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

First, before the Great Annihilation occurs, before the end of the world falls on those "old worlds", a dark crimson like dark blood will first appear in the sky—its "essence" is reflected in the depths of the universe, but it does not follow the laws of optics, and it can be seen at a specific location in the sky at any point on the planet, and this position will not change with the rotation of the planet, as if it is directly reflected in the observer's vision or mind.

Second, the red light does not seem to show any direct "destructiveness", it is more like a "phenomenon" or "characteristic" produced by the universe itself during the apocalyptic phase, which is a manifestation of the collapse rather than the collapse itself.

Third, the end of the world does not happen and ends instantly, the entire destruction process will last for a certain period of time, and the process of the end of the world is accompanied by the increase of various strange phenomena and the continuous distortion and mutation of "rules", until the underlying laws of the world can no longer withstand this distortion, so 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 crucial.

The end did not happen instantly, which meant that the person before the end had enough time to observe the appearance of the "red light" - but in his memory, he had never seen the crimson color.

He had been trapped in the "bachelor apartment" overnight, and he hadn't seen any weird red lights or paranormal phenomena before that, and he hadn't seen anything outside the window since.....

A bachelor apartment?

Duncan's memories suddenly froze, and after a moment, his brow furrowed slightly.

My own "bachelor apartment..... What is it?

He has always thought that the opposite side of the door of the homeless is his hometown, outside his bachelor apartment, in the depths of the thick fog, there are still bustling people on the earth, ordinary and peaceful daily life, he is just trapped in a room, separated from his hometown by a wall - but with the emergence of the "moon" and the gradual verification of the "world convergence theory", this possibility has actually approached zero infinitely.

If he had a hunch about it, it was clear that it had been verified now - he knew he couldn't go back.

But it was only now that another question suddenly occurred to him: if the opposite side of the Door of the Lost was not his hometown, then what was the essence of his remaining "bachelor apartment"?

Whenever I "go back" myself..... Where did the "return" go?

Duncan frowned tightly, and in the faint "sunlight" that filled the window, his mind suddenly appeared with the longsword, and the living metal that was once a "human.....

"Another part of the world fragment..... his expression became more complicated, "the nature of the world fragment..... What the hell is it?"

Disturbed by thoughts, memories and speculations fluctuating in his mind, Duncan paced slowly through the room, calming and organizing his thoughts in this way, and then he returned to his desk, pulled a piece of paper from the side, and sketched a pattern on it casually—he didn't think of writing or drawing, just sketching lines and scribbling patterns over and over again.

Then, suddenly, he stopped.

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

It's like looking at a hometown that is close in front of you, but you can never go back.

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 most simple and simple ideas, and in a sense, what she said is actually right.

The hometown was here, but it was not all of it, nor was Duncan familiar, it was just a small fragment, and like the "warrior" that had been reduced to living metal—it had long since become something incomprehensible.

Duncan subconsciously stretched out his finger and touched it on the paper

"Moon," as if asking someone, whispered to herself, "yes, what's left.....

Duncan's distraction was interrupted by the sound of flapping wings, and the chubby white dove fell from the roof of a nearby closet, and it staggered up to Duncan, tilted its head, and then lowered its head and pecked at the moon drawn on the paper with its beak.

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

It stopped abruptly and continued to tilt its head to look at Duncan.

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

"Aye, Ay—Ay, Ay—" The pigeon flapped its wings and made a loud, strange sound, "Aye—"

Duncan's eyes widened suddenly, and he reached out and grabbed Ae's body, but then quickly relaxed a little, as if he was afraid that he would accidentally pinch the little "creature" to death, he felt his breathing become short, his heart pounding, and the pigeon in his palm tilted his head and looked at this side with a dull-looking expression.

Duncan finally opened his mouth; 「..... Say?" The pigeon nodded, "Coo."

Duncan hesitated for a moment, then changed to a more accurate pronunciation: "..... IE？」 The pigeon nodded quickly, "Coo."

Duncan inhaled softly: "....?"

The pigeon drew its wings hard and flapped it even harder, and at this moment, it seemed to be more excited than ever, and even seemed to have a myriad of more excited words to say.

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

Duncan opened his hand lightly, watching the fat pigeon happily walk up and down the table, stopping and tilting his head from time to time, curiously observing his "master", and the mung bean's eyes seemed to be forever twinkling with the loss of the network connection and the unresponsiveness of the process—after a long time, he finally sighed softly, and a complicated smile appeared on his face.

It turns out that the answer is written on the question from the beginning.

This stupid bird is another small piece of residue left behind from his suddenly extinguished hometown.

I can't go back, I really can't go back.

Duncan sat quietly in his chair, like a stone statue, for a long time without any movement, without any expression, without making a sound.

It took me some time before he blinked as if he had suddenly come to life, and then began to think—or rather, force himself to keep thinking:

If Ay is really Internet Explorer, what exactly should be its "source"? What are those codes? Is it the huge amount of data that has been accumulated? Is it the myriad of hardware that once powered Internet Explorer? Or is it an abstract description behind the word?

Or..... It symbolizes a fleeting flash of fire in the development of a certain civilization. Perhaps the fragment of the world does not necessarily correspond to some kind of "entity", and it may even be a vast concept—an abstract concept from real existence.

So is this conjecture also true in reverse?

Will the entities that did exist in the "Old World" survive in the form of "abstract concepts" in the deep-sea age after the Great Annihilation? Now the countless anomalous visions on this boundless sea, as well as the countless intangible things and forbidden knowledge that surround them, they are ...... What was it ever?

And most importantly, what is the rationale behind these changes? What is the Great Annihilation, and the nature of that red light?

With new answers came new questions, one question after another, as if never reaching the end of the truth, and Duncan felt as if his mind had reached a dead end, and it was impossible for him to find a way to go deeper until more clues appeared.

And at this moment, a soft knock on the door suddenly came

A sound came from behind him, just interrupting his deeper, more difficult thoughts.

Duncan quickly came back to his senses, he sensed the breath outside the door, so he breathed a sigh of relief, calming his mood a little: "Come in, Alice."

The door opened, and the Doll Girl entered, holding a large plate with Duncan's missed dinner.

"Captain," Alice's tone was a little worried, "you haven't had dinner."

For some reason, just seeing Alice's seemingly innocent expression made Duncan feel his chaotic mind calmed down a lot.

He smiled, "Thanks, put it on the table."

"Oh," Alice casually put down the plate, and then quickly added, "Don't worry, these are very normal foods, according to the taste of ordinary people—Nina said that the 'traditional food' in this place is not for human consumption.....

As she spoke, she looked up at Duncan's expression again, "Are you alright?" "I'm fine now," Duncan let out a long sigh of relief as he sorted out the questions he had just figured out, a smile growing on his face, "Indeed, there is so much to gain..... It's supposed to be happy."

"Oh," Alice listened half-incomprehensibly, but she did feel that the captain's mood really seemed to be getting better, so she put her mind at ease, "They're a little worried about you, so let me come up and take a look, you're okay."

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

In this big house, there are indeed many people who are always worried about his "state", and these worries are varied, perhaps only the puppet in front of him who usually looks simple..... The worry about him is never mixed with a single impurity.

If I had to say, Nina might be something else.

With emotion in his heart, Duncan shook his head with a smile, and then suddenly thought of something else.

"Alice," he said, turning his gaze to the goth doll's eyes, "there's something I need your help with."

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

Duncan nodded, reached into his pocket, and pulled out the brass key that had kept him with him.

"Alice, I'm going to use this key again." "Okay!"