Chapter 1 The Easiest Guess

For Duncan, the easiest to guess among the series of messages the Deep Sea Embers hastily conveyed to him was the very first one—something designed with a lifespan of only eight thousand years was now operating beyond its capacity.

The first thing he could think of was the "sun" hanging high in the boundless sea, but already starting to malfunction and even drop parts—and that was the "First Aberration" created by the Deep Sea Embers leading the Crete clan during the ancient Cretan kingdom.

The sun had been running for ten thousand years. If its original design life was really only eight thousand years... then its current unsettling state was explained.

Extending from this, the Deep Sea Embers also mentioned that "they" were waiting for a signal from "somewhere" within this time limit, but had not received it to this day—who did "they" refer to here? What was the "somewhere," which was indicated by that short burst of noise?

"We did not receive a signal from beyond &*%￥ within the time limit..."

Duncan recalled the original words he heard from the ancient god at the time, and combined with the description in the previous "Book of Blasphemy," he could boldly guess that the "we" they mentioned should refer to the "Ancient Kings," that is, the ancient ones including the current Four 正 Gods and other various ancient gods and lost gods—this single piece of information was enough to subvert the world.

The Four 正 Gods and the world's recognized "evil ancient gods" were jointly waiting for something, and even had a common goal—if Vanna had heard this back then, she probably would have jumped out with a劈 (pī, chop/split) on the spot.

But what Duncan cared more about was the second half of the sentence: "signal from beyond &*%￥"... What exactly was that short burst of noise?

If the Aberration 001—the sun—also turned into a short burst of noise in the mouth of the Deep Sea Embers, could it be considered that the short burst of noise here also refers to something with a nature close to Aberration 001, and of a similar rank? Or were there some important similarities?

What were the characteristics of Aberration 001? Was it ancient? Was it an ancient god's creation with an extremely high degree of mystery? Was it a massive scale that affected the entire world? Was it suspected to be related to the "black sun"? Or was it...

Did its "parts" contain some key structures from the "old world," such as those "lost stars"...

Then the short burst of noise in the phrase "signal from beyond &*%￥" might also be related to the old world?

Duncan raised his hand, gently rubbing his slightly sore forehead, and then he stopped, looking thoughtfully at his hands.

Fire Thief... this was not the first time he had heard "someone" call him that.

The "black sun" called himself that, and now the "Deep Sea Embers" also called himself that, and their biggest commonality was the rank of ancient gods—that is, a member of the "Ancient Kings."

But judging from the attitude of the Deep Sea Embers, He seemed to only know the name or concept of "Fire Thief," but did not know the specific abilities and essence of "Fire Thief." The only effective information He revealed was that the Fire Thief woke up at the "end of the cycle"...

Then what about the other "Ancient Kings"? The Storm Goddess, the Eternal Burning Fire, the God of Wisdom... would these "gods" who maintained close contact with the world know more?

Duncan shook his head, sighing softly with a helpless expression.

It was fine if the world was full of mysteries, but he himself was also full of mysteries, and what was even worse was that those "ancient gods" and "正 Gods" seemed to know more about it than he did, which inevitably made people feel annoyed, and what was even more annoying was that the network of these gods was not good, and connecting with them was completely up to fate...

As for what the so-called "end of the cycle" was, Duncan had no clue at all, and had no energy to think about it.

He strolled through the path on the edge of the garden, returned to the abrupt stone pillar, and quietly watched the silver-haired doll sleeping in the thorns.

Whether the Deep Sea Embers built this Alice Manor, or the Alice Manor came first, and then the Deep Sea Embers used this manor to establish a link with the real world, one thing was certain: the doll sleeping here was inseparable from "Alice" in the real world.

Duncan came to the sleeping doll, took out the wind-up key he carried with him, and then as long as he turned the key on the doll, he could return to the real world.

But at this moment, a new idea popped into his mind.

Duncan silently put away the key and turned to walk towards the gate at the exit of the garden.

According to the route in his memory, he passed through the gloomy and lush bushes and flower beds, and came to the garden gate with gorgeous stained glass and intricate iron art lines.

The gate was ajar, and he could vaguely hear the sounds of conversation and footsteps coming from the direction of the manor's hall, as well as the soft, intermittent music like an endless ball.

He pushed open the door, and the long, deep corridor was empty.

But as soon as Duncan took a step into the corridor, the ghostly headless butler suddenly entered his sight—as if the headless butler had been standing in the shadows a few meters away from the beginning.

"Ah, the guest with the key," the butler greeted him enthusiastically, a low, muffled voice coming from his chest, "Have you said hello to the mistress?"

Duncan glanced at the scary headless living corpse: "Are you watching me?"

"I'm just waiting for the guest's call at any time—and you only left for a short while, so I've been waiting here," the headless butler bent slightly, his tone as polite and proper as ever, "May I ask if you have any instructions next?"

Only left for a short while?

Duncan frowned slightly, remembering the strange concept of "time" in the manor that the other party mentioned last time.

In other words... just like no matter how long he delayed in this manor, only a moment had passed in the real world, no matter how long he had been active in the real world after leaving here, it was only a moment for the servants in the manor?

This manor was not simply a time standstill, but was running independently from the timeline of the real world?

What exactly was the process behind this?

Many questions flashed in his mind in an instant, but Duncan's expression did not change. He just nodded slightly to the butler in front of him and asked casually, "In this 'short while' that I was gone, has there been any change in the manor?"

"Everything is as usual here, guest," the butler replied immediately, "The manor rarely welcomes changes. Since I have memories, it has always been like this."

Duncan hummed, and then asked inadvertently, "Before me, have other guests entered that garden?"

"Other guests?" The butler seemed to be puzzled for a moment, and quickly replied, "Of course not. You know that only the mistress and the gardener can enter the garden area. Besides that, it is only open to guests with keys—why do you suddenly ask about this?"

Duncan did not answer the other party, but then asked, "What does the 'gardener' you mentioned look like?"

"The gardener... no one knows what the gardener looks like," the butler became more and more hesitant, as if he had never answered this level of "detail" to anyone, so that every step of thinking was becoming more and more difficult and slow, "The gardener stopped showing up a long time ago. When the garden no longer needed trimming, he returned to where he should be... The gardener is different from ordinary servants. His task is to ensure that the mistress is comfortable and undisturbed when she is taking a nap. Besides that, he does not need to be responsible for anything in the manor, nor does he need to... communicate with me..."

"It seems that even you, the 'butler,' don't know much about this manor," Duncan stared at the "headless living corpse" in front of him and said calmly, "Then is there a name you've heard of?"

"A name? Please tell me."

"Deep Sea Embers, Crawling King, Lh-01—He may be called any of these three names. Have you heard of Him?"

The butler was silent for a few seconds, as if he was thinking seriously.

Then a regretful answer came from his chest: "Sorry, guest, I have no impression."

The butler's tone was very sincere.

Duncan could not judge the other party's facial expression from a body without a head. The posture of this headless living corpse was also as meticulous as a machine, and it would not reveal any emotional fluctuations at all, so he could only temporarily believe the other party's answer.

"Okay, thank you for your answer."

The headless butler bent slightly: "I hope this has been helpful to you..."

He suddenly stopped, and then as if he heard some urgent sound, he suddenly straightened up and turned to another direction.

Almost at the same time, Duncan also felt a change in the atmosphere of the manor—a feeling of tension and panic seemed to suddenly spread from the air, and in the empty corridor, countless hurried footsteps and whispers suddenly sounded!

He immediately turned to the headless butler: "What happened?"

"An alien object has invaded, guest, please excuse me." The butler said quickly, and then turned and walked towards the other end of the corridor, looking unusually hurried.

An alien object has invaded?

Duncan was stunned for a moment after hearing this word. Before he could react, the butler had already walked away on his own. Seeing this, he hesitated for a moment, and immediately followed.

The butler walked forward quickly while turning his body slightly, seeming to glance at the "guest" who followed, but he did not mean to stop him.

Seeing this, Duncan felt relieved and followed behind the butler all the way through the corridor, through the stairs on the first floor, and then came to the long corridor on the second floor leading to the "bedroom."

Countless shadowy servants emerged from the air. Headless male and female servants had gathered in the corridor. These "lost souls" living in Alice Manor were whispering. Their voices were buzzing, and it was impossible to distinguish their meaning. Only the feeling of unease was truly permeating the air.

Duncan had already recognized this road. He remembered that the end of this road was the bedroom where the soul of the Frost Queen Rae Nora used to sleep, but now, as the Queen's soul had escaped, that room had been "torn" from the main body of the manor—there should only be a large empty hole leading to the endless dim space at the end of the corridor.

"Get out of the way, get out of the way! Don't touch the invading alien object!" The butler's voice came from the front. He was pushing back the gathered male and female servants while walking forward, showing some of the majesty of the "manor manager" at this moment. "Where is the alien object?"

The gathered servants stepped aside, making way for an open space in front of the corridor.

Duncan's eyes passed over the shoulder of the headless butler and finally saw the appearance of the "alien object" that caused the entire manor to be nervous.

His expression froze for a moment.

It was a small bag of garbage.

Very familiar.

(End of this chapter)