Chapter 1 Sara Mayne No Longer Cares About His Breakfast

Sara Mayne no longer cared about his breakfast.

This former legendary explorer, who had experienced countless strange and bizarre events on the boundless sea, faced the heavy challenges of corruption and death, and pioneered a city-state at the end of the storm, rarely showed an uneasy expression. He frowned in his seat, and a long-lost shadow of unease was spreading in his heart.

He was familiar with this sense of unease—it was intuition warning him when a huge, bizarre danger that was difficult for human intelligence to understand and resist was gradually approaching.

He did not doubt Lucretia's account.

Because it was not the first time he had dealt with this "Sea Witch"—although countless deep-sea captains and frontier explorers regarded this witch as one of the shadows on the boundless sea, and were extremely afraid of her eccentric temper and dangerous power, Sara Mayne knew very well that the "Sea Witch" was ultimately on the side of mortals.

The restaurant was quiet for a long time, and Sara Mayne finally ended his contemplation. He looked up: "So far, no one has reported the strange phenomena of last night—neither the local elven residents nor the alien travelers have noticed the dream you mentioned."

"According to what my father saw, the anomalies that appeared in the district were very obvious and large-scale. If some urban areas were still in a normal state, then the residents in those 'normal' urban areas could not have failed to notice the anomalies in the neighboring districts. So the only explanation is that last night... the entire Light Breeze Harbor entered the dream."

Lucretia's first sentence made Sara Mayne feel an unspeakable chill, but reason still made me subconsciously think about the inconsistencies of everything in logic: "You mentioned that the city buildings in the real world were covered and even parasitized by the 'erosion entities' spreading from the dream. Huge plants pierced through the buildings and roads? Didn't that leave any traces?"

"No traces were left. After the sun rose, the real world returned to its original state."

Sara Mayne listened, frowning tightly and remaining silent, seemingly falling into thought again.

Everything looked normal.

It was not the first time he had done this, and he was of course familiar with this feeling. After quickly adapting his senses, he allowed his perception to merge with the ship and continue to spread to the depths of the Vanishing Line.

After a while, Sara Mayne suddenly reacted, turning around and often opening his mouth: "Ah, sorry, I was distracted, Ms. Lucretia, do you want to stay for something to eat..."

Duncan had already smelled a hint of strangeness from last night's incident. Today's exchange with the Goat Head and Agatha's report made me increasingly aware of one thing—

Agatha lowered her head: "I understand, Captain."

The cabin where the kitchen was located was normal, and the distant cabins and deeper places were also normal.

Duncan's "gaze" lingered on this focal point for a long time.

Duncan slowly withdrew his "gaze"—but he left a little flame in the deepest darkness.

Of course, everything had returned to normal here. The seventeen wooden barrels were neatly arranged against the wall, looking neither more nor less.

"Yes, yes!" Lamarr nodded repeatedly. "I counted several times! I often don't miscount! And I definitely didn't remember wrongly. I moved those barrels myself."

Wherever his gaze reached, wisps of ghostly green flames flickered in the air like phantoms, wandering quietly in the gaps between the floor and the walls. The entire room seemed to be shrouded in a phantom mist woven from spiritual flames, switching between the cracks of the spirit world and reality.

Liu Zhifei thought for a while, then looked back at the unfamiliar "friends" outside the kitchen. After a brief hesitation, she turned her head and showed a dim smile.

This ship seems to be a little off.

Liu Zhi, however, still had a serious expression, scanning the entire cabin.

"You continue to steer," Duncan said immediately, then he paused and added, "Don't worry about other things. Like I said just now, leave it to me."

Lamarr responded without hesitation: "Okay!"

"...Perhaps you should send someone to check the gas meters and electricity meters throughout the city, as well as the operating conditions of the factories at night," Sara Mayne said, thinking, "The city-state is not static at night. Many day and night functions ensure the operation of the city, such as gas, electricity, and steam, the eight major pillars, and they also have corresponding night monitoring and patrol personnel..."

Under the infiltration of wisps of spiritual flames, Liu Zhi felt that the connection between himself and the Vanishing Line was gradually strengthening, and every detail of the ship began to be reflected in his mind—the deck, the mast, the sails, the simple winch and cables, the cabins on the deck, and the hazy and chaotic part immersed in the boundless sea.

The Goat Head at the edge of the navigation table moved. It turned its head towards Liu Zhi, with a hint of hesitation in its tone: "Captain, what about me..."

Two meters away, a pillar hung with an oil lamp with a glass lampshade. Now, shadows and fog intertwined on the surface of its lampshade, and Agatha's figure appeared in this layer of glass.

The things Father had told me to do had been completed—Lucretia stood up, not disturbing the magistrate who was often lost in thought. Her eyes swept across the dining table in front of her, and she took a bottle of unopened spiced wine. Then her figure suddenly turned into flying colored paper, spinning through the roof and disappearing into the room.

"Let's go to the city-state together!"

While saying this, the magistrate stood up from behind the table, walking back and forth beside the dining table, stopping from time to time to think solemnly.

"The influence of the Dream of the Famous is spreading in Light Breeze Harbor. I estimate that to solve the problem, you still have to look for clues in the city-state first," Duncan nodded. "And I still have many questions I want to verify in the city-state... Do you want to stay on the ship? Or come with me?"

"There's nothing wrong on the ship—don't worry," Duncan slowly revealed a smile, reaching out and pressing Lamarr's hair. "There may be some 'minor problems' like spatial misalignment or light and shadow distortion. I'll take care of it."

Duncan then turned his gaze to the nearby after briefly comforting the doll sister.

"What did you think of?" Lucretia asked curiously from the side.

Lamarr watched the captain with some worry, blinking her eyes beside him. After a long time, she saw Duncan's gaze move a little, so she quickly leaned over: "Captain, Captain, how is it? Did you find anything?"

Lamarr's gaze moved back and forth between Duncan and Agatha. After looking around a few times, she finally couldn't help but break the silence: "Then are we still going outside the city?"

Sara Mayne said, stopping to think, and then continued: "Also, we have to find a way to determine how big the coverage of this abnormal phenomenon is, whether it is limited to Light Breeze Harbor Island, or whether it has spread to the patrol fleet in the offshore waters, or even to the 'fallen object' side..."

Lamarr didn't really understand, but she nodded, half-understanding: "Ah...oh."

Of course, Lamarr wouldn't lie. As for mistaking the number... she shouldn't make mistakes on such simple things.

Light Breeze Harbor has been able to prosper to this day in the area closest to the border sea. The magistrate's ability is beyond doubt.

It did not escape his control, but Liu Zhi always felt that some "details" that he was unfamiliar with and did not understand were appearing on the ship.

"Yes, Captain."

Wisps of brilliance permeated the depths of the Vanishing Line, flowing throughout the ship like some kind of signal flow. They eventually converged in the captain's room, converging on a conspicuous "focus."

At the same time, in the process of withdrawing his "gaze" on the entire ship, he also kept leaving "sparks," letting them stay in various places of the Vanishing Line.

Either some hidden secrets of the Vanishing Line were gradually unveiling themselves to him, or some parts of the ship were really gradually escaping the control of himself, the "captain."

……

"...Again?!"

"So this is the problem: when this dream came, where did these people go? What state were the machines that we should have been operating in? Also, there are the night scholars of the various academies. Many of them need to periodically record their work status..."

After pondering slightly, Duncan got up from behind the navigation table: "Take me over to take a look."

This was the location of the Goat Head, the control center of the ship at this moment.

He was exploring whether any "traces" remained here, whether anything that did not belong to the Vanishing Line had entered here.

The situation reported by Lamarr seemed to be nothing major. On a ghost ship filled with strange objects, a wooden barrel that was not on the "list" was obviously not worth such a big battle, but Duncan did not relax his vigilance at all.

He stared blankly at the empty chair opposite the table, and the place where he had just placed his treasured wine—it was also empty now.

Because in the boundless sea, even the slightest abnormality must be faced with caution—especially on the Vanishing Line, especially at this time.

Lucretia was not surprised by this. She knew that after becoming the ruler of the city-state, the magistrate was first a mediocre adventurer (although not as good as Father), and a mediocre adventurer did not know how to deal with various extraordinary phenomena.

He seemed to have completely forgotten that there was still a "Sea Witch" on the scene.

"The number of barrels has changed?" In the captain's room, after hearing Liu Zhifei hurriedly report to him, Duncan couldn't help but confirm again in surprise.

Under Lamarr's guidance, Duncan quickly arrived at the place where the pickled fish was stored.

"Pay attention to the reflection in the spirit world," Duncan nodded to her. "If anything 'crosses the border,' don't deal with it without authorization. Notify me immediately, and I will return immediately."