When Duncan and Vanna arrived at the aft bridge, Miss Doll was crouching next to the rudder, huddled together with a pile of ropes and buckets, muttering to him—Duncan leaned in and listened for a while, and realized that it was the puppet who was counseling the barrel.

The main content of the guidance is "Although I can't drive a boat, don't panic, after all, I don't know much about sailing, because I said I can't sail."

Duncan felt that it was a mistake to leave the puppet alone on the bridge, and now he felt that the whole ship was already nervous.

At this time, Alice finally noticed Duncan standing aside, and the puppet quickly stood up from between a pile of barrels and ropes, and beckoned happily: "Captain!" You're finally here! ”

"Hmm," Duncan nodded briefly with a strained face, looking at the puppet with a serious look as he looked at the debris around him as they moved off the platform in all sorts of strange ways, "what, still feeling nervous?" ”

"Sort of," Alice nodded a little reservedly, but then a smile appeared in her eyes, "but it's a lot better now!" I just talked to my friends and found that they are quite nervous, so I am not so nervous......"

Vanna looked at the doll with strange eyes: "...... Do you know why they're nervous? ”

"I don't know," Alice said, tilting her head with a straight face, "they didn't tell me, but they said they would be optimistic." ”

Vanna was dumbfounded, and Duncan sighed with a long-accustomed expression, and then waved his hand at the puppet: "Don't think about it so much, don't worry, Goathead and I will monitor the situation on the ship throughout the whole process, saying that it is to put you at the helm, but it is only to complete a 'symbolic' process." Remember what I told you before? ”

Hearing the captain talk about business, the expression on Alice's face finally became serious, and she quickly recalled her experience with the captain in the "Alice Mansion", and recalled the feeling in her heart when she held the "drawing board" in that strange black fog hall, and then nodded to the captain with a serious face: "I remember everything, you let me remember that feeling...... When you hold the steering wheel in your hand, you think of it as your 'drawing board' and 'tell' all the information in your memory, right? ”

"This is based on feedback from the Lost Country when the Mariner is at the helm," Duncan nodded slightly, "but we are not sure if the Lost Country can 'understand' your instructions, after all, you and the Mariner are not the same thing." ”

"Mm-hmm, I understand," Alice nodded repeatedly, "so we need to do a test first, right, and wait until I'm sure I can actually connect with this ship before we actually leave this place." ”

Duncan nodded silently, and as he led Vanna to the edge of the bridge, he checked the status of the Lost Country again, communicating with the slightly restless "consciousness" of the ship in his heart, and only after confirming that the Lost Country was ready, he bowed slightly to the puppet next to the rudder: "You can start, Alice." ”

Alice's expression tensed, she took a half step forward and took a deep breath - however, the puppet didn't need to breathe, so she just imitated the action of someone else taking a deep breath to signal that she was calm.

The dark rudder stood silently in front of her, silently confronting her.

The puppet thought about it, and still felt that it was a very strange thing - although she was not very smart, she usually thought about many things, and even in her most wild imagination, she had never assumed such a scene: she was standing in this place, like the captain of the ship, touching the steering wheel of the Lost Country.

But this was what the captain told her to do, and what the captain said must be right.

Alice was nervous, fearful, but never suspicious—she reached out without hesitation, and grasped the steering wheel, which was as dark as night and looked extraordinarily heavy.

In this moment, the world through the eyes of the puppet ...... Turned upside down.

Alice's "eyes" widened, and she clearly felt that she had lost her sense of her body.

She lost her body...... No, she now has another "body".

She felt herself floating on the sea, surrounded by a chaotic mist, cold, calm waters soaking every inch of her hull, the dim light of the sky shining on her deck, and invisible sails curling in the spirit realm, waiting for the command to set sail.

She became the Lost Ship, she was the ship itself, she was its rudder, its sails, its decks and cables—endless threads of silk wound around the ship, like the strings that manipulate the dolls, like human nerves, like countless thoughts flowing through the mind.

She was amazed at the changes in her "body", the close connection between those "threads" and herself, and suddenly, she seemed to understand something that she had been ignoring all along:

The Lost Country has a soul.

Then of course it's wired.

It's just that it has been hiding its "line" - only now, with the permission of the captain, has it seen the "line" on the ship.

Alice was overjoyed, and her consciousness began to flow through this massive new body, "running around" with complete novelty, and she found that there were still many areas of the ship that she could not feel or see, including the captain's bedroom, and part of the structure of the bottom of the ship, but even if she removed these parts, she discovered many secrets of the ship that she had never seen before—some rooms she had not yet "explored", some locked cabins, some corridors and mezzanine that only the captain knew......

But suddenly, Alice's cheerful and rushing consciousness felt an oncoming resistance, and in the midst of an illusory roar, she stopped in this "boat-like web" of countless threads, and something knocked her to a halt head-on—or maybe two.

The doll stopped blankly, and in the depths of the dimly woven space of countless threads, she saw a ...... Goat's head.

The goat's head floated somewhere, looking at her with a bewildered expression.

She also looked at the goat's head with a confused expression.

"What's that!?" After a few seconds of confrontation, the floating, phantom-like translucent goat's head finally let out a strange scream.

"Mr. Goathead!" Alice became happy, and wanted to raise her hand to greet the other as usual, but suddenly remembered that she was now just a simple consciousness wandering in a new body, so she shouted in a loud voice, "The captain has put me at the helm!" ”

"I know you're at the helm," the goathead looked at the puppet with a confused expression, he was monitoring the situation of the entire ship as usual at the moment, but he never expected that a "thing" would suddenly appear in the "spirit" of the Lost Country, and he looked down curiously, and ran into the puppet who didn't know how to go on a rampage, "But why are you here?" ”

"I don't know," Alice said, with a straight face, "isn't that what helming is all about?" And why are you here? ”

“…… I've been with this ship for a century, why do you think I'm here? The goat's eyes widened suddenly, looking at the puppet in front of him that seemed to be a phantom light in its perception, "And who told you that this is how to be at the helm?" The man at the helm usually doesn't burrow his soul into the soul of a ship! And you're on a rampage, and you're not afraid of hitting people......"

Alice was stunned for a moment, and her brain suddenly had a flash of inspiration: "Under normal circumstances, will you bump into people in the 'soul' of the ship?" ”

Goathead: "......"

"But I did hit someone," Alice said with an awkward smile before the goathead could react, "and I think it wasn't just you who hit me...... I always feel like there's a flashing dark shadow......"

She was just halfway through her muttering, when she suddenly heard a weak and resentful voice from the void: "It's my ......"

Alice was startled, and saw that the dark chaos around her was indeed scattered one after another strange shadows, those shadows seemed to be scattered fragments floating in the depths of countless silk threads and the hazy shadows of the Lost Homeland, and after a while, the largest fragment suddenly wriggled for a moment, and then many large and small shadows began to quickly converge and reshape.

A figure rose from the shadows—Agatha straightened her adventurer's coat, rubbed her face again, and then stared at the puppet.

"You're just running over me! Hit me with a smash! It's rare for a good-natured janitor lady to be so resentful, "Is there such a rampage of you?" ”

Alice looked at Agatha in a daze, then turned her head to look at the goat's head next to her, and finally, after the captain, she became the second crew member on the ship to know the strange and colorful life conditions of the "first mate" and "lookout".

At this point, she decided to be happy: "...... Hey. ”

Goathead and Agatha lost their temper in an instant.

Then their attention turned to Alice.

"Where are you now...... It's incredible," Agatha glanced up and down at the doll, who had become a "part" of the Lost Country, and with the professionalism of a former gatekeeper, she carefully observed Alice's "mental apparition," "So, this is what your 'essence' looks like?" Or rather...... Closer to the essence? ”

Alice thought for a moment, "What do you mean?" ”

“…… It means that your usual shell has been suppressing and restraining you, and now the more powerful 'carrier' of the Lost Country has given you a certain degree of 'freedom'," Agatha is also used to Alice's appearance, and she is very patient with her explanation, "Don't you feel it?" ”

Alice finally understood, and the hazy light with her appearance floated in the void, and made a happy voice: "Yes, it feels light and comfortable, but it always feels ......"

"Still?" Goathead and Agatha spoke in unison.

"I always feel ...... What's wrong," Alice hesitated and paused, muttering as she slowly raised her head, "It's not my body, that's ...... Is. ”

Goathead and Agatha were stunned for a moment, then turned their gaze upwards in unison.

A vast, fragmented illusion far larger than the hazy apparition of the Lost Land had somehow hung upside down over the chaos.

“…… it! ”

(End of chapter)