Chapter 268

Duncan left the captain's cabin and went straight back to the "Door of the Lost." He grasped the handle and pushed it open.

Zhou Ming returned to his bedroom.

Familiar scenery filled his eyes. Everything in the room was exactly as he had left it, and it felt like a long time since he had been back.

He slowly crossed the entrance hall, his feet treading on the slightly mottled and worn floor. As usual, Zhou Ming went straight to the closed window. He checked the marks on the windowsill and confirmed the state of the window lock. Although he knew it was pointless, he carefully completed all the checks and solemnly picked up the diary hanging next to the window, writing down today's inspection results on a blank page.

No changes to the doors or windows. The room had not been opened during his absence.

After leaving this new record, he breathed a sigh of relief and slowly went to his desk.

On the desk, tiny green sparks were crackling and jumping, gradually spreading flames that outlined an object. The outlining process was nearing completion.

It was a ship, a steam-powered mechanical ship with a beautiful white hull and towering smokestacks, looking quite advanced.

Zhou Ming watched the scene with a calm expression, showing no surprise.

The "model" of the White Oak appeared in this room, but… why? Why did it suddenly appear here? What changes had occurred to the ship?

Zhou Ming looked up at the shelf in the distance. The models of the Vanishing and Pland lay quietly in their compartments.

"Items" that were completely burned by the spirit flame and completely controlled by him would appear on the desk in this bachelor apartment in the form of precise models. This was the established rule, as seen with the Vanishing and Pland. But the White Oak…

Zhou Ming recalled his first encounter with the ship.

The White Oak had indeed been burned by his spirit flame once, and the entire ship had even been "swallowed" by the Vanishing, but perhaps his control over the spirit flame was not skilled enough at the time. After the "burning," the White Oak did not become a "collection" on his desk, but only left a mark. This state had continued until now.

Zhou Ming sat down at his desk, watching the ghostly green sparks jump on the table and complete the final outline of the White Oak, his expression thoughtful.

He was sure that he had not paid attention to the White Oak's movements recently, nor had he actively "triggered" the flame mark on the ship, so this change was not caused by him—it was the White Oak. Something had happened to the ship, causing the mark on it to be activated, even directly "activated" to the point where the entire ship became one of his "collections."

Zhou Ming narrowed his eyes slightly and tried again to locate the White Oak and sense its current state.

After a moment, he opened his eyes, his expression somewhat solemn.

Even in this bedroom, he still couldn't accurately determine where the White Oak was. The vague perception only vaguely pointed towards the direction of Frostwind Hold on the other side of the door. When he tried to confirm the state of the White Oak, he received a strange feedback.

He felt that the ship was completely surrounded by seawater.

On the desk, the jumping of the ghostly green sparks stopped. The precise model of the White Oak lay quietly in front of Zhou Ming, every detail lifelike.

After hesitating slightly, Zhou Ming reached out and picked up the model of the White Oak, observing it carefully in front of his eyes.

But he didn't see anything out of place.

After playing with it for a while, Zhou Ming shook his head, realizing that he couldn't confirm the ship's state here—he still had to go to Frostwind to confirm the situation.

He got up from his desk, holding the White Oak in his hand, preparing to put the new "collection" on the shelf first, but after only a few steps, he suddenly stopped by a mirror.

He looked at the mirror. In the mirror, he was not holding the White Oak, but a strange ship shrouded in black fog and large shadows!

The outline of the ship vaguely resembled the White Oak, as if they were of the same origin, but the whole thing had a phantom-like, unreal texture. There were also signs of destruction and abandonment everywhere on the ship, as if it had been sleeping on the seabed for many years. Zhou Ming stared at the ship in the mirror, and after a moment, he looked down, seeing that he was indeed just holding the model of the White Oak.

After a brief moment of surprise and thought, Zhou Ming suddenly put the model of the White Oak aside. He quickly walked to the shelf, picked up the models of the Vanishing and Pland, and tested them one by one in front of the mirror.

They didn't change at all in the mirror.

Only the White Oak showed a strange "different appearance" in the mirror. Zhou Ming took the model of the White Oak to the mirror again, thoughtfully looking at the black ship shadow shown in the mirror.

It looked like the "reflection" of the White Oak in another dimension.

Lost in thought, he slowly reached out towards the phantom in the mirror.

He only touched the cold, hard surface of the mirror.

Alone in his small boat, Lawrence watched the towering hull of the Black Oak grow larger and larger in his vision. The thick fog that seemed to be filled with shadows gradually enveloped him. A lantern hanging from the bow of the small boat struggled to dispel the surrounding darkness, but could only outline a hazy route for him.

He looked back, seeing that the White Oak had become a blurry shadow in the mist—even though the two ships had looked so close when standing on the bridge of the White Oak, he now felt as if there was a chasm between them. The chasm was not a physical distance, but a barrier of some kind… between the real and the unreal.

And he was now gradually crossing this barrier.

His mood calmed down. The surrounding environment became more and more eerie, the environment became more and more dim, but his mood became more and more calm, as if all the roads were clear, and fate had revealed all the choices to him—he was going to the Black Oak, no matter what was waiting for him there.

But it seemed that only he himself had calmed down. There was another passenger on the small boat, who didn't seem so calm.

"Just let me go back! Tie a rope to me, you can hang me on the mast!" Anomaly 077 was chattering, the ugly dried corpse had been babbling non-stop since just now, "As long as I can go back to sleep, I'll listen to you… even if you want me to convert to the Storm Goddess… or the God of Death! I don't want to open my eyes anymore!"

Lawrence finally turned his head, responding to the dried corpse for the first time since setting off: "You can still convert to a god?"

The dried corpse was stunned for a moment, then immediately nodded: "As long as you let me go back to sleep, I can convert to any god in my sleep!"

Lawrence thought for a moment, thinking of a joke popular among sailors, and a smile appeared on his face: "Then try converting to the God of Wisdom?"

Anomaly 077 froze, and after an unknown amount of time, it moved slightly, squeezing out a few words from its shriveled throat: "I can try starting with plane geometry…"

"You even dare to try the God of Wisdom, it seems you're really desperate," Lawrence shook his head, feeling a little curious, "But why are you so afraid? I saw in the data that you belong to the type of anomaly with a tendency to lose control, but now you're desperately trying to go back to sleep?"

Anomaly 077 didn't answer, but curled up in a corner of the small boat, staring nervously at the green flames burning quietly on Lawrence's body.

Lawrence looked down at his body, which had not yet returned to its original state, and raised his head: "Because of this flame? Or because of the power symbolized by this flame?"

Anomaly 077 muttered, "Don't you understand?"

"I didn't expect that even an 'anomaly' like you would know the prestige of the Vanishing," Lawrence said with some emotion, "I saw your description in the data, saying that you have consciousness after losing control, and can talk to people, but I didn't expect your consciousness to reach this level… If you weren't a dried corpse, I would almost think you were a human being."

Anomaly 077 lowered its head, as if resigned to its fate, and stopped speaking.

Lawrence didn't care about the "sailor's" reaction. He now had countless mysteries to think about, and a strange, out-of-control anomaly with deviations from the recorded data was insignificant compared to those mysteries.

So many unknowns, so many secrets.

How many years had it been since he had felt this way?

It was as if after saying goodbye to the Black Oak, the adventurer Lawrence had disappeared from this world. The unknown and the distant had become words in his memory, until he saw the Black Oak again at this moment, the adventurer Lawrence was once again awakened from the depths of an old captain's heart.

He raised his head, seeing that the towering hull of the Black Oak was less than a few meters away from the small boat. He manipulated the small boat to slowly approach, and stopped at the familiar place in his memory, picking up an oar and knocking on the hull of the ship.

A rope ladder was thrown down from above, landing on the bow of the small boat.

Lawrence turned his head, looking at Anomaly 077 huddled in the corner.

"Get on board, sailor."

Anomaly 077 reluctantly got up, lowering its head: "Yes, Captain."