Mystery: When the Lost Homelanders Meet the Lost Homeland Call

Thick fog rolled in from the sea.

It was an ordinary day in June, and the dockworkers were already used to the dampness and gloom of the early morning. The pier creaked under the crashing waves, and seagulls were blurred into gray shadows in the mist. No one noticed that, deep within the fog, a faint green light was approaching.

It was a small boat.

It was too small, too small to be a ship capable of long voyages; it looked more like a lifeboat.

The ship's hull was black, soaked in the color of the seawater, but faint, eerie green flames seeped out from the cracks in the wood, burning quietly without scorching or spreading, like something alive breathing.

The ship docked without making a sound, and no one noticed.

A nearly transparent figure stood up from the ship, stepped onto the pier, and took one step, two steps, until the figure gradually solidified.

The figure was dressed in strange, tattered clothes soaked in sea salt. Although the style of the clothes was completely different from any sailor uniform in Rune or Intis, anyone who saw it would think, "That's a sailor, a sailor who has experienced unimaginable voyages."

The man turned around and glanced at the small boat. The eerie green flame on the boat flickered, as if bidding farewell.

Then, the ship disappeared, like mist, silently dissipating, dissolving, and returning to nothingness.

The man stood on the pier, silent for a long time. The sea breeze ruffled his hair, revealing a young face.

He looked to be in his early twenties, with the features of an Asian, and his eyes reflected the mist and the sea, as well as something indescribable.

He turned and walked deeper into the dock area.

Despite the thick morning fog, some people still witnessed this scene, but as Lynn walked by, a ghostly green flame rose in their eyes, burning away this memory.

They could never have known that at that moment, the mysterious man, Lynn Aberrent, was thinking:

"I just turned around, and that huge ship was gone?!"

---

When the lifeboat reached the shore, Lynn Aberrent opened his eyes. The first thing he saw wasn't the familiar cabin, but the sky.

An ordinary, hazy, and pale sky, the "Creation of the World" stretches across the horizon, a normal sky with sparse stars under the morning mist!

He paused for two seconds, then sat up abruptly, quickly recognizing the familiar lifeboat of the Lost Home beneath him.

As he was confirming the situation, the eerie green flames rising from the ship gradually died down, as if some connection had been severed.

"This is……"

He looked towards the shore. Unfamiliar buildings, unfamiliar fog, unfamiliar seabird calls.

It is not an endless sea.

When the thought popped into Lynn's head, she couldn't tell whether she felt relieved or even more nervous.

The last time he "came" to a strange place was when Captain Duncan pulled him out of the sea, and he entered a world on the verge of apocalypse.

What will he step into this time?

Thinking of this, his first reaction was to say:

"Praise be to the Emperor."

He paused for a moment, then smiled wryly. Even though he had traveled through time twice, he still hadn't forgotten to completely shed his youthful mindset.

  

Before transmigrating, he was an ordinary college student who spent ten years reading online novels and developing countless strange habits. He had imagined countless times what he should do after transmigrating, and finally decided that no matter where he transmigrated, he would first shout "Bravo Emperor!"

If you actually get to wear Warhammer, that's called piety; if you don't, you should be even more grateful that the Emperor didn't conscript soldiers.

He breathed a sigh of relief, and as he got up, he couldn't help but laugh at himself, saying that the "Praise the Emperor" meme wasn't really that useful, and many worlds weren't much better than Warhammer.

For example, the hometown of a white-haired, blue-eyed boy who likes yellow and purple colors; a world with certain mysterious containment organizations; the world of Stephen King's ghost stories; and the place he used to live in—

How long ago was the first time travel? Lynn couldn't figure it out; time beneath the deep sea was chaotic.

He only remembered the first time he traveled through time. At that time, he was just an ordinary college student, and he was watching "Deep Sea Ashes" three times out of boredom. When he saw Captain Duncan setting sail, everything suddenly went black.

When he opened his eyes again, salty seawater rushed into his lungs, and he was horrified to find himself in the sea.

It's a time-travel story, but there's no newbie gift pack from the system.

Just when Lynn thought he was going to drown at sea, he heard the shouts of sailors in the distance, and a sailing wooden ship that was far larger than usual appeared before him. The ship was the Lost Home.

Lynn was half-dead when he was pulled from the water. Captain Duncan didn't ask who he was, where he came from, or why he was in the middle of the vast ocean. He simply glanced at him and told the sailors, "Let him stay."

So Lynn stayed on the Lost Home, and he confirmed that he had entered the world of Deep Sea Embers.

The Boundless Sea is the entire region of order in this world, much like the mysterious North and South Continents. The Boundless Sea is enveloped by an eternal veil, like the primordial barrier.

Lynn arrived too early; a century before the main story of "Deep Sea Ashes" begins, the protagonist Zhou Ming has not yet transmigrated into Duncan, and the original Captain Duncan is still alive.

Lynn arrived too late; Captain Duncan was already on his final voyage, heading towards the end he already knew.

The captain was willing to give his life to ignite a spark for the world.

Lynn stayed in that world for a very long time, though he couldn't calculate exactly how many years, because Captain Duncan's voyage led to the subspace.

The subspace is the cosmic bottom layer of the world of Deepsea Embers, a region where countless fragments of the universe that have not yet been completely destroyed are piled up. In the deepest and darkest part of this world, time is chaotic.

He learned the common language of that world, named himself Lynn Aberrant, and participated in Captain Duncan's final voyage.

Lynn couldn't quite remember what happened after that. The Lost Home was reshaped in the Warp, transforming from a human creation into a shadow of the Warp. Countless fragments of memory surged in and then dissipated, and ancient, non-human beings awakened from the depths of that ship.

Lynn felt himself changing; his body became thinner, his consciousness blurred, and he seemed to become part of the ship, a shadow of the warp, a terrifying being within the warp.

Then, that strange thrust came again, exactly the same as the first time I traveled through time.

When he opened his eyes again, he was already on this unfamiliar coast, lying in a lifeboat burning with eerie green flames.

After regaining his senses and calming down a bit, Lynn looked around and decided to head to the nearest bar; he wanted to learn about the world. Clearly, his arduous seafaring career had instilled in this severe procrastinator an extraordinary drive to act.

Tingen City, Dragon Bar.

Lynn pushed open the door of the Dragon Bar, looked around, and saw that there weren't many people in the bar in the morning, except for the bartender wiping glasses. He walked over.

When he saw the bartender look up at him upon hearing footsteps, Lynn instinctively raised his hand as if to gesture.

After his journey through time, he realized the possibility of language barriers, and the language he learned in the boundless sea was probably not as reliable as sign language compared to Earth's languages.

Then he froze, because he understood.

That language was certainly not English or Chinese, nor was it the language of the vast seas or those difficult ancient languages.

The bartender spoke a language he had never heard before, but every word that entered his ears was automatically translated into a meaning he could understand.

Beyond translating the words themselves, Lynn felt that as he listened to the conversations of those around him, he was gradually coming to understand the language!

Is it a side effect of time travel? Or a "gift" from Lost Home?

He didn't know, but he really liked the ability.

Lynn asked, "Excuse me, where is this place?"

"Tinggen," the bartender replied, clearly understanding him.

"Which Tingen?" Lynn wondered, pressing for an answer.

"Which other Tingen is there?" the bartender replied impatiently. "Is there another Tingen in the Kingdom of Rune?"

"What about the time? Year, month, and date?" Lynn pressed eagerly.

"June 28th, 1349, Thursday." The bartender looked at him suspiciously, but still answered his question.

Lynn didn't answer, but stood there like a statue, a sudden boom echoing in his mind: Tingen City! The Kingdom of Rune!

It's Lord of Mysteries!

He traveled to the world of Lord of Mysteries!

This was an era where steam and mystery coexisted, and true history was hidden in the mist.

On the surface, it is a Victorian industrial civilization with two continents, north and south. The northern continent has countries like the Rueun of England, the Intis of France, and other countries. These countries, which had experienced the Industrial Revolution, colonized the backward southern continent.

The official faith has seven deities.

However, in the shadows unknown to ordinary people, there exists a way to gain extraordinary power by consuming magical potions.

June 28, 1349, the year of the Black Iron Era, which is exactly the day the original story begins.

The protagonist of Lord of Mysteries, Zhou Mingrui, should have just transmigrated to this city called Tingen and become Klein Moretti.

The end of the world is only a little over a decade away.

Lynn knew very well that it was quite dangerous. The potion path was divided into ten levels, gradually increasing in strength from Sequence Nine. A Sequence Four demigod was enough to influence a city.

Sequence 2 angels can exert influence that covers planets, while Sequence 0 gods can destroy stars.

And those beings beyond the stars, those "old days," are enough to drive extraordinary beings out of control and destroy ordinary people simply by reciting their names.

Then another thought suddenly popped into Lynn's head, and he realized that he had knowledge in his mind that he shouldn't know!

Above Sequence Zero are the Great Old Ones, and Source Matter is essential for true gods to become Great Old Ones. Countless Great Old Ones lurk in the starry sky...

He knew of those things that could not be thought of, could not be recited, and could not be looked at directly!

Cold sweat instantly soaked his back.

He stood frozen in place, too afraid to move. He waited for that feeling of losing control: that feeling of eyes growing in his brain, something wriggling under his skin, and his sanity plummeting.

Nothing happened.

One second. Two seconds. Ten seconds.

Nothing happened.

Lynn slowly exhaled. He still remembered the nature of the source matter in the original work. Understanding information was pollution. He also remembered how people above the level of angels fought against pollution in the original work. However, his current feeling was completely different from the description in the original work.

Rather than saying he resisted pollution through some means, it would be more accurate to say that he was completely undetected, ignoring the ironclad rule that understanding is mutual understanding, as if he were an empty void in the world.

Seeing Lynn's strange reaction, the bartender took a step back.

Is this man going crazy? He quickly gestured, and the guards resting in the bar also became alert. The burly man put down his drink and picked up the hunting rifle that was placed to the side.

Lynn ignored the bartender's gaze. He took a deep breath to calm himself. Then, he remembered something.

By this time, Captain Duncan should have already left, and as a crew member of the Lost Home, he needed a drink.

The bartender hesitated for two seconds. This man had a hoarse accent like the sea breeze, and his clothes were very worn, but his choice of words and his demeanor were as if he had received a good education, and he seemed completely different from these rough men.

With that in mind, the bartender still poured him a glass of rum. After all, it was the cheapest drink that sailors drank most often. He gave it to him, and if the other party really didn't pay, beating him up as a warning to others was too common in taverns.

Lynn took the glass but didn't drink. He lowered his head, looking at the murky liquid in the glass, his lips moving as if he were saying something. Then, he tilted the glass and slowly spilled the liquid onto the ground.

"Respectfully dedicated to the pioneers of human civilization, the explorers of the world's frontiers, and the greatest adventurers of the boundless seas."

His voice was low but clear, carrying throughout the entire bar.

"The captain of the Lost Home - Duncan Abnomar".

An unfamiliar name.

A surname that's hard to pronounce.

A strange sense of unease began to arise in the minds of everyone present.

Then, the wind came.

A strong sea breeze, carrying the bitter scent of sea salt, suddenly appeared and howled from every corner of the bar. The candles on the bar counter went out instantly, the windows rattled, and the door was flung open and then bounced back. The bartender, his eyes glazed by the wind, stumbled backward and nearly knocked over the liquor rack behind him.

The wind carried the sounds of countless voices, a roar of cheers like a mountain collapsing and a tsunami crashing, as if the sailors of an entire fleet were shouting simultaneously, hundreds of voices calling out a single name. That name echoed, exploded, and overlapped in the wind.

"Duncan Abnomar!"

"Lost Home!"

Interspersed among them was a desolate boat song. The song had no words, only a melody, like a horn sounding from the ends of the earth, like a siren's chant in the abyss.

The bartender couldn't understand the tongue-twisting surname, but he was trembling all over.

There was something in that voice he didn't recognize—an entire civilization bidding farewell to a name. The bartender couldn't understand, but he trembled, tears streaming uncontrollably down his face. He didn't know why he was crying.

The bartender stood there blankly, then his legs gave way and he sat down on the ground.

In the black market behind the bar, a pale-faced young man suddenly screamed, his eyes tightly closed, and bloody liquid flowed out. The bloody liquid was then burned away by a ghostly green flame that suddenly appeared out of nowhere.

"Ah!" "Damn it!"... The young man covered his eyes, clutched his head, and struggled and rolled on the ground. It took him a while to calm down and lie there panting.

Lynn saw the visions. He heard the cheers. He saw the giant waves of the boundless sea, the silhouette of the Lost Home, and Captain Duncan's final smile. He knew it was a resonance triggered by his memories, his emotions, and the remaining power within him. But he hadn't expected it to be so intense.

He never expected that he would hear a voice in this gust of wind.

The sound was very soft and indistinct, like an echo coming from a very distant place.

Lynn heard a hoarse voice shout, "Captain! Hold on tight to the helm! We're approaching the world's edge! Anomaly 000 is just ahead!"

"I'm working on it! First Mate! Instead of making a fuss, why don't you think about what you can do to help!"

A moment of silence followed, then a hoarse, shrill, and even somewhat chilling voice rang out:

"Captain! Go! Go! Go!"

Lynn couldn't hold back anymore. He put his hand to his forehead, letting the tears stream down his cracked lips and mingle with his last words:

"Go for it, Captain Duncan!"

In the blink of an eye, the wind stopped, the illusion vanished, leaving only the traces of seawater on the ground and the furniture blown over by the wind to prove that everything just now was not a simple illusion.

Lynn wiped her face, saw that everyone in the bar was stunned and motionless, and immediately turned around and left.

It wasn't because he didn't want to attract attention—though he truly didn't—the main reason he ran away immediately was that he had just remembered—

He didn't bring any money.

If he stayed, he wouldn't be able to afford the drinks.

Just as Lynn was hurrying away from the bar, Swain, the owner of the Dragon Bar who had worked for the violent organization "The Punishers" under the church of the Lord of Storms, one of the seven true gods, finally regained his mobility.

"By the storm!" Swain, who had just been resting, roared and immediately urged the sailors to use the power of Sequence 8 "The Wrathful People" to rush like the wind to the bar's entrance, but there was no one in the morning mist outside.

He scanned the bar with a heavy gaze at the people still babbling and the traces of seawater on the ground, then tried to recall the hallucinations that had just occurred, but those memories seemed to have been burned away by flames, turned to ashes, and could not be recalled, leaving only a single word.

Then he spoke, his voice low:

"Lost Home..."

He didn't know where the word came from, nor why he had uttered it. But the word stuck in his throat like a thorn, an anchor, something that shouldn't be forgotten.

Swain looked out of the bar again. The morning mist had naturally dissipated without a trace. He suddenly realized that there really shouldn't be any mist at this time!

What was that fog just now? Why didn't I react?

"By the storm above," he exclaimed, breaking out in a cold sweat. His inspiration had been completely clouded. He had tried to deduce the visitor's strength based on his ability to create illusions. If it was just an illusion, perhaps some Sequence 7 or Sequence 6 pathways could create it.

But being able to control the inspiration of so many people at the same time and leave traces is completely beyond his understanding of extraordinary beings.

"Could it be a powerful being who is half-god and half-human?" He shook his head, walked back into the bar, and gave up the idea of ​​exploring further.

The visitor didn't harbor any ill will towards him, which was the best-case scenario.

As Swain planned to report the information about the powerful stranger to the church, he couldn't help but think,

"The sound of waves and wind is a storm-related force, and it has no ill intentions towards ordinary people. It has come to my bar... Could it be a demigod from our church?"

"If so, then there must be an extremely important plan..."

------

"I really wish there was a system to plan for me."

Lynn leaned against the wall of an alley near the bar, panting heavily. The crew of the mighty Lost Home, men personally rescued by Captain Duncan, were now fleeing because they couldn't afford drinks. If the captain knew, he'd probably laugh at him for three years.

Normally he wouldn't be so impulsive, doing things when he has no money, but the excitement of discovering that he had transmigrated into a familiar world that wasn't particularly disgusting made him a little agitated for a moment.

However, Lynn did not regret his actions; Captain Duncan absolutely deserved a tribute.

Moreover, this attempt brought a huge message, which made Lynn's will to survive start to run wild.

The act of paying respects to Captain Duncan brought feedback, meaning that the two worlds are connected! My time travel was not a coincidence!

Lynn shuddered. The crisis in the Deep Sea Ember world was too great. If the Mysterious World were to be recreated, what would happen if Zhou Ming couldn't be saved?

"Looks like there won't be many opportunities for leisure." Lynn sighed. "I need to figure out my situation as much as possible. Besides, these gods in the mysterious world are very close to the concept of the essence of the world. In addition, there are several knowledge domains. If we can gather all the power, plus my knowledge, we might be able to contribute."

Now that the decision has been made and the timing is perfect, the next step is naturally to get closer to the protagonist. So, what should be done?

Lynn crouched down and huddled in the corner to think. Just then, his stomach growled, and Lynn froze.

He looked down at his stomach, then at his hands. With a thought, a ghostly green flame rose from his fingertips, burning quietly before extinguishing itself at will.

He is no longer "human". He is the shadow of the warp, the remnant left after the Lost Home was rebuilt, something that exists between existence and non-existence.

Why was he still hungry? This question lingered in his mind for a moment before being overshadowed by another, more practical question.

He's currently in Tingen City, June 28th, 1349 (Iron Age). Klein Moretti should have already appeared; he needs to connect with the protagonist, possibly infiltrate the Tarot Society, and survive and improve himself in this dangerous world. He can't just sit and wait to die!

Unlike the chaotic, boundless sea, the mysterious world has a clear path to advancement.

Lynn doesn't fully understand his current state. Is he a shadow from the warp or a human? Why did he travel through time twice? In any case, the Mysterious Universe is a world with a mature mysticism and gods that symbolize the concept of the universe. Enhancing his own strength will definitely help him understand all the questions.

Moreover, Lynn had an even more serious concern: "world incompatibility," which was the root cause of the chaos in the Boundless Sea. As someone from another world, although he seemed to be fine now, what about in the long run? What profound impact would it have on the mysterious universe?

Lynn put those matters aside for the time being and thought about how to approach the protagonist, Klein. Even disregarding the fact that Klein was the protagonist, as someone from his hometown, he really wanted to find him; after all, it would be like meeting an old friend in a foreign land.

Going directly to Klein's house would probably only arouse his suspicion. Applying for a job at Blackthorn Security Company might be a better option. So, we need to find a way to attract the attention of the Church of the Goddess of the Night.

Lynn huddled in the corner, ignoring his empty stomach, and seriously considered the feasibility of the plan.

After deciding to visit Blackthorn Security Company later, he sighed helplessly, leaned against the corner of the wall, and lamented, "If only I could go directly to the Tarot Club."

Just then, a deep red light appeared in his vision.

The light surged from the void, enveloping his entire body. He felt a strange pulling force, as if he were being grabbed, dragged, and pulled towards some unknown place by something.

Then, it didn't move.

"They're here already? Weren't they supposed to send their astral forms up? Are they going to grab the real body directly?"

Lynn was also a little confused. In the original story, Klein used an entity called "Source Castle" to pull people's astral bodies, that is, the outward manifestation of their spirits, to Source Castle to hold meetings. But now he was pulling his entire body directly.

Perhaps because he was a visitor from another world and did not possess the "Star Spirit Body" of the mysterious world, the Source Castle chose the entire body.

With Klein's current strength, he couldn't even pull up a normal human being, let alone someone like him who is a shadow of the warp.

"I'll do it myself. It's only wrong to refuse a gift from heaven. Heh, I'll probably have to help out later."

Lynn calmed his mind, and a wisp of his will transformed into a ball of eerie green flame, actively following the pull of that force.

The crackling of the flames subsided, and as his consciousness wandered elsewhere, his body gradually lost its color, its weight, and vanished into nothingness, leaving the alley seemingly deserted.

In the distance, the silence inside the Dragon Bar was broken as people began to chatter about what had just happened. But none of them could explain what had occurred; they only remembered the phrase "Lost Home."

The word drifted in the mist, like a seed, falling into the soil of Tingen.