Chapter 1 A Little Bit of Familiarity

Duncan sat on the living room sofa, leisurely reading the newspaper he had bought from the street that morning, occasionally turning his head to look at Sherry, who was frowning and scribbling furiously on the coffee table, and Ah-Dog, who was lying next to Sherry, engrossed in *A Short History of Modern City-States*. He felt a sense of peace in his heart.

In this strange and bizarre world, he had finally found a little bit of the familiar rhythm of life.

On the other hand, bringing Ah-Dog, Sherry, and Nina over could be considered fulfilling an idea he had been pondering for a long time – Captain Duncan's little classroom was finally open again.

He turned his head and looked at the other side of the coffee table. Nina was sitting there on a small stool, diligently doing her winter vacation homework, with Morris supervising her, occasionally helping his student correct some minor mistakes.

"You're a responsible and good teacher," Duncan said to Morris. "Nina is lucky."

"She's a hardworking child. I don't want to delay her life," Morris said with a smile. Then he glanced at the homework open in front of Sherry, his expression a little subtle. "But I didn't expect you to be so good at... guiding others."

Duncan raised his eyebrows. "Oh?"

"The study plan you made for Sherry, Alice, and Ah-Dog is very reasonable, even...somewhat professional," Morris said hesitantly. "I even saw the test papers you prepared for them before, which were also very professional. It's a little...unexpected."

The old gentleman chose his words carefully. He was indeed a little concerned about this matter. When he first learned that Duncan was enthusiastically going to teach the three illiterate crew members to read, the image that came to his mind was not flashcards, vocabulary books, and multiplication tables. The first image that popped into his head was something along the lines of "cultists gathering in a ritual chamber to access forbidden knowledge," but instead, he saw the fearsome Captain Duncan pulling out a stack of literacy cards...

How should he put it? Although he had somewhat adapted to Captain Duncan's private peace and friendliness, the awkwardness still uncontrollably welled up when he thought that such a shadow from the subspace was actually seriously giving lessons (and literacy lessons at that).

Duncan, of course, knew what the old scholar meant, but he couldn't explain it, so he just smiled and waved his hand. "Perhaps I once had a dream of becoming a teacher?"

Morris didn't know what to say for a moment. Duncan then leaned over to take a look at Sherry's frustrating handwriting and couldn't help but sigh. "It's a pity that the learning progress of these three 'students' is too different, which is really a headache."

Morris thought for a moment and nodded. "Indeed. I think Ah-Dog can now almost immerse himself in a library and study until he graduates from university, but Sherry is still struggling with common words, and Alice... Alice, she..."

Duncan sighed again. "Alas, Alice is very hardworking, but she is Alice."

The learning progress of the three illiterate crew members was completely different from what he had initially expected. He had originally thought that Sherry, who had a better brain, would learn faster, but she was still half-illiterate. Her unwavering spirit of slacking off and her hopeless attitude towards learning were the main reasons. Alice was more hardworking than anyone else, but the doll lady's brain didn't seem to be made for reading and writing. In the end, the most advanced of the three illiterates turned out to be a dog. With surprising diligence and comprehension, Ah-Dog could now not only read literary works by himself, but even solve ternary quadratic equations...

There are thousands of abyssal hounds chasing knowledge – now it seems that only Ah-Dog has caught up.

Frankly speaking, this was the biggest stain on Duncan's—or rather, Zhou Ming's—entire teaching career.

Just as he was sighing in his heart, Alice, who had gone out to buy groceries, finally returned—nearly twenty minutes later than expected.

"I'm back!"

The doll lady opened the door and entered the house, putting down the things in her hand while poking her head into the living room, greeting the student, the slacker, and the student dog who were making up their homework next to the coffee table. A happy look immediately appeared on her face. "Nina! Sherry! Ah-Dog! You're here?"

"We just arrived this morning, and we've already been doing homework for half a day..." Sherry raised her head, her eyes filled with tears. "Captain said I have to rewrite all the contents from page sixteen onwards in the vocabulary book..."

"Three times," Duncan said unhurriedly from the side. "Don't reduce your task by two-thirds without a word."

Then he ignored Sherry's subsequent reaction and looked up at Alice. "Why are you back so late? Did you run into trouble?"

"Ah, no, no!" Alice quickly waved her hands. "I just ran into some excitement... I didn't watch the excitement! I ran into something, I was investigating."

This doll really couldn't lie, nor was she good at making excuses. In a few words, she exposed the fact that she had been watching the excitement on the way home and had delayed her time.

"Investigating?" Duncan looked at Alice with a slightly surprised expression. He didn't think about pursuing her "watching the excitement." Although he had indeed warned her not to wander around on the road, it was just a small matter. What he cared more about was... that Alice, who was usually dull-witted, could actually say the word "investigation" with a serious face.

Even if it was a temporary excuse, he was very concerned about what this doll had investigated.

"There's a family on the street nearby, saying that someone died, and the people from the church have gone there," Alice immediately began to tell Duncan what she had seen and heard on the road. "A woman, saying that she killed her husband, and then the people who were watching said that the male owner of the house had gone out before... Oh, right, right, I also saw a woman, her clothes were very similar to yours! Also wrapped in bandages..."

Duncan listened to this doll's disjointed and pointless narration in a daze, barely managing to figure out what had happened. Then he noticed the "bandaged woman" mentioned at the end. He frowned slightly, just as he was about to ask for some details, he saw Vanna, who was feeding the pigeons at the dining table not far away, suddenly stand up.

"A stranger is approaching," Vanna said quickly. "A cleric."

Duncan immediately waved his hand, telling Alice to be quiet and put on her veil again. Ah-Dog, who was squatting next to the sofa, retreated into the shadows in the blink of an eye. Ai pitter-pattered its wings and hid on a nearby cabinet, while Morris got up from the sofa and went to the door.

"Don't be nervous, it's just a visitor." Duncan was quite calm. He waved his hand at the somewhat nervous Vanna and Morris, then calmly went to the door and opened it casually.

A young woman wearing a long black trench coat, wrapped in bandages, wearing a black bowler hat, and holding a cane was standing outside the door, maintaining the posture of raising her hand to knock on the door.

She seemed to be frozen there.

Duncan looked up and down at this young lady, then looked down at himself.

"Oh, we're wearing the same thing." He said casually.

"It's her, it's her," Alice stood behind Duncan to the side. At this time, she saw the appearance of the person at the door clearly and immediately leaned over happily. "The woman in black I told you about, I saw her on the way back from buying groceries..."

Alice's voice made Agatha, who was in a daze, wake up suddenly. The muscles on her face twitched slightly. It took her a long time to move her gaze away from the tall and burly figure in front of her and look in the direction of the voice.

The blonde woman without breath or heartbeat that she had seen not long ago was standing in the house, looking over here with curious and happy eyes.

She was indeed here.

Agatha took several deep breaths, trying to calm her heartbeat. The slight tinnitus in her mind gradually faded away, and the blurred vision and ghosting caused by directly staring at "truth" finally disappeared from her eyes. She finally breathed a sigh of relief, and the chaotic thoughts in her mind remembered her purpose.

A stiff smile appeared on her face. "I... didn't mean to disturb you, I just came to see the situation, you..."

"Come in," Duncan nodded in a calm tone, and moved aside to make way. "It's quite cold, don't stand at the door to talk."

Agatha was stunned for a moment, not reacting for a while.

Seeing this scene, Vanna, who had been standing next to her without saying a word, couldn't help but frown and stepped forward to look at the other party. "You came here knowing what this place is, didn't you ever think about what would happen after the door opened?"

"Understand a little," Morris quickly said from the side, "You must be confused after seeing the captain for the first time. The higher your spirit vision, the more it is. This girl looks confused."

When Vanna heard this, she immediately recalled her experience of joining the *Lost Ship*. She felt that the old gentleman was right.

Agatha finally reacted when Vanna and Morris were talking. Her brain was indeed still a little confused, but reason had regained dominance. Because of Duncan's conscious restraint, her mind was not greatly affected. She quickly nodded as soon as she recovered. "Sorry, I was a little distracted."

Then she glanced at the path Duncan had made way for and finally took a step after a slight hesitation.

She knew what this place was.

She knew that the burly figure was essentially an indescribable being who had descended on the city-state, and whose status was very likely similar to that of an ancient god.

She knew that she was stepping into a "descended place."

But from the moment the door opened, there was no room for regret.

Behind Duncan, Morris watched the tense young lady step into the house, turned his head slightly and whispered to Vanna, "A little stronger than you were back then."

Vanna mumbled in a low voice, "Don't blame me, the captain was too scary when he first 'entered my dream'."

Morris nodded. "That's true..."

Vanna added, "But I was much calmer the second time."

Duncan listened to the two of them whispering behind him, and finally couldn't help but turn his head. "You weren't much stronger the second time either—be quiet, the guest is here."