Chapter 61: Across the Door

Chapter 61 Across the Door

This door leads to the Lost Country.

The letters on the door frame were cast in brass, looking as if they had already passed through a century of time, and under the illumination of the Spirit Flame Lamp and the chaotic shimmering light that pervaded the entire cabin, every line on the letters seemed to be coated with a layer of frozen time, permeated with a flavor of antiquity and mystery.

Duncan stared at the line of letters for several seconds, turned his head without expression and left.

Alice’s voice immediately came from the side: “Hey? Captain, are we leaving now? Doesn’t this door need to be checked? Even if you don’t open it, you can ……”

“There’s nothing left to see, this is the end of the bilge.” Duncan said casually.

But just then, a slight knocking sound came out of nowhere, stopping him in his tracks.

Duncan turned his head and looked at Alice, who had fallen behind him, who in turn looked around nervously for a moment before finally turning her head to the dark, heavy wooden door, “The sound seems to be coming from behind this door ……”

Duncan stopped where he was, gazing gravely at the wooden door from which the knocking sound suddenly came, and he waited patiently for several seconds before he suddenly heard two more knocks coming from it – the knocks were faint and muffled, as if they were separated by a layer of extremely thick curtain, as if the door was wrapped in something intangible, but by no means illusory.

After a short but intense weighing, he finally returned to the door, and Alice followed suit, nervously watching for any movement that might come next.

Duncan, carrying a lantern in one hand and gripping his longsword tightly in the other, scrutinized the dark and dreary wooden door in front of him, and it was at that moment that he suddenly realized that the door wasn’t in fact completely closed – on the side of the door, one could see a crack of roughly a centimeter or so.

The door was closed, as if someone had forgotten to close it after leaving in a hurry, or as if some “thing” inside had deliberately left a gap, attracting blind people to visit.

Duncan picked up his lamp and cautiously shone it inside, his eyes peering through the doorway to see what was across the way – his other hand already had his longsword pressed against the doorway, ready to stab at whatever ‘thing’ came through.

However, he never expected to see what he saw…

Across the doorway was a room.

It was a small room that looked as if it had been there for some years, the wallpaper on the wall looked dull and wrinkled, the slightly messy furnishings seemed to have not been properly cleaned up for a long time, and facing the door there was a single bed, and next to the bed there was also a table, on which there was a computer, books and a small ornament.

A tall and thin figure is in front of the desk to study, the figure wearing an ordinary stall to buy a white shirt, hair messy lack of care, obviously do not exercise the body looks a little thin.

Duncan’s eyes stared through the doorway at all that was familiar “over there”, at the room, at the figure who was writing, who seemed to suddenly sense something, who stopped writing, looked up sharply, got up and ran for the door.

The figure ran, staring out through the doorway with a deadly stare at Duncan.

Duncan stared back at him, at the familiar face – it was his own!

After a few seconds of just staring at each other, the figure on the opposite side of the door suddenly became agitated, and he began to push on the door as if he were trying to get out, but the door wouldn’t budge as if it were poured into space, so he began to try to break the locks again, and to pry at the cracks with his tools, and he slapped hard on the door of the motionless room as if he were using all his strength to get out of the room, but to no avail.

The man inside the door finally gave up this futile attempt, and he tapped hard near the doorway, shouting something through the door – yet all that could be heard from outside the door was some vague, indistinct noise, not a single word could be heard.

Duncan watched in shock and bewilderment, looking at his ‘self’ trapped in the room, knowing what the man inside the door was trying to do – his eyes slowly fell on the doorknob next to him.

The doorknob was just out of his reach.

From this side, the door could probably be opened very easily.

Yet he just looked at the handle, not taking the slightest next step.

The man trapped in the room seemed to get frustrated, and he ended up yelling at the door again, and after realizing that his voice would not reach the door at all ran back to the desk, bent down and scribbled something quickly on a piece of paper, and then darted back in immediately afterward, showing the piece of paper to Duncan.

Through the crack in the door, Duncan saw that on the piece of paper was a string of scribbled words, “Help me! I’m trapped in this room! The window and door won’t open!”

Duncan suddenly laughed.

His smile fell through the cracks into the eyes of the “Zhou Ming” who was trapped in the room, and the latter finally slowly widened his eyes, as if he was stunned, but also as if he was gradually getting annoyed due to being mocked.

In the next second, the pirate sword in Duncan’s hand suddenly poked forward, passing through the narrow doorway, and directly stabbing into the “Zhou Ming” on the opposite side of the door.

The latter was pierced by the blade of the sword, open mouth seems to be screaming in a blur, as if there is a series of hoarse and noisy noise into Duncan’s ears, Duncan was not the slightest bit moved, just more forcefully holding the hilt of the sword forward to stab, close to the door and said softly:
“You can’t write Chinese if you don’t know how.”

Aye the pigeon, who had been silent all the way, suddenly flapped its wings at this time as well and hissed, “This is an illusion, what are you hiding?”

In the next second, the figure on the opposite side of the door suddenly began to melt like a wax statue and quickly dissipated into the distorted and misplaced light, while the room that looked incredibly real and familiar also quickly shed its disguise, presenting its true original face in Duncan’s eyes: a dim and outdated ship’s cabin, empty and dusty in the dilapidated state of time and congealment.

The sword in his hand had an empty touch, as if it had pierced nothing but air from the beginning.

The “extra door” was just a cabin?
Duncan looked across the doorway with surprise, but this time, no matter how he looked, it seemed to be just an ordinary cabin. But …… is the cabin really “real”?

Duncan slowly withdrew his sword from the doorway, let out a small sigh of relief, and took a half step back.

Just encountered a strange situation is still deeply imprinted in his mind, he does not know whether it is a mere illusion or something else, but one thing is certain …… this door definitely has more than he imagined the weird and dangerous place.

If that door reflects the opposite side of the illusion is based on his own memory and cognition twisted into, that is to say that the door opposite the danger has exceeded their own “Captain Duncan” power, if that is not based on their own cognition and memory generated by the illusion, but what things “fabricate If that is not an illusion based on one’s own perception and memory, but something “fabricated” out of the set ……, the situation is even worse.

Because this world should not know what that room looks like, should not know the existence of “Zhou Ming” this individual.

But the “thing” on the other side of the door knew.

He took a deep breath.

He had been right to be cautious; no matter what, he could not open the door.

At the same time, he was a little afraid – because just now, for a moment, while looking at the door handle, this thought had arisen in his mind: to open the door and let “himself” out.

“Captain ……” Alice’s voice came out of nowhere, snapping Duncan out of his musings, and he looked up at the doll to see a concerned and frightened expression, “Are you all right, Captain? What’s in that door? Why do you have such a serious look on your face ……”

Duncan shook his head, “Nothing, behind that door is not the place for you to look – we’ve explored the bilge, we can go back.”

As he spoke, he reached out and tried to push the door to see if he could close it.

The one crack exposed in the door was just too much of a peace of mind.

But the door didn’t budge – despite all the force he had used, the door still seemed as solid as if it had become one with the space.

Like the boarded-up windows in his bachelor pad.

Duncan withdrew his hand thoughtfully – the door wouldn’t close, but he was more than likely not going to try to open it further.

“Huh? Oh …… oh yes!” Alice, for her part, didn’t care for the Captain’s attempt to close the door; she froze for a moment, but quickly responded with a happy expression on her face, “Let’s get back in there then, this place is kinda creepy to be honest, and I’m getting a little nervous again ……”

Duncan gave a noncommittal hmmm and took Alice with him as he turned towards the ‘last door’ that led to the stairs.

This place was too creepy, and even he didn’t want to stay any longer.

After that, nothing more unusual happened.

They made their way through the shattered bilges, through the lighted cargo bays, through the darkened stairs and corridors, and back into the ship’s hold, which was located above the waterline.

The moment she returned to her normal cabin, Alice felt a violent relief throughout her body, as if some previously imperceptible shadow that had haunted her had been dispersed, and she saw that the lights around her were restored to their original state, and that the cabin was no longer gloomy and depressing, and as for Captain Duncan next to her ……

The captain looked no different than before, as if he hadn’t felt oppressed before, and didn’t feel any extra relief now, the environment in the depths of the Lost Country hadn’t affected him much.

Only on his return the Captain was noticeably silent and seemed preoccupied.

“Captain, are you tired?” Alice asked carefully, “Do you want me to go make you something to eat? You didn’t have a good dinner ……”

Duncan stopped his mental thoughts and looked at the figure beside him.

On Miss Doll’s face was an expression of genuine concern – just like Nina’s.

He suddenly relaxed, and some of the gloom in his mind seemed to be fading.

“Don’t drop anything strange into the pot this time.”

“My head is not something odd!”

“Especially your head.”

“…… Oh.”

(End of chapter)