On a reef far from the shore, a figure lay peacefully on a dense pebble beach, his status between life and death unknown.
"Old Jiang, where are you going?"
"What do you think? I'm taking my rod and diving in!"
"Al, don't worry about the money. I've got the family covered!"
Amidst the clamor of voices in his head, Jiang Huan felt waves of cold touch his face.
'Who the hell is Al?'
He moved his mouth, and a surge of fishy saltiness followed the cooling caress into his throat.
'Holy crap... is the water in this wild lake always this salty?'
'Can there even be fish in this?'
'And why does my neck hurt so damn much?'
Accompanied by these strange thoughts, Jiang Huan jolted awake with a violent cough.
What met his eyes was a fine pebble beach and a crude pier, with the distant outline of land visible on the horizon.
Jiang Huan struggled to his feet and looked around. He was on a reef in the middle of the sea, dominated by a towering white lighthouse with a simple wooden hut at its base.
He patted his soaking wet head, wondering where the hell that wild lake had sent him.
Was he even still in the country?
His last memory was of fishing in the wild and catching something. He had slipped into the lake while trying to net it, and the next thing he knew, he was on this unfamiliar beach.
The biggest anomaly was the fragment of memory in his mind that didn't belong to him.
So, who exactly was Al?
The shimmering reflection in the water soon answered his question, revealing a white youth with auburn hair.
Judging by common sense and the unfamiliar environment, he had likely transmigrated.
However, he soon discovered the catch.
On the neck of the white youth in the reflection, a striking red ligature mark was visible.
How exactly did he—or rather, his predecessor—die?
Beside him, an old but intact skiff was being tossed by the waves.
Did he sail out here?
The injury on his neck stung sharply.
Could he have been strangled to death?
Just then, Jiang Huan felt a wave of twisting agony, but it wasn't physical.
He suddenly remembered the cause of death for this youth named Al—he had been rowing frantically to escape this place when he encountered a monster in the sea.
The monster had the appearance of a mermaid, sitting upon a reef.
The sea churned with its song, and a massive, unidentified fish leapt from the surface. He had watched himself be swallowed by that sanity-eroding maw...
Like hell he did!
That wasn't right!
If he had been eaten by a sea beast, where did the ligature marks on his neck come from?
Moreover, aside from being a bit battered, the skiff showed no signs of an attack.
The predecessor couldn't have strangled himself inside a stomach, could he?
At the very least, Jiang Huan didn't think this kid could have survived a baptism of three rows of razor-sharp teeth.
He suppressed the phantom pain and decided to get as far away from this eerie stretch of sea as possible.
Not for any grand reason, but simply because the water was a bit too salty.
Memories continued to flood his brain, and for a moment, Jiang Huan couldn't tell who he was anymore.
He began to slowly remember that his name was Elias Rockland, and he lived at 137 Ash Tree Street, Hope County, Kingdom of Velen.
This seemed to be a world akin to the 19th century.
He could think of many terms associated with this era, such as steam, psychology, and alchemy.
This wasn't exactly a cheerful social background...
His family called him Al. His older brother, Arthur, was a detective with the Hope County Police Department, and his younger sister, Charlotte, studied at the nearby Galloway Women's College.
Wait, so Al is me.
He was supposed to go to university as well, but now he was stuck on this small island.
It was because the three Rockland siblings had lost their parents early. Although their parents left an inheritance, it wasn't enough to cover the tuition for two.
His brother's salary was barely enough to keep the three of them fed.
Under these circumstances, to avoid putting more financial pressure on the family, Elias and Charlotte chose to work their way through school.
Last year, Elias successfully graduated. He had hoped to find a decent job to support his sister's education.
But after searching for many jobs and finding they all withheld wages, Elias eventually resigned in indignation.
Finally, he found a job as a lighthouse keeper at the Wayland Shipping Company.
The salary for this job was staggering. Elias had initially thought it was a scam, but the port supervisor had advanced him half a month's salary without a second thought.
The lad was still too young; he had been grinning like a fool when he took the money.
Why was that?
Because Arthur's weekly salary was 18 shillings. 20 shillings equaled 1 Soren, also known as a Gold Crown because it bore the king's crown.
In a year, he earned only about 43 Sorens.
Elias's half-month salary reached 12 Sorens, meaning his monthly pay was equivalent to half a year of his brother's salary.
How could a bright-eyed university student have ever seen so much money?
So he had happily started the job, only to die in the sea in a daze.
Was this what memory fusion felt like?
Feeling the fullness in his brain, Jiang Huan opened the old door of the hut beneath the tower.
This made him even more curious about the cause of the predecessor's death.
At least for the time being, he didn't plan on rowing out to sea.
The interior was tidy, showing that the predecessor wasn't a messy person, both from a physical and a mnemonic perspective.
However, a revolver lying on the floor caught his eye, with brass bullets scattered around it.
And on the wooden table sat an open diary with a dagger stabbed into it.
As if sensing something, Jiang Huan rolled up his sleeve and saw a scar on his right arm that had already healed.
Casting the dagger aside, he saw that the handwriting in the diary became increasingly erratic page by page. The script of this world appeared to be phonetic.
Having fused with the memories, he could read it smoothly. The predecessor's notes transitioned from anticipation to despair in a clear progression.
"It's a bit lonely being alone, but as long as I can solve the family's troubles, it's not a problem."
"The work is strange. Why must the tower light be kept burning all day? Is the kerosene here free?"
"The lamps here don't seem to use kerosene as fuel. It's a peculiar grease that emits a white flame when ignited."
"The work is easy enough, though I have to row out every day to check the buoys. If there's a storm, it might not be so easy..."
"Tonight, an abnormal sound came from outside the door, like some animal scratching..."
"This place really isn't normal! They can't be here!"
"I heard it... I saw it..."
Following that was a jumble of nonsense. The chaotic handwriting made Jiang Huan's skin crawl.
"Mother Goddess of Destiny, Origin of Life, Destination of Death."
Then came another string of gibberish.
"Please grant me a quiet sleep..."
The latest page was a resignation letter written by Elias, which might have been his final manuscript before death.
As Jiang Huan read, corresponding memories surged in his mind, including the emotions of that time and... the madness.
"Abyss... Abysis... in... bell tolling"
"Crimson... seawater... chewing... yesterday"
As these strange syllables echoed in his mind, his vision was instantly saturated with red.
"Shit!"
The language was completely alien to this world, carrying the texture of grinding metal, writhing flesh, and the popping of damp bubbles.
He realized something was wrong.
Immediately, Jiang Huan collapsed to the floor, twitching uncontrollably. His stomach churned, and a mouthful of cold, slimy, wriggling matter was vomited out of his mouth.
At that moment, there was a sudden, urgent knocking on the door of the wooden hut.
Rate on N.U.
