Forbidden Tome

Because the ritual mentioned in the diary was clearly the "culprit" behind his transmigration, but there was still one problem: the Doctor had been infected. Could he have been infected too...

But at this point, there was no turning back.

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. It was 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 scroll beneath the diary. It felt like some kind of leather.

The moment Lu Yuan pulled out the scroll, a chill seeped up from his fingertips. He rubbed his hands, then fully unrolled it.

A twisted Dark Red pattern was drawn on the scroll.

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

Beside the pattern were lines of text trembling violently.

Lu Yuan focused his gaze and waited for his "translation" system to do its job, but after several seconds, the cheat ability he had just acquired seemed to have frozen.

"Something's wrong!"

Lu Yuan suddenly realized that the problem was not with his cheat ability—the writing on the scroll was resisting!

The vein-like lines on the scroll were wildly twisting and tangling, like a mass of worms weaving their bodies together.

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

A line of gray text finally appeared in his vision. At that moment, Lu Yuan noticed that the world before his eyes seemed to be starting to sway.

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 through the Deep Sea.

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

It spoke faster and faster, its pitch becoming 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 throb in the depths of his brain, as though something was trying to burrow out from inside.

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

"Fuck!"

At the brink of life and death, Lu Yuan's overwhelming will to survive finally seized back control of his body for an instant.

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

"Thud."

The scroll landed on the floor, still trembling.

But in the next moment, an invisible force seemed to emerge and slowly suppress the scroll 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 stop.

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

Lu Yuan slumped into his chair, gasping for breath. Cold sweat instantly soaked his back, while that manic 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 fucked-up 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 up after the lingering abnormal sensation in his ears had faded.

He began considering how to deal with the scroll in front of him.

"Should I just throw it into the fireplace?"

But Lu Yuan immediately dismissed the idea.

Since the 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 it contained.

Just not now.

After thinking it over, Lu Yuan grabbed several books from the table, quickly sandwiched the scroll between them, then shoved them into a desk drawer and weighed it down tightly with several heavy medical books.

Only after doing all that did Lu Yuan collapse onto the sofa. He slowly exhaled 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 seconds longer, [Forbidden Studies] might have leveled up directly, and the upgrade might have brought unexpected effects.

Though I might have died on the spot too.

Lu Yuan muttered to himself inwardly and forcibly shifted his attention away from the drawer.

There was no time to think about such nonsense. There was still something important he needed to do.

How to deal with this dead fish the length of a person.

Given the current temperature, this enormous dead fish would rot and stink within a few hours at most.

Once fifteen hours passed, this little building would basically have to be abandoned.

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

If he dug a hole and buried it, leaving aside how long it would take to dig a pit deep enough for a person, transporting the fish 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 unlucky 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 odds of infection to some extent.

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 that he really could not come up with a good solution.

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

It was unrealistic to ask someone for help at this hour. Never mind who he was—he could not even explain where a fish the size of a person had come from.

He had no choice but to bite the bullet and do it himself.

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

Lu Yuan planned to use that bed as a cart.

He then took two pieces of clothing he could not wear from the room's wardrobe, laid them flat on the floor, rolled the fish onto them, gradually lifted it onto the Small Bed, and secured it with rope.

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

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

He could vaguely hear the roar of waves while standing outside, so the little building in the woods could not be too far from the ocean.

But pushing a bed out the door now would look strange no matter how he put it. And the clothes he was wearing...

With no other choice, Lu Yuan searched through the Doctor's home. In the end, he barely found two outfits in the wardrobe that he could wear: a dark custom-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 with a hint of satisfaction in his eyes. At least he no longer looked so out of place.

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 bluff his way through.

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

This also gave Lu Yuan a rough idea of how chaotic this world's technological development was. They clearly still used electric lamps and rotary telephones, yet they also possessed steel behemoths capable of voyaging across the sea.

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

He picked up a Bowler Hat and settled it on his head before finally stepping out of the house.