Alice left.
Duncan didn't know how much this silly doll understood, but at least one thing was that she had realized the danger of the "key". Before she figured out the true situation of the thing, she would not consider winding it up again.
The sunset outside the window was gradually sinking, and two brilliant rune rings were gradually approaching the distant horizon. The diffuse golden-red light dyed the entire sea, and then passed through the window and sprinkled into the room.
Duncan sat at the desk by the window, staring quietly at the brass key, watching the sunlight covering the key handle that looked like an infinity symbol. The fine patterns seemed to come alive in the sunlight, presenting a flowing texture with the light and shadow.
After a brief thought and hesitation, Duncan took a deep breath and reached out to grasp the key.
A fine green flame appeared at the fingertips and gradually penetrated into the key.
He originally did not intend to use the "Spirit Fire" to study the key, because the power of fire is very likely to destroy the extraordinary nature of the key. Even if it is not destroyed, it may affect its original properties, but now he can't care about so much.
He had to find out what Lenora had left in the key - under this premise, he could only be extra careful, trying to prevent the power of the spiritual fire from burning the thing too violently. At the same time, he carefully sensed any tiny information coming from the flame, and was prepared to extinguish the flame immediately if he felt something was wrong.
The flame flowed smoothly between the fingers and the key like water, and the faint green light and shadow seeped into the brass surface of the latter bit by bit. In Duncan's perception, his flame... seemed to be sinking into a vast, boundless and chaotic place.
He slowly closed his eyes, and then used the spreading flames as his vision to begin observing the "world" behind the key.
Fog, endless fog, flowing like dust and smoke, undulating in the field of vision, sometimes condensing, sometimes dispersing. Wherever the flames could see, there was only chaos and nothingness.
Duncan "observed" the thick fog in front of him with confusion, but he only saw the same and uniform chaos in all directions.
He knew that this was the "truth" inside the key. He was doing the same thing as when he explored the puppet coffin. However, the situation here was completely different from that inside the coffin.
After staying quietly in the endless fog for a while, Duncan sensed that the fire was still spreading steadily and the key itself showed no signs of damage or destruction. He breathed a sigh of relief and then tentatively moved his vision in a certain direction.
But just as he moved forward, he felt the texture of a foreign object in the palm of his hand.
key?
The first thing Duncan thought of was the brass key he was holding in his real world. Then, he realized another thing - did he actually have a "body" in this thick fog?
He still clearly remembered that the last time he checked the puppet's coffin, he only had one "field of vision"!
Why did this change happen? Was it because the two supernatural objects had different properties? Or was it because some unknown changes had occurred in my own power?
Duncan's doubts suddenly grew, and at the same time, he subconsciously raised his hand and looked at the "foreign object" in his palm.
A rectangular object with a black shell and a texture that was unclear whether it was metal or plastic lay quietly in the palm of his hand.
Duncan was stunned.
The thing was only about half a palm long and two fingers wide, and its smooth and flat surface was obviously some kind of man-made creation. Under its pitch-black shell, one could vaguely see some fine lines that were not sure whether they were decorative lines or internal structures. At one end of it, one could see a complex metal port with a series of neatly arranged raised structures inside.
It looks like... a "readable device" that can be connected to some kind of machine to store data or act as a launcher.
Duncan held the black rectangle in front of him and examined every detail of it with inexplicable astonishment.
He thought of a USB flash drive or a removable hard drive from "another world", but the interface specifications of this thing were obviously not what he was familiar with.
After observing for a long time, another thing suddenly occurred to him.
In Plande, in the historical branch that was burned by the fire, he saw that the "sons of the sun" who invaded the city-state all held a large black umbrella in their hands. Inside the black umbrella was a complex and seemingly advanced and sophisticated mechanical and even electronic structure...
Duncan recalled the black umbrella he had seen in Plande, and carefully observed the rectangular device in his hand. Finally, he confirmed that the black umbrella of the Son of the Sun and the strange "device" in front of him seemed to be different in style. They seemed to be the products of two different technical routes or design styles, but they had something in common -
Precise, advanced, and complex, from the appearance, it seems to be far beyond the technological level of today's world.
At least, this doesn't seem like something that the city-states of the Infinite Sea can or have manufactured today.
And this kind of thing seems to have a unique name in this world:
Profane archetype.
Agou once described them like this:
[“Some of the history in this world is ‘locked’, and the things that were born in these forbidden histories are blasphemous prototypes. Usually, their existence itself is harmful to the creatures in the real world…”]
This "black box" that looks like some kind of data device...is it a "blasphemous prototype"?
Duncan frowned slightly and looked at the small device in his hand again and again, while thinking about the connection between it and the brass key in his hand in the real world. At this moment, a strange, low roar suddenly came from a very high and far place, interrupting his thinking.
Duncan raised his head in surprise and looked in the direction where the voice came from.
The next second, he saw a strong light suddenly appear in the endless chaotic fog that enveloped the entire space. The light came from afar, like a violently falling meteor, and then formed a blazing fireball in the fog!
It whizzed past Duncan's head and gradually lowered its altitude as it flew. The fog was dispersed, and a huge object was outlined in the dazzling fireball. Duncan saw an entity driven by flames.
It looked like three spindles tied together. At the end of each spindle, a huge stream of light could be seen gushing out from the propeller. Thick smoke and flames could be seen billowing from the outer shell of the spindle. Shocking explosions and tearing were constantly occurring. During this time, fragments kept falling off from the explosion points, splashing in the thick fog like rain, and turning into meteors as they fell, burning up in the sky...
Without a reference, Duncan could not judge the size of the "trimaran" that was flying across the sky at high speed, but he could feel the strong shock and pressure brought by the huge figure wrapped in flames and thick smoke. It might be larger than a city-state, or even larger than many city-states combined. It might have traveled a long journey and passed through the stars on a certain astronomical scale. It slid and fell in this illusion shrouded in mist, and as Duncan watched in astonishment, the fall ended with a shocking explosion.
Accompanied by an explosion that almost shook the entire space and time, the "Giant Ship Ark" composed of three spindles disintegrated.
It split into three parts, turning into three burning fireballs, with three dazzling tracks wrapped in thick smoke, scattered in the depths of the fog.
It’s very far, a distance that cannot be reached by walking alone.
Moreover, Duncan suspected that even if he could move thousands of miles instantly, he would probably not be able to reach the place where the three pieces of debris fell.
Because this fog...records nothing more than an event that happened in the distant past.
A slight warmth came from the palm of his hand. Duncan lowered his head and saw a brass key lying quietly in his hand. The handle at the end of the brass key, which looked like an infinity symbol, was emitting a faint light. Fine lines slowly moved in the dim light and outlined a recognizable symbol:
〖The New Hope〗①
"boom!"
An illusory roar suddenly exploded in his mind, and the fog around Duncan suddenly dissipated into the darkness. Then, the light and shadow changed, and the familiar bedroom scene returned to his field of vision again.
Deng calmed down and felt that his perception was recovering rapidly. He lowered his head again and saw that the brass key was still lying quietly in his hand.
The key no longer heated up or glowed, the fine lines on the key handle no longer moved, and the characters that had appeared before my eyes... were like a bubble that disappeared when I woke up from a dream.
But Duncan still clearly remembered everything he saw, and remembered that name——
New Hope.
He frowned, quickly stood up and took the notebook on the desk, wrote the words "New Hope" on it, and quickly and roughly recorded the scenes he saw in the "illusion". After writing all these things down, he breathed a sigh of relief and resumed his original sitting position.
It is unlikely that anything in this world can affect his memory and thinking, but the necessary caution cannot be ignored.
After finishing the record, Duncan fell into deep thought.
He didn't know the cause and effect of the scene he saw, nor did he know the connection or "transformation" process between the black data device in the "illusion" and the brass key. He didn't know where the crashed Ark ship was now, but he believed... everything he saw was not a confused hallucination.
That was a scene that actually happened. It was a true history that took place in this world in the distant past, before the city-state era even began.
There was a huge spaceship that crashed into this world and exploded during the crash, and the wreckage was scattered all over the world.
Duncan exhaled softly.
He put the key close to his body, raised his head and looked out the window at Vision 001 which had almost completely fallen into the sea.
"This is going to be fun."
Notes:
①New Hope.