Obviously, the sudden news from Duncan shocked the three views of several popes - they paused for a long time on the spot, but in the end they still couldn't recover.

After concealing the information related to Alice Mansion, Duncan briefly told Rune and others about his communication with Black Sun and the Lord of the Deep.

He was not worried that the information would "pollute" the people who remained at the scene. On the one hand, his followers had all been baptized by his "spiritual fire", and it was proven that this made them highly resistant to mental pollution. On the other hand, the several popes present dealt with mental pollution almost every day, and their resistance was estimated to be very high. They would not go crazy just because they heard a few words of ancient gods - he would definitely not have mentioned these things if the bishops were still present just now.

Helena and the others looked at each other, and after a moment of thought and hesitation, all three eyes fell on Rune.

The short and fat old elf suddenly looked a little embarrassed: "...Why are you all looking at me?"

"You are the most knowledgeable person among us." Helena said sincerely.

Banster nodded and said, "You often have unique insights and foreboding insights in the difficult field of mysticism."

Frame said nothing, but continued to stare at Rune without blinking.

Rune remained silent for a few seconds with a subtle expression. After thinking for a moment, he seemed to suddenly think of something and turned to look at Duncan who was watching the show next to him: "Are you sure you heard the clear and rational voices of the Deep Lord and Black Sun, right?"

"Of course I confirm," Duncan spread his hands, "Just like the conversation we have now."

"Then the second question," Rune considered for a moment, his expression becoming particularly serious, "...Since returning to the real world from the subspace, have you ever encountered a 'chaotic creature' that you can't communicate with, can't understand, and is completely indescribable?"

Duncan was slightly startled when he heard this, and then he vaguely understood what the old pope meant. After a moment of silence, he spoke: "...I have met many 'chaotic, confused, and uncommunicative freaks' according to the world's standards, but almost every time...I have heard useful information in their noisy roars...Sometimes, I even feel that they are intentionally talking to me."

He paused, but there was still half a sentence left to say - he always thought this was normal!

After hearing Duncan's answer, Rune's expression changed significantly. His brows furrowed instantly, and Helena beside him also reacted: "Wait, so..."

"...In the eyes of the Captain, there are no crazy and out-of-control ancient gods." Rune looked into Duncan's eyes and spoke slowly with a serious expression. "You can understand those voices that have completely deviated from the 'rational standard' in any situation. Even those beings that would cause mortals to collapse and go crazy at the sight of them are probably understandable and communicable to you."

The hall fell silent for a moment. Except for Alice, who was not smart enough, and Shirley, who did not use her brain, everyone immediately began to subconsciously think about what this meant, and the "reason" behind this incredible "phenomenon".

While deep in thought, Morris broke the silence by whispering: "If we follow the 'cognitive deviation' hypothesis you just proposed, it means that the captain..."

“No matter how everything deviates, it is still within his cognition.” Rune nodded slowly, “It’s a bit like… wait, wait, I need paper and pen!”

Morris responded immediately: "Here it is."

A piece of paper was quickly spread on the table. Rune took a pencil, bent down under everyone's curious gaze, and began to quickly sketch a pattern on the paper. However, to Duncan's surprise, it was not some complicated and mysterious mystical runes, nor some difficult mathematical formulas. What Rune drew was just a series of seemingly loose and random circles.

He drew many circular patterns - they were randomly distributed on the paper, some overlapped each other, some had only slightly staggered edges, and some were completely independent.

"Do you remember the Great Annihilation? And the conjecture about the formation process of the new world after the Great Annihilation..." Rune said quickly while describing, "Many worlds collided with each other, and their debris piled up to form the foundation of the new world. I call these piled-up debris 'original ashes', and these ashes originally carried the 'rules' of their own worlds. We regard the ashes with the same set of rules as such a circle...

"Yes, the concept of a set. The 'original ashes' left over from each world are a subset. Do you see these intersecting circles? Those that intersect are the mutually 'compatible' parts of the original ashes...

"During the Third Long Night, compatible primordial ashes were reorganized to form the deep sea era we are in now... The 'intersection' in the collection, yes, it's right here..."

Rune paused and pointed his pencil at the center of the white paper.

Several large and small rings intersect there, and the intersection of the rings has an area only the size of a fingernail.

"This is our deep sea era... The original ashes from the wreckage of various worlds, which are compatible with each other and can barely be established under the same set of rules, together built this endless sea and the many city-states on the endless sea...

"Beyond this 'intersection', in the other non-intersecting parts of these rings, that is, their 'differences', are things that we can touch but cannot understand or control. They float on the edge of our real world, perhaps appearing as visions, perhaps as anomalies, perhaps other strange phenomena, or carriers of pollution..."

Rune thought for a moment and pointed to the circles that were independent of all the circles and had no contact with any other patterns.

"This is where the blasphemous prototype is located, the Black Sun and other lost ancient gods and exiled tribes. We are completely unable to understand their existence, and they are completely unacceptable to the real world. Some of them have completely disappeared into the darkness, while others... are still wandering in the form of primitive ashes... in a time and space that we cannot understand."

Morris looked at the simple and clear diagram that the teacher had drawn on the paper and quickly understood: "We are within the range of the 'intersection', so we can only 'understand' the information within the intersection. Things outside the intersection are indescribable noise and shadows to us..."

Rune nodded: "Yes, this is the 'fact' shown by this model."

Morris then continued, "But for the captain, whether it is the 'weird shadows' outside the intersection or the lost ancient gods that are completely outside the collection system, they are all understandable - in his eyes, there is no world 'outside the intersection'..."

"As you said..."

Duncan stood aside and listened to the discussions silently.

They are discussing him, trying to explain him using a set of logic, they are trying to recognize him, trying to understand him, trying to touch his "real mystery".

But he didn't care.

He just listened silently, thinking about something.

He stared at the patterns drawn by Rune, at the intersecting, overlapping, and independent circles, at the floating "primitive ashes" scattered in the ruins, and at the piece of paper.

For some reason, his mind suddenly recalled his recent experience in the warp, and the overflowing starlight he saw in the pale giant's eyes...

Fanna also came to the paper. She looked at the pattern on it and couldn't help but whispered, "Where is the captain..."

Rune looked serious: "Only under one condition can a 'master set' contain all the subsets that have appeared here and those that have not yet appeared."

Vanna thought about it and gestured on the paper: "A bigger circle that includes them all?"

"No."

Morris shook his head.

Then, the old scholar took half a step forward and gently placed his hand on the paper.

"It's this piece of paper."

After he finished speaking, he raised his head and looked around.

Endless starlight filled his vision, his memory, and his cognition.

Filling the eyes of everyone in the hall.

Helena opened her eyes wide in the starlight. In the huge waves of truth, she felt her mind shaky. She saw an undulating shadow and an outline rising in the starlight. The outline approached her and made a roar.

“Isn’t it incredible?”

Rune stood stiffly in the starlight, noise and vibration squeezed out of his mind: "Truth... the ultimate beauty..."

Then, all the starlight suddenly dissipated - the huge and undulating shadow shrank and collapsed into the real world in the hall in an instant imperceptible to humans.

Vanna barely managed to free herself from the horrible afterimage caused by the starlight, and in the intense dizziness, she saw the captain walk to the table and slowly roll up the paper.

"I'll give you a suggestion," Duncan turned his head and looked into Rune's eyes, "Next time you discuss me, make some more preparations."

The horrible afterimage left by the starlight finally faded away completely - the paper had been completely rolled up by Duncan and stuffed into his clothes.

As the "truth" was temporarily obscured, reason suddenly returned to everyone's mind.

Banster took a deep breath, subconsciously took a step back, and then glared at Rune: "I should have kept my distance from 'scholars' like you from the beginning!"

"You asked me to analyze it just now!" Rune took two deep breaths, first looked at Duncan with lingering fear, then looked at Banster and the other two, "Just tell me if it works!"

"Captain..." Morris turned to look at Duncan with an embarrassed expression on his face, "Sorry..."

"It's okay. Curiosity is human nature," Duncan laughed, his smile as gentle and tolerant as usual. "Fortunately, no one died."