“Dear Mother, I hope this letter finds you well.
“…I have obtained a professorship at Lafami University, responsible for teaching the literary history of the Age of Silence and earlier periods. I have met my colleagues in the college—some of them were my former professors, and they are all very easy to get along with.
“…
“…I hope you take care of your health.”
Siles Noel sat at his desk with lowered eyes, holding a quill pen in his hand, writing on scratch paper the content of the letter he would send to his mother.
After a moment, he added a few less-than-honest sentences like “the professor’s salary is sufficient for me to live in Lafami City” and “my current landlady, Mrs. Fenn, is very easy to get along with, though I’ll move to the faculty dormitory provided by the school after the semester starts.”
The letter’s content was finally determined. Siles breathed a slight sigh of relief and unconsciously looked up at the pocket watch beside his hand. The night was already deep. The sound of pattering rain came from outside the dirty, blurred window glass.
Siles stood up and walked to the window, looking out at the hazy night scene and flickering glimmers of light.
The past day had been chaotic for him.
At this time yesterday, he became Siles Noel—a research scholar who had just graduated from Lafami University this year, a concept similar to a graduate student on Earth. His major was literary history.
Before becoming Siles Noel, his name was He Jiayin, a somewhat renowned novelist on Earth.
While out with friends, he encountered an accident and died unexpectedly. When he opened his eyes, he found himself on this planet called “Fisher,” having become a strange young man.
Siles looked at the blurred face reflected in the window glass.
He had black hair and black eyes, slightly pale skin, and a slender, tall frame. His appearance couldn’t be seen clearly, but when washing up this morning, Siles had noticed in the mirror that this body was handsome, with deep-set eyes and a profound, composed temperament.
But still young. According to this body’s memories, he is only twenty-four years old.
He had obtained most of the original body’s memories, including his past experiences and all his knowledge. This allowed him to successfully pass Lafami University’s recruitment exam this afternoon. But…
Siles’s calm face suddenly showed a ripple. He frowned slightly, his thoughts returning to today’s recruitment.
Although it appeared very serious, from the written test to the interview, from start to finish, he was the only one participating in this recruitment, and the interviewing professors came and went hastily, as if this were just a formality.
The colleagues from the College of Arts and History, whom he met later, also showed very kind and friendly attitudes.
…But a newly graduated, twenty-four-year-old young student suddenly ascending to become a formal professor at the most prestigious university in Lafami City?
This sounded somewhat incredible.
From the original body’s memories, he had just graduated step by step, followed his teachers’ advice to submit resumes, and everything seemed to flow naturally; then he successfully obtained this position.
The original body was a student at Lafami University. During Siles’s interview, he encountered several former professors. From their performance, this matter seemed to have nothing suspicious about it.
But Siles deeply doubted it.
He cautiously added “why I could become a professor” to his future investigation plan.
And his investigation plan had many items.
For instance, Lafami City’s geographical location, future living arrangements, and this world.
Last night, when he became Siles and received Siles’s memories, he was surprised to realize that this world was very similar to the tabletop RPG game background he had been playing with friends before his death.
The same Lafami City, the same apostate who had defected and caused panic in the city, and even from the original body’s memories, he could find several vaguely familiar figures that looked exactly like character cards from the tabletop game.
And then there was…
Siles turned around and glanced at an object on his desk, placed beside the inkwell.
It was a twelve-sided die.
Tabletop RPGs were a type of tabletop role-playing game, similar to the scripted murder mystery games popular among young people on Earth. But one of the great pleasures of tabletop RPGs was the randomness brought by dice rolls.
In tabletop games, players typically had a character sheet as their game character. Character sheets had three basic attributes: constitution, spirituality, and willpower, as well as other different skills, including investigation, psychology, mythos knowledge, etc.
During gameplay, the game’s Keeper was responsible for narrating the game’s setting and story progression to the players, while also rolling dice, informing players of judgment results, and the impact of these judgments on the subsequent story.
For example, if a character sheet’s investigation attribute value was 25, and if the dice roll came up 20, less than 25, then this judgment counted as successful, and the player could investigate useful information.
But if the dice rolled 30, greater than 25, then this investigation check failed, and the player couldn’t discover clues through investigation. Even if clues were right under their nose, they would be blind to them.
This uncertain judgment result would greatly affect players’ game progress. Some unlucky players might die inexplicably during a game session without investigating any information.
When Siles was alive and playing tabletop RPGs, he was precisely the game’s Keeper. His friends were the players, and the scenarios were searched online.
At that time, they didn’t use real dice but rather random numbers from electronic devices.
But when he came to this world, he unexpectedly discovered that a real die had appeared beside him.
It was a pitch-black regular dodecahedron with golden edges, about three centimeters in length, width, and height. The numbers on each face continuously changed, from 0 to 100, never stopping.
Based on his cautious nature, after realizing this die’s existence, Siles had never used it or made any throwing or tossing gestures.
In the past day, Siles had never heard any rolling dice sounds either.
As if everything was peaceful.
But he clearly knew that this die appearing beside him was very likely related to his transmigration. But why did he transmigrate? Why did he come to this world? Where did the original body go?
Dead? But in the memories he obtained, the original body had just gone to sleep normally, and when he woke up, he had become He Jiayin.
He felt this matter was extraordinary and must hide some secrets behind it.
At this moment, Siles suddenly thought of something.
In that tabletop game he played, the game master was called the Keeper. The keeper of secrets.
Siles took a light breath, held it for a moment, then slowly exhaled. He thought that at least no one with extraordinary powers had suddenly jumped out to tell him he was arrested for taking over someone else’s body.
There were real deities in the Fisher world, so he also suspected there was a so-called “extraordinary power.” He had been a novelist in his previous life, after all.
Therefore, before investigating the truth, Siles would keep his secret as a visitor from another world and strive to survive in this world, different from Earth.
On this basis, he would try to find a way back to Earth. Even if it might cost him countless time and energy, he was ultimately a stranger in a foreign land.
Siles closed his eyes, then once again walked to the desk, transcribed the letter to the original body’s mother onto formal stationery, folded it, placed it in an envelope, planning to mail it tomorrow morning.
He wrote the mother’s address on the envelope.
“Lafami City, Merlin Town, Canyon Farm.”
Then he set the envelope aside, carefully organized the papers, ink, quill pen, notebook, and other items on the desk, then went to the small washroom attached to this room.
Moments later, he emerged from the washroom, changed into pajamas, lay on the bed, closed his eyes, and soon entered dreamland.
The next morning, Siles Noel changed into suitable casual clothes and placed the envelope in his coat’s inner pocket. He took his pocket watch, a small notebook, and a sharpened pencil and cautiously put the die in his pocket.
He looked out through the blurred window glass and found the weather still gloomy, but at least it wasn’t raining. However, he still brought his long-handled umbrella, using it like a walking stick.
He changed into waterproof leather boots suitable for muddy roads in this weather, brought his wallet and keys, and went out.
The apartment building he lived in was at 13 Milford Street in Lafami’s West District.
Landlady Mrs. Fenn owned an entire apartment building. Her husband was a merchant with considerable assets who was never home. So Mrs. Fenn managed and rented out the purchased apartments to pass the time.
Siles’s apartment was at the eastern end of the second floor. This floor had three rooms, each about twenty to thirty square meters with independent washrooms. In Lafami’s West District, such apartments were already quite good.
Siles met Mrs. Fenn in the first-floor entrance hall.
Mrs. Fenn was a middle-aged woman around forty who wore long dresses while always tying on an apron. Despite her wealthy family assets, Mrs. Fenn was accustomed to doing everything herself and had never hired a maid.
Her eyebrows were always arched high. She was a woman who wouldn’t let things go and couldn’t say nice things. With her husband away from home year-round and her son quite unruly, these various frustrations made this woman appear withdrawn and harsh.
Siles greeted her: “Good morning, Mrs. Fenn.”
“Good morning, Mr. Noel.” Mrs. Fenn’s expression looked somewhat surprised, but she quickly said, “You’re going out? You must be careful—that damned apostate is still in the city. I don’t know why those useless priests still haven’t found his whereabouts.”
“Thank you for the reminder; I’ll be careful,” Siles said politely. “I found a job and plan to send a letter to my mother. By the way, just to let you know, if nothing unexpected happens, I’ll probably move out in about a week.”
“Oh…” Mrs. Fenn frowned. “Mr. Noel, you should have told me earlier.”
Siles said apologetically, “I only got this job yesterday. When I returned, it was already too late—I didn’t want to disturb you.”
Mrs. Fenn nodded absentmindedly: “Alright, alright… uh, I understand.” She seemed to want to say something but ultimately stopped herself, instead saying, “When I find the next tenant, I’ll refund part of your rent. Of course, not all of it.”
Siles nodded.
Lafami University’s faculty dormitory was free. So even if he lost some money by breaking his lease now, it was better than continuing to stay at Mrs. Fenn’s place. Moreover, commuting from here to Lafami University was also quite troublesome.
However, Mrs. Fenn’s attitude was also too friendly. He had thought Mrs. Fenn’s emotions would be more intense.
Siles’s gaze swept somewhat perplexedly across Mrs. Fenn’s facial expression, sensing that this woman seemed troubled by something, so she didn’t pay much attention to Siles’s lease termination.
Because of her husband? Her son? Or some troublesome tenant?
The former novelist’s imagination immediately ran wild.
But he didn’t show his various thoughts, quickly bid farewell to Mrs. Fenn, and left the apartment building. Soon after, he arrived at the West District’s carriage company and mailed his letter.
Lafami City had no dedicated place for mailing letters—one could only go to such carriage companies to find carriages that might be heading to the destination. Siles was quite fortunate—there happened to be a carriage planning to go to Merlin Town.
Merlin Town was a small town located east of Lafami City, also the place where Siles Noel was born and raised.
The Noel family now consisted of only an orphan and a widow. Siles’s father had died when he was young, and his mother raised him alone. From Siles Noel’s memories, she was a strict yet loving mother.
The mother and son depended on each other with a harmonious relationship, so after Siles sorted out his thoughts and obtained work, he immediately wrote a letter to the mother of the original body.
Although he hadn’t yet figured out how to treat this mother going forward.
After leaving the carriage company, Siles recalled in his mind what he needed to do.
The main things he needed to do in the coming period were prepare lessons and move.
There was still one week until Lafami University started classes, so lesson preparation was quite urgent. After yesterday’s interview ended, he learned that the previous literary history professor’s lesson plans were still in the office, and he could reference part of them.
So Siles decided to go to Lafami University today.
The university wasn’t in the West District but in the East District, separated from the West District by a river. Lafami’s West District was the earliest developed area, now called the Old City, while the East District was more prosperous.
To go from the West District to the East District, one could rent a carriage or board a public carriage. The latter traveled along fixed tracks, stopping at specific stations—far less convenient and fast than rental carriages.
But public carriages were cheap.
In his letter, Siles told his mother his salary was more than enough to cover living expenses, but if he wanted to investigate the truth of his transmigration, there would certainly be more places requiring money in the future.
So he would save where he could now and also planned to find more ways to earn money.
Following the original body’s memories, he headed to a nearby public carriage stop.
The stop was located at the Logan Vendor Market, southwest of Milford Street. This was the liveliest place in the West District, with all kinds of shops and vendors—shoe stores, clothing stores, bakeries, butcher shops, spice shops, etc. Occasionally, some merchants from outside the city set up stalls here.
Lafami City had specifically set up a public carriage stop here to facilitate residents’ travel.
As he walked past a corner and could already smell the complex odors of Logan Market, Siles happened to glance at a dimly lit shop at the corner.
At this moment, a rolling dice sound appeared in his mind.
[You need to make an Investigation check.]
[Investigation: 30/15, success.]
[You inadvertently discovered an antique bookstore. You believe you can obtain some useful information from here.]
