Chapter 236 A Substitute Plan

A faint creaking sound came from beneath the goat head's skull as its neck slowly rotated on its base. It silently watched Duncan return to the captain's cabin, its gaze following the captain's movements.

Duncan went to the chart table, sat in the high-backed chair, and placed his hands on the surface. A thin mist surged across the chart, obscuring everything. It seemed that even this incredible map had lost its reference points in this "sea area" that had long since crossed the border.

But Duncan's attention was clearly not on the mist-shrouded chart. His eyes were focused on a more distant place, as if peering through the table and floor to gaze at the vast, boundless nothingness outside the *Vanishing Sail*.

After a long while, the goat head finally cautiously spoke, "I noticed just now… that the 'environment' around the *Vanishing Sail* has changed significantly. Did you do that?"

Perhaps influenced by the atmosphere, the garrulous first mate didn't waste words this time.

"I did some tests," Duncan said in a low voice. "I verified the conjecture of information conservation and confirmed that the information in this 'Sea of Ashes' can still support the operation of things. In… a brief test, ripples of change did reappear in this cooled ash."

"But it didn't last, did it?" the goat head said hesitantly. "I felt it just now… the appearance and fading of that 'ripple' you mentioned. Although I don't understand the principles and process in between, I can feel that something seems to be missing behind those changes."

"The first driving force, an 'excitation' process that can instantly reset and fully restart the entire 'mathematical machine'," Duncan didn't hide the "knowledge" he had touched upon in that brief "ripple." "Simply put, it's useless to assign short-term, localized values to a portion of the 'raw materials' in this Sea of Ashes. The overall 'entropic state' of the Sea of Ashes is causing all changes to return to zero. Therefore, if you want to truly transform the 'raw materials' here into a new world, you need to reset the entire system—as for how to 'import' the saved data of the old world during the system reset, that might be relatively simpler."

The goat head was silent for a long time. After thinking for a while, it slowly raised its head. "I'm not sure what you mean by 'entropic state', but it sounds like you're still considering some very bad plans. Forgive me for speaking frankly, Captain… Miss Nina will be sad. You have an agreement with her."

Duncan didn't speak, just silently looked at the goat head on the table.

"You think you are the most suitable 'first driving force', don't you?" the goat head continued, as if not noticing the captain's gaze. "Resetting the entire 'mathematical machine' sounds like it requires enormous energy and 'information', and you 'yourself' possess both of these conditions…"

"So, I'm thinking about whether there are any alternative solutions," Duncan suddenly interrupted the goat head calmly.

The goat head's neck creaked. It was clearly stunned. "…I thought you were planning a self-sacrifice…"

"Yes, I planned it, but Bartok reminded me of something before he left," Duncan said calmly. "Don't easily use sacrifice to lay the foundation for a new world—sacrifice should always be the last, most helpless choice, and should not be used as the first option. Too easy a sacrifice is an insult to 'sacrifice' itself—moreover, I promised Nina and Lucy that I would go home."

As he spoke, he gently breathed a sigh of relief.

"Of course, if there really is no choice in the end, I am not reluctant to die, but now… I think I should make greater efforts to find a better solution."

"Do you have any ideas?" the goat head immediately asked curiously. "What alternative method do you have to 'start' this process?"

"Theoretically, all I need is information and energy, and the 'information' part can actually be supplemented by assigning values later, so all I need is energy, energy to restart the mathematical machine and let the 'information' start running," Duncan said slowly, thinking. "I already have a vague solution to this problem now, but whether it can be realized specifically…"

He suddenly stopped, his gaze seemingly looking at something that didn't exist in a certain direction. After thinking for a moment, he continued, "I think I need to talk to a certain guy I have an appointment with."

As he spoke, he casually asked, "What is Alice doing now?"

The goat head was stunned for a moment. After slightly confirming the situation on the ship, a subtle, human-like expression appeared on its stiff wooden face. "…She is dragging the Frost Queen to do something very wicked…"

Things that even the goat head felt were wicked—that could only be said to be really wicked.

On the spacious middle deck, Alice was pulling Rei Nora to admire a stunt she had recently learned—the doll was so happy that she dragged the bewildered Frost Queen to a wooden barrel and pointed to her head, "This is what I just learned! I practiced with Luni for a long time to succeed!"

Then, before Rei Nora could react, the doll hugged her head and pulled it upwards. With a "pop" sound, she threw her head into the air.

Then she moved her body left and right below to adjust her position, aiming her neck joint at the head that was falling from the air…

It was at this point that Rei Nora finally understood what the doll wanted to do—but she felt that she would rather not understand.

And what was worse was that the doll didn't catch it.

Her head rolled down, just as the top of her head was facing down—the skull hit her neck joint solidly, making a "thud" sound, and then rolled on the ground, rolling all the way to Rei Nora's feet, looking up and innocently blinking her eyes, "Sli… slightly, missed… a little… little bit, help pick… pick it up…"

Rei Nora's eyes twitched as she watched this scene. Even as the Frost Queen who had once presided over the Deep-Sea Project and faced the rebels without blinking, her expression at this time seemed a little strained.

Duncan came to the deck and happened to see this scene.

He felt a great impact—but it may have been a little smaller than the impact felt by Rei Nora.

Then he quickly took a few steps forward, grabbed Alice's head and pressed it on her neck joint. After a "pop" sound, he turned to look at Rei Nora, who was still in a daze, with a subtle and apologetic expression on his face. "Sorry, Alice's thinking is sometimes different from ordinary people…"

Rei Nora seemed to wake up from the shock at this time. She glanced at Duncan blankly, and after a long while, she said, "…This is the first time I've seen this scene from a third-person perspective."

Duncan: "…"

But what he didn't expect was the Frost Queen's second sentence: "Frankly speaking, it's quite interesting."

Duncan was stunned and held back for a long time before squeezing out a sentence: "…You have a really broad mind."

"I heard her mention that her neck joint is always easy to loosen when I was chatting with Alice, so I curiously asked her what the specific situation was," Rei Nora spread her hands, her expression much calmer than before. "Of course, her demonstration method was indeed a bit more exciting than I imagined…"

What could Duncan say? He could only twitch the corner of his mouth, turn his head to look at the doll who was walking over while holding her head and adjusting the angle—the latter didn't realize that the atmosphere was a bit subtle at all after approaching, and directly bent over and put her neck in front of Duncan. "Captain, there's hair stuck in the joint, help me get it out."

Duncan's eyes twitched. While helping Alice deal with the hair in her neck joint with a subtle expression, he looked up at Rei Nora and smiled awkwardly.

Rei Nora didn't seem to care. She just watched with interest the scene in front of her that had nothing to do with "simple and normal life scenes" no matter how you looked at it, but was somehow exceptionally daily and peaceful. After a while, she smiled and said, "It seems she is living a really happy life."

"It would be better if she wasn't always so carefree," Duncan sighed helplessly. "Seriously, are you really okay? Just that scene… I thought you would have psychological trauma…"

"It's okay," Rei Nora breathed a sigh of relief. "I didn't see it myself when it was cut off back then—I can overcome the association."

Duncan thought about it and felt that this "Frost Queen" obviously had a very strong heart—and even stronger peripheral nerves than her heart.

And at this time, Alice also seemed to realize something and turned to look at Duncan. "Captain, are you here to find me?"

"Yeah," Duncan carefully untangled the last strand of hair that was caught in Alice's joint and nodded. "We have arrived here, and an appointment… should also be kept."

Alice blinked her eyes and finally remembered something, "Ah, the flaming meatball hanging at my door…"

Duncan was a little surprised. He was surprised that the doll could accurately remember this matter, but he was even more impressed by Alice's refined and unconventional description…

Rei Nora looked at the side with confusion, not knowing what the two were talking about. At this time, she couldn't help but ask curiously, "Keep an appointment? Where are we going next?"

"It's Alice and I who are going to keep an appointment," Duncan laughed. "Don't worry, we won't leave this ship, we will just go to another dimension briefly and will be back soon."

"Yes, the captain is going to wind me up!" Alice also said happily, and waved to Rei Nora, "You go back to your room first, I'll go find you to play after I'm wound up!"

Rei Nora was even more confused: "Wind you up?"

But the doll obviously had no intention of continuing to explain. At this time, she had already dragged the captain towards the stern deck, and the two quickly walked away.

Leaving only the "Frost Queen" standing in place with a blank face and a head full of question marks.

(End of this chapter)