In the name of the true god

The fat wizard's coarse wool shirt also quickly caught fire, and a smell even more pungent than the foul air assaulted Tang Ping's nostrils, making his stomach churn. He didn't want to test his mental fortitude by eating too much; after confirming that the fire would eventually engulf the entire basement, he stumbled up the stairs and escaped.

Outside the basement are warehouses used to store shipping goods. Although it was already past midnight, you could still see patrol personnel at night, as well as loaders and unloaders working through the night to move goods with high time sensitivity.

"hiss……"

A biting sea breeze blew by, making Tang Ping, who was wearing an old leather jacket and corduroy pants, shiver and wonder about the temperature.

It's only September, why is it so cold...?

Could this be the Southern Hemisphere?

Before Tang Ping could figure it out himself, the memories of the original owner of this body revealed the answer once again—

The world has been engulfed in a global, severe cold spell, similar to the Little Ice Age, for about four hundred years.

Shorter summers, frequent extreme weather events, and crop failures have led to several large-scale famines, making coal, which is commonly referred to as "black stone," the second most valuable hard currency after food.

The original owner of this body worked as a loader and unloader of black stones.

Especially since September, in order to stockpile enough blackstone by shipping before the harbor is frozen, his daily working hours have been extended from the original eleven or twelve hours to fourteen or fifteen hours, while his salary remains almost unchanged.

Even so, considering the economic depression that began a few years ago, whether or not there is work to do each day still depends on the arrival time of cargo ships, the weather, and even one's relationship with the foreman.

However, the situation isn't completely terrible.

At least the technology level in this other world is acceptable; after two industrial revolutions, it has made great strides into the electrical age.

There are lights, telephones, radios, cars... it's still acceptable.

"call……"

Because it was so cold, it felt like the dead of winter. Tang Ping wrapped his rather thick clothes tighter, gave up the idea of ​​wandering around and learning about the other world overnight, carefully avoided the guards at the dock, and slipped back to his cheap apartment, which wasn't too far away.

Arriving alone in the bustling capital to make a living, finding a place to shelter from the wind and rain is truly difficult.

But Tang Ping still found it hard to accept this environment.

In the cheap apartments, or rather, the slums, he had to share a single room of less than 20 square meters with eight or nine other people. To save money, the original owner of this body, Jude, as a single worker, even chose to "sleep overnight." That is to say, he was not allowed to use the same bed during the day.

Depend on……

No wonder Jude was so eager to find his brother who had eloped with a nobleman in order to get some financial support...

Using the faint moonlight streaming through the window, Tang Ping tiptoed past several sleeping workers and found his own bed to lie down.

The deafening snoring rose and fell in waves.

The bedding smelled sour.

Most importantly, the room was still damp and cold. Even though Tang Pingyuan suffered from cancer and had extremely poor sleep quality, it seemed a little better than being so cold that it was impossible to fall asleep.

The jumble of thoughts that had filled his mind now amounted to only one—

How can we change the current situation?!

First of all, continuing with loading and unloading is definitely not an option.

This job pays very little, and no matter how much you save, you can't make ends meet. When the weather gets colder, even the strongest person might freeze to death!

that……

Use your clever little brain, which comes from the 21st century and is highly educated, to invent something groundbreaking and make a fortune.

Or perhaps you could study your body more thoroughly, and once you figure out what's special about it and have extraordinary powers, how could a living person be killed by holding their urine?

Ok……

The former didn't really know what he could conjure up by hand for the time being.

The latter neither felt any abnormality in his body, nor did the fat wizard leave behind anything resembling a "user manual for extraordinary abilities," so he was unable to make any progress.

really!

It's more reliable to go and stay with my brother!

Tang Ping focused on processing Jude's memories from his youth.

His mother died in childbirth, and his father's personality changed drastically. In Jude's memory, it was his thoughtful older brother who took care of him more, which led to his strong dependence on his brother.

Eight years ago, Jude, then only thirteen years old, was awakened in the middle of the night by a loud argument. He didn't know the whole story, but he heard his older brother firmly declaring that he wanted to elope with a male nobleman from the capital, while his furious father threw his brother's clothes outside the door and told him never to come back.

My brother never came back.

"well……"

The only clue in my memory is that the nobles came from the capital, which doesn't necessarily mean they still live here. However, I'm not in a position to be picky right now; I can only try to find out more by going to a well-informed place like a tavern tomorrow.

A nobleman coming out of the closet is undoubtedly more sensational than a commoner coming out of the closet. What if this matter has already been widely discussed eight years ago?

Even if they only find out his noble status, it will be much better than Jude foolishly working as a stevedore for three years.

Having decided what to do next, Tang Ping, who was still not sleepy, couldn't wait to set off.

This actually left him no choice but to be slow.

He currently possesses only 477 grams of copper, which is equivalent to 47.7 grams of silver and 4.77 grams of gold.

It is known that the original owner of this body, Jude, earned an average of 800 copper grams per week by working as a dockworker.

For budget apartments where rent is settled weekly, the payment is 400 copper coins each time.

Even if you only eat 1.5 kilograms of dark bread every day, you'll still get 210 copper grams a week.

With the recent increase in the intensity of loading and unloading cargo, I occasionally need a cup of cheap coffee (15 copper grams) to stay awake, and I also have to eat some meat every week, such as a kilogram of bacon (80 copper grams) to supplement my nutrition...

Fortunately, Jude doesn't smoke or drink and hasn't picked up any bad habits, otherwise he wouldn't have been able to save even these nearly five hundred copper coins.

Simultaneously.

With this calculation, the dire reality becomes quite clear.

If I neither go to work nor find my brother to stay with before the next rent payment, then even this tiny place to sleep will be ruthlessly taken away from me.

In his anxiety, Tang Ping took the slightly uncomfortable ring out of his pocket and examined it closely.

What is the purpose of this ring?

The fat wizard wouldn't leave himself with a junk.

But if you're really forced into a corner, it wouldn't be unreasonable to pawn it for some money.

Otherwise, no matter how good something is, it's meaningless to keep it if you starve or freeze to death.

Tang Ping muttered to himself and tentatively slipped the ring onto the index finger of his left hand.

Not too loose, not too tight, just right.

Then, before he could remove the ring, the Möbius strip suddenly emitted a tremendous suction force. In an instant, his consciousness seemed to be forcibly pulled into it.

-

In the Kingdom of Nordonia, in a vast coniferous forest.

Twenty-one-year-old Edmund Ravenscrow bent down and placed a crumpled cigarette in front of the tombstone.

His weathered face held a serenity far beyond his years: "Father, I have followed your wishes and buried you in the woods. And it is time for me to leave this place."

After a long silence, Edmund took out his father's only keepsake—a ring shaped like an ouroboros—and solemnly put it on the index finger of his left hand.

The next instant, a suction force unexpectedly extended from the Ouroboros Ring, causing his consciousness to plummet into the abyss.