In that instant, a strange and chaotic perception suddenly mixed into Duncan's consciousness, just like the previous "spirit realm walk." He felt his "perspective" suddenly split into two, and a brand-new body became the new "end" for him to perceive the world, but... it was different from the previous feeling.

The new "perspective" was filled with restless light streams like interference. Alternating bright and dark light and shadow permeated the water like some kind of scanning line. He saw the "primitive land" shrouded in darkness in the distance, and he also saw the countless humanoid figures floating around the land. At the same time, he saw the inconspicuous submersible – it was suspended diagonally above the deep-sea floating island, maintaining a forward-leaning angle, with pale light extending from its front end, gradually diffusing into the sea.

All of this was surrounded by floating, uncertain light and shadow. Even in places where the submersible's searchlights couldn't reach, he could "see" the glimmer and contours – it was a completely new perspective.

Outside the porthole, in the deep sea, the body that had suddenly begun to move slowly raised its arm, touching its featureless head.

Of course, Duncan didn't feel his eyes – the body he had just occupied didn't have such organs. In fact, this body didn't even have properly formed hands and feet. The bare limbs touched the smooth face, conveying a rough and dull, strange sensation.

But suddenly, Duncan had a feeling... Following this feeling, he controlled his new body, reaching out with both arms and pressing hard on the "face" of this body.

The jet-black, mud-like face with a smooth surface wriggled. Within a few seconds, the front of the face divided and formed two eyes.

The field of vision became much clearer all at once.

Duncan somewhat awkwardly controlled this "rough" body, slowly swimming to the submersible and using his newly grown eyes to examine the inside.

He stared at himself face to face; the feeling was novel and bizarre.

Inside the submersible, Agatha couldn't help but belatedly cry out in surprise, "Ah!"

Then she realized what had happened and suddenly turned her head to look at Duncan, who was standing in front of the console. "You... you really startled me a bit."

"You should learn to adapt," Duncan said, not turning his head, while paying attention to the machine's condition. "The people around me are always making a fuss."

Agatha, however, was still shaken, still tense. Her "gaze" quickly swept back and forth between Duncan and the "humanoid figure" outside the cabin. Only one thought filled her mind –

There was a reason why the world was so afraid of Captain Duncan. His casual action was too evil and terrifying in this endless deep sea.

But after hesitating for a long time, she still didn't dare to voice the thoughts in her head, and could only awkwardly change the subject: "...What are you going to do next?"

"This temporary body can see in the dark. I'm going to continue checking the situation ahead," Duncan said casually, as he began to manipulate a series of levers and cranks on the console. Along with his actions, the submersible's mechanical cabin once again transmitted near-limit, labored noises. "As for this side... we need to ascend a certain distance. This machine is about to give out; it can't stay at its maximum depth forever."

In the deep rumbling of the ballast tanks laboriously draining water, the submersible began to slowly ascend, but Agatha still couldn't help but look out the porthole, watching the "humanoid figure" gradually moving away in the light.

A wisp of faint fire suddenly appeared in the sea. The body bearing Captain Duncan's will waved in this direction, then turned around and, accompanied by the floating spirit flame, gradually sank into the dark depths.

Cold, darkness, loneliness, silence.

Duncan's consciousness gradually adapted in this strangely-state temporary body. He controlled the body, turned around, swam, moved forward in the darkness, and constantly approached the "Frost Main Island" floating in the deep sea.

The submersible's lights had receded into the distance, and darkness once again dominated this deep sea. However, the faint green spirit flame slowly spread in the water. This faint light, coupled with the body's own unique perception, allowed Duncan to always distinguish his surroundings and the direction he was heading.

Around him, countless humanoid figures floated in the cold sea.

Like an extremely bizarre gathering, rough drafts of "people" gathered in all directions, near and far, stagnant and blind, rising and falling slightly with the sea currents. And the only one with eyes was walking through this silent and eerie "crowd."

Duncan tried his best not to touch the "humanoids" floating near him, but he still inevitably brushed past them at very close range.

Whenever he passed them, he couldn't help but have some strange and terrifying associations – as if there were countless eyes here, countless souls waiting to awaken, curiously observing him, this uninvited guest, and even ready to reach out to him at any time.

But in the end, nothing happened.

Those silent humanoids were just silent. They were mindless and soulless, like hollow puppets made of silt.

Duncan passed through these empty shells and came to a cliff on the edge of the "deep-sea floating island."

He stopped and observed the terrain in front of him.

This should be the southeastern coast of "Frost." In the world above the sea, near this coast were ports, warehouses, and customs offices. A beautiful little church stood on the sea cliff, and cold-resistant trees that remained green in winter were planted along the path leading to the church.

But here, the rugged coast had only bare stones with a strange, jet-black color, like crude, unpainted models.

Duncan raised his head and looked towards the center of the deep-sea floating island.

In the interplay of darkness and glimmer, he could vaguely see some kind of huge structure there, like a mountain peak, or a giant pillar running through the island.

He thought of the scene that Martha had shown him when they communicated earlier –

Countless minds that fell into the sea cast a glance at that dark abyss before dissipating. The common impression they condensed in terror was a huge pillar running through a vast entity floating in the deep sea.

Now it seemed that the vast entity presented in that illusion was the current "primitive blueprint" of Frost, so what about the giant pillar running through the island? Was it the Abyssal Saint Lord that had "invaded" the real world? Or... the so-called imitation?

Duncan thought for a while, got up and swam towards the "pillar," but stopped after only swimming a short distance, feeling a little troubled.

It was too far; it was a distance that required crossing half a city-state.

Looking at a mountain makes a horse run to death – not to mention in this deep sea where movement was difficult.

Even if this body was unaffected by the pressure of the deep sea, it would still be a time-consuming and laborious task to swim all the way there.

Duncan pondered, and a thought gradually emerged.

Then he hesitated for a few seconds before slowly raising an arm in the sea with a try-it-and-see attitude, and gently waved it.

The faint green flames spread out with his movements, and in the blink of an eye, they gathered into a rotating door. After the door opened, a skeletal bird wrapped in raging flames rushed out and squawked loudly around Duncan:

"Who called the fleet! Teleportation successful! Teleportation successful! Open the door, delivery man!"

Duncan stared in astonishment, his eyes wide.

Ellie flapped her wings beside him. In this deep sea with the pressure of billions of tons of water, she was still as light and agile as if she were flying in the sky, and her unique, sharp female voice, like some kind of modulated synthesized sound, was as noisy as ever, clear as if it could directly drill into people's minds.

The deep-sea environment seemed to not exist for Ellie!

Duncan had only been trying to summon Ellie to see if she could be of any use, after all, this pigeon's "teleportation" ability had repeatedly demonstrated incredible effects, but this was, after all, a deep sea completely different from the surface. He had prepared to instantly teleport her back to the ship if she couldn't adapt to the environment, but what was happening before him... completely exceeded his expectations.

He just stared blankly as this pigeon flew around him as if flying in the air, chattering, watching her shuttle through the sea like a projection unaffected by the environment. After a long while, he reached out and stopped the bird.

Ellie obediently landed on Duncan's arm, tilting her head curiously. "Whatcha doin' whatcha doin' whatcha doin'?"

Duncan was about to speak, but suddenly realized that his body didn't seem to have a mouth yet, and even if it did, he didn't know how to speak directly in this deep sea. So he concentrated his mind and tried to convey his thoughts to the pigeon spirit –

"This is the deep sea. Do you feel any discomfort?"

He stared into Ellie's eyes, guessing whether she could understand what he meant, and waited for her answer.

Ellie tilted her head again.

"GG, you're surfing too!" The bird suddenly flapped its wings excitedly, and starlight-like, faint green flames scattered from its bone wings. "Tianyi 3G, so fast, Tianyi 3G, so fast!"

Duncan's eyes changed slightly. He listened thoughtfully to the pigeon spirit's chatter, not speaking for a long time.

Until Ellie herself gradually quieted down and pecked his arm curiously, "Application unresponsive?"

Duncan was awakened from his thoughts, and his mind quickly returned to the matter at hand.

There was still serious business to do.

He raised his head, looked at the distant, chaotic darkness, and concentrated again, trying to convey his order to the pigeon spirit beside him –

"Take me to that place."

"Command received! Command received!" Ellie quickly reacted. As usual, she flapped her wings excitedly, causing raging flames to surround and rise around her. "Mission accomplished!"

Chapter 1 A New Perspective