The snow-white pigeon stood blankly on the table, wearing the brass compass that Duncan had searched for everywhere, while the familiar black obsidian knife lay at its feet.
Duncan stared at the pigeon with a dazed expression, and the pigeon stared back at him with a similarly blank look.
It's not easy to read the expression of a bird, but for some reason, Duncan felt like he could understand this pigeon. Not only that, but he even thought he could see a kind of "wisdom" shining in its slightly reddened eyes. The bird's two little green eyes were fixed straight ahead. When Duncan glanced over, one of its eyes seemed to focus on him, while the other still looked up at the ceiling of the captain's cabin, its gaze wandering aimlessly.
"A... pigeon?"
After a few seconds of processing, Duncan finally mumbled, his mouth twitching slightly.
Why was it a pigeon? Why did it suddenly appear? Why was his brass compass hanging around its neck? And how did that little knife get there?
Or to sum it all up in one question: could anything normal still happen on this strange ship?!
While Duncan was lost in thought, the pigeon, having been dazed for a while, seemed to finally "wake up." It bobbed its head and took a couple of steps on the table, leaning forward toward Duncan and making loud "cooing" sounds.
"..." Duncan stared at the bird, and somehow, memories of classic pirate captains flashed in his mind. He looked down at his captain's uniform and thought, "Having a bird around a captain does seem standard, but shouldn't it be a parrot in normal circumstances? What's up with this pigeon?"
Upon hearing Duncan's words, the pigeon immediately nodded seriously and spoke in a strange, robotic female voice, "Transmission complete!"
Duncan's thoughts were abruptly cut off, and he nearly choked on his own saliva. He stared wide-eyed at the white pigeon, his expression one of shock.
He remembered how he felt the first time he stepped onto this ship and saw a talking goat head in the captain's cabin.
But at least it wasn't his first day on the Lost Home. He had already grown accustomed to the oddities of this world, so the talking pigeon only surprised him for a moment. The next second, his expression turned serious, and a faint green flame of spiritual energy flickered in one hand as he cautiously watched the bird. "Where did you come from?"
The pigeon tilted its head, one eye staring directly at Duncan while the other wandered to the ceiling. "Incorrect address, please check the address again, or contact the system administrator."
Duncan: "…?"
Instead of being momentarily stunned, a bigger wave of confusion rose in his mind!
What the pigeon said... didn't seem to fit the "style" of this world. It was unlike anything that could come from a goat head, Alice, or any of those black-robed cultists. Instead, it sounded like terms he was more familiar with as "Zhou Ming," a person from Earth!
Yet the pigeon seemed completely unaware of the changes in Duncan's expression. It just pecked at its wings, shook the brass compass hanging from its chest, and then began to stroll leisurely across the table.
After a few steps, it ran over to the black obsidian knife, nudged it toward Duncan, and spoke in that same strange voice, "Take this solar-powered battle axe and embrace the glory of battle!"
Duncan suddenly stood up sharply from his desk, his chair scraping loudly against the floor. He stared at the pigeon, which still wore an innocent and calm expression, while a bizarre yet ridiculous emotion filled his mind.
This pigeon could not possibly be something that had always existed on the Lost Home, nor could it be something that belonged to this world!
The words it spoke could only be understood by "Zhou Ming"!
Perhaps because the noise of the chair scraping was too loud, even the chart room could hear the commotion. Suddenly, Duncan heard the voice of the goat head in his mind, "Captain? Are you okay?"
Duncan continued to stare at the pigeon on the table. He knew the goat head wouldn't dare to peek into the captain's cabin, so he calmly replied, "I'm fine."
"Miss Alice is looking for you, do you want to...?"
"Let her wait."
"Yes, Captain."
Duncan took a deep breath and glanced at the door leading to the chart room.
The goat head was still dealing with Alice's noisy demands. The doll-like girl had tried to leave several times but was stopped each time. Duncan thought he should go rescue that poor doll, but right now... he had something more important to figure out.
He could let Alice struggle a bit longer.
Duncan sat back down at his desk, ready to see if he could communicate normally with the pigeon. Just then, he noticed something he hadn't seen before—
A flickering line of spiritual flame extended from the gaps between his fingers, thin like a strand of hair, and after stretching out a few centimeters, it vanished into the air.
The strange pigeon also had a wisp of ghostly green flame wrapped around it, hidden among the feathers under its wings, with the other end also extending into the air and disappearing.
Duncan frowned and raised his right hand, focusing his mind. As the flame flickered, the pigeon suddenly vanished from the table.
The next second, it appeared on his shoulder, pecking at his hair and making a loud "coo!"
Duncan snapped his fingers, and the pigeon reappeared on the desk.
The brass compass hung on the pigeon’s chest, reflecting a bright green light from the flames.
Duncan furrowed his brow. "…Is it related to this brass compass?"
He could already tell that there was a connection between him and the pigeon, even stronger than the one he had with the Lost Home. This might explain why the pigeon seemed to "know" things that only he, as Zhou Ming, would know—he just couldn't figure out why the pigeon had appeared.
After thinking it over, he could only suspect that strange brass compass.
Since he started testing the spiritual flame, all the oddities had begun with this compass. From the soul travel experience to projecting his spirit into a corpse, and now the compass had vanished and reappeared hanging from the pigeon’s chest... Everything seemed to trace back to this object.
Duncan stared at the pigeon for a moment and reached for the compass.
He wanted to take it off and study it.
The pigeon didn’t dodge or stop him, but Duncan's fingers couldn’t touch the surface of the brass compass—his fingers went straight through, touching the soft feathers of the pigeon’s chest.
It was like passing through an illusion.
The pigeon hopped up and down a couple of times, seemingly tickled by Duncan's touch, and opened its beak to squawk, "Today is KFC's Crazy Thursday, send me 50..."
Duncan's eyelids twitched, and he stubbornly tested it a couple more times, finally confirming that he couldn't take that brass compass from the pigeon—it had clearly undergone some kind of transformation, becoming an illusion bound to the pigeon, impossible to remove or touch.
Or rather... the pigeon might actually be the true form of the brass compass now?
A flurry of thoughts filled Duncan's mind, many of which he wasn't sure whether to believe. The only thing he could be certain of was that the appearance of this pigeon was closely tied to his experience of "soul travel" using the brass compass, and this experience might have changed the compass's form.
This might be the nature of the brass compass, its inherent property as some kind of "abnormal object," or perhaps its "cost of use." As for why the pigeon was so strange... it wasn't because of the compass, but because of "Zhou Ming," the Earthling.
None of this could be confirmed or denied right now, unless Duncan could find a manual for the various abnormal objects on the Lost Home.
For now, he had to think about how to deal with this... unusual pigeon.
After a brief moment of thought, he decided to give the pigeon a name.
"I need to give you a name," he said, lightly tapping the table with his finger, looking seriously at the pigeon. "I think you can understand me, right?"
The pigeon tilted its head, its little green eyes gazing at Duncan. "Ai Yi?"
(Mother of God!)
(End of Chapter)