Ashes Of Deep Sea
Chapter 747 - Chapter 747 Chapter 744 Alices Potato Pancake

Chapter 747: Chapter 744: Alice’s Potato Pancake Chapter 747: Chapter 744: Alice’s Potato Pancake The second Luminous Geometric Body fallen onto the Endless Sea still contained a “Lost Star” at its core, but unlike the first fragment — this “Lost Star” was a compressed gaseous planet.

Initial measurements by scholars revealed that the diameter of this gaseous planet, serving as the core, was still ten meters, consistent with the “moon” inside the first fallen light body.

Duncan was more concerned about another matter — he did not recognize this planet.

At least he could be certain it wasn’t a gaseous giant like Saturn or Jupiter that once belonged to the “solar system” — its display of silver, gray, and blue metallic colors along with several distinctive storm vortices on its surface were all completely foreign to him.

Duncan stood next to the compressed gaseous giant, closely observing the cloud belts and vortex structures on its surface while his mind fluctuated.

The core of the first Luminous Geometric Body was the “moon” of his homeland, so when this second object had appeared, he had subconsciously assumed he would see another familiar celestial body from the solar system, but it now seemed… the materials used in the glyph bands around the sun weren’t limited to those from his own “solar system”; these “Lost Stars” forming the bands came from much deeper in space, and possibly even from different universes.

Celestial bodies from different worlds, after being compressed and distorted, transformed into a halo around the sun to maintain the stable anchor of the Observer effect, with the main body of the “sun” essentially being an eyeball encapsulated within a crystal sphere… an eyeball symbolizing the Observer’s eye… This mechanism ensured that the incompatible remnants of worlds after the Great Annihilation could collapse into the same reality…

It seemed, this was the principle of Phenomenon 001.

After lengthy contemplation, Duncan shook his head gently.

He knew that pondering the principle of Phenomenon 001 was actually futile; this severely overdue stabilized device had already reached the end of its life — its collapse was inevitable. Even if he accepted the “continuation plan” from Navigator One, he could only replace Phenomenon 001 with his own flame, ushering in the “Era of Flame” after the “Deep Sea Era” — the disintegration of the Observer effect’s stable anchor was an irreversible process.

Yet even so, the operational mechanism of Phenomenon 001 still brought him some insight — after rejecting the plan from Navigator One, he had to find another way to continue the civilization of the Deep Sea Era. He vaguely had an idea, and the principle of Phenomenon 001 was useful for refining it.

Tyrion and Aiden stood on the beach, watching Duncan from a distance with a mix of nervousness and confusion. They did not know what their father (the old captain) was doing and did not dare to interrupt him prematurely, but clearly, they noticed Duncan’s expression alternating between thoughtfulness and sudden realization.

Aiden looked around to make sure no unrelated persons were nearby, then leaned toward Tyrion and lowered his voice, “What do you think the old captain is studying?”

“I have no idea,” Tyrion likewise whispered, “I can’t comprehend the stuff Lucy usually studies, let alone father’s thoughts — maybe he’s communicating with that thing?”

Aiden thought about it and nodded, “…I think you’re right.”

Duncan, in fact, heard the soft muttering from a distance but didn’t respond and instead suddenly spoke up in his mind after a moment’s thought, “Alice.”

The voice of Miss Doll almost immediately responded, “Huh? Captain?”

“Come over here, there’s something I want you to see — Ai Yi has gone to fetch you.”

Alice paused then said, “Ah, wait for me a bit then; I’m about to take the potato cakes out of the pan — Want some? I’ll send a portion to your captain’s quarters?”

Duncan: “…No need, I’m not hungry. Just come over as soon as you’re done.”

Then, he stood there waiting patiently. Several more minutes passed before a faint green flame abruptly rose beside him — the flame transformed into a revolving door, and a skeletal giant bird flew out of the gate, followed by the figure of Alice.

Miss Doll was holding a steaming paper bag, and as soon as she saw Duncan, she gave a happy expression, pushing the bag forward, “Captain! Potato cakes! I’ve brought them here for you!”

Duncan turned his head, silently watching the straightforward doll before him, the expression beneath the bandages covering her face unreadable, his eyes fairly resigned.

Alice paused, quickly catching on this time, “…Ah, I forgot that your body here doesn’t need food…”

“Occasionally I can drink tea, but indeed I don’t need to eat,” Duncan responded dryly, but still took the paper bag from Alice’s hands, “Still, thank you.”

Alice immediately smiled happily, then noticed Tyrion and Aiden not far away looking towards her, and promptly waved at them, “You’re here too!”

Tyrion hesitated for a moment before approaching with Aiden, their expressions subtly ambivalent as they looked at the doll who was exactly like the Frost Queen — no matter how many times they had seen her, each time they saw that face, an inexplicable sense of unease always involuntarily arose, especially when the doll spoke…

But Alice, seemingly completely oblivious to Tyrion and Aiden’s subtle expressions, just felt happy to see familiar faces. She pointed at the bag in Duncan’s hands, “Want some potato cakes? They’re freshly made! And topped with Light Breeze Harbor’s special compound spices!”

The puppet finished speaking, and before Tirian could respond, Duncan suddenly realized, “Wait, you mentioned… spices special to Light Breeze Harbor?”

Alice nodded repeatedly, supporting her head, “Yes, yes, when we were in the City-State, Luny had bought some from outside. She said it would be an eye-opener for the northerners… The flavor is a bit strange, but the texture is quite interesting…”

Duncan finally understood the bizarre smell that kept wafting out of the paper bag.

He silently looked up at Tirian, “Try one.”

Tirian did not yet know what would happen–he didn’t care much about food and knew even less about the culinary legends of Light Breeze Harbor. At that moment, facing his father’s invitation without much thought, he actually felt a bit pleased. He reached into the bag and stuffed a potato cake into his mouth…

Then, he just stood there motionless.

“It seems your spices are authentic–he’ll probably need a bit before he can come to,” Duncan withdrew his gaze, nodded at Alice, and then turned to point at the “Compressed Planet” floating above the beach, “Let’s take a look at this first.”

“Oh.” Alice agreed, although she was a bit curious as to why Tirian suddenly began to cry. However, she still focused her attention on the magnificent-looking “Lost Star,” which emitted a faint humming sound.

She of course knew what it was–before they left, she knew the captain was investigating the northern “Object Number Two,” and the strange yet beautiful sphere in front of them was clearly the core of Object Number Two.

“What’s it ‘saying’?” Duncan asked curiously from the side.

He could share Alice’s vision and see “lines” or information from Anomaly 001 through Alice’s eyes, but he couldn’t understand those things instinctively as Alice could–this was a unique ability of the Navigator Three.

Now, he was curious what information the puppet could extract from “Object Number Two.”

Alice slightly furrowed her brows, and after a while, she slowly started speaking, “Lots of information… various errors, main communication failure, protocol conflicts, errors in reconfiguring operating environments… It’s messy, much more chaotic than the errors I saw last time…”

Duncan: “Anything else? Like a system restart countdown?”

“No,” Alice shook her head, “just various malfunctions and some messy information, some of which I can’t even understand.”

Listening to Alice’s report, Duncan just sighed softly and nodded slightly.

The situation was bad, but he had somewhat anticipated it.

Beside them, Aiden stood looking dumbfounded at the scene until he suddenly realized and immediately nudged Tirian’s arm, “Not to change the subject, but Miss Alice can really communicate with this thing!”

Tirian finally snapped back to reality as if waking from a terrifyingly rapid nightmare. His body visibly shuddered, and then he bent over and started to cough and retch violently.

This startled Aiden, and the bald, burly man quickly supported Tirian’s arm. While patting his back, he anxiously asked, “What’s wrong with you?”

Tirian finally recovered from the extreme spiciness mixed with a pungent sour smell. He couldn’t understand why a potato cake could leave him with such a “thrillingly stimulating” impression. At that moment, he raised his head, and it seemed as if layers of vague shadows surrounded him, and within those shadows, he even saw his father’s gentle, smiling face.

He paused for a moment, realizing his father seemed to truly be there.

“This is… too stimulating… hurk,” Tirian finally caught his breath, and with a weird expression, he looked at the half-remainder of the potato cake in his hand, “How on earth was this made?”

“It’s all about the spices from Light Breeze Harbor–they can truly awaken a person’s reverence for food,” Duncan spoke calmly, “We’ve been in the South this whole time, and the food from Light Breeze Harbor is what I remember most vividly.”

Tirian stared blankly at the paper bag in his father’s hand, genuinely understanding what reverence for food meant.

Very reverent–almost akin to fear.

Just then, a howling wind suddenly came from not far away, interrupting the conversation of the group.

Duncan instinctively looked in the direction of the sound. Amid the faint golden light enveloping the harbor, he saw a whirlwind enveloped in grey-white dust swiftly sweeping across the sky–After circling above the beach for a few seconds, the Grey Wind came straight toward him.

The Grey Wind converged, and Agatha, clad in a black priestess robe with a cool demeanor, walked out from among the winds.