Deep Sea Embers

After confirming that Alice did not respond to all the "keywords" and had no information about the "decapitation" ability, Duncan decided to tell this confused cursed doll what he had just learned.

Because at this time, he had a vague guess: maybe the key to the anomaly 099-Doll Coffin is not actually the Alice doll...but her "coffin".

The wind and waves on the boundless sea are gentle, the cabin is gently swaying with the wind and waves, and in the flickering light of the oil lamp, the ghost captain slowly tells the past and present life of the puppet's coffin - and then scares the puppet and almost shrinks into a ball.

Duncan looked expressionlessly at Alice, who was already sitting on the corner of the bed, leaning against the wall and holding her head: "Are you so nervous?"

"This... this sounds really scary!" Alice's tone of voice changed, like an ordinary human girl who had just listened to a ghost story, "What about indiscriminate beheading, what kind of range will it stop when everyone is dead? Continuously expanding the territory...this, this, this...I don't know this at all!"

"I believe now that you really don't know," Duncan glanced at Alice, "but this is indeed information about Anomaly 099-Doll Coffin."

Alice held her head and looked at Duncan with a stiff neck: "Then..."

"So I have two conjectures now. First, the above-mentioned 'decapitation' deed may be an ability you activated unconsciously. Because you are an abnormality, your power is most likely just a passive area effect, even if it was your previous The 'sleeping' state does not affect the decapitation effect. "

Duncan said, slowly getting up from the chair. He came to the gorgeous wooden box and touched the box with the tip of the long sword in his hand.

"Second, the 'decapitation' power of the puppet coffin may not come from you, the puppet, but from your 'coffin'."

"Coffin...you mean my box?" Alice slowly widened her eyes, and subconsciously followed Duncan's movements to fall on the wooden box beside the bed. This belated doll seemed to have just noticed at this time. Reacted: "What do you mean..."

"The full name of Anomaly 099 is 'Doll Coffin'... In other words, you and your wooden box add up to the complete 'Anomaly 099'. When I first saw you, I subconsciously I think you are the 'leading part' of it...because at that time I didn't know the full name of 'Doll Coffin'," Duncan touched his chin and said while thinking, "Now think about it carefully, 'Puppet Coffin' The word... itself seems to focus on the second half?”

Alice blinked, her head was spinning a lot, and finally she slapped her hands: "Oh! I'm included with this box!"

Duncan glanced at this heartless puppet with a deadpan expression: "...you don't have to say it in such a proud tone."

Alice didn't seem to hear the teasing in Duncan's tone. She just glanced at her wooden box thoughtfully, and said in a worried tone: "So... my box has been 'beheading' people? But I'm here I’ve lived here for so long, but I don’t think it’s so evil or dangerous…and I don’t feel it has any special power…”

"Nonsense, you are part of the entire Anomaly 099. Can you refer to your feelings?" Duncan frowned, "And if you touch your neck, I suspect that the reason why your head falls off every now and then is in this box. It’s noisy after sleeping for a long time!”

Alice immediately felt that the captain was right, and her expression immediately became complicated, but then she was a little confused: "But if you want to put it like this...'Beheading' is an inherent attribute of my coffin, so it has been left on the ship for such a long time. Why haven’t I seen its ability activated?”

As soon as she said these words, she met Duncan's gazing gaze. The belated Miss Doll suddenly felt a silent pressure hitting her head - she had relaxed after living on the ship for a while. Only then did he suddenly recall what kind of character the captain in front of him was.

Duncan just stared at the doll silently, and after Alice shrank into a smaller ball, he said quietly: "The only humanoid creature on this ship besides you is me. What do you mean..."

"It doesn't mean anything!" Alice almost jumped up and quickly said while waving her hands, "Listen to my quibbles, I mean this box..."

"I didn't say what I was going to do to you," Duncan looked at her helplessly, "You are now a crew member of the Lost Home, and I am your protector on the boundless sea. You don't have to be so afraid - can you be nice? Sitting? It looks like I did something to you."

Alice just said "oh" and slowly moved back to the edge of the bed. However, Duncan had other thoughts in his mind because of Alice's interruption - yes, no matter whether the main body of the doll's coffin is a doll or a coffin. , Anomaly 099 has stayed on the Lost Home for so long, and has long exceeded the cycle of each "test" it performs, and this anomaly has always shown a state of being harmless to humans and animals... Obviously, this is due to suppression.

So, is it the Homeless Ship that suppresses it, or is it himself, the "captain"?

Duncan looked down at his hands.

He knew that he had a very powerful power. Not only did this power allow him to completely occupy the life of the cultist named "Ron", it was even so powerful and weird that it could make Alice, a high-ranking anomaly, tremble at the first sight. As a deep demon, "Agou" has his tail between his legs. He still doesn't know what the nature of this power is, but this does not prevent him from gradually gaining a certain understanding of his own specialness.

On the other hand, the Lost Home is the fifth-ranked anomaly in the Infinite Sea - a "vision", not an anomaly.

This means that as long as you are within the range of the Lost Home, there is a "field" that is in effect 24 hours a day, constantly exerting an influence on all targets within the range.

With the suppression of the captain and the ship, Anomaly 099 is naturally harmless to humans and animals, but if he really takes Alice to the city-state of Pland as planned...then the situation will probably get out of control.

Therefore, he must figure out a series of things - is the subject of the effect of Anomaly 099 the doll Alice, or this wooden box? Is it the captain who suppresses Anomaly 099, or the Lost Home? If Alice is separated from the wooden box, will the effects of exception 099 still appear? If it is the captain who produces the suppression effect, what is the suppression distance?

His thoughts expanded——

If it was the "coffin" that produced the beheading effect, would it be safe for him to take Alice alone to the city-state of Pland? If the "coffin" is an abnormal element that can be separated, can one's own flames also affect it independently? If the box is completely dominated by flames, is it equivalent to controlling the previously uncontrollable decapitation effect? Like using fire to control Ay and the Brass Compass?

Duncan had a lot of questions listed in his mind, and these questions gradually formed a complex control test plan, but at the end of the plan, he discovered one thing to his dismay:

He lacked many of the necessary conditions for testing.

The Lost Home is not a qualified testing ground, because the power of the ghost ship will interfere with the accuracy of the results, and it does not have a suitable test target - because the decapitation effect of Anomaly 099 is more expensive than the life of the "tester".

Duncan raised his head and looked at Alice, who was sitting obediently by the bed. Miss Doll was looking at her beloved wooden box with some sadness, and all the entanglements in her heart seemed to be printed on her face.

Seemingly noticing the captain's gaze, Alice suddenly broke the silence and whispered: "From the day I became conscious... I have been living in this box. It is my bed and my home. It’s also my sanctuary and I feel safe when I sleep in it.”

Duncan didn't speak, just looked at the puppet in front of him quietly.

"Now I know why those humans are so afraid," Alice stretched out her hand and gently touched her wooden box. "They are afraid of 'us'."

"I was originally planning to take you to the city-state of Pland during my next trip to the spirit world," Duncan said in a deep voice, "I need a helper there."

Alice's eyes seemed to light up for a moment, but then dimmed: "Ah, this doesn't work well..."

"The plan has been postponed, but not cancelled," Duncan's expression and tone did not change much, "We just need more time to confirm your... 'your' power and master the conditions for the 'decapitation' effect to take effect. Land The human city-states on the planet can seal and even use various abnormal objects through various tricks, but here in the Lost Home, we can do more. "

Alice glanced at Duncan suspiciously, and from the captain's calm and deep eyes, she realized that these were not empty words of comfort.

"You have a plan?"

Duncan thought for a moment, raised his fingertips, and lit a faint flame.

"First, we might need a little fire."