Now, everyone who stayed here finally had a better understanding of the owner of the Lost Hometown - at least from the starting point of "enhancing understanding and strengthening dialogue", this was half the result.

Unfortunately, after the "enhanced understanding", the atmosphere became awkward.

A strange silence prevailed in the hall. Several popes, including Helena, seemed to be unsure whether to continue the topic. Vanna and Morris still looked a little nervous. Shirley was comforting the anxious Agou, and Nina was looking at Duncan with some curiosity - the sudden appearance of starlight had no effect on her.

Lucrecia looked at everyone in the hall with a half-smile, and for some reason there was a hint of gloating in her smile.

Only Alice, the doll lady, was still in a state of absent-mindedness. When Rune started to use the concept of "collection" to explain the world, she turned off her brain. After a long while, she seemed to suddenly react and looked around in surprise and confusion: "Is it over? Should we prepare dinner?"

The doll lady's words finally broke the awkward silence. Banster raised his head and his eyes fell on Duncan. After several seconds, he couldn't help but say: "...What on earth was that just now?"

As soon as he finished speaking, Frame, who was closest to him, instantly walked several steps to the side.

"...I'm just asking." Banster glanced at Helena and Rune who were also retreating to the side, and shook his head helplessly.

"I have a lot of secrets, some of which... even I don't know much about." Duncan didn't mind, but shook his head helplessly. Then he looked at Rune standing opposite him with a serious expression, "But I am very grateful for the conjectures you and Morris just put forward... Your ideas have helped me solve some of the confusion."

"...Then I hope you can tell me in advance next time you solve the puzzle," Rune said helplessly, "Although this request seems a bit unreasonable."

Duncan laughed: "...I try my best."

This dangerous topic finally came to an end, but the thoughts aroused by Rune's "collective model" were still lingering in many people's minds. Duncan returned to his seat, touched his pocket, and his fingers touched the folded paper again -

The original ashes, the "intersection" of world laws, the conflict between compatibility and incompatibility, the perspective of the observer within the subset, and...

He took his hands out of his pockets and exhaled softly.

Lucretia couldn't help but look at Duncan.

An inexplicable feeling of palpitations suddenly arose, causing her heart to beat a few times. She subconsciously looked at her father, but she felt that at a certain moment just now, at a certain moment when her gaze turned away, her father seemed... no longer there.

He had gone very far, so far that he was no longer in this world. In that brief moment... Lucrecia seemed to have felt again the same feeling she had a century ago when she watched the Lost Homeland enter the thick fog at the border.

But it was just a brief illusion. When she blinked again, Duncan's figure was still sitting there, as if he had never moved since the beginning.

"So, what are your questions next?" Duncan raised his head and looked at Helena, Rune and others who had just sat down across the table.

Alice scratched her hair and sat back next to Duncan: "Oh, it turns out it's not over yet."

Rune on the opposite side looked at Alice with a somewhat subtle look, then sorted out his thoughts a little, but just when he was about to say something, he suddenly stopped.

He frowned slightly, as if he was listening to the sound coming from afar. Seeing this, Helena beside him immediately reacted: "Any news?"

"This is a psychic communication from Breeze Harbor. Ted Lear is contacting me." Rune raised his head, his expression becoming somewhat serious. "He said that the research facility located near the 'luminous geometric body' suddenly received some signals released from the light body..."

As he spoke, his eyes fell on Lucrecia.

"It is exactly the same signal that the Brilliant Star received during the previous sun blackout."

Lucrecia stood up instantly.

It was dusk now—the sun had not yet completely set.

Vision 001 was gradually approaching the sea level. About one-third of the two brilliant glowing rune rings had already touched the distant sea. The sunlight created a magnificent sunset between the sky and the sea, and the sunset glow made the entire sea area covered with a layer of fine gold.

In another direction, in the offshore waters of Breeze Harbor, the huge "luminous geometric body" is still floating quietly on the sea, and another piece of light golden "sunlight" is evenly sprinkled on the surrounding sea with the geometric body as the center, creating a unique scenery of "two different kinds of sunlight interweaving between the sky and the sea".

The "sunlight" released from that glowing geometry was warm and calm, and looked no different than ever before.

However, according to the records of highly sensitive observation instruments, certain specific spectra in the "sunlight" are now "vibrating" periodically in an extremely complex pattern, continuously releasing incomprehensible waveform signals.

Duncan and others came to the stern deck and looked at the huge "luminous geometric body" near Breeze Harbor in the interweaving glow of the sunset.

Frame looked at Rune and said in a deep voice: "Is the signal still continuing?"

"It's still going on. The signal is sent every twelve seconds. It repeats three times and then appears again after a thirty-second interval," Rune nodded. "Ted Riel has arrived at the research station. He is personally monitoring the equipment there..."

"The sending cycle and repetition pattern are exactly the same as last time."

Lucrecia spoke quickly, looking up at the nearby sea: her ship, the Brilliant Star, was quietly docked next to the Lost Homeland, and at this moment, a special structure on top of the bridge of that ship was slowly rotating -

A cabin shaped like a mechanical flower bud is pointing one side of it towards the distant sea. The shielding structure at the front of the cabin opens, and the precision optical lens hidden inside it shines brightly in the sunlight.

"I am instructing the servants who remain on the ship to open the optical lens on the Brilliant Star," Lucrecia explained to Duncan beside her while paying attention to the movements on her ship. "When the sun went out before, I was the first to observe the strange light signal. Later, Breeze Harbor manufactured similar equipment and installed it in the research facility... In theory, if the research station has observed the signal, we should be able to observe it here as well."

"It's not affected even though it's so far away?" Nina at the side couldn't help but ask in surprise.

"Light will attenuate and be interfered with, but this distance is not a problem. The key now is what this strange signal means," Lucrecia frowned, with a worried tone. "The last time the signal appeared, it was after the sun went out, but this time the signal appeared, and the sun didn't seem to be wrong..."

"Let's approach Breeze Harbor first to make sure there are no problems on the city-state side." Duncan said, and as his words fell, the Lost Homeland began to turn its bow and slowly accelerated towards Breeze Harbor.

The nearby Brilliant Star also received Lucrecia's order after a brief delay and responded in the same way.

Rune was somewhat amazed at the Brilliant Star's flexible movements, as well as the "synchronous response" made by the strange "experimental cabin" on the bridge during the ship's attitude adjustment process. He couldn't help but sigh: "What a wonderful design... Ms. Lucrecia, did you do all this yourself?"

"I spent a hundred years designing a 'pioneer exploration ship' that can complete border missions under any circumstances. There are many parts of this ship that I am proud of," Lucrecia said casually, "but are you still in the mood to analyze the engineering technology used on the Brilliant Star at this moment?"

"We don't have anything else to do anyway," Rune shrugged, not seeming panicked at all. "Rather, I'm looking forward to it. An incredible phenomenon has appeared, and this is a field I have never been exposed to. If we can really crack the secret of the signal released by the luminous geometric object, perhaps we will have a chance to truly understand what the 'sun' above our heads is all about. This is a good thing."

Lucrecia said nothing. She had already shifted most of her energy to the Brilliant Star and the "servants" who remained on the ship.

Those servants were all created by her personally - each servant has a piece of her soul in his body, and each servant, and even the entire ship, is an extension of her body.

She gave orders carefully, putting the complex and sophisticated observation equipment on the Brilliant Star into operation.

"...The signal strength is stronger than what I observed last time." She suddenly raised her head and looked at the pale golden sunlight spreading over the sea. "The situation seems to be different from last time..."

Duncan looked in another direction - the "sun" that was slowly sinking, with one-third of its structure already below the sea level, Anomaly 001.

"The sun went out last time..." Shirley's somewhat nervous voice came from the side. She seemed quite uneasy. "No matter what, at least the sun doesn't seem to have changed this time..."

She only said half of her words.

A low humming sound suddenly seemed to sound in everyone's heart.

A strange feeling of uneasiness interrupted everyone's conversation.

The sky in the distance suddenly darkened.

Shirley raised her head with a dull expression and looked in the direction where the sky was getting darker.

A dark and chaotic, hollow-like sphere and two circular "bright edges" that looked like burning steel were quietly stagnant on the horizon.

The sun went out again.

“…Fuck.”