Chapter 59: Bilge
Chapter 59: The Bilge
Duncan had always wondered what was so special and dangerous about the gothic doll who called herself “Alice” that the sailors escorting her were so nervous, and that she could occupy the unusual name of 099 in a world of dangerous and strange things.
Admittedly, a mannequin capable of moving on its own and possessing its own sanity is indeed sinister in itself, and the image of her occasionally running around with her head in her hands or splitting up into different groups is a frightening one, but in Duncan’s opinion, this is far from being sinister enough to qualify for a “superior number,” and the simplest comparison is the information he learned from Nina:
Anomaly 196-Blood, a dangerous anomaly sealed in the underground sanctuary of the Church of Prand, its body is equivalent to the whole body of an adult male blood, the anomaly has certain thinking characteristics, will flow and spread on its own, will actively try to replace the blood in the nearby eligible “hosts” and take over the body to escape, the method to prevent its flow and spread is to stop it. The way to stop it from flowing and spreading is to store it in twenty-two blood tanks and keep it frozen – but if someone bleeds within ten meters of the storage point, the seal will fail instantly, and the blood of the bleeding person will be replaced by the anomaly 196, and the host’s own sanity will be taken over as well.
The anomaly ignores countermeasures below the level of Saints, and will unconditionally kill a host that meets the requirements.
As one of the most dangerous anomalies managed by the city-state of Prand, information about Anomaly 196-Blood is always available to the public to ensure that if the anomaly were to leak into the city, the authorities would be able to quickly locate it and take action against it.
Duncan didn’t know what the concept of an “Acolyte” was, but the name suggested that it corresponded to some kind of powerful Transcendent, perhaps the Inquisitor Vanna who had appeared in the newspapers was an Acolyte – and those like her who could potentially fight against Anomaly 196 were found throughout the Plainland. How many Saints like her could there be in the entire city-state of Prand?
And that’s just an Anomaly 196, something ranked nearly two hundred outside the hundredth percentile – Alice’s number, Anomaly 099.
Within the hundredth percentile.
Although according to Nina’s words, there was a slight uncertainty in the numbering of anomalies and visions, and it was not always possible to make a clear comparison between the strengths and weaknesses of different anomalies and visions, on the whole, the anomalies and visions that were ranked higher usually had a higher level of danger, or weirder and more difficult to control ‘characteristics’, or, they had caused astonishing destruction or contributed to special events. either have caused amazing destruction or contributed to special historical events, and firmly occupy the exclusive upper number in a way that will be remembered in history.
In any case, the number of hundred digits or less means that the civilized world is extremely difficult for the bizarre characteristics and the degree of danger, or in the history of the whole out of what amazing work, but this cursed doll named Alice ……
Duncan glanced back at Alice, who was honestly following him, who noticed the captain’s line of sight and immediately looked up, returning a harmless and somewhat abashed smile, “Heh heh ……”
Expecting the bastard to figure out his danger on his own was unlikely – he’d still have to turn back to the historical archives of the city-state of Prand.
But how would an antique shopkeeper living in the lower city get access to such “confidential information”? The “antique industry contacts” left behind by the cultist Ron were obviously impossible, and most of the stuff in that store was no older than the last week ……
Duncan quietly pondered, while the footsteps did not stop, the green spiritual fire in his hands within the lamp quietly burning, gradually toward the deeper cabin diffusion, and those due to the strange environment of the bilge presents “anti-phase” state of the ambient light and the lamp’s light mixed together, showing a bizarre and even a little dizzying, The mixture of the ambient light and the light of the lamp presented a strange, even dizzying, psychedelic and disoriented state of light and shadow.
To outsiders, I am afraid that this scene is an extremely treacherous, eerie and frightening picture.
However, Duncan’s heart felt vaguely calm, his power infiltrated in the light of the lamp, like a trickle of water penetrating a little bit in the depths of this closed for an unknown number of years in the cabin, this previously unknown to him the structure of the bilge is a little bit clearer in his mind, and came from the subtle “sense of touch”! —
The last area of the Lost Country that was not under the captain’s control was getting back on track, and Duncan could feel more and more clearly that, as he explored, the vague “agitation” of the various things in the cabin around him was gradually calming down.
It was true, as Goathead had said, that the bilge of the Lost Country had been immersed in the infinite sea for a long time, but as long as the captain himself came down to calm it down, the order of the ship would gradually be restored.
“You really are afraid of the bottom of the sea, even when you’re in a cabin below sea level,” Duncan suddenly said to Alice, who was following him, “so why did you have to come along?”
“I …… I didn’t think of that much at the time!” Alice forced herself to calm down, “I was thinking about how much further it was, that it was still on a ship …… Where did I get the idea of a ‘cabin below the waterline’! I’m just a doll!”
“You don’t even have a digestive tract you still study cooking – don’t use dolls as an excuse,” Duncan said casually, “you need to brush up on your knowledge of ships later.”
Alice frustrated oh, while Duncan is slightly silent and then asked curiously, “Why are you so afraid of the deep sea? Or …… why are you so afraid of the whole ‘soaking in the sea’ thing? I know that the deep sea is dangerous and that many people are afraid of the deep sea for this reason you have said, but it seems that …… your nervousness is more severe than I thought, and has reached the point where even just standing in a cabin located below the waterline and just associating it with the sea water outside will make you nervous… …You don’t grab that bit of lace on your own clothes, there’s no replacement clothes for you on the Lost Country now, so sew them yourself if they break.”
“Oh,” Alice hurriedly relaxed her hand a little, but immediately after that she involuntarily tugged up the buttons again, “I …… haven’t thought about this problem at all ah, I’m just afraid, afraid of it? ”
Listening to Miss Doll’s nervous tone, Duncan was noncommittal as he looked to the end of the corridor and saw that a staircase sloping downwards had come into view.
It was deeper, probably going right down to the bilge – the deepest point where the ship made contact with the Infinite Sea. Duncan and Alice stood at the top of the stairway and glanced down, and by the light emanating from the Spirit Fire Tiki Lamp, they saw not the structure of the hold below them, but a door standing in the depths of darkness.
At the sight of the door, Duncan couldn’t help but frown.
The structure here was actually not quite normal, starting with the fact that the way to the bilge seemed overly long – the stairs between the several cabins on the upper level were actually continuous, allowing for quick access to the various levels of the ship, but on this level, the stairs to the depths were located at the end of the corridor, and one needed to walk through almost an entire floor of the warehouse area to get to them, which would undoubtedly affect the the efficiency of passage within the ship.
Secondly, there was an additional door underneath that staircase.
Duncan hesitated, but picked up his lantern and slowly made his way down.
Alice hesitated even more, but in the end followed honestly – she would never dare return to the upper level by herself now, and it was better to follow the captain to feel somewhat safe.
Soon Duncan reached the door, and raised his lantern to illuminate his surroundings, trying to find if there was any writing labeled around the door – and then a line of letters located on the doorframe unexpectedly appeared in his line of sight:
“Last door in the bilge.”
“What does that mean?” Alice looked curiously at the letters on the doorframe, “The last door in the bilge …… Shouldn’t the doorplate normally state the function of the room?”
“Apparently it’s a reminder,” Duncan withdrew his gaze from the doorframe thoughtfully, one of his hands resting on the doorknob as he reminded the mannequin beside him before pushing the door open, “If you go in there and find that another door exists, don’t even touch it.”
Alice nodded nervously, and then saw Duncan push open the “last door in the bilge”.
A strange pale shimmering light greeted him.
They stepped forward into an open space.
After taking a clear look at the situation on the other side of the door, Alice’s eyes instantly widened, “This …… this …… this …… this …… this …… this …… this …… this …… this ……”.
She said “this” for half a day before finally stifling a sentence, “The ship …… Captain! The bottom of the ship is broken! Shattered ah!”
She yelled, but Duncan did not respond for a while – because the latter at this time is also staring at the surrounding situation in a daze.
The deepest part of the Lost Country, the structure of the bilge submerged in the infinite sea – in pieces!
As far as the eye could see, the cabin was in a state of complete disintegration, with countless huge fissures and shimmering voids, and hundreds of cabin fragments floating scattered in space, maintaining a certain “orderliness of disintegration”, and maintaining the outline and structure of the bilge as it should be.
Duncan could clearly see the “landscape” beyond the bilge through the huge cracks between the countless fragments.
Instead of the deep, dark, infinite sea that he had imagined, there was a pale, dark void, and countless shadows and lights that darted in and out of the void.
(End of chapter)