Chapter 166 The Captain Enters Your Dreams

The information known during this time was written down by Duncan piece by piece on paper, and connected with lines according to the degree of correlation between them. Interspersed among these clues were Nina's and Shirley's memories of the fire, and their respective, clearly mutated, "dreams."

After listing all the clues, Duncan started a new line at the end of the chart. He frowned, pondered, and wrote down a few sentences:

First, in this world, everything except the sub-space can be "contaminated."

Second, the reality of this world is built on unstable foundations. Space is unstable, time is unstable, and even reality itself may not be as unshakable as people perceive it.

Third, the power of the sub-space has already invaded Pland! The anomalies in the Sixth Block chapel are evidence—the sun fragment from eleven years ago may not have been the most crucial link in the entire event. In terms of position... the sub-space is more likely to have contributed to Pland's current anomalies!

Duncan put down his pen and looked at the three points he had written—these three were not clues, but "premises" and "conclusions" that were closely related to Pland's current situation.

His gaze fell on the first point, the shortest of the three, which was the foundation of everything, and the "inspiration" for this point came from a casual remark he overheard while opening an account at the City State Bank.

Thoughtfully, he picked up the pen again and drew a line from this point to one of the clues above—the chapel in the Sixth Block that was in a state of temporal lock.

Contamination started from the chapel, and it manifested as temporal distortions and the superposition of different "world lines." The level of contamination was quite high, and it was estimated that even the Storm Goddess's monitoring of reality was affected... So how was this contamination achieved? Was it really just the chapel itself that was contaminated?

He remembered what he had said to Shirley when he said goodbye—this matter should be made a little bigger, but a simple report from ordinary citizens would not be enough.

As he pondered, a smile appeared on Duncan's face. He then turned his head and looked at the pigeon pacing back and forth on the windowsill.

The pigeon immediately stopped and stared straight at Duncan: "I sense killing intent!"

Duncan ignored it and snapped his fingers.

A wisp of ghostly green flame spewed out from the compass on Ii's chest. The compass opened, the pointer spun, and the boundary between reality and illusion became blurred in an instant. Duncan's eyes blurred, and he had already entered the spirit world. The familiar dark, chaotic space and the millions of stars filling it appeared in his eyes.

He stood quietly in the depths of darkness, took a light breath, calmed himself, and then followed a subtle sense of perception, approaching a point of starlight not far away.

He came to the starlight and, without actually touching it, clearly sensed the mind of the young Judge—opposite this orange starlight was Vanna's mind.

Compared to when he first discovered this starlight, Duncan could clearly feel that the connection between himself and Vanna had become much stronger—her visit to the antique shop with Heidi last time had strengthened their connection, and these strengthened connections could now be put to use.

Duncan turned his head and looked at the darkness beside him. Ii, in spirit form, was circling boredly in mid-air. Noticing its "master's" gaze, the bird immediately approached: "Who's calling the fleet?"

"Remember how we connected to Shirley's mind last time?"

Ii thought for a moment, tilting its head: "Gotta add money!"

"It will be a little more difficult this time. After all, the other party is a devout saint, and her will should be stronger than Shirley's. It may also attract the attention of the Storm Goddess," Duncan nodded lightly, but slowly reached out his finger, gradually approaching the star, "But now the connection between Vanna and me has been strengthened. If we only make a shallow connection without causing any damage, it shouldn't be a big problem."

"After all, this is just a righteous complaint from an enthusiastic captain."

The next second, his fingertip touched the starlight.

Layers upon layers of illusory sea sounds seemed to come from an infinitely distant place, but they disappeared in an instant. Before Duncan could even notice the existence of the sea sounds, he felt himself establishing contact with a mind.

…

Vanna rubbed her eyes, lowered her head, and saw that she was holding a thick file in her hands. She looked up again and saw that she was sitting in a room, facing her dressing table. In the mirror of the dressing table, her slightly tired face was reflected.

A moment of confusion rose from the bottom of her heart, but she quickly shook her head, recalling what she was doing.

She was continuing to investigate the heretical worship data of Pland City-State before 1889—after leaving the archives, she borrowed some documents that she had not had time to examine in detail from the old priest in charge of guarding the place, and brought them back to her home.

In the archives, she and the old priest had discovered the abnormal phenomenon of missing data in 1885, but in the end, they were unable to find the missing data. This unusual matter aroused her vigilance, and as a Judge specializing in investigating heresy, this would become one of the focuses of her next investigation.

Arrange clerical priests to consult the archives in several other city-states, retrieve security reports from the city hall for the corresponding years, arrange for guard teams to visit and monitor the locations where heretical worship events occurred in those years, discuss with Bishop Valentine to see if further instructions could be obtained from the Goddess…

Vanna already had a rough plan for the follow-up actions in her mind, and before this series of actions was launched, she had to first complete the summary of all heretical worship events between 1886 and 1889.

She glanced at the sky outside and saw the World Scar hanging high in the night sky, its pale radiance spreading across the city-state.

She lowered her head again and saw that she had only read halfway through the thick file in her hand. Perhaps it was because she had been reading for too long that her eyes were tired, and the words on it seemed a little blurry.

Wait, that's not right!

Vanna suddenly reacted, and then suddenly closed the file in her hand and turned to look out the window.

It was midnight, the time when the World Scar's influence was strongest—reading books at this time was extremely dangerous. Even the specially trained Scribes would avoid reading any text within an hour of midnight, let alone the highly dangerous historical document she had borrowed from the archives!

A professional cleric would not make such a mistake… This was not reality, it was her dream, a dream that was being influenced!

Vanna's eyes suddenly sharpened. The moment she realized that her dream had been invaded, she began to search the surrounding environment for the intruder. The next second, she saw the intruder—

On the dressing table in front of her, in the oval dressing mirror surrounded by patterns, a gloomy and dignified person was standing quietly in the darkness, and illusory green flames were quietly burning on the edge of the mirror.

The figure gazed at Vanna calmly through the mirror. After seeing Vanna look up, he showed a faint smile, and a deep voice came from the mirror: "Good night, Vanna, nice to meet you—but I have been watching you for a long time. You can call me…"

"Captain Duncan!" Before the words in the mirror could finish, Vanna had already reacted violently. Then, the well-trained Judge jumped back two meters, kicked away the obstructive stool, and as soon as she landed, she forcibly concentrated her mind and drew the greatsword that she never left her side from the air. She swung it up and performed a jumping slash!

Duncan: "...?!"

With a loud noise, the entire dressing table shattered, and the mirror was directly smashed into countless pieces by the great force. Duncan's phantom turned into flying light and shadow in front of Vanna's eyes.

Small fragments of glass clattered to the ground. Vanna gripped the greatsword in her hand, and like a lioness who had entered a fighting state, she sharply scanned her surroundings. At the same time, she had already begun to whisper prayers, and began to try to use the mental self-control skills she had trained in her daily life to break free from this contaminated dream and force herself to wake up.

However, just as she felt that she was about to touch the real world, the deep, dignified voice rang out again—echoing in her ears:

"Your reaction surprised me a bit."

Vanna's eyes widened suddenly. She looked in the direction of the voice, but what she saw were the dressing mirror fragments scattered all over the room.

On the surface of each fragment, illusory flames began to rise quietly. Inside each fragment, a Captain Duncan was standing quietly in the darkness.

This legendary great terror, the mobile disaster on the boundless sea, was watching the fully alert Vanna with a hint of helplessness.

"Relax, child, I just want to talk to you about something," the voices of thousands of Captain Duncans came, shaking Vanna's will, "It's about Pland…"

"Is it the mirror…" the young Judge suddenly whispered to herself.

Duncan: "Huh?"

Vanna did not answer, but suddenly lowered the tip of the greatsword diagonally to the ground, and then suddenly punched the sword body!

A loud bang exploded, and the powerful impact force turned into controlled sound waves, which echoed wantonly in the room. The next moment, all the smooth mirrors in the room were turned into dust, leaving not a single mirror behind!

The room quieted down, and Vanna breathed a sigh of relief, slowly straightening her body.

She saw Captain Duncan standing quietly in front of her.

No matter how she blinked or moved her eyes, Captain Duncan stood quietly in the center of her vision, watching her eyes.

"Your guess is not quite accurate. It's not the mirror, but everything smooth as a mirror," the gloomy and dignified voice of the ghost captain directly entered her mind, "Now, I am in your lens."