Off the coast of Breeze, where the glow of the "glowing geometry" could shine, the fog condensed on the surface of the sea, and the massive ghost ship was hidden in the fog, slowly cruising the sea.

A faint green flame flickered through the thick fog.

The flame door slammed open on the deck of the Lost Country, and the figures of Duncan and Alice stepped out of it.

The familiar deck, the familiar mast, the familiar sail of the spirit, although he had only been away for a short time, Duncan couldn't help but feel a sense of relief when he returned to the Lost Land, looking at these familiar scenes on the ship, feeling the salty smell of the sea breeze blowing across the deck, he exhaled slowly, feeling his mind gradually calm down.

At the same time, he subconsciously recalled the "illusion" he had seen last night when he was exploring the huge vines, and recalled the strange Lost Land that sailed in the dark fog-

The scene in the memory and the scene in front of me naturally overlapped, as if they were indistinguishable from each other.

“…… It's exactly the same......" he muttered softly.

"Huh?" Alice's voice immediately sounded from the side, "What exactly is the same?" ”

Duncan shook his head, and glanced at this simple doll that although he didn't know what to do, but just wanted to follow him, he couldn't help but have a smile on his face.

"I'm going to the captain's room to talk to the 'first mate', you can do your own thing first."

"Oh, good!" Alice nodded immediately, "Then I'll go to the kitchen to process the marinated fish and air-dried meat before, Shirley and Nina said they wanted to eat it~~"

With that, Miss Doll waved her hand to Duncan and happily walked in the direction of the kitchen—evidently feeling better as soon as she returned to the Lost Land.

But then again, she always seems to be happy, happy on the boat, and happy when she goes into the city - Alice always seems to have only two emotions in her head: "happy" and "happier"?

Looking at Miss Doll's brisk back, the corners of Duncan's mouth also curled slightly, and then he shook his head, straightened the expression on his face, and then turned and walked to the aft deck.

The door to the captain's quarters appeared in front of him, and Duncan stopped in front of it and looked up at the doorframe.

The line of words "The Gate of the Lost" catches the eye, simple and powerful, and the notches are concave, as if revealing the breath of eternal years.

Duncan stared silently at the words on the doorframe—the only difference between the "Strange Lost Land" sailing in the dark fog and the ship under his feet at the moment seemed to be the text on the door of the captain's room.

Of course, there may be other differences between the two ships, and there are more clues in the differences, but he has not yet had time to discover those differences due to the haste of the last contact, and the only thing he can be sure of now is that the "Gate of the Lost" presents different details on the two ships.

The "Gate of the Lost" is extremely special - even if it is placed on the Lost Number, which is full of anomalies and evil gates, this door is extremely special.

It was Duncan's only "path" back to his bachelor apartment, and a checkpoint for the ship to verify the "captain's authority", the words on its doorframe did not belong to any known language, but anyone could read it when they saw it, even if it was Alice, who was illiterate at the time, or a native of a remote city-state who only knew remote and obscure characters.

And on different "versions" of the "Lost Country", this door will also take on a variety of states - in the real world, this door can lead to the "bachelor apartment", in the subspace, behind this door is an eerie dark space, in the fog, the text on this door is rewritten to "May he wander in dreams" - a familiar and strange "goat's head", sleeping in that door.

…… What is this so-called "Gate of the Lost"?

With questions and thoughts in his heart, Duncan reached out and opened the door to the captain's room.

In the flickering light, there was the familiar sailing table and shelf, the goat's head on the edge of the table was creaking and moving, turning its head to this side, and after seeing Duncan's figure, the eyes carved from obsidian seemed to light up, and a pleasant and noisy voice came to Duncan's ears: "Oh! The Great Captain is back with his loyal Lost Land! Greetings to you with the following omissions of your loyalty! I didn't expect you to come back so soon, was it still a pleasure to stay in the city? Are you worried about things on the ship, or are you coming back ......"

"I have something I want to talk to you about." Duncan walked over to the nautical table and said in a very solemn tone.

The captain's solemn words suddenly stopped the noise behind the goat's head, and the strange black wood carving creaked, twisting its neck like a person standing upright in an instant, as if trying to make a serious appearance, and its voice couldn't help but carry a trace of nervousness: "Captain, what's going on?" Something happened to Breezehaven too? ”

Duncan sat down at the nautical table, his eyes first fell on the charts on the table, and he saw the familiar fog and routes, and then he heard the words of the goat's head, and immediately frowned: "Why do you use 'also'?" ”

"Both Plant and Frost had an accident before......"

Duncan stared into the goat's head's eyes: "You say that I seem to be a mobile scourge. ”

The goat's head seemed to be a little stunned: "...... Isn't it? ”

"I've been working hard to improve the official image of the Lost on the Infinite Sea, and with great success in Prand and Frost, and now the leaders of both city-states have been very kind to me, and I have not received any complaints or complaints from any of them—as my first mate, I hope you will see our business with a development perspective," Duncan said, waving his hand, "Of course, I'm not here to talk to you about this today, I want to know what you were up to last night." ”

"Last night?" The goathead was stunned for a moment, not knowing why the topic suddenly turned in this direction, but he quickly replied, "I was watching this ship last night as you told me, we have been drifting away from the official shipping routes, and we have been taking care to hide ourselves with fog so as not to scare the fussies......"

Duncan was not surprised by this answer.

Because judging from his communication with the "weird goat head" last night, the other party didn't know him, and the two goat heads were obviously not the same.

But there must be something else between them.

After a moment of thought, he broke the silence again: "I want to know something about you—your origins, your past, and your ...... Essence. ”

His tone was extremely serious, his expression was extremely serious, and his slightly leaning forward body seemed to release some kind of wordless oppression.

He chose to discuss the matter with his "first mate" in the most straightforward way, rather than choosing to conduct a covert investigation or side-by-side cross-examination.

He didn't need these means - at least on this ship, he already knew the rules of the Lost Country, and also summed up his "rules" of words and deeds here, in fact, he already knew that as long as he didn't take that too dangerous step, then whether it was the goat's head or the Lost Land, it would be in some kind of "stable" state, just like ...... Some sort of "containment" method.

Anomalies cannot be "contained" like anomalies, but there are always anomalies and anomalies in this world that are beyond the "law": Anomaly 005-Lost is in some kind of containment state - Duncan himself is the ship's containment conditions.

The goat's head seemed frightened.

It had become accustomed to the gentle and friendly nature of the Captain, and it knew that despite his terrible side, the Captain had always been a reliable and kind man when it came to his own people on the ship, and now Duncan's attitude and questions made it feel a certain ...... Disturbed.

“…… Why are you asking these all of a sudden? It subconsciously spoke.

"I didn't ask because I didn't need to know about it before," Duncan said slowly, "and now that something has happened, there is a strange phenomenon related to you in Breeze, and I have to ask you about it." ”

The goat's neck swayed slightly from side to side, as if to relieve the tension.

Duncan was still staring into its eyes as he slowly pressed his hand to the sailing table.

Wisps of dark green flames spread from the palms of the hands, seeping into the floor and walls of the captain's quarters, seeping into every crevice of the entire ship, and a low creaking sound came from the depths of the cabin, as if the "atmosphere" of the whole ship was ...... are quietly changing.

"I'm Duncan Abnomar, the captain of this ship," Duncan began, his voice low as if he had gone back to the day when he first took the helm, emphasizing his identity to the whole ship, "I'm in charge of this ship, and I'm sailing on the endless seas, and I'm asking my first mate as captain that it's just a casual conversation — the ship won't sink back into subspace, and nothing else will change in this conversation, because I'm Duncan Abnomar, the captain of this ship." ”

Blazing green flames rose from all over Duncan's body, his body turning into an illusory and terrifying spirit in the flames, and his voice seemed to echo throughout the ship—

"My first mate, where the hell are you from?"

The goat's head raised its head and calmly met Duncan's gaze: "I'm from subspace. ”

"What about exactly? Subspace is an overly general concept, and you know that's not what I'm asking about. ”

"Subspace is a general concept, and it is the only concept, subspace has no 'place', captain, there is no past and no future in subspace," replied the goathead, which seemed to have no hesitation and no more hesitation in its answer, "I don't know where I came from, I don't know what happened in the past, you want to know my 'essence' - but even I don't know my 'essence', I ...... I don't even remember. ”

"And what do you remember?"

The goat's head fell silent suddenly, and under Duncan's gaze, it fell to a standstill as if it had become a real wood sculpture, and it was not long before it suddenly regained its activity, and a hoarse and muffled voice came from its throat: "'Remember them.'" ”

"Remember them?" Duncan was suddenly stunned, his brow furrowed, "What does this mean?" ”

The goat's head shook his head slightly: "I don't know, but it's the only thing I remember." I'm going to remember them, I have to remember them, but ...... I don't know who they are, I really ...... I don't remember. ”

(End of chapter)