The world in Alice's eyes seems to have been completely different from that of ordinary people from the beginning - but until today, no one has discovered this.
Even Alice herself didn't notice this.
Duncan learned from Vanna about the battle that took place in the alley, and Alice's performance in that battle - from her detecting the hidden enemy through the "floating thread" to her taking a
The Annihilation cultists who tried to escape turned into shattered porcelain dolls. The whole process surprised Duncan.
Now, all eyes are on the doll lady who has been confused from beginning to end.
"...So you can't see the 'line'..." No matter how slow Alice was, she realized what was going on. She scratched her head with an innocent look on her face, "I thought this was common sense, after all.
Everyone has that thing floating on their heads and limbs..."
Duncan stared into Alice's eyes with a particularly serious expression: "Let me confirm again, everyone has a 'thread', right?"
"Yes, everyone—but not you, Captain," Alice replied immediately.
Duncan thought for a moment and then asked: "...Is it because I don't have it in my true body, or does it not exist in my current body?"
"You don't have the body you have now," Alice answered honestly, and then added, "Neither does the body you had in Pland..."
Duncan nodded slightly, his thoughts racing in his mind, and all kinds of conjectures came and went.
In Alice's eyes, people all over the world have floating "threads" on their bodies, except for herself, and neither does the body she occupies... Therefore, this so-called "thread" is not connected to the flesh and blood body, but
Does it symbolize something more essential? Is it the soul? Or is it personality?
When the distance is close enough, she can easily "catch" the threads on other people's bodies and use it to restrain or attack the opponent. What is this ability about? It is because she has had it since the beginning as Abnormal 099 but has not yet
The ability she had shown before, or the mutation that occurred after she became a member of the Lost Home?
Duncan was thinking, his eyes never leaving Alice's face. Finally, even this slow doll felt awkward. She subconsciously twisted her neck: "Captain... you keep staring at me... I'm so nervous."
of."
"Oh, I'm sorry," Duncan reacted immediately, blinked to stop his eyes from being so full of pressure, and then turned to look at Vanna next to him thoughtfully, "As far as I know, Alice is now
The 'official name' has been changed to Anomaly 099-Doll, right?"
"Yes, her original name was Doll Coffin," Vanna nodded immediately, guessing what Duncan meant, "Are you trying to say that Alice's power is also related to this change?"
"Perhaps... the coffin and the doll have represented different powers from the beginning. The former is a symbol of death, so it has the ability to be simple and crude beheading, while the latter is the manipulation of human-shaped objects, which is consistent with the 'doll'
"Positioning," Duncan said unhurriedly, "It's just that the Alice before was the 'contents' of the coffin, so the 'combination' of Anomaly 099 fully exhibits the characteristics of the coffin, and now... the doll has become
The 'main part' of Anomaly 099, her original abilities were released."
"The coffin and the doll each have different powers..." Morris, who had never spoken at the side, muttered softly, "This is a very possible conjecture."
Duncan felt somewhat emotional in his heart.
All this time, he thought that the powerful power of Anomaly 099 had disappeared - after Alice's wooden box was "transformed", she was just a strange cursed doll that could move and think, and she was incompetent.
I was both cowardly and naive, but I didn't expect that she would show such a weird ability today. How can I put it...
It is indeed worthy of the number within a hundred digits - although it is still very poor on the Lost Home Number.
Alice obviously didn't have that many thoughts. She just kept turning her eyes around as Duncan and others talked, looking at this and that. It took a long time before she managed to figure out some of the current situation, but her face showed
Looking a little uneasy, he cast his gaze cautiously: "...Captain, have I done something bad?"
"No, it's a good thing," Duncan immediately shook his head, "You are very brave and you protect yourself very well. The cultists are by no means innocent."
"Then..." Alice thought again, raised her hand and gestured, "Then is my ability a bad thing?"
Duncan looked at the doll quietly for a long time before a smile suddenly appeared on his face: "It's a good thing."
Alice seemed a little confused.
"You can control it, right?" Duncan asked.
"Yes," Alice waved her hand, "it's very simple."
"So it's a good thing," Duncan said with a smile. "Having power is never a bad thing - losing control is trouble. Now you can help me more, Alice."
Miss Doll finally laughed and swayed around looking extremely happy: "That's great. I saw everyone was so serious suddenly and thought things were bad..."
Duncan just reached out his hand and gently pressed Alice's hair.
She was shaking a little too much, and her head was about to fall off.
At the same time, the thoughts in his heart did not calm down.
Although he knew Alice's current ability and roughly deduced that "the doll and the coffin have their own symbols", this did not mean that all the mysteries were solved. On the contrary, it only made him more aware.
The doll in front of us hides more secrets.
He has been spending a lot of time with Alice. It is precisely because of this time together that he has become accustomed to the noisy doll on the boat, and is used to her running around in front of him all day long but being harmless.
appearance - he almost forgot that before this doll became the cook on the Lost Home, it was first anomaly numbered 099, a strange thing that emerged from the cold deep sea after the death of the Frost Queen.
.
In a sense, she and those weird and twisted "replicas" are actually of the same origin.
But she's completely different from any other replica seen so far - and there's a reason why.
For some reason, he suddenly remembered what the Annihilation cultist who appeared after the explosion of the Haiyan said -
"If it weren't for that queen..."
Duncan shook his head, temporarily suppressed the complicated thoughts in his heart, and looked up at Vanna.
"Tonight's situation shows one thing. The 'replicas' in the city are indeed the hands and feet of those Annihilation cultists, and those cultists are not only acting in secret, but also secretly paying attention to the replicas they released into the city -
This kind of observation is very much like collecting some kind of data.”
"In my experience, this is preparation for a bigger operation. The replica in the city is just the beginning, and the erosion on Dagger Island is probably just another larger testing ground," Vanna nodded,
"They also tried to transport the pollution from Dagger Island to Frost Island. Although this action was blocked, it shows that their actions have reached a very critical stage."
"It doesn't matter, I will take action - but first I need to know which sewer they are hiding in," Duncan said casually. "There is no point in killing a few believers or priests, or even destroying a few gathering points. Plande's
Experience proves it.”
As he spoke, he raised his gaze. Between the gaps in the bandages, he looked through the dirty window next to him to the rows of spiers and eaves of Hanshuang.
"...Where are you hiding?"
The wind became stronger, and the second snow began to fall. Snowflakes fell in the night, and the streets in the distance became hazy as if they were hidden in fog.
It snowed almost all night, until the sun rose, the afterglow of the creation of the world dissipated in the sun, and the golden-red glow spread along the streets into the city, and the snowflakes gradually stopped.
The heavy and solemn wrought iron gate of the cemetery creaked open. The old guard in a thick coat hung the hook used to fix the gate on the fence and glanced at the streets in the direction of the city.
Everything as far as the eye can see is covered with thick snow, and the streets in the distance blur the outline and boundaries under the thick snow, becoming completely white.
The steam pipes above the block are emitting white mist. The heat energy from the steam core is being transported to key nodes everywhere to melt the ice and snow in the pipe network hub and power station. Large snowplows are also driven out, and these are billowing.
The big thing with white smoke and low roar rumbled through the streets, clearing important traffic lines.
Since the visitor left, tranquility has returned to the cemetery, and nothing unusual has disturbed the deceased. However, neither the guards of the cemetery nor the guards sent by the church have relaxed after that.
In the middle of the night, a "newsletter" was sent to the caretaker's hut through a high-pressure steam pipe. The letter came from the city hall. The content was very strange - it asked all extraordinary guards in the city to be vigilant, but it did not explain what exactly they should be wary of.
Agatha seemed to have received some intelligence shortly after that. She sent a small team to Hearth Street, but the guards have not returned yet.
The wind and snow were very strong in the second half of the night, and the howling wind and chaotic snowflakes seemed to foreshadow something.
The old guard tightened his coat.
"This damn weather..."
(Book recommendation time, from Master Che, the title of the book is "The Best Demon Slayer in Eight Directions", a story about a professional demon slayer who drags people into the inner scroll competition, a masterpiece written by a group of friends.