Chapter 1 Now, Shirley once again embarked on the road to that legendary "Silent Wall"—together with Lucretia, and still guided by the elf girl named "Shirley."

They traveled through the dense forest with dappled light and shadows, stepped on forest paths covered with dead branches and fallen leaves, crossed thorns and bushes. The cries of unknown small animals and birds occasionally came from the depths of the forest, only setting off the increasing loneliness and coldness in the forest. Looking at the back of "Shirley" walking in front, Shirley even had a trance-like illusion, feeling that time had reversed, and she had returned to the time not long ago when she followed the other party through the forest.

Because everything seemed unchanged, the forest always looked the same, the surrounding movements were the same, and the appearances of the two "Shirleys" were completely identical.

Only the witch walking beside her, who occasionally turned into colored paper to travel, reminded Shirley that things had changed.

Now, Shirley had already told Lucretia everything that had happened before without the elf girl noticing, and had also shared it with everyone who had fallen into the dream, including the captain who was active outside the dream. The captain's preparations before entering the dream were quite effective. The power of the flame tied everyone together, and this connection was even more useful than Shirley had imagined.

After learning about what happened to "the other Shirley," Lucretia inevitably had a different feeling when she looked at the elf girl walking in front.

That "Shirley" who was acting with Shirley turned into a tree in the very front... and after the complete transformation, you don't seem to have anything you want to tell Shirley...

So, will that "Ah-Gou" suddenly turn into a tree now?

Nina and Morris have also encountered a guide who calls himself "Youhao." What about this "Ah-Gou" here? Will that kind of change happen too?

In the end, what exactly is going on with those "Ah-Gous" that appear in the Dream of the Well-known?

...

In that "room where the Goat Head has cognition," I don't want anyone to summon my flames at will, but I must worry about waking up Krekses next time, but outside the room, I can only mobilize these sparks that are belatedly "mapped" onto that ship. Any extra flame could wake up Krekses and cause the Dream of the Well-known to belatedly fall apart.

Agatha didn't speak for a while, and broke the silence after hesitating for a few seconds: "To be honest, I also think that Sister Lu西兰蒂娅 has very excellent 'fishing skills'..."

"Human smell?" Lu Youhaoze looked at Youhao and smiled on her face, "Ah, I can only say that I am worthy of being a Deep Sea Hound, his perception is indeed very sharp... That's right, it's human smell, it's the 'human smell' emitted by a part of your soul."

"Rabi is indeed dishonest sometimes, but as long as I give it clear orders, it will still not cause problems," Lu西兰蒂娅 said softly, "Hunting in dreams is what it is best at. It will track us all the way to the real world, and then you can find out where those cultists are hiding."

"Does that count?"

I may have thought too simply—this may be a very complicated matter.

This is the result of Shirley's "testing" here for a while.

Her "transformation process" of turning into a tree may be revealing the essence of this connection.

The "Lost Home," a ship with a strange atmosphere, has been transformed from the "shadow" of the Lost Home in the real world, but the two are not simply converted. In this conversion process, the "cognition" and "memory" of the Goat Head play a key role.

"I use my soul as bait to seek servants on the border. Souls cursed by the subspace are the best poison and rope. Those who mistakenly think they are hunters are eventually bound by my soul, sewn into cloth, poured into bottles, carved into wood, and become part of the Brilliant Star—these servants are all necessary because I need assistants to explore the border, and humans... have too high a mortality rate."

Shirley waved her hand: "In any case, there is no need to worry about Shirley and Lu西兰蒂娅 for the time being. It is much safer to join forces than to act alone, and it is said that the rabbit named Rabi can really catch those elusive cultists. What's more important now... is this ship."

"It's nothing serious. The first time I encountered Rabi, it tore a piece from your soul, but it probably didn't expect that the bit of soul it bit off would forever deprive it of its freedom—many things on the Brilliant Star are like this. They are all dangerous things from the border or the spirit world, and they once thought they were hunters and regarded you as prey... This is of great convenience to you."

After the sea sorceress explained, she looked down at Duncan: "His perception is very sharp. This ship is full of subtle 'human smells.' He doesn't have to be so alarmed."

"Sounds like it," Youhao also muttered in a low voice in the spiritual connection, "The captain mentioned this when he introduced fishing skills."

Shirley silently closed the "monitoring" of Shirley and Lu西兰蒂娅's side.

So... is there a safe way that can allow one to fully control this ship, further establish a connection with Krekses, and not "scare" Krekses like last time, so as to avoid causing Youhaoze's "resistance"?

After a moment of hesitation, I ordered Agatha to stay in this "safe room" temporarily, then stepped out of the room.

"...So what the hell is that big rabbit?" Duncan muttered to himself, "I smelled... a human smell on it. It is definitely not a simple magical creation, or even a special meaning of evil spirits or demons. And it's not just it, the other things on his ship also have that kind of feeling, giving me a weird feeling."

"Tyrian seems to be good at it?"

The muddled "Goat Head" was still dazed by the edge of the navigation table, with no reaction to Shirley's appearance - Youhao detoured past it, past the chart room, out of the captain's room, and then along the familiar route in his memory, I walked down the stairs on the side of the captain's room and came to the stern deck.

Youhao was stunned immediately: "...Ah?"

Lu西兰蒂娅 said unhurriedly, with a faint smile on her face.

Duncan and Shirley were stunned, seemingly shocked by the things described by Lu西兰蒂娅, and the two "people" didn't speak for a while.

"I've fished so many submersibles from overseas back then! Although I didn't fish them by myself, I was still one of the people in charge..."

Shirley raised his hand, and a small flame appeared in the air in front of me. The flame rippled like water waves, slowly spreading in all directions, but stopped when it touched the edge of the "chaotic room", rippling and reflecting back.

"As expected of the captain's daughter..." Shirley couldn't help but exclaimed, "It seems that your family is good at fishing..."

I got up from the chair, my eyes swept over the chaotic and stacked colors and lines around me, distinguishing the outlines of various parts of the room in the lines - after initially adapting to the dazzling and chaotic environment here, I had already recognized many familiar things from here.

The fact is already obvious: this ship is the dream of my "first mate"—although Goat Head doesn't know he's dreaming at all.

Looking at the "sea sorceress" walking forward for a distance, Shirley shook the chain in her hand. Even though she was speaking in a spiritual connection, she couldn't help but lower her voice: "Duncan Youhao, isn't this what the captain said... what was it called... chumming? You use yourself as chum?"

Lu Youhaoze turned back to look at Youhao and Duncan next to him, and then they sped up together.

I sat in a "chair" made of chaotic lines and colors, and couldn't help but think of words like "chumming" and "fishing" in my mind. After a while, I slightly turned my gaze and glanced at the "mirror surface" outlined by irregular lines, and muttered to Agatha who appeared in the mirror: "I can't remember serious knowledge, but I can integrate everything if I tell you something else—Shirley, if you can spare one-tenth of your mind to memorize words, you wouldn't have to compete for points with Alice, that blockhead."

Youhao muttered in a low voice while slowly following: "Can this big rag doll really find those lurking cultists? I always feel like it's unreliable..."

"...It's necessary to take the helm again."

The elf girl walking in front suddenly slowed down. She turned her head, looked at Lu西兰蒂娅 and Shirley who had fallen behind a lot, and waved her hand vigorously: "Walk faster, it's too dangerous outside the forest now - you can rest naturally when you reach the Noisy Wall."

When Lu西兰蒂娅 saw this, she just smiled. She was satisfied with Shirley and Duncan's silence, so she turned her head and continued to follow Ah-Gou's footsteps.

"He said you didn't get it from overseas!"

And outside this room, the Lost Home was almost perfectly restored one-to-one - this is because the Goat Head in the real world knows everything about the Lost Home except the captain's bedroom.

Basic furnishings such as beds and tables and chairs are all available, and they roughly correspond to the "correct" positions in the real world, but when it comes to specific details, such as the things currently placed on the table or the decorations on the wall, there are only blurred and chaotic color blocks.

Just as Shirley judged, the Goat Head in the real world dared not pry into the real situation in the captain's bedroom. At most, he had accidentally glanced at the general appearance of the inside when the captain opened the door. These vague impressions constituted the chaotic and stacked lines and color blocks outside this room;

In contemplation, Shirley raised her head and looked at the exit of the room.

But this is also Krekses's dream - at least, there is some kind of "link" between here and Krekses's dream.

Once, Lu西兰蒂娅 only thought that "Ah-Gou" was a mental entity chaotically reorganized from the underlying consciousness of this dream, but now various clues show that the other party has unexpected sharpness. This elf who calls himself "Youhao" seems to have extremely important connections with this forest and this entire "Dream of the Well-known", and is definitely not just a simple relationship between "dream" and "mental entity".

In the endless darkness and rapidly floating mist, the same thing appeared in Shirley's vision, as if waiting for me quietly, and important people have been waiting for a long time.

"..."

That is the helm of the Lost Home.