Forbidden Tome

The ritual mentioned in the diary was clearly the culprit behind his transmigration, but there was another question: the Doctor had been infected. Was it possible that he had been infected too...

But there was no turning back now.

And judging by the outcome, the Doctor's attempt to save himself had clearly failed.

What the Doctor had summoned was not a wish-granting dragon, a magic lamp, or a Deity that bestowed blessings, but half a dinner with black hair and black eyes that had nearly been eaten by a bear.

Lu Yuan lowered his head and looked at the yellowed, leather-like scroll beneath the diary, which was weighing down another scroll.

The moment Lu Yuan pulled out the scroll, a clammy chill spread from his fingertips. Rubbing his hands together, he fully unrolled it.

A distorted dark red pattern had been drawn on the scroll.

The pattern was made up of densely packed lines. Looking closely, he could vaguely make out a certain pattern to them, as if they were some kind of writing?

Beside the pattern were lines of violently trembling text.

Lu Yuan focused, waiting for his "translation" system to do its job, but several seconds passed, and his newly acquired cheat ability seemed to have frozen.

"Something's wrong!"

Lu Yuan suddenly realized that it was not his cheat ability malfunctioning. The writing on the scroll was resisting him!

The vein-like lines on the scroll were twisting and writhing madly, like a mass of worms intertwining their bodies.

[Translation failed... Translation failed...]

At last, a line of gray text appeared in his vision. At the same time, Lu Yuan noticed that the world before him seemed to be swaying.

A string of faint whispers also sounded in his ears without warning.

"...Hiss... great... mercy..."

At first, the voice was distant, as though it were calling to him from across the Deep Sea.

But in the next instant, that faraway, ethereal voice seemed to press right against Lu Yuan's ear.

It spoke faster and faster, its pitch growing shrill and piercing, carrying a nauseating fervor.

Lu Yuan sensed that something was wrong and tried to look away, only to find that his gaze seemed glued in place. He had completely lost control and could only stare fixedly at the twisted scroll.

A piercing pain began to pulse from the depths of his brain, as though something was trying to burrow its way out.

At the edge of his vision, gray-white system windows flashed frantically:

[You seem to have noticed traces that should not exist...! Warning! Your Sanity is being eroded!][Sanity I: +1.../20]

[You have peered into an ancient Taboo and unlocked new knowledge][Forbidden Studies - Peeper: +0.5, 0.5/10] [Forbidden Studies - Peeper: +0.5...]

"Fuck!"

At the critical moment between life and death, Lu Yuan's intense will to survive finally seized control of his body for an instant.

With all his strength, he flicked his wrist and hurled the scroll away.

"Clatter."

The scroll landed on the floor, still trembling.

But in the next moment, an invisible force seemed to emerge and slowly suppress it until it finally returned to normal.

The instant the scroll returned to its original state, the maddening whispers in Lu Yuan's ears came to an abrupt halt.

The room instantly returned to deathly silence, broken only by the occasional soft crackle of firewood in the fireplace.

Lu Yuan slumped uncontrollably into his chair, gasping for breath. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, while that manic, low murmur still seemed to linger faintly in his ears.

He patted his head and stared at the scroll on the floor, a trace of wariness flashing through his eyes.

"What kind of godforsaken world is this..."

[Forbidden Studies - Peeper: 4.5/10]

[Sanity I: 11/20 (Experience)]

Lu Yuan glanced at the notifications, wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, and only stood once the lingering abnormal sensation in his ears had faded.

He began thinking about how to deal with the scroll before him.

"Should I just throw it into the fireplace?"

But Lu Yuan immediately dismissed the idea.

Since this scroll was connected to that so-called "ritual," it meant that if he ever wanted to return home, he would have to decipher the secrets hidden within it.

But definitely not now.

After thinking for a moment, Lu Yuan grabbed several other books from the table, quickly sandwiched it between them, stuffed the bundle into the desk drawer, and piled several thick medical books on top.

Only after doing all that did Lu Yuan collapse onto the sofa. He slowly let out a breath and suppressed the goosebumps rising on his arms.

Lu Yuan had a vague feeling that if he had stared at that scroll for a few more seconds, [Forbidden Studies] might have leveled up directly, and that leveling up might have produced some unexpected effects.

"But I might have dropped dead on the spot too."

Lu Yuan muttered to himself inwardly, forcing his attention away from the drawer.

There was no time to think about such nonsense. He still had something important to do.

Namely, how to deal with this person-length dead fish.

Given the temperature he could feel right now, this massive dead fish would rot and stink within a few hours at most.

If more than fifteen hours passed, this little building would basically be uninhabitable.

But another problem lay before Lu Yuan: how was he supposed to dispose of it?

If he dug a hole and buried it, setting aside how long it would take to dig a person-deep pit, transporting it alone would be a huge problem.

More importantly, Lu Yuan did not want to touch the dead fish at all. The diary had clearly stated that Laisen, that unfortunate Doctor, had been infected by the "Strange Dream" aboard the Iron Whale. If Lu Yuan did not touch it, he could at least reduce the chances of infection somewhat.

But when he recalled what he had seen after opening the scroll, Lu Yuan fell silent.

"Can avoiding contact really reduce the chance of infection?"

After weighing his options, Lu Yuan realized he truly could not come up with a good solution.

It was already nearing evening, and night had enveloped everything outside.

It was unrealistic to ask anyone for help now. Leaving aside who he was, he could not explain where this person-sized fish had come from.

He had no choice but to grit his teeth and do it himself.

Lu Yuan searched through the small building and actually found something useful. Among the Small Beds lined up on the first floor, one had two metal wheels attached beneath the bed leg at one end.

Lu Yuan planned to use that bed as a cart.

He then found two pieces of clothing he could not wear in the room's wardrobe, spread them flat on the floor, rolled the fish onto them, lifted it onto the Small Bed bit by bit, and tied it down with rope.

After opening the door, Lu Yuan prepared to find a place to dump the "fish."

The diary showed that this was a coastal town, so there could be no better place to dump the "fish" than the sea.

Besides, he could vaguely hear the roar of the ocean while standing outside. This small building in the woods could not be too far from the sea.

But wouldn't it look too strange to push a bed out the door? And there was also what he was wearing...

With no other choice, Lu Yuan searched through the Doctor's home. He eventually found two sets of clothes in the wardrobe that he could barely wear: a dark tailored suit with a Pocket Watch and hat, and an old-looking vest.

After changing out of his original clothes and into the suit, Lu Yuan looked at himself in the mirror, satisfaction flashing through his eyes. At least he would no longer stand out so much.

And if he happened to run into the Patrol, he could use excuses like "the Doctor is making an emergency house call to transport a patient" or "transporting medical equipment" to brush them off.

Of course, that was assuming there was a Patrol at all.

At the same time, this gave Lu Yuan a rough sense that this world's technological development was rather chaotic. They still used electric lights and rotary telephones, yet they also had steel behemoths capable of sailing across the sea.

It was roughly equivalent to some period between the mid-eighteenth century and the late nineteenth century, at least in Lu Yuan's impression.

He took a bowler hat, placed it on his head, and only then stepped out of the house.