Chapter 23: The Birds

Chapter 23 The Bird

Alice wasn’t very knowledgeable about things in the world.

But at least, she had heard the whispered conversations mixed with fear and nervousness in the wooden crates countless times, and from the crew members and guards who were particularly nervous because they were responsible for transporting the unusual things, she had built up the most basic knowledge about certain “unusual things”.

If something was clearly out of the ordinary, and it was real, then the way to survive was to follow the safety codes that were in place, and to consider researching and analyzing it at a safe distance.

Alice didn’t have any real feeling about the fact that she was “Abnormality 099”, she wasn’t sure what she could do or what she had done to make humans fear and be alert to her, she didn’t know how to think as an “Abnormality” with spiritual intelligence was “normal”. She didn’t know how to think “normally” as a spiritually intelligent “abnormality” – at the moment, she was just thinking like a human.

Since the goat-head said that there were only six rules for the crew, then it was six, and since the goat-head mentioned the seventh rule, then she would memorize the seventh rule.

However, she still had some questions that she couldn’t help but ask: “Just now, I tried to push the door of the captain’s room, and it did open outwards – such a natural thing, why should it be emphasized specifically in the code?”

The wooden goat’s head gazed silently into Alice’s eyes, and it was a full two seconds before he spoke with unprecedented brevity, “Sometimes it can open inwards.”

“That ……”

“If you see the door open inwards, never go in, in the whole of the Lost Country, only the captain is qualified to do so.”

This was the first time since just now that Goathead had spoken in such a serious, even somewhat intimidating tone, even when he had introduced the crew code just now he had never been this serious.

Alice was taken aback by the other party’s extraordinarily solemn tone.

But immediately after that, the goat head’s tone became light again, and he spoke cheerfully as if the serious topic just now had never happened: ”Well, the necessary introductory process when a new crew member joins the ship is over, now let’s talk about something else …… Ah yes, ma’am, what is it that you came to the captain’s room for? I’m not sure what I’m talking about, but I’d like to know. If it is the ship’s facilities will not be used, that do not have to trouble the great Captain Duncan, if you are looking for someone to talk to that can find the right, I am very good at finding topics and know countless great things about the ship …… you are not interested in great things? Then I can introduce you to the most famous dishes on the Boundless Sea, I still know a little about cooking ……”

As soon as the goat-head opened his mouth, he got into a state, and Alice didn’t find a chance to interrupt several times, and by the time she realized that something was wrong, it was too late.

Abnormality 099, the mannequin Miss Alice, had faced the second greatest terror on the Lost Country today, besides Captain Duncan.

And at the same time, in the sleeping quarters just a wall away from them, Duncan was quietly listening to the commotion coming from the chart room.

He had just woken up, his soul returning to the Lost Country from a distant shell, and he hadn’t heard the initial conversation between Goathead and Alice, but he had heard the “crew’s code of conduct” and the conversation about “the captain’s cabin door opening outward”.

Important information, unexpected gains.

Duncan had not yet had time to digest the information he had just gathered from the cultists, when he accidentally overheard the conversation between Goathead and Alice, and no matter whether it was those strange and weird “crew rules”, or the information revealed in the last words of Goathead, it was extremely important to him.

Sure enough, when he pushed open the door of the captain’s cabin to return to the “opposite side”, the goat-head knew that for himself this action was to return to his own bachelor apartment, but for this side of the Lost Country ship, it seemed to mean that “the captain has left for the time being”.

Goathead had no doubts about this, and regarded it as a move that Captain Duncan himself would have made.

So the “real Captain Duncan” of the ship …… used to push open the door of the captain’s cabin and go to some mysterious “world”? And this happened more than once, so much so that it not only became a natural thing in the eyes of the goathead, but even became part of the code of conduct for the crew of the Lost Country?

This news was good for Duncan, it meant that he didn’t have to worry about returning to the “other side”, even if there were other new crew members added to the ship, he could just disappear from everyone’s sight in this way, and not have to worry about someone following suit and finding out his “secret”. Secret”.

However, on the other hand, Duncan’s mind also had an unavoidable thought – it had to do with the “6+1” code of conduct that Goathead had deliberately mentioned. What did these crew rules mean? What was the basis for these bizarre, dangerous, and even contradictory-sounding codes? Some of them sound like they are designed to emphasize the captain’s authority, but they are much more than that; the strict behavioral restrictions are designed to allow the ship’s crew to survive in a dangerous environment, and to allow the crew to avoid unseen dangers by following certain rules.

Duncan frowned slightly as he contemplated his true place in the code – judging by its content, it seemed that he, the “captain”, was the only individual with the greatest freedom and initiative, and that he did not have to worry about the “unseen risks” of the ship. The “unseen risks”, even he himself is many of the risk range of the adjudicator, but …… all of this is the premise that he must be the “real Captain Duncan”.

That’s the most worrying part.

But then he suddenly remembered his exploratory actions on the Lost Country during this time, and the fact that he had been walking around the cabin at will.

Goathead had never reminded him of the crew’s code of conduct, he had treated himself as if he were the real Captain Duncan, and he had never encountered any “strange dangers” while moving about the ship, and it was unlikely that a second “captain” would jump out and assign himself any restrictions on his activities. And there was no way that a second “captain” would jump out and assign himself any restrictions on his activities.

From this point of view, the dangers mentioned by the goat head in the “crew code” seem to be of no concern to him.

Duncan let out a soft breath as he continued to listen for movement from the chart room.

After half a minute, he hated that he couldn’t turn off his ears.

The trash-talking mannequin and the raucous goat-head were engaged in an exchange, and the latter was clearly gaining an overwhelming advantage, the crackling nonsense surging through the chart room like wind and waves on a boundless sea, so that even Duncan, who had been hiding in his bedchamber and observing in secret, couldn’t carry it off.

He felt he had to hurry out and get the poor doll lady down, the socially inexperienced Alice was clearly no match for the goathead, but after a slight hesitation Duncan paused.

He had just finished a wonderful “soul travel”, and there was still a lot of information to be sorted out, and even more experience to be summed up, he had to figure out what had just happened to him, and whether the process was controllable or not – as far as it seemed, the ability to project his spirit to faraway places would be a good idea. As of now, this ability to project his spirit to faraway places will be the best means for him to use when gathering land intelligence in the future.

Under normal circumstances, he would have to worry about whether or not burying himself in his room for too long studying his new ability would draw unwanted attention from Goathead, but now there was an Alice who could be out there to hold that noisy bastard’s attention …… couldn’t be better.

Mentally saying a silent apology to Ms. Doll, Duncan looked down at his right hand, and in the next instant, his expression froze.

The brass compass that was slightly larger than a pocket watch had disappeared at some point.

And he clearly remembered that until a short while ago, that compass had been held tightly in his hand!
Duncan’s eyes instantly glazed over a little as he realized that he had been completely oblivious to the change in his hand, and this lax oversight was the first time it had occurred since he had arrived aboard this oddly spooky ghost ship.

In the next instant, he gave his right hand a false grip, and an ethereal green flame then crept between his fingers, and immediately afterward he stood up from behind his desk, ready to utilize the connection between auric flames and transcendent things to check the entirety of his chambers for any signs of abnormality.

But the moment he got up, Duncan’s movements suddenly stopped, some kind of subtle connection surfaced from the bottom of his heart, he subconsciously looked towards the direction from which that connection came from, in the corner of his eyes, but there were a few pieces of feathers that seemed to be real or phantom floating down from the air.

Duncan was surprised to see where the feathers floated down, and saw that a mass of phantom shadows was rapidly emerging and coalescing in front of his eyes, but in two or three seconds, the phantom shadows coalesced into a snow-white ……

Dove.

The missing compass was hanging on the pigeon’s chest, and a familiar obsidian knife was lying quietly at the pigeon’s feet.

(End of chapter)