Chapter 126 The Ripples in the Dark

The ripples in the darkness gradually calmed down, and the pale words no longer floated to the surface. No matter how much Zhou Ming concentrated or searched in the dark, he could no longer see those strange "conversations."

Yes, conversations. There was no doubt that they were conversations, and they seemed to be taking place between gods.

At least, Zhou Ming recognized the name "Bartok." In the darkness, Zhou Ming stood quietly in place. He no longer tried to trigger new ripples but instead fell into a long period of contemplation. A shocking amount of information surged like a tide in his mind. Beneath the seemingly calm surface of his thoughts lay immense astonishment and a tangled mess of ideas. Was this a cruel joke?

Apparently not likely. Then was this really happening? If so, when did these conversations take place? Were they records of past events, or were they happening right now, in some mysterious dimension?

"They are conversing, and this conversation...

...is reflected in this dark and strange place. Bartok, the name of the God of Death, that is certain. But what do the other names represent? The most reasonable idea is that those names all represent gods. Then the King of Fire is very likely Tariygin, the "Water-like Kindling" worshipped by the Flame-Keepers. And the Leviathan Queen? Is she the Storm Goddess?"

Is "Leviathan Queen" another name for the Storm Goddess? In the darkness, Zhou Ming gradually frowned. The extremely unusual title "Leviathan Queen" evoked all sorts of guesses and associations, but even more distracting was the fourth name.

One of those conversing with the gods had a name: "Lh-o2." If the conversers he had just seen represented the four gods, then the last one could only be Lachem, the Death God who held the power of wisdom and folly. Lachem's "name... is 'Lh-o2'?"

This didn't sound like a name at all, but more like a number! A serial number belonging to a machine! Countless wild guesses surged up. Zhou Ming felt as if his mind was boiling, churning like a stormy sea. He had to consciously restrain his wild thoughts to prevent them from becoming too absurd and outlandish. And while sorting through these chaotic guesses, he didn't ignore the shocking information mentioned in the "conversations."

"The situation is not optimistic. The critical state is accelerating... The cluster controller has begun to replicate itself, or has completely lost control." These few sentences alone were enough for Zhou Ming to sense the tense and grave atmosphere. What situation were "they" referring to? Was it the state of the mortal world?

Then, the accelerating critical state... did it refer to the imminent collapse of some vast system?

Zhou Ming instantly recalled his last conversation with Agatha. The incidents involving Prนด์ and Frost one after another, and the "failure" of Anomaly 001—all these events were like a "precursor phase" in which a massive system was constantly experiencing problems.

Then, the cluster controller has begun to replicate itself... Zhou Ming's expression suddenly turned serious, and a phrase surfaced in his mind: "This is a fake." In the darkness, he couldn't help but take a light breath, subconsciously looking at the space where the words had appeared, as if expecting more information to appear there again.

Of course, nothing appeared there. Zhou Ming solemnly withdrew his gaze. Of course, there were still many issues worth paying attention to. Although he had only seen a few sentences of conversation, the amount of information behind each sentence was astonishing.

Even the name of each converser was worth pondering for a long time. For example, Lachem, Germona, and Tariygin all used "aliases." Why did Bartok, the God of Death, use his true name? At the end of the information, the "Lh-02," suspected to be the God of Wisdom Lachem, also mentioned a suspicious visitor and said that the visitor "sent a dog head and left." What was that about? Frankly, if the previous few sentences hadn't contained so much information, all of Zhou Ming's attention would probably have been focused on that last "dog head."

But now, this incongruous sentence just seemed a little strange.

Just then, a slight noise suddenly came from the depths of the darkness, interrupting the storm in Zhou Ming's mind. It sounded like something quietly breaking. At first, it was very faint, almost like an auditory hallucination, but almost instantly, the sound of breaking became clear and dense. Then, countless chaotic light and shadow lines appeared in the dark space, and the increasingly dense noise filled Zhou Ming's mind. The entire dark space also began to rapidly collapse and shatter, and rotating light and shadows rose from all directions. The next second, he

heard a "boom" in his mind!

In the next second, a brief sensation of weightlessness and dizziness "dragged" him back to the real world. The feeling of sitting in a chair made Duncan suddenly open his eyes... Raging flames filled his vision. The nameless black leather book in his hand was already burning violently! Alice's exclamation came from the side: "It's on fire! Captain! The book is on fire!" Duncan was shocked and immediately reached out to press down on the blazing flames. In the blink of an eye, he controlled the fire. However, the book's burning speed was ridiculously fast. In just the blink of an eye, most of the book had turned to ashes. In the end, only a small, disordered stack of pages remained on the table.

A dark red liquid, like blood, seeped out from the remaining half of the book, soaking and rotting the pages. Duncan frowned as he flipped through the remaining pages, finding that they had all turned into soft, flocculent material, clearly unreadable.

He looked up, his expression somewhat subtle. "I don't think I did anything." "Judging from the phenomenon... this book probably couldn't withstand your power," Morris hesitated for a second, then cautiously said.

"This is an obvious extraordinary overload."

"Unable to withstand my power?" Duncan frowned, muttering subconsciously. Was it just unable to withstand his own power?

What this book had just withstood was probably not just his own power. Perhaps it had just acted as a medium—a medium that far exceeded its own limits. Duncan recalled the golden sun mask he had obtained in Prนด์. He had glimpsed the appearance of the "True Sun God" through that mask, but it had also caused the mask to break down. Morris didn't know what Duncan was thinking, but he noticed that the captain's face wasn't very good, and couldn't help but add, "This book should just be a copy, a super-item copied from the 'original' using a special ritual. This kind of super-item itself is indeed fragile..."

Duncan looked up. "In other words, if there's an original, it might be stable enough for me to read?"

"In theory, yes," Morris said, adjusting his monocle. Alice, who was beside him, looked left and right, and finally couldn't help but lean over. "Captain, did you see anything just now? Why do you look so serious?" Duncan rubbed his brow. Everything he had seen in the darkness reappeared in his mind, but as soon as he opened his mouth, he suddenly restrained the urge to tell the truth.

For relatively weak mortals, much "information" itself is toxic.

"I saw something different from what Morris saw."

After carefully considering for a few seconds, he slowly opened his mouth. "But I can't say the specifics, because it might hurt you."

Vanna and Morris immediately exchanged glances. In the next second, the same tension and seriousness appeared in both of their eyes.

Morris thought for a moment and then said, "Different from what I saw... In other words, this book presents different content depending on the reader?"

"Maybe," Duncan said thoughtfully, "But it's also possible that it only presents different content in front of me." Then his tone was a little regretful.

"What a pity. I should have tested it at the end, even if I had let Tiree look at the contents of the book first, at least we could have obtained more clues. Now the only sample has been burned."

Morris's expression suddenly became a little strange. He opened his mouth as if to say something, but he didn't say it. Vanna, who was beside him, was more straightforward. "Captain, you should also consider Mr. Tiree's physical and mental health."

"Reading more books is always better than watching striptease," Duncan said, waving his hand. "Besides, I'm watching over him, so nothing will happen. Let's not talk about this." He shook his head, then turned his gaze to Vanna, deciding to verify some things indirectly.

"Vanna, have you ever heard of the title 'Leviathan Queen'?" "Leviathan Queen?" Vanna was stunned when she heard this. The surprise and confusion in her expression didn't seem fake. "I've never heard of it. Is it the ruler of some city-state? But I haven't heard of any city-state with that name." Duncan observed Vanna's expression, while also concentrating on sensing whether there were any abnormal aura fluctuations or supernatural phenomena in the surrounding area.

He was curious whether mentioning the name "Leviathan Queen" in the real world would also trigger any phenomena. But half a minute passed, and nothing happened. "Okay, forget about this question for now," Duncan shook his head, then looked at Morris. "Lh-o2, have you ever heard of this?"

"No," Morris said, puzzled. But noticing the seriousness in Duncan's expression, he also recalled it quite seriously before shaking his head. "Does this sound like the code name of some machine?"

The reactions of the two "Saints" didn't seem fake.

They really hadn't heard of these two titles, but that still didn't rule out the possibility that these two titles corresponded to the "Storm Goddess Germona" and the "God of Wisdom Lachem" respectively.

After all, above the Saints, there were Popes, and above the city-state cathedrals, there were several "Pilgrimage Cathedral Arks" that cruised the boundless sea for a long time. The secrets closest to the gods were preserved in those places far from the mortal world.

"Forget about these two names for now." After a long time, confirming that nothing had happened in the cabin, Duncan breathed a sigh of relief and shook his head. "Don't mention them to anyone, especially after leaving the Ghost Ship. Don't mention these words to anyone."