Mystery: When the Lost Homelanders Meet the Lost Homeland Call

After the projection shattered, Zhou Mingrui felt himself rapidly becoming heavier, his surroundings becoming erratic, and his vision first darkened before being filled with brilliant sunlight.

He was still in the apartment room, standing right in the center.

"Like a dream... What exactly is that gray fog world... And who or what power created the changes just now..." Zhou Mingrui sighed softly, full of confusion, his legs feeling like they were filled with lead as he walked towards the desk.

He picked up the pocket watch that he had left outside to check how much time had passed.

"A one-to-one time flow rate," Zhou Mingrui roughly estimated.

He put down the pocket watch, his head throbbing with pain, and could no longer hold on. He sat down in a chair, lowered his head, and began massaging his temples with his left thumb and middle finger.

After a long while, he suddenly sighed and said in Chinese:

"It seems like we won't be able to go back anytime soon..."

Ignorance breeds fearlessness. After witnessing such wondrous things and learning about extraordinary realms and mysterious worlds, Zhou Mingrui dared not recklessly attempt the "transfer ritual" in Ancient Fusak and Rune languages!

Just now, I used Chinese to describe the gathering of gray fog and the encounter with the mysterious Mr. White Tower. If I had spoken in another language, who knows what would have happened? It might have been even more bizarre, more terrifying, or even worse than death!

"I should only attempt this after I have a deep understanding of the occult," Zhou Mingrui thought helplessly.

After another moment of silence, he muttered to himself, "From this moment on, I am Klein."

At this moment, Zhou Mingrui officially assumed the identity of Klein.

Klein tried to shift his focus back to solutions and plans to dispel the negative emotions in his heart.

Fortunately, the so-called "Tarot Club" could provide him with help. The seemingly noble Miss Justice, the Hanged Man at sea, and the knowledgeable and generous Open Source Tarot Master gave him some optimism about the future.

That "gathering" was truly amazing. People from different parts of the world brought them closer together, allowing them to communicate face-to-face and exchange information. Hmm, that sounds familiar...

  

Klein paused for a few seconds, then suddenly chuckled, pressing his temple as he muttered to himself with a self-deprecating tone:

"How about checking out online dating platforms?"

……

On the three-masted sailing ship amidst the wind and rain, Alger snapped out of his tarot session. The strangely shaped glass bottle in his hand shattered with a crack; frost and snow melted into water, mingled with raindrops, and vanished without a trace. A hexagonal snowflake appeared in his palm, then quickly disappeared into his flesh.

He didn't delay. He walked through the quiet cabin and pushed open the door to the captain's cabin.

The ghost ship's nominal "captain," a middle-aged man wearing a skull and crossbones captain's hat, roared angrily, "I will not yield!"

Alger calmly replied, "I believe you can do it."

The next second, he lunged forward, his five fingers gripping the man's throat like iron clamps, lifting him up. With a sharp crack, he smashed the gradually cooling corpse through the wall and threw it into the raging waves.

He wiped his right palm with a white handkerchief, then threw the handkerchief into the sea.

When his companions, dressed in the robes of the Church of Storms, rushed in at the sound, Alger feigned annoyance and said, "The 'Captain' has escaped, and he still retains some extraordinary power."

His companion cursed, but didn't pay much attention, since the ghost ship from the Tudor era was the biggest gain.

Alger nodded, looking toward the rudder and sails. There was no one there, no first mate, no sailors, not a single living person, yet the rudder and sails were strangely adjusting themselves.

The image of the mist-shrouded figure above the gray fog, and the knowledgeable Mr. White Tower, flashed through his mind. He suddenly sighed, looked out at the raging winds and waves, and murmured in a dreamlike tone:

"A new era has begun..."

……

Meanwhile, in Queens Backlund.

Audrey Hall pinched her cheek, unable to believe what had just happened. The ancient bronze mirror on the dressing table was shattered into pieces, and the deep red stain on the back of her hand gradually seeped into her skin.

She was certain she wasn't dreaming.

Then she stood up, bent down, lifted her skirt, and bowed to the air.

……

Earl Hall brought Audrey to the Royal Naval Base in Prydz Harbor, where Audrey saw for the first time the revolutionary ironclad: 101 meters long, displacing over 10,000 tons, armed with four 305mm main guns, and capable of speeds of 16 knots. It was anchored in the harbor, surrounded by sailing battleships like dwarves flanking a giant.

Then, the airship carrying the royal family arrived. The enormous, deep blue vessel, bearing the ruby ​​crown emblem of the Augustus family, looked down upon all living beings.

At the ceremony, Prime Minister Lord Agushid Negan made a passionate declaration:

"Building such an ironclad warship requires three large coal and steel conglomerates, more than twenty steel mills of considerable size, sixty scientists and many more senior engineers from the Backlund Artillery Research Institute and the Pritzker Shipbuilding Institute, two royal shipyards and their nearly one hundred affiliated parts factories, an Admiralty, a shipbuilding committee, a cabinet, a steadfast king with exceptional vision, and a great nation with an annual steel production of 1200 million tons!"

"Pirates could never do that."

"Ladies and gentlemen, the age of giant ships and cannons has arrived!"

……

While the kingdom's high-ranking officials gathered to celebrate the pinnacle of steam industry—the ironclad behemoth—Lynn was walking among the dockworkers.

Before him stood an official of the Church of the Goddess of Night in Tingen City, a veteran employee who did clerical work for the Night Watchers in the church's extraordinary organization, a Seeker of the Nine Sequences of the Sage Path, Klein's guide to extraordinary knowledge, and also a predecessor who left a deep shadow on him and used his life to show Klein the cruelty of the extraordinary world.

Of course, these are all one person, so there's room here.

Upon seeing Old Neil, Lynn couldn't help but marvel at the wonder of fate; he had actually run into an official.

"Since that's the case, let's proceed with Plan C," he said to himself.

The most direct part of Plan A was for Lynn to explain the entire plot of Lord of Mysteries, stripping away the forbidden knowledge, directly to Klein, along with his own situation and the current state of his transmigration.

The advantage is openness and transparency, which will allow for collective wisdom and effort. The disadvantage is that too much information will be exposed, jeopardizing the future of the entire world, and Lynn will have no control over it. Furthermore, Klein's mental state will become a major problem.

Plan B is a hands-off approach, where Lynn will minimize her influence on Klein, allowing both of them to develop independently, with Lynn offering only slight assistance to Klein at most.

This plan looks good, but it actually has big problems.

The impact of the White Tower is still a minor matter. What Lynn is more worried about is whether something else from the deep sea world will come to the Mysterious World. Letting things run wild is also an approach that could easily cause the situation to get out of control.

Plan C is the "White Tower" Lynn separation plan.

Like the Fool and Klein, Lynn plans to play the roles of White Tower and Lynn as his two identities. White Tower is a high-ranking figure in the mysterious world, possessing a wealth of knowledge, while "Lyn" is an "ordinary" man who has lost his homeland and lives close to Klein offline.

At the same time, the two should have different character settings, but Lynn plans to gradually explore what those settings should be.

Lynn plans to first disguise himself as a remnant of the old world, and in fact, he is a remnant of the old world, just not from this Earth.

The plan was so perfect that it was missing only one piece: how Lynn got close to Klein. Now, Old Neil's arrival filled in the last piece of the puzzle.

"Then let's get started," Lynn stepped forward. "What a coincidence, just when you're feeling sleepy, someone brings you a pillow."

"After entering Klein's social circle, I still need to investigate the situation in the mysterious world. There are one thing after another."

Old Neil happened to be in the underground trading market in the dock area today to buy some extraordinary materials and to visit his old friend Swain. He has now finished purchasing the materials and is waiting for his public carriage to return.

As he was thinking about the strange things Swain had shared, someone came up to him. Old Neil turned around and saw a sailor with a somewhat foreign look on his face.

"Hello sir," Lynn said very politely, "I have a question for you. I can't find my hometown."

"?" Old Neil was full of questions. He was dressed in a purple-black robe, looking like a clergyman. It was possible that someone on the street would ask him for help, but what the heck was this question? Was this person's language system really okay?

It's common to get lost, and it's also reasonable not to know where your home is. So, is it a bit strange to use the word "hometown" here?

"Sir, could you repeat the question?" Old Neil asked tentatively, while naturally raising his right hand to his brow and tapping it twice to activate his spiritual vision.

"What I mean is, I am a lost soul," a void of emptiness replied with a smile.