The door to the captain's cabin opened, and Duncan stepped into the room. The goat head currently in charge of navigating the *Lost Country* immediately reacted, creaking and groaning as it turned its head.

"Duncan Abernathy," Duncan preemptively announced before the creature could speak, then headed straight for the liquor cabinet in the corner of the room, pouring himself a small glass of spirits and downing it in one gulp.

The spicy, stimulating taste burned his nerves, but the potent drink seemed to have a calming effect. Duncan exhaled softly, feeling his mood stabilize, before turning to the nautical chart and waiting, watching the route steadily extending southward.

The goat head's skull followed Duncan's movements, as if cautiously observing the captain's every action. After a long silence, it finally broke the silence hesitantly.

"Captain… you don't seem to be in a good mood! Should I tell you some jokes?"

"I'm better at elf-style jokes. Many people think that race is stern and humorless, but in fact, they have a special sense of humor."

"Irrelevant," Duncan waved his hand. He knew the goat head genuinely wanted to help him relax, so he didn't say much, just quietly sat down.

As if focusing intently on studying the lines and markers extending across the sea chart, his thoughts inevitably wandered.

In the end, he hadn't found any more answers in his bachelor apartment!

The computer, stuck in its strange state, no longer responded to any of his subsequent questions, maintaining its usual silence as if the moon image that had suddenly loaded before was just a hallucination of his own making.

But even without more answers, Duncan had realized that he had indeed touched on something crucial. The moon from his home world appearing in this bizarre, distorted world – even just a model, a picture, or even a concept – was enough to prove one thing.

He had thought the two worlds were completely separate, but they weren't as distinct as he had imagined. But there was no one he could share these secrets with, no one he could analyze this with, not even Alice, who trusted him unconditionally, nor the goat head on the table that seemed so loyal.

Duncan sighed softly, lifting his gaze to see the goat head still quietly watching him, its obsidian eyes filled with seemingly bottomless shadows.

"Captain, you can always trust your first mate," it said very seriously.

"I know," Duncan shook his head gently, "but not all problems can be solved by you. You mean well, but let's discuss this trip."

"We are about to go to the Elven city-states in the south. What do you know about the Elven race?"

"I remember them!"

The goat head spoke immediately, as if it had already been brewing some words in its mind, but it faltered after saying that, hesitating for a long time before continuing, "Ah, well… I don't have much contact with them, but I know that the elves have extremely high talent in mathematics and mechanical engineering, as well as a unique historical heritage and some strange beliefs and customs. But more than that, the elves are better known for their wonderful… understanding of food! "

Duncan frowned. The sentence seemed to have a lot of meaning.

"The taste buds of the elves are different from other races, so they always make some bold local modifications to the foreign food that spreads to their city-states."

The goat head said rather tactfully, "So I wanted to remind Miss Nina earlier, hoping she wouldn't have too high of an expectation for the sweet pancakes of Light Breeze Harbor."

"Although everyone says that Light Breeze Harbor gathers the characteristic cuisines of various city-states in the civilized world, they didn't say how the elves mixed those foods."

"Duncan, in short, the elves will stuff chili peppers and aged cheese that has been fermented until it bubbles into sweet pancakes, eventually mixing a soul-shaking taste."

"Although I personally think this is quite creative…"

"…and at least more normal than honey-glazed pig intestines and spicy mutton eye pie." Duncan listened expressionlessly, and after a long time, slowly opened his mouth, "It seems Nina is going to be disappointed in the upcoming trip to the south!"

Lucretia sat in Talan Eyl's study, looking at the famous elven scholar across the table. She quickly flipped through the mountain of information on the table while stuffing an egg roll into her mouth.

The amazing smell of the egg roll constantly provoked the nerves of the Sea Witch.

It was a traditional Elven convenience food. The main ingredients were pancakes, eggs, fermented cheese, and a fungus called blackfinger mushrooms. It smelled a bit like seriously rotten wood when fried, and it tasted like… The marinated blackfinger mushrooms had a terrible taste and smell like old rags – at least to Lucretia.

It couldn't be counted as food in general, but it was Talan Eyl's favorite, not only because it suited the elves' taste, but also because it was convenient and easy to eat.

A great scholar who wasn't afraid of sudden death could solve a meal with it in three minutes, and eating three meals a day could meet his basic nutritional needs, saving time that could be devoted to endless research and fighting wits with doctors.

"Oh, I found it! I knew it had to be here." Talan Eyl finally shoved the last bite of the egg roll into his mouth, speaking vaguely while trying to swallow it. At the same time, it carefully pulled out some bound materials from the crumbling mountain. The small mountain shook in its movements, and it looked like it was about to fall down, but in the end, it regained its balance in a more dangerous position than before.

"Here you are, Ms. Lucretia, the information you wanted on the relationship between the ancient kingdom of Crete and the phenomenon…"

"If you had come to me yesterday, I would have found it all at once. It hadn't been stuffed into this mountain by me at that time!"

Lucretia reached out to take the booklet, while taking another look at the elven scholar across from her. In terms of age, Talan Eyl was in the golden age of an elf. It had just entered middle age, and with a little grooming, it would undoubtedly become a refined scholar who would fascinate thousands of girls, but the overwork had completely ruined everything.

In most cases, like now, the image of this Elven master was huge bags under its eyes and dark circles, messy and falling hair (it used to be blond, but now the texture and color were closer to yellowish dry grass), and a terrible complexion.

Lucretia had worried more than once that the great scholar would die suddenly in front of her, but luckily, or rather, unbelievably, Talan Eyl was still stubbornly alive today.

"I strongly suggest that you pay attention to your health and develop normal eating habits," the Sea Witch sighed, while casually flipping through the booklet in her hand, and couldn't help but say, "Even in order to have a longer lifespan for research, you should pay attention to your body."

"I'm very careful!" Talan Eyl said casually, but then made a rigorous correction, "I mean, at least more careful than before – but special periods have special standards. Ms. Lucretia, you should know what the fragments falling off from the phenomenon 001 mean to the civilized world. We must figure out its secrets, and the sooner the better."

"But now it's obvious that we've reached a bottleneck. Before a new breakthrough appears, your overwork is more like useless work," Lucretia raised her eyelids, "Unless we can find someone from the ancient kingdom of Crete, or find a book that directly explains the birth process of the phenomenon, otherwise I still suggest that you take a few days off."

Talan Eyl waved its hand a little irritably, seeming to want to say something in defense, but couldn't find any reason to refute it. But after a few seconds of annoyed silence, it suddenly thought of something again, raised its head and said with a hint of hesitation, "Ms. Lucretia, as far as I know…"

"Your father is coming."

"And it's coming for the falling object!"

"Yes…" Lucretia said with a slightly awkward expression, "It set off immediately after hearing about the extraterrestrial object. It seems to attach great importance to this matter. I am completely unprepared for this, and in fact, I am not psychologically prepared even now. But why did you suddenly bring this up?"

"After learning about the falling object, your father set off immediately, obviously knowing something," Talan Eyl said. "Ms. Lucretia, do you think…!

"…it might be the breakthrough! Maybe it knows what the stone ball in the center of that glowing gas is, or maybe it knows the specific connection between the ancient kingdom of Crete and phenomenon 001. Even…"

"Master Talan Eyl," Lucretia interrupted the Elven scholar, "You may have misunderstood something. My father is an outstanding explorer. What it is interested in may just be… the strange object itself… and please don't forget, it stayed in the subspace for a century!"

"Even my brother and I have to be extra cautious when contacting my father. Your attitude is too optimistic and bold at the moment."

Talan Eyl laughed, "Ah… then which behavior do you think has a higher mortality rate, an unhealthy lifestyle or bold contact with your father?"

Lucretia's eyes twitched, and she opened her mouth as if wanting to say something, but at this moment, a sudden noise and exclamation from outside the window interrupted what she wanted to say.

"The sun… the sun is gone out!"