Chapter 10 The Captain's Remains

The small metal badge had the name "Cristobal Barbery" stamped on it, along with his rank as captain of the Obsidian.

The badge immediately silenced the atmosphere, making it eerie. In the quiet, open cabin, only the thumping of a heart could be heard.

"His name is Cristobal?" After a long while, Alice finally broke the silence. She scratched her head, looking puzzled. "But the one we saw behind the blue door said his name was Cristobal too?"

"If this ship comes from the Frosty Deep Sea, then everything on board could be a distorted copy. Every distorted thing here could be Cristobal, or anyone who was on the Obsidian at the time," Duncan said calmly, his eyes falling on the wide-eyed, mouth-covering middle-aged man on the ground. "The key is this...this corpse is clearly special."

"You suspect it's the original?" Vanna reacted quickly, looking at Duncan in astonishment. "But...this whole ship is clearly a distorted copy. How could the original be here?"

"...Our knowledge of the Frosty Deep Sea is based on Tirian's limited memories, and even what Tirian knew was only part of the information from the early stages of Project Abyss—and the entire Project Abyss never truly revealed the secrets of the seabed below a thousand meters," Duncan shook his head. "We know very little about the situation on the Frosty Seabed, and our summary of the rules of these 'copies' is likely wrong. Perhaps the shell of a fake could hide the original, or perhaps each fake is a manifestation after the original has been split apart, or perhaps in the deep sea, there is no distinction between fakes and originals."

Vanna listened to Duncan's words, but couldn't help but glance at Alice beside her.

Alice didn't think so much. She just looked curiously at the "Cristobal Barbery" on the ground, pondered for a long time, and suddenly blurted out, "Why is he covering his mouth?"

"People often react like this when they're scared," Morris said casually. "Nothing strange about it."

But as soon as he finished speaking, Duncan's voice suddenly rang out, "No, it's very strange...he's not doing it because of fear."

Morris looked at Duncan in surprise, only to see the latter squatting down next to the bizarre and terrifying corpse, even getting close to its face, carefully observing something.

Thump, thump, thump.

Cristobal Barbery's heart continued to beat, as if with Duncan's approach, the beating was faster and stronger than before.

Duncan noticed the change in the heart, but his attention was still focused on Captain Cristobal's face. After careful observation, he suddenly discovered something.

"There's something in his mouth."

"Something in his mouth?" Morris was taken aback. Then he saw Duncan reach out and try to pry the corpse's hand away from its mouth.

The resistance in his hand surprised Duncan.

The corpse was holding its mouth shut, as if still consciously resisting something even after death!

Duncan didn't use too much force at first, and as a result, he failed to pry the hand open—he knew that if he really increased his strength, he could easily overcome the dead man's obsession, but before continuing to exert force, he seemed to suddenly think of something and stopped.

"Mr. Barbery, if you're keeping a secret, you can let go now," Duncan said, looking at the wide, angry eyes, his voice steady. "Leave the rest to me."

The hand loosened.

Below it was a tightly clenched mouth—but the next second, the mouth also relaxed.

Vanna and Morris exchanged a look of astonishment, and then they saw Duncan reach out and grope for something in Cristobal's slightly open mouth.

A soft and slightly disgusting sensation came. Duncan frowned, enduring the awkwardness in his heart, and took out a certain lump from the dead man's mouth.

It was a thumb-sized, dark-colored lump with faint blue silk-like patterns. It felt very soft to the touch...

...like some kind of meat.

Meat bitten off from a larger individual.

"What is this?" Alice was the first to curiously approach, grabbing Duncan's arm and looking at the motionless, black-and-blue lump of meat. Then she showed a somewhat resistant expression. "Ugh...I don't like this stuff..."

Duncan glanced at Alice in surprise. The usually cheerful doll-like girl rarely expressed such rapid and clear disgust for something.

After Alice finished speaking, Vanna quickly frowned, "I feel a very disturbing aura from this thing—it reminds me of some pollution that has floated up from the depths of the world into the real world."

"My intuition tells me that it's best not to stare at this thing too much," Morris added. "This is likely a warning from the God of Wisdom. Don't you feel anything holding this thing?"

"Feel? No," Duncan squeezed the lump of meat in his hand. "The texture is a bit disgusting, but I don't feel the exaggerated reactions you guys are talking about."

"Oh, that's normal, after all, your position is different from ours," Morris said, not at all surprised. Then he added, "But one thing is certain, the thing in your hand is definitely not something that should exist in the real world. It should be the most important clue on this ghost ship..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

Because everyone heard the sound of the heart beating in the air rapidly weakening.

Duncan lowered his head, staring at Cristobal's chest, which had been opened by corrosion and distortion. He saw that the heart, which had been beating powerfully before, was now covered with a layer of gray-white. The thumping sound weakened to almost nothing in a few seconds, and then, the heart suddenly burned in his gaze, turning to ashes in the blink of an eye.

At the same time, a low, hoarse, and somewhat familiar voice suddenly entered everyone's ears. The voice seemed to have no source, as if the entire ship had let out a sigh: "Ah, I see..."

Vanna was the first to react:

"It's the voice behind the blue door!"

Duncan looked at the corpse on the floor, seeing that "Captain Cristobal's" remains were melting like wax. The remains, which should have been eroded by seawater six years ago, seemed to be making up for the past six years of wear and tear, turning into jagged bone fragments almost in the blink of an eye.

He immediately made a decision and turned to head back the way they came: "Return the way we came."

The return was much faster than the exploration.

The group quickly passed through the open, dead, and eerie cabin, through the chaotic and distorted sloping passage, and soon returned to the "captain's cabin" with the blue door.

The door was ajar, and behind the door, the biological mass that called itself "Cristobal Barbery" was still quietly attached to the wooden planks.

Vanna took a step forward, and almost immediately, the mass of biological tissue seemed to sense the movement around it. Its surface squirmed and made a hoarse, low voice: "Ah, you've returned."

"...Captain Cristobal,"

Vanna steadied herself, trying to keep her tone calm. "We have some things..."

But before she could finish speaking, "Cristobal" interrupted her: "I already know, madam—I remember."

Although she had a vague guess in her heart, Vanna couldn't help but ask at this moment: "You...remember?"

"If you're referring to my own death, then I remember, although only partially," Cristobal said in a low voice. "I'm dead, right? I must be dead... The Obsidian has sunk. We encountered a storm and an iceberg. We sank down, down into the endless darkness—I had no chance of survival."

Duncan was silent for a few seconds, then suddenly took two steps forward. "Do you know what happened in the depths of this ship?"

"The depths?" Cristobal's voice seemed a little puzzled.

"Do you remember the details of your death?" Duncan asked again. "Did you ever fight with something? After sinking into the deep sea, did anything else happen on the ship?"

Cristobal fell silent, as if thinking. Then a slightly regretful voice came from the mass of biological tissue: "Sorry, I don't remember these details. I only remember...the ship sinking, sinking continuously, a very, very long process. Everyone died, and I should have died too, but I kept drifting in the darkness. It was very cold and the visibility was very dark. I seemed to be looking for something in the darkness. This state of confusion lasted for I don't know how long—when I regained my memory, I was knocking on this door."

Duncan exchanged glances with the others.

"Captain Cristobal" had no reason to lie.

This captain only realized that he was already dead, but he didn't remember what had happened in the depths of the Obsidian, nor did he know that "another self" had died in the bizarre space at the bottom of the cabin, let alone the origin of the mysterious flesh.

The clues seemed to have run out.

But Duncan looked down at the palm of his hand—the dark-colored lump of meat was still lying quietly in his palm.

He already had a very important harvest.