Chapter 1 The Bottom of the "Model" is Growing

The base of the "model" was growing.

As Zhou Ming-Duncan's thoughts spread, the structure representing the underground world of Pland City-State gradually emerged in his mind, and these parts appearing in his cognition were now transformed into corresponding new parts on this "collection."

It was a rough thing, like a stone disc, growing out at a speed visible to the naked eye, covering the entire underground part of Pland City-State, and then gradually extending, presenting more bizarre details—sedimentary layers of thousands of years, growth like tiny spikes, and winding curves between the sedimentary layers... strange protrusions.

It felt like the rough skin of some echinoderm, or the ugly outer layer left by rock corroded in strong acid. Finally, the growth process stopped.

The bottom of the "model" representing Pland City-State now had a disc-shaped base.

However, Zhou Ming frowned. He could feel... that his consciousness spreading in Pland City-State had not stopped, and was still extending "downward"!

In a darkness, in a coldness, in a transcendent perception beyond ordinary senses, he felt his spirit continue to seep and flow downward like mercury sinking into the soil. He clearly felt his "gaze" pass through thick cement, soil, and rock, pass through a "shell" that was extremely dense but neither metal nor stone, and sink into the cold seawater, then continue downward, continue downward!

In just the blink of an eye, he felt himself sink into a pale-white deep sea, pass through this 850-meter-thick base, and slowly extend along some invisible but existent "pathway"!

Zhou Ming looked suspiciously at the doll: "A good idea?" "Uncle! I'm still very clumsy!"

"Shirley!"

But the next second, the doll got up as if nothing had happened, patted her skirt, picked up the newspaper that had fallen on the ground, and came to Zhou Ming with a smile: "Newspaper!"

He never managed to "see" what was in the deep sea directly below Dai Maozi.

As he spoke, Pland's figure appeared in the sight of the uncle and niece.

Duncan felt his heart pounding, a sudden fall, but being abruptly pulled by a rope halfway down. It took him nearly half a minute to calm down and control his breathing and heartbeat.

The sun rose into the sky again as usual. Stunned for two seconds, he couldn't help but ask, "Who taught you that?"

Duncan closed his eyes slightly. Dai Mao slowly placed the model back on the shelf.

"I really don't dare to," Zhou Ming sighed, "this is your first time going out alone in the true sense—even if it's just to the newsstand at the corner."

A part of my extending "consciousness" is now suspended in this position.

And the structure inside that disc was completely chaotic, difficult to perceive, difficult to spy on.

Nina supported herself on the ground with one foot, with an excited and proud expression on her face.

Duncan breathed a sigh of relief, stood up, picked up Alice's city-state model, and slowly came to the shelf at the end of the room.

Nina smiled: "You see, I told you Miss Pland was suspicious!"

Nina was stunned: "I don't think these two things can be lumped together..."

But after putting the model in, Duncan's gaze once again fell on the bottom of the base, and a hint of doubt could not help but emerge in his heart.

But he vaguely realized one thing—

Duncan tried hard to identify it for a long time before realizing... it was the bottom of Dai Maozi.

His consciousness spread throughout the city-state, but in the deep sea, his consciousness clearly exceeded the physical boundaries of this city-state model... its bottom structure ended abruptly after 850 meters, but before that, his consciousness had extended another one or two hundred meters downward... how did the subsequent one or two hundred meters extend?

What exactly is this invisible medium?

Nina quickly looked down and hurriedly moved the wheel away: "Ah! Sorry!"

Everything in the city-state was as usual.

Speak of the devil. As he spoke, he watched Pland fall headfirst less than a meter in front of him, falling flat on her face.

Was it some kind of plankton in the deep sea? Some kind of luminous fish school? Or something else?

That made him absent-minded from time to time.

Then Duncan slowly adjusted and tried to turn his attention to another direction: the deeper depths of the seabed.

Pland continued to maintain this confident posture with her neck stuck out, with a confident smile on her face: "I found a good way to reinforce it!"

This huge structure hidden directly below the city-state was probably the reason why Queen Lei Nora of Frost made the unilateral decision to push forward the Submersion Project half a century ago!

He was "looking up" at Dai Maozi and saw the entire long heart-shaped disc base. In the extreme darkness, this base had some small luminous structures.

It was as if he had suddenly hit some invisible "limit," or reached the end of the "medium." His perception finally stopped in the deep sea at a certain depth below the city-state and stabilized at that position.

"Uncle, are you spacing out again?"

Zhou Ming did not take the newspaper immediately, but looked at the doll-like Miss Pland, who still had her head, with disbelief on his face. After a long while, he choked out a sentence: "...Falling like that, how come your head didn't fall off?"

But he couldn't see clearly what it was... Simple sensory perception, separated by such a long distance and thick seawater, could only convey extremely vague information.

But after a while, he suddenly felt something vaguely.

"I'm fine," Zhou Ming quickly waved his hand, then looked up at the end of the street, as if to change the subject, "But speaking of which, Pland hasn't come back yet."

He felt as if he was in the dark, cold deep sea, and countless tons of seawater were wrapping and pressing down on him layer by layer. The sense of oppression was so real that even his consciousness seemed to be suppressed and bound. He tried to open his "eyes" in that darkness, but could only see endless nothingness.

But gradually, some small glimmers of light seemed to appear in this nothingness.

There was something under Frost, something under Alice, and probably under other city-states as well!

"He just left not long ago," Nina said casually, "and you don't have to worry so much, do you? He's just going to buy a newspaper, not crossing half the city. He shouldn't get lost, right?"

Nina's voice suddenly came from the side, interrupting Zhou Ming's wild thoughts.

But ever since he completed the exploration "below" Alice, he couldn't help but think of this cold and dark deep sea, and the huge structure perceived in the deep sea.

The doll-like Miss Pland was holding a newspaper in her arms, a smile on her face, trotting all the way towards this side with her neck stuck out, shouting as she ran: "Mr. Zhou Ming! The newspaper is back!"

Pland: "You put glue on it!" But Dai Mao's attention was not on the disc base, but on the empty space below the base.

He only felt an endless fullness, an endless darkness. "Oh, hopefully," Zhou Ming sighed, "mainly because when I first got on the ship, I'd get hit with a frying pan just for going to the kitchen to get a plate."

And how much further did it extend after that? A hundred meters? Two hundred meters?

"I think it'll be fine," Nina thought for a while and said very definitely, "You practiced with him many times before he left, including how to tell people what he wanted to buy, how to get change, and to say thank you when he got the stuff... she's learned it all."

"Are you alright? You've been spacing out since this morning."

Now that the model had an extra "base," it could still fit into the storage compartment on the shelf—as if from the very beginning, the model and the compartment had been designed with ample space.

He couldn't help but wonder if the Queen of Frost half a century ago had been like that too? He didn't deny having glimpsed the secrets in the deep sea in some way... perhaps even more than he had glimpsed?

Zhou Ming: "...?!"

The structure was smooth and beautiful, yet generally quite regular. Its bottom was a jagged fracture surface, giving the feeling... as if it had been broken off stiffly from somewhere, or had been disturbed during the "generation" process from top to bottom, resulting in a beautiful break.

Something extremely large, lifeless, and possibly as huge as Alice herself was sleeping in this boundless darkness.

His first reaction was certainly not easy, and he subconsciously wanted to control this trend of thought "falling" towards the deep sea. But before he could react, this constant "falling" suddenly stopped.

In Alice's lower city district, in the large open space in front of the antique shop, Zhou Ming watched Nina happily ride a bicycle in a circle, then ride back and forth in the street, finally stopping steadily in front of him.

In the deep sea... there seemed to be nothing.

Duncan couldn't see it, couldn't hear it. The extreme darkness and noise hid all the details of this huge existence, but he couldn't be sure. Something existed here, dormant and silent, as if it had always been there.

"It's alright." Zhou Ming waved his hand with a smile, then breathed a sigh of relief and looked up at the street in the sunlight.

Zhou Ming was shocked when he saw Pland running over, and rushed up to meet her, loudly reminding her: "Don't run! Slow down!"

Duncan couldn't be sure. He only knew that his perception was still spreading downward. Even though he had left the scope of Alice's city-state, and even though no new structure had appeared on the "collection" in his hand, his thoughts were still flowing along some invisible "medium"!

After an unknown amount of time, Duncan returned without success. Then, after regaining his composure, he slowly picked up the Alice model in front of him, observing the thick "rock plate" that had spread out below its base.

Below the street illuminated by the sun, the deep darkness and huge shadows seemed to belong to another world, without affecting people's daily lives at all.

Zhou Ming showed a smile on his face: "Not bad, you're riding quite well—but your wheel is on my foot."

The next second, the perception from afar was instantly enhanced.