Duncan listened silently to the voices coming from his heart, the steady and reliable reports from Vanna and Morris, the helpless complaints from Lucretia, and sometimes Shirley's chattering and Nina's tireless instructions - these voices that came from across time and space were like warm anchor chains, and even after the two "incarnations" he left in the city-state gradually became ineffective, they still firmly anchored him to the side of reason and humanity.

Then, he temporarily ended the communication with Vanna and others, slowly walked across the entire deck, passed the stairs and ramp at the stern, and came to the towering stern control platform.

The puppet still stood quietly on the control panel, her hands tightly gripping the dark steering wheel, her unfocused eyes looking forward, and countless invisible threads extending from her body, connecting the Lost Homeland under her feet and the illusory projection of the New Hope high in the sky.

A thin mist suddenly spread out from the decks in all directions, flowing and converging.

Duncan noticed the strange appearance of fog and frowned subconsciously. Then he realized that the gray and white background in the distance seemed to have gradually "cracked" - large patches of fog emerged at the end of the "passage" with uniform texture, and in the depths of the fog there was a sense of emptiness.

Almost at this moment, he heard the intermittent and vague voice: "The jump is over..."

There was a slight shake from the Lost Homeland, but it was not as obvious as when it suddenly entered a certain "medium" when it arrived at the border node before. The passage was broken silently, and endless and thin fog filled the surroundings almost in the blink of an eye. The next second, Alice, who was at the helm, blinked, and the consciousness of the puppet suddenly returned to her body.

"Captain!" Miss Doll looked at Duncan, a happy and credit-seeking smile instantly blooming on her face, "We're here!"

Duncan nodded, but was startled just as he was about to speak - he noticed that the edge of the Lost Homeland was quickly becoming "blurry"!

No, not just the edges, the entire ship was rapidly becoming "blurred"! Shrouded in the fog, everything in his field of vision seemed to have suddenly lost its clear "boundaries", the deck lost its details, the masts gradually dimmed in the fog, and even Alice in front of him seemed to be merging with the fog and rapidly transforming into some kind of illusory form.

The dark green flames that enveloped the Lost Hometown also dissipated in the process!

Alice seemed to have noticed something. She stood there in shock, then slowly lowered her head and looked at her hands, which were quickly losing details and becoming "blurred": "...Huh?"

But the next second, Zhou Ming-Duncan suddenly reacted.

The dark green flames covering the entire body of the Lost Homeland were suddenly stained with a layer of hazy starlight. Billions of stars seemed to shine in Duncan's eyes, and the Lost Homeland, which was on the verge of information collapse, was quickly rebuilt and reassigned in his field of vision - under the burning of the star-filled flames, the deck and mast were restored to their original state almost in the blink of an eye, and Alice's figure also stabilized in front of his eyes.

The puppet barely had time to react to what was happening before she saw the flames on the ship suddenly "change color," and then the same flames surrounded her. After a few seconds of being stunned, she raised her hand and looked at it, exclaiming, "Wow—"

Duncan still had some lingering fear in his heart. He took a deep breath and finally felt for the first time the reality of the "edge of ash" discovered by Lenora.

This is the true border of order, the frontier of nothingness, the "primitive sea" where information units have not been assigned values. The information here has not yet been defined, and all the "creatures" from within the shelter, even the Lost Homeland returning from the subspace, are not a "data structure" that can exist stably here - because there is no data structure here at all!

The only beings that can maintain relative "safety and stability" in this place are probably those that have experienced the Great Annihilation and have achieved "self-stability" at the information level.

For example, the "reverse singularity" and the wreckage of the New Hope.

Duncan took a deep breath to calm himself, reached out and touched Alice's hair, then looked around - speaking of the wreckage of the New Hope, where was Leigh Nora?

He and his ship had arrived at the location of the escape pod's positioning signal, but when he looked around on the towering stern deck, he did not see any entity in the chaotic and empty "fog".

"Can you feel the signal from the escape pod?" Duncan asked Alice with a frown. "We should be at the location, right?"

"Yes, theoretically it should be here," the puppet finally came back to its senses from the beautiful starlight around it, and quickly sensed the location of the escape pod. Then it scratched its head in confusion, "The signal is nearby... I sensed it just now, why can't I see it..."

Duncan's mouth trembled suddenly: "Could it be that he knocked her away again..."

Alice was startled when she heard this, and keenly grasped the key point: "Again?"

Duncan: "...Don't worry about that. Let's find Lenora first."

As he spoke, he slowly released his perception, and while carefully controlling the part of his power that belonged to the "anti-singularity", he tried to find the abnormal aura around the Lost Hometown.

At this time, he was thinking of two things in his mind - first, the unfortunate Frost Queen was not really blown away by the Lost Homeland, and second, the unfortunate Frost Queen was not crushed to the bottom of the ship by this big ship...

He came here to keep an appointment with the Queen, not to help the Queen "try her luck". This matter would be embarrassing when they meet later, and it would be difficult to explain.

Alice also reacted at this time. She thought hard for a long time and finally clapped her hands: "Yes... The Lost Homeland flew here directly according to the escape pod's positioning signal, so when it landed, it would land directly on the escape pod..."

Duncan let out a long sigh - what's the use of reacting now?

If he had known earlier, he should not have let Alice jump directly according to the escape pod's positioning beacon. At least a safe distance of "XX from the jump position beacon" should be set. However, he never expected that the positioning of the New Hope would be so accurate. When the Lost Homeland went to the Four Gods Node before, it didn't hit them directly on the forehead...

Just as he was sighing in his heart, Duncan suddenly really sensed something.

He "scanned" an "entity" that did not belong to the Lost Homeland.

But the location of that entity... is on the Lost Homeland.

Duncan raised his head in confusion and looked in a certain direction. After confirming it, the expression on his face gradually became subtle.

Alice also noticed it: "Ah, Captain, have you found it?"

"Let's go and check out the situation first." Duncan muttered casually, then took Alice away from the cockpit. They walked through the platform and connecting stairs, following the guidance of the induction, and finally arrived at the stern of the ship... in front of the door of the captain's room.

Alice looked up at the familiar place in front of her, supporting her head with both hands: "This is the captain's room, I don't see anything else."

Duncan still stared at the door of the captain's room (the Door of the Lost Homeland) in front of him. He sensed the changes that took place here, and even... gradually understood the changes that took place here.

After frowning and thinking hard for a long time, he finally took a step forward and placed his hand on the...door hinge side of the Lost Homeland's Door.

The distorted and dislocated space-time structure emerged in his mind and turned into an understandable mapping of reality. He found the node of the dislocation of space-time and reached out to push it gently.

The door opened—was pushed back on its hinges.

Alice stared at the scene in amazement. After a long while, she blurted out, "Can we still start from here?!"

Duncan: "...Don't make any noise, I'm thinking."

There was a hazy halo behind the door, as if there was an "indoor space" that did not belong to the Lost Hometown, shrouded in a layer of constantly shaking optical phenomena.

Unlike the "normal" process of pushing open the door of the lost home and being directly teleported to the "bachelor apartment", this time what appeared in front of Duncan seemed to be a real "entrance", an entrance that could even allow entities other than him to enter.

He first reached his hand into the halo to try it out, then turned his head to look at Alice: "Are you coming?"

Ellie nodded without hesitation: "Yes!"

Duncan held out his hand to Miss Doll: "Follow me - hold my arm and don't let go until you are sure it is safe."

Alice immediately and obediently grabbed Duncan's arm and followed the captain towards the hazy halo.

They seemed to have passed through a cold curtain, and after a very brief dizziness and sensory dislocation, the scene before them quickly stabilized.

A gorgeous and spacious room appeared in front of Duncan and Alice, real and down to earth.

Lenoir was sitting in the big box in the middle of the room with a dazed expression, staring blankly at Duncan and Alice who suddenly pushed the "door" and walked in. The Frost Queen seemed to have just suffered a great shock and was stunned at this moment. It was not until Duncan walked towards her that she suddenly reacted and raised her hands and gestured in the air.

“…It just ran over me!”

Lenora's expression gradually became a little crazy.

"Such a big ship! It ran right over us! Half the room was smashed into pieces by all the messy stuff that was flying towards us. It took a long time to recover, and then you pushed the wall open and walked in! There was such a big hole! Couldn't you just go through the door?"

Push the wall away?

Duncan was stunned for a moment and looked back in the direction he came from.

He saw Lenora's door, which was well set into the wall and still closed, but there was a big hole in the wall next to the door - that was where he and Alice came in.

Time and space dislocation.jpg

Alice poked Duncan's arm quietly: "Captain, why don't you say anything?"

"...Don't make any noise, I'm thinking again."