"Dear Ms. Wall,
I have seen the latest volume of 'Wuthering Heights,' and it is as interesting as ever.
I have read it five times, and Ms. Sisi's image lingers in my mind.
I apologize for not writing to you recently.
You may have heard that my family has undergone significant changes recently, and I have been struggling to make ends meet.
During my leisure time, only your books offer me some solace.
Begging your pardon, I would like to consult you about creating literary works.
Reading your works has given me comfort, as well as inspiration and a passion for writing.
I also want to try being an Author, and I have some inspiration… (mainly settings from some anime or novels I've read before.)
…
(Polite formalities)
…
I hope to receive your guidance.
Your fan and friend,
Lorne. De Senck"
"This should be fine, right?"
Luo En, leaning on the desk in the hotel room, finished the letter, put it into an envelope, filled in the address, attached a stamp, and handed it to Lachi.
"Lachi, please send it to the mailbox, the one right outside the hotel entrance." Luo En pointed to a postbox on the first floor outside the window.
Lachi drooped her ears, seemingly a bit reluctant, but still picked up the envelope and went downstairs.
Luo En wrote this letter out of necessity.
His financial situation had become dire, primarily because he only had expenses and no income.
He had considered putting on the monocle and going to Duijiao Alley or other antique markets to find bargains.
However, after trying it himself, he found that the gap between reality and imagination was much larger than he had anticipated.
Firstly, Tingen is a small place with no real nobility, making it difficult to encounter such good opportunities as impoverished nobles selling off their family assets.
Secondly, the monocle consumes too much for appraisal; a few appraisals would drain Luo En's spirituality, making him afraid to use it for extended periods now.
The best way to improve spirituality is to continue advancing, but this creates a vicious cycle.
Advancing requires money, and money requires using the monocle for appraisal to find bargains, and long-term use of the monocle requires more spirituality, which can only be gained through advancing.
For this reason, Luo En could only try to leverage his advantage as a transmigrator, using knowledge from his previous world to generate income.
His first thought was to return to his old profession, inventing things related to machinery.
However, the technology in this world is still at the steam engine level, a vast difference from his original world.
In his original world, even the most outdated textbooks would contain knowledge of gasoline engines.
This also puzzled Luo En; this world seemed to have no concept of oil at all.
Logically, it had been hundreds of years since Rosell improved the steam engine; in his original world, maglev trains would have been developed, but this world was still stuck on steam engines.
Furthermore, he didn't know much about the mechanical industry in this world, nor did he have anyone to consult, so Luo En had to put this idea aside for now.
Subsequently, Luo En chose a backup plan: learning from Rosell to be a plagiarist.
Although Rosell plagiarized many works, there were always some he left untouched, and being a plagiarist is also one of the standard professions for transmigrators, so he was following tradition.
Because he often read transmigration novels before transmigrating, Luo En knew how to be a plagiarist and the general process involved.
The only problem now was that he wasn't quite clear about the publishing process for works in this world and people's reading preferences.
So he wrote a letter to that female Author pen pal, hoping to get professional guidance.
"Although the original owner didn't genuinely like her works, the letter was always full of encouragement and praise."
"She probably doesn't know the original owner's thoughts, so guiding me shouldn't be a problem, right?" Luo En thought with some uncertainty.
"But writing a book also takes time! Is there any way to make money quickly?" Luo En muttered to himself.
"Meow~" Lachi, sprawled on the bed, glanced at Luo En, then closed her eyes and continued to sleep.
Actually, there was a way to make money quickly—gambling—but Luo En dared not try that.
He had bad luck even before transmigrating, and after transmigrating, it was one unfortunate event after another.
If he were to gamble, he would probably lose even the clothes on his back in less than a night.
"It was a bit of a whimsical thought after all."
He turned his head and glimpsed the mystical item box by the window, his expression suddenly changing.
The mystical item box claims to tell you the steps to solve any problem, so can it directly tell me how to make a lot of money… Luo En suddenly had an unrealistic idea.
"Sigh, what am I thinking? How could there be such a good thing?" Although he said that, Luo En's gaze remained fixed on the wooden box.
"The negative effects of this box are still unclear; trying it rashly, I'm afraid…" Luo En's body had already moved in front of the wooden box.
"I should be more rational…" His hand was already on the lid of the box.
"Is there a way to make money quickly…?" Luo En asked, looking at the box in front of him.
As before, the box began to tremble slightly after hearing the question.
After about two seconds, the lid of the box opened by itself.
And like the previous two times, a piece of text appeared out of thin air inside, which read:
"Put on the monocle and flip through the old book you bought earlier."
"Old book? The one I bought in Duijiao Alley earlier?" Luo En frowned.
The content of that book was written in some special characters that he couldn't understand at all.
"The monocle doesn't seem to have a deciphering or translating function, does it?" When Luo En went to the antique market to try to find bargains earlier, he also used it to look at some old books with unknown writing, but there was no reaction; it could only show the age and value.
The most practical example was when Luo En used it to examine Rosell's diary, but he didn't get any corresponding interpretation.
"Never mind, let's try it." Luo En took out the book, then put on the monocle, infused it with spirituality, and began to flip through it.
"Sure enough, I still can't understand it."
"Like what's written here, Sequence 9: Seer, I can't understand it at all…" Luo En pointed to a certain page in the book.
!!!
Wait, what is this?!
Recovering from his shock, Luo En quickly lowered his head and continued to look down.
Main ingredients: 10 ml of Lava Octopus blood + 50 grams of Star Crystal.
Auxiliary ingredients: 100 ml of pure water + 13 drops of Night Vanilla juice + 7 pieces of Golden Mint leaves + 3 drops of Hemlock juice + 9 grams of Dragon's Blood Grass.
This is actually a potion formula!
After reading this page, Luo En hadn't yet recovered from his shock and subconsciously flipped to the next page.
sequence 8: Clown
Main ingredients: One crystallized horn of an adult Honarchis Grey Mountain Goat + one complete Human-Faced Rose.
Auxiliary ingredients: 80 ml of pure water + 5 drops of Mandrake juice + 7 grams of Black-edged Sun Flower powder + 10 grams of Golden Cloak Grass powder + 3 drops of Hemlock juice.
Sequence 7: Magician
Main ingredients…
…
…
…
Flipping further back, it was again some incomprehensible text.
But this content was already enough to shock Luo En.
A full three potion formulas, and they were a set from the same Pathway.
If it's real, how much would that be worth!
Happiness came too suddenly; Luo En felt his head spinning, and if he hadn't propped himself up with his hand on the desk, he probably would have collapsed to the ground.
"Wait, what exactly is this note?"