Chapter 266 The Other Side of the Door

Listening to Duncan's instructions, Agatha immediately thought of the "corpse" that had been used as a temporary vessel for descent.

She nodded gently, without objecting: "Yes, I will consider this method."

Duncan hummed in acknowledgement, then looked curiously at Agatha, who was currently presenting herself in the fiery doorway, observing the vague and blurred scenery behind her, and casually asked, "How are things on your end?"

"The Cathedral has returned to stability. We are contacting churches throughout the city today to confirm available manpower and tally the losses of the past period," Agatha replied, with a hint of relief in her voice. "As you said last night, the city-state passed through in peace. No shadows arose in the darkness, not even in the mental hospital and cemetery, which were most likely to cause problems. This is a relief to me—if things continue like this, we'll have half as many things to worry about."

"I mean your situation," Duncan raised an eyebrow. "This body of yours, won't such high-intensity work cause problems?"

"I don't feel tired—perhaps becoming a corpse is a good thing for me now," Agatha said calmly. "Corpses don't get tired, nor do they need conventional rest. As long as I can still gain peace from prayer and meditation, I won't have any problems."

"You seem to be in the Cathedral's prayer room?"

"Yes, I'm in the Cathedral—this is originally Bishop Ivan's room, very quiet," Agatha turned her head and glanced at the familiar and special room, a hint of sadness in her tone. "Now, it's left to me."

Duncan suddenly felt a strange feeling. He hesitated for several seconds, but couldn't help asking, "You're contacting me in the Cathedral like this, doesn't Bartok mind?"

Agatha was stunned: "..."

Shirley and A Gou next to him were also stunned.

"Captain, how can you always think of problems from such incredible angles?" Shirley muttered in a low voice. "And this sounds weird..."

Duncan glanced at the girl expressionlessly: "Don't interrupt adults, and stop writing whenever you get the chance—you haven't written a word since just now, have you?"

Shirley sighed immediately and continued to fight desperately with her homework. Agatha, projected from the flames, finally came back to her senses, turned her head strangely to look at the statue of the God of Death not far away, and turned her head back after a long while: "I have never thought about this question at all..."

Then she paused, and asked thoughtfully: "Vanna is by your side, have you usually asked her this question? How did she answer?"

Duncan thought for a while and felt that it made sense: "I really haven't asked. I can ask when I have time."

Agatha subconsciously opened her mouth as if she wanted to say something, but in the end, she didn't say anything.

After an awkward silence of a few seconds, she finally found another topic: "In addition, I am ready to check the situation in the Boiling Gold Mine."

"The mine has returned to calm?" Duncan raised his eyebrows. "I remember you said it would take at least a few more days."

"It has roughly returned to calm. To be honest... there may still be some risk in exploring the depths now, but I don't intend to wait any longer," Agatha's expression became serious, and she seemed to have made up her mind. "I can feel something in the depths calling to me. This feeling has become stronger since this morning. If I wait any longer... I'm worried I'll miss something very important."

Duncan nodded gently, and after a few seconds of silence, he suddenly spoke: "Before you leave, go to 44 Oak Street to find me."

Agatha opened her eyes wide in surprise: "You want to come with me?"

"I'm also very curious about what's left there."

"I understand. I will find you before I leave."

Duncan nodded, waved his hand to dissipate the flames in the air, then breathed a sigh of relief, and looked down at the empty fishing rod in his hand.

"...Forget it, being an empty-handed fisherman is also part of fishing," he muttered, then turned his head to look at Shirley and A Gou, who were lying next to the wooden barrel. "I'll go back to my room first. A Gou, keep an eye on Shirley and make her at least copy the first five pages of her vocabulary book—you can play however you want after finishing your homework."

A Gou quickly stood up, eagerly nodding and wagging its bone tail. It wasn't until Duncan's figure disappeared at the staircase not far away that the Abyss Hound finally breathed a sigh of relief and returned to where it had been lying, but before lying down, it suddenly looked up at Shirley: "Don't be distracted, write quickly, write quickly."

"A Gou, you're really urging me?" Shirley immediately drooped her shoulders. "My hands are sore..."

"I don't even have fingers and I can still write a diary—you at least have two hands and ten fingers," A Gou shook its head, muttering while lying down again, "Read more books, learn more words, Shirley, don't be impatient, the captain is really doing it for your own good. Haven't you always wanted to have the same life as other children? I really can't give it to you, but the captain wants to give it to you—for someone like him, there are too many ways to bestow favors, but he chooses to care about you and Nina like a human. Do you know how..."

Shirley quickly waved her hands to beg for mercy after hearing half of it: "Hey, stop, stop, I know, I know, I'm not stupid—A Gou, why are you like an old mother..."

A Gou mumbled a few more times, but didn't continue to nag Shirley. Instead, it lowered its head and continued to study the geometric textbook in front of it with great interest.

On the pages, words and symbols outlined the knowledge and experience of predecessors, and lines and formulas described the operation of this world. A Gou's eyes, filled with scarlet red light, were fully focused on reading the chapters that condensed the wisdom of civilization. In its Abyss Demon's mind, geometric figures and mathematical formulas were constantly outlined along with the contents of the textbook.

There was also a light source flashing red, and a series of flashing light spots arranged like a matrix, flashing between those geometric images and formulas.

The next second, Shirley seemed to feel something, and suddenly looked up in A Gou's direction. The latter almost instantly woke up from some state, and the whole dog jumped several meters high: "Oh, crap!!"

Shirley was directly pulled into the air by the chains, and then fell on the deck with a bang. After scrambling up dizzily, she immediately rushed over and hugged A Gou's head and shook it hard: "What are you doing! And what happened to you just now? I felt like your aura changed?!"

"I...I don't know!" A Gou's head creaked from Shirley's shaking. It finally struggled free, but was still obviously confused. "I seemed to see something flash in front of my eyes just now, but I didn't have time to see what it was... but everything's fine now."

A Yi, who was pecking at fries next to him, tilted his head curiously and looked at A Gou: "Remote server not responding, please check the network connection?"

A Gou didn't react for a moment and subconsciously said, "Huh?"

A Yi just flapped its wings and walked aside as if nothing had happened, muttering as it paced, "Recharge Q coins? Recharge monthly cards? Recharge battle passes?"

"Ignore it, this bird's brain is more muddled than Alice's," Shirley waved her hand and turned A Gou's head to her side. Her face was obviously worried. "Are you okay? Did you burn your brain by doing math problems all day?"

"I haven't heard of Abyss Demons burning their brains..." A Gou himself began to wonder, "I don't even know if I have that organ."

"Of course you haven't heard of it. You're the only Abyss Demon in the world who uses his brain. Even if your compatriots really had brains, they wouldn't have the chance to burn them out... Hey, don't move first, let me check you out."

While mumbling, Shirley hurriedly checked A Gou from top to bottom, and then carefully sensed the changes in her and the other party on the spiritual level through the connection of the symbiotic chain, but in the end, she still didn't find anything wrong.

Everything was normal.

"I told you everything was fine," A Gou breathed a sigh of relief and said casually, "Maybe I attracted something while reading, and then when the other party was about to run out, they found out that it was a 'colleague' and went back..."

While muttering, it lay down again and scratched the draft paper in front of it with its paws.

Shirley next to him was immediately anxious: "Hey, are you still going to look at it?"

A Gou was drawing auxiliary lines on the paper while casually saying, "I only have one big problem left, the last step, I just had an idea."

Shirley: "..."

She looked at A Gou, who was writing and calculating, with great concern, preparing to pull the chain on her arm if she saw something was wrong, but nothing happened until the other party finished solving the big problem that looked like a heavenly book in her eyes.

A Gou threw the pen on the deck and looked up at Shirley.

"See, I told you there was no problem—" There was a hint of relief in its tone, but soon, its gaze fell on the wooden barrel next to it.

"Shirley, you haven't finished your homework yet."

"Ah—"

Listening to the girl's drawn-out wail, A Gou just shook its head, then its gaze fell on the book it had been reading.

It seemed... that nothing really went wrong.

But it was sure that it really saw something—not a "compatriot" attracted by the book, but something else, something more mysterious and stranger.

What... what did I see?

(End of this chapter)