Chapter 791: Chapter 788: Analyzing the Star Map and the Uninvited Guest Chapter 791: Chapter 788: Analyzing the Star Map and the Uninvited Guest Alice seemed very excited.

She was now staring with wide eyes, curiously observing everything around her. If it weren’t for Duncan’s intervention, she probably would have already run into the mists at the end of the hall. Tugging at Duncan, she peppered him with questions about everything from the cables hanging from the ceiling to the situation beyond the door not far away–thanks to Duncan’s patient explanations, she had come to understand that she was inside “Alice’s Mansion,” a “special Alice’s Mansion” at that, and this incredible experience was apparently considered by her to be quite an interesting “adventure.”

“So amazing… so this is what Alice’s Mansion looks like,” the doll-like lady chuckled with delight, wandering around the platform where she had originally been seated. “So this is really my house? It’s so big? It’s just a pity I can’t move in and live here…”

“Firstly, this is just a part of Alice’s Mansion, to be precise, one of its grand halls,” Duncan said as he watched the doll circle around him, unable to help but remind her. “Secondly, another Alice’s Mansion doesn’t look like this. In the corresponding location there, there is a garden–I infer that using different keys to open the door will lead to different Alice’s Mansions.”

“Oh…” Alice nodded as she listened, though it was unclear if she really understood.

Duncan’s gaze then quickly fell upon the drawing board that Alice was clutching in her arms.

The drawing board had been in the doll’s embrace since before Alice’s consciousness had awakened, and she still held it subconsciously even now–Duncan distinctly remembered that in “another version of Alice’s Mansion” found in the garden, the doll had been holding a drawing board that depicted the sight of the “redshift of the apocalypse.” So, what then could be on this drawing board here?

“Alice, let me have a look at your drawing board,” he suddenly said.

“Drawing board?” The doll seemed momentarily confused, then quickly understood, belatedly realizing she was holding something in her arms, and hurried over to hand the drawing board to the captain. “Here!”

Duncan took the drawing board, turned it over to its front, and then his brows gradually furrowed.

The “drawing board” turned out to be a screen, filled with numerous lines and symbols beyond even his comprehension, and countless dense, continuously refreshing streams of data moved around those lines and symbols, as if constantly engaged in highly complex calculations and reconfiguration.

Duncan watched intently with knitted brows, a vague guess forming in his mind, when Alice, too, curiously leaned closer, squeezing her head next to his shoulder to look at the screen’s contents, and suddenly let out a long, drawn-out exclamation, “Oh…”

Duncan immediately looked up, “Do you know what this is?”

“It’s our position, the coordinates of our current location relative to the overall space-time structure of the Shelter,” Alice said reflexively, then before the captain could ask further, she added confidently, “What do I mean by that?”

Duncan: “…”
He found that ever since Alice was awakened here, the things she said were becoming increasingly difficult for him to follow up on!

But Alice’s response at least confirmed his earlier speculation: This was a navigation route!

The navigation key transferred to him by the Frost Queen was indeed sleeping within the “doll” inside the mansion, it was this “drawing board”!

The curious doll watched the changes in Duncan’s expression and then tilted her head in confusion, “Captain? Why are you ignoring me?”

“Alice,” Duncan suddenly snapped out of his thoughts, looking seriously at the doll-like lady in front of him, “If I’m not mistaken, this is the ‘route’ to the nodes of the outer barrier. Do you know how to ‘use’ it?”

Upon hearing this, Alice paused, took the drawing board from Duncan’s hand with some hesitation, and swiped her finger across the screen where data and symbols were continuously refreshing. After a while, she seemed to mumble to herself in a low voice, “I think… I know? But it seems I need to study it a bit more…”

She furrowed her brow and looked up, “I feel like the ‘method of use’ is already in my mind, like I can start something instinctively, but it takes a process… Don’t worry, it won’t be long.”

As the doll explained, Duncan suddenly sensed something. He looked up and saw the “tree” composed of countless cables and conduits connecting the dome and the platform stir into activity–
Numerous glimmers of light in its “branches” rapidly grew brighter and more vibrant, many of the cables that had been hidden in the darkness emerged at the edge of its “canopy” and extended into the mists surrounding the hall. A deep humming sound came from those mists, as if something was activating and gradually ramping up power…

The doll’s fingers glided over the lines and symbols on the drawing board, with rapidly flowing data materializing beside her, floating in the air like phantoms. She fell silent, as if all her “attention” was immersed in the workings of the threads.

Suddenly, Duncan heard a voice–it was Alice’s voice, but not from the doll’s mouth. Instead, it came directly from some “broadcasting device” above the hall:
“The main system is starting… analyzing the star chart, star chart authorized by… Navigation One…”

Duncan watched this unfold, not surprised, yet a certain anticipation had begun to take shape in the depths of his heart without him realizing it. But just then, a static noise suddenly intruded upon his ears, and the radiance flowing through the “tree” as well as the buzzing noise of devices all around instantly diminished.

“Analysis paused… detecting unauthorized access.”

Duncan’s expression subtly shifted, and then he saw that Alice, too, seemed taken aback before she jolted up as though awakened, “Captain, someone’s knocking at the door!”

Someone was knocking at the door?!

Duncan immediately realized this, and at almost the same time, he heard the knocking sound–not loud, yet it seemed to directly disregard distance and attenuation, clearly reaching his ears from a very far-off place.

The person knocking was very patient, rhythmically repeating like the precision of a machine.

Alice, holding her painting board, jumped down from the platform and approached Duncan with a bit of nervousness, “Captain, should we open the door?”

“…Come with me,” Duncan considered it, then solemnly said, followed by a reminder, “Hold onto the painting board, don’t let go of it.”

“Oh… Okay!”

Alice, somewhat flustered, quickly agreed and followed in the captain’s footsteps, heading toward that nearby door.

The two left the dimly lit navigation hall and, led by Duncan, entered the unusually long corridor, passing by one silent room and porch after another, swiftly moving towards the main hall on the first floor of the mansion.

The knocking sound continued patiently, each knock as if tapping directly at the bottom of one’s heart.

Duncan inexplicably thought of the knocking he had heard in his own apartment and the visit from the Frost Queen emerging from the dense fog–then he momentarily cast aside these aimless thoughts.

Alice, clutching her painting board, almost ran after the captain, her eyes wide with amazement as she looked at the corridors, narrow windows, and wooden doors that led to unknown places, as if she had a belly full of questions yet couldn’t find the moment to ask.

This building was just too enormous, and if it weren’t for the captain leading the way, she guessed she might even get lost inside.

Eventually, they arrived at the main hall of the mansion.

The gloomy and towering door stood like a giant at the end of the dark red carpet, the knocking sound coming from outside consistently, thump, thump.

Duncan frowned slightly, leading Alice next to the door.

He tried to sense the presence outside the door but felt only emptiness; he didn’t feel hostility, danger, or even a specific “existence.”

The knocking sound seemed to be urging them on. Weighing his options and hesitating, Duncan placed his hand on the door.

He recalled what the headless butler had told him–
“Don’t ever open that door, outside it lies the apocalypse.”

Alice stood nervously behind the captain, obediently holding her painting board close as she looked at the gloomy and lofty door.

A creaking noise reached her ears.

Duncan exerted force in his hands and cautiously pushed the door open–only to find it was lighter than he had anticipated.

Unlocked and un-rusted, despite the creaking noise, the door was light as a feather–and as it opened, a ray of sunlight suddenly pierced the darkness, passing through the doorway and into Duncan and Alice’s eyes.

A glorious sun blazed in the void, its brightness fierce yet the harsh sunlight didn’t hurt anyone’s eyes as it shone on the outer walls and main door of Alice’s Mansion.

From the sunlight, Duncan felt a tinge of familiarity, and then, he saw the splendid solar disk slowly rotate in his field of vision–the corona fading, revealing the true visage of an ancient god beneath the burning shell.

Countless pallid dying tendrils and swollen flesh piled up into a celestial body, supporting the blazing shell, with an enormous single eye encircled by tendrils, slowly adjusting its angle, watching the two figures standing at the mansion’s entrance.

The writhing solar disc, the Black Sun, the “True Sun God” of the Sun Cultists–it was the one knocking.

“I was almost ready to give up,” before Duncan could speak, a feeble voice preempted him, the corona-scorched ancient god spoke with tremulous layers, “I was about to leave.”

Duncan stared expressionlessly (actually a bit dumbfounded by the surprise) at the “ancient god” floating in the void, seemingly indeterminable in actual distance and size. After a good while, he finally spoke, “…The house is very big, it takes a long time to get from the inside to the door after hearing the knock.”

As he finished speaking, Alice beside him quickly nodded, “Yes, it’s so big! We ran down the corridor for ages!”

The misshapen sun fell silent, and after several seconds, spoke again, “Mm, that makes sense.”