Chapter Summaries

Chen Yuzhe died suddenly and transmigrated into Lorne Dysenk, a financially ruined young man in Backlund in the world of Lord of the Mysteries. After learning that Lorne had collapsed while preparing a Monster potion, he considered pursuing the Assassin path instead.

• Chen Yuzhe collapsed and died while worrying about his phone and his reputation.
• He awoke in Lorne Dysenk’s body in Backlund and recognized the old-fashioned room as belonging to someone else.
• Lorne’s memories revealed that his father, Tarkin Dysenk, had lost the family fortune through a series of failed investments and died from stress.
• Lorne had spent his remaining resources studying mysticism and gathering ingredients for a Monster potion before collapsing from exhaustion and excitement.
• After reading a newspaper dated May 27, 1349, Lorne rejected the idea that he was the protagonist and considered becoming an Assassin instead of drinking the Monster potion.

Lorne wrote down the remembered advice from videos he had watched before transmigrating, though he could not recall two crucial names. After exploring his new surroundings and considering his finances, he decided to pursue the Assassin Pathway and seek a buyer for the Monster Potion.

• Lorne recorded the Transmigration Guide, but found that he could not remember the names in two of its entries.
• Lorne washed up, left his rented room at 69 Rose Street, and ate breakfast at a nearby café.
• Lorne assessed his remaining money and investments, including the Monster Potion bought by the body's original owner.
• Lorne chose the Assassin Pathway and planned to ask the Potion merchant about its formula and sell the Monster Potion to fund his purchase.

Lorne asked Bottle about the Assassin potion and paid for an introduction to a place where he might find potion formulas. A few days later, as he considered adopting an orange cat and making money by writing, a seductive voice said she had heard he wanted to become an Assassin.

• Lorne visited the Grizzly Bear and asked Bottle about the Assassin potion, but Bottle had no information.
• Bottle offered to take Lorne somewhere he might find what he wanted and charged him two pounds for the introduction.
• Lorne returned home late, then later bought groceries and fed a hungry orange cat he found following him.
• Lorne considered adopting the cat and reflected on how Emperor Roselle had already claimed many inventions and stories he might have used to earn money.
• Lorne recalled that his predecessor had corresponded with the author of Wuthering Heights and considered writing to her for advice.
• An ethereal female voice told Lorne she had heard he wanted to become an Assassin.

Lorne received a free Assassin Potion from a silver-haired Demoness who wanted him to join her unnamed organization, but he hesitated over the offer. After reviewing his transmigrator’s guide, he decided to drink the Potion, only to experience a strange haze as he reached for it.

• A silver-haired Demoness offered Lorne an Assassin Potion for free if he joined her organization, and she left him with the bottle before he agreed.
• The Demoness wondered whether she had been too hasty but decided Lorne would be tempted by the prospect of supernatural power.
• Lorne took the Potion home with the orange cat and considered returning it because he did not know the organization’s name.
• After rereading his transmigrator’s guide, Lorne decided that joining a secret organization might benefit him and reached for the Potion.
• Lorne’s mind grew hazy as he touched the bottle, but he came back to his senses and moved to drink it.

Lorne accidentally let his orange cat drink the Assassin potion and planned to confess the loss to the silver-haired lady. A vision then warned him that she might kill him, leaving him to consider gambling on the Monster potion instead.

• Lorne repeatedly forgot that he meant to drink the Assassin potion until Mrs. Griffin knocked and questioned him about going out at night.
• Lorne hid the orange cat from Mrs. Griffin, then watched in horror as it drank the Assassin potion from the bottle and licked up the spill.
• Lorne considered selling his Monster potion or avoiding the silver-haired lady, but decided to meet her the next day and offer the potion as compensation.
• Lorne experienced a vision of himself lying dead beside the silver-haired lady and suspected that visiting her could get him killed.
• Lorne weighed his dangerous options and considered taking a gamble with the Monster potion.

Lorne drank the Monster Potion and gained heightened spiritual perception and danger intuition, but felt its abilities were too weak to protect him. Hoping to find a solution at a Beyonder gathering, he prepared to flee if necessary and decided to warn Mrs. Griffin.

• Lorne drank the Monster Potion and endured a violent influx of sensations and information before receiving the knowledge associated with Sequence 9 of the Monster Pathway.
• Lorne learned that the Potion granted spiritual perception, occasional glimpses of the future, and an intuitive warning of danger, then despaired because he believed these abilities offered little protection.
• Lorne saw the orange cat float gently to the floor and concluded that it was stronger than he was.
• Lorne decided to seek help or knowledge at the Beyonder gathering that evening and to escape by train if he found no solution.
• Lorne packed clothes, money, valuables, and the orange cat, then decided to warn Mrs. Griffin before leaving.

Lorne told Mrs. Griffin he needed to leave town because powerful people might come after him, but he followed a vision of Backlund’s train station and decided to go anyway. After testing his potion-enhanced strength and spiritual perception, he set out to meet Bottle that evening.

• Lorne asked Mrs. Griffin to leave while he lay low, but she insisted her home was safe and said she had defeated many people who had surpassed human limits.
• Lorne saw a vision of Backlund’s train station and decided to leave despite Mrs. Griffin’s confidence.
• Lorne tested his new strength and found it had improved only modestly.
• Lorne repeatedly guessed which side of a tossed coin would land face up and discovered his spiritual perception gave him unusually accurate intuition.
• Lorne noticed it was past five in the afternoon and prepared to travel to his meeting with Bottle at eight thirty.

Lorne stored his luggage and bought a revolver from Bottle before attending a masked Beyonder gathering. He learned that switching pathways after drinking a potion was impossible and arranged to buy information about the Assassin pathway from Eye of Wisdom.

• Lorne paid Bottle to store his luggage and bought a revolver, ammunition, and a shoulder holster.
• Bottle led Lorne to a masked gathering, where Lorne joined the attendees in a candlelit room.
• A questioner asked whether a Beyonder could switch pathways after drinking a potion, and Eye of Wisdom said doing so meant death or losing control.
• Lorne asked for information about Assassins, and Eye of Wisdom offered to tell him privately for ten pounds.

At a gathering, Lorne bought a page of Roselle's Notes and realized he could potentially forge unreadable copies for money. After learning more about Assassins, he hurried to leave Backlund and boarded the earliest train, whose destination was Tingen.

• Lorne bought one page of Roselle's Notes and recognized its writing as Simplified Chinese, then considered forging notes since nobody else could read them.
• A woman sold a short blade with powerful abilities and emotional side effects, and a gentleman bought it for five hundred pounds or a Sequence 8 Barbarian potion formula.
• The elderly gentleman from the Eye of Wisdom explained the Assassin Sequence and sold Lorne basic Beyonder knowledge for ten pounds.
• Lorne retrieved his luggage from the Grizzly Bear Bar and rushed to Backlund's railway station to escape the Silver-Haired Woman.
• Unable to catch a train before morning, Lorne waited at the station and boarded the earliest one, discovering that it was bound for Tingen.

Lorne studied Roselle’s Diary and practical Beyonder knowledge while traveling by train, then speculated about pathways, gods, and the scarcity of advancement materials. He ended the chapter troubled by his choice of the Monster pathway and his sense of being out of place in the world.

• Lorne calmed Orange Cat inside the travel bag and began reading the information he had bought.
• Lorne read Roselle’s accounts of Mr. Door, Miss Solant, and Duke Lot, then wondered about the Seer, Apprentice, and Marauder pathways.
• Lorne learned that Beyonders could not change pathways or skip advancement sequences without risking death or losing control.
• Lorne theorized that gods might be Beyonders and that limited materials or unique divine domains could restrict how many people advanced.
• Lorne concluded that Roselle might have sought a pathway without an existing god and regretted choosing the Monster pathway.
• Lorne looked at the crimson moon and felt like a monster who did not belong in the world.

Lorne practiced meditation on the train and accidentally activated Spirit Vision, seeing colored auras and strange vortices around other passengers. He reached Tingen and wondered about the city’s history as he left the station with his cat and belongings.

• Lorne meditated using an imagined shadowy figure and felt his spirituality extend.
• Lorne opened his eyes and saw strange colors and moving vortices around the passengers before his vision returned to normal.
• Lorne read about Spirit Vision and learned that it revealed auras, then practiced until he could reliably see them.
• The train arrived in Tingen, and Lorne let his orange cat out of his bag before leaving the station.
• Lorne surveyed Tingen, noticed its fresher air, and wondered whether a transmigrator had introduced the city’s universal education program.

Lorne checked into a quiet hotel and fell asleep before meeting Ilyin, who waited for him in an alley and tried to curse him when he failed to appear. Ilyin’s curse and mirror divination both failed, while Lorne woke the next day with Orange Cat in his room and noticed a distinctive red chimney nearby.

• Lorne hired a carriage to take him to a quiet hotel, paid for a second-class room, and fell asleep from exhaustion.
• Ilyin waited for Lorne at their meeting place, expecting to recruit him into the Demoness organization and anticipating his transformation into a Witch.
• After Lorne failed to arrive, Ilyin tried to curse him using a strand of his hair, but a gust of wind swept it away.
• Ilyin attempted mirror divination to find Lorne, but the mirror shattered and the divination failed.
• Lorne woke after sleeping for more than a dozen hours, found Orange Cat on his pillow, and noticed a large red chimney on the neighboring house.

Lorne stayed in his hotel room, named the Orange Cat Lucky, and studied divination while waiting anxiously for the Silver-Haired Woman. He questioned whether fortune-telling could reveal his fate and decided he would need to consult a professional.

• Lorne chose to remain at the hotel for a week, fearing the Silver-Haired Woman might already have reached Tingen.
• After bathing the Orange Cat and discovering she was female, Lorne named her Lucky.
• Lorne studied the materials he had bought from the Eye of Wisdom, focusing on divination.
• Lorne considered whether divination could help him understand his situation but doubted its apparent versatility and accuracy.
• Lorne tried reading his palm and found its predictions difficult to apply to his life after transmigrating.
• Lorne concluded he would have to consult a professional fortune-teller.

Lorne visited the Divination Club in Tingen and paid Hanass Vincent to determine whether the person he had offended would seek revenge. After Hanass’s Dream Divination failed, a Tarot reading produced the upright Devil and reversed Fool, leaving Lorne with an ominous result.

• Lorne entered the Divination Club after a hotel receptionist recommended it and learned about its membership and divination fees.
• Lorne chose the club’s most expensive diviner, Hanass Vincent, because he feared relying on an inexperienced practitioner.
• Lorne told Hanass that he had offended someone and fled to Tingen, then requested a Dream Divination.
• Hanass reported that the Dream Divination had gone wrong, so Lorne switched to a Tarot reading.
• Lorne drew two cards: the upright Devil for the current situation and the reversed Fool for its eventual outcome.

Lorne left the divination club uneasy, then explored Diagon Alley and bought three old items after spotting spirituality in a black-covered book. At a restaurant on Zouteland Street, he noticed policemen arrive and grew alarmed when one began reciting a strange poem.

• Lorne asked Hanass about palm and face reading, paid him, and left the divination club after receiving a vague prediction.
• Lorne bought tarot cards and a blue crystal pendulum, then headed to Diagon Alley hoping to find valuable secondhand goods.
• Lorne spotted a spiritually active black-covered book and bargained with the proprietor until he bought it along with an old book and parchment for fifteen pounds.
• Lorne went to a restaurant on Zouteland Street, where he saw several policemen enter and tried to hide his face behind the menu.
• Lorne watched the young policeman recite a poem invoking the Goddess and the crimson moonlight, and he became confused and wary.

Lorne watched the Nighthawks at lunch, worried that the authorities could identify him as a transmigrator, then convinced himself Roselle was to blame for their hostility. Back at the inn, he tested divination on an old Fourth Epoch notebook, but Lucky’s frantic meowing drew him away as the book began turning its pages by itself.

• Leonard shared his poem with Dunn, Seeka, and Rozanne, who criticized it and joked about poetry and publishing Seeka’s novel.
• Dunn noticed Lorne watching the Nighthawks, and Lorne hurried out of the restaurant, fearing the officers might recognize or follow him.
• Lorne blamed Roselle for making the authorities hostile toward transmigrators, which lifted his mood.
• Lorne examined the old notebook he had bought in Diagon Alley and used his Pendulum to divine whether it was a Fourth Epoch antique.
• When Lorne asked whether the notebook’s contents were related to mysticism, Lucky meowed frantically from the washroom, and the notebook’s pages turned by themselves after Lorne left the desk.

Lorne discovered that an ancient parchment revealed a map of Tingen and set out to find the treasure marked on it. After falling into an underground hollow, he found a stone door fitted with what looked like a Nintendo Entertainment System controller.

• Lorne found markings on the previously blank parchment and realized they formed a map of Tingen with a star marking a possible treasure site.
• Lorne researched the location at the Tingen Library, prepared supplies, and used divination before traveling to the mountain outside the city.
• Lorne searched the wilderness for hours until he fell down a steep slope and injured his right leg.
• Lorne found Lucky in an underground hollow and discovered a moss-covered stone lion guarding a stone door.
• Lorne recognized four directional buttons and faint A and B markings on the stone door, identifying them as an NES controller.

Lorne opened a hidden chamber by entering a game cheat code and found a series of nested chests that ended in an empty wooden box. As he prepared to leave, he noticed Lucky pawing at what looked like a monocle.

• Lorne used a divination pendulum, entered the controller sequence on the stone door, and triggered it to open.
• Lorne followed Lucky into the chamber after his divination indicated no danger, then found a large stone chest.
• Lorne opened a succession of nested chests until he reached an empty wooden box.
• Lorne examined the wooden box and decided to take it with him for later study.
• Lorne found Lucky pawing at an object and recognized it as a possible monocle.

Lorne found an antique monocle and a three of diamonds in the ancient chamber, then returned to Tingen worried about money. As he walked back to the Azure Hotel, Leonard confronted him on a dark street.

• Lorne had Lucky retrieve a suspiciously clean monocle and confirmed that its lens was ground crystal.
• Lorne found a finely made three of diamonds near the stone door and worried that someone had already taken the chamber's valuable treasures.
• Dunn Smith, Leonard, and the other Nighthawks searched the area for an injured member of the Aurora Order.
• Lorne walked back toward the Azure Hotel, considered ways to earn money, and noticed his spiritual intuition stirring when Lucky cried out.
• Leonard stepped from the shadows and challenged Lorne, who put an object from his pocket onto his face.

Lorne encountered Leonard while wearing the crystal Monocle, but Leonard panicked and fled after his unseen companion could not identify Lorne. Back in his room, Lorne investigated the Monocle and, after a note appeared advising him to cover it with spirituality, decided to try it on again.

• Lorne put on the crystal Monocle and turned to greet Leonard, who recognized him from their earlier encounter on Zorant Street.
• Leonard drew his pistol, called Lorne a monster, and ran away after his companion said it could not see through him and warned him about monocles.
• Lorne returned to the Azure Hotel, bathed with Lucky, and wondered whether the Monocle had frightened Leonard.
• Lorne's wooden box trembled, opened by itself, and revealed a note telling him to cover the Monocle with spirituality.
• Lorne divined that the Monocle posed no danger, then poured spirituality into it and placed it over his right eye.