Chapter 284 Sunlight of the City-State

In the Port of Gentle Breeze, the faint "sunlight" diffused from the sea, enveloping the entire city-state under the "night," the information carried in the light flowing silently across the sea. However, only one automaton could decipher this information.

Honestly, even Duncan found it a bit unbelievable.

So, how much of the world in this automaton's eyes was different from what ordinary people perceived? Was the sky blue in her eyes? Were the leaves green? What were the outlines of humans in her eyes, and what kind of waves rippled on the sea?

And even if she described what she saw – were the colors, sounds, and shapes she spoke of truly the same as what ordinary people recognized?

This seemed to be a perpetually contradictory and unsolvable mystery.

Alice turned her head, her beautiful big eyes reflecting the glow of the gas lamps. She looked at Duncan with some confusion and worry, and after a long time, she whispered, "Captain, the things I see are really useful, right?"

Duncan gradually gathered his scattered thoughts, not allowing those chaotic associations to continue. He suddenly somewhat agreed with some of the things Alice had said – it was better not to think about certain annoying questions that were destined to have no answers.

So he smiled, his expression gradually relaxing, "Of course it's useful – what else did you see besides this information? I mean, after the sun went out, did you 'see' anything different from usual?"

Alice quickly understood Duncan's meaning. She frowned slightly, seriously recalling, then turned her head to look around. After a while, she said uncertainly, "If I had to say, I've been feeling a buzzing sound..."

Duncan frowned, "Buzzing?"

"Yes, buzzing, a very faint sound, and I can't even tell if it's a real 'sound.' I just feel like there's this noise, constantly ringing in my head, but if you don't pay close attention, it will be ignored," Alice explained with gestures, pointing to the window, "The sound gets a little louder when I see that 'sunlight'..."

Duncan nodded lightly, then asked after a moment, "Did you hear this buzzing sound the last time the sun went out? Did you see those 'information' about the 'Observer Effect Stabilizer'?"

"No," Alice shook her head, holding her head, "I only 'saw' and heard it this time after arriving at Port of Gentle Breeze..."

Listening to the automaton's account, Duncan couldn't help but fall into thought –

According to Lucretia, just now, another set of observation equipment in Port of Gentle Breeze had also received a weak signal from the extinguished sun, its characteristics being completely consistent with the signal released by the "luminous geometry." In other words, during the blackout, the main body of Anomaly 001 had actually been "broadcasting" the "Observer Effect Stabilizer Failure" report all along. However, Alice stated that she did not "see" these contents during the last solar blackout, but only read the fault information from the "sunlight" here after arriving at Port of Gentle Breeze... Why was this?

Was it because the fault was not so serious the last time the sun went out, so the main body of Anomaly 001 did not issue a report? If this was the explanation, the situation would be more serious than anyone expected, because it would mean that the entire system had further deteriorated – a rapid deterioration in such a short period of time.

Silence fell in the living room. Lucretia, Morris, and others gathered around, listening to the exchange between Duncan and Alice, and looked at the changes in Duncan's expression with some worry. After a while, Nina couldn't help but ask, "Uncle Duncan, do you know what that 'Observer Effect Stabilizer' means?"

Duncan opened his mouth, but suddenly felt a bit stuck.

In this world, explaining the concept of planets and the universe to people was already an incredibly difficult thing, so how could he explain the more abstract "observer effect"? How to explain the incredible phenomena between the macro and micro worlds?

And more importantly – could the observer theory he knew really be applied here?

He raised his head with a subtle expression, looking at the world outside the window.

"I can probably guess some of it, but it deviates greatly from my understanding of 'observer theory.' It should happen in the micro world, not..."

He hesitated and stopped.

If the other name of Anomaly 001 was really "Observer Effect Stabilizer," then did this already explain the true mechanism of this ancient anomaly's "suppressing pollution" and "stabilizing order"?

Unknowingly, he thought of the truth of the Great Annihilation, the underlying conflicts of all things in the world, and the various extraordinary anomalies caused by cognitive pollution on a global scale – if the micro world was the "cornerstone of order" for every universe, then when these cornerstones collided and annihilated each other, mixing into an incredibly chaotic and complex "information soup"... would the observer effect really be limited to the micro world?

At the moment when the mathematical laws of each universe were torn apart, when the material structure of all things was completely annihilated and completely reduced to basic information elements, perhaps the concepts of "micro" and "macro" had long ceased to exist!

In a storm of suddenly surging thoughts, Duncan unconsciously muttered to himself, "...The specific manifestation of underlying information pollution and law conflicts of all things... is actually the uncontrolled observer effect in the macro world?"

Morris and Lucretia looked at each other, then turned their heads at the same time after a few seconds, "...Huh?"

"...I'll find a way to explain to you what the observer effect is and some of my guesses about it later, but that will take a lot of time and energy," Duncan quickly waved his hand, "Now I'm more concerned about another question."

Lucretia immediately said, "Another question?!"

Duncan nodded, looking at the gothic automaton standing next to him with an innocent (mainly unresponsive) face.

"Have you ever thought about why Alice can see and understand these 'signals'?"

"Oh, that's right!" Sherry on the side reacted instantly (mainly because this was the only question she could understand so far), "It's one thing that she can 'see' them, after all, only she can see those 'lines' – but how does she understand them? So many experts and scholars in the city-state have lost all their hair and still can't figure this thing out!"

Vanna keenly noticed the serious and thoughtful expression on Duncan's face when he raised this question, "Do you already have an answer?"

Duncan slowly nodded upon hearing this. After a moment of thought and organizing his words, he brought up the content recorded in the *Book of Blasphemy*:

"You should still remember that, according to the records in that book, after two failed Genesis events, the 'Crawling King' successfully completed Genesis in the third long night and opened the Deep Sea Era."

Vanna immediately nodded, "Yes, we certainly remember that."

"The 'construction' of Anomaly 001 was also in the same era," Duncan continued with a serious expression, "The Crawling King had the Crete clan as his assistants, and together they designed and built the 'sun,' and the Crawling King is the 'Abyssal Saint' we know – then do you remember how Alice was born?"

"Oh, oh, I know this!" Sherry immediately understood, "The Abyssal Saint's replica hand-crafted her at the bottom of the sea!"

Everyone reacted.

Their eyes all fell on Alice.

Alice listened blankly to everyone's discussion, and only now did she vaguely follow everyone's train of thought. After confirming that she hadn't messed anything up, she didn't know what else she was thinking, and a proud and happy look appeared on her face.

"...We've always known that Alice is, in a sense, an 'Abyssal creation,' but most of the time, we've only paid attention to her connection with the Frost Queen Rei Nora, but ignored that her connection with the Abyssal Saint is the key," Duncan looked with a subtle expression at the automaton who didn't know why she was proud, and thought of the scene when he accidentally established contact with the Abyssal Saint in that mansion garden before, "Now it seems that this connection may be more important than we thought. At least one thing can be determined now, she can understand the 'system language' used by the Abyssal Saint in that 'Creation Blueprint'..."

Nina thought for a while, "Like a Hollerith tabulator being able to read the punched tape output by a difference engine?"

"...It's okay to understand it that way."

Alice looked at Duncan and then at the others around her, seeming to have some questions to ask, but suddenly she frowned, seeming to hear or see something – after a moment, she suddenly said, "The system has restarted."

Duncan raised his head instantly, and almost at the same time as Alice's voice fell, a low and illusory roar suddenly entered everyone's minds.

Along with this low roar that seemed to fill the entire world in an instant, Duncan noticed a ray of dawn appearing in the sky outside the window –

The sun, which had previously sunk to near the sea level and extinguished and stagnated there, had been relit.

Sherry was the first to run to the window, peering at the scene on the street outside, she saw the dawn passing over the rooftops of the buildings, and a team of Knowledge Guards who were guarding the intersection were looking up at the sky in surprise.

Nearby residents hiding at home reacted and opened their windows to look at the situation outside.

Sherry waved happily at the window, greeting a neighbor who appeared in another window not far away, but she received no response – everyone's attention was focused on the sky where the dawn had just reappeared.

Then, faint cheers came from somewhere, and after a while, the sound of a loudspeaker broadcast came from the street intersection – the broadcast mentioned the news that the sun had been relit, and reminded residents not to leave their homes rashly for the time being, the night would fall soon, and the curfew tonight would continue until the sun rose as usual the next day.

Duncan listened to the faint broadcast coming from outside the window, watched the dawn gradually fade from the sky, and breathed a sigh of relief.

The sun rises as usual... Now, even this has become an uncertain thing.

(End of chapter)