Chapter 787 Another Alice Mansion?
Having cooperated several times, Alice was familiar with the keyhole on her back and sat on the bed waiting for the captain to turn the clockwork key.
Duncan took the brass key with a ring handle and slowly moved it close to Alice's clockwork hole, but at this moment, he suddenly heard the puppet speak: "Captain, I have a question."
Duncan immediately stopped his action: "Question?"
"You said that this key is the route to the other three god'nodes on the outer barrier, right? And I am still the... Navigator No. 3, right? In other words, as long as there is a route, I can take you to a very far place, even at the end of the world..."
Alice said, her tone was a little hesitant, as if she couldn't think of the right words to express her thoughts for a while. Duncan didn't urge her, but just waited patiently-after a while, the puppet seemed to finally sort out his thoughts and continued: "Then you say, are there other 'routes'? Or, if there is no new key, can I try it myself? I am going to take you somewhere else?"
Duncan felt a little confused: "...Why did you suddenly think of this?"
"I just...suddenly I am a little curious about myself," Alice said slowly, "I seem to have never thought about this before. I am busy on the ship every day and I am satisfied with doing what I like, but it seems that everyone except me is not like this...Everyone knows what they want to do, what is it called...Oh, sense of mission, it seems that everyone has a sense of mission, but I don't..."
The puppet suddenly stopped and thought seriously: "Should I have it too?"
"...There is no right or wrong about this," Duncan shook his head, "but I don't stop you from thinking more about yourself and understanding yourself-understanding yourself is a part of growth, which is a good thing. "
"Will puppets grow too?" Alice was a little curious.
"Yes, anyone can grow up as long as they are willing. You have grown a lot now compared to when you first arrived on the ship. Gaining more knowledge is growth, knowing more people is also growth, going to more places, and seeing more scenery are all growth. As long as you are different from you yesterday, it is a kind of growth for you." Alice said "oh" in a vague way, then thought about it for a while, and suddenly thought of something happily: "Ah, then I forgot a few words I learned yesterday this morning, is it growth?" Duncan suddenly fell silent: "..." Alice: "Captain? Captain, why don't you speak?" "...Sometimes what I say is not rigorous," Duncan looked at Alice's back expressionlessly, trying to focus on the keyhole, "You have to understand dialectically." Alice thought about it, but didn't understand it - because she didn't know what "dialectical" meant. But she felt that the captain was right, so she nodded happily: "Okay, then I have no problem! I'm ready, please wind me up!"
Duncan took a breath and quickly calmed his thoughts, then carefully inserted the brass key into the keyhole of the puppet.
A familiar click sounded, and the clockwork key slid into the keyhole as if it was actively attracted. Then, the complex and gorgeous patterns around the keyhole lit up slightly - the clockwork key began to rotate on its own, making a slight click.
The next second, Duncan felt the familiar dizziness and reset of perception coming from all directions, and then darkness fell like a curtain, covering everything around, and then a slightly cool touch came to his face - he seemed to have passed through an invisible door, and in the darkness, the fragments of light and shadow quickly reorganized and gradually stabilized into a spacious, gorgeous, but dim and weird place.
Duncan quickly woke up from his trance, and after getting rid of the dizziness, he immediately opened his eyes and looked around.
He found himself in that magnificent mansion, with a very wide living room, a corridor with dark red carpet, a spiral staircase leading to the second floor, a tall and narrow Gothic spired window, and a gloomy chandelier hanging high on the ceiling that seemed to be swaying slightly.
But almost in an instant, he realized that the surrounding environment was different from the "Alice Mansion" in his memory - the lights were dimmer, and the pale light emitted by the candles covered a small area like a limited gauze, making most corners of the mansion shrouded in darkness; the roof was more dilapidated, and the mottled and peeling dome even vaguely revealed a skeleton-like structure in some places, but only a chaotic gray could be seen in the gaps between the skeletons.
An atmosphere that was more gloomy and more bizarre than the "Alice Mansion" in his memory enveloped this place, and even in the dark corners close at hand, there seemed to be countless invisible lurkers hiding, looking at the uninvited guests who broke in here with cold and empty eyes.
Duncan frowned. He noticed that he was standing on a platform on the second floor of the mansion. Through the opening at the edge of the platform, he could see the lobby on the first floor and the spiral staircase leading to the lobby. After a little thought, he decided not to go to the first floor first, but turned to the corridor leading to the deepest part of the second floor.
And just as he turned around and took a step, he suddenly noticed another "strangeness" here.
Quiet, empty, and no one - he did not see the headless mansion maids and servants, nor did he hear any movement from the servants, and he did not see the headless butler.
He still remembered that although the previous "Alice Mansion" was also very empty, he could still see headless servants hurriedly walking through the doorways and corridors from time to time, even in seemingly empty rooms and halls. You can always hear whispers and the sound of objects colliding, and sometimes you can even hear the vague sound of music that sounds like a dance going on - although those sounds are more eerie and eerie when placed in a large empty bungalow, but At least there is some "lively" movement.
But there's not even a sound here, it's as quiet as...dead.
Duncan gradually became more vigilant and walked towards the second floor corridor.
The entire huge building only echoed with his monotonous and slightly hollow footsteps.
He stopped in front of the entrance to the corridor leading to the "Mistress' Bedroom", looked up at the nearest wall, and then his eyes suddenly stopped on a painting.
There are many oil paintings hanging on the walls of "Alice Mansion", and he still remembers the appearance of those oil paintings - most of them are abstract and gloomy, with large swaths of color painted with scenes that look like prophecies or historical records, and some of them even depict new hope. The disintegration of the USS and the scene of "Doomsday Red Shift", but here, he suddenly found that those oil paintings... had been replaced.
The painting closest to him was a bunch of simple and abstract graphics - childish pencil lines on the white paper outlined the appearance of Shirley, who was holding a chain and shaking the dog.
Duncan: "..."
After a few seconds of wordless silence, he suddenly felt that the eerie atmosphere in the mansion had dissipated a little, and then he noticed another hanging painting next to him with messy lines depicting a bearded man wearing a big hat. "captain"……
He even felt that the atmosphere in this bungalow was beginning to become warmer.
This is indeed the "Alice Mansion", and certain details in the bungalow reflect Miss Doll's memories and daily life - from some angles, it seems to be even more closely related to "Alice Doll" than that building. The "normal version" of the bungalow is a little closer.
At least the normal version of the bungalow won't have abstract paintings of all members of the Lost Home crew hanging on it.
Duncan smiled helplessly and walked deeper into the corridor.
As expected, he saw the huge "hole" at the end of the corridor.
The part that was once the "mistress' bedroom" disappeared out of thin air here - the room that Le Nora "drove away" is also a void here.
Duncan stopped in front of the broken ground at the end of the corridor, lowered his head and thought for a moment.
It seems that this is still the "Alice Mansion" that I know, but... it is "another version".
If you wind up Alice with different keys, will you enter different "copies" of the same "Alice Mansion"?
So what is the connection between this bungalow, which has a more gloomy atmosphere and seems to have been abandoned for a long time, and the "route"?
Duncan silently thought about where to start to find clues related to the "route" in this weird bungalow, and then of course he thought of the garden - and the doll sleeping among the thorns in the garden.
But just when he turned around and was about to head to the garden, a flash of light in the corner of his eye made him suddenly stop.
The outline of the light that appeared in a flash made Duncan's heart suddenly move. He immediately stepped in front of the shiny thing and reached out to brush the shadows covering the air like a black veil - the darkness seemed to have substance. Retreating, he saw the appearance of the thing clearly: a thing... no matter how you looked at it, it was very awkward here.
A "screen" like an LCD screen.
That thing was "embedded" on the wall at the end of the corridor. The silver-white metal frame was "melted" into the wall panel in some strange way. The screen-like surface was glowing slightly, with text and words dancing on it. Flashing red frame.
Duncan stared at the words on the "screen" and immediately realized that they were the same thing as the words on the device he had seen in the illusion of the "Holy Land Island" cave. And then, the words The meaning was directly presented in his mind in the form of information——
"Core escape capsule offline - illegal release, operation unauthorized."
Duncan stared blankly at the words for a few seconds, and finally came to his senses. He turned his head and glanced at the broken fracture and the "big hole" at the end of the corridor, and in his mind, he combined "New Hope Navigation Segment" and "New Hope Navigation Segment". Alice Mansion" After going back and forth, I finally understood an obvious fact that I didn't understand until today.
Co-author Frost Queen drove away the escape pod of the New Hope...
No wonder she can drive her "house" to the end of the world - that thing is the escape capsule of the spaceship!