Chapter 60: Chapter 60 Opposite the Door
This door leads to Homeloss.
The letters on the door frame, cast in brass, appeared as though they had withstood a century of time. In the light of the Spiritual Fire lantern and the dim chaos that filled the entire cabin, every line on the letters seemed to be coated with a layer of solidified time, exuding an aura of ancient mystery.
Duncan stared at the line of letters for several seconds before turning away expressionlessly.
Alice’s voice suddenly came from beside him, “Hey? Captain, are we leaving already? Don’t we need to check this door? Even if we don’t open it…”
“There’s nothing left to see here, this is the end of the hold,” Duncan said offhandedly.
But just then, a faint knocking sound suddenly arose, stopping him in his tracks.
Duncan turned around to look at Alice standing behind him, and she nervously looked around before finally turning to face the dark wooden door: “The sound seems to come from behind this door…”
Duncan stood still, sternly watching the wooden door from which the knocking had come. He patiently waited several seconds before hearing two more taps—the sounds faint and muffled, as if through a decidedly thick curtain, as if the door were enveloped by some invisible entity, but this was surely no illusion.
After a brief but intense moment of consideration, he finally returned to the door, with Alice approaching as well, nervously attentive to the noises that might follow.
Duncan held the lantern in one hand and gripped his longsword tightly in the other, carefully observing the dark wooden door before him, when suddenly he realized that it was not completely closed—on the side of the door, there was a gap of about one centimeter.
The door was ajar, as if someone had left in a hurry and forgotten to close it, or as if some “thing” inside had deliberately left a gap, beckoning the unwary to visit.
Duncan picked up the lantern and cautiously shone it inside, peering through the gap at the opposite side of the door—his other hand, though, already had the longsword poised next to the gap, ready to thrust at any “thing” that might emerge.
However, he could never have anticipated what he would see—
On the other side of the gap was a room.
A small room that seemed to have seen years pass by. The wallpaper on the walls was dim and wrinkled, with fittings that seemed to have been neglected for some time. Directly facing the door, there was a single bed with a table beside it, on which were placed a computer, books, and a small ornament.
A tall, thin figure was hunched over the desk writing feverishly, that silhouette dressed in an ordinary white shirt bought from a street stall, with unkempt hair lacking grooming, a body clearly not exercised, appearing somewhat too thin.
Duncan’s eyes were glued to the familiar everything on “that side,” to the room, to the figure hunched over writing, and that figure seemed to feel something too, he stopped writing, abruptly looked up, and ran toward the door.
The figure ran over, staring intently through the gap at the outside, at Duncan.
Duncan stared back at him, at the familiar face—that was his own face!
After staring at each other for a few seconds, the figure on the other side of the door suddenly became agitated. He began to push the door forcefully, seemingly trying to get out, but the door was as immovable as if cast with the space. He then attempted to break the lock, prying at the gap with tools, and pounded on the stubborn door as if desperately trying to escape, to no avail.
The person inside finally gave up on this futile attempt. He pounded near the gap once more, then shouted something loudly through the door—but from outside, only vague, ethereal noises could be heard, not a single word was clear.
Duncan watched all of this, shocked and bewildered, watching that “other self” trapped in the room, he knew what the man inside wanted to do—his gaze slowly falling on the door handle beside him.
The handle was within easy reach.
From this side, the door might very well be easy to open.
Yet he just looked at the handle, not making the slightest move to take action.
The trapped man seemed to fall into despair. He shouted one last time, finding that his voice could not reach outside, and then ran back to the desk. He bent over quickly to write something on a paper, then hurried back, showing the sheet of paper to Duncan.
Through the gap, Duncan saw the scrawled words on the paper: “Save me! I’m trapped in this room! The windows and the door won’t open!”
Duncan suddenly laughed.
His smile, through the gap, met the eyes of “Zhou Ming” trapped in the room, who finally widened his eyes in surprise, as if offended by the mockery and gradually filled with anger.
The next second, Duncan’s pirate sword suddenly lunged forward, going through the narrow gap, directly stabbing into the “Zhou Ming” on the other side.
The latter, pierced by the blade, opened his mouth as if to scream; hazily, a series of hoarse and noisy sounds entered Duncan’s ears, while he remained completely unfazed, simply pushing the sword hilt in further, whispering close to the door:
“You don’t have to write in Chinese if you can’t.”
Throughout the journey, the pigeon Ai Yi, who had been very quiet, also suddenly flapped its wings, making a hoarse voice: “This is an illusion, what are you hiding?”
The next second, the figure on the other side of the door began to melt like a wax figure and vanished rapidly into the distorted and chaotic light and shadow. The very real and familiar-looking room also quickly shed its disguise before Duncan’s eyes to reveal its true form: a dim and ancient cabin, empty and sealed within time and decrepit decay.
The longsword in his hand conveyed an empty sensation, as if from the very beginning, it had pierced nothing but air.
Was the space opposite this “extra door” just a ship cabin?
Duncan was unexpectedly observing the situation on the other side of the door crack, but no matter how he looked, it seemed to be nothing more than an ordinary ship cabin.
But… was that ship cabin truly “real”?
Duncan slowly withdrew the longsword that had probed through the door crack, gently let out a sigh of relief, and took a half-step back.
The strange occurrence he had just experienced remained deeply etched in his mind. He didn’t know if it was merely an illusion or something else, but one thing was certain… there was something about this door that was far more peculiar and dangerous than he had imagined.
If the illusion reflected on the other side of that door was based on a distortion of his own memories and perceptions, it meant the danger beyond surpassed the capabilities of himself, “Captain Duncan.” If the illusion wasn’t based on his personal perceptions and memories, but rather something “fabricated” as a set piece by something else… the situation was even worse.
Because in this world, no one should know what that room looked like, nor should anyone know of the existence of the individual “Zhou Ming.”
Yet, the “thing” behind this door did.
He took a deep breath.
His caution had been justified, and under no circumstances should he open this door.
At the same time, he felt a chill of fear—because there really was a moment, when he looked at the door handle, when he had thought: to open the door and let “himself” out.
“Captain…” Alice’s voice suddenly came, startling Duncan from his thoughts. He looked up at the doll, and saw an expression of concern mixed with fear. “Captain, are you all right? What’s behind that door? You look so serious…”
Duncan shook his head: “It’s nothing, what’s behind this door isn’t for you to see—we’ve explored all the way to the ship’s hold. It’s time to head back.”
As he spoke, he reached out to push the door, attempting to see if he could close it.
The slight gap that the door revealed was truly disconcerting.
But the door didn’t budge—despite using considerable force, it remained as immovable as if fused with the space itself.
Just like those sealed windows in his bachelor apartment.
Duncan thoughtfully withdrew his hand—this door couldn’t be closed, but he was even less inclined to try to open it any further.
“Ah? Oh… oh, okay!” Alice didn’t dwell on the captain’s attempt to close the door. She was startled at first but quickly recovered, her face brightening with a happy expression, “Then let’s hurry back, this place is honestly quite eerie, and I’m getting nervous again…”
Duncan hummed noncommittally in response and, taking Alice with him, turned to walk towards the “final door” that led to the staircase.
This place was simply too sinister; even he didn’t want to linger any longer.
After this, no further abnormalities occurred.
They made their way smoothly through the fragmented ship’s hold, past the cargo hold with the inverse lighting, through the dark stairways and corridors, returning to the cabins above the waterline.
The moment she returned to the normal cabin, Alice felt her body suddenly lighten, as if some previously unnoticed oppressive shadow had been dispersed from around her. She saw the lights return to normal, and the cabin no longer felt gloomy and oppressive. As for Captain Duncan beside her…
The captain looked no different from before, as if he had felt no oppression earlier and now felt no additional relief. The environment deep within Homeloss hadn’t seemed to affect him.
However, the captain was clearly very silent on the way back, appearing to be weighed down with heavy thoughts.
“Captain, are you tired?” Alice asked tentatively, “Would you like me to make you something to eat? You hardly ate any dinner…”
Duncan paused his thoughts and looked at the doll beside him.
On Miss Doll’s face was an expression of sincere concern—just like Nina.
He suddenly relaxed, and the slight gloom in his heart seemed to quietly recede.
“Just don’t drop any weird stuff into the pot this time.”
“My head isn’t a weird thing!”
“Especially your head.”
“…Oh.”