Deep Sea Embers

"Captain! You trust me! You know my way of doing things - not to mention stealing wine from your collection, I just walked to the door of your room and my calves started to twist... I am really I don’t know how this thing got into my hands!”

Anomaly 077 roared to Lawrence with a broken voice. The noise was so loud that half the deck could hear it. The sailors passing by all looked sideways, curiously watching what happened to this most special "member" on the White Oak. Something happened.

The gray-haired Lawrence frowned. He ignored the cry and howl of the mummy in front of him, but looked thoughtfully at the two bottles of beer placed on the deck next to him.

Of course he believed what the sailor said - even though this mummy usually had many unreliable behaviors, he had always been very reliable when it came to "the calf cramps when seeing the captain".

This "abnormal" who feared spiritual fire as much as he feared natural enemies could not take the initiative to go to the captain's cabin and steal something. Even if these two bottles of wine were placed on the table, he would not touch them.

After thinking for a moment, Lawrence suddenly raised his head: "...Mr. Ted Leal left just now? He was with you before he left?"

The sailor was startled when he heard this. Although he didn't know why the captain suddenly changed the topic to this direction, he quickly nodded: "Yes, he just left. He kept chatting with me before leaving."

Lawrence looked into Anomaly 077's eyes: "What are you talking about?"

"... Poems and songs?" Anomaly 077 said casually, and then waved his hands quickly before the old captain changed his expression, "Of course that's impossible... It seems to be a world view or something? I can't remember clearly, we seemed to have a chat. A lot, I felt that Mr. Secret Keeper was very preoccupied and talked to me a lot about the world, the future, life and so on..."

He paused hesitantly when he said this, and muttered hesitantly: "I seemed to have invited him to drink, but he didn't ask for it...it's strange, did I invite him or not..."

Lawrence frowned slightly. He observed the expression and behavior of the mummy in front of him solemnly. He waited for the other person to mumble for a long time before asking again: "Then do you still remember how you answered? You all remember yourself. Did you say something?"

The sailor stopped mumbling for a moment, and soon after a look of memory appeared on his face, his expression became confused and uneasy.

"I... don't seem to remember? I should have told him a lot of things, but I only seem to remember a few words... most of the time it seems like I was just talking nonsense..." Abnormal 077 Nian Nian Nagging, he looked at the captain with some embarrassment, "Wait, I remembered... I didn't want to speak, but there seemed to be a voice talking to me all the time, leading me to speak... This feels a little wrong. captain?"

"Something is wrong... of course something is wrong." Lawrence said softly, and along with his words, a layer of weak green flames quietly emerged around him and flowed around along the deck. At the same time, on the A huge black shadow appeared silently on the sea next to the White Oak - the Black Oak appeared next to the White Oak like a reflection rising from the sea, with lights on the dark shadow of the ship. Flashing, contours undulating.

Anomaly 077 was startled by the sudden movement, and quickly jumped to avoid the spiritual fire spreading on the deck while shouting: "Hey, Captain, what are you doing..."

"There is an uninvited guest on the ship - although he may have left now," Lawrence glanced at Anomaly 077 and said casually, "Martha told me that she saw someone who was not one of us in the reflection of the White Oak. The figure, that figure once stood beside you.”

The sailor was stunned for a moment, and his expression gradually became horrifying: "...fuck!"

…

"Your judgment is correct. An uninvited guest did appear on the White Oak at that time - he was near Anomaly 077." Duncan nodded to Ted Leal, "You thought you 'heard' two voices , one of them should be from that 'uninvited guest'."

Ted Leal noticed the change in Duncan's demeanor just now, and guessed: "...Is there news from the White Oak? Has the old captain captured someone?"

"Not caught," Duncan shook his head. "The other party was very alert and had already left the ship when Lawrence and Martha were aware of it."

"Leave?" Ted Leal was a little confused when he heard this, "On the vast sea, can you run..."

He stopped suddenly. Apparently as a "keeper of the truth," he had matched the most likely answer from his own experience.

Duncan nodded slightly after noticing the change in the other person's expression: "Do you still remember the conversation between you and that 'sailor'?"

"Remember." Ted Leal said immediately, and then he quickly recalled and told Duncan everything he had said to "Sailor" at that time.

Listening to the other party's story, Duncan's expression became serious little by little, and he finally nodded: "Sure enough... this can't be something that the sailor said on his own initiative."

Ted Leal was a little confused: "How can you be so sure?"

"He's not that highly educated."

Ted Leal: "..."

"It looks like we can probably determine the identity of the uninvited guest," Duncan exhaled softly. "This theory sounds a bit close to the doomsday theory of the Evangelist, but it is more like a relatively mild and logical version. The person you are talking to should be a sane Evangelist of the End - he was hiding on the White Oak at the time and talking to you through the mouth of the 'Sailor'."

Speaking of this, he paused and added: "According to what Lawrence reported, this process is very much like a kind of thinking 'overwriting' and 'guiding' - the sailor still remembers the conversation with you, but not I don’t know the specific content of the conversation, and he also made some actions that were inconsistent with his past personality, which should also be the result of being influenced.”

Ted Leal frowned, with a subtle expression on his face: "...I have never heard that a preacher of the end has such ability and acting style..."

"It's normal. Not long ago, we didn't even believe that there were rational preachers of the end in this world," Duncan shrugged. "This group of 'subspace worshipers' located in the cracks of time has always been the most mysterious. They sometimes behave like They look like monsters distorted by subspace, and sometimes they look like polite scholars. They live in a non-linear time flow, so strictly speaking... maybe no one has ever really touched the entire world. A 'complete' Final Evangelist, everything we know about them so far is nothing more than the temporary state they display in a specific 'time slice'."

"...It's a very interesting theory," Ted Leal raised his eyebrows, then his expression calmed down and his tone became serious, "A final preacher can actually appear under my nose without anyone noticing. , and finally managed to escape unscathed, without even alerting the old captain under you... It seems that their level of weirdness is indeed beyond imagination, but that 'uninvited guest' did so much just to take advantage of the 'sailor' Tell me some crazy doomsday theories... What do you think of what he said?"

Duncan didn't speak for a while. He fell silent, thinking about the words Ted Leal heard from "Sailor". After a long time, he suddenly raised his head: "What do you think? What do you think about this world?" Does the tinkering make sense?”

"It's not that it makes sense, it's that there is no other way to go." Ted Leal shook his head slightly. "The world is a big ship sailing on the sea. Perhaps as the evangelist said, this The ship is leaking, sinking, and beyond repair, but what can those of us who live on the ship do? All we can do is repair it—better than sitting back and waiting to die, right? ?"

Duncan was noncommittal. He just pondered for a long time, but no one knew what he was thinking about at the moment.

At this moment, a ethereal and illusory bell suddenly reached Ted Leal's ears, interrupting the communication between him and Duncan.

The truth keeper was stunned for a moment. After distinguishing the frequency and interval of the bells, he gradually frowned in confusion: "Xun Zhong...?"

"Xunzhong?" Duncan's voice came from the side, "Are you talking about this sudden sound of bells?"

"Yes, this is a call for the saints to go..." Ted Leal said casually, but he suddenly stopped mid-sentence and turned to look at Duncan with an astonished expression, "Wait a minute, what do you say? Did you hear the bell just now?!"

"Yes, I heard it, what happened?" Duncan looked confused, "Shouldn't I have heard it? It's quite obvious..."

"Of course you shouldn't hear it!" Ted Leal almost jumped up from his chair, "This is the call bell coming from the Tomb of the Unknown King. The Four Gods Church built a memorial to the bell many years ago. In terms of confinement and guidance measures, in theory, only the saints of the four gods should be able to hear the call..."

"The Tomb of the Unknown King?" Duncan gradually came to his senses upon hearing this, "Ah, I heard Vanna talk about this before. It turns out this is what she called the 'Xun Bell'..."

As he spoke, he stood up, looked around, and said casually: "The bell rang again - it seems to be urging the saints to assemble? Do you have to participate in the assembly?"

"Theoretically..." Ted Leal said, but suddenly hesitated, "But it shouldn't... It's still the Deep Sea Church's rotation period, and theoretically even I shouldn't hear the bell..."

He raised his head and looked at each other in confusion.

The bell rang again, with a solemn and urging tone, as if... preparing to make a solemn announcement to the world.