Chapter 1 Remnants of Extinction

The faint radiance remaining after the sun had died hung high in the sky. That light could not illuminate the sea, but instead made the whole world seem even darker and more terrifying.

The White Oak sailed in the depths of this darkness.

Lights had already been lit on the ship, the radiance of oil lamps and electric lights mingling and spreading out, illuminating a small patch of sea nearby. Fine, broken waves rose and fell in the faint light, appearing to possess a viscous, ominous texture.

The state of the White Oak was still good. Laurence gripped the helm, responding to the voice coming from his mind: "Apart from the sailors being a little nervous, there are no problems on board. But we are surrounded by darkness and have lost contact with other ships on the shipping lane. Navigation has also failed. The Observatory can only see pitch black."

Duncan's voice echoed directly in his mind: "Can you contact Coldharbor, the closest to you? You should have left that city-state not long ago."

"Cannot." Laurence glanced back at the communications station not far away, seeing that all the lights on the machine were red. "All communications are down. The priest tried to contact Coldharbor's cathedral with psionic resonance, but received no response. Only psionic resonance with Pland can barely be maintained."

"Pland has no problems, and Frostwind is fine too. The situation is that, apart from Frostwind, Pland, and Light Breeze Harbor, all city-states are unreachable. It feels as if they have all disappeared after the sun went out."

Listening to Captain Duncan's description, Laurence's expression gradually tightened. He swallowed hard, as if afraid to continue imagining.

Then he looked down at the instrument panel next to the steering wheel, quickly confirming the various parameters.

"We are sailing towards Pland at full speed. This is a very busy shipping lane. In theory, we should soon see a transit port, which is an affiliated island of the Lunsar city-state. We will confirm the situation there and report to you as soon as possible."

Laurence was saying this quickly in his mind, but before he could finish, a sudden, hurried sound of footsteps interrupted his words.

A crew member ran into the bridge in a panic: "Captain! Captain! Come and take a look! That sailor has discovered something incredible!"

"Anomaly 077?"

Laurence's expression instantly straightened. Then he turned to the first mate beside him.

"Gus, take the helm. I'll go see what's going on!"

First Mate Gus immediately stepped forward: "Yes, Captain!"

Laurence quickly left the bridge, hurried through the stairs and corridors under the guidance of the crew member, and came to the deck at the stern of the White Oak. As soon as he arrived here, he saw that

gaunt figure bustling about at the edge of the stern deck.

Anomaly 077, this strange living corpse, was busying himself beside a huge iron bucket, muttering incessantly. Laurence walked forward and finally heard what the corpse was constantly muttering: "It's over, it's over, we're finished this time. No one can leave, no one can go back. The whole world is doomed. I might as well just sleep to death."

This guy, as always, was bursting with negative energy.

Laurence didn't want to listen to Anomaly 077's continued muttering. He immediately took two steps forward and loudly interrupted him: "What are you doing?"

The corpse immediately became alert, as if waking up from a dream, and quickly nodded and bowed: "Captain! Captain, you've come... Oh, good, it's reassuring now that the Captain is here..."

"Enough, enough." Laurence waved his hand and asked again, "What exactly are you doing?"

"You have to see this, you have to see this." The corpse said in a fluster, then ran to the iron bucket and stirred it twice with a large pair of iron tongs. A viscous, oily sound came from inside.

Only then did Laurence discover that the iron bucket was full of fuel, and Anomaly 077 was using the tongs to clamp a piece of rag, stirring it in the bucket of grease. Then, the corpse took out a lighter, which he had gotten from some crew member, and lit the rag.

Under Laurence's frowning gaze, Anomaly 077 forcefully threw the burning rag into the sea. The fireball landed on the sea surface, drifting rapidly towards the rear of the White Oak with the waves.

Anomaly 077 babbled: "This is how sailors used to roughly estimate their speed. Before those fancy machines of yours were invented, they all did it this way.

Not very accurate, but useful."

"I know, I know about this." Laurence interrupted him, "But what exactly do you want me to see?"

The sailor waved his hands vigorously and pointed into the distance again: "Keep watching, it's almost there. Look at that fire drifting into the distance."

Laurence frowned, turned his head, and stared at the flame floating on the sea surface. It was drifting quickly towards the rear of the White Oak. This was only natural, because the White Oak was sailing forward at full speed, so there was nothing strange about this phenomenon.

Until the flame suddenly stopped in the distance?

Laurence's eyes instantly narrowed. The fire, which theoretically should have continued to drift into the distance until it was finally swallowed by the waves or beyond the limit of the naked eye, stopped in the distance.

Roughly estimated, that position was only a few hundred meters away from the White Oak.

Laurence stared intently in that direction, watching the flame that had stopped a few hundred meters behind the White Oak. This scene was as if the flame was sailing at the same speed as the White Oak. After a long time, the flame finally gradually weakened and extinguished at the edge of the dark sea.

The sailor used the tongs again to pick up a piece of rag, soaked it in grease, lit it, and threw it into the water. The second ball of fire entered the water, drifted backward quickly, and then stopped at the same distance. Anomaly 077 finally dropped the iron tongs in his hand. He turned to look at Laurence, his gaunt, terrifying face seemingly squeezing out a bitter expression: "Captain, look... How do you explain this scientifically?"

This time, however, Laurence did not, as usual, make fun of this anomaly who was so obsessed with explaining things scientifically. He just stood quietly at the edge of the deck. After an unknown amount of time, he said, as if to himself, "Do you see it?"

Anomaly 077 next to him was stunned when he heard this: "Huh? Who are you talking to?"

Laurence did not answer. In his mind, Duncan's deep, majestic voice came: "I see it. By sharing your vision, I can see it somewhat clearly.

What...do you make of this phenomenon?" Laurence asked cautiously. "The laws of physics are becoming unfamiliar. It is highly likely that the spatial domain is in chaos, or there may be deeper reasons. In short, after the sun went out, the Boundless Sea is rapidly changing—and the White Oak and a small area around it are currently still normal."

Laurence thought for a moment and hesitated, "Is this your power at work? Perhaps, but I also need some time to understand the reason behind it."

Listening to the voice that echoed in his mind, and looking at the dark, chaotic sea in the distance, Laurence fell into deep thought.

However, at this moment, a strange, low sound, seemingly coming from the sky and echoing throughout the world, suddenly interrupted his thoughts.

It was a strange, slow buzzing sound, like a giant beast struggling to breathe, or some vast, unimaginable device slowly starting up. It sounded faint and distant, yet it seemed to fill the entire world, echoing in everyone's ears.

Laurence looked up in astonishment at the extinguished sun. The double rune rings around the sun were flashing intermittently, and as the rune rings flashed, the dark sphere at the center of Anomaly 001 gradually emerged with wisps of light.

Those wisps of light were initially faint and reddish, like blood streaks. But then, they began to spread throughout the sphere and quickly became brighter...

A huge, luminous geometric shape floated on the sea surface, its evenly distributed sunlight illuminating Light Breeze Harbor not far away, and the ship Brilliant Star, which was docked near the floating dock. On the research platform at the highest point of the Brilliant Star, Lucretia was staring intently at the large, circular crystal lens in front of her.

The crystal lens was surrounded by a faint blue light, and the center of the lens showed groups of undulating, alternating bright and dark colors. The clockwork doll Rooney stood near Lucretia, adjusting the dazzling observation equipment with her precise and nimble hands, while reporting to her mistress: "Since just now, the sunlight released by the luminous geometric shape has contained these strange signals. They are invisible to the naked eye, but can be captured by the ship's observation lenses, and what is presented is this kind of alternating bright and dark, constantly undulating wave."

Lucretia looked up at the front of the room. This research platform was closed, but there was a special window at the end of the room. Sunlight from the luminous geometric shape was introduced into the room through the window, then processed by a series of complex lens devices, and finally broken down into spectrograms and projected onto specific observation devices. This entire set of devices was designed and built by her own hands.

This was a large device that she had built specifically to study that luminous geometric shape. Now, it was playing its role. Lucretia withdrew her gaze and glanced at the recording instrument on the table next to her, which was constantly spitting out paper tape.

The long paper tape recorded the spectral changes captured by the lens system, and the jumping black lines showed a clear and definite periodicity.

"These light signals are regular..." she said softly. "Yes," the doll Rooney nodded, "Each group of signals sends a cycle every twelve seconds, repeats three times, then pauses thirteen seconds before appearing again." Is it sent by that stone ball?

"Cannot be determined. There are Truth Seekers from the Academy monitoring near the stone ball, but they have not found any changes in the ball itself. These light signals seem to appear out of thin air from the luminous area around the ball."

The doll Rooney paused in the middle of her sentence. "...! Mistress, the light signals have stopped."

Lucretia stared in astonishment at the undulating crystal lens in front of her.

Those alternating bright and dark colors had disappeared.

She was stunned for a moment. Then, seemingly suddenly realizing something, her figure suddenly disintegrated, transforming into scattered, dancing colored paper, and spiraling out the window.

The colored paper fluttered in the air above the deck, quickly reforming into shape. Lucretia stood on the upper deck of the Brilliant Star, narrowed her eyes, and looked up at the sky. Through the faint golden sunlight that permeated the sea, she saw a particularly bright luminous body,

hanging high in the sky. The sun had been relit.