Gazing at the Scarlet Moon outside the window, Luo Lin spent three minutes absorbing the information and confirmed several things.
First, he had transmigrated into the world of Lord of Mysteries. He was now called Luo Lin Soroast and was likely a descendant of old man Pallez from the original story.
Second, the fragment of power within him belonging to Nyarlathotep, the legendary Thousand Faces God, had been severed and altered by the Yog-Sothoth he had summoned. Using the special rules of the Lord of Mysteries world, it had been transformed into something akin to Extraordinary characteristics, creating an entirely new Godly Pathway known as the Path of Chaos.
Although Luo Lin did not know why that being had helped him, the fact was that as long as he followed the rules and brewed those Extraordinary characteristics into potions one by one, then consumed them and began acting, digesting, and advancing from Sequence 9 like the humans of this world, he would be able to completely master the power belonging to Nyarlathotep and make it his own.
Third, Luo Lin's innate ability, Shadow of Time, could still be used. It was an ability related to time, similar to the historical projections of Scholars of Yore in the Lord of Mysteries world. It had two methods of use. The first was that, if Luo Lin had a high level of favor with a being, he could summon that being's Shadow of Time and merge it with himself, borrowing that being's power. The higher the favor, the more power he could borrow.
The second was to directly use something related to that being, or the being himself, as a medium to summon that being's Shadow of Time and seek his help.
At first glance, the second method seemed simpler than the first, but there was actually a particularly nasty catch: the Shadow of Time summoned by the second method truly projected the summoned being's past consciousness into the Shadow of Time he had drawn forth.
Because of that, the Shadow of Time drawn out through the second method would not necessarily help Luo Lin. It was fine if there was a favor bonus, but without one, although the Shadow of Time could not harm him as its summoner, it might not be willing to work for him.
It was an extremely powerful, yet extremely troublesome ability.
In the past, Luo Lin had desperately grinded favor so he could draw forth the Shadows of Time of powerful figures. Now that he had changed worlds, all that favor grinding had basically been for nothing.
"Forget it. It's already good enough that the ability still works after changing worlds. What more could I ask for?" Luo Lin consoled himself, though confusion lingered in his heart. But why did I transmigrate in the first place? Could Yog have sent me here too...
To be fair, Luo Lin was not actually familiar with the being called Yog-Sothoth. He only knew of him from ancient texts. He knew that Yog-Sothoth was one of the few Outer Gods who held no malice toward humanity and might even bear it goodwill, and that his relationship with Nyarlathotep seemed poor.
So, when their world encountered an avatar of Nyarlathotep, that god of troublemakers, and all resistance had failed while the world stood on the verge of destruction, Luo Lin adopted the attitude of treating a dead horse like a living one—if they were going to die, they would die together. Using the connection between Nyarlathotep and Yog-Sothoth, he summoned the Shadow of Time of that god.
Then, as billions of rays of light appeared, Luo Lin nearly lost consciousness. Yet he saw the avatar of Nyarlathotep perish, and saw time in his homeland seemingly reverse, with everything restored to before its destruction.
At last, Luo Lin saw Yog look at him. To be honest, it was difficult to say whether that indescribable god, like brilliance and bubbles, even possessed something like eyes. Yet in that instant, Luo Lin felt that Yog was looking at him.
There seemed to be curiosity, surprise, and a sigh.
The other party seemed to have said something to him as well, but Luo Lin did not hear it clearly.
After that, Luo Lin lost consciousness. When he opened his eyes, he was already in another world, while the power of the destroyed avatar of Nyarlathotep had been sealed within him.
So what exactly did this powerful figure mean? Did he know me? Luo Lin was genuinely bewildered at that moment, but he truly could not remember ever having any connection to such a powerful being. After thinking it over and over, he could only blame it on the possibility that the other party simply found him pleasing to the eye.
In any case, Luo Lin felt that Yog probably had no intention of harming him. Otherwise, he would already be dead.
Luo Lin suppressed the doubts in his heart and sighed. I wonder how things are back home. But at least judging from the situation before I transmigrated, it should be fine...
"Anyway, I did my best. If the world still gets destroyed after that, there's nothing I can do." Luo Lin revealed a bitter smile. He was not exactly a good person in the conventional sense, but he still had feelings for his homeland. Naturally, he did not wish for his world to be destroyed.
"Forget it. No matter what, I should take care of myself first. This world isn't peaceful either." Luo Lin shook his head. Thinking of the state of the Lord of Mysteries world, he suddenly felt like complaining.
He had only just resolved the problem in his homeland, only to arrive in another world that was about to face an apocalypse. How was that any different from opening and closing his eyes only to find all his previous effort had been for nothing?
"The only thing worth celebrating is that I'm finally not the one who has to save the world in this one. Seriously, who would have thought that I, a troublemaker, would be the one to step up and save the world in the end? Was that really appropriate?"
After grumbling, Luo Lin could not help but smile. "Not bad. This way, I can just be a pure troublemaker."
After grinning foolishly for two seconds, Luo Lin began planning his future goals.
First, he naturally needed to find a way to advance to Sequence 9 and embark on the Extraordinary path, turning the power of Nyarlathotep within him into his own as soon as possible, lest that ticking time bomb explode one day.
Second, he needed to get to know more powerful figures and raise his favor with them so he could borrow their strength for free.
Finally, he naturally needed to find as much amusement for himself as possible in the process.
"Hmm, let's see. Sequence 9 of the Path of Chaos is... Troublemaker?" Luo Lin froze for a moment. However, recalling Nyarlathotep's personality, he quickly understood and continued reading the other information Yog-Sothoth had left him about the Path of Chaos.
"The main ingredient for brewing the Troublemaker potion can directly use the severed characteristics. Let's see, the supplementary ingredients... Besides common spiritual materials, it also requires any item related to the High Sequences of Gou San Jia or All Five Families..." Luo Lin raised his brows at this and pinched his chin as he pondered.
"Preferably a Spirit Worm, Time Worm, or Star Worm... Tsk, this is going to be a bit difficult."
Luo Lin then searched through the memories of the identity he currently occupied and confirmed that the timeline should be right when the plot of Lord of Mysteries had just begun. If nothing unexpected happened, Mr. Fool should currently be marveling at the wildly imaginative version of himself in the mirror.
Before you continue