Chapter 1 The Great Annihilation

The Great Annihilation was the turning point in the history of this world, and the beginning of the so-called "Deep Sea Age."

According to what Nina said, Duncan finally understood the earth-shattering changes that had occurred in this world, and realized that this world was not as strange and dangerous as it is now—

According to historical records, the world before the Great Annihilation was a prosperous and safe paradise.

Back then, the ocean was not the "Boundless Sea," and the limited seawater did not occupy more than 95% of the world's surface as it does today. Humans lived on vast and safe land, and even the ocean did not contain dangerous phenomena such as the Spirit Realm, the Abyss, or the Subspace.

The "Age of Order" recorded in history books felt more like the world Duncan was familiar with—although modern people would look back at that ancient era without "anomalies" with surprise and disbelief, Duncan found the current state of the world completely abnormal.

History books do not provide a detailed explanation of the key event of the "Great Annihilation." Although the archaeological community has been working hard in this regard, there are still significant differences among various city-states and peoples regarding ancient history. No one knows how the so-called Great Annihilation happened, nor what the main body of that disaster was—great chaos and mist shrouded the cataclysm, and after the mist came the current Deep Sea Age.

Seawater from an unknown source submerged more than 90% of the land. The surviving remnants of civilization established city-states and fleets on the remaining islands and small pieces of land. The Boundless Sea and the sea fog brought strange things called "anomalies" and "omens," which continue to threaten the survival of civilization.

Nina didn't know that a ghost captain from another world was absorbing knowledge from her words. She only thought that her uncle was testing her homework—her uncle hadn't been in such a good mood for a long time. She was very happy and even felt this moment was particularly precious because she was worried that Duncan would change back to the way he was before… and according to past experience, this was almost inevitable.

As long as the liquor lost its effect, or the painkillers ran out, her uncle would become extremely irritable, angry, and hysterical.

So, before Duncan had another episode, she wanted to show him all her progress—this might make his good mood last for another day or two.

"...Mr. Morris is very interested in the history of the Kingdom of Crete. He is an expert in this field. He told us that although the ancient Kingdom of Crete only lasted for a hundred years, it was the first civilization to rise from the ruins after the arrival of the Deep Sea Age to fight against anomalies and omens. The experience they explored in a hundred years still guides most people in the world today—the most important of which is their classification method for 'anomalies' and 'omens'..."

"A classification method for 'anomalies' and 'omens'? You've already learned that?" Duncan raised his eyebrows, guiding her in his words.

He had been concerned about this since he started listening, and now he was even more certain that in the eyes of ordinary people in this world, there should be a strict distinction between those illogical things. Some things are called "anomalies," and even have numbers, but other things...seem to be called "omens" separately, unlike his previous impression that they were all lumped together as "anomalies."

He had never heard details about this from Goat Head on the *Vanishing Sail*, and now what Nina learned in school could finally fill in his knowledge gaps in this area.

Nina nodded, recalling what she had heard in class. "Mr. Morris taught us the simplest way to distinguish between anomalies and omens: scale.

"Generally speaking, anomalies are smaller in scale, often limited to an item, an animal, or even a 'person';

"Most anomalies can be moved artificially, and their impact range is also limited. Many anomalies only affect one target at a time, and most anomalies can be safely sealed or isolated if specific methods are mastered—some of the more harmless anomalies can even be 'utilized' as tools through specific methods.

"Omens are much larger than anomalies. The smallest omen is as big as a house, and larger ones can cover an entire city-state, or even larger... unimaginably large.

"A significant number of omens cannot be moved artificially. They are either fixed in one place or operate according to their own will, and their influence is far greater than that of anomalies. Under normal circumstances, omens can affect an infinite number of targets within their effective range, so much so that they can almost be equated with 'natural phenomena,' hence the name 'omen.'

"Unlike anomalies, almost all 'omens' cannot be sealed or controlled. They exist in the world like natural phenomena, operating without external interference, and naturally affecting everything within their range that meets the conditions. Since most omens are dangerous, all people can do is stay away from them, or avoid becoming the target of an omen through specific methods...

"Fortunately, the most dangerous omens usually don't move. The pioneers have helped us explore these dangers, so we can safely keep our distance from them..."

Nina said very seriously, and then, as if suddenly remembering something, she quickly added, "Oh, right, Mr. Morris also specifically mentioned to us that these judgment methods and characteristics are only 'usually effective'—anomalies and omens are illogical things, so no matter how people summarize their experiences, there will always be anomalies or omens that don't fit the definitions suddenly popping up. Sometimes anomalies and omens even switch, and there are even cases where omens are interfered with and destroyed by human power.

"For example, in 1830 of the New City-State Calendar, an anomaly called 'Mycelium' went out of control in the Lonsa City-State. The local church guardians spent a great price to banish this out-of-control anomaly to a nearby island, and that island was recognized as an omen in 1835, becoming the later Fungal Island—but in 1844, the great Saint Paladin sacrificed his life to contain Fungal Island in his ash bottle, so the omen 'Fungal Island' was removed from the list in the same year. It became an 'anomaly' again, called 'Paladin's Mushroom Bottle,' which is now sealed in the underground relic vault of the Lonsa City-State Cathedral..."

Duncan listened intently to everything Nina said, his mind racing, while masking the fluctuations in his heart with a calm expression.

During this short breakfast, he had gathered more information than he had in all his days on the *Vanishing Sail*!

Establishing communication with the land and setting up an outpost in a surface city-state was indeed the right idea—civilized society is where most information is gathered!

He subconsciously looked at the girl who was still talking, and had a lot of feelings in his heart.

A civilization that has developed normally to the industrial stage will definitely try to compress and summarize the basic knowledge of social operation into its education system. A child living within this system may not realize how much of a treasure trove their textbooks are:

That is the knowledge accumulated by countless people over countless years, and then streamlined and integrated over the years into the most suitable structure for learning and absorption. Those books construct the world's most exquisite "nutrient compression pack," in order to quickly turn a blank sheet of paper into a cog in the social machine with the least amount of time and effort. 138 Reading Network

Even Nina, who usually loved to study, could not appreciate this—only Duncan, a "foreigner," could realize how precious and easily absorbed this knowledge was.

Nina didn't realize what Duncan was thinking. She just remembered what her respectable history teacher had said in class—

"...So, Mr. Morris told us at the end of the last class that people have summarized countless rules in the process of dealing with 'anomalies' and 'omens,' but only one rule is truly and eternally effective, and that is 'no matter how many rules we summarize, there will definitely be anomalies or omens that do not conform to the rules appearing in the world.'

"This rule is also called 'the eternal zeroth rule' by scholars, and is defaulted to be ranked at the top of all books and papers in related fields. People have also proposed the famous 'Law of Permanent Anomaly and Omen Malfunction' based on this, and until today, this law has not been broken..."