Chapter 692 Abnormal Contact

Ted Riel readily sat down next to Anomaly 077.

"Really not having some?" Anomaly 077 grinned, shaking the beer bottle in his hand again, then pointed to a corner, "I've got another bottle—you don't want to miss out on this kind of internally circulated good stuff, I don't think you can find it in Light Breeze Port… Give it a try, if you're still soaked in the chill of the subspace, then the alcohol might help."

"...Since you know so much about the 'Saints,' then you should know that alcohol is meaningless to me," Ted Riel glanced at the dried-up corpse, then shook his head, withdrawing his gaze, "There's something I'm curious about."

Anomaly 077 shrugged, "Ask away, I might not answer."

"...How does an 'Anomaly' like you, with complete thought, view this world?" Ted Riel asked very seriously, then, perhaps feeling that the question was a bit abrupt, he pondered and added, "I've dealt with many people and have been exposed to many sages' thoughts on the world left in books. I understand the perspective of mortals, but seeing you, I'm suddenly curious about what the world looks like through the eyes of a rational 'Anomaly' like you…"

"Ah ha, jumping straight to such a philosophical question, truly befitting a Truth Keeper," Anomaly 077 clicked his tongue, "But haven't you met Ms. Alice? Why don't you ask her?"

Ted Riel was silent for a moment, "...I don't think she has an opinion on the world."

"...Ah ha, so it seems you have indeed met Ms. Alice," the "Sailor" laughed cheerfully, then took another swig of beer, letting the liquid drip onto the deck as he looked up, "You ask my opinion? I think this world should just be destroyed."

Ted Riel frowned subconsciously upon hearing this.

"That's what you asked, Mr. Keeper," noticing the change in Ted's expression, the "Sailor" turned his head to look, then turned his gaze back to the sky, "And don't you think so? The sun has gone out twice, city-state level disasters have occurred repeatedly, and blasphemous and exiled things are constantly awakening and returning. In my eyes, this world is full of cracks, shadows, hollows, and dying noises… You noble and steadfast people—I don't mean to be sarcastic—all you think about all day is patching up this world, but use your scholarly reason to think carefully… Can it still be patched?"

Ted Riel frowned but did not respond. He didn't expect that his casual question out of curiosity would receive such an answer, and the Sailor's attitude surprised him even more—these answers didn't seem to be given casually, but rather after a long period of serious thought, as if this "Anomaly" had been observing and thinking about the world for a very long time and had reached a well-considered conclusion.

Anomaly 077 didn't mind Ted's silence.

"This world is doomed, Mr. Keeper. As a 'Sailor,' I can smell the approaching storm better than you. Compared to hundreds of years ago, the world is now full of cracks, like an old house with countless large holes. The howling cold wind will destroy everything that is crumbling the next time the holes expand—your patching is meaningless. When the foundation collapses, painting the walls or pasting newspaper over the holes is just giving the people in the house a false moment of peace—prick up your ears, Keeper, prick up your ears and listen carefully…"

The "Sailor" slowly moved closer, placing a hand next to his ear in front of Ted Riel, making a gesture of listening intently, with a half-smiling expression on his face.

"Hear it? That hollow and sharp noise… It's the wind blowing from the subspace… It passes through those large and small holes, vibrating in a range that ordinary people can't hear. I can always hear them… Now, you can too."

A faint noise echoed around, as if echoing directly in the brain, low and weak, yet impossible to ignore.

Ted Riel's eyes widened slightly, staring at the Sailor with a rather pressured gaze.

"Relax, Mr. Keeper—that's how it is when dealing with the subspace, once you're touched, you're touched for life," the "Sailor" didn't seem to care about this gaze at all. He changed to a more comfortable sitting position, leaning lazily against a pile of ropes, "Although you unbelievably escaped from that place—I won't be curious about what kind of 'miracle' saved you, but obviously, the subspace still left a little mark on you… Compared to those unlucky guys who glanced at the subspace and went mad and turned into monsters, this little influence is already very lucky."

"...Is this also something a 'Sailor' should know?"

"Yeah." The dried-up corpse nodded as a matter of course, obviously not caring whether others believed it or not.

Ted Riel: "…"

The Sailor ignored Ted's reaction. The terrifying dried-up corpse just adjusted his leaning position again, making himself more lazily half-lying in a pile of ropes, then mumbled while shaking the bottle, "Think positively, that's how the world is, thinking positively is one day, thinking negatively is also one day, seize the day for pleasure if you have wine in hand, live for one day at a time. I can't go back to sleep now, otherwise I would definitely sleep until the end of the world in one breath, but it's also good like this, I'll just open my eyes and wait for the end of the world to come…"

Speaking of this, the "Sailor" turned his head slightly, glanced at Ted Riel with a half-smile.

"As for you, Mr. Truth Keeper, you still have your own things to do. Now is the time to go back—return to your job, and continue patching up this crumbling old house, although it's useless, but perhaps… this world is moving forward day after day in this kind of 'useless' continuation, until a path suddenly appears at the end of the hollow… By that time, all the lingering breaths will be meaningful."

The low and chaotic noise spread out from the depths of his mind once again. The sequelae caused by the subspace made Ted Riel feel dizzy again. He felt that there was something wrong with his perception, but before he could figure out what was happening, a crackling sound suddenly came from the nearby deck, interrupting his thoughts.

He looked in the direction of the sound and saw a clump of ghostly green flames rising from the deck, then the flames suddenly burst into flames, turning into a rotating flaming door, and a giant skeletal bird burning all over rushed out of the door, hovering over his head.

Ted was stunned for a moment, and just as he was about to say something, he felt a blur in front of his eyes, and he had already been wrapped up by the burning strange bird and flew into the door.

The flaming door slammed shut, and the deck returned to silence, as if what had just happened was just an illusion.

The Sailor leaned against the pile of ropes, staring blankly with the bottle in his hand, and in the air not far from him, a wriggling shadow suddenly appeared.

The shadow quickly solidified and began to show outlines and colors. Almost in an instant, the shadow turned into an old man wearing a white, old robe, with wrinkles all over his face.

The old man was thin and slightly hunched, like a traveler who had traveled countless years on a long journey. He stood in the clear and cold brilliance of the Worldscar, and the hazy shadow under his feet extended forward, covering the figure of Anomaly 077.

After a moment of silence, the old man in the tattered robe turned his head and glanced deeply in the direction Ted Riel had left, muttering softly, "...Hollow…"

In the next second, his figure suddenly disappeared into the wind, like a phantom left by an incorrect time in the previous second, disappearing without a trace in this second.

He realized the need to ask one or two more questions when communicating with this simpleton—who could have imagined the train of thought of this doll!?

But just as he was about to continue speaking, a crackling sound in the nearby air interrupted his conversation with Alice.