The bedroom was small and plain, the only light that illuminated the room was the crimson Moon outside the window hanginng in the dark sky, it's red light flooded the room and fell onto the single bed in the room.
On the bed lay a young guy.
Jake shifted softly on the bed, still sleeping, but something felt wrong, so he opened his eyes softly
As he opened his eyes, he blinked a few times wondering why his room was of a red shade, he turned around to see the source of the light, it was from the window.
Something felt really wrong about this but he decided to get up and check.
He sat upright, the sheets on his body fell on his lap, he took the then off him with his hands, that's when he saw them, his hands, they were thinner and fairer than before, they seemed soft and gentle.
He felt weirded out by this, he hurriedly got off the bed and stood up on the floor, taking a few steps he was at the window looking out.
Outside, a big Crimson moon hung in the sky, it light bleeding into the sky, the roofs of other houses were different aswell, there were tiles and chimneys with some coming out of them, the air it self was different
'What the fuck is this?'
His stomach hurt as his nervousness and fear grew, but something in his mind, he felt this was right, like 'ofcourse the moon is red'
As he felt that, he took a step back immediately and closed the window with a 'thup' plunging the room into darkness.
The room was dark but at the moment he wanted light, so he walked a and moved his hand instinctively, and turned a valve around, and there was light.
A warm yellowish glow spread softly across the room, making his see his room
The room was simple and ordinary, just the bed, a narrow table with drawers and a chair pushed against it, shelves built right into the wall and packed with books.
Jake walked over to the table and dropped into the chair. His eyes drifted across the books on the shelves. The titles were written in a strange script, but somehow he could read them as easily as English.
'History of the Fourth Epoch.'
'General Knowledge of the Loen Kingdom.'
'The Fifth Epoch: The Modern Age.'
His froze!
He reached for the last one, flipped it open, and started skimming the pages. It didn't feel like reading new words.
It felt more like memories rising up—names and events he already knew and read about.
Emperor Roselle Gustav!
The War of the Four Emperors.
The explosion of steam power and machinery across the continent.
The seven orthodox churches!
He stopped. The book slipped from his fingers and landed on the table with a quiet thud.
"Wait a second," he muttered, voice barely above a whisper. "This is… this is straight out of 'Lord of the Mysteries'."
A world of Mysteries, Beyonders, mysticism, divinity and pathways
He looked around and found a short hand mirror around, and looked at his reflection, the face he was wearing was young and different form his own.
He let out a short, shaky laugh that didn't sound amused at all.
"No way. There's no freaking way this is happening."
He pulled open the drawer under the table. Inside were a silver pocket watch without a chain, a few loose coins, and a small stack of folded papers.
He grabbed the one one of the papers that looked most official cream paper with an embossed stamp and held it up to the lamplight.
Identity Certificate
Name: Jace Liebert
Date of Birth: 15th Day of 7th month, Year 1329
Residence: 17 Crimson Lane, Cherwood Borough, Backlund, Loen Kingdom
With that, memories started flooding his mind, of this life, of this boy
Jake did the math quickly in his head. 1329 plus sixteen years made Jace about sixteen and a half right now.
That lined up with the body he was wearing a smart kid who'd finished high school early, taught little children at a school sponsered by the Church of the God of Knowledge and Wisdom, did bookkeeping at a library on the side, and sometimes waited tables at rich people's parties to make extra money.
The kid who planned to start medical school at eighteen so he wouldn't be the youngest one in class again.
Jake leaned back in the chair and pressed both hands to his face.
"Okay. Okay. So I'm Jake—eighteen, first-year med student, cramming anatomy at 2 a.m., living on instant noodles and bad coffee. And now I'm also Jace Liebert, stuck in his body in the middle of Backlund."
He exhaled slowly, trying to keep his breathing steady.
The red moon. The gas lamp. The books. The name and address on the papers.
Everything matched the novel he'd read obsessively back home.
His heart beated faster.
'If this is really the world of 'Lord of the Mysteries'… then maybe the gray fog thing is real too, The ritual.'
Jake wondered if he too was taken by the Celestial Wothy like the protagonist of the novel klien morreti was.
He remembered every line of it, the Luck Enhancement Ritual the main character had stumbled into on Earth. Four steps counterclockwise. Four strange honorifics. And then… the door to something ancient and impossible.
But he knew it English rather than Mandarin, be he decided to try it regardless.
Jake stood up so fast the chair scraped against the floor. He shoved the table aside to clear a small space in the center of the room.
He rummaged in the tiny cupboard and found half a loaf of bread. He tore it into four rough pieces and placed one in each corner.
Then he stepped into the middle of the square he'd made.
In his mind, he translated the honorific name in ancient hermes that the owner of this body had already learned.
'This is completely insane. I'm going to feel like the biggest idiot alive in about ten seconds.'
But he did it anyway.
First step, counterclockwise.
"The Immortal Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings," he said, keeping his voice low.
Second step.
"The Sky Lord of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
Third.
"The Exalted Thearch of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
He completed the fourth step and returned to the center.
He gulped hard.
"The Celestial Worthy of Heaven and Earth for Blessings."
Silence.
The gas lamp flickered once, weakly.
That was all.
No rolling gray fog. No massive door appearing in the air. No sudden pull upward into another world.
Just four pieces of bread on the floor, a quiet room, and Jake standing there feeling like he'd just made a complete fool of himself.
He let his arms fall to his sides.
"…Of course it didn't work."
He rubbed the back of his neck and gave a tired half-smile.
It made sense that it wouldn't work, in the novel Zhou Mingrui had ran into it before his Transmigration, while jace hadn't run into any of sort of such thing.
Other than that, in the novel the cocoons above the gray fog were all accounted for.
He glanced toward the window. The crimson moon was still visible around the edge of the curtain.
The pocket watch on the table showed 6:12.
Dawn would come soon.
And he had absolutely no idea what to do next.
He froze for a moment, his body stiffned.
'Wait... with the knowledge of the 2 books I have, wasn't i like suppose to get... currupted and... die?'