Chapter 158 Rose Dollhouse

To be honest, there wasn't much stuff piled up in the alleyway. After all, Duncan was on his own, and even with a bicycle bought specifically for carrying goods, there was a limit to how much he could haul at once. A Yi’s reaction was actually quite understandable—

The bird was bargaining. It wanted more fries.

From a certain perspective, this bird was just too easy to read.

"Do you know what this is?" Duncan grabbed the pigeon and held it up to a basket of potatoes. "This is called a potato, also known as a potato."

A Yi blinked its beady green eyes, staring at the basket for a long time, and actually seemed to understand. It stretched its neck as far as it could: "Smells good! Smells good!"

"Good to know. Now get to work. This whole basket is for you—the fries you can get out of this would be enough to kill you dozens of times over," Duncan chuckled and tossed the pigeon out. "Take these things back to the *Ghost Ship*—just put them on the deck. I'll meet you there."

A Yi flapped its wings in the air, and before it even landed, it was enveloped in a ball of eerie green fire. After transforming into an undead bird, it circled the pile of goods twice, and the "cargo" between the flames quickly blurred. But then it suddenly stopped, landed on the pile of goods, and tilted its head to look at Duncan: "Need to specify the next memory address?"

Duncan was stunned for a long time before he realized that the bird was asking him what to do next…

Then he couldn't help but mutter to himself—this bird's vocabulary is a bit too vast and bizarre. It's like everything that humans on Earth have ever created on the internet exists in its brain. Although, after spending so much time with it, he could at least roughly guess what it meant from its words, most of the time his communication with A Yi was grazing the edges of his own knowledge reserves… Couldn't it try to learn a few normal human phrases?

But while he was muttering to himself, Duncan nodded and replied to A Yi, "Send these away first, I need to buy some more…"

This time, A Yi was really frightened. It took off directly into the air, and a large ball of flames instantly swept away the pile of things on the ground. While rapidly disappearing from Duncan's sight, it loudly exclaimed, "Terrifying! Terrifying!"

Seeing this, Duncan just shrugged and turned to the bicycle he had just bought.

It was a very ordinary bike: black frame, shiny silver wheels and handlebars, a brand-new bell, and a sturdy and practical basket and rear seat. It had no special features, wasn't particularly pretty, but it wasn't ugly either. Its greatest advantage was probably its decent quality.

Duncan had originally wanted to carefully pick out a beautiful women's bicycle for Nina, but after searching through the shops in the lower city, he gave up on the idea—because there simply weren't any.

In the lower city, a bicycle was just a bicycle. It was a tool for life, but even more so a tool for production. All the bikes were much the same. There weren't any specialized categories like men's, women's, mountain, or road bikes. People of different sizes could adjust the handlebars and seats themselves for easier riding. Other than that, the bicycle had no other function or positioning.

Most ordinary people in this world don't seem to have much leeway to pursue or customize a "more refined life."

In the cities of this "Deep Sea Era," many things are ultimately different from the "other world" that Duncan is familiar with—even if they look like similar things, many of their details are always filled with the unique "characteristics" of this world, and it is precisely these things that are similar yet different… that are always reminding Duncan of the fact that he is "in a foreign land."

He climbed onto the bike. The new vehicle was light and easy to use, carrying him quickly out of the alley and towards the more bustling commercial district not far away.

Nina would like this bike.

Leaving the crossroads district and heading northwest, riding up the higher streets, you would truly enter the upper city—generally speaking, the citizens of Pland would call this "the boundary of a truly decent life," unlike the crossroads district, which could only be considered "a place for the middle class to put on appearances."

Contrary to what Duncan had initially imagined, although Pland had a clear administrative boundary between the "upper city" and the "lower city," there was no physical barrier between the two districts. To get from the lower city to the upper city, you only needed to pass through some completely open intersections. Although there were security officer booths at these intersections, they clearly didn't prohibit citizens from passing through.

Of course, this was during the day. According to what Duncan had learned, the upper and lower cities would be under strict curfew after nightfall—even with a night travel permit, extra procedures were required to cross the checkpoints between the two districts.

It was daytime now, and the intersection was clear.

Duncan entered the upper city directly—it was his first time visiting this place since setting foot in this city-state.

It had to be admitted that the upper city was indeed a completely different place from the lower city.

This was evident in almost every aspect—wider and cleaner streets, taller and more magnificent buildings, newer and more advanced urban facilities, and a significantly greater number of gas streetlights and "night shelters" than in the lower city.

Duncan slowly stopped his bike in front of a small pavilion near an intersection.

This was a night shelter, used to help citizens who, for various reasons, were unable to return home in time after nightfall. A sign at the entrance of the pavilion had a simple explanation:

"Provides nighttime shelter, with gas lamps, calming holy oil, and the *Storm Codex*. Please lock the door after entering and wait for rescue. Night watchmen hold the safety key."

In the lower city, Duncan had also seen similar facilities, but there were only one or two in almost an entire district, and they looked mottled and old. It was hard to say if they could still be used.

Duncan retracted his gaze, got on his bike, and continued to ride slowly along the street.

His eyes scanned the shops along both sides of the road from time to time.

The bright and shiny storefronts and the elegant and sophisticated displays inside were incomparable to the shops in the lower city, but Duncan wasn't paying attention to these unimportant details.

He still had many things to buy. Purchasing supplies for the *Ghost Ship* was something that had been delayed for too long, and… Duncan stopped his bike, looked up at a storefront, and a smile appeared on his face.

There were some things that couldn't be bought in the lower city—only the "decent people" in the upper city would spend large amounts of money and energy on things that were unrelated to survival, like the one in front of him.

He locked his bike, stepped forward, and pushed open the door of the shop. Accompanied by a crisp and melodious ringing sound, a plump old woman who was reading a newspaper behind the counter looked up, a kind smile on her face. She stood up and said, "Welcome to the Rose Dollhouse… Oh, a gentleman, are you here to choose a partner for your lover or junior?"

"Just looking around," Duncan replied simply, then looked up, curiously observing the store called "Rose Dollhouse."

Everywhere he looked, there were various kinds of dolls—exquisite, elegant, mysterious, cute, playful… dolls.

When he was on the street outside, he had seen the situation in the shop through the window, but only after entering the shop did he realize that the space inside was larger than it looked from the outside, and almost every visible area was filled with doll-related items. Even under the stairs, there were various styles of storage boxes and support racks, as well as accessories of all sizes and "blank bodies" waiting to be assembled.

This was a shop specializing in selling dolls and doll-related items, with a classical style and a quiet, mysterious atmosphere.

And in this huge doll shop, there was only one seemingly kind old lady minding the store, and Duncan was the only customer at the moment.

A classical shop filled with dolls, a smiling old woman, and a single customer.

Duncan's attention was drawn to the dazzling array of dolls, while the owner of the shop looked at this unfamiliar customer with some curiosity.

It wasn't uncommon for men to visit doll shops. Decent gentlemen in the upper city usually gave exquisite dolls as gifts to their partners or juniors, and some men themselves had a hobby of collecting dolls—what really made the old woman, as the shop owner, curious was the simple clothing on this customer.

Duncan was wearing his usual old coat, which didn't look like a wealthy person living in the upper city—and "dolls," as collectibles, were not cheap.

But the old woman only glanced at him curiously and quickly looked away.

Judging a customer by their clothes was not polite. A mature businessman should not judge a customer by their appearance—moreover, everyone had the right to appreciate goods.

After looking around, Duncan finally retracted his gaze and breathed a sigh of relief.

He admitted that he was a bit overwhelmed.

The doll craftsmanship in this world was more developed than he had imagined, and those miscellaneous…"accessories," which he couldn't even name, had exceeded his understanding of dolls.

—His understanding of dolls was just a cowardly, useless crew member with a bad neck and a bad brain. Duncan looked at the plump old woman, feeling that he should humbly ask the professional about the intricacies of dolls—especially about joint maintenance and hair transplantation.

But before he could speak, he suddenly froze.

He stared blankly at the old woman in front of him, who quickly reacted and pointed to her ears with a smile: "Elves in the Pland City-State are indeed rare."

Duncan: "…"

He admitted that elves might indeed be rare in the Pland City-State, and this was the first time he had ever seen an elf in his life.

But the bigger reason for his daze was that he didn't expect there to be a chubby, old elf lady in this world…