It was a small bag of garbage—a black garbage bag with a dead knot at the mouth, and a small, scratched hole on the side of the bag, in which you could see a flattened paper cup.

Duncan looked at the familiar bag of garbage in a daze, and for a moment there was only confusion and endless questions left in his mind - he had indeed guessed that the "big hole" that appeared inside Alice's Mansion might change one day, and when he heard the headless butler mention the "foreign invasion" just now, he also guessed what kind of strange and indescribable thing would enter this mansion, but the situation in front of him ...... He really didn't think about it.

He threw the bag of garbage — not long ago, when he was vaguely aware that the barrier between himself and his hometown might have been a moat, after he had carefully and carefully cleaned his bachelor apartment, he sorted out the bag and threw it into the black fog outside the door.

Now it appears on the inside of the "Great Hollow" of Alice's Mansion in the form of an "invading foreign body".

Duncan took a complicated and delicate step forward, towards the "invading object".

The huge void at the end of the hallway, left by the disappearance of the room, was like an eerie abyss, the ground and walls at the edge of the hole were shattered like twisted teeth, and the black bag was at the end of the broken ground, frankly...... Duncan even found the scene a little funny.

However, the servants in the mansion were extremely nervous, and the terrible headless butler even exclaimed in a gaffe when he saw Duncan walking forward: "Guest! Don't go too far! It's dangerous! ”

"Dangerous?" Duncan didn't know what to make, he glanced back at the butler, the corners of his mouth twitching, "It's just a bunch of quiet ...... Waste. ”

Yet the stewards and servants still stood at least ten meters away, their humming whispers filled with terror and fear, and even though they were headless, Duncan could feel their blank, confused, eyes that wanted to be snooped but were constantly avoided by fear.

It's like...... What they saw was not a harmless black bag, but something more terrifying, more indescribable.

"Guest...... Guest ......" The headless butler suddenly spoke, his voice low and trembling, "Don't be fooled by appearances, you now slowly keep your distance from it, move towards me, be careful, don't wake up this growing shadow......"

Growing shadows?

Duncan frowned slightly in an instant, as if confirming the "guess" that flashed in his mind just now—what these servants saw was something else?

He looked back at the black bag on the edge of the shattered ground.

At some point, he saw the black plastic bag suddenly "flicker" .......

It was as if a poorly touched monitor screen was suddenly covered by a veil-like layer, and Duncan saw that the thing flickered instantly, and in the extremely brief change of light and shadow, it seemed to ...... It became something else.

Duncan watched it silently, as if expecting more changes in it—and then a second flicker.

This time, he captured the fleeting image.

He saw a trumbling shadow covering the floor not far away, the edges of the shadows trembling and trembling like countless sharp thorns, and a black substance was pouring out from the center of the shadow, where countless eyes and countless mouthpieces were hidden.

However, as long as he looked closely, the thing would immediately turn back into a pile of ordinary "waste", and the strange picture he saw in his trance seemed to be just an illusion staying in the superficial layer of his brain.

Duncan watched this scene in silence, and many speculations gradually converged in his mind, and after some time, he suddenly turned his head to the "butler" and said, "Has there been a 'foreign invasion' here before?" ”

His voice was inexplicably hoarse.

"Occasionally," replied the butler, hastenedly, "the mansion is closed, but for some reason there is always something 'outside' that connects here, and they ...... tends to cause a lot of trouble. ”

"Causing a lot of trouble?" Duncan frowned.

"Yes...... Foreign objects do not belong to the mansion, they are like a disease to the mansion, and the invading material causes some parts of the mansion to decay or distort, and it often takes a long time to recover......"

Duncan listened quietly, thought for a moment, and then asked, "Then what are you going to do with these foreign objects?" ”

"The mansion will 'digest' them on its own," replied the butler, "just wait patiently, the cleaners should be there in a moment, and they should be able to properly dispose of the intruding foreign objects." ”

"Cleaners?" Duncan's tone was puzzled.

"It's part of the mansion, the oldest part, and it's responsible for removing the destructive 'entities' from the mansion, and then the mansion will slowly return to its pre-invasion state...... Ah, it appeared, guest, look—"

The butler suddenly raised his arm and pointed to the ground not far away.

A lump of silt appeared there at some point, slowly wriggling and spreading.

The "sludge" is dull in color, but it has a metallic texture, and its surface seems to be mixed with countless crystal particles, accompanied by slow wriggling, constantly refracting as fine points of light as starlight—it wriggles and spreads, as if consciously slowly approaching the invading "foreign body".

Part of its edge was deformed, forming a tentacle-like extension structure, with which it actively touched and probed forward, and then slowly "covered" itself over the "growing shadow".

Duncan didn't interrupt the process, he just stared at the scene, not letting go of any details.

The "waste" itself was of no value to him, and the key was why the waste was here, the strange phenomenon he had just observed, and the secrets hidden in the mansion.

For him, when he saw that small bag of garbage appear in the mansion, the key information was already there.

Devouring silently, the "molluscs" known as the "Cleanups" soon completely covered the small bag of garbage, and in Duncan's perception, he could faintly feel it...... Something disappeared into the body of the "soft creature" glowing with metallic textures and tiny specks of light.

The servants around him seemed to finally breathe a sigh of relief.

However, in the next second, Duncan saw that the mass of "soft creatures" that had completed devouring suddenly turned slowly, its edges rising and contracting, and it looked like a raised structure of its head was firmly pointing to this side at this moment.

The corridor fell into tension and dead silence for a moment, and all the servants were tense and quiet.

The "Cleaner" squirmed, approaching as slowly as Duncan watched.

Neither kindness nor hostility is felt.

Duncan gradually tensed his nerves, and there was already a faint green flame flowing between his fingers, he was wary of this thing called "The Cleaner", and was already thinking quickly about how to deal with this "mud" and leave this place without destroying this "Alice Mansion" if the other party attacked.

However, the cleaner only stopped about two meters in front of him.

The "mud" stopped in front of Duncan, and the soft structure that diffused and spread out around it was closing little by little, and it seemed to be cautiously observing something, I wonder if it was an illusion......

Duncan even felt that he saw confusion in a mass of slime-like "soft mud".

It's sane, it's trying to observe and understand the uninvited guest in front of it – but it can't understand it.

It is as if the existence of uninvited guests has gone beyond some kind of "logic" built into the mansion.

After a few moments, the Cleanup seemed to end some sort of "loop", abruptly diverting its attention from Duncan, turning around as if nothing had happened, slowly squirming towards a dark corner not far away.

Duncan blinked, looking at the scene in confusion for a long time before turning his head to look at the butler: "What does this mean?" I'm not welcome in this 'cleaner'? ”

"This ...... I haven't encountered it either," the butler's voice was a little confused, "It's the first time I've seen a cleaner have these extra activities after a cleanup, and normally it doesn't stop for more after it's done......"

Duncan frowned, didn't ask more, and instead turned and walked to the edge of the broken hallway, to the place where the cleaners had just performed the "cleanup mission".

The little bag of "garbage" has completely disappeared, and after a strange and mysterious change, it has been decomposed and swallowed by a strange and mysterious force, and there is no trace left.

But how did it get here?

Duncan stood on a broken tile at the edge of the hallway, poking his head out into the endless darkness outside.

For a moment, he even felt like he was about to see his "hut" in the darkness - it might have floated not far away, wrapped in a cloud of mist, like ...... The rest of the world is one of those countless pieces of the old world.

However, he saw nothing, and there was only endless darkness at the end of the hallway, and the large hollow inside Alice's Mansion seemed to lead to anywhere.

The emotional impulse made him almost step outward, to go into the darkness to find the so-called answer, but at the last moment, the power of reason pulled him back.

He instinctively sensed the danger from the endless darkness, and his instincts told him that it was not yet time, and that he could not return from that darkness safely.

"Guest?"

The headless butler's voice came from behind, interrupting Duncan's ramblings.

Duncan exhaled softly, took a step back, and returned to the relatively safe hallway.

"It's time for me to leave," he whispered, "take me back to the garden." ”

In the real world, Duncan blinked suddenly—his senses quickly returned, and he was fully awake within two seconds.

Alice still sat honestly in front of him.

In the real world, still only a split second has passed.

(End of chapter)