Chapter 3: Lost at the Border

The wooden goat head, with its rigid, dark face, watched Duncan sitting behind the navigation desk, its obsidian eyes seemingly flowing with a strange light—but, in fact, the thing didn't have the ability to produce expressions. Yet Duncan clearly read a certain expectation on that wooden face.

In fact, this was not the first time the goat head had urged him to "set sail." Every time he came here, the goat head would urge him to do so.

He even felt that the ship itself was constantly urging him, pushing him to end this blind drifting on the seas and to set sail back to the right course as soon as possible.

However, Duncan fell silent. His naturally commanding face was now clouded with gloom, and in his contemplation and silence, he became acutely aware of two problems:

First, he was the only person on the entire ship, and the scale of the ship was insanely large—a vessel powered by sails, this ship called "Homeloss" was roughly estimated by Duncan to be at least one hundred and fifty to two hundred meters in length. To maneuver such a behemoth would require dozens or even hundreds of experienced sailors. How could he manage it alone?

Second, aside from the professional factors mentioned above, there was another key issue obstructing his voyage—he didn't know how to sail.

Duncan was somewhat anxious. He tried to imagine what would happen if he were to ask this weird and noisy goat head for lessons in ship piloting, and after imagining, he felt even more anxious.

Yet, the goat head had no idea what its captain was thinking; it simply asked, "Captain, do you have any concerns? If you are worried about the condition of Homeloss, you can rest assured that Homeloss is always ready to sail with you to the ends of the world. Or are you worried that setting sail today is inauspicious? I have a slight knowledge of divination. Which kind do you trust more? Astrology, incense, crystals, all work. Speaking of crystals, do you remember..."

Duncan strained the muscles on his face, controlling the urge to fight this goat head to the death, and said solemnly, "I will go up to the deck to observe the situation—stay here quietly."

"I will heed your wish—but I must remind you that Homeloss has been blindly drifting for too long; you must take control of it soon, to bring this voyage back on course..."

The goat head said, and then with the sound of wood rubbing, it finally returned to its original position.

In an instant, Duncan felt the whole world quieted down.

He exhaled gently, the resonance in his head slowly subsided, and then he picked up the flintlock pistol on the table, stood up, and walked out of the captain's cabin.

This flintlock pistol, which appeared to be quite old, was something he had found during his explorations on the ship, along with a one-handed sword that was currently hanging at his waist. These two items were his security while moving around the ship.

Over the past few days, he had spent a considerable amount of time learning how to use these two items—although so far, he had not seen any living beings on the ship other than himself.

Talking "items" didn't count.

The briny sea breeze hit his face, and Duncan's somewhat irritable mood calmed down with it. He stepped onto the deck outside the captain's cabin and instinctively looked up at the sky.

The thick clouds still covered the whole sky within view, with no sun, moon, or stars visible, only the dull sky light enveloping this boundless sea.

This scene had persisted for a long time; in fact, ever since Duncan had arrived on the ship, he had only seen such skies—this even made him wonder if the world even had normal weather, or if this overcast scene was the eternal celestial sight of this sea region?

Duncan turned around. He saw the door to the captain's cabin standing quietly there, with a row of words carved in a script that he did not recognize above the door. Yet when his gaze focused on that row of words, their meaning was clearly projected into his mind:

"Door of the Displaced."

"Door of the Displaced... Homeloss, huh," Duncan muttered to himself, then with some self-mockery, "This ship does have a fitting name."

Then he stepped around the captain's cabin and climbed the stairs running along the edge of the deck to the upper deck at the stern. Here there was a wooden platform, the place with the widest view on the entire ship, besides the crow's nest.

A heavy black helm waited silently on the platform for the helmsman to arrive.

Duncan furrowed his brow. For some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of urgency and restlessness, and this feeling seemed to manifest out of nowhere the moment he laid eyes on the steering wheel.

He had never experienced this feeling in his previous visits!

As if to echo the restlessness in his heart, a sudden, chaotic wind blew across the deck, and the previously calm sea surface instantly rippled with waves. Although the wind and waves were not enough to affect the massive "Homeloss," Duncan felt alarm bells ringing in his heart. The next second, driven by his intuition, he turned his gaze towards the direction of the bow.

On the sea surface right in front of Homeloss, between that chaotic blurring of sky and sea, appeared an infinitely vast, like a sky-high barrier, a wall of white fog that seemed to materialize out of thin air, causing Duncan's eyes to widen in shock instantly!

It was a white fog that seemed to encircle and isolate the whole world, like a cliff towering between heaven and earth, rolling in with an oppressive force. Yet, more distressing than its heart-pounding size was how it instantly reminded Duncan (Zhou Ming) of the boundless fog outside his apartment window!

Homeloss was heading straight for that wall of fog!

Duncan didn't know what that thick fog was or what lay in its depths, but instinctively, he felt an immense danger. His survival instinct told him that being swallowed by that dense fog was not going to be a good thing!

Subconsciously, he rushed towards the platform where the ship's wheel was—enveloped by a tremendous sense of powerlessness: even if he took the helm, how could he, alone, steer this colossal ship away from that wall of fog?

Yet, he still instinctively came before the steering wheel, and at nearly the same time, he heard a hoarse, gloomy voice coming from a copper pipe next to the steering wheel that connected to the captain's cabin—it was the voice of "Goat Head," and this time, the strange being's tone seemed a bit panicked:

"Captain, a border collapse has appeared ahead. We are approaching the boundary of reality! Please adjust our course immediately!"

Listening to Goat Head's panicked voice, Duncan almost cursed out loud—adjusting the course was easy to say, but why didn't you conjure up a hundred and eighty skilled sailors right here and now to get this thing moving!

Immediately after, he looked up at the direction of the mast again and saw several bare poles standing on the deck, feeling even more desolate in his heart—the fact was this ship didn't even have sails; those poles were empty!

In his agitated state, he didn't even take the time to properly consider the strange terms just spouted by Goat Head; only instinct made him subconsciously grasp the steering wheel, which was trembling slightly for some unknown reason.

It was the first time he had voluntarily put his hands on Homeloss's wheel in days—up until now, the eerie circumstances aboard the ship and Goat Head's incessant urging always left him with doubts, making him resistant to "taking the helm." Now, he no longer had the chance to hesitate.

He gripped the wheel tightly, his mind too blank to even think about how he might manage a ghostly, deserted ship alone.

The change occurred in the next instant.

As if a monstrous wave was crashing onto the shore, a booming sound exploded in Duncan's head. It was as if ten thousand cheering people stood ashore to see a ship off, as if hundreds of sailors were shouting the captain's name on the deck, with a mix of somber sea shanties and unseen tumultuous waves.

A green flame emerged on the edge of his vision. Duncan instinctively looked at his palms and saw a burst of emerald fire erupt from the wheel of Homeloss, sweeping over him with a rapid momentum. In the blink of an eye, it engulfed his entire body.

Within the blazing flames, his physical body turned hollow and phantom-like. His captain's uniform became as tattered and worn as if it had been soaked in seawater for decades. And underneath what suddenly seemed like a Spiritual Body, Duncan could vaguely see his own bones—their jade-like skeleton leaping with flames, the inextinguishable fire flowing like water through his body.

Yet, he didn't feel the slightest pain or heat. Amidst the flames, he only sensed his awareness expanding in all directions.

Fire rolled down from the helm, spreading across the deck, over the ship's sides, and up the masts. The flames intertwined like a web, then rose like breath from the decks, spreading along the solitary masts and, finally, weaving into a vast, mist-like sail between the sea and fog.

Homeloss had set sail, at the edge of this rapidly collapsing reality.

(Mama mia, what a surprise!

PS: The Sword of Dawn has added a new full subscription side story, which theoretically should be the last chapter of extras. Everyone, go take a look~~~)