Abyssal Galleon

By Sidney Betty

On that day, thick fog blocked everything.
On that day, he became the captain of a ghost ship.
On that day, he stepped through the thick fog and faced a world that was completely overturned and fragmented - the old order was gone, and strange phenomena dominated the endless sea outside civilized society, isolated island cities and challenges. The fleets of the sea have become the only remaining lights in the civilized world, but the shadows of the past are still stirring in the deep sea, waiting to continue to devour this dying world.
But for the new captain, there's only one thing on his mind first!

• Language: English
• Publisher: Sidney Betty
• Release date: May 23, 2024
• ISBN: 9798224161584

Book preview

Chapter 1 A Thick Fog

Endless thick fog rolled outside the window, so thick that it seemed as if the whole world had disappeared on the other side of the fog. Only the chaotic light from the sky penetrated the fog and shone into the house, maintaining a dim light in this quiet room.

In the slightly messy bachelor apartment, Will was sitting at his desk, with the clutter on the table roughly pushed aside. He was writing furiously with a haggard look on his face

"On the seventh day, the situation remained the same. Thick fog enveloped everything outside the window, and the window was blocked by an unknown force... The entire room seemed to be 'cast' into some kind of abnormal space...

There was no way to contact the outside world, no water or electricity, but the lights were still on and the computer was still on - even though I had unplugged its power cord...

It was as if a slight sound of wind suddenly came from the direction of the window. Will, who was concentrating on writing in his diary, suddenly raised his head, and a slight light appeared in his haggard eyes. However, the next second he found that it was just his illusion. There was still only the lingering pale fog outside the window. A dead and silent world indifferently enveloped his small dwelling.

His eyes swept across the windowsill and saw the wrenches and hammers thrown away carelessly - those were the traces of his attempts to leave the room in the past few days. However, now these hard and rough tools just lay there quietly, as if mocking his predicament.

After a few seconds, Will's expression became calm again - with this unusual calmness, he lowered his head again and returned to his writing

"I was trapped, completely clueless. In the past few days, I even tried to remove the roof, walls and floors, but I couldn't leave a trace on the walls with all my strength. This room became like...like a box 'cast' with the space, with no way out...

"Except for that door.

But what's going on outside that door...is even worse.

Will stopped again. He slowly looked at the handwriting he had just left, and flipped through the diary carelessly, looking at what he had left in the past few days - suppressed words, meaningless thoughts. , irritable graffiti, and cold jokes written when forced to relax.

He didn't know what the point of writing all this was, nor did he know who would see this nonsense in the future. In fact, he was not even in the habit of keeping a diary - as a middle school teacher with very limited free time, he didn't have much energy to spend on it.

But now, whether he likes it or not, he has a lot of free time.

After waking up, he was trapped in his room.

Outside the window there is thick fog that won't dissipate. It is so thick that you can't even see anything else except the fog. The whole world seems to have lost the alternation of day and night. The room is filled with constant, dim light twenty-four hours a day. The windows are locked, the water and electricity are cut off, and there is no cell phone signal. No matter how loud a noise you make in the room, it will not attract rescue from the outside world.

It was like an absurd nightmare, and everything in the dream was operating against the laws of nature, but Will had tried every possible means to confirm one thing there was no hallucination or dream here, only a world that was no longer normal, and a self that was still normal for the time being.

He took a deep breath, his eyes finally falling on the only door at the end of the room.

An ordinary, cheap white wooden door with a calendar nailed on it that I had forgotten to replace last year and had left until today. The door handle was polished to a shine and the door mat was placed a little crookedly.

That door can be opened.

If this closed and alienated room is like a cage, then the most vicious thing about this cage is that it actually retains a door that can be opened at any time, tempting the prisoner in the cage to push the door and leave at any time - but the other side of the door is not the outside that Will wants.

There are no old yet familiar corridors, no sunny streets and vibrant crowds, and nothing that is familiar to him.

There is only a strange and unsettling foreign land, and over there is also an inescapable dilemma.

But Will knew that he had little time left to hesitate, and the so-called choice had never existed from the beginning.

His food supplies were limited, and only a quarter of the barrels of mineral water were left. He had tried all means of escaping and seeking help in this closed room. Now there was only one way before him, which was to prepare himself and go to the other side of the door to seek a glimmer of life.

Perhaps, there will be a chance to investigate what exactly caused this strange and embarrassing supernatural situation.

Will took a deep breath and lowered his head to write the last few paragraphs in his diary "... But no matter what, the only option now is to go to the other side of the door. At least I can find some food on that strange ship, and my exploration and preparation over the past few days should be enough for me to survive on that ship... Although the preparations I can make there are actually limited.

"Finally, to those who come after me, if I fail to come back, and some rescuer or someone like that really opens this room and sees this diary one day in the future, please do not regard everything I wrote as an absurd story - it really happened. Although it is creepy, there really is a person named Will who is trapped in a crazy and weird space-time anomaly.

I have tried my best to describe in this diary all the abnormal phenomena I have seen, and also recorded all the efforts I have made to escape. If there are really any 'latecomers', please at least remember my name, at least remember that all this has happened.

Will closed his diary, threw his pen into the pen holder beside him, and slowly stood up from behind the desk.

It's time to leave, before we become completely passive and desperate.

But after a brief thought, he did not go directly to the door that was the only way to the outside world, but went straight to his bed.

He must face the foreign land on the other side of the door with a perfect attitude - but his current state, especially his mental state, is not good enough.

Will didn't know if he could fall asleep, but even forcing himself to lie in bed and empty his mind was better than going to the other side in a state of mental exhaustion.

Eight hours later, Will opened his eyes.

There was still a chaotic fog outside the window, and the sky was dark and depressing regardless of day or night.

Will simply ignored the situation outside the window. He took out food from his limited reserves and ate until he was 80% full. Then he went to the dressing mirror in the corner of the room.

The man in the mirror still had messy hair and looked quite dishevelled, without any temperament at all, but Will still stared at himself in the mirror, as if he wanted to imprint this appearance permanently in his mind.

He stared at the mirror for several minutes, then whispered to himself, as if speaking to the person in the mirror Your name is Will, at least on this side, your name is Will, always remember this.

Only after that did he turn and leave.

Coming to the all-too-familiar door, Will took a deep breath and placed his hand on the handle.

Apart from the clothes he wore, he didn't carry anything extra, neither food nor self-defense equipment. This was the experience he gained from several previous explorations - he couldn't bring anything through the door except himself.

In fact, he even felt that even this self should be questioned, because...

Will turned the handle and pushed open the door. A swelling and wriggling gray-black mist appeared before his eyes like some kind of curtain. In the swelling and shrinking mist, he seemed to hear the sound of waves coming into his ears.

Stepping through the layer of fog, a slightly fishy and salty sea breeze blew towards him. The illusory sound of waves in his ears became real, and he felt a slight shaking under his feet. Will opened his eyes after a brief dizziness, and what he saw was a wide and empty wooden deck, tall masts standing under dark clouds, and the slightly heaving sea surface with no visible edge outside the ship's side.

Will lowered his head and saw a body that was stronger than he remembered, a captain's uniform that looked exquisitely made and expensive but of a completely unfamiliar style, a pair of bony hands, and a black flintlock pistol that looked classic and exquisite in his hand.

Yes, even itself needs to be questioned.

Chapter 2 The Captain of the Mermaid

This wasn't the first time Will had walked through this door and come to the other side.

A few days ago, Will woke up and found himself trapped in his room by some kind of vision. After a strange thick fog covered the entire world, he discovered this strange place opposite the gate.

After all, that door was now the only exit from his room.

He still remembered the confusion and helplessness he felt when he pushed open the door for the first time and saw the deck outside. He also remembered the astonishment and panic he felt when he looked down for the first time and saw that he had changed his body. But after that, in order to seek an opportunity to break through the predicament, he had boldly carried out several successful explorations of this side. Now, although he still didn't understand what had happened to him, nor what this strange ship that appeared outside his door was, at least he had gained some experience and had some preliminary understanding of the ship.

Like the previous times, Will forced himself to get rid of the dizziness brought by passing through the door in the shortest possible time, and then immediately confirmed the condition of this body. He checked the pistol in his hand, compared all the details with his memory, and finally confirmed that the items he carried were consistent with the last time he left the deck.

"...It seems that every time I pass through this door, my body switches seamlessly...It would be great if I could place a camera on the deck, so I can confirm whether my body changes when I push open the door to the captain's room and return to the apartment...

"It's a pity that the items from the two 'worlds' can't pass through the gate, and there's no way to bring the camera over...

But the phone I left in the apartment did record the scene of me passing through the gate. I did walk through the black fog... So my body did 'change' into this state when I passed through the black fog?

Will muttered to himself. He knew that it might seem a little funny to outsiders that he was standing on the deck and talking to himself, but he had to make some noise. On this deserted and strange ghost ship... he needed some evidence to prove that he was still alive.

A gust of salty sea breeze blew across the deck, blowing the black and blue captain's uniform of unknown material on his body. Will sighed softly, but he did not walk towards the deck. Instead, he turned around and looked at the door behind him.

He put his hand on the door handle.

After turning the handle and pushing the door inward, he would see a thick gray-black fog. Passing through the fog, he would return to the bachelor apartment where he had lived for many years.

He exerted force with his hands and pulled the door open.

The slightly heavy oak door creaked, revealing a slightly dim cabin. In the dim light, one could see exquisite tapestries hanging on the walls, shelves with many decorations, and a large nautical table in the middle of the room. There was also a small door at the deepest part of the room, with a burgundy carpet in front of it.

Push the door open and you'll be back in your bachelor apartment, pull the door open and you'll be in the captain's room - and the latter is apparently the normal facility on this ship.

Will walked into the captain's room. When passing the door, he habitually looked to the left - there was a person-high mirror fixed on the wall next to him. In the mirror, Will's current appearance was clearly reflected.

He was a tall man with thick black hair, a majestic short beard, and deep eye sockets. His appearance alone seemed to have an aura of majesty without even being angry. He seemed to be over 40 years old, but his heroic looks and oppressive eyes seemed to blur this sense of age, and the well-made captain's uniform further showed the special identity of the man in the mirror.

Will stretched his neck and made a face in the mirror again - he felt that he was an easy-going and friendly person, and the image in the mirror did not really match his temperament. But he soon gave up this attempt, because he felt that the self in the mirror not only did not appear friendlier, but instead changed from a majestic captain to more like a psychopathic serial killer...

While Will was doing these actions, a slight clicking sound came from the direction of the navigation table. Not surprisingly, he looked in the direction of the sound and saw that a wooden goat head statue on the table was turning its face towards him little by little - the lifeless block of wood seemed to come alive at this moment, and the pair of obsidian eyes embedded in the wooden face were staring at this side quietly.

The panicked memory of the first time he saw this strange scene flashed through his mind, but Will just curled his lips. He walked towards the nautical table. The wooden goat head on the table also turned its neck a little bit, and a hoarse and gloomy voice came out from its wooden cavity Name?

Duncan, Will said quietly. Duncan Abnomer.

The voice of the wooden goat head instantly changed from hoarse and gloomy to warm and friendly Good morning, Captain, I'm glad to see that you still remember your name - how are you feeling today? How is your health today? Did you sleep well last night? I hope you had a good dream. In addition, today is a good day for sailing. The sea is calm, the wind is suitable, it is cool and comfortable, and there are no annoying navy and noisy crew. Captain, you know a noisy crew...

You've been noisy enough. Although it was not the first time that Will had to deal with this weird goat-head, he still felt a tremor in his brain. He glared at the guy fiercely and said through his teeth, Be quiet.

Oh, oh, oh, of course, Captain, you like silence, and your loyal first mate, second mate, boatswain, sailor, and lookout know this very well. Keeping quiet has many advantages. There was once a great scholar in the field of medicine... or maybe philosophy or architecture...

Will now felt that not only his brain was trembling, but even his bronchi began to tremble I mean, I order you to keep quiet!

As soon as the word command came out, the goat-headed creature finally quieted down.

Will breathed a sigh of relief, walked over to the navigation table and sat down - now, he was the captain of this deserted ghost ship.

Duncan Abnomer, an unfamiliar name, a difficult surname to pronounce.

The moment he first passed through the black and gray fog and stepped onto the ship, he knew all this in his mind. He knew that the body he was in this side was named Duncan, that he was the owner of this ship, and that the ship was on a journey that was far longer than he could imagine - he knew this, but that was all he knew.

The memories left in his mind were so vague and thin that only the key paragraphs mentioned above were remembered, and the rest of the details were completely blank, as if he knew that the ship had an amazing sailing plan, but had no idea where it was going. The original owner of the ship, the real Duncan Abnomer, seemed to have died a long, long time ago.

And the things that remain in Will's mind are more like the strongest and most profound impression of a ghost captain remaining in the world after his complete death.

Will's instinct tells him that there is a big problem behind the identity of this Captain Duncan, especially when there are supernatural phenomena on the ship (a talking wooden goat head). The mystery of this Captain Duncan may even mean some danger he has never imagined, but he has to use this name to move safely on the ship.

Because just like the wooden goat's head, something on this ship is always trying to confirm the captain's identity.

Even the ship itself was constantly confirming the captain's identity.

This gives people the feeling that it is some kind of insurance measure, as if the captain of the ship may really forget his name at any time, and once he forgets his name, something extremely terrible and dangerous will happen, so inspection measures must be set up everywhere on the ship.

Will didn't know what the consequences would be if Captain Duncan forgot his own name, but he believed that there would be no good consequences if he said his name wrong.

After all, even the wooden goat head on the navigation table doesn't look like a good person.

But if you go by the name Duncan Abnomer, then everything on this ship is pretty friendly.

Anyway, they don't look very intelligent.

Will - perhaps he should be called Duncan. Duncan ended his brief meditation and recollection, then looked at the open nautical chart on the table.

However, there were no identifiable routes, marks or land on the nautical chart, not even an island. On the rough and thick parchment surface, one could only see large patches of gray-white masses that were constantly surging and undulating. Those gray-white, fog-like things seemed to obscure the routes that originally existed on the paper. The only thing that could be seen in the center of the chart was the silhouette of a ship faintly visible in the thick fog.

Duncan (Will) had little experience of sailing in the past few decades of his life, but even someone who didn’t know much about nautical charts would know that a normal nautical chart doesn’t look like this.

Obviously, like the wooden goat head on the table, this nautical chart is also some kind of supernatural object - it's just that Duncan has not yet figured out the rules for its use.

As if noticing that the captain's attention was finally focused on the nautical chart, the goat head that had been silent on the table for a long time finally moved again. It began to make a crackling sound of wood friction, and its neck twisted slightly. At first, it was twisting more restrained, but soon the crackling sound reached a level that could not be ignored - in the end, the whole head of this thing began to vibrate on the base as if it was in vibration mode.

Duncan was afraid that if it continued to smoke, it would drill wood to make fire on its sailing table, so he couldn't help but look at it and said, Speak.

Yes, Captain - I must emphasize again that today is a good day to set sail. The Mermaid is waiting for your orders as always! Shall we raise the sails?

Chapter 3 Border Trek

The hard, dark face of the wooden goat head stared at Duncan who was sitting behind the navigation table. A strange light seemed to flow in the obsidian eyeballs - in fact, this thing had no ability to produce expressions at all, but Duncan clearly read some kind of expectation from the other's wooden face.

In fact, this was not the first time that Goat Head urged him to set sail. Every time he came here, Goat Head would urge him to do so.

He even felt that the ship was constantly urging him to end this blind drift on the sea as soon as possible and set sail back to the right path as soon as possible.

However, Duncan fell silent. His naturally majestic face was now covered with dark clouds. In his contemplation and silence, he clearly realized two problems

First, he was the only one on the entire ship, and the scale of the ship was insanely large - as a sail-powered ship, the total length of this ship called Mermaid was at least 150 to 200 meters according to Duncan's rough estimate. To control such a behemoth, at least dozens or even hundreds of experienced sailors were needed. How could he drive it alone?

Second, apart from the above-mentioned professional factors, there was still a key problem that hindered his sailing journey - he did not know how to drive a boat.

Duncan was a little anxious. He tried to imagine what would happen if he asked this weird and noisy goat-headed guy for advice on ship driving techniques. He became even more anxious after the assumption.

However, Goat Head didn't know what his captain was thinking. He just asked, Captain, do you have any concerns? If you are worried about the situation of the Mermaid, then you can rest assured that the Mermaid is always ready to sail with you to the end of the world. Or are you worried that today's voyage will be unlucky? I know a little about divination. I wonder which kind of divination you believe in more? Celestial phenomena, incense, crystals are all fine. Speaking of crystals, do you remember...

Duncan tried to tighten the muscles on his face, while suppressing the urge to fight to the death with the goat-headed creature in front of him, he said in a deep voice I will go to the deck to observe the situation first - you stay here quietly.

I will follow your wishes - but I must remind you that the Mermaid has been drifting blindly for too long. You must take control of it as soon as possible and get this voyage back on track...

The goat head said, and then with the sound of wood rubbing, it finally returned to its original posture.

Duncan felt as if the whole world had stopped in an instant.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and the resonance in his brain gradually calmed down. Then he picked up the flintlock on the table, stood up and walked out of the captain's room.

This old-looking flintlock rifle was found by him while exploring on the ship, along with a one-handed sword, which was currently hanging on his waist. These two items ensured his sense of security when he was moving on the ship.

During the past few days of exploration, he had spent a long time roughly learning how to use these two things - even though so far he had never seen any living creature other than himself on the ship.

Talking items do not count.

The fishy and salty sea breeze blew in his face, and Duncan's slightly irritable mood calmed down. He came to the deck outside the captain's room and subconsciously looked up at the sky.

Thick dark clouds still covered the sky as far as the eye could see. No sun, moon or stars could be seen through the clouds. Only turbid light from the sky enveloped the boundless sea.

This scene has lasted for a long time. In fact, since the day Duncan came on the ship, he has only seen such a sky - it even made him doubt whether normal weather does not exist in this world at all. Is this cloudy scene the eternal celestial phenomenon in this sea area?

Duncan turned around and saw the door of the captain's room standing quietly. On the beam above the door, there was a line of words engraved in some letters he didn't recognize. When his eyes focused on the line of words, its meaning was directly and clearly reflected in his mind

The Gate to the Lost.

The Gate of the Lost Homeland... The Mermaid, Duncan muttered to himself, and then laughed at himself, This ship has a good name.

Then he walked around the captain's room and followed the stairs on the edge of the deck to the upper deck at the stern, where there was a wooden platform. This was the place with the widest view on the entire ship except for the observation deck.

A heavy black steering wheel sat quietly on the platform, waiting for the arrival of the helmsman.

Duncan frowned. For some reason, he suddenly felt a sense of urgency and anxiety, and this feeling seemed to have arisen out of nowhere the moment he saw the steering wheel.

He had never had this feeling the few times he came here before!

As if in response to his anxiety, an inexplicable, chaotic wind suddenly blew across the deck, and the originally calm sea surface around it instantly became wavy. Although the wind and waves would not have any impact on the huge Mermaid, Duncan's heart was alarmed, and the next second, he looked in the direction of the bow driven by instinct.

On the sea right in front of the Mermaid, between the chaotic and hazy sky and sea, an endless wall of white fog, like a sky-high barrier, seemed to appear out of thin air, causing his eyes to widen instantly!

It was a white fog that seemed to surround and isolate the entire world, and it connected heaven and earth like a cliff that rolled over. What made Duncan (Will) more alert than its heart-pounding scale was that the thing instantly reminded him of the endless fog outside the window of his bachelor apartment!

The Mermaid was heading straight for that wall of fog!

Duncan didn't know what the thick fog was, nor did he know what was deep in the fog, but he instinctively felt a huge danger. His survival instinct told him that being swallowed by the thick fog was definitely not a good thing!

He subconsciously rushed to the platform where the rudder was located - and at the same time, a huge feeling of powerlessness enveloped him even if he was at the helm, how could he steer this huge ship away from the wall of fog by himself?

But he still instinctively came to the steering wheel, and almost at the same time, he heard a hoarse and gloomy voice coming from a copper pipe next to the steering wheel that was connected to the captain's room. It was the voice of Goat Head - the tone of the strange creature was actually a little panicked this time

Captain, there is a border collapse ahead. We are approaching the limit of reality! Please adjust the course immediately!

Hearing Goat-Head's panicked voice, Duncan almost burst into curse - it's easy to say that it's easy to adjust the course, but why don't you produce a hundred or eighty good brothers who can drive a boat to drive this thing!

Then he raised his head and glanced in the direction of the masts in front of him, and saw a few bare masts standing on the deck. He felt even more sad - let alone raising the sails, in fact, the ship had no sails at all, and those poles were all empty!

In his excitement, he didn't even bother to think seriously about the strange words that Goat Head had just said. Only instinct made him subconsciously grab the steering wheel in front of him, which seemed to be vibrating slightly for some reason.

This was the first time in several days that