Deep Sea Embers

The goat head made a slight squeaking sound under its head, and its neck slowly turned on the base. It silently looked at Duncan who returned to the captain's cabin, and followed the captain's movements with its eyes.

Duncan came behind the chart table and sat on the high-backed chair, holding the table with both hands. The chart on the table was filled with mist, and the hazy mist shrouded everything. It seemed that in this "sea area" that had already crossed the border, ”, even this incredible chart has lost its reference significance.

But Duncan's attention was obviously not on the fog-shrouded chart - his eyes were focused on a more distant place,

It was as if through the tables and floors here, I was staring at the vast nothingness outside the Lost Home.

After a while, the goat head finally spoke cautiously: "I just noticed that the 'environment' around the Lost Home has changed a lot. Is that your doing?" "

Perhaps affected by the atmosphere, the noisy first mate didn't talk too much nonsense this time.

"I did some tests," Duncan whispered. "I verified the conjecture that information is immortal, and confirmed that the information in this 'sea of ​​ashes' can still support the operation of things. In the short test, the changes The ripples did reappear in the cooling ash. "

"But it didn't last, right?" Goat Head said hesitantly, "I just felt the appearance and subsidence of the ripple you mentioned." Although I don't understand the principle and process in between, I can feel it. , something seems to be missing behind those changes. "

"The first driving force is an 'inspiration' process that can instantly reset and fully restart the entire 'mathematical machine'." Duncan did not hide the "knowledge" he had touched in the brief "ripple" just now, "Simple Generally speaking, it is useless to assign short-term and regional values ​​to part of the "raw materials" in this sea of ​​ashes. The entropy of the entire sea of ​​​​ash is prompting all changes to return to zero. Therefore, if you want to truly make the "raw materials" here To transform 'raw materials' into a new world, the entire system needs to be reset - as for how to 'import' the stored data of the old world during the process of resetting the system, it may be a relatively simple matter. "

The goat head was silent for a long time. After thinking for a long time, it slowly raised its head: "I'm not sure what you mean by "entropy", but it sounds like you are still considering some very bad plans. I'm sorry. Let me tell you frankly, Captain Nina will be sad, you have an agreement with her."

Duncan didn't speak, just looked at the goat head on the table silently.

"You think you are the most suitable "first driving force", don't you? "The goat head seemed not to notice the captain's gaze and continued, "Resetting the entire 'mathematical machine' sounds like it requires a huge amount of energy and 'information', and you 'yourself' possess both of these conditions.

"So, I'm thinking about any alternatives." Duncan suddenly interrupted the goat head calmly.

The goat's neck made a creaking sound, which clearly proved: "I thought you were planning a self-sacrifice."

"Yes, I have planned it, but Bartok reminded me one thing before he left," Duncan said calmly, "Don't use sacrifices to lay the foundation for a new world easily - sacrifices can always be the last and most helpless. The choice should not be the first option. Sacrifice too easily is an insult to "sacrifice" itself - not to mention, I promised Nina and Lucy to go home. "

As he spoke, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Of course, if there is really no choice in the end, I will not hesitate to die, but now I think I should try harder to find a better solution."

"Do you have an idea?" Goat Head asked curiously, "Do you have any alternative ways to 'start' this process?"

'Theoretically, all I need is information and energy, and the 'information' part can actually be completed through later assignment, so all I need is energy to restart the mathematical machine and let the 'information' start running. energy," Duncan said slowly while thinking, "I now have a vague solution to this problem, but can it be realized?

He stopped suddenly, his eyes seemed to be looking at something that did not exist in a certain direction. After thinking for a while, he continued: "I think I need to talk to a certain guy I have made an appointment with."

As he spoke, he asked casually: "What is Alice doing now?"

The goat head confirmed and slightly confirmed the situation on the ship. A subtle human expression appeared on the hard wooden face: "She is pulling the Frost Queen to do some very evil things.

Even the goat head feels that something is evil - that can only be said to be really evil.

On the spacious middle deck, Alice was pulling Le Nora to appreciate the unique skill she had recently learned - Miss Doll was so happy that she dragged the unaware Frost Queen onto a barrel and pointed at her. My own head: "I just learned this recently! I practiced with Luni for a long time before I succeeded!"

Then, before Le Nora could react, the doll grabbed her head and pulled it up. With a sound of "boo", the head was thrown into the air by herself.

Then she moved her body left and right below to adjust her position, and used her neck joints to aim at the head that was falling in the air.

Only then did Leigh Nora finally understand what the doll wanted to do - but she felt that she might as well not understand.

And what's even worse is that the doll hasn't caught it yet.

Her head rolled down, and her head hit her neck joint hard, making a "bang" sound, and then rolled to the ground, rolling all the way to the feet of Reno, looking up and blinking innocently: a little bit, a small mistake, help me get up

Reno watched this scene with twitching eyes, even as the Frost Queen who had presided over the Abyss Project and faced the rebels without blinking, her expression seemed a little bit tense at this time.

Duncan saw this scene when he came to the deck.

He felt a great shock, but perhaps less than Reno.

Then he quickly took a few steps forward, grabbed Alice's head and pressed it against her neck. After a "pop" sound, he looked back at Lenora who was still angry, with a subtle and apologetic expression on his face: "Sorry, Alice sometimes thinks differently from ordinary people. Lenora seemed to have just woken up from the shock at this time, stared at Duncan blankly, and spoke for a long time: "This is the first time I have seen this scene from a third-person perspective. "

Duncan:

But what he didn't expect was the second sentence of the Frost Queen: "To be honest, it's quite interesting. "

Duncan was stunned, and it took him a long time to say: "You are so generous. "

When I was chatting with Alice, I heard her mention that her neck joints were always easy to loosen, so I asked her curiously what the specific situation was," Lenora spread her hands, her expression was much calmer than before, "Of course, her demonstration method is indeed a little more exciting than I thought.

What can Duncan say? He could only twitch his mouth and turn his head to look at the puppet who was walking over while holding his head to adjust the angle. After the latter came over, he didn't realize that the atmosphere was a bit subtle, and he bent down and put his neck in front of Duncan: "Captain, my hair is stuck in the joint, help me get it out."

Duncan's eyes twitched, and while helping Alice deal with the hair in her neck joint with a subtle expression, he raised his head and smiled awkwardly at Lenora.

But Lenora didn't seem to care. She just looked at the scene in front of her with interest. No matter how you look at it, it has nothing to do with "simple and normal life scenes", but for some reason it is particularly ordinary and peaceful. After a while, she smiled and said: "It seems that she is really happy in her life. "

'It would be better if you weren't always so heartless,' Duncan sighed helplessly, 'to be honest, are you really okay?

Just based on what happened just now, I thought you would have a psychological trauma

"It's okay," Leigh Nora exhaled, 'When I cut it down that year, I didn't see that I could overcome the association. '

Duncan thought about it and felt that this "Frost Queen" obviously had a very strong heart, and even stronger peripheral nerves than her heart.

At this time, Alice seemed to react to something and turned to look at Duncan: "Captain, are you here to see me? "

"Well," Duncan carefully untied the last strand of Alice's hair that was caught by the joints and nodded, "We have arrived here, and we have an appointment to keep. "

Alice blinked and finally remembered something: "Ah, the burning meatball hanging at my door

Duncan was a little surprised that this puppet could remember this incident accurately, but he was even more impressed by Alice's fresh and refined description

Lei Nora was watching from the side, not knowing what the two were talking about. At this time, she couldn't help but ask curiously: "A date? Where are we going next?"

"Alice and I are going to the appointment," Duncan laughed, "Don't worry, we won't leave this ship, we will just go to another dimension for a short time and come back soon."

"Yes, the captain is going to wind me up!" Alice also said happily, and waved to Lei Nora, "You go back to the room first,

I'll go to play with you after the winding is finished!"

Lei Nora listened even more confused: "Winding up?"

But the puppet obviously didn't mean to continue explaining. At this time, it had dragged the captain towards the direction of the rear deck, and the two soon walked away

Only the bewildered "Frost Queen" was left standing there, with a head full of question marks.