Deep Sea Embers

Real life is different from weird stories, and the biggest difference is that you have to consider a lot of real and trivial details when you live in reality——

Do movable curse dolls need joint maintenance? Will Alice's frequent disassembly of joints cause her to suddenly fall apart as she walks in the future? Did the bacon and cottage cheese on the ghost ship ever expire?

Do the superheroes who socialize during the day and fight with evil forces at night sleep or not? Do the evil forces who have fought with superheroes usually go to the supermarket to buy things?

I never tell you this in the story, the people in the story are always in white clothes, come and go like the wind, and the cursed doll in the story only needs to come out of the corner suddenly to scare people, just like in the story The Ghost Captain never had to worry about having a century-old bacon and hard cheese on board.

In reality, the cursed doll is scratched all over after soaking in sea water, and even after taking a bath, he has to temporarily think about how to deal with the salt particles in the joints...

Duncan, who was standing outside the cabin, sighed, realizing more clearly that to survive on this ship for a long time seems to require more than just determination.

He also had to consider a lot of practical problems, especially after the increase of the crew.

In fact, there are not too rich living materials on the ghost ship, Duncan is very clear about this.

This ship has an unlimited supply of fresh water, but the unlimited supply is only fresh water. The ingredients stored in the food warehouse will not be automatically replenished after consumption, and the only edible things there are bacon and hard cheese. While none of them showed signs of decay due to the special nature of the Lost Home, Duncan still reasonably suspected that they had been stored for at least a century.

In addition, there are no replacement clothes suitable for Alice's size on this ship (although the cursed puppet did not mention this demand), and there is nothing that can be used for entertainment-even a chess set, a vice poker.

The Boundless Sea is vast and boundless, but it is difficult for the Lost Homeland to obtain real supplies from the vast sea. This ship does not seem to have a reliable "home port" to stay and repair, and it does not communicate with the civilized city-states on land. channels.

The goat's head didn't seem to care about this problem at all, but Duncan had already seriously thought about it at this moment—he wanted to find a way to improve the current lack of supplies on the Lost Home.

Furthermore, he is also considering how to establish contact with the "city-states" on land.

Drifting blindly on the sea forever is an extremely inefficient method of exploration. Information about this world must be obtained from land. This is Duncan's deepest experience after "walking in the spirit world".

Putting this aside, even for his own physical and mental health, he has to try to get in touch with the "city-states" on land and the civilized society of this world—otherwise he is really worried that after a long drift He will really become a distorted, gloomy and withdrawn ghost captain.

Thinking of this, Duncan turned his head slightly, and looked at Ai the pigeon, who was obediently combing his feathers on his shoulder.

His gaze was mainly on the brass compass on Ay's chest.

Pigeon tilted his head to look at his "master", and suddenly said: "Open a sub-base! Spread the creep blanket! Hey, can you operate it?"

Duncan was silent for a while, the pigeon was neurotic most of the time, but the words it popped up occasionally were so appropriate, even so appropriate that one couldn't help but suspect that it was wise and stupid.

At present, walking in the spirit world seems to be the only feasible means of "going" to the land city-state.

Although there seems to be too much uncertainty in this method, and there have been mysterious accidents like "Ai" after the last use, Duncan knew that he would soon carry out his next spirit walk-not only In order to collect intelligence on land, it is also to verify and master a very useful ability as soon as possible.

Equally important as walking in the spirit world is the "special ability" of the pigeon Ai who brought back a ritual knife from a distant land.

If it brought back a pocket knife, could it bring back something more? What are the rules and restrictions on what the bird can carry? Can this process be controlled by humans?

After thinking for a while, Duncan decided to ask the pigeon directly: "Do you know how you brought that knife back?"

The pigeon thought for a while, and said in a deep voice, "You need more crystal mines."

Duncan: "..."

He decided to give up communicating with the pigeon for the time being, and it would be more reliable to try it himself next time he performed the spirit world walk.

...

In the cabin, Alice finally figured out how to use the water pipes, and then roughly figured out how to take a bath.

On the ghost ship with limited conditions, she can only take a cold shower, but for a puppet, this is not a problem at all.

But before jumping into the tub, Alice decided to go over the whole cabin first.

She patted the huge oak barrel, and knocked on the pillars supporting the cabin. She kicked the floor under her feet with her toes, and she tiptoed to pull the ropes and hooks hanging from the roof.

"Hello, my name is Alice," she greeted these cold things happily, just like she greeted the goat-headed gentleman before, "I will live on this ship from now on."

Nothing in the cabin responded to her greeting, but Alice paid no attention.

Goat's head said that the Lost Homeland is alive, and many things on this ship are alive.

Although none of them seem to have the real "intelligence" like the goat's head, and they don't even have the ability to communicate, but this does not prevent Alice from treating the entire Lost Country as a "neighbor" who needs to greet.

Homeland was a living thing, and so was she.

Convinced that her greeting was polite and appropriate, Alice's mood became even happier, and then she took off her gorgeous dress, and climbed awkwardly into the oak barrel that had been filled with water.

The first step is to take off the head and rinse it—the joints in the neck are not very strong anyway.

Miss Doll thinks her plan is very reasonable.

...

In the middle of the night, the Puland city-state finally ended the hustle and bustle of the whole day. Under the pale light of the night sky, this prosperous "Pearl of the Sea" gradually fell into a peaceful sleep.

But in the quiet darkness, there are night watchmen watching the city after falling asleep.

On the "Great Clock Tower", the tallest building in the city-state of Pratt, a young lady with long gray hair and an unusually tall figure is standing in front of the window overlooking the city.

This lady's facial features are very beautiful, but there is a striking scar across her left eye that is daunting. Her figure is taller than ordinary men, and she is wearing silver-gray light armor and battle skirt. She is obviously worn out. Exercise, the muscles of the limbs are full and the lines are well-proportioned, and beside her, within easy reach, there is a giant sword exuding a faint silver light-the hilt of the giant sword is engraved with symbols that symbolize ocean waves. Wen, there is also a glimmer of light floating on the blade like water waves.

Behind the lady, the sound of mechanical operation can be heard continuously - the movement of the big clock tower is running smoothly under the drive of the steam engine. A mimetic planetarium deep within the building is in constant operation.

Judging from the sound, this huge and sophisticated machine is running very well, and no evil force has invaded the sacred steam core.

But Judge Fanna still had a faint uneasiness in her heart, a bad premonition that some events were about to happen or had already happened, and she was destined to be helpless about it, which made her very irritated.

Footsteps came from the direction of the stairs, and the gray-haired woman in front of the window turned around in search of the sound. She saw a priest wearing a sea priest's robe coming up from the stairs. The priest was holding a copper incense burner in his hand, cleansing The smoke was slowly winding around him.

The pastor came to the movement column in the center of the room, took down the old incense burner that was originally hanging on the guardrail of the column, and replaced it with a new one. He observed the smoke escaping from the incense burner and confirmed that there was no smoke Floating around those rotating gears and connecting rods, he whispered the name of the Storm Goddess in a low voice, and turned to look at the gray-haired lady standing in front of the window.

"Your Excellency, Ye An—are you keeping watch in person again?"

"I've always had a bad feeling, it's always been the last few days - especially tonight."

"Bad premonition? Where is it?" The pastor raised his head, his deep eyes were filled with worry, "Did the goddess send an omen to you?"

"Not so clear." The young female judge shook her head. "I just have a vague feeling...something is approaching this city."