Off the coast of Breeze Harbor, at the edge of the light that the "luminous geometric body" could shine, fog condensed on the sea surface, and a huge ghost ship was hidden in the fog, slowly patrolling on the sea.

A dark green flame flashed in the thick fog.

The flaming door opened with a bang on the deck of the Lost Homeland, and Duncan and Alice walked out of the door.

The familiar deck, the familiar mast, the familiar spiritual sail. Even though he had only been away for a short while, Duncan couldn't help but feel a sense of security when he returned to the Lost Homeland. Looking at these familiar scenes on the ship and feeling the fishy and salty smell brought by the sea breeze blowing across the deck, he exhaled slowly and felt his mood gradually calming down.

At the same time, he subconsciously recalled the "illusion" he had seen last night when he was exploring the huge vine, and recalled the strange Lost Homeland that was sailing in the dark fog.

The scene in my memory and the scene before my eyes overlap naturally, as if they are inseparable.

"...It's exactly the same..." He couldn't help but mutter softly.

"Huh?" Alice's voice sounded immediately from the side, "What do you mean exactly the same?"

Duncan shook his head and looked at this silly doll, which didn't know what it was going to do, but just wanted to follow him. A smile appeared on his face.

"I'm going to the captain's room to talk to the 'first mate'. You go do your own thing first."

"Oh, okay!" Alice nodded immediately. "Then I'll go to the kitchen to prepare the marinated fish and dried meat. Shirley and Nina said they wanted to eat~~"

Having said that, Miss Doll waved to Duncan and walked happily towards the kitchen - it was obvious that her mood immediately improved after returning to the Lost Homeland.

But then again, she always seemed to be happy. She was happy on the boat and she was happy when she went into the city. It seemed that there were only two emotions in Alice's head: "happy" and "happier"?

Looking at the brisk back of Miss Doll, the corners of Duncan's mouth curled up slightly. Then he shook his head, adjusted his facial expression, and turned to walk towards the stern deck.

The door of the captain's room appeared in front of him. Duncan stopped in front of the door and looked up at the door frame.

The Lost Gate

A line of words "Gate of the Lost Homelanders" comes into view, simple and powerful, with sunken marks, as if revealing the breath of eternal years.

Duncan stared quietly at the words on the door frame - the only difference between the "Weird Lost Homeland" sailing in the dark fog and the ship under his feet at this moment seemed to be the line of words on the door of the captain's room.

Of course, there may be other differences between the two ships, and there may be more clues in the differences, but due to the hasty last contact, he did not have time to discover those differences. Now the only thing he can be sure of is that the "Gate of the Lost Homeland" presents different details on the two ships.

The "Gate of the Lost Homelander" is extremely special - even if it is placed on the Lost Homelander which is full of anomalies and evil things, this door is still extremely special.

It is the only "path" for Duncan to return to his bachelor apartment, and it is also a checkpoint used by the ship to verify the "captain's authority". The text on its door frame does not belong to any known language, but anyone who sees it can read its meaning, even Alice who was illiterate at the time, or an indigenous resident of a remote city-state who can only recognize remote and obscure characters.

On different "versions" of the "Lost Homeland", this door will also present various different states - in the real world, this door leads to the "single apartment"; in the subspace, behind this door is a strange dark space; in the fog, the words on the door are rewritten as "May He wander in dreams" - a familiar yet strange "goat head" is sleeping in that door.

...What exactly is this so-called "Gate of the Lost"?

With doubts and thoughts in his mind, Duncan reached out and opened the door of the captain's room.

In the swaying light, there were familiar nautical tables and shelves. The goat head on the edge of the table was creaking and moving. It turned its head towards this side. After seeing Duncan's figure, the pair of eyes carved out of obsidian seemed to light up, and a happy and noisy voice came into Duncan's ears: "Oh! The great captain has returned to his loyal Lost Homeland! Your loyal greetings are omitted here! I didn't expect you to come back so soon. Are you happy living in the city? Are you worried about the things on the ship, or did you come back..."

"I want to talk to you about something." Duncan walked towards the navigation table and said in a very serious tone.

The captain's serious words immediately stopped the noise behind the goat head. The strange black wooden sculpture creaked and straightened its neck like a person standing at attention, as if trying to look serious. Its voice couldn't help but carry a hint of nervousness: "Captain, what happened? Is there an accident at Breeze Harbor?"

Duncan sat down at the navigation table. His eyes first fell on the nautical chart on the table. He saw the familiar fog and routes. Then he heard the words of the goat head and frowned: "Why use 'also'?"

"Prande and Frost both had accidents before..."

Duncan stared into the eyes of the goat-headed man. "You make me sound like a moving disaster."

The goat head seemed a little dazed: "...isn't it?"

"I have been committed to improving the official image of the Lost Homeland on the Infinite Ocean, and have achieved great success in Plande and Frost. Now the leaders of the two city-states are very friendly to me, and I have not received any complaints from any city-state so far. As my first mate, I hope you can look at our business from a development perspective," Duncan said, waving his hand. "Of course, I don't want to talk to you about this today. I want to know what you were doing last night."

"Last night?" Goat Head was stunned when he heard this, not knowing why the topic suddenly turned to this direction, but he quickly answered, "Last night I was taking care of the ship as you instructed. We have been drifting in the sea far away from the official route, and we were careful to hide ourselves with fog to avoid scaring those guys who were making a fuss..."

Duncan was not surprised by this answer.

Because from his communication with the "weird goat head" last night, the other party did not know him, and the two goat heads were obviously not the same.

But there must be some other connection between them.

After thinking for a moment, he broke the silence again: "I want to know something about you - your origin, your past, and your... nature."

His tone was extremely serious, his expression was extremely solemn, and his body, slightly leaning forward, seemed to be releasing some kind of silent oppression.

He chose to discuss the matter with his "first mate" in the most straightforward way, rather than conducting a secretive investigation or indirect questioning.

He didn't need these means - at least on this ship, he already knew the operating rules of the Lost Homeland and summed up his own "code of conduct" here. In fact, he already knew that as long as he didn't take that overly dangerous step, both Goat Head and the Lost Homeland would be in a certain "stable" state, which was like... some kind of "containment" means.

Anomalies cannot be "contained" like abnormalities, but there will always be anomalies and anomalies that go beyond the "rules" in this world: Anomaly 005 - The Lost Homeland is actually now in a certain state of containment - Duncan himself is the containment condition of this ship.

The goat head seemed frightened.

It was used to the captain's usual gentleness and friendliness. It knew that although the captain had an extremely scary side, he was always a reliable and kind person when facing his own people on the ship. But now Duncan's attitude and the questions he asked made it feel a little... uneasy.

"…Why are you asking these questions suddenly?" it asked subconsciously.

"I didn't ask because there was no need to know this before," Duncan said slowly, "but now something has happened. There are strange phenomena related to you in Breeze Harbor, so I have to ask you."

The goat-head's neck moved slightly from side to side, as if trying to relieve the tension.

Duncan continued to stare into its eyes, while slowly placing his hand on the navigation table.

Wisps of dark green flames spread from the palm of the hand, seeping into the floor and walls of the captain's room, and into every crack in the entire ship. A low creaking sound came from deep in the cabin, as if the "atmosphere" of the entire ship... was quietly changing.

"I am Duncan Abnomer, the captain of this ship," Duncan began to speak. His voice was low, as if he had returned to the day when he first took the helm, emphasizing his identity to the entire ship. "I am in charge of this ship and let it sail on the vast ocean. As the captain, I am asking my first mate questions. This is just a casual chat - this ship will not sink back into the warp, and nothing else will change during this conversation, because - I am Duncan Abnomer, the captain of this ship."

Blazing green flames rose from all parts of Duncan's body, and his body turned into an illusory and terrifying spirit in the flames. His voice seemed to echo throughout the entire ship -

"My first mate, where on earth are you from?"

The goat-head raised its head and met Duncan's gaze calmly: "I am from the Warp."

"What are the details? Subspace is too general a concept. You know that's not what I want to ask."

"The Warp is a general concept, and it is the only concept. The Warp has no 'place'. Captain, the existence in the Warp has no past or future," the goat-headed man replied. It seemed to have no hesitation at all, and there was no hesitation or fear in its answer. "I don't know where I came from, nor do I know what happened in the past. You want to know my 'essence' - but even I don't know my 'essence'. I... I don't remember it."

"So what do you remember?"

The goat head suddenly fell silent. Under Duncan's gaze, it seemed to have become a real wooden sculpture and remained still. After an unknown amount of time, it suddenly came back to life, and a hoarse, dark voice came from its throat: "'Remember them.'"

"Remember them?" Duncan was suddenly startled and frowned. "What does this mean?"

The goat-head shook his head slightly: "I don't know, but this is the only sentence I remember. I have to remember them, I must remember them, but... I don't know who they are, I really... I don't remember."