8 Sun

She was a puppet, a puppet that looked almost like a living human. Duncan almost could not realize that. She lay elegantly inside the wooden case. It was like a lady sleeping inside a coffin waiting for someone to wake her.

Duncan almost thought that she would suddenly wake up.

But that was just his imagination. The puppet lay silently inside the case, showing no reaction to her surroundings.

Duncan carefully and closely studied the mysterious "item." There shouldn't be anything weird if she were an ordinary puppet, but her appearance resembled an actual human too much, to the point where the coffin itself gave off a dangerous vibe. Thinking of how the case suddenly appeared on the Lost Home had only made him even more cautious.

After a short observation, Duncan was sure that the elegant and goth-looking puppet would not suddenly spring into life and surprise him. He let out a sigh of relief and asked the goat head with a frown, "What do you think this is?"

"This is most likely an important cargo that the ship we've encountered earlier was carrying," the goat head immediately replied. Although it had expressed that it had never seen the eerie wooden case that had suddenly appeared on Lost Home before, it was still much more experienced in matters that happened on the sea. "The symbols on the wooden case point towards the gods. There are dowels around it that were used to secure chains. This might mean that it used to be sealed. Delivering a sealed item on this cast ocean is a risky business. The ship we've encountered might be an important one."

"Sealed?" Duncan's eyes twitched a little as he quickly turned to look at the lid thrown to the side by him. The only reason he could easily open the coffin was that the lid was already broken when it appeared on the Lost Home. He didn't know a single thing about seals, but he was pretty sure the seal was already broken. "So, is this something dangerous?"

"To those weak humans? Yes. But I don't think it'll pose any threat to us. 'Abnormalities' like this that are sealed by the humans using a special method aren't strong enough to stand straight in front of your power."

Duncan turned silent, and his expression turned serious. He was racking his mind now.

The compliments from the goat head were pleasing to hear. Duncan would've believed it if he was the real "Captain Duncan." However, the truth was that he was completely panicked.

It was all because the goat head had confirmed that the puppet lying inside the coffin was a "dangerous object," although it was something that wouldn't be able to harm the real captain.

It was true that he was now Captain Duncan, had taken over the captain's body and had even mastered some power. But, "Zhou Ming" was still self-conscious enough to know that all of those didn't mean he was as strong as the "real Captain Duncan."

His understanding of the new world, the ship, and even the body he was in were too little.

Other than that, he was also sharp enough to notice the new strange term that the goat head had just brought up, the "abnormality."

An abnormality was something out of the ordinary. It was a straightforward term, but Duncan could hear in the goat head's tone that the exception that it had mentioned was something even more special.

Perhaps, in the world he was in, the word "abnormality" didn't simply mean something that was not normal but was referring to a particular object, like the puppet lying inside the coffin.

Unfortunately, he did not have enough reasons to ask the goat head about something that should be common in that world.

With a silent sigh, he concluded that he needed to work harder to collect information and knowledge of the world. With a frown, he glanced at the puppet and made a decision. "I have to throw that back into the ocean."

He hesitated a little before saying that. That hesitation was even more pronounced when he looked at the puppet.

The reason wasn't something as simple as "the puppet is beautiful." It was because "she" looked like a natural person sleeping soundly inside the coffin. The idea of throwing her back into the ocean made him feel like he was doing that to a real living person.

However, it was that same hesitation that made him steel his heart.

He already knew that there were a lot of mysterious and weird objects in the new world, even though the only thing he had come into contact with in this world was the Lost Home. Yet, the boat had already shown him a lot of things. The speaking wooden goat head, the masts that could raise their own sails, the lights that never went out, the strange and dangerous ocean, the terrifying Spirit World, and the endless fog.

And, just a few minutes back, he even collided with an engine-powered ship that was carrying sealed cargo, and that cargo had mysteriously appeared on the deck of the Lost Home.

As a person with reasons and cautiousness, he would never leave a thing that could endanger him on the ship despite how pretty she was.

It might be a waste, but Duncan had decided to put the lid back onto the "coffin." Still worried, he quickly found some nails and a hammer from the cabin and ensured all sides of the case were sealed.

He then pushed the coffin with the puppet to the edge of the deck.

It was then the goat head's voice appeared inside his head. "Captain, you can do anything you want with your loot, but I'd like to humbly suggest you not do that. You don't have to be so cautious about it. It has been a long time since we got a loot..."

"Shut it!" Duncan interrupted the goat head with a simple command.

The goat head became silent instantly. Duncan put strength into his leg and kicked the coffin off the deck.

The heavy case fell straight into the ocean, which was no longer dyed in black. After a loud splash, it floated back up and started to drift towards the end of the ship.

Duncan watched as the case slowly got further away until the poop deck completely covered his sight of it. He let out a sigh of relief before turning to look toward the horizon. He noticed that the fog had disappeared entirely, and the waves around the Lost Home had calmed down.

The ship had completely left the "Spirit World" and had returned to the real world.

He could not spot the engine-powered ship that had collided with the Lost Home a while ago.

Duncan frowned. He roughly calculated the time that had passed since that event and the speeds of both ships.

Judging by the current situation of the ocean, the ship should still be in his sight.

"Is it because of this strange ocean? Or is it because of the 'Spirit World Voyage'?"

Duncan mumbled to himself, but something else quickly caught his attention.

A ray of golden light had poked through the thick dark clouds in the sky for as long as he could remember.

The golden sunlight slowly expanded while the heavy cloud started to thin out as if a giant hand had swept past it. The ocean that had remained dark for the past few days finally saw sunlight. Duncan stood on the forecastle deck of the Lost Home and watched as the clouds disappeared with his widened eyes. At that moment, he was touched by the scene unfolding before him.

Since he learned the existence of "this side" a few days back, and since he first started exploring the weird ship, the dark clouds had always loomed over the entire ocean. It was to the point where he almost thought that there was no sunlight in the new world and that it was always shrouded in darkness by the clouds.

It had been a long time since he had last seen the sun. The thick fog had always blocked it, whether it was on the other side of the "door" or Zhou Ming's studio apartment room.

But, now, the sun had finally risen in the vast ocean.

After so long having not seen the sun, he felt as if "this side" had cleared up.

Duncan instinctively took a deep breath and opened his arms wide so that he was ready to welcome the warmth of the sun. The thick clouds started to thin out quickly as if they were responding to him. At the moment where the sun shone the brightest, Duncan finally saw the enormous ball-like object that was radiating uneven rays all around it.

Duncan's expression froze.

His eyes, still widened, stared directly into the sky. The sun was glaring, but it was as bad as he remembered. he could still clearly see the object that hung high above the sky. He could see its exterior, covered in countless dense patterns, the light radiating all around it, and the two ring-like structures surrounding it.

Duncan focused his sight on the rings, and he could barely tell that they were formed by a combination of complex and dense symbols. It looked like a supreme power had laid an eternal chain on the "sun," sealing it up in the sky.

Duncan could not bathe in the sunlight which he had yearned for.

There was no sunlight in that world.

"What is that?" he softly asked, his voice a little cold.

"Captain, that, is the sun, of course," the goat head replied in its usual calm demeanor.