Chapter 12 Little Fire

After confirming that Alice had no reaction to any of the "keywords" and was completely unaware of the information regarding the "decapitation" ability, Duncan decided to tell this muddleheaded cursed doll what he had just learned.

Because he already had a faint guess: perhaps the key to the anomaly 099—the Doll Coffin—wasn't actually Alice the doll… but her "coffin."

The wind and waves on the boundless sea were gentle, and the cabin swayed softly with the waves. In the flickering light of the oil lamp, the ghostly captain slowly recounted the past and present life of the Doll Coffin—and then scared the doll so much that she almost curled up into a ball.

Duncan looked expressionlessly at Alice, who was already sitting in the corner of the bed, leaning against the wall with her head in her hands: "Do you have to be so nervous?"

"This… this sounds really scary!" Alice's tone changed, like an ordinary human girl who had just heard a ghost story. "What indiscriminate decapitation, what stopping only after everyone in the area is dead, what constantly expanding territory… I didn't know any of this!"

"I believe you really didn't know," Duncan glanced at Alice. "But this is indeed the information about anomaly 099—the Doll Coffin."

Alice held her head, looking at Duncan with a stiff neck. "Then…"

"So I have two guesses now. First, the aforementioned 'decapitation' incidents might be abilities you unconsciously triggered. Because you yourself are an anomaly, your power is very likely just a passive area effect, and even your previous 'sleeping' state wouldn't affect the occurrence of the decapitation effect."

As Duncan spoke, he slowly got up from the chair. He came to the ornate wooden box and touched it with the tip of his sword.

"Second, the Doll Coffin's 'decapitation' power might not come from you the doll, but from your 'coffin.'"

"Coffin… you mean my box?" Alice's eyes slowly widened, and her gaze subconsciously followed Duncan's movements to land on the wooden box by the bed. This slow-witted doll seemed to realize it only now. "You mean…"

"The full name of anomaly 099 is 'Doll Coffin'… In other words, you and your wooden box together are the complete 'anomaly 099.' And when I first saw you, I subconsciously thought you were the 'dominant part'… because I didn't know the full name 'Doll Coffin' at the time," Duncan stroked his chin, thinking as he spoke. "Now that I think about it carefully, the emphasis of the word 'Doll Coffin' itself seems to be on the latter half?"

Alice blinked, her mind working for a while, and finally clapped her hands. "Oh! I'm an accessory to this box!"

Duncan looked at the scatterbrained doll expressionlessly. "...You don't have to say it in such a proud tone."

Alice, however, didn't seem to notice the teasing in Duncan's tone. She just looked at her wooden box with a heavy heart, her tone a little worried. "So… my box has been 'decapitating' people all along? But I've lived in it for so long, and I haven't felt it to be so evil or dangerous… and I haven't felt any special power in it either…"

"Nonsense, you're part of the entire anomaly 099, is your feeling even a valid reference?" Duncan frowned. "And feel your neck, I suspect the reason your head falls off every now and then is because you've been sleeping in this box for too long!"

Alice immediately felt that what the captain said was right, and her expression immediately became complicated. But then she became a little confused again. "But if that's the case… 'decapitation' is an inherent attribute of my coffin, so how come it hasn't activated its ability after being on the ship for so long?"

As soon as she said this, she met Duncan's gloomy gaze. Miss Slow-Witted Doll suddenly felt a wave of silent pressure crashing down on her head—she had relaxed after being on the ship for a while, and only now did she suddenly recall what kind of person the captain in front of her was.

Duncan just silently stared at the doll, and after Alice shrank into an even smaller ball, he said gloomily, "The only humanoid being on this ship besides you is me. Are you implying…"

"I didn't mean anything!" Alice almost jumped up, quickly waving her hands. "Please let me explain, I'm saying this box…"

"I didn't say I was going to do anything to you," Duncan looked at her helplessly. "You're a crew member of the Vanishing Sea now, and I'm your protector on the boundless sea. You don't have to be so afraid—can you sit still? It makes it seem like I'm doing something to you."

Only then did Alice say "oh" and slowly move back to the edge of the bed. In Duncan's heart, however, other thoughts arose because of Alice's interruption—yes, regardless of whether the main body of the Doll Coffin was the doll or the coffin, anomaly 099 had been on the Vanishing Sea for so long, far exceeding the cycle of each "check," and the anomaly had always been in a harmless state… Obviously, this was due to suppression.

So, what was suppressing it, the Vanishing Sea or himself, the "captain?"

Duncan looked down at his hands.

He knew that he possessed considerable power, which not only allowed him to completely occupy the life of the cultist named "Rhone," but was even so powerful and bizarre that it made Alice, an upper-level anomaly, tremble at first sight, and made "A Gou," a deep-sea demon, tuck its tail. He didn't yet know the nature of this power, but this didn't prevent him from gradually gaining some awareness of his own uniqueness.

On the other hand, the Vanishing Sea was the fifth-ranked phenomenon on the boundless sea—a "phenomenon," not an anomaly.

This meant that as long as it was within the scope of the Vanishing Sea, there was a twenty-four-hour, uninterrupted "field" in effect, constantly exerting influence on all targets within range.

With the captain + ship suppression, anomaly 099 was naturally harmless, but if he really brought Alice to the Pland city-state according to plan… then the situation might get out of control.

Therefore, he had to figure out a series of things—was the main body that produced the effect of anomaly 099 the doll Alice, or the wooden box? Was it himself, the captain, or the Vanishing Sea that suppressed anomaly 099? If Alice and the wooden box were separated, would the effect of anomaly 099 still occur? If it was himself, the captain, who produced the suppression effect, what was the range of this suppression?

His thoughts extended—

If it was the "coffin" that produced the decapitation effect, then would it be safe for him to take Alice to the Pland city-state alone? If the "coffin" was an anomalous element that could be separated, then could his flames also exert influence on it separately? If he completely dominated this box with flames, would it be equivalent to controlling the previously uncontrollable decapitation effect? Just like using flames to control A Yi and the Brass Compass?

A pile of questions were listed in Duncan's mind, and these questions gradually formed a complex set of controlled test schemes. But at the end of the scheme, he found a frustrating thing:

He lacked many of the necessary conditions for testing.

The Vanishing Sea wasn't a qualified testing ground because the ghost ship's power would interfere with the accuracy of the results, and he didn't have a suitable test subject—because anomaly 099's decapitation effect was quite life-threatening… it threatened the life of the "tester."

Duncan raised his head and looked at Alice, who was sitting obediently by the bed—the doll was looking at her beloved wooden box with some worry, and all the entanglements in her heart seemed to be printed on her face.

Seeming to notice the captain's gaze, Alice suddenly broke the silence. She said in a low voice, "From the day I became conscious… I've always lived in this box. It's my bed, my home, and my shelter. When I sleep in it, I feel very safe."

Duncan didn't speak, just quietly looked at the doll in front of him.

"I now know why those humans are so afraid," Alice stretched out her hand and gently stroked her wooden box. "They're afraid of 'us.'"

"I was originally planning to take you to the Pland city-state next time I walked in the spirit world," Duncan said in a deep voice. "I need a helper there."

Alice's eyes seemed to light up for a moment, but then dimmed. "Ah, that's not going to work…"

"The plan has been postponed, but not canceled," Duncan's expression and tone didn't change much. "We just need more time to confirm your… 'your' power, to master the effective conditions of this 'decapitation' effect. The human city-states on land can seal and even utilize various anomalies through various skillful methods, and this is the Vanishing Sea, we can do more."

Alice looked at Duncan with suspicion. From the captain's calm and deep gaze, she realized that this wasn't just an empty word of comfort.

"You have a plan?"

Duncan thought for a while, raised his fingertip, and lit a cluster of faint flames.

"First of all, we might need a little fire."