Chapter 623 A Letter

Not long after the start of this journey to the world's end, Duncan had made an agreement with the Black Sun—when he arrived at the frontier of order and confirmed the cornerstone of the new world, he would respond to the other party's request for a place in the new world, and then the Black Sun would show him a "clue" related to the new world.

Now, the Vanishing Line had arrived at this Sea of Ash, and it was time to fulfill the appointment.

Deep in the captain's room, Alice sat obediently on the bed with her back to Duncan. The navigation key slid into the doll's keyhole with a soft click, and turned on its own with a slight friction sound. After a familiar slight dizziness and reset of perception, Duncan found himself back in the empty, magnificent, yet eerily gloomy hall of Alice's mansion.

The dark, intricately patterned mansion door stood quietly at the end of the carpet. Sunlight seemed to flicker faintly through the cracks in the door, and the Black Sun's projection should still be waiting outside.

However, Duncan did not go directly outside to keep the appointment. Instead, he turned and walked deeper into the mansion—he found Alice in the navigation chamber, staring blankly at her drawing board, and only then did he bring the doll back to the hall and stood in front of the door.

For some reason, he wanted every event he experienced in this "Land of All Things' End" to be witnessed by this doll.

Alice didn't think too much about it. She was just very happy, as happy as she always was. She seemed to be looking forward to meeting that "burning meatball." As a "high-level anomaly" who had not lived much in human society, she did not seem to be afraid of the Black Sun, nor did she show any resistance to that dangerous "ancient god."

Duncan came to the mansion door and, as before, effortlessly pushed open the slightly ajar door. With a creaking sound from the hinges, the seemingly heavy but weightless door opened, and the bright, dazzling, yet not scorching false sunlight poured in, gloriously filling his vision.

Within a bright fiery shell, a pale, deformed mass of flesh slowly stretched and wriggled. The huge eye was half-open, as if casting a glance in its sleep. "Ah, Fire Usurper, you have appeared… Have you come to respond to me?"

Duncan faced the oncoming sunlight. "I have now reached the end of all things and confirmed the matter of the cornerstone of the new world. Now, in accordance with our agreement, I have come to meet you."

The fleshly tissue inside the Black Sun seemed to become a little more active. The light flames on its outer shell slowly rose, and a low, layered tremor transmitted from among countless tentacles and lumps: "Ah, it sounds like you have made great progress… Then about my initial request, a place in the new world…"

"Granted." Before the other party could finish speaking, Duncan replied concisely.

Perhaps because the answer came too quickly, the Black Sun seemed stunned for a moment. The wriggling and trembling of its flesh stopped for a few seconds before it hesitantly spoke again: "You confirm…"

"Granted. The new world is vast enough to leave a place for you—and for the 'homeland' in your memory," Duncan said seriously. "But only if the new world can be completed as planned."

"…Are you not worried about me becoming a 'dangerous factor' in the new world?" The Black Sun asked in confusion. "My people and I were exiled from this sanctuary for ten thousand years, and you want to bring me and the other races in the sanctuary to the new world together. Are you not worried that this will become a hidden danger?"

"I said, the new world is vast," Duncan said calmly, emphasizing it again. "Vast—your civilization is not an eternal species, and the 'hidden dangers' you speak of will be eliminated in the vast spatial and temporal scales that come with it. Within a sufficient safe period, your civilization will not have the opportunity to come into contact with others. As for yourself…"

Duncan paused, a hint of a smile appearing in his eyes.

"As one of the 'Ancient Kings' who laid the foundation of the sanctuary, you are familiar with the original blueprint of the boundless sea and all the system loopholes. Based on your current understanding of the 'sanctuary,' I guess… this world actually has no ability to 'exile' you, or rather—if you wanted to return to the boundless sea, you would have returned as early as the day the Cretan ancient kingdom raised Anomaly 001 into the sky."

He raised his head, quietly watching the huge eye at the center of the wriggling sun.

"In the process of building this sanctuary, there are no records of wars between the Ancient Kings. Everything was the result of negotiation—you voluntarily exiled yourself, but those descendants and remnants that sprouted from you… caused things to get out of control."

The Black Sun was silent for a moment, then slowly opened its mouth: "The establishment of the sanctuary was very 'critical.' At that time, there was not even a trace of extra resources and time to waste. The Long Night failed twice, and we had to succeed on the third try… No one had a choice."

"Thank you for your rationality back then, then let's skip the meaningless probing and assumptions. Regarding the new world, I have my own arrangements—now it's your turn to fulfill your promise," Duncan's tone changed, and his expression became serious. "You said you have 'evidence' about the new world, what exactly is it?"

The Black Sun did not speak, but slowly stretched out the tiny tentacles on the edge of its solar corona. On the edge of the burning false halo, a section of limb suddenly extended—the end of the limb seemed to be holding something. It crossed the long spatial distance and accurately handed it to Duncan.

Alice, who had been wandering in the sky for half a day, was startled and immediately leaned in curiously: "What is this?"

"A letter." The Black Sun's layered, trembling voice echoed in this void. Then, that "tiny" tentacle slowly unfolded, and an object appeared in Duncan's eyes.

It was just a silver-gray cube, like a metal ingot, with a side length of about ten centimeters. The surface seemed to be engraved with some patterns. Although the shape was somewhat curious, it did not seem to be the "amazing thing" that Duncan had initially thought it would be.

He looked at the small metal cube in confusion, noticing that the surface of the cube had a faint translucent texture—considering that only the Black Sun's projection had come here, obviously, the cube it was displaying was also just a projection.

The cube's body should be with the Black Sun, somewhere outside the real dimension.

Duncan suddenly frowned. He noticed some of the patterns on the surface of the cube.

The Black Sun seemed to have expected it. When Duncan's gaze changed, it thoughtfully sent the projection of the cube in front of Duncan and slowly rotated it, showing its every surface.

Duncan saw the outline of a human figure, standing on a coordinate map with many marked lines and reference points.

On the second surface, he saw a series of circles, arranged from small to large.

On the third surface, he saw intersecting lines, the intersection points of the lines seemed to be showing some kind of mathematical law.

On the fourth surface, however, were crooked drawings like children's graffiti. The childish brushstrokes were out of place with the precise and seemingly profound patterns on the previous surfaces.

On the fifth surface, there were countless concave points that seemed to be randomly distributed, seemingly… a "star map" representing constellations or similar celestial systems?

Duncan's gaze fell on the sixth surface.

It was covered with distorted symbols!

They originally seemed to be many different kinds of writing, but under the influence of some kind of force, all the writing, or rather the information represented by the writing, had been distorted into a completely unrecognizable form. Duncan even felt that the distorted symbols were alive. When he stared at them, every line was shaking and reorganizing on its own, making it impossible for him to distinguish their true outlines.

Duncan subconsciously reached out towards the cube, but his fingers passed directly through the illusion.

The Black Sun's voice entered his ears: "Its 'entity' is not here, but I can describe its state to you—

"This is a metal ingot with the hardness of steel, but surprisingly light; it is empty inside, and hides a powerful energy source, but I cannot peek into its specific structure without damaging its integrity; it seems to carry some kind of powerful 'mechanism' that releases information outwards, but this mechanism is also hidden inside it.

"In addition, there is one last point: it seems to have originally carried more information, including those 'words' that you noticed that can no longer be read, but these 'information' cannot be read.

"It even made a sound at the beginning, but it was just chaotic noise. It constantly released some kind of 'signal' outwards, but even I cannot understand what it is, and now, its release process has basically stopped. I cannot judge whether it is due to a malfunction or because the energy is exhausted… but it should not be related to energy, because until now, the energy reaction inside it is still very strong."

Listening to the Black Sun's narration, Duncan did not speak for a long time. He just quietly watched the constantly rotating cube, and after a long time, he finally broke the silence: "So, this is a letter, a letter from the 'new world' to the 'old world'—is that what you mean?"

"Yes."

"But how can this be determined?" Duncan couldn't help but say, "How can you be sure that it is not another 'relic' from the Great Annihilation? Like those other distorted fragments."

"Because it comes from a place where, theoretically, no 'fragments' can exist." The Black Sun said calmly.

Duncan frowned: "A place where no fragments can exist?"

"…The World's Creation."

The scene was instantly silent.

Duncan widened his eyes slightly, looking in astonishment at the projection of the cube, at each of its surfaces that were trying to convey various messages, and at the erased words.

This is a letter.

However, who sent this letter…?

(Recommending a book! From Yan zk, "Please Let the World Die," a sensational Eastern fantasy. A masterpiece by a great author. If you are interested, you can check it out!)

(End of this chapter)