Finally, the doll Luni was also pulled by Alice to accept the fire mark bestowed by the captain.

At this point, except for those more "simple" tin men and puppets who did not have complete minds, everyone in this "witch house" had been branded by the spirit fire before falling asleep.

It was dinner time. Bright electric lights and gas lamps on the wall illuminated the spacious dining room. The members of the Lost Homeland Fleet gathered around the long dining table, sharing fish, bread and wine, preparing to face the darker and more unpredictable night that was about to come.

Tiny green flames danced in the depths of their eyes, making them seem to be looking at both reality and illusion at the same time. Some of the captain's power was temporarily mixed into their conversation, causing a low buzzing vibration in the air. Green flames also infected the gas lamps on the wall, making all the flames emit a hint of green light, making the walls and floors of the entire restaurant appear to have an eerie texture like a spirit in the firelight.

If an ordinary person who doesn't know the situation accidentally breaks into this restaurant at this time, he will probably be immediately infected by the strange atmosphere and power here - it will be very difficult to maintain his sanity and self-control.

The clockwork doll Luni lit the decorative candlesticks, and the candlelight flickered on the dining table. The bright yellow flames reflected on the silver and ceramic cups and plates, giving off a mesmerizing warm glow.

Maurice and Lucretia were discussing in low voices the ancient legends related to the elven society. Their discussion was interspersed with many professional terms, making it difficult for ordinary people to understand; Shirley was wolfing down her food, she was always the first to fill her stomach at the table; Vanna was doing the blessing before the meal, she was still the most pious one, and would meticulously complete the sacrament of the goddess at any time; Nina quietly raised her head after taking a few bites of food, and with a turn of her eyes, she looked at the wine placed not far in front of her.

"I want to drink fermented grape juice..."

The fragment of the ancient sun made a request to the Fire Usurper.jpg

Duncan glanced at the girl and raised his eyebrows: "Why don't you say you want to drink wheat juice?"

Nina's eyes lit up immediately, and she reached for the beer on the other side: "Really?"

Duncan looked at her expressionlessly: "What do you think?"

"Oh..." Nina muttered, and obediently picked up the lemonade on the other side, looking disappointed.

The mechanical clock not far away was ticking and the hands were moving slowly forward.

As the dinner was coming to an end, Duncan suddenly broke the silence: "Actually, I have been thinking about a question."

"What are you thinking about?" Vanna, who was sitting across the table, put down her knife and fork and asked curiously.

"How does the Lord of the Deep view his followers?" Duncan said seriously. "He suggested that I capture a few Annihilation Cultists to establish a connection with the Deep Sea. He didn't sound sorry at all. But at the same time, he remained rational and seemed to care about this world. Don't you think this is strange?"

"I think this is very reasonable," Morris wiped the corner of his mouth and said slowly, "Especially under the premise that the Lord of the Deep is rational, the suggestion He made to you is even more reasonable."

Duncan raised his eyebrows when he heard this: "Oh?"

"Before you successfully established contact with the ancient god, there had never been any communication between the Lord of the Deep and the real world. In other words, those so-called Annihilation Cultists actually only believed in their 'Lord' unilaterally, and they drew strength from this unilateral belief, constantly summoning demons from the deep sea for their own use," Morris shrugged. "Think about it from another perspective. If you were the Lord of the Deep, and suddenly a group of noisy mortals appeared out of nowhere, claiming to be your descendants, and then ran into your yard, stole your fruits, dug up your fruit trees, and even tricked your servants away, and finally wanted to pry open your door and live in your room..."

Duncan thought about it and felt his blood pressure rising.

"Okay, I think I understand..." He sighed, "That makes sense."

The mechanical clock in the corner of the restaurant suddenly gave a loud chime. The clanging sound interrupted the conversation at the table and echoed hollowly and abruptly in this huge mansion.

Duncan listened to the bell, silently counting each time it struck, and whispered, "Nine o'clock."

No one responded to him.

There were only a few empty chairs on both sides of the dining table, as if no one had been there from the beginning.

Duncan frowned slowly, looking at the restaurant that suddenly became empty. Even though this change happened right under his nose, he still couldn't confirm the specific "process" of it all.

Everything happened suddenly, as if the whole world had "switched" in an extremely short moment, just like a card was flipped over in an instant, and the numbers on the card became the patterns on the back - Nina and Maurice had entered another dimension with the flipped cards, while Duncan remained at the card table.

Alice also stayed at the "card table" with Duncan.

Miss Doll's eyes widened instantly, and she looked frightened: "Wow!"

"The influence of the Nameless Man's Dream has indeed appeared again..." Duncan slowly stood up from his chair, "Even the rabbit doll has disappeared."

As soon as he finished speaking, a somewhat nervous voice came from the side: "Old Master, I... I'm still here."

Duncan and Alice turned their heads at the same time and looked in the direction where the sound came from.

The clockwork doll Luni was standing not far behind them—she had stood there during dinner.

Now, the clockwork puppet is left on "this side" of the real world.

Alice looked at her in surprise: "Luni! Why are you left here too?!"

"I don't know," the clockwork puppet spread out his hands and shook his head. Then he looked across the empty dining table with worry in his tone, "Is the hostess... okay?"

"They have arrived at the other side of the dream." Duncan said, and at the same time he couldn't help looking Luni up and down, his brows frowning little by little.

Luni was left "here"... Why?

When the dream of the nameless person occurs, Alice and I will be left on the side of the real world. Now Luni is also left on this side, and she is awake... What mechanism is at work behind this?

Could it be because of... "doll"?

"Luni, do you dream?" Duncan suddenly asked while thinking.

"I... don't know." Lu Ni was stunned for a moment, and answered honestly, "Sometimes, when the mistress is maintaining my body, I will fall into a trance and recall some things from the past, but the mistress said that it was not a dream, but just the memory overflowing from the soul container... Maybe, I don't dream? I don't know what human dreams are like."

"What about Rabbi? Does the rabbit named Rabbi really dream?" Duncan asked again.

"Rabbi can dream. In fact, he is quite powerful in dreams. Many years ago, the mistress was often troubled by nightmares for a period of time. This even disturbed her research work. So the mistress made some preparations and took the initiative to let herself fall into dreams to face the shadows that invaded her spiritual world. She won and captured a shadow from the deepest part of her nightmare. The shadow came from the spiritual world. The mistress said it was a creation of fear. Then she beat the shadow again and again, and finally sewed it into a rag doll. That was Rabbi..."

Duncan listened to the clockwork puppet in front of him telling these past events calmly. After a moment, the corners of his mouth trembled: "It seems that Lucrecia has experienced many wonderful things over the years... Well, I think I understand what's going on."

Alice scratched her head: "Huh?"

"The Dream of the Nameless One seems to only affect creatures that can dream," Duncan looked at the two puppets in front of him, "and as puppets, you don't actually dream - or rather, even if you do 'dream', your dreams are not 'compatible' with those of ordinary people."

Duncan made some rigorous additions at the end of his speech, because he suddenly remembered that Alice had described to him some experiences that seemed like "dreams" when she was asleep, so from a certain perspective, Alice also dreams - but just like Luni, her dreams are not the same as those of ordinary people. If you have to say... it is more like "a doll's trance."

This "trance" obviously does not meet the "standards" for entering the dream of the nameless person.

Alice listened with a vague understanding, and then her not-so-bright mind suddenly brightened up. She seemed to have thought of something and looked at Duncan with wide eyes: "Then why do you stay here like us, Captain? Don't you have dreams too?"

"Of course I..." Duncan spoke subconsciously, but then he was stunned for a moment, standing there with a strange expression.

Have I really had any dreams since I came to this world?

In the normal sense, it belongs to mortals, intertwined between reality and memories...dreams.

It was as if a switch that had been ignored for a long time was suddenly pressed, and a corner of chaos that had never been noticed in the subconscious suddenly revealed its existence. Duncan noticed this problem for the first time, and he quickly recalled every time he fell asleep in this world after passing through that door, and... "dreams".

He remembered that he had dreamed - he had entered the warp in his dream, and he had foreseen the disaster in the future. In his dream, he saw the sun go out, the dying void hanging in the sky, and the weird luminous bodies falling from the sky...

Apart from that, he didn't remember ever dreaming about anything else, because his current body didn't need much sleep, and the habit of lying in bed every day was often just a means for him to maintain his "humanity"...

Yes, I do dream, although rarely, although...

Duncan suddenly raised his hand and pinched his eyebrows hard.

No, dreams shouldn't be like this, they shouldn't only be like this - what about those ordinary dreams? What about those scenes that we experience during the day and reflect in our dreams after falling asleep? What can be called beautiful dreams, those ordinary dreams, those interesting dreams, those dreams full of memories, those... dreams that belong to ordinary people?

Duncan recalled with difficulty, but he suddenly found that all his dreams either pointed to the subspace, or to some prophetic "illusions" that seemed to span time and space. Apart from these two situations, every time he slept... there was only nothingness.

Not even in this world.

He recalled.

Zhou Ming recalled.

He recalled the days before he pushed open the door of the bachelor apartment, recalled the days before he was trapped in the fog, recalled the days long, long ago - so long ago that it seemed like another life - those days when everything was normal and the whole world had not yet fallen into the fog.

Zhou Ming looked up in confusion.

Did he...really have dreams like an ordinary person?