Of course, Shade didn't run away in the end. The three-month mission left by Mr. Hamilton was obviously wrong, and Shade, who had been involved, didn't leave before Mr. Hamilton died, so it was even more impossible for him to leave now.
But investigating that mission and finding out Hamilton's secrets were all things for the future. The key now was to get enough money to survive for a week before making other plans.
Bring the investigation report and map, and don't forget the compass and pocket watch in the drawer of the desk. For safety reasons, although no firearms were found, a cane can also be used as a weapon, and of course don't forget to bring a fruit knife.
For clothing, she chose an inconspicuous black button-down coat and trousers, which was in line with the dressing style of Tobysk, which had just entered summer.
There are two bedrooms on the second floor, Room 1, and Xia De found clothes that fit his current body in the other one. Unfortunately, the room that seemed to belong to the original owner Xia De did not have any diary or any small tips written by Xia De with his pathetic literacy, otherwise life would be simpler.
After doing all this, the clock in the corner of the living room was almost eleven o'clock in the morning.
Xia De found the keys to the door and the main door downstairs in the bowl in the cupboard at the door of the room. He carefully locked the door, took a deep breath, gritted his teeth and pulled a hair from his head. He lay on the floor between the door and the stairs, put the hair in the crack under the door, squinted his left eye, and made sure that the hair was facing the bulge on the left corner of the bedroom door in the room.
The windows in the stairwell are closed, the first floor is blocked, and all the windows in the room are closed, so there is no need to worry about the hair being moved by the wind. As long as Shade does not stride in the doorway when he comes back, and is careful when opening the first floor door, the position of the hair will indicate whether someone has passed by or entered the room.
I wanted to stand up, but then I looked at the locked door of Room 2 on the second floor next door. So I thought about it, and reluctantly pulled out a strand of my hair, and clamped it in the crack of the door, parallel to the position of the lock.
Because Mr. Hamilton left so many secrets, it is always better to be cautious.
Going down the spiral staircase, the sound of footsteps in the quiet space made Xia De nervous again for some reason.
There was no dust on the handrails of the stairs, and the decorative paintings on the walls looked like they were often wiped. The closer Xia De got to the bottom of the stairs, the faster his heartbeat became.
He knew there was nothing to panic about, but this was after all the first step into this place, into this real world.
He changed his boots in front of the door, picked up the black bowler hat on the standing clothes hanger and put it on his head. It took him a long time to grasp the door handle and push open the door.
My heartbeat became faster the moment I opened the door. The feeling of entering a completely unfamiliar environment and accepting the fact that I had traveled through time was really uncomfortable.
He stepped over the threshold, but did not look outside immediately. Instead, he quickly walked out with his head down, then turned around, turned the key and locked the door.
He closed his eyes, then slowly turned to face the street, backed away and leaned his back against the door, his head against the cold metal doorplate "No. 6".
"There's nothing to be nervous about. It's just that we've stepped into a different world and there's a high chance we won't be able to go back."
He said to himself, trying to suppress the desire to breathe deeply, raised his head, opened his eyes, leaned against the door, and looked at everything in front of him -
There was some smoke in the air, and the weather was more gloomy than in the morning. But the noisy square was still crowded with people, gentlemen in formal suits and top hats, ladies in skirts and powdered faces, porters carrying wooden boxes, barefoot newsboys shouting loudly, shy flower girls soliciting customers, four-wheeled carriages passing by in a hurry, and bloated housewives holding paper bags and wearing lace hats... ...
There was a burning smell in the air, and people of all kinds were mixed in the streets at the edge of the smoky square, with hawking and shouting almost completely overlapping. On the other side of the square in the distance was a three-story house just like the one behind him, with dense metal pipes clinging to the walls, like vines or spider webs, shining in the weak midday sun.
In the center of the square stood a fountain of a girl holding a water bottle. The fountain was not spraying water, but the statue had turned yellow. The patrol officer wearing a police badge sitting next to the fountain looked at Xia De curiously. The middle-aged man asked him with his eyes if he needed help, and Xia De hurriedly looked away.
The newspaper boy passed by, and the sound of his feet rubbing against the gravel ground made his hair stand on end; the jingling sound of bells from the four-wheeled carriage passing by the door, together with the inquiring gaze out of the carriage window, made Shad's heart pump blood faster.
Feeling his heart beating, he opened his hands and pressed them against the door behind him, instinctively leaning back, terrified by what was really happening in front of him. His blood pressure surged, his heartbeat quickened, and the sudden sound of a bell in the distance was like a bomb exploding in his head, making Xia De almost faint.
It was so real, so incredible, and so contrary to the common sense of the past twenty years. This was a different world. He really left his hometown and came to a different world, a completely unfamiliar world.
"Don't panic! Don't panic!"
Xia De kept repeating it in his mind, but he couldn't suppress his body's instinct.
"It doesn't matter, I will get used to it and I will fit in here!"
He kept telling himself desperately, but his body still leaned back against the door involuntarily, and his back was already wet.
Suddenly, the woman's murmuring voice sounded again. Although it was also a voice from another world, it seemed to bring Shadra back to reality and make him face it all. The murmuring voice declared like a poem:
You have gained enlightenment.
The heartbeat slowed down because of the sound, and the high blood pressure gradually returned to normal because of the whispering, and the sound echoed in my heart.
"What enlightenment?"
It's not that he didn't hear it clearly, but he didn't understand the meaning of this sentence. Enlightenment also belongs to the four mysterious elements vaguely mentioned by the detective before his death, but Shade needs further explanation. He is now fully certain that the voice in his brain is definitely not a system. It is very likely that the voice is part of the mysterious system of this world.
You are me, and I am you. Stranger, you are manipulating the direction of fate in front of the scenes, and fate unfolds because of you; I am in touch with the reality of the world behind the scenes, and you are stronger because of me. Even if you are suspicious, we are one, and there is no difference between us.
The woman's voice did not answer the question, but Xia De was not angry. Instead, he felt happy.
His guess was right. In the mystical system of this world, the voice in the mind is most likely a part of contacting and using the mystical. The worldview of this world seems to be somewhat close to Cthulhu and agnosticism. The extraordinary and the mysterious have power, and their existence itself will affect ordinary things, so there needs to be another kind of power to help ordinary people contact those strange and dangerous things.
"You are me and I am you. Although I say this, you are definitely different from ordinary situations."
He wanted to confirm his thoughts with the whispering voice in his head, but all he got was a woman's chuckle.
No matter what, he has at least come into contact with the mysterious elements of this world. Even if he doesn't understand anything, at least he is standing here and has his own goals.
The panic just now gradually subsided, as if he was closer to this era of steam and smoke. The feeling of being down-to-earth made Xia De more calm. He told himself to gradually accept everything instead of uselessly panicking:
"Earn a commission, research Hamilton's story, gather the four elements, study the voice in your head... Go forward, don't panic."
He kept repeating this in his mind, and finally let his back leave the door. Giving up the idea of going back to change clothes, Xia De carefully walked down the three steps at the door, and stood on the street at the edge of the square. He opened his eyes wide and looked up at the world in the crowd, and let the world be reflected in his eyes:
"Whatever happens, move forward."
He said this in his mind, and after a brief pause, he walked along the circular street around the square according to the plan he had made in the house, heading towards the main street entrance on the other side leaving the square.