Chapter 1 A Painting

It was a large oil painting with black and red as its main colors, hanging on the wall closest to the spiral staircase.

Like most of the oil paintings in this "mansion," it appeared blurry and chaotic, its surface covered with rough and bizarre lines and blocks of color, making the viewer feel dizzy and unable to discern anything meaningful, like the uncontrolled scribbles of a madman in a hallucination.

However, when Duncan's gaze lingered on the painting, watching it for a long time, he suddenly noticed that some of the chaotic and obscure color blocks seemed to be slowly changing. Lines emerged from the shadows, and among the jumbled colors, things gradually became discernible!

It looked like a ball of burning flames, with something like a ship's hull wrapped in the flames, falling from the heavy clouds through the sky towards the sea. The sky was split in two by the flames, and the sea churned and roiled under the impact of the fire. Behind the ball of fire was a patch of dark red chaos, pressing down like the approaching end of the world!

The entire picture was still blurry, and everything was extremely abstract and mixed up, but this vague scene instantly changed Duncan's expression!

He subconsciously thought of the scene he had seen in the hallucination before, the burning three-pronged spaceship falling from the sky and plunging into the sea in an explosion and disintegration!

Duncan stopped, turned around, and carefully observed the scene in the oil painting. Soon, he discovered that the scene in the painting was not exactly the same as what he had seen in the hallucination. The spaceship he had seen in the hallucination had a distinct style, and its transcendent technological level and imposing momentum were obvious at a glance. However, the "flame-wrapped object" in the oil painting only had a vague hull, and that hull even looked like some kind of wooden structure. The flames around it seemed to be simply burning rather than the propulsion flames behind an interstellar spaceship!

It gave the feeling that a mad painter living in the Middle Ages had accidentally seen a spaceship of the future era in a dream but could not understand what it was.

So, when he woke up the next day, he could only exhaust his limited knowledge and imagination, relying on the superficial impressions left by the dream, to reproduce that similar-but-not-quite-the-same picture on the canvas!

The headless butler's voice came from behind, "Sir, are you interested in this painting?"

"Where did the oil paintings here come from?"

"They've been here from the beginning, sir!" the headless butler said.

"From the beginning?" Duncan asked with a doubtful tone.

"When is 'the beginning'? From when the Alice Mansion was born?"

"From when Alice became the mistress here?"

"From the beginning of time," the headless butler said patiently, "earlier than everything!" What kind of answer was that?

Duncan frowned subconsciously, feeling that the headless butler's answer was as good as no answer at all. However, he stared at the polite figure and could not discern any emotion from the other party's posture. This headless person had neither expression nor eyes, only polite and proper words, with hollow attentiveness!

After thinking for a moment, Duncan asked two more questions: "Does this oil painting have a name? Do you know what it depicts?"

"No name. None of the paintings here have names. They exist naturally, without the need for names or interpretations. As for the events depicted in the picture, I'm sorry, that is beyond my knowledge!"

"Aren't you the butler here? Don't you know the situation of this mansion?"

"I am only a servant. This mansion has countless secrets of its own. It guards these secrets, and that is not a field that a servant should understand!" Duncan's mouth twitched.

He had an urge to set a small fire on this butler, but the next second, he forcibly controlled this dangerous thought!

Because this was the "Alice" Mansion, and this butler was part of the mansion. Actions here had to be very careful to avoid causing any harm to Alice!

Duncan took a light breath, calmed his mind, and then scanned the other oil paintings hanging in the corridor—there were countless oil paintings here, smeared with countless incomprehensible colors, but none of the other oil paintings changed under his gaze!

"Let's go," Duncan finally withdrew his gaze and said to the headless butler with a hint of regret.

"Take me to the garden you mentioned!" The headless butler bowed slightly, turned around, and continued to lead the way. He led Duncan through the platform on the second floor, down the spiral staircase, and then turned towards the depths of the hall on the first floor. There was a short passage there, leading to the mansion's back garden.

However, Duncan stopped in front of the passage and turned back to look curiously in the other direction across the hall. At the end of the long red carpet stood an extremely tall and magnificent dark wooden door. On both sides of the wooden door were thin, long windows, and outside the windows, it seemed that thorns were growing!

It looked like the "entrance gate" of the entire building!

"What's outside that door?" Duncan suddenly asked! Upon hearing these words, the headless butler's body visibly trembled. The next moment, his always gentle and calm tone showed a hint of panic for the first time: "You must not be interested in what's outside that door, sir. Outside that door is a place of eternal doom. Anyone who goes there will never return."

"A place of eternal doom?" Duncan's expression became serious.

"Why do you say that? Is that the Subspace?"

"Subspace? I don't understand what that means, but you must not try to open that door." The headless butler waved his hands in a panic. This was the biggest taboo of the mansion. No member could open that "door" under any circumstances.

"But I'm not a member here." Seeing the other party's reaction, Duncan simply deliberately showed a eager-to-try attitude—this was the first time he had seen this headless butler so flustered, which made him feel that he had found a breakthrough in intelligence, "And you said at the beginning that I hold the key, so I can open any door here!"

"Of course, the key in your hand can, but you must not do this." The headless butler said in a panic. He seemed to want to show a stronger attitude of obstruction, but perhaps due to the existence of some kind of restriction, he could only anxiously wave his arms a meter away from Duncan and try his best to stop him with words.

"Don't open that door, for the sake of all the members..."

"What exactly is outside that door?" Duncan stared at the headless butler, his tone particularly serious!

"Outside that door... outside that door..." The headless butler hesitated, as if trying to organize his words.

"Sir, the world outside that door has been annihilated, the end of all things is coming. The door is blocking the approach of the end. Don't open it, don't let the end in." Duncan frowned, listening to the headless butler's nervous and flustered words, trying hard to piece them together with what he already knew and understood about this world!

*The world outside the door has been annihilated... the end of all things is coming...* He frowned and pondered. After a long time, he finally breathed a slight sigh of relief!

"Relax, I don't plan to open that door!" After temporarily suppressing the various complex thoughts in his mind, he nodded slightly to the headless butler.

The other party immediately breathed a sigh of relief. Although he had no head, let alone a so-called "expression," his whole body showed obvious relaxation!

"You really scared me, sir," the butler said, and turned around to continue leading the way, "Please don't make such jokes again. We must prevent the end from crossing the gate. It has already destroyed everything in the world. This is the last barrier."

Duncan silently listened to the butler's lingering, fearful mutterings, and followed behind the other party without saying a word. They passed through the short corridor and finally came to a slightly narrow door. This door was made of large pieces of translucent glass, reinforced with steel. The black steel frame divided the door into many large and small geometric figures, and each geometric figure was painted with many doodles of flowers and plants, giving it a bizarre atmosphere that mixed fairy tales and horror.

"The mistress is in the garden. Please, help yourself!" The headless butler stepped forward, turned the handle of the garden door, and turned to Duncan.

"Okay, aren't you coming with me?" Duncan was a little surprised.

"The garden is only for the mistress and visitors holding keys. The gardener only enters the garden when necessary," the headless butler said.

"Please go in with peace of mind. If you need anything, pull the thin rope near the door. I will wait for you at the door!"

"Understood, thank you for showing me the way!" Duncan nodded to the strange butler, then ignored the other party's reaction and stepped forward to gently push open the garden door!

A slight creak broke the silence between the mansion and the garden, and Duncan stepped across the door. Incredible sunlight immediately filled his vision!

Sunlight. Deep in this gloomy and strange mansion, filled with eerie shadows, there was actually a garden illuminated by sunlight.

With a hint of astonishment, Duncan stepped forward, and lush green plants immediately came into his eyes. Well-arranged flowerbeds, neatly trimmed bushes, and paths surrounded by green grass looked pleasing to the eye. Above this vibrant garden was a warm glow!

Duncan raised his head, and his surprised expression gradually changed into a frown! He saw an extremely strange "sky"—under the pale background color, many childlike strokes floated in the high air, depicting blue skies, white clouds, and a crude sun. Around the sun were also many golden lines, used to symbolize the escaping sunlight!

The warm "sunlight" that illuminated the entire garden was released from that simple and ridiculous "sun"! A trace of vigilance could not help but arise in Duncan's heart.

The sky above the "garden" no longer made him feel warm, but only left endless strangeness. He withdrew his gaze from the sky, and with great caution, he began to carefully observe the situation in the garden!

At the end of the path, a touch of different color caught his attention.