Chapter 130 Nonlinear Existence

The puppet returned to the *Shithole* once more, looking rather frightened—and after listening to the embarrassing doll's disorganized description, Duncan was also stunned.

"Disappeared? Vanished into thin air right before your eyes?" Duncan stared blankly at Alice, then looked at the lifeboat that had just been lifted to the ship's side by the winch—ropes used to tie up the Enders still remained on the boat, but the bound cultists were nowhere to be seen.

"Yes, yes! Just disappeared like that! Without a sound!" Alice gesticulated as she explained her bizarre experience to Duncan, "They vanished the moment the sunlight shone down, as if they never existed..."

"Vanished silently the moment the sunlight shone down..." Duncan frowned. He had imagined countless ways the Enders might escape or resist, but he never expected them to disappear out of nowhere. This rendered many of his preparations useless. "I could understand if they jumped into the sea, at least that's water-soluble, but how does one dissolve in sunlight... Could it be related to the sun? Does the sun's suppressive power prevent them from existing in the real world?"

"I don't know." Alice stared blankly, with righteous confidence.

"I wasn't asking you," Duncan glanced at the puppet. "Did anything seem off about them before they disappeared? What did they say? Or did they perform some strange ritual?"

"They... were muttering all the time, something about the sub-space, the promised land, the cycle of destined end and rebirth," Alice rubbed her head, then suddenly remembered. "Oh, right! One of the cultists also said, 'Our another day has ended'..."

"Their 'another day' has ended?" Duncan frowned instantly. For some reason, he thought of what an Ender had said to him before—

They hide in cursed history.

Some outrageous guesses popped up, but considering how ghostly this even more outrageous world was, perhaps nothing was too far-fetched.

"Captain?" Alice noticed that Duncan had been frowning and thinking for a long time without paying attention to her. Finally, she couldn't help but speak up. "What are you thinking about? You..."

"Nothing," Duncan shook his head, muttering as if to himself, or perhaps sighing softly. "I just suddenly had a crazy idea that those so-called Enders... might be nonlinear existences..."

"Nonlinear existence?" Alice was immediately stunned. Her limited brain capacity and knowledge reserves failed to keep up with the captain's train of thought. "What does that mean?"

"...Never mind, I can hardly explain it to you with your level of intelligence," Duncan glanced at Alice, hesitated for two seconds, and shook his head. "It's just that I suddenly understood something: why the book Maurice gave me said that the Enders are the most mysterious and the hardest to find and capture among the cultists... This is too outrageous."

This is too outrageous—Duncan repeated in his mind.

Hiding in the abnormal flow of history, being a nonlinear existence, shuttling through reality with the alternation of day and night. Unless you kill them on the spot, you can never arrest an Ender captured yesterday today—this was the shocking truth he deduced based on the existing clues.

In comparison, the Sun Cultists, though equally brutal and dark, but mostly composed of rabble, seemed rather ordinary and amiable—although they also had the bizarre characteristic of "constantly transforming from ordinary people under the influence of the creeping sun disc," at least they weren't as evil as this.

But then again... If the Enders were truly "nonlinear existences" as he guessed, then how did they become like this? How could ordinary humans... peel themselves out of the normal flow of time and become a discontinuous "slice creature" in time?

Just because they followed the sub-space... thus obtaining the crazy and chaotic "blessing" of the sub-space?

"Captain, you're spacing out again..."

Alice's voice came again, the puppet looking at Duncan with some concern.

"I'm fine." Duncan took a light breath and put away those messy thoughts. He felt it was too early to brainstorm now. After all, he was only in initial contact with those sub-space believers. Making the most outrageous assumptions rashly was useless.

He refocused his gaze on Alice.

"Did you see the note I gave you?" he asked casually.

"I did!" Alice nodded happily. "At first, when I saw the box, I was shocked and thought you didn't want me to come back. I felt relieved after seeing the note... But I didn't understand the words on it, but I understood the picture you drew..."

Duncan's lips twitched. He thought that the impulse he had after writing that note had indeed come in handy. This puppet was actually illiterate: "...You really can't read."

"I can't read!" Alice was as righteous as ever. "I've been lying in the box for so many years. It's already amazing that I've accumulated some common sense by 'listening.' How could I possibly recognize the words clearly..."

Duncan: "..."

"Captain, what are you thinking about?"

"I suddenly thought... I wonder if it's feasible to run a tutoring class on the *Shithole* or in the antique shop," Duncan sighed. "Including you, I already know two illiterates—if we count the dog, there would be three, enough to form a study group."

Alice thought for a while: "What's a tutoring class? What's a study group?"

"...I'll explain it later," Duncan waved his hand, then his expression became slightly serious. "Let's talk about the previous 'test'. The three cultists were all normal before they disappeared, right? Including after the box was delivered, they weren't affected in any way?"

"Definitely normal. Their heads were still on their necks. I saw it clearly."

Duncan curled his fingers and pressed them against his chin, looking thoughtfully at Alice.

Although the Enders had strange characteristics, they certainly didn't have the power or "supernatural resistance" of saints. After all, Shirley could kill three of them by swinging the dog around, which meant that their flesh and blood bodies could be destroyed like "conventional matter," at most their tolerance for pain was far beyond that of ordinary people.

And now the three Enders had stayed by Alice's side for so long without being affected in any way, which meant... the effect of the guillotine had really disappeared?

Alice watched Duncan's expression change. Even though she was slow-witted, she finally gradually reacted. She approached cautiously, raised her face, and looked at him with a hint of anticipation: "Captain... did I pass the 'test'? Can you take me to the city-state?"

"The test... should be passed. Although the strange characteristics of those Enders make me a little uneasy, but based on the results..." Duncan spoke slowly, because he was still thinking and weighing things, but in the end, he nodded. "Okay, the test has indeed been passed. It seems that your guillotine ability has been controlled."

At this point, he paused and added before Alice could celebrate: "I will take you to the city-state, but not immediately—you lack a serious understanding of common sense in the human world, and there are also places on your body that can easily be exposed, such as your fingers and wrist joints. The former requires a lot of cramming, and the latter requires some disguise."

"Yes, yes, I know, I know!" Alice nodded vigorously. She didn't seem at all discouraged by the difficulties and problems Duncan mentioned, but instead seemed full of motivation. "Mr. Goat Head also told me that the human world is very complicated, with a lot of rules even when going out to buy groceries. He said that if I want to go to a human city-state, I definitely need to 'catch up on lessons.' I can ask him if I don't understand anything..."

"Don't ask it!!" Duncan interrupted Alice in alarm before she could finish, quickly interrupting this puppet who was colluding with the Goat Head all day long and was about to go completely astray. "It's even less human-like than you. You're learning common sense about human society from it? What's wrong with your head?"

Alice looked innocent: "I don't have one!"

Duncan almost choked, staring for a long time before finally squeezing out a sentence: "You... I admit you're right."

"Hehe..."

"In short, don't learn anything from that Goat Head in the future. It can't teach you anything good," Duncan sighed, feeling that every exchange with this puppet was challenging his nerves, even giving him a sense of going through a sanity check. "I'll make time to cram you with common sense later, and help you think about disguise matters. There's nothing for you to do now, so go cook."

"Okay, okay," Alice nodded vigorously, but just as she was about to walk away, she seemed to suddenly remember something, turned around and looked curiously at Duncan. "Then what are you going to do, Captain?"

"I have some things to talk about with the Goat Head," Duncan waved his hand, looking tired. "Things that are not related to you."

Alice nodded and turned to walk towards the cabin—in a very good mood, with light and dignified steps.

Duncan looked at the puppet lady's departing back, and couldn't help but sigh again in his heart—

She's really elegant when she doesn't speak or turn her head.

It's just a pity she has a mouth...

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