"Huh…?"
My head throbbed with a dull, persistent pain. It felt like I'd been hit by a ton of bricks or struck repeatedly with a sledgehammer. Was this the worst migraine of my life, or… what?
I forced my eyes open with great effort. For a split second, I saw a gray mist? Or maybe it was just my vision blurring as my eyes struggled to focus. It vanished as quickly as it appeared, leaving me to wonder if I was starting to hallucinate.
As my sight cleared, my chest tightened. A large, luxurious bed sprawled beneath me. This… was not my room.
The quality of the bed's woodwork, the unnaturally smooth sheets, the spacious and opulent room… Everything was foreign. Nothing was familiar from my life on Earth. In fact, it looked like a scene straight out of a movie about the life of a spoiled conglomerate heir!
"Something feels… off about my clothes too?" I was still dazed. It was truly bizarre; not only had this bed suddenly become incredibly lavish, but the clothes I was wearing weren't mine either. I decided to get up and try to sit on this strange bed. I really needed to figure out what was going on.
I sat up and looked at the sizable, clearly expensive mattress I was on. Then, I tried to survey my surroundings, turning my head to take in everything I could see.
I was in a large room decorated in a classical Western aesthetic. There was a table with an oil lamp and a window on the left corner wall next to the bed. Everything I saw was of high quality and luxurious. But none of it was even remotely familiar.
Wait… wasn't the moonlight a strange color? It wasn't the usual silvery light; it seemed… more like a pale red glow. Did that make any sense?
"I guess… I'm in some weird dream?" I muttered to myself, but the voice I heard was completely unfamiliar. Yet, I was fairly sure it had come from my own mouth.
Huh?
The moment I realized my voice had strangely changed, I immediately looked down at my hands and realized they had changed too! These hands… weren't mine. They had the pale white skin typical of Caucasians, were slightly plumper, with smooth fingers. These weren't my hands!
In the midst of my confusion about what was happening, my head suddenly throbbed even more violently than before. This time, it felt like being hit by ten bricks at once!
The pain subsided slightly after a moment. I pressed my temples, trying to calm myself down about what had just happened. To me, everything happening now was utterly absurd and downright weird, but staying calm was probably the best course of action, right?
Unconsciously, I looked around again to reassure myself of my situation. But everything remained the same: a fairly large room filled with items resembling a classical Western aesthetic.
The room contained a wall clock that looked like an expensive one I'd seen on shopping apps on my phone. The clock showed it was 4 a.m.?
In the corner of the room was a normally sized door with exquisite carvings that I guessed would be incredibly expensive even at a modest price.
On the left side of the room was a fairly large rectangular window, casting that pale red light from outside into the room.
This… I unconsciously pressed my temples again because of all this. My brain was racing through countless guesses about what was truly happening to me right now.
My changed voice, my changed hands, probably my entire body had transformed. Then, waking up in a strange, large room without a clue.
All of this pointed to only one possibility. The most ridiculous and previously unbelievable possibility, yet everything I saw screamed that this absurd thought was likely the correct one.
I… seem to have transmigrated into another world, haven't I? I thought this with a truly strange and mixed-up feeling.
I'd grown up reading novels and web novels about this sort of thing! I was even in the middle of reading about transmigration just before I unknowingly fell asleep while browsing the Wiki about the Visionary pathway in Lord of the Mysteries!
If not for the lingering headache, I would have thought this was just some absurd, nonsensical dream I was having.
Calm down… the best thing in a confusing situation like this is to think calmly and try to find a solution objectively. At least, that's what the protagonists in such stories usually did upon arrival, and it seemed reasonable to me.
Just as my mind and body had finally started to calm down about what was happening, a stream of memories suddenly flooded my head. The sensation of receiving these memories was incredibly odd.
John Lynch, a citizen of the Loen Kingdom. Northern Continent, Hillston Borough District, Backlund City. This man was also an economics major at King's University, seemingly just a month away from graduation.
My father… No! His father. Charles Lynch, was the owner of a thriving shipping company in Backlund. He also owned several steel and textile factories, making his name known as an owner of numerous industrial properties. The man dearly loved his children but had repeatedly urged John to take things more seriously, reminding him that he was the heir to the company.
Eleanor Lynch, his mother. She was the daughter of a fairly large mining company owner in Loen. She adored John and his younger sister. She was also a devout follower of the God of Steam and Machinery.
He also had a younger sister who had just turned 16 recently, and it seemed she was very fond of John.
Their family was extremely wealthy, overflowing with money, and not in any kind of financial difficulty. In fact, as a family with numerous industries, they could be considered one of the key players in the business world.
As an economics student, John mostly had knowledge of economics itself, which, frankly, wasn't too impressive to me since I knew more advanced modern economics and had studied it myself. John was also proficient in several languages he had mastered, such as Ancient Feysac, Hermes, and Loenese. John was a history enthusiast, which led him to self-study Ancient Feysac and Hermes. He also admired Emperor Roselle?
Wait! All of this… I'm deeply familiar with all of this. Isn't this… the terminology from Lord of the Mysteries? I'm certain my memory of that novel isn't wrongasz, even though, strangely, there's a lot of fog in my memories.
But… it's obvious! All of this is from Lord of the Mysteries! Loen, Backlund, Hermes, Ancient Feysac, Roselle. Everything connects me to that novel.
Moreover… the moonlight shining on me earlier was the characteristic moon from LoTM, wasn't it? Red and full of unknown mystery.
But, what's really going on? Huh? How did I end up inside the world of LoTM and randomly enter this new body?
"I haven't even finished reading the web novel! And if I recall correctly, there's even a second book that would give me more details." The realization that I was inside the world of a novel I was in the middle of reading, and wanted to finish but hadn't, filled me with wonder and frustration.
No! Actually, I feel like I'm missing some character names that I think are quite important in the story I know. What the hell? I'd only read up to chapter six hundred and two, occasionally checking the wiki, and now even my memories are disappearing in some aspects? So unfair!
What am I even thinking? This isn't about fair or unfair, but why am I in the world of LoTM? I really need to answer this. Did I do something before, or during the month leading up to this?
Unconsciously, I touched my chin and started tapping it with my finger.
Over the past month… my life was normal! Seriously, I hadn't encountered anything strange or even remotely unusual in the last month. Almost nothing that should have led to me suddenly ending up in another world, especially the world of a 'novel'.
I mean, come on, for the past month I'd just been working my usual, fairly mundane job as a civil servant. I hadn't even bought any weird books. Well, I was trying to finish LoTM but had only reached chapter 602 because I kept re-reading volumes one and two, since I sometimes got confused by the plot.
But… well… last night I did do something a bit odd, now that I think about it. I performed the luck-summoning ritual, just like Zhou Mingrui did before entering the world of LoTM.
Hah… I did it as a joke, to feel the vibe of the novel and make it more real. Not to actually get sucked into it!
But seriously… after the ritual, wasn't everything normal? I didn't immediately get transported to another world or anything. I even read the Wiki about the Visionary Pathway before eventually getting drowsy and falling asleep in front of my computer!
Besides… aren't rituals supposed to be performed with solemn focus? Hah! I was even holding my smartphone to read the text Zhou Mingrui recited for the ritual. And I didn't even read it in Chinese because I'm not Chinese!
Wait… Does this mean… my original family is gone? My father and mother… my friends, my colleagues, my juniors. They're… gone? I won't be able to contact them anymore, touch them, or even look at their photos again.
My body suddenly turned cold. The thought of my parents, my friends, my old life—it had all evaporated just like that. A profound emptiness gnawed at my chest, followed by a wave of panic that made my breath catch. Gone? They're all… gone?
I never expected something like this. I never expected to actually be transported into the real world of LoTM.
"Damn it!" My voice, which was finally starting to feel familiar as if it had always been mine, rang out. I unconsciously rubbed my face with both hands, trying to hold back the tears that threatened to fall. I was truly unprepared for all of this. I might have been more prepared if they had died, rather than just vanished.
But… I need to calm down again! Hey, there might be a way back home. Right, maybe I can return to the real world.
I tried to comfort myself with that thought, but deep down, I was also aware that there might be no way back at all. I mean, I've read up to chapter 602, and there wasn't a single clue suggesting such a path exists. In fact, it might be… more feasible to become a 'god' in this world than to return to Earth. Even Roselle didn't succeed, right? From all the texts Klein read, Roselle never showed any signs of finding a way back to Earth.
Unconsciously, sadness and anger welled up inside me. I truly didn't understand why this had to happen to me. Hadn't I lived a life without doing anything truly evil?
No. Anyway… who is John Lynch? I genuinely don't remember this name from all my reading of the novel. Is he an important character later? Hah. Probably not. Even though I've mysteriously and strangely lost parts of my memory, like the name of someone who wore glasses that… well, anyway, one of the lenses was a monocle. Or the names of some deities. Sure, maybe John Lynch is an important character in a later chapter or volume. I'm sure I'm not stuck in some completely insignificant extra in this story, haha.
But… still, a deep discomfort settled in my mind. I really don't like the idea that I'm not an important character in the novel. Because that means I could die more easily. No… actually, even important characters die easily in that novel.
"Damn it! I don't want to think about this!"
I pressed my temples again, to the point where I thought it might become a new habit of mine in this new world. A truly odd thought in an equally odd situation.
But I decided to get up from this four-poster bed with its high posts and canopy.
I then walked softly towards the mirror in this bedroom. Since the room was quite large, I walked over while trying to observe everything. A mix of familiarity and unfamiliarity swirled in my head. It felt utterly strange and illogical.
Then I reached the mirror and looked at myself. Reflected was a fair-skinned man with green pupils, black hair, and a white shirt. His height was probably average, but he looked fairly muscular and actually quite handsome.
"Hah… At least… the body is good-looking."
A good-looking body meant nothing compared to the one fact that made my blood run cold:I was trapped in a novel I hadn't finished reading, and one wrong move could mean altering the plot and dying because of it.