The atmosphere around him seemed to have quietly changed - something, some kind of very large "structure", was taking shape near the Lost Land.

Duncan stood on the edge of the aft bridge, keeping an eye on Alice, but suddenly he felt something, and then he and Vanna looked up in unison.

A faint and large-scale "phantom" is slowly emerging in the dim sky and mist.

The phantom seemed to be a mass of fragmented mass loose and loosely aggregated, with a roughly fusiform overall outline, as if it had been torn from some much larger entity, and even the broken connection was faintly discernible in the center!

The scale of the entire phantom can be described as staggering, through the distant fog, Duncan and Fanna can't even tell how big the thing really is, and they don't know how far it is floating in the air, but just the coercion of a phantom already makes people feel breathless.

Vanna stood on the deck as if she had been hit by a petrification spell, looking up at the huge phantom hidden in the clouds and skylight, and it took a long time for her to mutter, "That's ...... What is it?! ”

Duncan suddenly turned his gaze to the puppet holding the steering wheel—he saw that Alice was still standing there quietly, but the puppet's eyes had drooped for some time, and her eyes were half-open and half-closed as if she were about to fall asleep, as if her soul was no longer in this shell.

And countless faint "threads" extend from her body.

Perhaps because of the many times he had shared his "vision", Duncan vaguely saw the almost transparent lines—they hung down from the sky, densely packed, like a giant tree of astonishing structure, or an inverted cone that converged, one end apparently connected to the massive apparition in the sky, and the other end all converged behind the puppet......

Alice felt like she had a long, strange dream, in which she was a ship—a great ship that sailed among the stars.

Carrying the hopes and futures of many people, she set sail from a cocoon of time that was gradually being swallowed up, leaving her home port behind and never docking again.

The stars erupted and extinguished like a tide behind her, the fabric of time and space crumbled in her leaping tracks, and a terrifying phenomenon that seemed to be redshifted chased after her through the collapsing stars like a nightmare in pursuit, and she shuttled through the crumbling world, as if fleeing in a cave that was constantly collapsing and narrowing, and deadly gravitational collapse wells and rampaging ray storms rained down like rocks in a cave......

She kept calculating, she kept correcting, she was looking for a way out among the stars, planning the path out of the "cave of collapse" in the star map that gathered the wisdom of millions of people, every sign on the star map was misaligned, everything in the universe was deviated from its original trajectory, first the position of the stars, then the laws of matter, and then ...... It's the "calculation" itself.

There is no road, there is no road ahead, there is no navigation, the process of "calculation" itself has failed, the shield has collapsed, the structure has dissolved...... Piercing alarms, databases going offline, eco-cabins catching fire...... mental reactions of the "passengers" disappearing into the endless darkness.

Everything ends in a violent flash and explosion.

Then, Pilot-3 woke up in a series of errors - he felt like he had a long, strange dream.

In the dream, he is a doll, a doll who spends his days on a weird ghost ship, cleaning, cooking, doing laundry, and messing around with some strange things......

The ship sailed in a sea of scorching ashes, and even the ship itself seemed to be made of some kind of ash, and several ...... "individuals" who were also from the ashes lived on the ship, and sometimes the ship would dock next to the islands, which were huge masses floating in the ashes, sintered into strange shapes, and maintained an indeterminate "run" in the sea of ashes.

There are so many things on those islands, and there are so many noises, and the ashes mimic the life that has passed, making intellectual sounds, and sometimes, Pilot-3 will feel that those sounds and appearances are somewhat familiar, like some information stored in their own memory bank, and this "familiarity" always makes them a little ...... "sad".

But the "doll" lived happily in that dream, she befriended the ashes, all the ashes were the same in her eyes, she wandered in the incinerated world, as if she had a full "life", she had a body that imitated other ashes, and that shell allowed her to run, jump, and laugh like other ashes.

And in that dream that was covered in ashes, there was only one entity, an individual who was not ashes.

It was a starry sky that never died—a river of stars flowing in a sea of scorching ashes.

Alice/Pilot-3 opened her eyes suddenly.

She found herself floating in the darkness, many hazy silhouettes and lines floating around her, the navigation cabin of the New Hope, the place in her "memory".

"Mr. Goathead? Miss Agatha? ”

Alice looked around with some unease, she remembered what she had been doing, but when the surroundings suddenly fell into darkness, two familiar figures disappeared from view at some point.

"Where have you been?" She cried out in a state of apprehension, taking a step in the darkness, but after a long time there was no response, and then she stopped in some frustration, "I messed things up again?" ”

A light suddenly appeared at the end of the darkness, interrupting her muttering.

Alice looked up in surprise and looked in the direction the light was coming from.

She saw a tall rectangular shadow, a red light like a giant's single eye embedded in the upper part of the shadow, and many flickering lights floating on both sides of and behind the shadow, like countless eyes lurking in the darkness.

Alice froze, subconsciously wanting to walk over to that side—and the moment the thought popped into her, she felt like she was in front of her.

By the time she could react, she was in front of the tall shadow with the red light.

The darkness was like a veil in front of her, making it difficult for her to see the details of the shadows, but she still recognized them quickly—or rather, her part of the Navigator III.

"Pilot II?" She spoke in some surprise, and said unfamiliar names in her own voice, as if she had known each other for a long time.

Pilot III...... Long time no see," the tall rectangular shadow spoke, and the sound seemed to be filled with the noise of interference, "It seems that Pilot One has indeed succeeded...... Although the way the TA is implemented deviates from my calculations, I'm still glad to read your recognition signal again. ”

"You brought me here?" Alice thought for a moment and tried to sort out a problem - she felt a lot of messy thoughts fighting in her head, but luckily she didn't have a brain in her head, or she must have been spoiled by those thoughts, "How am I going to go back?" ”

Pilot 2 was silent for a few seconds.

Alice's reaction seems to have deviated from its "calculations" again.

But soon, the lights flickered again, and the voice of Pilot 2 came to the puppet's ears: "I just wanted to meet you in advance to make sure that your state is stable - the navigation key I made for you is a bold attempt, it is based on my calculation and understanding of the current state of the world, I am not sure if it can really work, after all...... In order to avoid mutual contamination, I have not had direct communication with Pilot-1 for a long time. ”

Alice's eyes widened, listening carefully to what the Pilot 2 told her, and then frowned and thought for a while: "...... What do you mean? ”

Pilot II was silent for a few more seconds, this time, even the red light on its surface dimmed.

Alice didn't rush, just stared at the light in front of her with wide eyes.

After a while, the light finally came back on.

“…… In the last text message it received, PilotOne said that a 'splinter' it had unleashed had found a gifted 'carrier' inside the shelter, enough to carry the backup data you left behind, but why are you running so efficiently now...... Not matching my calculations? ”

Alice thought for a moment and looked at the other party with a serious face: "Are you saying I'm stupid?" ”

Every silence on Pilot 2 was deafening: "......"

"I don't know what you're trying to say, but it sounds like it's related to the Frost Queen's 'copying', right," Alice said casually, of course she wasn't stupid, at least she could still react to it, "I don't know exactly what happened, but the captain said that there was a problem with the operation of the Shadow Saint Lord's clone at the beginning, and the copy target was chosen ...... wrong"

Speaking of this, she stopped and looked at the light with some curiosity: "Is it a big problem?" ”

The red light on the surface of Pilot 2 slowly flickered on and off, as if it was thinking, as if it was simply emptying the thought thread, and after a while, its slightly noisy voice broke the silence: "No, if it's just a navigation mission, it's enough." ”

"Oh, that's good," said Alice, who was immediately glad at this, "the captain put me at the helm, and I was worried that I wouldn't be able to do it well—just enough to get the job done." ”

“…… Don't you feel sorry? The red light dimmed slightly, "You've forgotten a lot of things, you used to have the fastest processing speed and multi-threaded responsiveness in us, you were used to measure the scale of the entire universe, but now you're trapped in such a ...... in the shell. ”

Alice blinked.

There was always something inexplicable about what the other party said, but she felt as if she was ...... Understood.

So this time, before answering, she thought hard.

"I don't think," she shook her head after a long time, "I couldn't find the road before, and now I know where it is, so I don't regret it—and I have so much to do every day, and I can't care about regrets." ”

The red lights of Pilot 2 faded and then brightened.

It also seemed to be thinking, and after a while it responded: "If that's the case, that's fine too." ”

In the darkness, the tall rectangular shadow seemed to be fading.

"Are you leaving?" Alice hurriedly asked.

“…… This is just a temporary communication established with the help of the navigation key, I can't communicate with the outside world for long," in the dark, the voice of the Pilot 2 has begun to be a little blurred, "We'll meet again, it's a pleasure...... Read your identification signal again. ”

Alice laughed happily.

She didn't know exactly what was going on, but she could feel that she was happy.

The captain said that it is good to be happy.

"Then we'll see you later," she said, waving vigorously at the growing darkness, "I'll go to you with the captain and the rest of you!" ”

There was no response in the darkness, only a short buzz.

(End of chapter)