Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 694 The shadow of hindsight

"One third of the structure?"

Ted Leal was stunned when he heard Duncan's words. He looked at the lines he drew on the paper with some confusion, which even he felt were abstract and messy. To be fair, he thought he was doing a bad job. But this is the closest thing to the "original impression" that he can recall. The residual influence of the subspace has interfered with his mind for a long time, making it impossible for him to clearly recall the details of those memories. It is difficult for him to From these fragmented lines, a complete picture is outlined.

However, from Duncan's tone, he realized that the "Ghost Captain" not only saw what was drawn on this piece of paper, but even... he also knew what this thing was supposed to look like.

Duncan stood in front of the table, frowning and carefully observing the details drawn by Ted. After a while, he pointed at a certain place on the picture: "Is the structure here broken?"

Ted frowned and tried to remember for a while, and a vague impression finally appeared in his mind: "It seems... but I'm not sure. I only caught a glimpse of it in a hurry, and didn't even have time to see the side of it." Complete structure..."

"Here are the fractures, and then they extend outward. Here are some connecting structures." Duncan didn't pay attention to the hesitation in Ted's words. He just picked up the pencil and quickly sketched lines in the blank space on the picture, and in his Under his pen, a strange thing with a symmetrical three-body structure, which Ted and Lucretia thought had nothing to do with a "ship", was quickly sketched out, "It consists of three main structures... here This is where the engine group is..."

Lucretia had unknowingly approached this weird "picture". After staring at it for half a minute, she finally couldn't help but ask, "What on earth...is this?"

Duncan didn't look up. After a few seconds of silence, he replied softly: "It's called 'New Hope'."

Lucretia and Ted Leal looked at each other, then said in unison: "New Hope?"

Alice also came over and asked slowly: "What is New Hope?"

Duncan raised his head, and his complicated and weird eyes fell on the Gothic doll. However, the latter seemed not to react at all, and just tilted his head: "What do you see me doing?"

"...That was a ship, a spaceship," Duncan retracted his gaze and said in a deep voice with a subtle tone that he didn't even know his emotions. "It arrived in this world many, many years ago...or Say, crash like other 'pieces' into the wreckage of this world we find ourselves in."

"A spaceship? A flying ship?" Ted Leal said with surprise in his tone, and then reacted, "You mean another 'World Fragment'? A flying ship called 'New Hope'. Part of its remains fell into the subspace and turned into the mansion I saw...?"

He raised his hand and gestured, with a bewildered look on his face.

Duncan did not answer the truth keeper's doubts. He just lowered his head again and stared at the picture on the table for a long time - based on Ted Leal's drawing, simple brushstrokes outlined a sketch of a huge spaceship. , although it can’t be said to be a complete restoration, it is indeed the “New Hope” that he saw in that illusion, dragging long flames and falling into this world.

He still remembered how he saw that illusion in the first place.

That was to examine Alice's "clockwork key". He spread his flames into the inside of the brass key - just like every time he used similar methods to detect supernatural objects, he saw the "clockwork key" The "resounds" that remain in it.

In that "echo", Alice's clockwork key became some kind of weird... data access medium, and New Hope crashed in the final scene of the illusion.

For a long time, he has been looking for clues about the "spaceship" and the remaining legends or historical records in this world that may be related to an ancient crash. At the same time, he often Think about a question——

Why does Alice's "Clockwork Key" contain visions of the crash of New Hope?

What is the connection between this seemingly harmless Gothic doll and a spaceship that crashed in ancient times?
The gap between "doll" and "spaceship" is so huge that even with Duncan's ability to associate, he really can't connect the two things together. But now... an even more incredible clue has appeared in him In front of you.

Ted Leal saw the Alice Mansion in subspace - that mansion, at certain moments, would look like a third of the wreckage of the New Hope!
Duncan had doubts about Ted Lear's memory or expression, but he quickly ruled out the possibility that there was a problem in this regard-Ted Lear could not describe something he had not seen out of thin air, even if it was his His memory was chaotic, and it was impossible for him to "just" outline the structure of the "New Hope" in the chaos.

Some messy and broken clues seemed to be quietly connecting, and some incredible conjectures emerged in Duncan's mind.

With the thoughts in his mind rising and falling, Duncan reached into his pocket and fumbled for the brass key used to wind up Alice.

The brass key lay quietly in the palm of his hand. The cold metal key showed the classic "∞" symbol at the end, as if all the secrets were hidden deep in infinite silence.After a moment, he put away the keys and when he raised his head, he met the curious but hesitant gazes of Lucretia and Ted Leal.

"Let's talk about other things first," Duncan shook his head, his eyes falling on Ted, "What else did you see in the subspace?"

Ted nodded. He realized that "New Hope" might point to some kind of ancient and dangerous secret, so he controlled his curiosity rationally and began to continue talking about what he saw in the subspace. Incredible sight.

Giant things standing in the wasteland, thrones and huge headless figures, nameless soldiers who died leaning on the wreckage, and all kinds of other bizarre things that it is unclear whether they are real or imagined.

Duncan didn't interrupt again. He listened attentively, nodding slightly from time to time. He didn't let out a long sigh of relief until Ted Leal's story came to an end.

The headless corpse on the throne, the unknown warrior next to the strange wreckage, the huge structure standing in the wasteland... These things are indeed incredible, but anything can appear in the subspace - at least in Duncan's view, these are better than "The Alice Mansion appears in the subspace" and "The Alice Mansion is part of the New Hope" are much easier to accept.

"...It's been such a wonderful and impressive journey." After listening quietly for a long time, Lucretia broke the silence in the room, "15 minutes... Mr. Ted, your 15 minutes The experience is enough for many scholars to study for a lifetime."

"I can use this 15-minute experience to write academic papers for the rest of my life, but to be honest, I would rather not have this experience," Ted sighed, "Do you know? I still hear it from time to time. Those noises buzzing in my mind... they are like living creatures burrowing around in my consciousness. Even if I have received rigorous training in resilience psychology and will control theory, it is extremely difficult to fight against this kind of noise, and This kind of sequelae is likely to last for a long time..."

When he said this, he shrugged and looked a little bad——

"And to make matters worse, I have to return to the college tomorrow to face those stubborn students...The clear and stupid opinions they expressed in the academic field are simply a different meaning to me. Spatial noise’…”

Mr. Secret Keeper muttered and raised his hand to cover his forehead in pain. It was obvious that the subspace reverberation was intertwined with the foreseeable shadow of the future, casting a strong shadow in his heart.

Seeing this, Duncan couldn't do anything to comfort him. He could only sigh slightly, raised his hand and patted Ted on the shoulder: "I understand this feeling very well."

Ted was a little surprised and looked up at Duncan in confusion: "How can you understand?"

Duncan was stunned for a moment, feeling that this question was difficult to explain clearly, but soon, Shirley's homework book and Alice's scribbling book came to mind.

"...I have students on my boat that are clearer than yours."

Ted was stunned for a moment, not knowing how much he understood, and then nodded with a complicated expression: "It seems... you usually have a hard time."

Then he calmed down, as if he felt a little tired after recalling things about subspace for a long time and wanted to relax his mind. However, less than half a minute later, he seemed to suddenly remember another thing.

"There is another situation," Ted raised his head, his expression becoming a little serious, "It's not about subspace, it's about... the White Oak."

"The White Oak?" Duncan was a little confused, "What happened to that ship?"

"...I don't know if it was my illusion. After all, I was affected by subspace at the time, and my perception and thinking were very confused, but I always felt that...when I was talking to the 'sailor' on the White Oak, there was something wrong. It’s so right.”

Listening to Ted's words, Duncan's expression became serious.

"Sailor...are you referring to the 'abnormal' numbered 077? What's wrong with him?"

"I can't tell, but after I came back here, I recalled the feeling when I was talking to that 'abnormal'. I always felt that I wasn't just talking to 'him' at that time," Ted Leal frowned. , while thinking about the words, he tried to recall, "I was talking to him about some views on the world, about the perspective of being an 'abnormal' when looking at the world. When he answered me... I always felt as if I could hear the plural. The sound...it was as if something else was hiding on that ship, and it was hiding next to the 'sailor' at that time."

(End of this chapter)