Chapter 51: Chapter 51: Dual-Line Operation
This world had experienced astonishing historical changes. With the “Great Annihilation” as a midpoint, the entire world—even fundamental principles—underwent a momentous upheaval, such that the era of the deep sea after the Great Annihilation and the Order Era before it could almost be considered two entirely different “worlds.”
But even so, there were still people who persistently organized the historical materials passed down since the Great Annihilation, attempting to extract the true appearance of history from the fragmented and even contradictory archives of various city-states.
Unfortunately, perhaps because the succession had been too thoroughly severed, or possibly because the contradictions in the city-states’ records were too chaotic, to this day, people had not been able to find a more complete and credible account of history prior to the Great Annihilation.
No one knew what the world during the Order Era really looked like.
But fortunately, the world since the ancient Crete Kingdom had a relatively clear historical succession left behind—despite the rise and fall, separation, and reunification of city-states on the Endless Sea, at least the continuity of civilization itself had never ceased. Memories of the ancient kingdom were preserved in books, carved into megaliths, or passed down from generation to generation in ancient, secretive families, and associations. Though much was scattered, some threads remained.
And scholars believed that the reason why the civilization of the Deep Sea Era had extended to the present day under extremely adverse conditions was largely thanks to that miracle illuminating the world:
The phenomenon 001, the Sun.
This was the largest and most powerful phenomenon currently known to mankind—in fact, because its scale was so immense and its existence so “natural,” many scholars were debating whether the Sun was a phenomenon or a natural occurrence. However, the initial batch of chroniclers after the destruction of the Ancient Crete Kingdom, who were survivors of the ancient kingdom, referred to it as Phenomenon 001. This ancient designation had thus been passed down and remained unchanged to this day.
Clearly, not all phenomena were terrifying and harmful. Phenomenon 001 brought safety for half the time to this world. During the daylight illuminated by the Sun, the pollution from the deeper layers of the world was almost entirely suppressed below the sea level, and it was this consistent daylight that made the development of various city-state civilizations possible to this day.
According to the records left by the Ancient Crete Kingdom, after the onset of the Deep Sea Era and before the appearance of Phenomenon 001, an entire century passed in which the world was shrouded in night—the dim, cool glow of the Creation of the World illuminated the Endless Sea for a hundred years.
Therefore, the people of the ancient kingdom would call their nation “Evernight,” even using it to refer to their own era of existence.
Duncan stood before the narrow window, thoughtfully looking at the world bathed in sunshine.
What was the world like before the Great Annihilation?
Before the dreadful century of perpetual night arrived, had the Sun ever shone upon everything in this world?
It must have, for regardless of how much contradiction and gaps there were in the ancient records of different city-states, there was one point they all shared: the Order Era was a time of light, safety, and prosperity.
But regardless, that prosperous and bright era was gone, and today’s Endless Sea was illuminated by Phenomenon 001. Everyone knew this and was grateful for the daylight it brought.
Thus, in such an era, the group that worshipped the ancient “True Sun” and even used it to attack the current Sun in the sky, calling it a “false sun,” appeared particularly paranoid and twisted, unacceptable to the public.
Their attack was not just on the Sun in the sky; they were attacking the support on which human civilization struggled to survive in the Deep Sea Era to this day.
Yet Duncan knew that the Sun worshipped by the heretics… was very likely the true appearance of the Sun that had existed before the Great Annihilation.
In some way, the heretics possessed a piece of the true history—unfortunately, that true history had become the source of their distortion in this era.
Duncan didn’t believe the grand vision of the heretics could be realized, nor did he believe that they could really fabricate a burning fusion star through human sacrifices. The distorted state of this world far exceeded imagination. The current appearance of the Deep Sea Era could not simply be explained by the loss of a stellar body.
After all, not even a single star was present in this night sky.
Duncan returned to his room, closed the door, and beckoned to the cabinet next to him, calling down Ai Yi, who was sharpening its beak on top of it.
The pigeon landed on his shoulder and cocked its head, “Who is summoning the fleet?”
Duncan ignored the bird, instead walked to the bed, and found the Sun Emblem he had previously hidden in the corner of the bedding. Then, after giving it some thought, he approached the cabinet, opened the door and found the drawer with the strong liquor, taking out two bottles.
There seemed to be something stuck on the liquor bottles; Duncan curiously turned the bottles to see a small note affixed, with Nina’s handwriting: “Drink less.”
The note seemed to have been placed there a long time ago.
Every bottle had one, and none had ever had any effect.
Duncan smiled, closed the drawer and cabinet, took two bottles of wine and the Sun Emblem back to the bed, and prodded Ai Yi to make sure it saw what he was holding.
“If possible, try to bring them to the Homeloss.”
The pigeon immediately flapped its wings, letting out a proud coo, “Honey, express delivery is on me!”
Duncan nodded, then lay down in a comfortable position, beginning his preparations for the shuttle.
He had been away from the Homeloss for too long, and even though the ship wouldn’t run into any troubles without him watching, the captain couldn’t just keep himself locked up in his room forever.
Nina had classes at school in the afternoon and some other matters to attend to after that; she would be busy until late, so Duncan had already discussed with her to stay one more night at the school dormitory and come back after school the next afternoon.
During this time, Duncan planned to investigate the details of Spirit Realm travel and, according to his previous concept, test whether he could control the movements of both bodies without completely cutting off the soul projection.
Based on his perception of the Homeloss from “this side,” this should be feasible.
When occupying this “fresh” body, the connection between himself and the physical Homeloss was clearly much stronger and more stable, giving him both confidence and inspiration.
With his thoughts slowly settling down, Duncan exhaled lightly, a faint green flame ignited on his shoulder, crackling and popping as Ai Yi, in an instant, turned into the form of a spectral bird, with its brass Compass popping open at the chest.
Boundless darkness, glowing lines, twinkling stars—the familiar tide of sensations rushed in, and the path back to the Homeloss was the brightest “airlane” in this dark expanse.
Duncan’s consciousness surged along this airlane, and in the blink of an eye, he felt his main consciousness waking up in the captain’s quarters of the Homeloss.
But before fully leaving that dark space, he forcefully executed a “brake” by leveraging his control over the spiritual fire and his soul, attempting to maintain the connection with that “antique shop”…
Inside the captain’s quarters of the Homeloss, Duncan slowly opened his eyes.
He looked down at his hands, then around the room, seeing familiar furnishings and hearing the familiar sound of waves.
He slowly rose from the chair, and deep within his consciousness, the sensation of another body came through clearly!
A smile gradually spread across Duncan’s face as he began, according to his understanding, to try and sense and control his other body located in the antique shop through that distant connection.
He tried several times.
In the antique shop upstairs in Plunder City-State, the shopkeeper lying quietly on the bed suddenly opened his eyes!
The next second, that body lying on the bed started moving its head in a stiff manner, observing the room like a zombie from left to right, then slowly moved its hands and feet as if forcing a rusted machine to function, initiating movement in its limbs.
If a stranger had witnessed this scene, they probably would have panicked and gone to the nearest peacekeeper to report that someone had been possessed by an evil spirit.
Looking at it from another angle, perhaps such a report wouldn’t be entirely wrong?
Inside the Homeloss captain’s chamber, Duncan entertained these bizarre thoughts while clumsily “remote viewing” and controlling that body to move.
It was difficult; to direct physical movement from a remote connection without the consciousness being inside the body was harder than teaching a novice to manipulate a puppet with twenty-eight joints.
But after several attempts, he successfully got the body located in Plunder City-State to sit up from the bed!
The next second, the imagery transmitted telepathically to his mind suddenly spun wildly.
The body had collapsed onto the floor…
Duncan sighed, “Well, it looks like I’ve got a long way to go in practice.”
(Book recommendation time! The book is titled “I Kidnapped the Timeline,” by Cut Cut Cut. It’s a sci-fi genre novel about rewriting timelines to avoid an apocalyptic future! Check it out if you’re interested~)