"Captain! Please believe me! You know my style of doing things. Forget stealing wine from your collection. My calves are already cramping when I walk to the door of your room. I really don't know how this thing got into my hands!"

Anomaly 077 howled at Lawrence in a hoarse voice, and the noise was so loud that half of the people on the deck could hear it. The sailors passing by all looked sideways, curiously watching what kind of trouble this most special "member" of the White Oak had caused.

The gray-haired Lawrence frowned. He ignored the howling of the mummy in front of him and looked thoughtfully at the two bottles of beer on the deck next to him.

Of course he believed what the sailor said - although this mummy usually had many unreliable behaviors, he was always very reliable when it came to "his calves cramping when he saw the captain."

This "abnormal" person who feared spiritual fire as much as he feared natural enemies would not take the initiative to run to the captain's room to steal things. Even if the two bottles of wine were placed on the table, he would not touch them.

After thinking for a moment, Lawrence suddenly raised his head: "...Mr. Ted Lill left just now? He was with you before he left?"

The sailor was startled when he heard this. Although he didn't know why the captain suddenly changed the topic, he nodded quickly: "Yes, he just left. He was chatting with me before he left."

Lawrence looked into Anomaly 077's eyes. "What are you talking about?"

"...poems and songs?" Anomaly 077 said casually, and waved his hand before the old captain changed his expression. "Of course that's impossible... It seems to be a world view or something? I can't remember clearly, we seemed to talk a lot, and I felt that the keeper was worried and talked to me a lot about the world, the future, life and so on..."

He paused at this point, and muttered hesitantly, "I think I invited him to drink, but he refused... Strange, did I invite him or not..."

Lawrence frowned slightly. He observed the expression and actions of the mummy in front of him with a serious look. After the mummy mumbled for a long time, he asked again: "Do you remember how you answered? Do you remember what you said?"

The sailor stopped mumbling for a moment, and soon after the memory came to his face, his expression became confused and uneasy.

"I... don't seem to remember? I should have said a lot of things to him, but I can only remember a few sentences... I seemed to be just talking nonsense most of the time..." Anomaly 077 muttered, looking at the captain a little uncomfortably, "Wait, I remember... I didn't want to speak, but at that time it seemed that there was a voice talking to me, leading me to speak... This feels a bit wrong, Captain?"

"Something's wrong... of course it's wrong." Lawrence said softly, and as he spoke, a layer of faint green flame quietly appeared beside him and flowed around along the deck. At the same time, a huge black shadow silently emerged on the sea next to the White Oak - the Black Oak appeared next to the White Oak like a reflection rising from the sea. The lights flickered on the shadow of the ship surrounded by the black house, and its outline undulated.

Anomaly 077 was startled by the sudden movement, and quickly jumped to avoid the spiritual fire spreading on the deck while shouting: "Hey, Captain, what's going on..."

"There is an uninvited guest on board - although he may have left now," Lawrence glanced at Anomaly 077 and said casually, "Martha told me that she saw a figure that did not belong to one of us in the reflection of the White Oak. That figure once stood next to you."

The sailor froze for a moment, his expression gradually turned horrified: "...Shit!"

※※※

"Your judgment is correct. There was indeed an uninvited guest on the White Oak at that time. He was near Anomaly 077," Duncan nodded to Ted Riel. "You thought you 'heard' two voices, one of which should have come from that 'uninvited guest.'"

Ted Riel noticed the change in Duncan's expression and speculated, "...Is there news from the White Oak? Did the old captain catch someone?"

"We didn't catch him," Duncan shook his head. "He was very alert and had already left the ship before Lawrence and Martha noticed."

"Leave?" Ted Riel was a little puzzled when he heard this. "How can we run to..."

He suddenly stopped, obviously as a "Truth Keeper", he had matched the most likely answer from his own experience.

Duncan nodded slightly after noticing the change in the other person's expression: "Do you remember the conversation between you and the 'sailor'?"

"Remember." Ted Lill said immediately, and then he quickly recalled and told Duncan everything he had talked about with the "sailor" at that time without omission.

As he listened to the other party's story, Duncan's expression gradually became serious, and finally nodded: "Sure enough... this can't be something that the sailor said on his own initiative."

Ted Lear was a little confused: "How can you be so sure?"

“He’s not that educated.”

Ted Lear: "..."

"It looks like we can probably determine the identity of the uninvited guest," Duncan exhaled softly, "This theory sounds a bit close to the doomsday argument of the End Preacher, but it's more like a relatively mild and logical version. The one who talked to you should be a rational End Preacher - he was hiding on the White Oak at the time and talked to you through the 'Sailor'."

He paused for a moment and added, "According to Lawrence's report, this process is very much like a kind of mind 'overwriting' and 'guiding' - the sailor still remembers the conversation with you, but cannot remember the specific content of the conversation. He also made some actions that were inconsistent with his previous personality. This should also be the result of being affected."

Ted Riel frowned, with a subtle expression on his face: "...I have never heard of the End Preacher having such abilities and behavior style..."

"That's normal. Not long ago, we didn't even believe that there were rational End Preachers in this world," Duncan shrugged. "This group of 'warp worshippers' in the cracks of time have always been the most mysterious. Sometimes they behave like monsters distorted by the warp, and sometimes they look like polite scholars. They live in a nonlinear time stream, so strictly speaking... maybe no one in the world has ever really come into contact with a 'complete' End Preacher. All we know about them so far is just their temporary state in a specific 'time slice'."

"...It's an interesting theory," Ted Riel raised his eyebrows, then restrained his expression and spoke in a serious tone, "A preacher of the end of the world could actually appear under my nose without anyone noticing, and finally escaped unscathed, without even alerting your old captain... It seems that their weirdness is indeed beyond imagination, but that 'uninvited guest' did so much just to tell me some weird doomsday theories through the 'sailor'... What do you think of what he said?"

Duncan did not speak for a while. He was silent, thinking about what Ted Riel had heard from the "sailor". After a long time, he suddenly raised his head and said, "What do you think? Do you think it makes sense to tinker with this world?"

"It's not about whether it's meaningful or not, but there is no other way to go," Ted Riel shook his head slightly. "The world is a big ship sailing on the sea. Maybe it's just like what the End Preacher said, the ship is leaking and sinking, and it's already beyond repair, but what can we who live on the ship do? All we can do is to patch it up - it's better than sitting and waiting to die, isn't it?"

Duncan did not comment. He just pondered for a long time, but no one knew what he was thinking about at the moment.

At this moment, a faint and illusory bell sound suddenly came into Ted Riel's ears, interrupting his communication with Duncan.

The truth keeper was stunned for a moment. After distinguishing the frequency and interval of the bell, he gradually frowned in confusion: "Swift Bell...?"

"Quick bells?" Duncan's voice came from the side. "Are you talking about this sudden bell sound?"

"Yes, this is to summon the saints to go..." Ted Riel said casually, but he stopped abruptly halfway through and looked at Duncan with a surprised expression, "Wait a minute, you said you also heard the bell just now?!"

"Yeah, I heard it. What's wrong?" Duncan looked puzzled. "Shouldn't I have heard it? It was quite obvious..."

"Of course we shouldn't hear it!" Ted Riel almost jumped up from his chair. "This is the summoning bell coming from the Tomb of the Nameless King. Many years ago, the Church of the Four Gods established measures to block and guide this bell. In theory, only the saints of the Four Gods should be able to hear the summoning..."

"The Tomb of the Nameless King?" Duncan gradually reacted after hearing this. "Ah, I have heard Vanna talk about this before. So this is what she called the 'Swift Bell'..."

As he spoke, he stood up and looked around, then casually said, "The bells are ringing again - it seems to be urging the saints to gather? Do you have to join the gathering?"

"In theory, yes..." Ted Riel said, but suddenly hesitated, "But it shouldn't be... It's still the Deep Sea Church's rotation period. In theory, even I shouldn't hear the bell..."

He looked up and exchanged glances with Duncan.

The bell rang once again, with a solemn atmosphere and a sense of urgency, as if... preparing to make a solemn announcement to the world.