Deep Sea Embers

This is an incredible ship—an incredible captain, an incredible first mate, and an incredible pigeon.

There is also an equally incredible doll on board that looks exactly like her.

Leanora felt that this place was completely different from what she had imagined—but a little better.

After a tour of the upper deck, Duncan took the "Frost Queen" back to the deck.

"This ship is very large, and there are layers of cabins under the deck. If you really want to visit in detail, I'm afraid you won't be able to see them all in a day," he said with a smile, "Let's get down to business first."

Hearing the captain's words, Leanora's thoughts instantly returned from her feelings about the ship. She immediately straightened her expression and looked solemnly at the side of the Lost Homeland.

The seemingly ordinary, thin and soft mist flowed outside the side of the ship, quiet and harmless.

But it was not fog. There was no "fog" there at all. In the entire space outside the Lost Homeland, there was only the ultimate, indescribable nothingness. The seemingly existing "fog" was actually just a faint illusion caused by the extremely limited perception of mortals when they vaguely sensed the existence of "something".

But the "captain" said that the cornerstone of the new world was hidden in this extreme nothingness.

Le Nora's eyes could not help but fall on Duncan. She knew that there was another real existence hidden in this tall and majestic body. The "Thousand-Faced Starlight" was looking at the distance with a serious expression through this body, as if sensing and looking for something in the flowing fog.

Duncan-Zhou Ming walked to the edge of the deck. His perception permeated the entire ship. He used the ship as a carrier to carefully "touch" the invisible "Sea of ​​Ashes" outside the ship. Among the flowing mist, he carefully observed the debris left after the annihilation of the world.

After a moment, he reached out his hand to the side of the ship - wisps of flames covered his fingertips, and the flames were quietly stained with the color of starlight.

He heard a vague noise and tremor coming from the depths of the Lost Homeland, and the masts and cables were creaking, and there seemed to be some uneasiness in these sounds.

"Don't worry," Duncan whispered as if talking to himself, "I'm still your captain."

The uneasy creaking and trembling noises weakened slightly.

For the first time, Duncan's fingers touched the "area" outside the side of the ship.

Almost at the same time, a sound of flapping wings came from the air. Aiyi flew down from the mast with great noise and landed on Duncan's shoulder. It flapped its wings vigorously and made a series of sharp and strange female voices: "Kuang jin kao... hot hot hot hot hot hot hot hot..."

Then the pigeon jumped off Duncan's shoulder again, and it was unclear whether it was anxious or excited, flapping its wings all the way on the deck, fluttering and shouting something that no one could understand except Duncan-Zhou Ming-leaving Lei Nora next to him dumbfounded.

"...What is this pigeon saying?" Lenora finally couldn't help but touch the puppet next to her. Although it felt very strange to talk to a puppet that looked exactly like her, she couldn't find anyone here to ask about the situation, "Tang...what?"

"Oh, Ai has her own way of speaking," Alice waved her hand as if it was a matter of course, "It is conveying something very important to the captain."

Lennora was stunned and looked at the puppet in surprise: "...Can you understand?"

Alice was more confident than before: "I don't understand."

Lennora fell silent after hearing this: "..."

Alice noticed that there was no movement beside her, and turned her head to look at this "Frost Girl" curiously. Wang": "Hey? Why don't you talk?"

"... I wish I had your good attitude back then," Lenorah sighed, her thoughts seemed to go back to the past, "I used to... live a very tiring life."

"Then try to live a more relaxed life in the future," Alice laughed and patted Lenorah's arm, "Anyway, the tiring days are over."

Lenorah suddenly felt that this seemingly innocent puppet in front of her might actually have a different wisdom in life...

Duncan heard the conversation behind him, but he ignored it - most of his attention was now on "that world" outside the ship's side, deep in the ashes.

Slowly retracting his hand, Zhou Ming opened his eyes towards the mist, the eternal starlight extended in his field of vision, and wherever his eyes went... he saw that the unassigned basic information elements were changing under the infiltration of the starlight.

After a period of thinking, he opened his hands in a certain direction.

The conversation between Lenora and Alice stopped immediately - when the sound of wind and mountain springs came from that direction, they instantly widened their eyes in astonishment.

In the hazy fog, something appeared, and a solid body was suddenly outlined. A huge, colorless and detailless gray mountain range appeared out of thin air between the clouds, and then the mountain changed rapidly like some kind of living thing. Gullies began to appear on its surface, and it gradually became stained with various colors. Various sounds also came from that direction, sometimes far, sometimes near, sometimes real, sometimes illusory.

Duncan Zhou Ming stood at the edge of the deck, information was reorganized in front of his eyes, and was re-assigned in his thinking. He raised his hand and adjusted it slightly to the side as if plucking the strings of a guitar. The "mountain" that was quickly gaining a sense of reality suddenly split in the middle, and a magnificent waterfall poured down from the mountain and flowed into a river. The next second, the river rushed, and a vast plain emerged on both sides of the river. A piece of land that was wider than any city-state in Lenora's cognition grew and spread in the mist. The mist dissipated and condensed into clouds and blue sky...

All this new life was still expanding rapidly, and finally spread to the surroundings of the Lost Homeland. The river was injected into a vast lake here. The Lost Homeland floated on the open lake like a mirror. A few seconds later, "wind" was generated and introduced into this scene, and ripples began to appear on the lake.

Lei Nora looked at this scene in astonishment. She finally couldn't help but come to the edge of the deck, looking at the green land, blue sky, lake and mountains that had spread to the end of her sight, as if the whole world had been shaped. She smelled the fresh air, heard the sound of wind and water, and a strong feeling appeared in her heart-

This place is real, everything here is real and "effective". At this moment, if a person comes to this vibrant lake, then... he can survive here!

He can breathe here, the water here is drinkable, crops can grow in the land, birds and beasts can reproduce on the mountains and plains, there will be rain here, clouds will gather and disperse in the wind, plants will wither and flourish, and life will rotate...

She almost smiled with joy on her face.

But before that smile appeared, Duncan Zhou Ming had put down his hands.

So everything around the Lost Hometown collapsed and dissipated silently-the mountains and plains turned into mist again in the blink of an eye, all the colors and contours returned to chaos, and those sounds and the breeze blowing across the cheeks... seemed to have never appeared.

Lei Nora looked at this scene in a daze, and seemed to be unable to react immediately. It took a long time before she looked up in the direction of the captain.

"This is just a test, and a very basic one," Duncan walked towards Lenoir, his voice low, "It is only used to verify whether the 'materials' here can be reactivated again - Genesis is not like this."

Lenoir heard that the captain's tone was a bit complicated, and she couldn't help but get nervous: "Then... the results of the test..."

"Good news and bad news," Duncan exhaled softly and spoke slowly, "The good news is that my previous judgment was correct, the information will not disappear, they just lost their original 'definition', and re-assigning can make this mathematical machine run again."

Lenoir said hurriedly: "What about the bad news?"

"The bad news is that my other previous judgment was also correct - the existing conditions cannot support the 'self-sustaining operation' of this restarted mathematical machine, as you just saw, once my observation and definition are lost, everything here will instantly return to the initial state.

"So it is meaningless to simply re-assign them, everything must still return to the 'singularity', I need a big bang at the beginning, and the big bang... requires harsh conditions. "

Lei Nora tried to follow the captain's thoughts. The knowledge she had gained in the "nest" started running in her mind again. After thinking for a while, she gradually reacted: "You... know the conditions it requires, right?"

Duncan was silent for a moment and nodded: "... Yes."

"Can you do it? Is it difficult, or impossible to achieve?"

Duncan did not answer her question this time. After a long period of contemplation, he just shook his head gently: "I still need to think about it carefully."

After that, he waved to Lei Nora and Alice.

"I have to go back to the room to plan what to do next," he exhaled, turned and walked to the stern, "There are still many empty rooms under the deck, Alice can take you to rest."

Duncan walked away, Lei Nora blinked, turned to look at the puppet beside her: "He looks worried, is the 'captain' always so... humane? ”

She thought for a long time before finding the right word "humane", but she didn't dare to say it in front of Duncan.

"Yes," Alice nodded without thinking much, "Shirley said that the captain is very humane!"

Lei Nora: "......?"

Is this how the word "humane" is used?!

But before the Frost Queen could speak, Alice quickly changed the subject: "I'll take you to the room on the ship to rest first... By the way, do you want fish soup?"

Lei Nora didn't know how the topic suddenly jumped to this, and she was stunned for a moment before she spoke: "Uh, no."

Alice was still full of enthusiasm: "The fish soup is delicious! It's a famous dish on this ship!"

"Thank you, but I...may not be able to enjoy it."

"You don't like fish? What about sweet pancakes? The captain likes sweet pancakes the most!"

Lei Nora looked embarrassed: "...but I'm a ghost now."

"...Oh. "