Lord of Mysteries

Chapter 2 Situation

Ding Ding Deng!

Zhou Mingrui was so frightened by the sight before him that he took several steps back, as if the person in the dressing mirror was not himself, but a dried-up corpse.

How could someone with such severe wounds still be alive!

He turned his head to the side in disbelief to check the other side. Even with the increased distance and blurred light, he could still see the through wound and the deep red bloodstains.

"this……"

Zhou Mingrui took a breath, trying to calm himself down.

He reached out and pressed his hand to his left chest, feeling his heart pounding rapidly and energetically.

I touched the exposed skin again; beneath the slight coolness was a warm flow.

After squatting down to verify that his knees could still bend, Zhou Mingrui stood up again, no longer so flustered.

"What happened?" he muttered, frowning, intending to examine the head wound more carefully.

He took two steps forward, then suddenly stopped, because the light of the blood moon outside the window was relatively dim and not enough to support a "careful inspection".

A fragment of memory suddenly surfaced, and Zhou Mingrui turned to look at the wall lamp surrounded by gray-white pipes and metal grilles on the wall next to his desk.

This is a mainstream gas lamp that provides stable flames and excellent lighting.

Given Klein Moretti's family circumstances, they shouldn't have been able to afford gas lamps, let alone kerosene lamps. Using candles would have been a sign of their status and position. However, four years ago, when he was studying late into the night for the Hoy University entrance exam, his brother Benson believed it was a matter of great importance to the family's future and was willing to borrow money to create good conditions for him.

Of course, Benson, who was literate and had worked for several years, was by no means a reckless, resourceful, or reckless person. He tricked the landlord into paying for the basic renovation by saying that "installing gas pipes would improve the apartment's grade and help with future rentals." He then used his position at an import-export company to obtain new gas lamps at almost cost price. In the end, he only used his savings and did not borrow any money from anyone.

The fragments flashed by, and Zhou Mingrui returned to his desk, turned on the gas valve, and turned on the gas lamp switch.

The sounds of friction ignition rang out repeatedly, but the light did not arrive as Zhou Mingrui had predicted.

Tap tap tap! He twisted a few more times, but the gas lamp remained dim.

"Hmm..." Zhou Mingrui withdrew his hand, pressed his left temple, and began to extract fragments of memory, searching for the cause of the matter.

After a few seconds, he turned around, walked to the door, and came to the mechanical device that was also embedded in the wall and connected by gray and white pipes.

This is a gas meter!

After glancing at the slightly exposed gears and bearings, Zhou Mingrui took a coin out of his pocket.

It is dark yellow in color with a shimmering bronze luster. The front is engraved with the head of a man wearing a crown, and the back is surrounded by ears of wheat surrounding the number "1".

Zhou Mingrui knew that this was the most basic currency in the Kingdom of Rune, called copper penny. One penny had the purchasing power of about three or four yuan before he transmigrated. There were also three other denominations of this coin: five penny, half penny, and quarter penny, but they were still not precise enough. In daily life, one still had to round up the denominations from time to time to buy things.

After twirling the copper penny, which had only been issued when King George III ascended the throne, a few times between his fingers, Zhou Mingrui twisted it and stuffed it into the vertically open, slender "mouth" of the gas meter.

Ding ding ding!

As the penny fell to the bottom inside the meter, the clicking of gears began, creating a short but beautiful mechanical melody.

Zhou Mingrui stared for a few seconds, then returned to the wooden desk and reached out to turn the gas lamp switch.

Tap tap tap, slap!

A flame ignited and quickly grew larger, its bright light first filling the inside of the wall lamp, then passing through the transparent glass, casting a warm glow over the room.

The darkness suddenly receded, and the crimson figure disappeared from the window. Zhou Mingrui felt inexplicably relieved and quickly went to the dressing mirror.

This time, he carefully examined the area around his temples, not missing a single detail.

After several comparisons, he found that apart from the initial bloodstains, the gruesome wound no longer oozed any liquid, as if it had received the best hemostasis and bandaging. The slowly wriggling gray-white brain and the wound flesh growing at a visible speed indicated the arrival of healing. Perhaps in thirty or forty minutes, or perhaps in two or three hours, only a shallow trace would remain there.

"The healing effects brought about by time travel?" Zhou Mingrui smirked, silently muttering to himself.

Then, he let out a long breath. No matter what the reason, at least he was still alive!

After calming himself down, he pulled out a drawer, took out a small bar of soap, took one of the old towels hanging next to the cabinet, then opened the door and walked towards the shared washroom for the tenants on the second floor.

Hmm, I need to clean the blood off my head so I don't always look like I'm at a crime scene. It's okay if I scare myself, but if I scare my sister Melissa who has to get up early tomorrow, things will get complicated!

The corridor outside the door was completely dark, with only the crimson moonlight streaming in through the window at the end barely outlining the shapes of the protruding objects, making them look like pairs of monstrous eyes silently watching the living in the deep night.

Zhou Mingrui tiptoed toward the washroom, his heart pounding with trepidation.

Once inside, the moonlight was even brighter, and everything became clearer. Zhou Mingrui stood in front of the washbasin and turned on the tap.

The sound of rushing water reached his ears, and he suddenly thought of his landlord, Mr. Frankie.

Because the water bill was included in the rent, this short and thin gentleman, who wore a top hat, a vest, and a black suit jacket, would always come to inspect the several washrooms and eavesdrop on the sound of running water inside.

If the commotion was too loud, Mr. Franky would abandon all gentlemanly manners, fiercely waving his cane and pounding on the bathroom door, yelling, "Damn thief!" "Waste is shameful!" "I'll remember you!" "If I see you again, take your filthy luggage and get out!" "Believe me, this is the best deal in all of Tingen; you won't find a more generous landlord!"

Pulling himself back to reality, Zhou Mingrui wet a towel and began washing the blood off his face, over and over again.

After looking into the tattered mirror in the bathroom and confirming that all that remained were gruesome wounds and a pale face, Zhou Mingrui felt much more relaxed. He then took off his linen shirt and used soap to rub off the bloodstains.

Just then, he frowned, remembering that there might be other troubles:

The wound was exaggerated, with a lot of blood and grime. Besides his own body, there should be traces of blood in the room as well!

A few minutes later, Zhou Mingrui finished cleaning his linen shirt, took a wet towel and hurried back home. He first wiped the bloody handprints off the desk, then used the light of the gas lamp to search for any other traces.

Upon searching, he immediately discovered numerous splattered bloodstains on the floor and under the desk, as well as a bright yellow bullet head on the wall to his left.

"...He pressed a revolver against his temple and fired a shot?" The clues suddenly connected, and Zhou Mingrui roughly understood the cause of Klein's death.

He didn't rush to verify it. Instead, he carefully wiped away the bloodstains and dealt with the "scene" before taking the bullet and returning to his desk. He then turned the cylinder of the pistol to the left and emptied the bullets.

Snap, snap, snap—five bullets in total, one cartridge case, all gleaming with a brass luster.

"As expected..." Zhou Mingrui glanced at the empty cartridge case, then nodded slightly as he loaded the bullets into the cylinder one by one.

He shifted his gaze to the left, looking at the sentence written on the open notebook: "Everyone will die, including me," and more doubts welled up in his mind.

Where did the gun come from?

Suicide, or a staged suicide?

What kind of trouble could a history graduate from a humble background get into?

How come this method of suicide only left such a small amount of blood? Is it because I time-traveled in time and have built-in healing benefits?

After a moment's thought, Zhou Mingrui changed into another linen shirt, sat down in a chair, and began to think about more important things.

Klein's predicament is not my main concern right now; the real issue is figuring out why I traveled through time and whether I can travel back!

Parents, relatives, best friends, friends, the vibrant online world, all kinds of delicious food... these are all reasons why I desperately want to go back!

Snap, snap, snap... Zhou Mingrui's right hand unconsciously swung out the pistol cylinder, then pulled it back in, again and again.

"Hmm, things haven't been much different from usual lately, except I've been a bit unlucky. How did I end up transmigrating out of nowhere?"

"Damn it... Oh right, I did a luck-changing ritual before dinner tonight!"

A bolt of lightning flashed through Zhou Mingrui's mind, illuminating his memories shrouded in mist.

As a qualified keyboard politician, keyboard historian, keyboard economist, keyboard biologist, and keyboard folklorist, I have always claimed to "know a little bit about everything." Of course, my best friends often laugh at me, saying that I "know a little bit about everything."

And magic arts are one of them.

Last year when I went back to my hometown, I found a thread-bound vertical edition of "The Secret Transmission of Qin and Han Dynasty Techniques" at a used bookstore. It looked quite interesting and I thought it would be helpful for showing off online, so I bought it. Unfortunately, my interest came and went quickly. The vertical format made it difficult to read, so I only flipped through the beginning before throwing the book into a corner.

It wasn't until the past month, when I had a string of bad luck—losing my phone, losing clients, making mistakes at work, and all sorts of bad things happening one after another—that I suddenly remembered that the "Essentials of Magic" had a ritual for changing one's luck at the beginning, and that the requirements were extremely simple and required no prior knowledge.

Thinking it was free anyway, I dug out the book and followed the instructions before dinner. However, nothing happened.

To everyone's surprise, in the middle of the night, I found myself transported to another time!

crossed!

"It could very well be that luck-changing ritual... Hmm, I'll try it here tomorrow. If it really is because of it, then I'll have a chance to go back!" Zhou Mingrui stopped shaking his revolver and sat up abruptly.

No matter what, I have to give it a try!

Even a dead horse can be tried!

PS: There will be three updates tomorrow, including one chapter to make up for the missed update from the previous book (lol). The first update will be at midnight tonight, the second at 12:30 pm, and the third at 7 pm.

(End of this chapter)