paranoianovel Chapter 3 The Mysterious City: Two Paths
Chapter 3 The Mysterious City: Two Paths
Not long after meeting Helen, Evan's original self was completely captivated by her charm, turning into a total simp and letting her manipulate him at will. It was under her influence that the original self began to truly explore the knowledge of the occult.
At first, the original owner thought she had met her true love and complied with every request Helen made. Even Evan himself, who had transmigrated here, only realized with difficulty, from an objective perspective, that Helen was guiding and exploiting the original owner.
Just as Evan had instructed his housekeeper to close the door to guests and prepare to hide for a few days to cover up the marks on his neck left by hanging, Helen suddenly appeared in Evan's bedroom that night and placed a bottle of magic potion in front of him.
Looking at the potion in front of him, which looked awful no matter how you looked at it, Evan really didn't want to drink it.
However, Evan, who was familiar with the plot, also knew that witches were ruthless characters. Since they had already come to his door, he had no choice but to hold his nose and drink the seemingly powerful "assassin" potion with a look of surprise.
Sure enough, after drinking the "Assassin" potion, Helen confronted Evan completely.
She told Evan that she came from the Gnostic Order and was an Extraordinary being in the Assassin pathway, and that the Sequence 7 of the Assassin pathway was the Witch. She also told Evan that the reason she made him drink the Assassin potion was to have him help them uncover the secrets of their mortal enemy, the Witch Cult, in Backlund.
After careful selection, they found Evan.
The reason they chose Evan was not because she had the talent to be a witch and was easy to control, but because she had caught the eye of Mrs. Sharon, a member of the "Witch Cult".
Mrs. Sharon was attracted to Evan not only because he was a cute young man who fit her aesthetic, but also because Evan's brother, Robert Horn, was a rising star in Ruhnn politics and had great potential.
Thinking of this, Evan couldn't help but touch his nose again, lamenting the original owner's bad luck. All sorts of witches approached at once, which was already pitiful enough, but what was even more pitiful was that the reason behind it could be traced back to the original owner's brother, and actually had little to do with him.
From the original owner's memories, Evan easily understood why the original owner's older brother was unwilling to let him go to Backlund to reunite with his family, but instead wanted him to stay in their hometown of Tingen. The main reason was to protect his younger brother, who was naive and easily manipulated.
Despite all precautions, as Robert Horn's status rose, Evan inevitably became a target of those with ulterior motives.
Mrs. Sharon had been interested in Evan for a long time, and this interest grew stronger after Robert Horn joined others in Parliament to repeal the Grain Act, and she extended invitations to Evan to balls and dinners several times.
Evan had been mindful of his brother's advice to stay away from politicians, so he kept his distance from socialites like Mrs. Sharon, who had connections with various factions of politicians in Tingen. However, this unexpectedly increased Mrs. Sharon's interest in Evan himself.
It was only through Helen's guidance that Evan truly discovered her problem. After all, Evan knew very well that Mrs. Sharon was the highest-ranking witch that Little K had fought in Tingen, and might even be the head of the witch cult in Tingen.
During this time, Helen guided Evan to act as an enthusiast of the occult, which successfully attracted Mrs. Sharon, who had always wanted to win Evan over. Under the pretext of exchanging occult ideas, the two became increasingly intimate, inseparable and inseparable.
Yesterday, Evan was finally lured by Madam Sharon into drinking the second bottle of the "Assassin" potion, becoming an outer member of the "Witch Cult".
That's why Evan seemed unhappy this morning.
Because the persona Evan is currently cultivating in front of Helen is that of a "puppy dog" who has been deceived by her—still loving her, forgiving her deception, but ultimately feeling unhappy inside.
Moreover, it's true that Evan was unhappy. He had just transmigrated and was forced to drink two bottles of "Assassin" potion. Evan wasn't the kind of sycophant the original owner was, so it would be a lie to say he didn't feel resentment. That's why it seemed so real.
But now, he's no match for others, so aside from finding some excuses in bed, he can only continue to maintain his previous persona.
High-level hunters often appear as prey, a statement Evan wholeheartedly agrees with. First, play the role of a docile puppy, and then slowly get your revenge later.
Of course, Evan did this not only so that he could take revenge on the Gnostic Society and the Witch Cult in the future, but also because Evan awakened his own cheat ability after drinking the first potion.
At this moment, Evan raised his right hand, looking at the faint black light emanating from it, and recalled the hallucinations he had experienced after drinking the first potion.
After Evan drank the "Assassin" potion, he found himself vaguely appearing in a room. The room was empty except for a door and two windows.
Two different colors of light are projected into the room from the two windows.
Evan stood up groggily and walked to the window that was emitting a dark light. Looking out the window, Evan realized that he was actually in a room in the tallest building in a 20th-century Shanghai-style city.
He saw a bustling crowd outside, including a rickshaw driver with a towel around his neck, his face rotting to the bone and oozing pus, who was pulling Evan's rickshaws—the kind of people he had only seen on TV in his previous life.
There was a woman sitting in a rickshaw, with a graceful figure, wearing a tight-fitting cheongsam, but with swollen and dark skin, and adorned with gold and silver.
At the same time, there are also trams that come from afar, ringing bells, connected by power lines above and running on tracks below.
Just as Evan was shocked by what he saw and wanted to see it more clearly, Helen's call brought him back to reality.
Since then, Evan has never entered that room again, but he has a feeling that he can preemptively draw upon an extraordinary ability below Sequence 7 of the 'Witch' pathway.
After careful consideration and weighing of options, Evan preemptively used the divination skills of Sequence 7 'Witch'. While being skilled in divination, he was also adept at interfering with other people's divination, which was exactly what he needed at the moment.
Having read Lord of Mysteries, Evan knew very well that there were too many unknown dangers and characters in this world, as well as too many extraordinary abilities to find people. Not being easily noticed was the first principle of survival in the world of mystery. This is why Helen gave Evan the "Golden Gaze," an extraordinary item with relatively few side effects.
At the same time, Evan learned of another special feature brought about by his cheat ability: Evan could simultaneously take potions from the "Hunter" pathway, which is similar to the "Witch" pathway.
In other words, Evan can simultaneously take the 'Hunter' potion, which corresponds to the Sequence 9 'Assassin' potion, and the level difference between the two potions cannot exceed one sequence.
Evan's cheat ability allows him to become a true dual-path extraordinary being, which also means that Evan's initial idea of finding a way to get rid of the "Gnostic Society" and the Witch Cult was directly declared a failure.
Because the potion recipes for the Witch Path are relatively strictly controlled, if Evan leaves these two organizations, it will be difficult for him to find the relevant potion recipes in the future. This is equivalent to wasting his cheat ability and may even cause him to be unable to advance in his career. Therefore, Evan should continue to feign compliance with these two organizations.
The appearance of the cheat code was a huge surprise for Evan. After all, although he only had half of the memories from Lord of Mysteries, it was enough for Evan to recognize the reality of this world, which was truly "unable to move an inch without cheat codes".
Although he didn't know what hidden dangers this cheat code might have, "having a cheat is better than not having one" was enough to make Aiven ecstatic.
"But witches can transform at Sequence 7, while hunters need to reach Sequence 4 to transform. The transformation periods for the two paths are not equal. Does this mean I really have to become a woman during the time between Sequence 7 and Sequence 4 in the future?"
Thinking about this, Evan rubbed his face with both hands in distress. He was a real man who had never even worn women's clothing in his past life. The thought of possibly losing Niu Niu for a while made him feel ashamed.
Just as Evan was feeling troubled, there was a knock on the door of the reception room. Evan knew that this was the servant reminding him that it was time for breakfast. Evan asked the servant who was carrying clothes to come in and help him change.
When Evan first transmigrated to this world, he was not used to being served by male servants. After all, Evan was a normal man and found it hard to tolerate strange men getting close to him and touching him. He just endured it to avoid revealing his true identity.
But after a few days, Evan was no longer uncomfortable. It can only be said that it is easy to go from simplicity to luxury, and it is difficult for humans to get rid of their nature of loving enjoyment.
Soon, with the help of a male servant, Evan changed into a white shirt, a black vest, black trousers, and a pair of polished black leather boots.
Looking at himself in the mirror, Evan nodded in satisfaction, feeling that his face was barely inferior to his past life.
Stepping out of the reception room and down the wide indoor staircase to the dining room, I found that the butler, Buck, and his servants had already set the food on the table, each holding a silk scarf, and were standing by the chairs waiting.
"Good morning, Mr. Buck!" Evan greeted him.
"Good morning, Mr. Evan!" Butler Buck greeted Evan as he pulled out a chair for him to sit down.
As Evan directed the other servants to cut some Dixie roast meat, a piece of Orleans sausage, some grilled oysters, and get him a fried egg, he casually asked:
"Did you receive any invitations today? Oh, by the way! I sent my older brother a letter a few days ago, has he replied yet?"
Mr. Buck, the butler, meticulously took a large bottle of freshly squeezed juice from a servant and poured Evan a glass of juice with the same care as pouring fine wine, saying at the same time:
"Your alma mater has once again sent you an invitation, hoping that you can become a lecturer in the Department of Ancient Languages at Hoy University after graduation. The University of Tingen next door is doing the same, both promising to promote you to associate professor in the shortest possible time."
Your fellow occult enthusiast, Mr. Heiner Vancent, has sent you a letter inviting you to his home tomorrow morning. He says he has found an ancient occult book from the legendary Quaternary period and invites you to appreciate it together. He also specifically instructed you to purchase something that has arrived.
Mrs. Sharon sent an invitation to a charity auction at her home to help the poor in the lower streets and surrounding poor communities. It is said that people from both the old and new parties will be attending, and she hopes that you can attend, and even better, prepare some items to auction.
As for Mr. Robert Horn's delayed reply... I sent someone to the post office to inquire, and a train traveling from Tingen to Backlund caught fire a couple of days ago. Unfortunately, the mail the post office was delivering to Backlund happened to be on that train, so Mr. Robert Horn probably didn't receive your letter."
Evan took a knife and fork, cut off a small piece of beef, and put it in his mouth. He savored the tender and juicy flavor on his taste buds. He also felt relieved by Helen's departure. Everything felt so wonderful.
Evan didn't pay attention to what the butler Buck had said, but he was stunned when he heard that the letter he had written to his older brother Robert Horn had not been delivered because of the accident.
The words "unfortunately" and "coincidentally" triggered Evan's nerves.
Because of two words in Mr. Buck's words, Evan suddenly thought of an extremely terrifying question: why, even though he had been traveling for several days, had he not thought at all about the most rampant mastermind behind the city of Tingen—Ince Zangwill—and the '0' level sealed artifact 008—the Pen of Alshogod?