Before leaving the cave where he had taken temporary refuge, Duncan wrapped some torn cloth from nearby corpses around his body.
This was not due to an inability to withstand the chill in the cave but rather to cover up his exposed heart to some extent—even though the hole in his chest did not affect Duncan's "survival," as a normal person at heart, wandering around with a chilling breeze passing straight through was indeed too bizarre. Wearing something at least provided some mental comfort and reduced the eerie sensation of the "draft."
Moreover, Duncan also considered the possibility of suddenly running into other people while navigating this underground space—logically, having a gaping hole in his chest might not be conducive to conversations with strangers...
Thus, after a simple treatment of his "wound," Duncan carefully left the gloomy, damp cave. He entered a corridor connected to the cave and began to slowly make his way deeper.
This temporarily occupied body was not "convenient." Not only did the fatal breach in the chest restrict agility, but Duncan could also distinctly feel the frailty of this body. Its overly thin limbs couldn't even walk briskly, which was nothing compared to the robust body of the "Ghost Ship captain," clearly exceeding the strength of mere mortals.
Though Duncan couldn't see the full picture of his current body, judging from the parts he could see, he guessed it belonged to a young person, a youth weakened by prolonged severe malnutrition—despite the powerful spirit of a Ghost Ship captain currently operating this body, it seemed that the spirit's strength could not overcome the physical limitations brought on by this weak vessel.
Unfortunately, he had no other options. Duncan had to control this barely usable body to slowly explore the deep corridors, knowing that in the state of this temporary body, he would likely be helpless if any danger arose. He could only pray that the shell would last a while longer.
The corridor was deep, damp, and dark. Yet, it seemed there were hidden ventilation holes, with a slight breeze continuously flowing nearby. Every so often, he could spot torches or oil lamps hung on the walls, signifying ongoing activity in the area.
After traveling a great distance along the corridor, Duncan suddenly discovered that the path ahead opened up, with man-made signs starting to appear in view—he saw a branching path at the end of the corridor, with the connecting roads featuring smooth walls and high semi-circular arch ceilings. The ground, paved with bricks, was dark and damp, with two channels running along both sides filled with nauseating sewage.
On the walls on either side of the road, there were openings resembling drain pipes, with sewage flowing out of some of them into the channels below, carrying the filth towards darker places afar.
"...Sewer?"
Duncan quickly realized that he was facing a fairly large sewer system, and the place he had previously hidden bodies seemed to be a natural cave structure directly connected to the sewer.
A huge sewer system, a natural cave connected to it, and concealed corpses.
In Duncan's mind, countless speculations popped up instantly, and as he conceived various theories, he also carefully observed the details of this "sewer" before him.
The structure was massive and skillfully built, with the main supporting parts seemingly made of reinforced concrete, which could even serve as some sort of underground shelter if necessary.
To construct such an entity, the city above the sewer must be sizable as well, and its technologies would have to be quite advanced.
Technology doesn't exist in isolation—every engineering product is invariably supported by countless related industries and technologies in sync. Even a sewer could reveal to Duncan the construction, planning, materials, maintenance standards, and corresponding residential lifestyle concepts of its location.
This could allow the severely information-deprived Duncan to obtain some precious data from the world of civilization.
Duncan walked along the sewer, but after a short distance, he suddenly stopped and turned his attention to the wall nearby.
Embedded in that wall was a lamp—a light fixture with a glass casing, covered by what appeared to be a sturdy metal cage.
Compared to the torches and oil lamps in the cave, the lamp fixed in the wall was clearly brighter, the matte glass casing harbored a flame burning steadily and brightly enough to illuminate a considerable distance in the sewer.
Duncan leaned in to observe closely. To him, for now, everything from outside the Homeloss, especially the creations of modern civilization, held immense allure.
After observing for half the day, Duncan finally figured out what the light source in front of him was—a gas lamp.
But this gas lamp seemed somehow different from the ones he had seen in documents, not only in style but most notably by the delicate symbols he saw on its glass cover.
It appeared these symbols had been added at the beginning of the lamp's manufacture, curving and twisting into shapes resembling hieroglyphs. Duncan did not recognize these symbols, but they immediately made him think of the mysterious runes he had seen before on the mechanical ship, as well as on Alice's "coffin".
Despite the differences in content, there was a similar… "temperament".
It was something sacred, ceremonial in nature.
Duncan stepped back and looked towards the deeper parts of the sewer, seeing a brightly burning gas lamp on the wall at regular intervals.
For an underground facility that was visited by people only for necessary maintenance, the lighting seemed almost excessive. Moreover, each of these gas lamps' casings might bear similar mysterious "runes".
It gave Duncan the feeling that these densely distributed lamps were actually combatting something in this dark, unvisited underground—the "world of human civilization" they represented was fighting against something.
Duncan walked along the road illuminated by the gas lamps, his eyes simultaneously scanning for any valuable clues on the walls, ground, and arches around him. Suddenly, something caught his peripheral vision.
He stopped between two gas lamps, in a spot that was darker than the rest of the sewer, and looked up at an angle to see something painted with dark red paint high up on the wall, near the sewer's arch.
Duncan squinted, straining to make out the image created by the roughly drawn lines—he saw pairs of hands reaching towards the sky, as if worshiping something, and in the direction where those hands were gathered, there was a sphere radiating immense light.
Below this image of worship and gathering was a line of crooked text. The strokes of the letters quivered as if they contained intense fervor and anticipation. The characters were not from any language on Earth, but Duncan naturally understood—
"The counterfeit sun shall fall, and the true Sun God will resurrect from blood and fire! All life returns to the Sun, all order returns to the Sun!"
Duncan stood quietly in the sewer, his gaze fixed on the gas lamp's dimmest intersection of light, looking at the dark red graffiti, at that sun seemingly soaked in blood, radiant and fervently worshipped.
It was as if he was staring long into another world.
He stared like this for a while until a noise suddenly came from deep within the sewer, and footsteps reached Duncan's ears.
He quickly looked towards the direction of the sound, only to see several figures in robes walking towards him, their faces shrouded in the shadows of their hoods, appearing like grim ghosts in the depths of the filthy sewer.
Duncan did not hide—indeed, this straight expanse of sewer had almost nowhere to conceal oneself, and his inconveniently temporary body was incapable of performing advanced maneuvers like "blind spot positioning". So after briefly considering his options, he simply stood brazenly in the middle of the sewer, calmly watching the hooded figures approaching, who looked suspicious no matter how one saw it.
If this body couldn't run and was meant to be disposable, he might as well trade it in for some information.
The next second, the hooded figures emerging from the depths of the sewer noticed Duncan.
(Damn it!)