In the crew area below deck, Shirley was sitting in her room with a sad face, sighing at a pile of exercise books spread out on the table.

“So many… When can I finish writing…”

"You always sigh and never finish your homework," Agou muttered beside him, "and it's not much at all. Your homework is accumulated by procrastinating every day. Miss Alice can even finish these exercises on time every day, okay?"

"Can her way of writing, where she fills in whatever she thinks of, be called 'completed'?" Shirley rolled her eyes, then buried her head on the table and muttered in a muffled voice, "I want to go ashore to play, I want to go shopping in the city-state, I want to eat delicious food... Nina said that there are so many delicious foods in Breeze Harbor, and there are foods from all over the world..."

However, Agou had gotten used to Shirley's nagging many years ago. He shook his head and said in a tone that was not moved at all: "The captain said that you can go ashore to play when you finish your procrastination homework."

Shirley pouted, then thought for a while while facing the exercise book on the table. Suddenly, her eyes turned, and with a smirk on her face, she carefully bent down and approached Agou who was lying on the floor: "Well, how about you help me? These questions must be difficult for you..."

However, before Shirley could even respond, a voice suddenly came from a mirror in front of the desk: "I'm watching."

Shirley let out an exaggerated "Ah" in frustration, raised her head and looked at Agatha's figure emerging from the mirror, her expression looking as if she was about to cry: "Can't you just stare at someone else? Why do you always pop up from the mirror no matter what I do!"

Agatha in the mirror said seriously, "Because the captain asked me to watch you do your homework."

Shirley sighed and buried her head in the exercise book on the desk again. After rolling her face in the book for several times, she suddenly raised her head again: "Then can you help me..."

Agatha said without hesitation: "No."

Shirley immediately started to argue: "That's not what the story says! The story says that the magic mirror knows everything. As long as you ask the magic mirror a question, the mirror will tell the person asking the question the answer..."

Agatha frowned: "Where did this weird story come from?"

"The captain told Nina, and Nina told me."

Listening to Shirley's essentially nonsense, Agatha's expression suddenly became serious. After thinking for a few seconds, she looked into Shirley's eyes and asked, "Did the captain really tell Nina a story about the 'magic mirror'?"

"Yes... yes." Shirley didn't know why the other party suddenly became serious, and she was a little nervous when she answered, "It was just two days ago..."

Agatha thought about it very seriously, and whispered softly: "He arranged for me to live in the mirror on the ship... So there is another deep meaning..."

Shirley didn't react at all: "Uh...ah?"

However, Agatha did not answer her. After thinking hard for a moment, the "gatekeeper in the mirror" raised her head and looked at Shirley: "Which question do you not know?"

Shirley thought for a moment and pushed the exercise book forward: "...I don't know how to do this one."

"This one?!"

"Yeah - if it's too much trouble, I can do the mental arithmetic part at the beginning..."

"Write it yourself!"

Duncan, who had just returned to the captain's room, raised his head with some confusion, as if listening to the noise coming from afar.

The goat head on the navigation table turned his head immediately: "What's wrong with you?"

"I seem to 'hear' Agatha's voice," Duncan said casually. Of course, he didn't really "hear" anything, but the ship was constantly transmitting information from every corner of the Lost Homeland to him. "She seems to be in Shirley's room, and she is quite excited."

"Do you need to go check on the situation? Or call her over?"

"No need," Duncan shook his head. "Everyone who is responsible for watching Shirley do her homework will eventually become excited, and this can be seen as a kind of tempering of one's will..."

The goat head uttered an "oh", and it was unknown whether it really understood the meaning of this complaint. Duncan silently sensed the status of the Lost Homeland, walked to the table and sat down, and exhaled softly: "It's time to let Shirley and Nina go to the shore to get some fresh air. Lucrecia is about to return to Breeze Harbor, so let her take her with her."

Goat Head quietly paid attention to the captain's actions and expressions, and finally couldn't help but asked: "You look like you are in a good mood?"

"Maybe it's because I figured out some things, or maybe it's because I let it go temporarily." Duncan raised his eyebrows, and Alice's sunny appearance involuntarily emerged in his mind. He couldn't help but smile. Then he shook his head and reached out to take out the "sketch" he had received from Lucrecia before.

Now that the worries in my heart have been cleared, it is time to study what Master Taran El drew in the manuscript he left behind after observing Vision 001.

"What is this?" Seeing Duncan's actions, the goat-headed creature immediately turned its head towards this side curiously, and a faint light seemed to float in its dark obsidian eyeballs.

"This is a sketch that Taran El drew after observing the surface of Anomaly 001," Duncan said casually. He unfolded the paper and placed it in front of the oil lamp next to him for reflection. "It may contain the true appearance of the surface of the 'sun', but the most crucial details were smeared out by Taran El himself."

The goat-head was stunned for a moment, and uttered an incomprehensible sigh: "...Oh."

"I thought you would remind me of the dangers of doing this right away, just like you always did before." Duncan was a little surprised by the goat-head's reaction. He raised his eyelids and glanced at the guy. "Why don't you nag me this time?"

"I used to worry about your safety, but now I only worry about the safety of those who want to oppose you," the goat-headed man immediately flattered, using words and sentences skillfully. "A mere sketch will not threaten the great Captain Duncan, even if the picture depicts the true appearance of the ancient god - what's more, the person who drew the picture is just a mortal. What truth can that Taran El see?"

Duncan ignored Goat Head's obviously flattering nonsense and concentrated on studying the pattern on the draft paper. However, after looking at it over and over again for a long time, he still couldn't analyze anything behind those messy scribbles.

He even felt that... those seemingly randomly scribbled lines were like some kind of powerful "seal". They "covered" the original image on the paper from a mystical perspective, rather than just a layer of ink that interfered with his vision.

As his thoughts were fluctuating, Duncan suddenly had an idea.

A "seal" with "power"?

He lowered his head again and carefully observed the criss-crossing lines and large smears on the draft paper.

Master Taran El is a senior and experienced scholar, and a devout believer of the God of Wisdom, Lahm... Although he has a lot of health problems caused by his poor work and rest schedule, his attainments in mysticism are definitely deep enough.

If such a great scholar had really noticed some extremely dangerous "factors" when observing Anomaly 001, he would have immediately tried to use a more "professional" method to control the danger, even if his sanity had already begun to be affected...

The ink left on the draft paper is probably not simply smeared - so using conventional methods, you will never be able to see the real appearance behind this "ink".

Is this actually a "secret letter" processed with supernatural powers?

Duncan frowned slightly, and a vague idea emerged from the bottom of his heart. Then he turned his head and looked at the oil lamp next to him.

As he gazed, the flame in the oil lamp suddenly jumped, and then quickly turned into a layer of dark green.

The spirit fire expanded and burned, even rising from the opening above the lampshade.

After a slight hesitation, Duncan picked up the piece of draft paper and placed it above the flame formed by the spiritual fire.

In just a moment, the blazing green flames engulfed the entire piece of paper!

There really was some remnant of "disguise" formed by some supernatural power on it.

The goat head standing by saw this and exclaimed: "Why did you burn it?!"

"The spiritual fire only burned those 'distorted' parts," Duncan looked at the goat head who was making a fuss with an indifferent expression, and extinguished the blazing flames on the draft paper with a flick of his wrist. Under the flames, the fragile draft paper was still intact, "This is what it originally looked like."

As he spoke, Duncan took the manuscript paper that had been "treated" by flames in front of him and took a look at the pattern that had reappeared on it.

The next second, his expression suddenly froze.

The goat-head immediately noticed the change in the captain's expression, and turned his neck to look over here with worry and curiosity. However, due to the angle, he could not see the contents on the front of the paper, so he could only shout: "What's on it? Are you okay? Then..."

Duncan finally woke up from his daze. He withdrew his eyes from the paper and looked up at the goat head with a strange expression: "...It is the true appearance of the ancient god."

Goat Head: “?!”

Duncan did not speak again, but slowly lowered his head and continued to look carefully at the picture on the draft paper - the sphere locked by the double rune ring, the sphere shrouded in dark shadows, with hideous bloodshot and lines all over its surface, as if it was glaring with anger...

eyeball.

The main body of Anomaly 001 is a gigantic eyeball enclosed in a dark spherical shell.