"What is this?"
Lorne felt as though a strange filter had settled over his right eye. His eyes saw completely different views, leaving him with a peculiar sense of dizziness.
When he looked at the table, a passage of text suddenly appeared in his mind.
Material: Pine Value: Extremely low Age: 15 years Beyonder ability: None
"These are Antique Appraisal Glasses!"
"The best kind of cheat you could get in a novel!" Lorne's eyes widened, and he snapped out of his daze.
This wasn't an identification method like divination, which was too mystical and not nearly intuitive enough.
This was genuine appraisal.
Appraising antiques, gambling on uncut jade, snapping up undervalued treasures...
A whole string of terms flooded Lorne's mind. He could practically see his bright future already.
"No, I can't get excited. I'm supposed to be a cool, detached transmigrator."
Despite his words, he couldn't wipe the grin off his face.
He couldn't help it. Ever since transmigrating, he'd suffered one misfortune after another. Now that something good had finally happened, it was a miracle he wasn't jumping for joy.
"Have I finally hit rock bottom and bounced back?"
"Come to think of it, can I wear it over my left eye?" Lorne took the glasses off his right eye and moved them to his left.
"Huh? They won't stay on." The Monocle fell off on its own as soon as it approached his left eye. If Lorne hadn't caught it quickly, it would have hit the floor.
"Does it only work over my right eye?"
Appraisal... would it work on that wooden box? Suppressing his excitement, Lorne remembered the wooden box that had produced a slip of paper out of thin air.
Let's give it a try.
Material: Unknown Value: Extremely high Age: Unknown Beyonder ability: Provides the user with steps to resolve the problem they ask about Usage limit: Twice a day Note: This item only provides the steps needed to resolve a problem, not the answer itself. The steps are incomplete, with only one provided per use.
"It really is a Beyonder item, and an incredibly powerful one at that!"
Even more astonishing, however, was the Monocle's appraisal ability.
It even includes precautions. This appraisal ability really is something else... Lorne marveled as he took in the information before him.
"Still, the age and material are both unknown. That does bother me a little!"
"From the looks of it, these glasses' appraisal ability isn't quite all-powerful." Gradually calming down from his excitement, Lorne began considering more practical questions.
"And what do these glasses use to judge an item's value?" Those two questions surfaced in his mind.
Come to think of it, if both the box and the Monocle are Beyonder items, what about that playing card...? Lorne remembered the Three of Diamonds wedged in the gap of the stone door.
Bed Material: Spruce Age: 15 years ... Leather suitcase Material... ...
"It seems that as long as I infuse it with spirituality, it automatically appraises everything in my line of sight." Lorne removed the Monocle and rubbed his slightly sore eyes.
Then he took the Three of Diamonds playing card out of the shoulder bag he had carried during the day.
"Appraise." Lorne put the Monocle back on and infused it with spirituality.
Unknown playing card: Three of Diamonds Material: Unknown Age: Unknown Beyonder ability: Unknown
Everything is unknown!
The result startled him. Even the wooden box, which had been wrapped in layer upon layer of packaging, hadn't produced a result like this.
"But no matter how I look at it, this is just an ordinary playing card!"
Lorne carefully picked up the card and examined it closely in the faint light of the gas lamp.
Judging by its appearance alone, however, he couldn't see anything special about it. At most, it looked somewhat old and finely crafted.
"Could this card's power have been sealed?" Lorne ventured a guess.
"It probably wasn't in that underground chamber by coincidence, and that chamber was full of traces left by a transmigrator."
"Maybe my initial assumption was wrong. Perhaps this card itself belonged to a transmigrator."
"But why wedge it in the gap of a door?"
"Surely it couldn't be that trick where you put a piece of paper in the door and know someone's been there if it falls out?"
"Impossible. Who would be that bored..."
Wait! If it was a transmigrator, they really might... Cold sweat trickled down Lorne's forehead.
"If that wasn't an unguarded treasure trove, but just a storeroom..."
"Then wouldn't that make me a thief?"
"If that transmigrator discovers things are missing and comes after me..."
Lorne forcibly cut off his wild imaginings and reassessed the situation.
"That underground chamber was at least a few hundred years old. Even if it really belonged to a transmigrator, they're probably long gone!"
Despite saying that, he remembered that High Sequence Beyonders apparently lived exceptionally long lives. If that transmigrator was a High Sequence Beyonder...
As Lorne pondered how to appeal to their shared origins, another, more pressing thought occurred to him.
"From its condition, that underground chamber had clearly been abandoned for a long time."
"If the transmigrator isn't dead, the most likely explanation is that they're no longer in this world. Maybe they've already gone home."
That was the best possibility he could imagine right now. He wouldn't have to worry about retaliation from a fellow transmigrator who had arrived before him, and he would have hope of returning home.
"The Nintendo Entertainment System came out in the nineties. Even if that transmigrator came over when it first became popular, that would only be thirty years before 2021, the year I transmigrated."
"But that underground chamber is at least several hundred years old." Lorne rested a hand against his chin and continued thinking.
"In other words, transmigrators don't arrive at a fixed point on the timeline. If I include Emperor Roselle, that conclusion should hold."
"Time flows at least several dozen times faster in this world than in my original world."
"So even if I spend decades finding a way back, only a year or two might have passed in my original world."
"A year or two... I shouldn't miss too much, should I?" Thinking of his parents and the elderly members of his family, Lorne felt melancholy.
He stood and paced around the room. Although he hadn't been in this world for long, a powerful wave of homesickness had already swept through him, body and soul.
"Forget it. What's the point of thinking so much? Time to sleep!"
After a long, exhausting day, and after spending a great deal of spirituality testing the Mono-
cle's effects, Lorne was already thoroughly worn out.
His thoughts about the transmigrator had only temporarily suppressed his fatigue. Now that he relaxed, sleepiness went straight to his head.
Before long, steady breathing could be heard from the bed.
The next day, Lorne still gave in to his fears and performed a divination. Only after confirming that the playing card posed no danger did he gradually feel at ease.
There was one other thing that still bothered him, though: his body's reaction when he had encountered that strange policeman.
In particular, he had felt as though something inside him was just one final push away from changing.
"What exactly was that feeling?" Lorne felt irritated. He certainly didn't want anything going wrong with his body.
With that thought, Lorne took out the wooden box. He had named it the Wish-Granting Box.
His inspiration had come from an item in a cartoon he had watched as a child.
The box's ability to provide ways to solve problems also made the name unexpectedly fitting.
"How can I resolve the abnormal condition of my body?" Lorne asked.
Before long, a slip of paper appeared out of thin air:
"Perform divination for others using your own unique method."
Before you continue