In the endless wilderness composed entirely of black, white and gray, the disordered and cold wind blows across the earth without stopping. The grass waves roll, and the strange black and white plants sway their lifeless limbs in the wind. From time to time, tiny particles of light rise from the grass, floating and wandering above the wilderness, like lost souls wandering in this forgotten kingdom of the dead.

The entire country was shrouded in a dim sky that was almost night. There was neither thick fog nor clouds in the sky, only a swirling, turbid color block that swirled endlessly.

The Homeless and the Radiant Star "glided" silently in the endless wilderness. This strange scene could not be explained - Lucrecia sent two tin men to leave the ship to check the "land" outside, and confirmed that there was indeed solid land under the undulating grass waves. However, the two ships were still sailing on this land, and the hulls below the waterline seemed to be sailing in the water and sinking into the earth, as if... the concepts of "sea" and "wilderness" were strangely merged here.

Under Duncan's command, the two ships slowed down and sailed extremely cautiously under the eternal night. Shirley climbed up to the observation deck on top of the mast, but saw nothing after looking into the distance - there was nothing but wilderness around, with only slightly undulating ground. There were no buildings or eye-catching landmarks, not even slightly higher hills.

After another period of fruitless sailing, the two ships finally came to a stop - as if they were "stranded" in this endless wilderness.

Duncan gathered his followers on deck.

"Given the strange situation we encountered on the 'Isle of Ashes' before, we must act cautiously this time," Duncan said seriously as he looked at the crew members gathered in front of him. "Everyone should not leave the ship rashly. The most important thing right now is to figure out the 'rules' of this 'Death Wilderness'."

"We need to ask a professional about this," Morris said immediately, "Ms. Agatha should know something about the kingdom of the God of Death..."

As soon as the old scholar finished speaking, a hazy shadow emerged on the deck. Agatha's voice came from the shadow, sounding with a strange and ethereal tremor: "I'm thinking of a way - but the situation now may be a little complicated."

She paused for a moment, organizing the knowledge in her memory while patiently explaining: "According to the records in the sacred texts, when outsiders arrive at the Death Wilderness, they will set foot on a 'path of no return' that passes through the wilderness. This road has no end and can only go in one direction. The dead will keep walking on this road and gradually forget their memories of the mortal world in the process. Later, they will meet the messenger who guides them on the path, that is, the 'gatekeeper' on the side of the dead world.

"The gatekeeper will lead the dead through the invisible intersection on the path, across the wilderness in an instant, and arrive at the center of the kingdom of the dead - there stands a huge door. The dead will see Bartok's shadow in front of the gate, and under the gaze of the shadow, they will shed all the filth they have stained in the mortal world, walk into the door with a pure attitude, and usher in eternal sleep..."

Agatha talked about the teachings of the Church of Death - in this teaching, there was no concept of "reincarnation" that Duncan was familiar with. The end of death was obviously eternal sleep, rather than returning to the world in any form.

Shirley was a little curious after hearing this: "So everyone will eventually go to sleep behind that door after they die? What if the back of the door is full? There will always be more and more dead people..."

As Shirley finished speaking, Alice, who had just come down from the cockpit, started to grumble, "It must be so crowded... Are they all sleeping on top of each other?"

"I think most of them probably sleep vertically, like bamboo sticks in a cage," Shirley leaned over to Alice and muttered, "When they are full vertically, they stack a layer horizontally on top, and then when it's full, they sleep vertically again, one layer horizontally and one layer vertically, and they keep stacking up like this..."

"By the way, would the person sleeping down there feel very heavy?"

"No, I heard that dead people have no weight..."

The two with the lowest level of knowledge on the ship suddenly opened a strange door and started chatting about a weird topic. Seeing that the atmosphere around them was getting weirder and weirder, Duncan finally couldn't help it: "Ahem...you can talk about this topic in private."

Shirley quickly shrank her neck and nodded repeatedly: "Oh oh..."

Duncan turned his gaze back to Agatha: "You just said that the situation is a bit complicated...what do you mean?"

Agatha nodded. "To put it simply, if the records in the classics are correct, outsiders need to go through a process of 'passing' and 'guiding' to see the God of Death. However, now... this guiding mechanism may have stopped working."

Duncan frowned and quickly thought of something.

Lucrecia and Morris beside them also reacted almost immediately. Morris held his pipe in his mouth and frowned: "The death mechanism of this world has disappeared..."

"Yes, the death mechanism has disappeared - so the corresponding 'gatekeeper' that guides outsiders in the Death Wilderness has also disappeared," Agatha said in a deep voice. She raised her head and looked at the endless wasteland outside the ship's side. "Without new deaths, there will be no 'Path of No Return' and 'Gatekeeper'. All we can see is the wilderness itself... Although theoretically, the gate and the Lord of Death should be in the center of this wilderness, it is a place that can never be 'reached' without the correct method."

Nina listened with eyes wide open and curiosity. She looked up at Duncan, then at Agatha, and couldn't help but ask, "Is it necessary to have a channel and guidance? Is there no other alternative? Rituals or something like that..."

"I'm afraid there's no way," Agatha shook her head slowly. "'Symbolicity' is a very important part of the field related to gods, and its essence is to 'reproduce specific events with strict procedures'. And because the field controlled by the God of Death is extremely special, the 'rules' here can only be stricter than other nodes... because the boundary between the living and the dead must be clear."

She suddenly stopped talking here, and added with a complicated expression: "At least... before the death mechanism in this world disappears."

Vanna had been silent until now, but she suddenly broke the silence: "In other words, if there is a 'dead person', it is possible to restart the guidance mechanism here and open the passage to Bartok's door?"

"...That's how I understand it," Agatha said cautiously, "At least that's what the sacred texts say, but it may not be that simple. After all... everything in the texts corresponds to the days when the world was still 'normal', but now many things have changed, even the gods themselves... are being distorted into something that they themselves cannot understand."

"This is at least an idea," Vanna said seriously, "it's better than continuing to wander around in the wilderness."

"But there is a problem," said Morris, smoking a pipe. "Where can we find a dead person now? There are no dead people in the world."

As soon as the old scholar finished speaking, many eyes on the deck looked at each other, and the atmosphere quickly became a little weird.

Several eyes fell on Agatha, and the "gatekeeper" lady immediately spread her hands: "Don't look at me. Strictly speaking, I should not be considered a 'dead person'. I am just a shadow that almost disappeared. From the perspective of the birth process, I have not even 'lived', and naturally I have not 'died' either."

Then another look fell on Vanna, and the judge quickly waved her hand: "I can't be counted either? I died before, but I'm alive now, and my survival has been 'solidified' by the captain. No matter how you look at it, I can't be considered dead..."

She hesitated for a moment, then added uncertainly, "At least not all of them, right?"

"I can't be counted either - I'm now a deep demon, reborn." Shirley noticed that some eyes were beginning to fall on her, and quickly waved her hands, "Even if I really died once, Bartok's 'gatekeeper' can't control me now..."

Duncan looked around and suddenly touched his chin with a subtle expression: "Now that you mention it, why do I feel like there is not a single normal living person on the ship? There are no normal dead people either..."

As he spoke, he subconsciously glanced at Morris, and saw that the old man was holding an unlit pipe in his mouth, holding a screwdriver in one hand, and clicking to adjust the fastening screws near the back of his head...

Noticing the captain's gaze, the old man put away the screwdriver, and the reed in his chest vibrated: "Sorry, there is a noise in the skull, a screw is loose."

Everyone on the deck looked at each other and fell silent at the same time.

Only Alice came back to her senses after being absent-minded for a while. She leaned over and whispered to Shirley: "...Is it possible that he slept while hanging? Just like the 'Sailor'..."

Shirley was shocked: "You are still thinking about this?! The topic has changed 800 times..."

She was suddenly stunned.

"Who did you just say?"

"A sailor—he was sleeping while hanging, though he was pretending to be asleep."

Shirley blinked, then slowly turned her head to look at the captain after she realized what was happening: "Yeah...where's the mummy? Why didn't he come over?"

"He should be on the lower deck right now, probably slacking off again," Duncan also realized, frowning slightly, "But then again... can Abnormal 077 be considered a normal 'dead'? Why do I feel like his 'death' is not as 'authentic' as yours?"

His eyes swept over Agatha, Vanna and Shirley in turn.

Shirley couldn't help but mutter, "Captain, your way of describing it is a bit strange..."

Duncan's eyes widened: "Isn't this topic itself weird enough?"