Chapter 186: Chapter 190: Vanished Like Yesterday
The Creation of the World hung high in the night sky, a cold wind swept over the Endless Sea, and the broken waves gently floated around. The small boat rocked and swayed, like a dream that was about to wake before dawn.
But Alice didn’t actually know what it meant to “dream.” She had slept for a very, very long time but had never truly dreamed like humans do. She guessed that dreaming must be similar to this state.
Floating in a vast, vast place, her thoughts also drifted about.
She lifted her head and saw only the sea in the distance; the remote lights of the Homeloss seemed like tiny candle flames hovering over the surface of the water. This even gave her the feeling that the whole world had disappeared, leaving only herself, the small boat beneath her, and the boundless Endless Sea.
Oh, and the three Doomsday Preachers tied up with ropes across from her.
The doll miss shifted her gaze from the distance and curiously observed the Heretics tied up in front of her.
These were humans, the nasty kind—Alice didn’t know much about humans, but she knew there were good people and bad people among them. Good people did very good things; Captain Duncan would praise them; sometimes, he even helped them. Bad people did very bad things; Captain Duncan would despise them; sometimes, he even reported them. And these three in front of her… belonged to the type the captain liked the least.
They believed in Subspace, followed malicious doctrines, and would kill anyone for the faux righteousness they concocted—even attacking a poor little girl who relied on her dog for company. If the guardians of the City-State discovered them, they would shoot them dead in the streets without hesitation. If the sailors at sea found them, they would hang them from the masts— even the most vicious pirates, upon finding them, would stuff these madmen into wooden crates and throw them into the sea as a way to seek protection from the Storm Goddess.
But now they were tied up, quiet, and showed no signs of crazy outbursts—Alice still remembered the terrifying state of these people when they first arrived on the ship, as agitated as if they had taken the wrong medication.
As time passed, these Doomsday Preachers became more and more docile.
“Aren’t you afraid?” After holding in for a long time, Alice couldn’t help but speak out. She felt really uncomfortable here, although she knew this was a necessary “safety test” to let her move about in human City-States, the feeling of drifting over the Endless Sea still left her unsettled.
One of the Doomsday Preachers responded to the doll’s voice. His skeletal head slowly lifted, staring into Alice’s eyes, “Foolish filth, crude shell… Your soul is pale and empty. Subspace will not take you in…”
Alice was stunned for a moment, and it took her a few seconds to react, “Hey, why are you insulting me?”
However, the Doomsday Preachers opposite her only emitted a series of hoarse and unpleasant laughter. Facing the fear-inducing “anomaly 099,” they seemed to have no fear at all.
Or maybe, as they themselves claimed, they had transcended the concept of life and death and no longer cared about the arrival of death in the real world.
Alice could only hold her annoyance, but after a while, she shook her head, “I’m not angry anymore.”
Another Doomsday Preacher looked up at her and remained silent.
Alice kept talking to herself, “I shouldn’t be angry. You could complain a bit, after all. You are the ones tied up, not me. You are the ones undergoing this beheading test, not me. The captain always said, ‘Don’t get too carried away when the wind is favorable, for a big wave can capsize the boat, and if a person jumps too much they might lose their life’… And since you’ve fallen to this state, I, being generous, will allow you a few unrestrained words.”
The Doomsday Preachers silently sat in the cabin, listening to the doll rambling on as if they had completely blocked her out. But after a while, Alice noticed that these men had some “little movements” —
They were subtly examining each other’s heads, occasionally moving their necks, and sometimes cautiously glancing this way with puzzlement in their eyes.
Alice thought for a moment and felt that these men might be curious as to why their heads were still on their necks.
These Heretics apparently knew about anomaly 099. Perhaps they truly weren’t afraid of dying, but their curiosity was still present—having been so close to anomaly 099 for so long, they couldn’t comprehend their own survival.
“Actually, I’m a bit afraid,” Alice suddenly said, “I’m afraid that your heads will suddenly fall off—Captain said I have the ability to behead people; I was startled when I heard that for the first time. Humans are different from me; human’s heads can’t be put back on once they’ve fallen off…”
Suddenly, the sound of flapping wings came from above. Alice curiously looked towards the direction of the sound and saw the pigeon, Ai Yi, suddenly flying towards the distance. Then, not long after, it flew back from the direction of the Homeloss, carrying green flames on its body.
Ai Yi circled above the surface of the sea near the small boat, the ghostly green fire soaring into the air, and within the grand vortex of flames, an ornate wooden chest emerged out of thin air and then plopped onto the sea nearby.
“My chest!” Alice’s eyes widened in amazement, and she exclaimed with surprise; then, the words “sweeping before stepping out” surfaced in her mind, and her head almost fell off her neck—but then she noticed a piece of paper stuck to the wooden chest, quickly paddled the boat over with an oar at hand, and after getting closer, she took off the note and saw a line of words written on it:
“The guillotine ability might also be related to your wooden box; both should be sent for testing. Also, you must be imagining again that I want to throw you off the ship—don’t overthink it, come back quickly after the test is complete.”
Alice looked at the note over and over, struggling to make sense of its content.
She was illiterate…
But soon on the back of the note, she saw something else—a crudely drawn sketch that depicted her rowing back to the ‘Homeloss,’ ending with a smiley face.
Thus, the doll-like lady understood—regardless of what was written on the front of the note, the captain had no intention of sending her away.
Relieved, she carefully tucked away the note and casually lifted the wooden box from the sea with a “thump,” tossing the actually quite heavy box onto the small boat with one hand. Only then did she look up at the several heretics opposite her, “Are you hungry?”
The preachers gave no response, but she didn’t mind and mumbled to herself, “Although the captain said you deserve to die, he also said if you really manage to survive the test, he won’t kill you—he plans to bring you back to the city-state, for something… what was it called…”
The doll-like lady stumbled a moment, trying to remember what the captain had said, “Oh, to demonstrate the citizens’ concern for the safety of the city-state… He said you are each worth at least seven bicycles. What is a bicycle?”
“Subspace will grant us warmth… Subspace will grant us peace… Subspace will bestow blessings upon all that perishes, after the end has come as promised…” mumbled a Doomsday Preacher ambiguously, seemingly in response to Alice’s incessant talking, or perhaps merely engaging in some kind of blasphemous prayer, “We walk through the end, abandoning this cursed flesh, our minds will transcend that barrier, and in the new world, our eyes will open once again…”
“Huh?” Alice was confused, “What are you muttering about?”
The Doomsday Preachers stopped responding to her, and after that did not give any further response.
Until sunrise, all they did was bow their heads, murmuring endlessly about matters related to Subspace, about the end of a time continuum, about an apocalypse that is destined and justified to come. Amid the rolling waves and the sound of water slapping against the boat, there was only the incessant muttering of these madmen.
This was an atmosphere that could send chills down the spine of an ordinary person, and their prayers could curse the weak-willed, snaring them in the shadows that seeped from the depths of the world. Yet Alice sensed only annoyance.
Having received the captain’s note, she was no longer afraid of this drifting journey, left only with utter boredom.
But the tedious wait was finally over.
A streak of dawn light appeared on the distant sea. In the faint morning glow, the ‘Creation of the World’ in the sky quickly faded, and the sun that was doubly sealed by runes slowly emerged from the sea, ascending into the sky.
Dawn had broken.
Alice hadn’t beheaded anyone.
The doll-like lady cheerfully watched the sunrise, stood up from beside the wooden box, and turned to the heretics, “Hey! It’s dawn! You’re still alive! We can go back now!”
However, the three Doomsday Preachers still didn’t respond to her. They just hunched there in the cabin, heads bowed, muttering softly, calling out for the “attention” of Subspace one last time in the fleeting darkness before the sunlight could flood the cabin.
Not until Alice raised her voice once more did one of them finally lift his head. The heretic glanced at the sunlight steadily spreading across, a bit dazed, but gradually, a strange smile appeared on his face.
“Oh, our day is over…” the madman murmured, then slowly turned his head to look at Alice’s gem-like, perfectly sculpted eyes, his smile weirdly mixing insanity and serenity, “Doll, we shall meet again one day.”
“Huh?” Alice was startled, “What do you mean? You can’t just disappear into thin air…”
The sunlight spread.
The figures of the three Doomsday Preachers silently vanished with the morning light, like ephemeral shadows of the past day.
“Run away, could you…” Alice finished the sentence out of inertia and then, widening her eyes, exclaimed, “You really did run away, huh?”