Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 563 Another bit of crumbs

Now, Duncan already has two pieces of information about that red light:

First, before the Great Annihilation occurs, before the end comes to those "old worlds", a deep red like dark blood will first appear in the sky - its "body" is mapped in the depths of the universe, but The propagation method does not comply with the laws of optics. From any place on the planet, you can see it appearing at a specific position in the sky, and this position will not change as the planet rotates, just like it is directly reflected in the observer's vision or in mind.

Second, the red light does not seem to show any direct "destructiveness", it is more like a "phenomenon" or "feature" produced by the universe itself during the doomsday stage, and it is a symptom of the collapse, rather than the collapse itself .

Third, the end of the world does not happen and end instantly. The entire process of destruction will last for a certain period of time. The process of the end of the world is accompanied by an increase in various strange phenomena and the continuous distortion and mutation of "rules" until the underlying laws of the world can no longer bear it. Due to this distortion, the warrior and his companions have the last time to start a journey, and the spaceship named New Hope has the last time to take off and set sail.

For Duncan, this third point is particularly critical.

The apocalypse did not happen instantly, which meant that people before the apocalypse had enough time to observe the appearance of that "red light"—but in his memory, he had never seen that dark red.

He was trapped in that "single apartment" overnight, and he hadn't seen any weird red light or supernatural phenomena before that, and he hadn't seen anything outside the window after that...

single-apartment?

Duncan's memory suddenly stuck, and after a moment, his brows wrinkled little by little.

My "single apartment"...what the hell is it?
For a long time, he thought that his hometown was opposite the gate of the homeless. Outside his bachelor apartment, deep in the thick fog, there were still people bustling with the earth, and in his ordinary and peaceful daily life, he was just Trapped in a room, separated from his hometown by a wall—but with the emergence of the "moon" and the gradual verification of the "world aggregation theory", this possibility has actually infinitely approached zero.

If he had a premonition in this regard before, then this premonition has obviously been verified now - he knows that he can't go back.

But until now, he suddenly thought of another question: If the opposite of the gate of the homeless is not his hometown, then what is his remaining "single apartment" essentially?
Whenever I "go back"...where do I "go back" to?
Duncan frowned tightly. In the faint "sunlight" that diffused outside the window, the long sword and the living metal that was once a "human" suddenly appeared in his mind...

"Is there another part of the world fragment..." If he realized something, his expression became more complicated, "What is the essence of the world fragment... exactly?"

Thoughts in his mind were turbulent, and memories and speculations were rising and falling in his mind like a continuous wave. Duncan slowly walked around the room, calming and sorting out his thoughts in this way. Then he returned to the table and casually He took out a piece of paper from the side and drew a pattern on it carelessly - he didn't think about writing or drawing anything, he just drew lines and painted patterns on it over and over again.

Then, he suddenly stopped.

He looked at what he had unconsciously drawn on the paper...a moon outlined by messy lines.

It seems to be looking at a hometown that is close in front of you, but you can never go back.

Alice said that if the symbol of hometown appears in a place, then this place is hometown... She is not very smart, but occasionally she can point to the core of the problem with the simplest and purest thinking. In a sense, she said is actually right.

My hometown is here, but it is neither the whole thing nor the appearance that Duncan is familiar with. It is just a small fragment, and just like the "warrior" that turned into living metal - it has long become an incomprehensible thing. thing.

Duncan stretched out his fingers subconsciously, touching the "moon" on the paper, as if asking someone, and whispered to himself: "Yes, what else is left..."

The sound of flapping wings suddenly came from the side, interrupting Duncan's distraction. The fat white pigeon fell from the top of the nearby wardrobe. It wobbled to Duncan, tilted its head, and then lowered its head. head, pecking at the moon drawn on the paper with its beak.

It pecked a hole in the "moon", raised its head and shouted: "Raise your head to see the bright moon, raise your head to see the bright moon, raise your head..."

It stopped suddenly and continued to look at Duncan with its head tilted.

Duncan also looked at it blankly, at this pigeon that suddenly "mutated" from the compass for some reason, at this silly bird that followed him inexplicably and was extremely obedient and affectionate.

"Ai Yi, Ai Yi, Ai——" The pigeon flapped its wings and made a loud and strange sound, "Ai Yi——"

Duncan's eyes widened suddenly, and he stretched out his hand to grab Ai's body, but then quickly relaxed a little, as if he was afraid of accidentally pinching this little "creature" to death. He felt his breathing became rapid and his heart Bang bang, the pigeon in his hand turned his head and looked at this side with a dull expression.

Duncan finally opened his mouth: "...Ai?"

Pigeon nodded: "Cuckoo."

Duncan hesitated for a moment, and changed to a more accurate pronunciation: "...IE?"

Pigeon nodded quickly: "Cuckoo."

Duncan took a light breath: "Internet Explorer...?"

The pigeon pulled out its wings with force and flapped it harder. At this moment, it seemed to be more excited than ever before, and it even seemed to have countless more exciting things to say.

However, after flapping its wings for a long time, it only made a loud, meaningless "coo" sound.

Duncan opened his hand lightly, watching the fat pigeon happily walking up and down the table, stopping and tilting his head from time to time, observing his "master" curiously, Mung Dou's eyes seemed to be forever flickering that the network connection was interrupted The light that didn't respond to the process——for a long time, he finally sighed softly, and a complicated smile appeared on his face.

It turns out the answer was written on the question from the beginning.

This silly bird was just another tiny residue left over from his suddenly extinguished hometown.

There is no going back, indeed there is no going back.

Duncan sat quietly on the chair, like a stone statue, without any movement, expression or sound for a long time.

After going on like this for an unknown amount of time, he blinked his eyes as if he had suddenly "come alive", and then began to think—or force himself to continue thinking:
If AI is really Internet Explorer, what exactly is its corresponding "source"?Those codes?Is it the huge data accumulated?Is it the myriad of hardware that once powered Internet Explorer?Or is it the abstract description behind the word?
Or... it symbolizes a brief burst of fire in the development process of a certain civilization.

Perhaps the world fragment does not necessarily correspond to some kind of "entity", it may even be a huge concept - a concept abstracted from real existence.

So does this conjecture also hold true in reverse?
Will those entities that did exist in the "old world" survive in the form of "abstract concepts" in the deep-sea era after the Great Annihilation?The countless abnormal visions in this boundless sea today, as well as the countless invisible things and taboo knowledge born around the abnormal visions, what were they... used to be?
And most importantly - what are the principles behind these changes?What is the Great Annihilation and the nature of that red light?
New answers bring new questions, one after another, and it seems that they will never reach the end of the truth. Duncan feels that his thinking seems to have entered a dead end. Before more clues appear, he is no longer able to Find the direction to continue down.

At this moment, a gentle knock on the door suddenly came from behind, interrupting his increasingly in-depth and difficult thinking.

Duncan quickly came to his senses. He felt the breath outside the door, so he breathed a sigh of relief and calmed down little by little: "Come in, Alice."

The door opened, and the doll girl came in, holding a large plate with Duncan's missed dinner on it.

"Captain," Alice said with a worried tone, "you haven't had dinner."

For some reason, just seeing Alice's expression that never seemed to have any impurities, Duncan felt that his chaotic mood calmed down a lot.

He smiled slightly: "Thank you, put it on the table."

"Oh," Alice put the plate down casually, and then quickly added, "Don't worry, these are very normal foods, according to ordinary people's tastes - Nina said, this place's 'traditional food' None of them are for human consumption..."

After saying that, she looked up and observed Duncan's expression: "Are you okay?"

"I'm fine now," Duncan breathed a long sigh of relief. He sorted out the problems he had just figured out, and a smile gradually appeared on his face. "Indeed, with so many gains...you should be happy."

"Oh," Alice listened half-comprehensively, but she did feel that the captain's mood seemed to have really improved a lot, so she felt relieved, "They are a little worried about you, let me come up and take a look , you are fine."

Duncan nodded slightly, but suddenly felt a little emotional in his heart.

In this big house, there are indeed many people who worry about his "state" all the time, and these worries are various, maybe only this doll who usually looks silly in front of him...worry about him is never mixed Impurities.

If anything, Nina might be the other one.

With emotion in his heart, Duncan smiled and shook his head, and then suddenly thought of another thing.

"Alice," he turned his gaze and looked into the eyes of the goth doll, "I need your help with something."

Alice didn't even think about it: "Huh? Okay!"

Duncan nodded, reached into his pocket, and took out the brass key that he always carried with him.

"Alice, I want to use this key again."

"Okay!"

(End of this chapter)