Chapter 1 The City-State

The city-state floated rootless on the boundless sea. Beneath its eight hundred and fifty-meter "thick" foundation lay seemingly endless dark waters. The deeper one went into the abyss, the more one heard incomprehensible noises and saw incomprehensible lights and shadows. The first explorer to cross the thousand-meter mark rushed madly to the surface, then descended into madness. The only words he left for the world were:

"We all die down there."

This was what happened to the Frost City-State's "Abyss Project" from its beginning to its descent into strangeness.

Duncan sank into brief contemplation. He suddenly realized that even without delving into the Spirit World and the Abyss, the dangers hidden in the Boundless Sea within this world's "reality dimension" were considerable. After a moment's thought, he suddenly asked:

"What happened to that explorer later?"

"He died quickly—the rapid ascent and decompression killed him. He died of embolism after screaming for a while, at least that's the reason in the reality dimension."

"Only one crew member in a submersible?" Duncan asked again.

"It can only accommodate one person. Of course, this amplifies the mental stress on the explorer, but it's also a last resort. On the one hand, the technology was limited back then, and on the other hand, this kind of exploration is not suitable for multiple people to go together—in the deep sea, it's hard to be sure what your companion will be replaced by in the next second, and it's also hard to be sure whether the sound you hear is real, so it's better to simply dive alone, so at least you don't have to suspect that there's someone else in the submersible."

"The deep sea, darkness, loneliness, facing the bizarre unknown waters after being far away from the civilized world—these could all be reasons why this explorer went mad," Duncan slowly shook his head. "But that's not important. What's important is… that's still not enough to explain why the Abyss Project later became an extremely taboo topic."

He looked into Tirian's eyes and continued, "So far, what you've described is just an exploration operation that had an accident. Similar exploration operations happen every year. The Academy of Truth even actively invests in and encourages scholars and explorers to do those things. It shouldn't be a taboo, let alone related to the Ghost Ship."

"Empty?" Duncan raised his eyebrows slightly, then shook his head. "That makes it even more unsettling."

"Yes, the first one," Tirian nodded. "It rushed up in front of the naval soldiers and kept signaling with lights that it needed assistance opening the hatch. The well-trained soldiers were in chaos for a moment, but they quickly followed standard procedures to drag the submersible onto the work platform and aimed seventy-one rifles, two rapid-firing cannons, and a flamethrower at its hatch. Then a cowardly priest stepped forward, sprinkled holy water, and unlocked the door."

Even Ah-Gou, who hadn't said a word and was just listening intently, couldn't help but speak at this point: "There's a second one?!"

Tirian had been immersed in his memories of the past, but at this moment, the doll lady interrupted his thoughts. He opened his mouth, but couldn't adjust his emotions for a long time. "This… they didn't think about this at all back then…"

"After that, doctors and scholars from the church jointly examined the body. The Frost Queen seemed to have personally gone to check the autopsy site, but the conclusion of the examination was not announced—or rather, before they could announce anything, the second Number Two submersible appeared."

"This monster also couldn't survive in the air for more than two minutes."

Tirian subconsciously glanced at Alice, a strange expression on his face. He seemed very uncomfortable with a person who looked exactly like the Frost Queen standing here and making a fuss, but he quickly adjusted his expression and nodded slightly:

"The second one, and more than two—after that, every one or one and a half hours, a submersible would emerge from here…"

"...Yes, if they had stopped the project at one thousand meters, those things wouldn't have happened later,"

Tirian shook his head, reminiscing with emotion. "After the accident with the Number Two submersible, Her Majesty Lei-Nola once ordered a temporary halt to the exploration, but a few days later, something happened that made the situation… gradually become strange…"

Alice listened to this bizarre "story" with surprise. After thinking for a moment, he suddenly blurted out: "So, they just need to wait here, and there will be a constant stream of submersibles? By the way, is this thing called 'submersible' too valuable? More valuable than cultists?"

"At the edge of the temporarily sealed test sea area, the Number Two submersible rushed to the surface."

"Don't bury him, your way of thinking is different from ordinary people," Duncan glanced at Alice, then said to Tirian seriously, "Continue, what happened later?"

As Tirian continued to narrate, the expression on Duncan's face became more and more serious. Even Alice next to him seemed to notice the change in atmosphere and sat up straight.

Tirian then came back to his senses, sorted out his thoughts, and continued, "After the second submersible came up, it also sent out light signals requesting the opening of the hatch. This time, the soldiers had some experience. They dragged the submersible to a more secure protection area, and after the priests delayed setting up a large number of extraordinary protection measures, they opened the hatch. And this time… what walked out was a swollen, deformed humanoid monster that didn't look like an 'explorer' at all.

Tirian paused, as if there were some gaps in his memory. He organized his language before continuing quickly, "I don't remember the specific details of the Number Two submersible. It was completed in a hurry, and the Duncan Navy was only responsible for a part of it. I only know that it was larger than the Number Two, that it couldn't accommodate two people, and that it had a sample compartment—the scholars originally planned to use it to collect deep-sea specimens, if there were any specimens to collect."

Duncan was stunned for a moment, and then reacted, "The first few submersibles?!"

Alice frowned, "An event?"

"Then, everything started. The Number One submersible never submerged again, and no more 'Number Two submersibles' appeared in front of everyone." Tirian paused and slowly said, "The hatch opened, and a human being who… looked very much like an explorer walked out."

"The third submersible, also the last one you know of, was empty."

"Yes, empty, so it's even more unsettling. This matter hasn't completely spiraled out of control yet, and we must find a way to end it," Tirian said in a deep voice. "But fortunately, the 'Number Three Submersible' was finally completed—it wasn't originally a successor model to the Number Two submersible. After the 'Thousand-Meter' incident, the plan was suspended, and its construction was also suspended. However, as one 'Number Two Submersible' after another surfaced, the Queen ordered the 'Number Three Submersible' to be assembled as quickly as possible and decided to use it to find out what exactly was happening a thousand meters underwater."

And in this increasingly serious and solemn atmosphere, Tirian slowly said—

"On the first day after the first 'Number Two Submersible' appeared, the city-state's Number Three Submersible was launched into the sea. Inside it sat a scholar, a military officer, and a powerful priest—at that time, they forgot the hidden dangers of not considering 'multi-person exploration,' and doing everything possible to avoid a fourth 'Number Two Submersible' was the top priority."

Duncan's face was gloomy, "Very much like?"

"The Number Three Submersible detonated the explosives," the great pirate slowly said, "They filled the sample compartment with high-energy explosives to deal with the 'ultimate dangerous situation'."

"The third submersible contained only a small amount of white fibrous damp material, which looked like unformed neural structures or damp vascular specimens…"

"The facial features were similar, but the height and weight were different. He was wearing a navy uniform, but there were many problems with the details of the clothes, and more importantly… the person who walked out of the submersible died after only a short period of activity on land, without even having time to leave a word. And after the soldiers undressed 'him,' they found that his flesh and blood seemed to be growing together with the clothes, and there were large and small, incomprehensible wounds on his body."

Tirian raised his head and looked into Alice's eyes.

"What crawled out of the third submersible was a mass of constantly wriggling flesh. This time, even the human outline could not be seen."

"But seventeen minutes after the connection was lost, the watch priests in the cathedral suddenly heard the sound from the deep sea again. First, they heard a scream, which was made by the priest. The priest screamed in a very horrified tone to remind the others, saying: 'Don't look! Don't think!', then, it was the voice of the officer, which was a roar, and then, it was a deafening roar."

"After the hatch of the third submersible was opened, nothing walked out of it—the soldiers on the scene stepped forward to check and saw only a pool of suspicious dark red mud in the cockpit. This mud had a strong life reaction."

"The Number Three Submersible went all the way down and soon reached a depth of one thousand meters. The priest in the submersible relied on his spiritual power to maintain contact with the sea surface. It was probably because the new submersible had better performance that they were very smooth all the way and confirmed the scene of the city-state's 'base' observed by the previous explorers, but soon, the connection became intermittent, and after reaching a depth of one thousand meters, the cathedral on the sea surface could hardly hear the sound from the deep sea.