Simultaneous Travel: Becoming a Legend in the Heavens.

Chapter 332 Gray Fog
Northern Continent, Kingdom of Loen, Tingen City, Ahowa County.

Klein pressed his hat with his right hand and walked out of the slightly shabby and cool apartment. He was wearing a black vest, a suit of the same color, pants that were slightly tight around the ankles, and a half-top hat. He had a slightly bookish air and his eyes were slightly alert and curious.

It is natural that a person would not be wary and curious about the living environment he has lived in for more than 20 years for no reason, but it is a different matter if the inner self of the shell has changed into a different person.

Just last night, the original Klein Moretti, due to his obsession with the history of the Quaternary, mysteriously shot himself after being involved in a supernatural event.

The new soul is a young man from the 21st century, a social animal named Zhou Mingrui. He is the kind of social animal who worries about the reasons for taking leave even when his head hurts, and who would be happy if he could really take leave.

Zhou Mingrui had no idea why he traveled through time. His parents were still alive, his family was ordinary, he didn't have a childhood sweetheart, he didn't have any unusual experiences, and he wasn't even hit by a truck. He just traveled through time and space to Klein's body after sleeping for a while.

There is no such way of time travel. It is more reliable to die suddenly from staying up late watching the World Cup than this.

He silently complained in his heart and reached out to touch his temple.

At first glance, there was nothing wrong with it, except for a small bullet-shaped piece of skin that was lighter in color, as if it had just grown. But a few hours ago, there was a hideous wound there, the kind that you could see a brain wound when you looked in the mirror.

I always feel like my time travel has a lot of problems. I've never heard of a time travel that comes with a repair service...

Zhou Mingrui sighed and could only pin his hopes of returning home on the only element involving supernatural forces before he traveled through time. Because he had been very unlucky recently, he bought a copy of "Records of Qin and Han Secret Alchemy" at a used bookstall and performed a luck-changing ritual.

He didn't know whether his time travel was related to this ritual, nor did he know whether he could go back smoothly after repeating the ritual, but now this was the only possibility he knew and had the conditions to try.

With this thought in mind, Zhou Mingrui tightly grasped the banknotes in his hand and walked through the streets filled with mixed and unpleasant smells, preparing to buy materials for the ceremony and the food that his sister Melissa had asked him to buy.

The streets today were busier than usual. In addition to the shouts of hawkers, the playing of accordionists, and the sounds of children playing, he also heard many pedestrians and vendors discussing the strange sight that had occurred late last night.

Zhou Mingrui came to "Slin Bakery" and smiled at the old lady Wendy Slin next door and asked to buy eight pounds of rye bread. The two exchanged a few pleasantries and had a brief discussion about employment after graduation from Klein University and the marital status of his brother Benson.

"9p."

"Didn't you ask for eleven pence the day before yesterday?" Zhou Mingrui asked subconsciously.

"You have to thank the repeal of the Corn Laws and those people who marched." Wendy spread her hands and replied with a smile.

Zhou Mingrui was a little surprised. The Corn Act was a regulation on import tariffs. It would impose compulsory taxes on imported crops, which was a kind of protection for domestic crops.

Repealing this law would be detrimental to farmers. Although the price of food would drop on the surface, it would cause a large number of migrant workers to be unable to survive and be forced to move to the city.

This is a theoretical prediction. In reality, different dynamic fluctuations will occur due to price adjustments by merchants and upper nobles, detailed provisions of other laws on different types of crops, and regulations on export crops from other countries.

But what is foreseeable is that unskilled migrant workers can only do unskilled labor like most residents, and they need lower wages to grab jobs, which will cause the wages of the original residents to be lowered, working longer hours, and higher standards of work efficiency. To use the words of my own era, there is a more appropriate word to describe this state - involution.

King George III's performance has been mediocre since he took office, and he has not made any major moves. Even privately, many people think that His Majesty is too mediocre. What is his intention to do by repealing the Corn Laws at this time?
If the purpose is to please the lower classes, then repealing the Corn Laws and bringing about cheaper food prices may not necessarily make up for the damage caused. In addition, the ruler of the Kingdom of Loen is not selected through a system that requires canvassing for votes.

While Zhou Mingrui was deep in thought, several figures in police uniforms passed by. One of them looked familiar to him, as he seemed to be a patrolman on the street where he lived.

There are more police patrols today than usual...

He thought silently as he took the rye bread handed to him by Mrs. Slin, and then heard the gentle old man ask with some curiosity.

"Speaking of which, Little Klein, did you see any strange celestial phenomena last night?"

The incident happened late at night, and most people in a small place like Tingen were struggling to make ends meet. They had to work for more than ten hours a day to barely survive. Extremely exhausted, they all slept soundly, and only a few noticed this astronomical phenomenon.

He could see that he had woken up because of the pain of suicide... It suddenly felt so hellish when he heard that.

Zhou Mingrui's mouth twitched twice, and he nodded slightly, "I see."

The "blood moon" that would only appear on a full moon night suddenly appeared, and the crimson moonlight was brighter than usual. In addition to the most conspicuous moonlight, there seemed to be several stars that lit up, illuminating the night and covering the ground with a thin layer of light.

Well...it can be said to be a very rare astronomical phenomenon, at least it cannot be seen on Earth.

"I heard the boss next door say that the stars in the sky are shining. Is that true?" Wendy asked curiously.

"No, it's not that exaggerated."

Zhou Mingrui gave a brief description. In this era, information is mainly obtained from newspapers, magazines and other books, while things happening nearby can only be passed on by word of mouth, which will cause inaccurate information. However, even with advanced technology, there will still be marketing accounts that use various out-of-context quotes and exaggerated headlines to attract attention and earn traffic.

Depending on their class status and cognitive level, different people will have different interpretations of various things. Some think that this is a wonder that should be recorded by painters, some think it is just a collective hallucination, some think it is a national conspiracy, and some think it is a sign of some kind of disaster.

Different beliefs will lead to different interpretations.

The followers of the Goddess of Night emphasize that the crimson moonlight is the most abundant, believing that it represents the goddess's miracle. The followers of the Lord of Storms focus on the other twinkling stars, believing that this is a further sign that their gods have gained control over the starry sky. The most astonishing are the followers of the God of Steam and Machinery, who try to find an explanation for the celestial phenomena in some scientific way.

It’s obvious that the God you believe in is the most unscientific thing, okay!

Zhou Mingrui muttered inwardly, said goodbye to Mrs. Silin with a smile, and quickened his pace without making a sound.

The sudden increase in patrol officers made him feel a little uneasy. After all, Klein's death was very strange, especially the words written in Hermetic language in the notebook: "Everyone will die, including me."

Zhou Mingrui quickly went to other markets to buy all the materials. On the way home, he was called into the circus by a "fortune teller" who claimed to be a free fortune teller.

Although free things are the most expensive, who doesn’t like to get something for free?
Zhou Mingrui shuffled the tarot cards with the Xiling Empire-style thinking of "it doesn't cost money anyway, so I might as well believe in it a little bit", drew out "The Fool", and was eager to listen to the "Fortune Teller"'s interpretation for him.

Just then, the real fortune teller came in and said that the previous "fortune teller" was just a beast tamer.

He left with a gloomy face, feeling as if he had become a curly-haired baboon being teased by its trainer.

After returning home, he locked the door, took a deep breath, placed the four staple foods required for the posture, which were the cheap rye bread he had just bought, at the four corners of the room, then held his breath and walked counterclockwise in a square.

Taking the first step, he chanted in a low voice:

"Fusheng Xuanhuang Immortal Lord."

In the second step, he sincerely recited:
"Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianjun."

In the third step, Zhou Mingrui held his breath and whispered:
"The God of Blessing and Prosperity Xuanhuang."

In the fourth step, he exhaled his turbid breath and said silently:
"Fusheng Xuanhuang Tianzun."

When the last word was spoken, Zhou Mingrui felt that the air around him seemed to stop flowing, becoming sticky and strange. Immediately afterwards, all kinds of endless whispers rang in his ears.

When he opened his eyes again, he saw the gray fog that was spreading. The gray fog flowed like water, dotted with crimson stars that were large or small, lurking or floating on the surface. What the hell is going on? What should I do?

Zhou Mingrui was confused for three consecutive times. Just when he was hesitating whether to follow the undead's phototaxis and the Yharnam hunter's desire to explore and touch the crimson stars, new changes occurred in the gray fog.

A black star slowly emerged from nothing.

The black star kept expanding and contracting, appearing and disappearing. It was very bright one second and became dim the next, as if the signal reception was not very good and there was a risk of disconnection at any time.

As the saying goes, don't touch things that you shouldn't touch.

Zhou Mingrui, who was a little confused by the strange situation, swallowed his saliva and silently added a sentence in his heart.

But how do you know he shouldn't touch it if you don't touch it? !

This black star looks different from the other crimson stars. It is as eye-catching as the SSRs among the R cards. How can you resist drawing it...it would be strange if you don't touch it.

He looked at the stars that seemed to disappear at any time and added, "They looked different from the permanent ones. They were a limited-time card pool. If you missed it once, you didn't know if it would be reproduced."

With this thought in mind, Zhou Mingrui gritted his teeth and touched it. When his fingers just touched the surface of the star, water ripples suddenly surged out from his body, causing black flames to burst out, like a ball of dreamy fireworks.

The black flame shattered with a loud bang, and a drop of blood with golden light slowly emerged, quickly stretching and taking shape. The internal organs of the human body emerged, and then were wrapped in flesh and blood little by little, and in an instant it became a vaguely visible male body, and then the outermost layer of skin began to grow.

Frightened by the sudden abnormality, Zhou Mingrui withdrew his hand in a hurry and accidentally touched the other two "deep red" stars. Then, these two "stars" also began to shine brightly.

……

Lu Ke exhaled slowly and opened his eyes. As expected, he saw a space shrouded in gray fog. He nodded slightly at Zhou Mingrui and smiled.

"Thanks. I owe you a favor this time."

Although he did not understand the current situation at all, Zhou Mingrui still forced himself to remain calm, as if his buff of appearing divine in front of others had been triggered. He pretended that he had only done something insignificant, and said "hmm" in a cold and arrogant manner.

At the same time, two figures appeared at the crimson stars. The former was Audrey Hall, the daughter of Count Backlund Hall of the Loen Kingdom’s capital, and the latter was Alger Wilson, a Beyonder affiliated with the Church of the Lord of Storms. He was currently a “Raging Citizen” of Sequence 8 of the Sailor Path.

"Sir, where is this?"

"What do you want to do?"

Two voices sounded at the same time. Zhou Mingrui, who was already prepared, kept smiling. His tone was calm and his voice was low but not deep, as if he was responding to the visitor's polite greeting.

"An attempt."

Lu Ke was stunned by his actions and watched him perform quietly, wondering about the feasibility of filming such a scene and making a movie so that others could enjoy it together.

"Sir, is the attempt over? Can you let us go back?"

Audrey asked a little nervously. It was her first time to encounter an extraordinary event. Although she was excited, she was also a little worried that she might be harmed.

"Of course, if you formally ask, I can always send you back."

At this time, Zhou Mingrui gradually figured out the operating mechanism of the gray fog and the connection between his own spirit and each crimson star. As long as the connection was cut off, the crimson stars would disappear... except for the human figure summoned by the black star at the beginning.

For some reason, everyone else needs their own mental energy to stay here, but the figure summoned by the black star does not have this consumption.

Considering the strange way the other party appeared, it was as if a drop of blood from something turned into a human form and actually entered this foggy world.

He glanced at Lu Ke obliquely. The other person folded his arms and kept quiet. Apart from thanking him at the beginning, he did not speak a word. The expression on his face was shrouded in gray mist and could not be seen clearly.

After confirming that the other party would let her go, Audrey quickly let down her guard. She had just turned seventeen and was well protected by her family. She was full of curiosity about the world of Beyonders, and not only did she not apply to leave, but she asked with excitement and eagerness how to become a Beyonder.

Zhou Mingrui felt that such a conversation was not classy enough, and just as he had a thought in his mind, the gray fog suddenly rolled over, and tall stone pillars stood up, with a wide dome appearing above them.

In the area where the gray fog gathered, there was a long bronze table with ten high-backed chairs on each side. The same seats were placed in front and behind. The backs of the chairs were shining brightly, and the deep red color faded, outlining strange constellations that did not correspond to reality.

This earth-shaking power shocked everyone except Lu Ke. Even Zhou Mingrui, who accomplished all this, was amazed by the comparison.

Alger was startled, and then he behaved himself. Since he needed the extraordinary material of ghost shark blood to advance to Sequence 7, he looked at Luke warily and took the initiative to answer Audrey's questions.

The two of them asked and answered a lot of knowledge about Beyonder characteristics, which made Zhou Mingrui stunned, but he naturally maintained his mysterious image.

After the two of them finalized the deal, the lively and outgoing Audrey took the initiative to ask Zhou Mingrui to be a witness. Only then did she realize her impoliteness as she had not even asked the name of the host.

"Sir, what shall we call you?"

Alger also looked over, his eyes slightly lowered to show respect for the strong man.

Zhou Mingrui was stunned for a moment, then he crossed his hands and rested them on his chin after he came to his senses.

"You can call me..."

He lowered his voice and slowly spit out the Major Arcana card that the trainer had used to tell fortunes for him not long ago.

"The Fool."

Audrey and Alger were filled with amazement. This was the first of the twenty-two main cards of the Tarot deck, the beginning of everything.

Such an ancient and meaningful title is consistent with their understanding of the existence before their eyes: powerful, strange and mysterious!
At this moment, Lu Ke, who had been silent, touched his chin, smiled and said the second sentence of this Tarot Club.

"Although it's okay to call you that, are you sure you want others to call you a fool?"

Audrey: ...

Alger: ...

Faced with such a mysterious and powerful being, this gentleman was too casual and brave.

Zhou Mingrui, who was sitting at the top of the long bronze table, also fell into strange silence.

Although it makes me a little angry, it surprisingly makes some sense!
Is it too late for him to change his name now?
(End of this chapter)