Chapter 1 I Am Now on the "Other Side" of the Door

After confirming this fact, Duncan couldn't help but approach the crack in the door, carefully observing the scene on the other side.

This couldn't help but remind him of his experience after exploring the bilge earlier, and of returning to his apartment as quickly as possible to confirm the situation on the other side of the crack—a familiar mindset, a familiar scene.

But just like last time, there wasn't another "Duncan" on the other side holding a sword and trying to stab him.

Duncan frowned slightly.

He had now reached this side of the door and had witnessed the situation here with his own eyes. He had even searched the entire ship, and during the search, he had not found anything amiss.

Then… what exactly was that thing he had seen in the crack of the hold door in the real dimension that had tried to disguise itself?

Duncan frowned slightly, turning to survey the empty, dim hold as if trying to find the thing that had disguised itself as "Zhou Ming"—he remembered that he had given it a sword blow at the time, but if this was really the subspace, then a simple sword blow should not have been enough to kill it. There should at least be some traces left here.

But there were none, no traces at all.

After searching carefully, Duncan finally began to doubt his own judgment at the time.

Then his gaze returned to the door.

As he expected, the ordinary sign was still on the door!

Zhou Ming placed his hand on the doorknob, a smile on his face.

"About one meter four—not very strong, but in good health.

This figure is my reflection in the mirror.

With a soft click, the door closed tightly. Zhou Ming silently watched the door that had not yet fully closed. After a few more seconds, his expression tightened, then gradually relaxed, while his heart seemed to react half a beat later, suddenly thumping wildly.

But this door might not exist—even if this ship really "doesn't exist," this door must exist because it could even exert an influence like "luring me to open the door," possessing extraordinary power. This thing definitely exists here!

A huge confusion filled his mind, but it was difficult for Zhou Ming to sort out his thoughts. He checked again near the door and throughout the hold, but could not find any clues to answer his questions. As time gradually passed, he had to give up for the time being.

It seemed he hadn't found the entrance/exit on this ship that connects the subspace and the real dimension. Theoretically, pushing the door open from there should allow him to return to the real world.

"Your height?"

That unfamiliar Chinese.

"Duncan." His heart almost skipped a beat. He subconsciously took half a step forward, but it wasn't that forward movement that made him realize this was actually a mirror.

"Around eighty-seven years old

Steeling his resolve, he placed his hand on the doorknob.

Looking around, he could only see endless darkness. This was the most pure and absolute black, as if all things had not yet perished, as if the universe was utterly devoid of special darkness.

After an unknown amount of time, he took a deep breath and quickly and swiftly took another step forward.

Gradually frowning.

Immediately afterward, he lowered his head and looked at the new ripples caused by his half step forward, seeing the writing that emerged in these ripples—the feeling of piercing through thick fog rushed over him, followed by a brief sensation of weightlessness and chaotic dizziness, but soon this feeling completely faded away. Duncan slowly opened his eyes.

The Door of the Lost Homeland.

The door to the captain's cabin stood quietly there, maintaining the same appearance as when he had left.

He didn't even feel the existence of that door.

During those two seconds of closing the door, he emptied his mind, thinking about nothing. He didn't consider returning to the real world, didn't consider being trapped here, didn't consider any consequences. He only gave himself a strong suggestion that "that door is safe," and then carried it out without hesitation—and only when the door was completely closed did he allow the emotions that he had forcibly suppressed to be released, and he took a deep breath.

"My age?"

Although it was pitch black there, as if nothing existed, there was ground beneath his feet—when he stepped out, he could still feel solid ground under his feet.

Just like that ship, in his perception, that door did not exist!

That kind of extremely dark space was enough to make anyone feel great oppression and even fear, and Duncan knew this. However, for some reason, he didn't feel any resistance standing there. Instead… he felt a strange sense of relaxation and comfort.

This door connects to everything I'm familiar with, and it brought me the first and greatest mystery in this world.

The real world on the other side is the "Lost Homeland" ship that I'm facing.

If I were to say what on this ship is most meaningful to me, then this door would be the first thing that comes to mind.

Duncan's gaze moved upward, and on the door frame of this door, in the dim light, he could vaguely see a few unfamiliar words.

I don't know what that strange feeling of relaxation was all about, but rationally, he knew that his state was not right. The conflict between reason and senses made him extra cautious, and he tried to take a step back.

Zhou Ming shook his head gently, putting aside those confusions for the time being, but couldn't help but sigh in his heart—the subspace, ah, it really is a place full of mysteries.

It wasn't like those two lines of text, it looked like a question and answer.

After a moment of determination, Duncan took a step forward.

With a slight force in his hand, he pushed the door outward. Accompanied by the faint sound of the door axis rotating, the "Door of the Lost Homeland" was pushed open as he had not expected, and on the other side of the door, there was an equally unfamiliar thick fog.

These things I saw in the crack of the door… maybe they are just illusions presented by the subspace, phantoms that only I could see at the time. This is also in line with the characteristic that "the subspace will present a reflection of the mind."

Unexpected tension—he remembered that when he and Alice saw this door in the real dimension, they also tried to close the door, but found that the entire door was as solid as if it had been cast in space, and no matter how much force they used, they could not move it at all. However, on this side of the door, closing it only required a gentle pull.

But Duncan's attention was not on those huge floating objects. He went directly through the empty deck and returned to the front of the captain's cabin door.

The words rippled and appeared with my footsteps:

Duncan felt his heart pounding, and he subconsciously changed direction, taking another step in the darkness.

"What do I look like?"

He did not return to his apartment, where he had lived for a long time.

The dilapidated and old Lost Homeland was still floating in the chaotic darkness like a cosmic space. The light and shadow turbulence that appeared around it from time to time often reflected some huge and terrifying fragments of shadows, slowly drifting past from places near or far. Some of these fragments looked like complete land, some were huge, twisted creatures, and some simply could not be seen in their original appearance, but were just a pile of pure "accumulations" that had lost their color and form, making people feel terrified to look at them.

"What is my name?"

Then gently pulled and closed the door.

Duncan immediately summarized a new experience: after opening the Door of the Lost Homeland on the "dilapidated and old Lost Homeland," he did not return to his apartment, but entered a strange, pitch-black space.

"Like this."

I stood in a pitch-black darkness.

It's just that… he couldn't explain why this phantom had not had any influence on his mind, and was even easily dealt with.

A middle school teacher, teaching Chinese, who usually loves to read books.

He couldn't waste all his time in this strange place—since this "exit" in the bilge had huge hidden dangers, then he should look for other ways out.

Duncan lowered his head, looking at the place where he was standing, and at that moment, he suddenly saw that his feet seemed to be rippling slightly. This pitch-black place actually showed colors other than darkness—what was emerging in these ripples were words.

Duncan's eyes changed slightly, and then he tentatively took another step forward. Sure enough, at the moment he landed, new ripples emerged in the darkness, still Chinese, still question-and-answer sentences:

He immediately turned and walked towards the stairs leading to the lower deck, quickly passing through the dark and empty cargo hold and the crew cabins on the upper level, passing through the wooden door connecting the lower deck and the hold, and arriving on the deck.

Although there was no clear evidence, a strong intuition was reminding Duncan, reminding him that the way to return to reality was definitely not as simple as pushing the door open from there—this was a temptation, a trap. He had experienced a temptation in the bilge of the Lost Homeland in the real dimension, and now this was the second time, more secretive and more difficult to guard against than the first.

That might really be an "exit" connecting to the real world, but he must never really push that door open!

Duncan stopped, quietly watching the ripples gradually spreading, the gray-white Chinese characters in the ripples becoming increasingly turbid, and then returning to brightness and dissipating as the ripples spread.

In the darkness, a light suddenly appeared, and something seemed to condense and take shape in the light in an instant. He suddenly saw a figure appearing opposite him, a figure identical to himself!

On that side, the door was slightly open outward from the door frame, while in the bilge of the Lost Homeland in the real dimension, the door was open inward, the two corresponding to each other.

"My occupation?"

Duncan stared at the door with deep eyes, then used his sword, which was burning with spiritual flames, to slash across its door panel. The ghostly green flames soared and burned, almost instantly engulfing the entire door, but after a burst of raging burning, the door still stood quietly here, as if unaffected at all.

While thinking, Duncan suddenly remembered something.

Faced with something clearly belonging to the transcendent realm, the spiritual flame failed for the first time, but not because the door was so unbreakable—on the contrary, he did not feel any resisting force from the feedback of the flame.

Duncan lowered his head, seeing indeed his body as a "human from Earth." He turned around again, seeing the door he had come through standing quietly here, standing alone in the darkness, keeping its open appearance.