Duncan strolled to the edge of the deck of the White Oak and peered out into the sea below.

At this moment, the White Oak and the Lost Land have both withdrawn from the spirit realm, and on the calm and blue normal sea, the water around the White Oak is as clear as a mirror, and the Black Oak, which is shrouded in fog and darkness, is reflected in the water like a shadow, and there are faint lights in the depths of the dark and hazy shadow.

After a long time, Duncan withdrew his gaze from the sea, and said softly with a hint of exclamation: "Interesting phenomenon, Lawrence, you have experienced an incredible adventure. ”

"Indeed······ It's incredible," replied Lawrence, standing aside, with a respectful and cautious attitude, "I've been living on this sea for decades, and I've seen many incredible things, but Frost's experience is far greater than ever, but anyway, I've brought Martha back, and it's worth the risk."

"Your wife, Martha—what is her current state? How did the two ships that the two of you each controlled establish a relationship? ”

"She and her Black Oak are now the shadow of the White Oak," Lawrence replied honestly, "As you can see, she's on that reflected ship, but if the situation calls for it, the Black Oak can also enter the real world as a phantom, sail with the White Oak, or have the two ships light and shadow reversed, in which case we can sail through the depths of the spirit realm and avoid real-world obstacles - we did this once when we were passing through the Frost Perimeter War Zone, and it worked well." ”

"What your wife told you? I mean, these ······ Skill. ”

"Yes," Lawrence nodded, "Martha has been wandering in the mirror space beneath the surface of the frosty sea for more than a decade, she knows many things, and in her previous actions, she was our guide. ”

Duncan didn't speak for a while, just quietly looked at the reflection below, and after a long time, he suddenly broke his silence: "Can I talk to her alone?" ”

Lawrence was stunned for a moment, and a hint of surprise appeared in his expression, followed by nervousness and hesitation: "This ······ Excuse me······"

"Don't worry, I just need to know each and every one of my men, the Black Oak is a little weird, but there is no ship on this sea more weird than the Lost Country, and I'm very tolerant in this regard - provided that the Black Oak can't have secrets."

Lawrence breathed a sigh of relief at this time, and although he still hesitated, he still nodded: "Okay, I'll arrange it, and talk to Martha by the way." ”

Duncan bowed slightly, then turned his head to look not far away.

Alice and the "sailor" were squatting on the deck over there, and the two "people" were excitedly playing with a small wooden stick that they had caught out of nowhere, and they were discussing whether the insect had a soul or not—

Alice thought no, because she could not see the threads on the worms, and the "sailor" insisted, because he had heard that there were bugs in Bartók's garden, and he even thought that there would be "little gatekeepers" as big as bugs, who would be responsible for bringing the souls of dead mosquitoes to their resting places in the summer, and biting those buried in June and July

·······

Both "people" were bluffed by each other. This scene is like two mentally retarded.

If you look at it more, you will feel that your brain is being polluted.

Duncan silently watched the undisturbed scene on the deck, and Lawrence next to him also watched silently, and after a long time, Duncan shook his head: "Let them play." ”

“······ I think so, it's better than continuing to hang on the flagpole and cry wolf. ”

Soon, Lawrence ordered an undisturbed room to be prepared on the White Oak, and a large mirror was set up in the room.

After the unrelated personnel had left, Duncan turned and stared silently at the one-man tall mirror. "I'm going to talk to you." He said to the mirror.

In the next second, the mirror became pitch black, as if a thick ink-like fluid suddenly covered the entire mirror, and in the depths of the darkness, a mass of rising and shrinking shadows gradually formed an outline.

A woman in a white shirt, brown waistcoat, and trousers stepped out of the shrunken shadows.

"I heard Lawrence say that you want to talk to me alone," the lady said to the mirror, calmly responding to Duncan's gaze, "it seems······ You noticed. ”

"There are so many impurities, overlapping shadows obscuring details that don't belong to the Black Oak, but it's not enough to hide my flames," Duncan said slowly, then reached out and grabbed a chair from the side, and he sat on it, looking at the figure in the mirror—and the vast darkness behind the figure, tangled like some kind of phantom curtain, "How much does "Martha" have? ”

“······ Less than one in a thousand. ”

"One thousandth, a tiny number," Duncan stared at the other man, and the massive, chaotic "hybrid" met his gaze calmly, "Even so, you still think of yourself as Martha, and you look ······ You really have a 'self-identity' with this identity. ”

"Because 'Martha' is the only complete personality in it," replied the 'female adventurer' in the mirror, "without personality support, memories are pale scrolls, and flipping through them is not enough to form a 'self', and the vast and chaotic memories have been reconstituted countless times in blind disorder, and in the end, I think 'Martha' is the only 'representative' who can manage it all—I need to be Martha, and Martha needs to exist." ”

"So, you're a hybrid, and you're a lot more mixed than you tell Lawrence, and a fair portion of the minds that have fallen into that sea over the last fifty years have flowed into your "body," or to put it another way······ Are you devouring those minds? ”

"Devouring······ It's a very offensive statement, but I don't think so, I've never devoured anything, I'm not interested in souls, it's the great power in the depths of the mirror space that is devouring everything, and the "memories" that make up me are just the residues left behind after being crushed by that huge force, and the tiny tributaries will come together, like a cloud of dust, and I don't exist before the fragments, but those fragments coalesce into me, Martha, just a ghost awakened from the fragments, Hindsight took on the role of the undertaker. ”

"The residue left behind after crushing······" Duncan frowned, "Why wasn't Martha crushed?" ”

"Because Lawrence has come to this sea," a smile appeared on the female adventurer in the mirror, "he is favored by you, and so is Martha." ”

Duncan didn't speak, he fell into a long thought, and it was a long time before he thoughtfully broke the silence: the world in the mirror is discontinuous······"

"Yes, the world in the mirror is discontinuous, the space is discontinuous, and time is not continuous - the ending was born before the beginning, you made Martha, and Martha is now answering your questions."

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief.

"A huge mix of data······ That explains why you know so much," he pulled back the subject, "not just because you've been in that mirror space long enough, but because you've contained enough 'memories'······ So back to the topic at the beginning, is less than 1 in 1,000 "Martha" really enough to support your stable personality and allow you to maintain your current self-perception forever? Will there come a time when you, the undertaker's personality, will be drowned in the vast sea of memories, will you forget your name and become a chaotic, massive, dangerous ghost? ”

The female adventurer raised her gaze, and in her calm expression, she seemed to muster great courage: "Like you once were?" ”

"No, I went further than you did, and subspace was a deeper and darker place than the mirror world—so I was more dangerous than you at the time," Duncan didn't care about the other party's bold statement, but maintained his usual calm tone, "So, I know better how harmful an out-of-control revenant can be—even if it's a little safer than I was." ”

The female adventurer in the mirror fell silent for a moment.

After a long time, she suddenly spoke: "Do you think I can be counted as "Martha" now?" Duncan thought for a few seconds.

Martha is only one thousandth of this vast mixture, but for the personality who recognizes herself as "Martha", this mixture contains 100% of her.

It seems that this huge hybrid is "who" it is, and what kind of state its future personality will be, seems to be completely in a state of "uncertainty" - there is a probability of losing control, but there is no doubt about its current personality and self-perception.

Duncan fell into a brief hesitation, but at the moment when the hesitation just appeared, a picture that seemed to be real and illusory suddenly appeared in his mind-

The sea breeze is gentle and the waves are gentle.

He stood on the water, and the blue waves spread under his feet.

There are fish jumping out of the water in the bright sun, and the fish swim in the surrounding air. He lowered his head and looked at his feet.

The slowly rippling surface of the water looks crystal clear, but its depths seem to be shrouded in mist, and it is difficult to see through the real and the false.

And something new leaped out of the water, and swam around him. They are fish.

Duncan suddenly woke up and looked at the mirror in front of him.

The shadows in the mirror squirmed and squirmed, as if waiting for an answer.

“······ Lady Martha, "After a long time, Duncan finally broke his silence, "Welcome to the Lost Fleet." ”

The chaos and chaos, the unintangible, uncontoured, contagious darkness suddenly contracted, and once again transformed into a female adventurer in a white shirt, brown waistcoat, and trousers.

The shadows behind her had calmed down.

At the same time, on the deck of the White Oak, Lawrence, who was watching the puppet Alice and the dried corpse "sailor" poke the worm like a temporary guardian, also looked down at his body suspiciously.

The uncontrolled rise and spread of green flames were rapidly converging, and the body that had been passively maintaining its ghost form since three days ago was also rapidly recovering, and in his perception, those "ghost fires" that would be activated from time to time for inexplicable reasons seemed to be truly calmed down for the first time and became a controllable part of his body.

It seems that some kind of "stimulus" that causes the frequent passive activation of the spirit fire has suddenly disappeared. “······ Controlled? ”

Lawrence blinked, muttering to himself in some confusion.