Chapter 1 Too Strange

This matter was truly too bizarre, so Duncan ultimately couldn't bring himself to eat the bowl of fish soup.

After all, just the thought of Miss Doll's head bobbing up and down in the soup pot made him feel like this dinner was veering wildly in the direction of *The Grudge* and *Final Destination*—even if Alice's true style was ridiculously comedic, the fact that her head fell into the pot was still a bit too terrifying...

Miss Doll seemed a little hurt. She looked at the food Duncan had set aside, her hands grasping the lace trim of her clothes, "Captain, are you angry?"

Duncan looked at the doll, feeling utterly exhausted, "If there's anything that makes you unhappy on the ship, you can tell me directly..."

"Ah? I'm not..."

"Then try not to go into the kit..." Duncan said casually, but he quickly noticed Alice's increasingly dejected expression, and finally shook his head helplessly, changing his tone. "It's okay, your intentions were good, I'm actually very happy, but cooking... if you're not skilled, there will be accidents. You'll get better as you become more familiar with it."

Alice perked up immediately, "So, I can still try it later?"

Duncan hesitated for a long time before finally nodding, "...Just be careful."

He had thought about it carefully: this cursed doll was clearly unable to bear the current situation of loafing around on the *Ghost Ship*, perhaps she really had some kind of "nature" that required her to do something on this ship to feel at ease. Moreover, she was an independent individual with thoughts and personality, and Duncan felt that he couldn't always treat this doll in a discouraging manner.

In that case, letting Alice help in the kitchen was better than letting her continue fighting with the cables, hawsers, and cannonballs—at least the pots and pans on the *Ghost Ship* had relatively better tempers.

He glanced down at the fish soup placed beside him. To be fair, the taste of this fish soup was actually quite normal. Although the seasonings on the ship were limited, the cooking time was perfect. And as a doll without taste or a digestive system, Alice could achieve this level based solely on a few snippets of theoretical knowledge (and this theoretical knowledge came from a goat head that also didn't eat human food). It was already quite remarkable.

Two guys who don't eat human food can get together and whip up a meal that a human can eat, what more can you ask for? Duncan felt that as long as the doll was careful in the future, she should still be able to handle the work in the kitchen—at least he, the captain, wouldn't have to cook himself in the future.

"Then... Captain, would you like me to make something else for you?" Alice's voice came from beside him, interrupting Duncan's thoughts, "I also learned how to grill fish and make fried fish fillets from Mr. Goat Head, and there's some in the kitchen..."

"Not for now, I'm not hungry," Duncan shook his head. His body didn't really have a strong need for food. He usually maintained three meals a day just to maintain his habit as a "human." At this moment, a bowl of Alice's delicious soup had already dampened his appetite for half a day, so he simply stood up from the table. "I'm going to take a walk in the cabins."

"You're going to the cabins?" Alice was taken aback, then, as if she remembered something, her expression became slightly nervous. "Then... can you go take a look at 'below'?"

"Below?" Duncan frowned.

"The deeper cabins—the places you don't let me go," Alice said, "I always hear creaking sounds coming from down there, and sometimes it sounds like someone is muttering under the floor. Why don't you go take a look... is there something going on down there?"

Looking at the slightly nervous expression on Miss Doll's face, Duncan's heart slowly began to rise.

The depths of the *Ghost Ship*... That was a place he hadn't yet explored!

Because the deepest part gave him a really strange and dangerous feeling, and at that time he didn't have "the helm" or the power of the spirit fire, so he had stopped at the place leading to the deeper cabins during the previous explorations—of course, he had plans to explore further in the future, but now it seemed that plans obviously couldn't keep up with changes.

Just then, the goat head's voice suddenly came from the side, "Ah, sounds like the hold is a bit restless. Are you going down to take a look, Captain?"

Before Duncan could speak, he heard the goat head already chattering to itself, "Come to think of it, it seems like you really haven't checked down there for a long time. The hold needs the captain's comfort, you know, it's been soaked in the boundless sea for a long time... Do you want to bring your lantern? It's still in the old place, just behind the door... You've been active on the upper levels all this time, the guys on the lower levels have been so noisy, you don't know how annoying they are, sigh, I'm a lover of peace and quiet, I can't stand those creaking sounds in the middle of the night..."

Duncan silently glanced at the goat head, which immediately fell silent.

Honestly, after hearing some of the things the goat head mumbled, he suddenly felt even more aversion to the eerie hold—it sounded like it had been more deeply affected by the boundless sea, and had become a structure that was "wrong" even on the *Ghost Ship*!

But the thought of aversion only lingered in his mind for less than a second.

He would have to further explore the other structures of the *Ghost Ship* sooner or later, and it was better to go sooner rather than later... Reason told him that it was actually better to do this sooner rather than later.

The *Ghost Ship* was huge, not only was its length astonishing, but its cabins were also divided into many layers deep down. Currently, the area that Duncan knew only included the upper structure of the ship—including the deck area, the upper cabins below the deck and the ammunition depot, the artillery area, and the warehouse, freshwater tank, and some of the crew's quarters on the next lower level. Based on the previous explorations, he could fully imagine how massive the structure hidden in the dark was below these areas.

Those structures were located below the waterline. From the depth, they were completely immersed in the boundless sea.

Dark, gloomy, echoing with hollow wind or whistling—the deeper you went, the more eerie the environment in the *Ghost Ship* became.

Duncan didn't understand his ship—this situation couldn't be dragged on forever.

He was already the captain of this ship. The *Ghost Ship* was his foothold, and even more so his base of operations in this world. He couldn't be so ignorant of his basic foundation—even if it was just to survive for a long time on the boundless sea filled with anomalies and visions, he had to understand the potential and dangers of the *Ghost Ship* clearly.

God knows if a crisis will come tomorrow, God knows if the *Ghost Ship* will crash into those deep-sea offspring or the collapsing borders of reality next second.

What's more, the goat head just mentioned: the hold needs the captain's comfort.

The "Captain" hadn't been to the lower cabins for too long... If it continued like this, it seemed that something bad would happen.

Duncan got up and found the lantern that the goat head mentioned behind the door.

This was a rather old lantern. The copper frame was a hexagonal prism shape, wide at the top and narrow at the bottom. The glass lampshade was embedded in the copper frame, appearing somewhat blurry. Inside the lampshade, Duncan didn't see a structure like a wick.

He didn't show curiosity, nor did he ask the goat head. After a brief and imperceptible thought, he tried to activate the faint green spirit fire and pour this power into the lantern.

A cluster of bright green flames immediately jumped and burned inside the lampshade, and this simple and old lantern began to release a constant glow.

Where the lantern shone, a desolate atmosphere spread out for some reason, but Duncan stood in this light and spontaneously generated a strange sense of peace and control. He seemed to be able to vaguely feel his power spreading with the light. Where the light shone, the details of everything were clearly reflected in his mind.

The pigeon Ai Yi suddenly fluttered over and landed on Duncan's shoulder.

It had already transformed into the skeletal and illusory undead bird form—although Duncan didn't actively "activate" this pigeon at all, it was still passively "transformed" under the light of the lantern.

Duncan looked down at the lantern in his hand and thought it might be a good thing... It seemed to be able to spread his power to the surrounding environment with minimal loss and maintain a "force field." This force field had the functions of detection, early warning, and even control. This characteristic was obviously quite suitable for long-term exploration in unfamiliar or dangerous areas.

"Captain... can I go with you?"

Duncan turned around and saw Alice standing behind him, curiously looking at the lantern, while also wearing an eager expression on her face, "I haven't been to the lower levels yet! Mr. Goat Head said I can't go down without your permission..."

Duncan thought for a while and nodded slightly, "Okay."

He didn't know what was in the lower level of the cabin yet, but no matter what, it was also a part of the *Ghost Ship*. Given that he had successfully "taken the helm," there shouldn't be any great danger in the hold. Taking this doll with him might be able to lend him a hand.

The goat head left on the navigation table didn't express any opinion, obviously from its perspective, it was quite normal for the captain to inspect the *Ghost Ship*—taking a helper was the same.

Outside the cabin, night had gradually fallen, and the cold light of the World Scar was shining on the sea, shining on the empty deck of the ghost ship. The semi-transparent spirit sails billowed in the air, slowly adjusting their angle without anyone controlling them.

Duncan, holding the lantern, carrying his sword and flintlock, passed through the empty deck with Alice, passed through the two uppermost cabins, and went all the way down the wooden stairs, towards the depths of the *Ghost Ship*'s cabins.

The stairs at the end of the sailors' quarters were where Duncan had stopped during his previous explorations.

A strange dimness was entrenched around the sloping stairs, and in the dimness, one could only vaguely see the pillars used to support the cabin and some wall structures.

"It's so dark down here," Alice stood at the entrance of the stairs, looking at the dark environment below a little nervously. "Isn't there a light down here? There are clearly ever-burning oil lamps in other places..."

"No, there is light down there," Duncan held the lantern and slowly opened his mouth. Under the power emitted by the lantern, he finally saw the situation below the cabin more clearly than before. "...It's just that the light below is black."

"...Ah?" Alice was stunned for a moment, not reacting for a long time. "There's black light?"

Duncan didn't respond for a moment, just carried the lantern and slowly walked down, and only after Alice followed did he open his mouth softly: "After all, we're already below the surface of the boundless sea."