"I don't have any personal property, so please apologize to Gus, the first mate of the White Oak, for me. I bet I won't be able to pay back the two pounds of fine tobacco I owe him, and also what I owe the second mate, the boatswain, the stoker, the mechanic, and the pastor…"

He counted off several names on his fingers, then spread his hands: "You see, gambling doesn't end well, does it? Including betting with people."

"Finally, regarding what I wanted to say to you, I was originally planning to write you a letter secretly and then find a place to leave quietly, because I always felt embarrassed to say some things face to face, but you see, things always turn out unexpectedly…"

The sailor babbled on, and under Duncan's calm and gentle gaze, he took a long breath—the cold air slowly escaped from his lungs, which no longer needed to breathe, and merged into the omnipresent fog.

He looked at Duncan, his withered eyes filled with unprecedented seriousness and solemnity.

"I am honored, although I was afraid at first, I am still very honored to be a member of the Vanishing Sea for a short time."

"You are the greatest explorer and captain of all time, and what you want to do will definitely succeed. I have no basis, and I don't understand prophecies or anything like that, but that's just how I feel… What you want to do will definitely succeed."

"So, if there really is a new world in the future, I hope you can still remember the story of the Sea Song, and tell its story to the people of the future, so that people at that time will know that in the days when the world was gradually coming to an end, there was such a group of people… who tried their best to work hard."

"Finally, thank you, thank you for your efforts so far, thank you for still trying to save this world… Although it is a cold and twisted place for me now, I vaguely remember that it was a good place." A rope crawled sinuously, came to the doll's feet, and bumped the latter's calf with the head of the rope.

"I'm a little nervous…" Alice said softly, "Although the captain said it's okay, I'm still very nervous…"

The surrounding ropes and buckets and other sundries swayed, making a series of somewhat chaotic noises.

Alice heard the responses of her "friends" from those chaotic sounds.

They were even more nervous than she was.

The whole ship was nervous…