Deep Sea Embers.

Chapter 841 Lenora is shocked

There was a slight creaking sound from under the goat's head, and its neck slowly turned on the base. It silently watched Duncan return to the captain's room, its eyes following the captain's movements.

Duncan came to the chart table and sat on the high-back chair, holding the table with both hands. The chart on the table was shrouded in mist, and the hazy fog enveloped everything. It seemed that in this "sea area" that had long crossed the border, even this incredible chart had lost its reference significance.

But Duncan's attention was obviously not on the foggy chart - his eyes were focused on a more distant place, as if he was looking through the table and floor here, at the vast nothingness outside the Lost Homeland.

After a long while, Goat Head finally spoke cautiously: "I just noticed that... the 'environment' around the Lost Homeland has changed a lot. Was that done by you?"

Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere, the noisy first mate didn't say too much nonsense this time.

"I did some tests," Duncan whispered. "I verified the conjecture that information is indestructible, and confirmed that the information in this 'Sea of ​​Ashes' can still support the operation of things. In... a short test, ripples of change did reappear in this cooling ash."

"But it didn't last, did it?" Goat Head said hesitantly, "I just felt... the emergence and disappearance of the 'ripple' you mentioned. Although I don't understand the principle and process in between, I can feel that there seems to be something missing behind those changes."

"The first mover is a process of 'stimulation' that can instantly reset and fully restart the entire 'mathematical machine'," Duncan said without hiding the 'knowledge' he had learned from the brief 'ripples' just now. "In simple terms, it is useless to make short-term, local assignments to a portion of the 'raw materials' in this Sea of ​​Ashes. The 'entropy' of the entire Sea of ​​Ashes is causing all changes to return to zero. Therefore, if you want to truly transform the 'raw materials' here into a new world, you need to reset the entire system. As for how to 'import' the saved data of the old world during the process of resetting the system, it may be a relatively simple matter."

The goat head was silent for a long time. After thinking for a long time, it slowly raised its head and said, "I'm not sure what you mean by 'entropy', but it sounds like you are still considering some very bad plans. With all due respect, Captain... Miss Nina will be sad. You have an agreement with her."

Duncan said nothing, but just looked at the goat head on the table silently.

"You think you are the most suitable 'first mover', right?" The goat-headed man seemed not to notice the captain's gaze and continued, "Resetting the entire 'mathematical machine' sounds like it requires huge amounts of energy and 'information', and you 'yourself' have both of these conditions..."

"So, I'm thinking about whether there are any alternatives." Duncan suddenly interrupted Goat Head calmly.

The goat's neck made a creaking sound, and it was obviously startled for a moment: "...I thought you were planning to sacrifice yourself..."

"Yes, I have planned it, but Bartok reminded me of one thing before he left," Duncan said calmly, "Don't easily use sacrifice to lay the foundation for a new world. Sacrifice can only be the last and most helpless choice, and should not be the first option. Sacrificing too easily is an insult to 'sacrifice' itself. What's more, I promised Nina and Lucy that I would go home."

As he spoke, he breathed a sigh of relief.

"Of course, if there is really no choice in the end, I will not hesitate to die, but now... I think I should try harder to find a better solution."

"Do you have any ideas?" Goat Head asked curiously, "Do you have any alternative methods to 'start' this process?"

"In theory, all I need is information and energy, and the 'information' part can actually be completed through later assignment, so all I need is energy, energy to restart the mathematical machine and make the 'information' start running," Duncan said slowly while thinking, "I now have a vague idea of ​​how to solve this problem, but whether it can be realized specifically..."

He suddenly stopped, his eyes seemed to be looking at something that didn't exist in a certain direction. After thinking for a while, he continued, "I think I need to talk to a guy I made an appointment with."

As he spoke, he casually asked, "What is Alice doing now?"

The goat-head was stunned for a moment, and after checking the situation on the ship, a subtle human expression appeared on that hard wooden face: "...She is pulling the Frost Queen to do something very evil..."

If even Goat Head feels that something is weird - then I can only say that it is indeed very weird.

On the spacious middle deck, Alice was pulling Lenora to admire her recently learned trick of taking a song. Miss Doll was so happy that she dragged the confused Frost Queen onto a wooden barrel and pointed at her head: "I just learned this recently! I practiced with Luni for a long time before I succeeded!"

Then, before Lenora could react, the doll grabbed her head and pulled it up. With a "pop" sound, the head was thrown into the air by herself.

Then she moved her body left and right to adjust her position, and aimed her neck at the head that was falling in the air...

Only then did Lenora finally understand what the doll was trying to do - but she felt that she might as well not understand.

And what's worse is that the puppet hasn't caught it yet.

Her head rolled down, right upside down - her skull hit her neck hard with a thud, and then she tumbled to the ground, rolling all the way to Lenora's feet. She raised her head and blinked innocently: "A little... a little mistake... a little... a little mistake, please help me pick it up... "

Lei Nora's eyes twitched as she watched this scene. Even though she was the Frost Queen who had presided over the Abyss Project and faced the rebels without blinking, her expression seemed a little stretched at this moment.

Duncan saw this scene when he came to the deck.

He felt a great shock—but perhaps less than Lenore had felt.

Then he quickly took a few steps forward, grabbed Alice's head and pressed it against her neck. After a "pop" sound, he turned back to look at Lenora who was still in a daze, with a subtle and apologetic expression on his face: "Sorry, Alice sometimes thinks differently from ordinary people..."

At this time, Lenora seemed to have just come to her senses from the shock. She stared at Duncan blankly, and spoke after a while: "...This is the first time I have seen this scene from a third-person perspective."

Duncan: "..."

But what he didn't expect was the Frost Queen's second sentence: "To be honest, it's quite interesting."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and after a long while he managed to utter, "...You are so generous."

"When I was chatting with Alice, I heard her mention that her neck joints were always loose, so I asked her curiously what the specific situation was." Lenora spread out her hands, her expression was much calmer than before, "Of course, her demonstration method was indeed a little more exciting than I thought..."

What could Duncan say? He could only twitch his lips and turn his head to look at the puppet who was walking towards him while holding his head to adjust the angle. After the puppet came over, he didn't realize that the atmosphere was a bit subtle. He bent down and put his neck in front of Duncan: "Captain, my hair is stuck in my joints. Help me get it out."

Duncan's eyes twitched, and while helping Alice deal with the hair in her neck joints with a subtle expression, he looked up and smiled awkwardly at Lenora.

Lenora didn't seem to care. She just looked at the scene in front of her with interest. No matter how she looked at it, it had nothing to do with "simple and normal life scenes", but for some reason it was particularly ordinary and peaceful. After a while, she smiled and said, "It seems that she is really happy in her life."

"It would be better if you weren't so heartless all the time," Duncan sighed helplessly, "Honestly, are you really okay? Just looking at what happened just now... I thought you would have a psychological trauma..."

"It's OK," Lenoir exhaled. "I didn't see it when it was cut down. We can overcome the association problem."

Duncan thought about it and felt that this "Frost Queen" obviously had a very strong heart - and peripheral nerves that were even stronger than her heart.

At this time, Alice seemed to realize something and turned to look at Duncan: "Captain, are you here to see me?"

"Well," Duncan carefully untied the last strand of Alice's hair that was caught in the joint and nodded, "We have arrived here and have an appointment... It's time to keep it."

Alice blinked and finally remembered something: "Ah, the burning meatball hanging on my door..."

Duncan was a little surprised. He was amazed that the doll could remember this incident accurately, but he was even more impressed by Alice's fresh and refined way of describing it...

Lei Nora was watching from the side, not knowing what the two were talking about. At this time, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "A date? Where are we going next?"

"Alice and I are going to a date," Duncan laughed, "Don't worry, we won't leave this ship. We will just go to another dimension for a short time and will be back soon."

"Yes, the captain is going to wind me up!" Alice said happily, and waved to Lenore, "You go back to your room first. I'll come and play with you after I finish winding it up!"

Lenora was even more confused: "Wind up?"

But the puppet obviously had no intention of continuing to explain. It was already dragging the captain towards the rear deck, and the two of them soon walked away.

Only the bewildered "Frost Queen" was left standing there, with a head full of question marks.

(End of this chapter)