"No offense."

The figure spoke, and almost at the same time, Shirley suddenly heard a "boom" coming from somewhere - it was an illusory roar, not existing in this dream, nor in this memory. It exploded directly in her mind, and in this roar, the sound of burning flames in the distance and the frantic shouting of the crowd instantly dissipated.

The whole world suddenly became extremely quiet.

The next second, Shirley found that her body had changed - she returned to her seventeen-year-old appearance, and was no longer wearing the familiar nightgown in her memory, but the black dress she usually wore. The arm that was devoured by the Deep Hound also recovered at some point - a pitch-black chain extended from her arm, and at the end of the chain, Agou seemed to be sleeping, lying quietly in the corner of the room, with a bloody light in his eyes flickering.

Shirley sat up suddenly and looked at the figure sitting on the bed with astonishment and nervousness.

She didn't know who this figure was, but she knew that a powerful existence had directly penetrated the deep curse and invaded her dreams.

Even she, the "master of the dream", could not detect the other party in advance, which shows that the invader is so powerful that she cannot be resisted at all.

“You… who are you?!”

Duncan slowly stood up. In this conscious world, he showed his original posture as "Captain Duncan". His extremely oppressive height made Shirley subconsciously take half a step back.

"You've never seen me like this. This is a normal reaction," Duncan said in a deep voice, "I noticed you were having a nightmare, so I came to check on you."

"I noticed... I came to take a look..." Shirley blinked in confusion, and finally reacted slowly, "Wait, you are..."

"Let's get acquainted again. I'm Duncan," the gloomy and majestic man smiled, "Duncan Abnomer."

He told her his name because he was not worried that Shirley would have the courage to tell anyone about it - even if she really lost her mind, the Deep Hound, who was quite sensible at the time, would make her keep the matter to herself forever.

"Duncan... Mr. Duncan? You are Mr. Duncan?!" Shirley widened her eyes in astonishment, a palpitation spreading quietly in her heart, but then she became a little confused, "But isn't your name Duncan Strahan? What is Abnomal?"

Duncan: “……?”

The girl's reaction made him a little confused. He was stunned for two seconds before he said with a strange expression: "You... haven't heard of this name?"

Shirley thought about it and shook her head honestly: "No."

Then she reacted immediately, with a look of fear on her face: "I...should I have heard of this name?"

Duncan suddenly realized that the girl had never heard of the name "The Moving Scourge of the Infinite Sea". Her reaction could not be fake. It seemed that no matter how fierce Captain Duncan's reputation was, it could not stop some people from having limited knowledge. However, this really discouraged him and he could not help but ask, "...Are you illiterate?"

Unexpectedly, Shirley actually lowered her head and kept silent.

"Forget it, it's not important." Duncan ended the current topic immediately after seeing the other party's reaction, and then his eyes slowly swept across the small room. At this time, the noise and fire on the street outside had subsided, as if a farce ended hastily, leaving only a dark red chaotic light outside the window. Duncan's eyes fell on Shirley, his expression calm, "This is what you experienced back then, right?"

Shirley still lowered her head: "...Yeah."

"...I had no intention of snooping, but I discovered your secret when I entered here," Duncan said sincerely, "I'm sorry."

Shirley was stunned. She had never expected that this terrifying existence like an evil god was actually apologizing to her. The confusion in her mind quickly turned into cold sweats. She hurriedly took two steps back: "No... No, it's okay. How can you apologize to me..."

"Anyway, it's not polite to pry into a lady's dreams - even a 'little' lady like you," Duncan smiled, and then his eyes fell on the Deep Hound, "When will it wake up?"

"I don't know..." Shirley seemed a little at a loss. She looked at the sleeping Agou, "This nightmare has never changed like this before. I don't know..."

Just when she was halfway through her words, she heard a slight sound of bones colliding coming from Agou's body. Then Agou, who was still asleep a second ago, shook his head slightly, and a red light gradually brightened in his empty eye sockets. The next second, this terrifying giant dog suddenly stood up.

Perhaps the nightmare from the previous moment still had some residual effects, Shirley subconsciously took half a step back, but she quickly reacted and walked over to Agou.

"Shirley..." Agou finally woke up gradually. He suddenly noticed the rooms around him. The next second, his eyes suddenly fell on Shirley's arm. With a hint of panic in his tone, he said, "I..."

"It's okay, it's just a nightmare," Shirley laughed, and took the initiative to hug Agou's huge and ugly skeleton head, "You had a nightmare too."

"I'm sorry, I'm sorry..." Ah Gou just kept repeating in a low voice, and the chain connecting him and Shirley made a clattering sound, "Does it hurt? Does it hurt a lot..."

Shirley turned her head awkwardly: "Don't be so hypocritical... There are outsiders watching..."

"Outsider?" Agou was stunned for a moment before he noticed that there was another person in the room. Then, he saw Duncan's appearance clearly, the captain's uniform on him, and the gloomy and majestic face. More importantly, he could see the layers of dark green flames floating behind Duncan in his field of vision.

"Fuck!" Agou suddenly screamed, and the next second he pulled Shirley behind him like a conditioned reflex, and used his huge body to block Shirley and Duncan. His bones were bumping and shaking, but he still tried to look in the direction of Duncan, "Is... is it that ghost captain?!"

Duncan raised his eyebrows when he saw the other person's reaction: "Shirley doesn't recognize this posture of mine, but you do?"

"Agou?" Shirley also responded immediately, "Agou, have you seen him?"

“Do I need to have seen him? Almost all the deep demons who have seen him have been sent into the subspace by now!” The black smoke in Agou’s body expanded and contracted unsteadily, and his tone was filled with fear. “The moving scourge on the boundless sea… Why is he in your dream?!”

"The Infinite Sea Moving Disaster?" Shirley was still confused, "Why haven't I heard you tell me this..."

"Nonsense! There are so many things I haven't told you - there are so many natural disasters in the world, how can I tell you all of them? And under normal circumstances, who would have thought that you would meet a ghost captain on land!"

Shirley listened in a daze. She seemed to want to ask something, but Duncan suddenly broke the silence. He stared at the Abyss Hound, which was facing a formidable enemy. "I thought only people in the real world were so afraid of me. I didn't expect that I also had this reputation among the Abyss demons."

Agou took a half step back, maintaining a fully focused defensive posture while speaking: "You underestimate yourself - your notoriety is known to everyone from the Abyss Deep Sea to the real world. Even the heartless Abyss Demons know to follow their instincts and avoid your Lost Hometown... To be honest, it's because the Abyss Demons have no hearts, otherwise even the Terror Demons on the Ashes would have to tattoo you on their backs to give themselves courage..."

Duncan thought about it and suspected that the other party was actually complimenting him - using what he thought was a compliment.

At the same time, Shirley also heard Agou's whisper - in the mental connection established by the chain, this whisper was only audible to her: "Shirley, I will find a way to entangle this shadow later. You try to wake up. The other party should be just a mental projection. I can entangle him for a while. As long as you can get out of this dream, the other party will not be able to catch up..."

Shirley didn't react immediately - or maybe she and Agou were just not on the same wavelength: "Ah... then what?"

Agou said hurriedly, "Then hurry to the next room and ask for help from that big shot - just say that you are being entangled by the Lost Homeland, be sincere in your words, and even take the initiative to ask to be the other party's follower for protection. You can't care about whether it is dangerous or not at this time. Compared with being torn into pieces by the Lost Homeland and dragged into the subspace and becoming a follower of a subspace evil god, the latter can at least be considered "alive"..."

Shirley didn't react.

"Shirley?" Agou was getting more and more anxious. "Shirley, stop daydreaming! Hurry up and find a way to wake up while this dream is disturbed! Our only way is to let the big guy take action against the big guy..."

Agou was halfway through his speech when Shirley finally responded to him through the mental connection:

"Agou...the two big guys you mentioned seem to be the same person..."

Agou: “……?”

Conversation in a spiritual connection takes only a moment.

The Deep Hound raised its head a little dully.

In its field of vision, the ghost captain who wielded the spiritual fire just looked at this side quietly, revealing a smile as cold and dark as the warp.