Chapter 138

The World Engine hung high in the night sky, a cool wind blew across the boundless sea, and the fine waves gently lapped around, the small boat rocking back and forth, like a dream half-awakened before dawn.

But Alice didn't actually know what "dreaming" was—she had slept for a long, long time, but had never truly dreamed like a human, but she guessed that dreaming should be a state similar to this.

Floating in a very, very large place, her thoughts also floated along.

She raised her head and saw only the sea in the distance. The distant lights of the Vanishing Ship were like a tiny candlelight floating on the sea. This even gave her the feeling that the whole world had disappeared, and all that remained was herself, the small boat beneath her, and the boundless Uncharted Sea.

Oh, and the three End Propagators tied up in front of her.

The doll girl retracted her gaze from the distance and curiously sized up the cultists bound in front of her.

These were humans, the very bad kind—Alice didn't know any humans, but she knew that there were good people and bad people among humans. Good people did very good things, and Captain Duncan would praise them, and sometimes even help them. Bad people did very bad things, and Captain Duncan would despise them, and sometimes even report them. And these three in front of her... belonged to the kind that the captain disliked the most.

They believed in the subspace, followed vicious beliefs, and could kill anyone for their fabricated righteousness, even attack a poor little girl who depended on a dog for survival. If the city-state's guards found them, they would not hesitate to shoot them dead in the street. If the sailors at sea found them, they would hang them from the mast—even if the most vicious pirates found them, they would stuff these madmen into wooden boxes and throw them into the sea, using this method to pray for the Storm Goddess's protection.

But now they were tied up, and very quiet, and showed no signs of any crazy, out-of-control impulses—Alice still remembered the frightening appearance of these people when they first came on board. At that time, these people were as excited as if they had taken the wrong medicine.

Now, as time went by, these End Propagators became more and more honest.

"Are you scared?" After holding it in for a long time, Alice finally couldn't help but speak. She was really uncomfortable here. Although she knew that this was a "safety test" that had to be carried out so that she could operate in human city-states, the feeling of drifting on the Uncharted Sea still made her feel uneasy.

One of the End Propagators responded to the doll's voice. His gaunt, skull-like head slowly lifted, staring into Alice's eyes: "Stupid filth, clumsy shell... Your soul is pale and empty, even the subspace will not accept it..."

Alice was stunned for a moment, and after a few seconds she reacted: "Hey, why are you cursing at people!"

The End Propagators opposite her only let out a series of hoarse, unpleasant laughter. They seemed to have no fear at all of "Anomaly 099," which terrified the world.

Or, as they themselves claimed, they had already transcended the concept of life and death and no longer cared about the arrival of death in the real world.

Alice had no choice but to sulk, but after a while, she shook her head again: "I'm not angry anymore."

Another End Propagator looked up at her without saying a word.

Alice said to herself: "I shouldn't be angry. You guys can complain a bit, after all, you're the ones tied up now, not me. You're the ones doing this head-dropping test, not me. The captain said that you can't be too complacent when the wind is favorable, because the waves will capsize the boat, and people who are too jumpy will lose their lives... Besides, you've all fallen to this point, so I'll be generous and allow you to talk nonsense."

The End Propagators sat silently in the cabin, listening to the doll's rambling, as if completely屏蔽ing the latter's voice, but after a while, Alice still noticed some "small movements" from these people—

They were imperceptibly sizing up each other's heads, occasionally moving their necks, and occasionally cautiously looking this way, their eyes filled with doubt.

Alice thought about it carefully and felt that these people might be curious as to why their heads were still on their necks.

These cultists obviously knew the information about Anomaly 099. They might not really be afraid of death, but they still had curiosity—having been so close to Anomaly 099 for so long, they found their own survival incomprehensible.

"Actually, I'm a little scared," Alice said suddenly. "I'm just afraid that your heads will suddenly fall off—the captain said that I have the ability to behead people, and I was shocked when I heard it for the first time. Humans are different from me. Human heads can't be put back on once they fall off..."

The sound of flapping wings suddenly came from above. Alice curiously looked in the direction of the sound and saw the pigeon Ai Yin suddenly flying into the distance. After a while, it flew back from the direction of the Vanishing Ship, its body still rising with green flames.

Ai Yin circled twice above the sea near the small boat. The ghostly green flames rose into the air, and in the grand vortex of flames, a gorgeous wooden box appeared out of thin air, and then fell into the sea with a plop.

"My box!" Alice's eyes widened instantly, and she shouted in surprise. Then, the words "swept out the door" flashed in her mind, and her head almost fell off her neck—but then she noticed that there seemed to be a note stuck to the wooden box, so she quickly used the paddle in her hand to row over, and after getting closer, she took the note down and saw a line written on it:

"The guillotine ability may also be related to your wooden box, so send it for testing together. Also: You must be thinking wildly again that I'm going to drive you off the ship—don't think nonsense, come back quickly after completing the test."

Alice held the note and looked at it back and forth several times, but found that she didn't understand it.

She was illiterate...

But soon she saw something else on the back of the note. It was a rough sketch, depicting her rowing back to the Vanishing Ship, with a smiling face at the end.

The doll girl understood—no matter what was written on the front of the note, the captain didn't mean to drive her away.

She was relieved, carefully put away the note, and then casually picked up the wooden box from the sea, and with a "bang," threw the rather heavy box onto the small boat with one hand. Only then did she look up at the few cultists opposite her: "Are you hungry?"

The Propagators did not respond, and she didn't care. She just muttered to herself: "Although the captain said that you are people who deserve to die, he also said that if you can really complete the test without dying, he won't kill you—he will get you back into the city-state, to... what was it called again..."

The doll girl was a little stuck, and tried hard to recall what the captain had said to her before: "Oh, to show concerned citizens' care for the safety of the city-state... He said you are worth at least seven bicycles. What are bicycles?"

"The subspace will grant us warmth... The subspace will grant us peace... The subspace will bless all the deceased, after all the ends arrive as scheduled..." An End Propagator mumbled vaguely, seeming to be responding to Alice's rambling, or perhaps just performing some blasphemous prayer. "We walk in the end, abandon this cursed flesh, our minds will cross that wall, and open our eyes again in the new world..."

"Huh?" Alice was confused. "What are you mumbling about?"

The End Propagators no longer responded to her, and gave no further response after that.

In the following time until dawn, they just sat there with their heads lowered, muttering quietly, mumbling about things related to the subspace, mumbling about the end of a certain river of time, a certain destined and due doomsday. In the sea waves rising and falling with the wind, besides the sound of the waves lapping against the boat, there was only the incessant mumbling of these madmen.

This was an atmosphere that could make ordinary people shudder, and the content of their prayers could even curse those with weak wills, causing them to be entangled and entangled by shadows from the depths of the world. However, Alice only felt it was noisy.

She had obtained the note written by the captain, so she was no longer afraid of this drifting voyage, and now she was only filled with boredom.

But this boring time finally came to an end.

A ray of dawn suddenly appeared on the distant sea. In the dim light of dawn, the World Engine in the sky quickly faded and became lighter, and the sun, locked by double runes, gradually emerged from the sea, leaping into the sky.

It was dawn.

Alice did not behead anyone.

The doll girl happily looked at the sunrise. She stood up from beside the wooden box and turned to look at the few cultists: "Hey! It's dawn! You're still alive! We can go back!"

However, the three End Propagators did not respond to her. They were still sitting in the cabin, crouching down, lowering their heads and whispering, calling for the "attention" of the subspace for the last time in the brief darkness before the sunlight shone into the cabin.

Until Alice reminded them again, one of them finally raised his head. This cultist glanced at the gradually spreading sunlight with a bit of daze, but gradually a strange smile appeared on his face.

"Oh, another day of ours has ended..." This madman sighed softly, then slowly turned his head, looked at Alice's jewel-like perfect eyes, and his smile was strangely mixed with madness and peace. "Doll, we will meet again someday."

"Huh?" Alice was stunned. "What do you mean by that? Can you still run away out of thin air..."

The sunlight spread over.

The figures of the three End Propagators disappeared silently into the morning glow, like fading phantoms of yesterday.

"Ran away, didn't they..." Alice finished this half-sentence out of inertia, staring with wide eyes, "They really ran away?"