a hole in the "moon", raised its head and shouted: "Raise your head to see the bright moon, raise your head to see the bright moon, raise your head..."

It stopped suddenly and continued to look at Duncan with its head tilted.

Duncan also looked at it blankly, looking at this pigeon that suddenly "mutated" from the compass for some reason, looking at this silly bird that followed him inexplicably and was extremely obedient and affectionate.

"Ai Yi, Ai Yi, Ai——" The pigeon flapped its wings and made a loud and strange sound, "Ai Yi——"

Duncan's eyes suddenly widened, and he stretched out his hand to grab Ai's body, but then quickly relaxed a little, as if he was afraid of accidentally squeezing this little "creature" to death. He felt that his breathing became rapid and his heartbeat The pigeon in his hand was beating loudly and tilted its head, looking at it with a dull expression.

Duncan finally opened his mouth: "...Ai?"

The pigeon nodded: "Gu Gu."

Duncan hesitated for a moment and changed to a more accurate pronunciation: "...IE?"

Pigeon nodded quickly: "Gu Gu."

Duncan took a deep breath: "Internet Explorer...?"

The pigeon pulled out its wings with force and flapped it harder. At this moment, it seemed to be more excited than ever before, and it even seemed to have countless more exciting things to say.

However, after flapping its wings for a long time, it only made a loud, meaningless "coo" sound.

Duncan gently let go of his hand and watched the fat pigeon walking happily around the table, stopping from time to time and tilting his head to observe his "master" curiously. The network connection interruption seemed to flash in his mung bean eyes forever. For a long time, he finally sighed softly, with a complicated smile appearing on his face.

It turns out the answer was written on the question from the beginning.

This stupid bird is just another fragment of his hometown that suddenly died out.

There is no going back, indeed there is no going back.

Duncan sat quietly on the chair, like a stone statue, without any movement, expression or sound for a long time.

After an unknown amount of time, he blinked his eyes as if he suddenly came to life, and then began to think—or rather, force himself to continue thinking:

If AI is really Internet Explorer, what exactly is its corresponding "source"? Those codes? Is it the huge amount of data accumulated? Is it the myriad of hardware that once powered Internet Explorer? Or is it the abstract description behind the word?

Or... it symbolizes a brief burst of fire in the development process of a certain civilization.

Perhaps the world fragment does not necessarily correspond to some kind of "entity", it may even be a huge concept - a concept abstracted from real existence.

So does this conjecture also hold true in reverse?

Will those entities that did exist in the "old world" survive in the form of "abstract concepts" in the deep-sea era after the Great Annihilation? There are countless abnormal phenomena in this boundless sea today, as well as countless invisible objects and taboo knowledge that were born around the abnormal phenomena. What were they... once?

And most importantly - what are the principles behind these changes? What is the Great Annihilation and the nature of that red light?

The new answers brought new questions, one after another, and it seemed that they would never reach the end of the truth. Duncan felt as if his thinking had entered a dead end. Before more clues appeared, it was impossible for him to solve the problem. Found the direction to continue going deeper.

At this moment, a gentle knock on the door suddenly came from behind, interrupting his increasingly in-depth and difficult thinking.

Duncan quickly came to his senses. He felt the breath outside the door, so he breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down little by little: "Come in, Alice."

The door opened and the doll girl walked in. She was holding a large plate with Duncan's missed dinner on it.

"Captain," Alice said with a worried tone, "you haven't had dinner."

For some reason, just seeing Alice's expression that seemed to always have no impurities, Duncan felt that his chaotic mind calmed down a lot.

He showed a smile: "Thank you, put it on the table."

"Oh," Alice put the plate down casually, and then quickly added, "Don't worry, these are very normal foods, according to ordinary people's tastes - Nina said, this place's 'traditional food' None of them are for human consumption..."

After saying that, she looked up and observed Duncan's expression: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine now," Duncan breathed a long sigh of relief. He sorted out the questions he had just figured out, and a smile gradually appeared on his face. "Indeed, after having gained so much... I should be happy."

"Oh," Alice listened with half understanding, but she did feel that the captain's mood seemed to have really improved a lot, so she felt relieved, "They were a little worried about you, so they asked me to come up and take a look. , you’re fine.”

Duncan nodded slightly, but suddenly felt a little emotional in his heart.

In this big house, there are indeed many people who are always worried about his "state", and these worries are diverse. Perhaps the only one in front of him who usually looks innocent... is never worried about him at all. Impurities.

If anything, Nina might be the other one.

With emotion in his heart, Duncan smiled and shook his head, and then suddenly thought of another thing.

"Alice," he turned and looked into the eyes of the Gothic doll, "I need your help with something."

Alice didn't even think about it: "Huh? Okay!"

Duncan nodded, reached into his pocket, and took out the brass key that he always carried with him.

"Alice, I want to use this key again."

"OK!"