Chapter 143 New Hope Navigation Database

Duncan was very confident in his memory—he happened to remember what the stone that Ah-gou had thrown out looked like, and now, he was also sure that the stone in Alice's hand was the one Ah-gou had just thrown.

Ah-gou himself quickly realized what had happened. He looked at the stone in the doll's hand in astonishment: "...What a coincidence? It fell into your hands!?"

"No," Alice immediately shook her head, looking like it was the most natural thing in the world. "I picked it up."

"You... picked it up?" Shirley immediately looked like she had seen a ghost, her eyes fixed on the doll. "How did you pick it up? According to what Ah-gou said, shouldn't that thing have fallen somewhere random in the abyssal deep sea?"

Alice immediately began to think, as if pondering how to explain this process that she herself couldn't understand to Shirley, then she gestured as she spoke, "Just now, when we were talking about where things that fall from here might end up, I was curious where this stone went, and then I found it, and then I just picked it up... just like that..."

As Alice spoke, she casually made a gesture of picking something out of thin air, as if it were the most natural thing in the world—but her explanation was incomprehensible not only to Shirley, but even the dog was confused.

However, Duncan, who was standing next to them, suddenly frowned and instantly thought of something—

Alice's unusual behavior when crossing that stagnant starry sky…Lh-03, the navigation mainframe!

His expression changed slightly, and he immediately bent down and picked up another pebble from the side. After letting Alice see it, he threw it forcefully into the vast darkness beyond the floating island.

As before, the pebble instantly disappeared from everyone's sight after flying a few meters beyond the edge of the floating island.

Duncan turned to look into Alice's eyes: "Do you know where it went? Can you pick it up?"

Before he finished speaking, Alice had already raised her hand and handed over a small, pitch-black stone, with a happy, eager-to-please expression on her face: "For you, a stone!"

Although he had already guessed what was going on, Duncan couldn't help but freeze for a few seconds when he saw the doll take out the pebble so simply and casually—no one saw how Alice "picked" it up, not even him!

It was as if the process had been skipped—"addressing," "pathfinding," and "arrival" were all compressed into an unobservable time gap, with only the "result" output.

Shirley, who was standing beside them, finally couldn't restrain her interjection: "...Holy crap, that's just freaking outrageous..."

Ah-gou seemed to have gleaned something from the change in the captain's expression. He turned his head in confusion: "Do you know how she did it?"

Duncan's expression was slightly solemn. After a brief hesitation, he nodded gently: "...Alice's other identity might be called 'Lh-03'."

Ah-gou was stunned. This time, he and Shirley said in unison: "...Holy crap, that's just freaking outrageous..."

"...This matter can be discussed later. Perhaps we can get more answers after seeing the Abyssal Saint," Duncan waved his hand, not continuing on the topic. Instead, he turned his attention to Alice. "Do you have a way to take us to the 'bottom'?"

Alice tilted her head, then carefully went to the edge of the broken land, holding her head, and peered at the boundless darkness below, as well as the faint "starlight" flickering in the darkness, as if she was trying hard to think and observe something.

After a long while, she took two steps back and pointed to the large expanse of darkness outside the floating island: "Here, there are countless lines and 'paths,' some of which are connected to the 'bottom.' I think we can go down along them... but I don't know how to take you down."

As soon as she finished speaking, Duncan stepped forward: "Let me see."

As he spoke, Duncan placed his hand on Alice's shoulder. At the same time, a phantom-like, ghostly green light appeared in the depths of Alice's eyes—

Vast, complex, and almost frighteningly amazing structures appeared in Duncan's vision.

He saw the world through the doll's eyes—at least a part of the world.

He saw endless thin lines, like strands of hair, drifting and growing from the bottom of the abyssal deep sea, constantly connecting to the stagnant ancient starry sky above. He saw countless lines intersecting between the stars, some converging downwards, and others disappearing into the depths of the starry sky as if out of nowhere. He also saw that the darkness outside the floating island was filled with faint…“tubular structures.” They crisscrossed, broke apart, and constantly changed, like some kind of “path” that had lost control, making one dizzy at a glance, unable to discern any pattern, let alone see their full appearance.

Duncan frowned. He did see the massive lines and path structures, but only "saw" them—he couldn't see any pattern in them, and it was impossible to find the starting and ending points of any path in a short period of time. This tangled mess in the abyssal deep sea was like some kind of "encrypted data block" in his eyes, like garbled code.

However, through the connection established by the flame, he could vaguely feel Alice's current state—she didn't feel that the massive amount of information in her field of vision was chaotic at all.

Everything was in order in her eyes. The chaotic paths in the starry sky and the network of lines in the darkness could drive scholars around the world crazy, but for her… it seemed that at any moment, she could calculate the beginning and end of any path.

Even at this very moment, she was constantly calculating—a massive computational activity that she herself couldn't detect was roaring in the depths of her mind without stopping.

Duncan blinked. Against the backdrop of the countless lines permeating the entire abyssal deep sea, he vaguely saw Alice suddenly turn her head. She smiled faintly, didn't speak, but her voice directly entered his ears—

“Welcome to the New Hope Navigation Database, which stores billions of gravitational features and calibration parameters between the stars, and can deduce the relative positional changes of any celestial body in deep space in real time, in order to calibrate the star map… We will pene&*trate the stars and arrive at a new home at the end of &* light speed… We will sur%#vive and rebuild *& the old )* world… ~*&”

The gentle female voice, like some kind of system broadcast, gradually became filled with static, the delayed and out-of-tune voice gradually became blurred, and stopped abruptly at an imperceptible moment.

Alice was still carefully observing the dark space outside the floating island. She obviously didn't turn her head or open her mouth.

Duncan raised his hand and dispelled the flame connecting him and Alice.

The dizzying lines and tubular paths in his field of vision instantly disappeared.

Alice turned her head, smiling happily: "Captain, you saw it, right? I didn't say anything wrong, did I?"

"I saw it, but I'm afraid only you can complete the next 'navigation'," Duncan took a light breath, looking at the doll with a serious expression. "You take us down."

Alice was stunned for a moment, then quickly said, "But I don't know how to take people..."

"It doesn't matter, I know. We'll keep up with you—you just need to trust your own judgment and then move forward without hesitation. Can you do it?"

Looking at the captain's particularly serious expression, Alice couldn't help but feel a little nervous, but she finally nodded, her expression also becoming serious. "Yes, I can!"

Duncan nodded slightly, then stepped back half a step and opened his arms.

A ghostly green flame rose into the air, spiraling upwards, and gradually spreading around him as the center, then spreading towards Shirley, Ah-gou, and Alice.

He recalled his experience of "fusing" with Aey, and then reminded them softly in his heart, "Shirley, relax, don't be afraid."

"I...I'm not afraid!" Shirley's voice immediately came from the side. "Ah-gou is afraid!"

Ah-gou's bones were vibrating all over his body like they were in vibration mode. While trembling, he stubbornly said, "Don't, don't, don't talk nonsense. I, I, I'm relaxing. The captain, he, he... he knows!"

Duncan shook his head with a smile. In the rising flames, his gaze turned to the doll in front of him. "Alice, let's go."

Alice nodded, then turned around without hesitation and walked towards the boundless void outside the floating island—

A ball of blazing ghostly green flames disappeared into the darkness that rushed towards them.

At the same time, deep within the Holy Land Island in the real dimension, Lucrezia and Morris, who were vigilantly guarding the black gate, simultaneously heard a strange, low rumble.

The sound seemed to come from the depths of the gate, penetrating the "doorway" that undulated slowly like mercury and was as black as mud, echoing in layers in the cave.

In a moment of trance, Morris felt like he heard a string of vague words, and he could only distinguish a few words: "Lh-03...reconnected..."

"Did you hear someone talking?" The old scholar woke up instantly from his trance, turning his head to look at the "Sea Witch" beside him.

"No," Lucrezia said immediately, while staring at the surface of the constantly writhing black gate. "But I feel... like something is about to come out of here."

Almost at the same instant, Morris also felt those auras full of malice and madness. Some chaotic and frenzied beings seemed to have finally discovered this fissure leading to the real dimension and were starting to approach.

Morris had to temporarily suppress the doubts in his heart, and then he saw a physical entity appear in the writhing darkness—a twisted and grotesque abyssal demon struggled out of the gate and stepped into the real dimension.

Lucrezia instantly raised the "baton" in her hand, transforming it into a cold, gleaming black scythe, while Morris was suddenly stunned when he saw the demon's form.

It was the first time he had seen a demon invading the real dimension in this form.

After a moment of astonishment, he and Lucrezia looked at each other.

"...Why does this deathbird only have one leg?"

"I don't know... kill it first."

"True."

(End of Chapter)