Chapter 1 The Illusory Sea

The illusory seawater dissipated rapidly like a dawn dream, and Vanna's sugar spirit returned to her body. After a deep breath, she suddenly opened her eyes and saw that she was still standing in that rocky chamber that seemed to rise from an underwater cave, a blazing flame burning brightly.

She looked to her side and saw that Valentine was also opening his eyes.

The memory of the psychic gathering was still clearly imprinted in her mind. Vanna subconsciously looked at her palm—of course, her hand was empty. That piece of parchment that existed only in the gathering place had not been brought to the real world by her.

"We only just issued a notice to inform the ocean-going captains about the 'Doll Coffin' being out of control," Valentine sighed. "Now it seems we have to issue a new notice. He moved his hands and looked at the Lord thoughtfully: "The problem...how should the notice be written? Apart from the name change of Anomaly 099, we know nothing..."

The old Lord was silent for a moment, obviously he also thought this was a rather tricky problem.

Vanna brought back news from Anomaly 004, but the news was only the new name of Anomaly 099. Perhaps she did hear more detailed information from the owner of that tomb, even heard the new characteristics of Anomaly 099 after it was renamed "Doll," but this part of the content was obviously left forever in the main tomb along with that torn parchment.

"At this stage, we can only announce that Anomaly 099 has been renamed from 'Doll Coffin' to 'Doll', and at the same time revise all characteristic descriptions of Anomaly 099 to 'possible mutation'," Valentine said suddenly after a long silence. "That's an anomaly within the first hundred. Its name change will definitely be accompanied by a series of chain reactions. Its power, triggering conditions, sealing conditions, and even external characteristics are very likely to have changed as well. If we treat it according to the old report, something big might happen..."

Vanna nodded silently.

The number of Anomaly 099 has not changed, and its absolute danger and weirdness may not have changed much, but for humans, it has changed from a known anomaly to an unknown anomaly—the experience accumulated by countless lives has vanished, and "unknown"... has become its greatest danger today.

If, after the last notice was issued, the captains on the boundless sea still had the possibility of trying to re-contain and seal the "Doll Coffin" according to the experience of the old data after encountering Anomaly 099, then from today onwards... the only option for everyone after encountering the "Doll" is to leave immediately and hope that the guardians of the Four Cardinal Numbers can reseal it.

The chamber fell silent for a moment. Vanna and Valentine were thinking about their own things. This atmosphere lasted for an unknown amount of time before Vanna suddenly broke the silence: "...The numbers of all anomalies and phenomena in the world come from Anomaly 004, right?"

"Of course," Valentine nodded. "Why are you suddenly asking this?"

"The nameless corpse in...that tomb, and that tomb keeper who is always silent, who are they...?" Vanna thought to herself, "They are obviously not human, and not even beings from the real world. Not gods, nor the ancient god shadows in the subspace... Why would a phenomenon that can interact with the outside world 'help' the world in this way? And how did the owner of the tomb determine the list of anomalies and phenomena?"

Valentine looked into Vanna's eyes, and after the other party finished all the questions in one breath, he sighed: "This is your first time entering the tomb as a Listener. Most people will have so many questions like you after leaving there... But unfortunately, after so many years, we know more and more about anomalies and phenomena, but we still cannot touch the essence of Anomaly 004. That tomb... never explains information related to itself."

"I remember you also entered that tomb," Vanna turned her head and looked at the old Lord curiously. "What information did you bring out at that time? Was it also related to anomalies or phenomena?"

"Not really," Valentine shook his head. "Although in most cases, what the tomb announces to the outside world is related to anomalies or phenomena, the owner of the tomb will actually occasionally convey other things, sometimes even... strange or useless information. When receiving the tomb keeper's summons, no one can be sure what the owner of the tomb wants to convey. The only thing that can be determined is that the information from it must be true..."

Vanna still looked at the old Lord curiously: "Then what was the information you brought out at that time..."

The old Lord seemed a little tangled: "It's not very useful, just... a sentence..." The old Lord's evasive expression was very obvious, but Vanna was a persistent person, she didn't notice the old man's attitude:

"So what were the specifics?"

Valentine looked at this stubborn Inquisitor helplessly and spread his hands: "July 24th, Pland, sunny, southeast wind, force four to six..."

Vanna: "......"

"Don't look at me like that, sometimes it's information like this," Valentine covered his forehead. "Anomalies and phenomena are elusive, and this 'elusiveness' will be reflected in various places. I just happened to catch up with a more special one... If you want to laugh, can you turn around? I'm so old..."

"Sorry," Vanna tried hard to restrain her face, and then said while turning her back, "But to be honest, I'm a little more satisfied. Hearing a weather forecast is better than today's bizarre and weird experience—no news is good news, isn't it?"

"...Sigh, I'll just believe what you said..."

On the edge of the upper city, in a relatively old detached house, Heidi was looking at her father with a blank expression: "...So, you went to a student's house for a home visit the other day, and spent several hours chatting with the student's parents. You only spent twenty minutes talking about the student's situation, and when you left, you took out more than three thousand Solas to buy an old dagger and a fake crystal pendant made of glass!"

Maurice sat behind the table, with a purple crystal pendant on the table and various collections on the shelves behind him. He wiped the non-existent cold sweat from his forehead, his expression a little embarrassed:

"The pendant didn't cost any money, it was a gift..."

"...Then isn't it even more of a problem if you treat it as a birthday gift for me!" Heidi couldn't help but cover her head. "You should at least pretend that this was carefully selected..."

Maurice thought about it seriously and spread his hands helplessly: "I really couldn't find a second real thing in that store, there was really nothing to choose from..."

After confronting each other angrily for a few more seconds, she finally couldn't hold back and deflated first: "Forget it, anyway, it's not the first time... Why are you always being a sucker!"

"This time I didn't suffer a loss! It was that Mr. Duncan who suffered," Maurice said immediately, "I bought that dagger for 20% cheaper than the market price..."

Heidi was shaking her head and sighing, but suddenly she was stunned when she heard the name her father mentioned: "The manager of that antique shop is called Duncan?"

"Ah, yes, his name is Duncan Stein." Maurice said casually, "It has always been rumored that he is a drunkard + gambler, but after actually contacting him, I realized that language is really harmful. He is obviously an interesting, humorous and knowledgeable person... right? Why do you have this expression? Is there anything wrong with this name?"

Heidi opened her mouth, hesitated for a moment, and then said: "Alas, I'm currently dealing with a very tricky case, and it just happens to be related to this name, so I'm a little nervous when I hear it."

"This is a very common name, there are many people with the same name," Maurice nodded, but then he was a little concerned, "What kind of case is it?"

"It's not your profession, don't ask, anyway, it can't be the same person," Heidi waved her hand. "Can a ghost captain who is feared by everyone and a manager who runs an antique shop in the lower city be the same person?"

"That's definitely impossible," Maurice breathed a sigh of relief when he heard this. He knew that his daughter often assisted the city hall and even the church as a consultant to deal with some dangerous cases, sometimes even related to transcendents, so he would naturally be a little nervous in this regard, but now he relaxed and focused his attention on the crystal pendant on the table. "Do you still want this pendant or not..."

"Yes! Of course I want it!" Heidi grabbed the pendant on the table. "It's not easy for you to remember to bring me a gift, even if it's a freebie..."

Maurice thought for a while and gave a serious suggestion: Actually, you can pretend that I spent more than three thousand Solas to buy you a pendant, and that dagger was a gift.

Heidi glanced at Maurice while putting the pendant on her neck: "If you really spent more than three thousand Solas on this, I would have to tie you up and take you to my treatment room!"