Returning to the familiar real world, returning to the familiar Homeland Lost, hearing the familiar chatter of Goat Head - Duncan felt his heart settle down little by little, and the fatigue and complicated thoughts brought to him by the "roar" in the subspace also calmed down a lot.

He exhaled lightly and walked towards the navigation table. The goat head did not seem to notice the slight fatigue on the captain's face. It had obviously talked freely in the past period of time. At this time, it seemed to be in high spirits. It even boasted to Duncan: "Captain! Your loyal omission has achieved great results. I had a good chat with this head. We talked about the delicacies in the vast sea, poetry, and songs, and then from poetry and songs..."

Duncan looked down at the noisy first mate and asked, "Did it respond to you?"

The goat-head was stunned, a little lacking in confidence: "That's right... not yet..."

But then it became confident again: "But I think I'm almost successful. Such a heart-to-heart communication will surely make the stone speak. I think this head will soon be moved by my sincere words. Maybe it will greet you soon..."

"Forget it," Duncan finally interrupted the goat-headed man's chattering helplessly, "This head won't respond to you - most of it is in the warp."

The goat head made a "crunching" sound, as if a string of words were suddenly stuck in its throat. It was stunned for two seconds, and finally reacted: "Are you talking about the subspace?"

"Didn't you notice?" Duncan pointed to the door of the captain's room. "I was resting in the bedroom, but I pushed the door back from the captain's room. While you were 'confiding' with your other head, I had already come back from exploring the subspace."

The goat-headed head shook and began to vibrate.

"Don't be shocked. As you can see, nothing happened," Duncan said casually, sitting down at the navigation table. At the same time, his eyes fell on another pitch-black "goat head". "The reason why the Dream Skull didn't respond to you is that its body is in the subspace. I had... limited communication with it there. From my observation, it is indeed as I expected before, and it does not have a complete mind and memory like you."

The goat-head finally reacted. It had never expected that the captain would go to the subspace again when he only went back to the room for a "nap". The news the captain brought back from "over there" was even more unexpected. It turned its neck and looked at the other head on the table. After a long while, it blurted out a sentence: "So...what did it say to you?"

As soon as it finished speaking, it seemed to regret it a little, and quickly followed up with a sentence: "Ah, if it is unsafe 'knowledge' then forget it, my curiosity is not that..."

"It knows something about 'Duncan Abnomer', just as you know. To a certain extent, you should have a common 'initial memory', but this part is not suitable for discussion on this ship. It's enough for us to have a tacit understanding with each other." Duncan waved his hand and said calmly, "You know what I'm talking about."

The goat-head closed his mouth instantly.

Of course it knew what the captain was talking about.

But the subject must never be broached aboard the Homelander - the ship would be sunk by the Truth, and without the anchor of Captain Duncan, it would fall once again into the Warp.

This was the "understanding" established between it and the captain after a period of getting along, and after many tacit hints and cooperation from both sides.

The captain's room fell silent for a moment. Duncan sat on a chair to rest and slowly regain his spirit. The Dream Skull was still quietly sitting on the table, its empty eyes not looking at anything. The Goat Head seemed to be lost in thought. No one knew what this "first mate" was thinking about. After a long time, it suddenly looked up: "Besides that, you also..."

"The Pale Giant King, the creator of the first long night mentioned in the Blasphemous Book, his body merged with the remains of creation during the first long night... but I can't say more, as it may be harmful."

The goat head was stunned for a moment, then slowly lowered his head: "Okay, I won't ask anymore."

Duncan hummed, and said nothing else. He just fell into memories and thoughts in silence.

Although he knew that he would not come to any conclusion by just thinking about it now, he still couldn't help but think about the "fragments" that flooded into his mind, and recalled the voice that spoke to him during the "roar".

Even though it was incomplete, he could still infer a lot of information from that few words——

They were a group that had almost cracked the truth of all things.

A civilization that has stood at the top of time and space.

They call themselves "human beings" - but they are obviously very different from the "human beings" in 2022 that Zhou Ming knows.

They have been on the path of civilization for too long, almost to the end of the truth.

But they also met their demise on the day of the Great annihilation, but unlike the annihilated groups in other worlds, they might be the only civilization that had the ability and opportunity to fully observe the Great annihilation and prepare for it.

Although they are still unable to prevent the coming of the great annihilation, they seem to have found a way to preserve a complete... "seed" when everything is destroyed.

Duncan turned his head and looked calmly at the antique oval mirror hanging on the wall not far away, staring at the figure reflected in the mirror.

Now, he finally understood why there was no red light representing the destruction of all things in "his own memory" - because the Great Annihilation did not happen in the era he was familiar with.

The Great Annihilation occurs in the distant future after that.

But compared to these possible "truths", bigger questions filled his mind.

Why... does a "Zhou Ming" exist?

He sat behind the table and thought for a very long time. Finally, he forced himself to put aside all the worries in his mind, stood up and walked towards the door.

"I'm going to walk on deck."

He said to Goat Head, then pushed the door and walked out of the captain's room.

The deck was empty and quiet. The cool light of the Creation of the World was shining on the distant sea. At this moment, the wind was calm and the sea was calm. Occasionally, broken waves hit the hull, but the sound they brought was not noisy.

Duncan walked slowly along the edge of the deck, without any goal and no longer thinking about those distant things that were destined to have no answers, as if he just wanted to empty his mind and just enjoy the night breeze.

He didn't stop until he saw a slender figure appear not far away.

Alice was sitting on a large wooden barrel near the side of the ship - it was her favorite barrel. She was rocking gently on the barrel, looking at the sea in the distance, her calves swinging back and forth, and she seemed to be humming a strange tune.

Duncan tried to distinguish it for a while before realizing that it was the sailor's tune that Goathead would occasionally hum - Goathead's tune itself was not very correct, and now that it had been "processed" by Alice, the tune had become so distorted that few people in the entire Infinite Ocean would be able to understand it.

But it still sounds good when Alice hums it.

The puppet finally noticed Duncan's approach. She immediately stopped and jumped off the barrel happily: "Captain!"

"Well," Duncan said with a smile, "I'm going out for a walk."

Alice blinked and suddenly looked Duncan in the eyes very seriously.

"You look a little tired. Are you worried? Are you dealing with some big trouble again?"

The puppet's sharpness was unexpected. Duncan was a little stunned for a moment, but he soon smiled and shook his head: "Nothing, I was just thinking about something - why are you still not asleep so late? Are you worried about something too?"

"No," Alice laughed happily, "I'm just a little happy and can't sleep."

"Happy?"

Alice immediately explained happily: "I sent the 'trophies' to the kitchen! They are all very useful - the 'friends' in the kitchen seemed a little unhappy at first, but I explained it to them and they accepted the 'new friends'...

"I also checked the meat I pickled earlier, and it's in great condition! Not a single bucket of it has gone bad this time, so it should be ready for cooking in a month...

"I also pickled some pickles. Nina taught me how to make them. She said pickles can be used with bacon pies, which is much better than what Goathead taught me...

"I also found a bunch of pencils that I had never used in the storage room at the end of the second deck. I don't know who put them there. I want to use them to draw. Luni is very good at drawing. She said she could teach me, but I have to wait until she has time..."

The doll talked happily about all kinds of trivial things, all kinds of good things that were so small that they were not worth mentioning, and they were not even "good things", but she did feel great joy in these trivial things, and each one made her happy - and now, she was trying her best to bring out this joy, wanting to make the captain happier.

Although she had no idea what the captain was usually worried about and thinking about.

Duncan did not interrupt her, he just listened quietly for a long time, until a real smile appeared in the depths of his eyes again.

Alice stopped, blinking in the night, looking at Duncan happily.

"Alice, have you ever thought about your own 'birth'?" Duncan thought for a moment and suddenly asked, "Have you ever thought about why you were born, why you think, why you are 'Alice', and what the future of 'Alice' will be like? Have you ever thought about these questions?"

"No!" Alice didn't hesitate for even a second. These questions that seemed to take philosophers a lifetime to ponder were extremely simple to her - she didn't even think about them. "Never thought about them!"

But just after she finished speaking, she seemed to suddenly feel that this answer seemed a bit hasty, so she hesitated and added: "...Isn't it a bad answer to answer like this? It makes me seem a bit stupid...Do you usually think about these things?"

Duncan looked at the puppet with a mixture of laughter and tears.

Then he laughed and shook his head slowly: "You answered very well."

Alice didn't understand.

Duncan didn't explain anything, he just reached out and gently pressed the doll's hair.

"If you want to draw, I can teach you."

"Captain, can you draw?"

"I know a little bit, a long, long time ago... Do you want to learn?"

"Um!"