Inside the Antique Shop

The antique shop's interior was just as Duncan had guessed – it was filled with clutter, decay, and a general air of a failing business. Merely looking at the dust piled near the display window, a visitor could imagine how miserable the owner had made their own life.

The first things he noticed were the display shelves near the walls on either side. Low, sturdy tables held large vases, sculptures, and objects with unclear totemic designs. The walls behind these shelves were gridded, used to display smaller "merchandise." The counter was positioned directly opposite the entrance, a long bar. The shelves behind the counter were also dusty, filled with dark-toned picture frames and small ornaments.

Behind the counter, he could see a staircase leading to the second floor, which was dimly lit and its structure unclear for the moment.

Beneath the stairs, there was a small door. In his "memories," that door should lead to the shop's storage area in the back – half of which was piled high with miscellaneous items.

It was hard to imagine that the cultist whose body he now inhabited survived by running a shop that no one would ever visit, and even had enough money to support priests of the Sun God.

Duncan walked towards the counter deeper inside. The old wooden floor creaked slightly. As he passed the stairs, he noticed a lamp fixed to the wall.

It was an electric lamp.

Duncan's brow furrowed slightly.

The lamp's design was unfamiliar, with an iron frame and a hazy lampshade that gave it an exotic feel. But regardless, the structure of the tungsten filament bulb inside was clear – this lamp's light source came from electricity.

In this world, was electricity already so widespread? Did ordinary commoners in the lower city district also use electric lamps in their homes?

Then why were the light sources used in the sewers previously gas lamps, oil lamps, and torches? Why were the streetlights outside also gas lamps?

A huge question arose. This seemed illogical to Duncan, especially in an environment like the sewers – compared to electric lamps, which were clean and safe, gas lamps that used open flames and flammable gas had obvious disadvantages!

He had initially thought that technological limitations prevented the city administrators from using anything other than gas lamps for the sewer lighting. But now it seemed... at least in the Pland City-State, technology had already developed to the point where electricity was common in ordinary households!

A great sense of incongruity filled Duncan's heart. He tried to search his fragmented memories for corresponding knowledge, but only found answers like "this is common sense" and "this is how the city is planned."

It seemed that either this knowledge was not publicly disclosed, meaning the cultist he possessed knew nothing about it, or the knowledge was too basic to have left a sufficiently strong impression in the cultist's mind. As a result, after death, the corresponding memories quickly blurred and faded, leaving only the impression of "common sense."

With a temporary, unresolved confusion, Duncan reached out and turned on the electric lamp – with a soft click of the switch, bright light immediately illuminated the area around the stairs and the counter.

There was another switch on the opposite wall, used to control the lights in the rest of the first-floor shop, but Duncan had no intention of touching it for now.

It was late and the shop was closed. Lighting a small lamp could be explained as the owner getting up to move around at night, but suddenly illuminating the entire place could attract unwanted attention.

Using the limited light near the stairs, Duncan's gaze first swept over the nearest items. The first thing that caught his eye was a wooden totem, less than half a meter tall, carved with strange, painted faces in red and blue. Beside it were what appeared to be antique ceramic vases. Price tags were placed in front of them, marked with exorbitant prices.

Original price 420,000, discounted to 360.

It exuded an air of self-abandonment.

Duncan's gaze quickly moved away, scanning the entire shop.

If there was a single genuine item here, he would have the Lost Homeland crash headfirst into the walls of Pland.

They were fake, undeniably fake. No true collector was needed for authentication; anyone with normal intelligence wouldn't believe that an antique shop located in the lower city district would sell genuine antiques. Would someone who genuinely dealt in antiques set up shop in such a poor area? The oldest item in this entire shop was probably the sign at the entrance...

But Duncan wasn't surprised by the existence of the shop itself. The owner knew they were selling fakes, and the people who came here to buy things didn't actually expect to display a thousand-year-old statue in their homes. Everyone knew what was going on. The common people in the lower city district also needed a way to satisfy their spiritual needs. The "antique shop" sign at the entrance wasn't for others to see; it was for the people buying things here to see for themselves.

After all, even under the overpasses on Earth, there were people selling jade, claiming a bracelet for ninety-eight was made of old pit ice jade, but if you accidentally knocked it against a doorframe at home, it would shatter into glass shards – didn't the buyers and sellers know what they were getting?

Duncan wasn't interested in the former owner's miserable life. His only concern was this: this place should serve as his first "foothold" on land as the captain of the Lost Homeland.

An "outpost" for understanding the land world and modern civilization.

He had already secretly decided that as long as the conditions for "Spirit World Walk" allowed, he would maintain the current body as much as possible and act within the Pland City-State under the guise of this "antique shop." If the training of Ai Yi went smoothly, and if Ai Yi could stably and controllably transfer "physical objects" between the Lost Homeland and Pland, this antique shop would also become a secret material transfer warehouse.

Duncan went behind the counter and sat on the chair, carefully sorting through the fragmented memories in his mind, analyzing all potential hidden dangers.

The original owner of this body was a follower of the Sun God, but only a lowest-level member within the entire church system. Due to the constant crackdown on cult activities by the city authorities, the living space for Sun God followers in Pland City had been compressed to the extreme. Their communication was extremely cautious. Besides wearing full hoods and masks to all gatherings, many lower-level members had contact with the upper echelons of the church through only one or two specific "contact persons." This was undoubtedly a good thing for Duncan now—

It meant that even within the cult, only that one person knew "his" real identity and contact methods. Once that person was gone, no one else would know "his" unspeakable heretical identity.

He could walk openly before the city administrators, with the identity of a clean and upright citizen.

Even better news was that after carefully reviewing his memories, Duncan confirmed that this biggest hidden danger had actually disappeared.

Because "his" contact person was one of the three black-robed cultists he had seen when he first woke up...

Those three unlucky souls had been dealt with by pigeons.

He relaxed a little, then sat more comfortably in the chair.

With the biggest hidden danger gone, if there was anything else to worry about, it would be the other Sun God followers who participated in the sacrifice ritual at the underground gathering place, and the larger, more mysterious, and dangerous Sun God Church behind those followers.

If the memories in his mind were correct, the Pland City-State had carried out a severe crackdown on the Sun God Church that had taken root in the city four years ago. Since then, this heretical faith had been in decline in the city-state. Forget holding any rituals; on normal days, it was a blessing if they could hide themselves and not be caught by the Church Guardians.

But now, these extremely low-profile cultists had done something quite high-profile.

The purpose of the sacrifice ritual was to please the gods, and another purpose was to gather power or enhance the gods' influence on the real world. At that time, the cultists in the gathering place, including the "Emissary" who presided over the ritual, were actually only grassroots members of the Sun God Church. Would these grassroots members spontaneously organize such a large event?

Duncan's fragmented memories were not too extensive, and a grassroots cultist would not be able to access the core secrets of the church. But based on the existing intelligence, he could guess that those cultists who suddenly became active must have received instructions from higher levels.

That heretical sect that worshiped the "True Sun God"... they wanted to do something big in Pland, and the sacrifice ritual, which was accidentally disrupted by him, was probably just the most insignificant ripple before the start of this major event.

Duncan didn't have any particular feelings for this "Pland City-State," but if he wanted to develop from here, he had to consider the impact that a group of lunatics like the "Sun God cultists" running amok in the city-state would have on him.