Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength

It wasn't just the candle.

After scanning the room with his eyes, Yang Siming discovered that the door he had opened, the room he had explored, and even the clothes he had changed into were all restored to their untouched state.

Everything seemed as if all his previous experiences had been his own illusion!

"..."

"They didn't need to change my clothes as well."

The initial shock quickly gave way to calm.

Touching the pajamas on his body, Yang Siming figured it out.

The ordeal he had undergone was some kind of illusion extended from reality.

This could be inferred from his own condition.

If someone had tampered while he was bereft of his ability to perceive the outside world, there would have been no need to change his clothes back. The real explanation was that he had been caught in the Iskur clay tablet, the qualifying trial for ownership of the "Rain Mist Divine Hammer."

When he had fulfilled a certain condition.

Most likely, it was after he had uncovered the truth about the origin of the gods.

The trial ended—

He regained consciousness in reality and received this artifact from the Sumerian era.

And everything around him naturally dissipated along with the end of the illusion.

This was the real world.

The most conspicuous proof supporting this idea

was a window not far in front of him.

Unlike in the illusion, where raindrops were blocked by an invisible force, the window in front of him now was blurred by water stains, and during the brief moments Yang Siming looked up, disordered rain continued to strike the glass.

See, isn't this much more normal?

"Sigh—"

"Sir Ronald Adler's diary."

He let out a long sigh of relief, leaned back in the chair, and then read the title on the notebook on the desk.

The notebook from the illusion had turned into the "Rain Mist Divine Hammer," yet the notebook in reality could not simply disappear.

Yang Siming didn't even need to touch it to read the text on the notebook cover.

Even below the notebook's name, there was a line, "Any lowlifes who dare to pry will have their souls eternally scorched by flames," clearly a warning to deter others from snooping into the diary...

"It has quite a historical style."

Yang Siming couldn't help but comment, finding such warnings overly dramatic, almost as absurd as the ancient pharaohs' curses on tomb raiders.

However, considering the educational level of the past eras and the fantastical nature of his current experiences...

Maybe, this déjà vu-inducing warning could be useful after all?

Of course, the most important thing was this—

Yang Siming no longer needed to rack his brains to decipher the content.

Just as he had instinctively learned cuneiform, he now could read the foreign script on the notebook as if it were in his nature.

"If there are no problems in communicating, then the difficulty of survival will decrease considerably."

"Not to mention, it is precisely a diary."

He hesitated no longer.

By the flickering candlelight, he began to read attentively—

As Yang Siming delved deeper into the content, the tension on his lips gradually eased.

Most of the text in the diary recorded daily trivia or personal reflections, occasionally including extracted news or famous quotes.

The writing, full of life, was almost all about this world and his new identity.

For him now, this was undoubtedly the best aid to disguise himself and integrate into this world.

As time passed, the rain outside the window grew heavier.

Yang Siming carefully read by candlelight, bit by bit, memorizing every detail of the notebook named "Ronald Adler's Diary".

As the name of the diary suggested, its owner was a country nobleman named Ronald Adler, who nominally served Queen Dantlian of Gred II...

However, according to the diary's author, long before this country was established,

the Adler family had lived for generations in a town on the edge of the Newhela Great Forest, in a residence handed down through the generations, with one family maxim being to firmly guard this estate, so as not to let the family name fall into disgrace...

"Queen Dantlian of Gred? Dantrian II? Newhela Great Forest..."

The emergence of these terms essentially ruled out the possibility that Yang Siming had encountered ancient Earth.

As a professional with a strong memory, he was certain these were neither the countries nor the place names that had ever appeared on Earth.

As for more important personal connections—

Ronald's parents had died young, and he had no distant relatives. Moreover, due to the decline of the family fortune, even though he lived in this rather large "mansion," presently only two maids, named Marian and Vilarnika, cared for his daily needs...

"Vilarnika?"

Yang Siming was somewhat intrigued by this name.

Although the trial by illusion he had just undergone had evolved based on his environment, considering that the illusion perfectly matched reality, it made him wonder about this Miss Vilarnika...

Was she really that beautiful?

"Never mind, let's not think about that now."

Suppressing his primal instincts, Yang Siming chose not to contemplate that character just yet.

A girl of such striking beauty working as a maid in a declining noble's house, although highly suspicious, was not the most pressing issue to sort out at the moment.

It was more important to continue reading and to remember these valuable contents.

— The reading continued—

But afterward, items worth noting became sparse.

The content that could attract Yang Siming, or now 'Ronald Adler,' was limited to two points.

One was learning from passing travel merchants that this country named Gred was undergoing massive changes, with steam-powered ships and trains already being widely used in almost all major cities and frontier strongholds.

Even in the capital where the queen resided—Springs.

Recently, a novelty known as street lamps had begun to be constructed roadside, lighting up the night for the queen to admire her own grand city.

"Massive application of steam engines, even starting to develop and use some electrical devices..."

Seeing this, Yang Siming pensively glanced at the desk.

Right in front of him, the arduously burning candle spoke of the actual condition of this country.

— The rural nobility were still using old-fashioned handmade candles, while the 'people' in the capital were already using electric lights!

Whether on Earth or in another world, this fundamental contradiction caused by a sharp increase in productive forces seemed inescapable.

Looking at the date written in this diary entry,

Even though it covered just a few months, considering the speed at which travel merchants passing through relayed news, this was probably already outdated information.

After stepping into the industrial age, the pace of civilization's development was one of the most unpredictable factors, with examples of lethargic nations and miraculously fast-developing countries existing in the real world.

Assuming he now traveled to the capital of this country, who knew what kind of city he would see...

"Originally thought it was a medieval fantasy story, what is it now?"

"An epic adventure of the Industrial Revolution era?"

Somewhat speechlessly shaking his head, Yang Siming shifted his gaze to the most recent contents of the diary.

Here was where it was stained with ink.

— The end of the diary's contents.

Recently, Ronald had felt something undefinable in the estate, often lurking in the dark corners, watching him, with an instinct to flee, yet reluctant to abandon his current life...

Snap snap!

With a vacant expression, Yang Siming clapped his hands, laid down the diary he had finished reading, and slumped back in his chair.

"Well then..."

"It really was premeditated!"