Chapter 172 Maniac

The newly awakened subspace cultist fell into a state of inexplicable ecstasy upon learning that he was aboard the *Vanishing Line*, wildly gesturing with his hands and shouting incomprehensible words. This fanatical, uncontrolled appearance even startled Alice, who took two steps back—fortunately, she caught her head in time to prevent it from falling off.

"This special product is terrifying!" the doll-like girl exclaimed, eyes wide, hiding behind Duncan. "What's wrong with him?"

Duncan had no idea either! He hadn't even had a chance to ask!

Then the other two Heralds of the End also woke up, and after figuring out the situation, they indeed fell into the same ecstasy as the first one, starting to shout frantically, babbling about "the promised ark" and "the gate of subspace." No matter what Duncan and Alice said beside them, they seemed incapable of communication.

But by this point, Duncan had vaguely guessed the reason for the cultists'狂喜 (kuángxǐ, wild joy)—

They were lunatics chasing after subspace, and the *Vanishing Line* was a ghost ship that had returned from subspace. Could it be that in the eyes of these lunatics... the *Vanishing Line* was actually some kind of "miracle"?

Were they fanatics who had witnessed a miracle?

But this surge of fanaticism seemed a bit excessive.

The three cultists huddled together, crying, laughing, and shouting, praising the greatness of subspace and hailing the *Vanishing Line*. Occasionally, they even emitted sounds from their throats that humans could hardly produce. The layered, trembling cries seemed to come from subspace itself. In the end, they all knelt down and began kissing the deck of the *Vanishing Line*!

This final action infuriated Alice, who had been watching the fun from the sidelines. The doll-like girl's eyes widened, and she grabbed a mop from the side and slammed it down on the head of one of the cultists: "I just washed this deck!"

Before Alice finished speaking, the nearby buckets and mops came running and jumping, raining blows on the fanatical cultists. The frenzied shouts of the zealots, Alice's rebukes, and the sounds of buckets and mops colliding all mixed together, and the *Vanishing Line*, which was usually so quiet, suddenly became noisy and chaotic.

Duncan watched in stunned silence. The scene of "a cursed doll and her lackeys beating up invaders" was a huge shock to him. His first reaction was curiosity about when the doll had become so close to the things on the deck, and his second reaction was to quickly step forward to stop the farce: "Stop it!"

The buckets and mops stopped immediately, while Alice couldn't resist hitting one of the Heralds of the End with the mop again. Finally, she went up and kicked him before walking away, muttering indignantly, "I just washed the deck, and they went up and licked it..."

"Although I also think what they did was a little disgusting, it's not enough to warrant this..." Duncan looked at the doll helplessly, then turned to look at the cultists who had just been beaten up. "Are you calmer now?"

The Heralds of the End were lying on the ground, but despite having just been beaten, they showed no signs of weakness or fear. Instead, they were still energetic, with a chilling smile on their faces. Their seemingly thin and frail bodies had an amazing tolerance for pain, and it was as if they had already abandoned normal human sensation.

After hearing Duncan's words, one of the preachers slowly turned his head. He looked into Duncan's eyes, and his chaotic eyes took a long time to focus. Then, he let out a chilling laugh: "Ha, haha... the gatekeeper of the Promised Land, the helmsman of the ghost ship, the navigator of the Ark! I can see... I can see your heart! How pitiful... you have obtained this supreme bliss, yet you reject her gift... you are qualified to enter the Promised Land, yet you refuse it! You... are foolish!"

Duncan frowned slightly.

Alice immediately came over from behind: "Captain, should I beat him up again?"

The nearby buckets and mops also jumped over immediately, swaying behind Alice.

Like lackeys and lackeys of lackeys.

"You guys be quiet for a while," Duncan waved his hand, staring at the Herald of the End who was still grinning at him, his expression unchanging. "It sounds like you know a lot about me, this 'ghost captain'."

"Subspace whispers your name... whispers of your foolish rejection..." The cultist grinned, and blood from the beating flowed from the corner of his mouth, wriggling on his chin as if alive, like tentacles. "You already have the qualifications for that supreme bliss, why do you still want to escape... don't you know that subspace is the eternal and ultimate destination of all things? You have already reached the end... why did you turn back from that end?!"

Duncan simply stared silently at the cultist, who was either insane or simply fanatical, his face expressionless, but his heart stirred.

These fanatics who followed subspace were indeed something. Their狂热 (kuángrè, fanatical) faith not only brought them bizarre power but also allowed them to know some secrets related to subspace. What this guy was saying... was probably partly true.

Captain Duncan escaped from subspace? Rejected the blessings of subspace?

Could it be that after the *Vanishing Line* fell into subspace, the real "Captain Duncan" did not completely descend into madness as rumored? The *Vanishing Line*'s return from subspace... was actually a successful escape? Was "Captain Duncan" still somewhat rational at that time?

When did he completely go mad? And when did he die?

Duncan suddenly remembered the goat-head's attitude towards subspace—vigilance, resistance, and even a hint of fear.

This seemed to indirectly confirm the Herald of the End's words, confirming that escape.

Afterward, the Herald of the End fell into a daze again, constantly muttering things that only he could understand, or suddenly laughing with joy or patting his body. His two companions had never been conscious from beginning to end, immersed in disturbing mental confusion.

These followers of subspace were more insane and further removed from the normal reason of the real world than the sun cultists Duncan had seen. They seemed to always be in a state of mental instability, their thoughts drifting between the real world and subspace. As long as no one spoke to them or they were not performing specific tasks, they could not think and communicate normally.

Was it because they were affected by subspace? Or did they actively destroy their sanity, using this method to actively embrace subspace?

What puzzled Duncan even more was—how could these cultists, who were so insane, bizarre, and even changed in appearance, operate in the city-state?

If these lunatics walked on the street, let alone hiding their identities, they would probably be surrounded and gunned down by the Guardians' steam walkers within five steps!

After a while, seeing that the Heralds of the End still showed no signs of waking up, Duncan had to take the initiative to speak again: "Why did you attack Sherry?"

The three cultists reacted, one of them raising his head in a daze, his body swaying: "Attack? Attack who?"

"What you just did," Duncan's voice was cold and hard, his face grim. "You attacked a girl with a Gloomhound—why attack her?"

"Attack... oh, attack..." The dazed cultist suddenly grinned and shouted loudly, "We are just putting everything back on track, so that the correct history can come smoothly! Loopholes, flaws, a little hidden danger... hidden dangers must be eliminated... she should have died in the correct history, she should not have survived! If she lives... loopholes will always appear..."

"Correct history?" Listening to the cultist's insane ravings, Duncan's eyes suddenly changed slightly. He caught the key information and instantly reacted: "The timeline of Pland has gone wrong, did you do it?!"

"Went wrong? No problem, no problem... we are just putting everything back on track!" The madman raised his face, his eyes filled with a martyr-like狂热 (kuángrè, fervor). "This world should all return to the right track! That doomed fate has been delayed for so many years, everyone has violated the grace of subspace, violated the fate that should have come! We are correcting history to the correct track!"

"Correcting history to the correct track!" The other two Heralds of the End seemed to be infected and began to shout praises狂热地 (kuángrè de, fanatically), one of them even stood up after shouting, raising his hands high, as if declaring a certain truth, "Only by returning to the right track, after all annihilation can there be all resurrection! Subspace will devour everything, and subspace will reshape everything! The fire has gone out, the embers are hard to burn... only by lighting the second bonfire can the world survive in that grace!"