The sun shone again.

After being out of light for a full twelve hours, the dark sphere that was hanging high and still in the sky once again turned into the "sun" that brought warmth and light to the world and resumed moving.

In Plande, in Frost, and in Breeze Harbor, everyone who had witnessed the sun go out saw Vision 001 return to life.

However, the panic caused by the sun going out did not subside so easily - the residents of the city-state were still uneasy, scholars and priests looked at the re-lit sun, confused and nervous as when they saw it go out before, the city's managers were still trying to confirm the situation in other cities, and everyone was eager to know - what happened?

The flying colorful pieces of paper swept across the deck like a gust of wind, passed through the window, and fell into the captain's room. Lucrecia's figure condensed from the pieces of paper. She walked to her crystal ball, activated it, and waited anxiously for the other side's response.

As soon as Tirian appeared, she spoke quickly: "I see the sun is shining again here, how is the situation over there?"

"That's certainly true for me. At least for now, we are still seeing the same sun," Tirian said with a trace of fatigue in his eyes, but he seemed to be in good spirits. "It may take me some time to relax the atmosphere in the city-state. Now everyone is worried that the sky above their heads will not fall into darkness again..."

"...The sun is a symbol of security. It protects our daylight for thousands of years. In other words, if it goes out once, the most basic and stable sense of security in everyone's mind will be severely damaged," Lucrecia sighed and casually said what she was thinking. "No one is not worried about this, including me."

"Did you gather any useful information during the time when the sun went out?" Tirian asked. "You have all kinds of equipment..."

Lucrecia nodded immediately. "Yes, after the sun went out, a set of observation devices I set up on the Brilliant Star received a strange signal from the 'luminous geometric body'. I will give you a copy after I have sorted out the information. See if the scholars at Frost have any clues. I will go to Breeze Harbor again later to see if the monitoring devices set up by the Academy of Truth in various places in the city have found anything..."

"Okay, I'll wait for your news."

Lucrecia hummed, then she hesitated for a few seconds before speaking hesitantly: "How is the situation with my father? When the sun went out, he was still at sea..."

"I have been in contact with him before. Everything is normal on the Lost Homeland. It may even be better than the situation in the city." Tirian exhaled. "I will contact him again later. Don't worry, if I find anything wrong... I will tell you the first time."

Lucrecia nodded slightly, and after saying goodbye to her brother, she extinguished the crystal ball in front of her.

※※※

In the captain's cabin of the Lost Homeland, the figure of Captain Lawrence of the White Oak appeared in the oval mirror in front of Duncan, who was reporting the latest situation:

"The sea area around the White Oak has returned to normal, and the strange phenomenon that occurred before has not appeared again. It seems that as the sun lights up again, everything is getting back on track..."

"How's the navigation going?"

"The observatory can now see the starry sky again," Lawrence nodded immediately, "but it will take some time for the spirit lens to be recalibrated. At present, it is roughly judged that the White Oak has not deviated too far from its course."

"Okay, report to me in time if there is any follow-up situation."

The illusory spiritual flame on the edge of the mirror expanded and shrank, and Lawrence's figure in the mirror gradually disappeared. However, Duncan still stood in front of the mirror, which had returned to normal, frowning and lost in thought.

The sun has recovered, and the situation is actually similar to what he expected at the beginning - although Anomaly 001 is indeed having problems, this huge and ancient "device" will not completely collapse in a short period of time. It may continue to persist for a long time with constant failures and repairs. Today's extinction is only temporary - but correspondingly, its rekindling is also temporary.

Compared to the brief extinction of the sun, Duncan was actually more concerned about something else at the moment: the strange phenomena that occurred after the sun went out.

The first strange phenomenon was the interruption of communications in city-states other than Plande, Breeze Harbor and Frost.

If all communications on the vast ocean were really interrupted, it would not be a cause for concern, but there were three city-states that had no problems. If Pland and Frost had some kind of specialness because they had become "phenomena", then what about Breeze Harbor?

The second strange phenomenon is even more puzzling than the "communication interruption" - what exactly is the "boundary" observed by the White Oak?

The burning cloth balls thrown into the sea from the ship would theoretically drift in the opposite direction of the ship's course. However, when the sun went out, the cloth balls all "stagnated" near a certain "boundary" after drifting a few hundred meters...

According to Lawrence's report just now, this strange phenomenon disappeared after the sun came out again - the mummy "sailor" conducted several more tests and confirmed this.

Duncan frowned.

The phenomenon observed by the White Oak was actually very small in scale. Compared with the "loss of contact" of all city-states on the vast ocean, the "border" was only limited to the area around a ship, but what was hidden behind the phenomenon... seemed to be far beyond imagination.

Duncan vaguely felt that he seemed to have touched upon a crucial "secret" in this boundless ocean. The "real side" of the entire world seemed to be hidden in the twelve hours after the sun went out.

At this moment, a call from afar suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

Duncan immediately came back to his senses and glanced at the mirror in front of him.

The next second, the illusory and transparent spirit fire enveloped the mirror again, and the depths of the mirror quickly turned dark, with Tirian's figure emerging from it.

"Father, you..."

"Everything is fine here. The sun is back on, right?" Duncan said before the other party finished speaking. "How is Frost?"

"Everything is fine in Frost," Tirian replied immediately. "You are in charge of the cemetery, which greatly reduces the pressure on the church and the city hall. The order in the city has been brought under control, but the panic of the citizens may need to be slowly appeased. I will call a meeting later to discuss how to explain the sun going out to ordinary people..."

Duncan noticed that Tirian seemed to be secretly looking over here while he was talking, as if he was...carefully observing the changes in his expression.

He immediately understood why.

"Don't worry, I'm still me. I haven't been replaced by something in the subspace because of the brief extinction of the sun," Duncan laughed and spoke the truth calmly. "If you don't believe me, why don't you go to the cemetery and confirm it with my 'incarnation' in person?"

"Ah, no, I didn't mean anything else!" Tirian explained hurriedly, "It's just that... Lucy is a little worried about your..."

"I know," Duncan interrupted, waving his hand nonchalantly, "but you can rest assured that my mental health is very good. Instead of worrying about me, let's talk about the situation in the city. Has communication with other city-states been restored?"

"We can now receive signals from Cold Harbor, and psychic communications with other distant city-states have also been restored," Tirian nodded. "I have arranged for people to inquire about the situation in each city-state, and it should be soon..."

He suddenly stopped talking here, and then his eyes turned away.

It seemed that someone had walked into the dome office and was reporting something to him.

Duncan did not speak, and immediately withdrew his "gaze", while concealing the connection between the mirrors - this was to avoid scaring the "ordinary people" over there.

After a few minutes, the fire around the mirror's edge began to burn again, and Duncan heard Tirian's call and cast his gaze toward the mirror again.

Tirian's figure appeared in the mirror again, and this time he had an expression of obvious surprise on his face.

Duncan noticed the change in the other person's expression and frowned slightly: "What happened?"

"We... just established contact with Cold Harbor and asked about their city-state's situation during the time when the sun went out," Tirian hesitated, as if he was trying to think about how to express each word, "and they were surprised - they had no idea about the sun going out!"

Duncan's expression froze instantly.

After more than ten seconds, he seemed to have suddenly thought of something and broke the silence in an unusually serious tone: "Tell me clearly, is it that Cold Harbor has never observed the sun going out, or that they simply did not experience the previous twelve hours?"

Tirian was stunned for a moment, then quickly understood what Duncan meant.

"You mean..."

"Let's check again to see if there is any record of communication interruption between Cold Harbor and Frost. If everything seems normal to them and the communication between them and Frost has never been interrupted... then this matter is more complicated than we thought."

"Yes, I will confirm it immediately," Tirian said quickly, "As for other city-states, I will confirm them one by one!"

Duncan nodded and waved his hand to disperse the floating flames around the mirror. But just as he was about to think about this matter carefully, the goat-headed man suddenly exclaimed not far away: "Captain! Something is wrong! Come over and take a look at the nautical chart!"

Nautical chart?

Duncan was puzzled and quickly turned to the navigation table, his eyes sweeping over the strange sea chart surrounded by fog.

The next second, he saw the projection of the Lost Homeland on the nautical chart, and... the city-state symbol slowly emerging next to the projection.

"We are...near Breeze Harbor?"