"Jiang Huan!"
This wasn't right!
Jiang Huan slowly turned his head, and a familiar figure stood by the shore.
It was his mother.
But that was impossible!
Jiang Huan's eyes turned bloodshot as he grabbed a hammer from his toolkit and hurled it at her.
No matter what kind of ghost or monster this was, impersonating his mother was crossing the line.
However, the hammer didn't strike anything solid; conversely, his "mother" vanished into thin air.
"Dammit!"
He was certain now—he was the one who was crazy!
Thinking carefully about it now, the original owner's death was likely caused by hallucinations as well, and the strangulation marks on the neck were probably self-inflicted!
The sea monster must have been fake, but what about the mermaids?
He recalled that Captain Crowley and the others hadn't given a straight answer regarding the mermaids.
As he reminisced, more of the original owner's memories began to intertwine with his own.
Jiang Huan stood frozen on the spot, his mind completely stalled.
"Am I Elias, or am I Jiang Huan?"
After a long time, he snapped back to reality, feeling as if he had just woken from a long, vivid dream.
"I am Jiang Huan,"
he muttered to himself.
"Don't even think about erasing me!"
"You either stay quietly in my head..."
"Or we both die together!"
There was no response.
It was just that the memories of the two had completely fused together.
This caused Jiang Huan, who had wanted to try escaping in the skiff again, to calm down.
The safest course of action was actually to wait for the next supply ship.
According to his memories, supplies arrived once a month.
Personnel rotations happened every two months.
"Once I get out of here safely, I'll go visit Arthur and Charlotte. I won't cause trouble for your family."
"For now, I'm borrowing your identity!"
As if reaching a pact, Jiang Huan—or rather, Elias—turned and walked into the hut.
He first organized the new supplies, then used a broom to fork that writhing mass of matter out of the house.
Next, he used an oil can to scoop some grease from a barrel, poured it over the unknown object, and set it ablaze.
The moment the flame touched the grease, an incredibly bright flash of fire erupted.
It nearly blinded him.
This is a damn flashbang!
Elias thought to himself, 'How was a country boy like me supposed to know about stuff like this?'
This grease was definitely not normal fuel.
For the rest of the afternoon, Elias inspected and cleaned the room while sitting at the wooden table to organize the original owner's memories.
Generally speaking, it was the story of a bright-eyed, penniless college student who had been tricked by an unscrupulous company into doing hard labor in a metaphorical black coal mine.
The lad had come here all cheerful, and because he was lonely, he even started keeping a diary.
Seriously, who in their right mind keeps a diary?
Sure enough, for some unknown reason, he began to hallucinate, hearing things he shouldn't hear and seeing things he shouldn't see.
He didn't dare recall that part again; he skipped over it for now.
Then he went mad. Hearing strange scratching sounds at the door at night, he had frantically tried to use the company-issued revolver for self-defense.
But a revolver was still too advanced for him in this era, which resulted in the gun and bullets being scattered on the floor.
During that time, he had attempted to slit his wrists with a dagger but lacked the courage.
Ultimately, he decided to flee using the small boat used for inspecting buoys, but he hallucinated at sea and strangled himself.
Elias scribbled in a notebook, putting a question mark next to the cause of the madness, circling the sea, and writing down the two peculiar names he had encountered today: Mother Goddess of Destiny and Lord of the Raging Sea.
These were the honorary titles of two deities. Given the eldritch horrors he had personally experienced, this world likely contained something supernatural.
According to Elias's own memories, there were seven such gods in this world:
The Dawn Lady, who was also the national faith of the Kingdom of Velen, symbolizing the sun, justice, and order.
The Goddess of Magic, who legend said was the goddess of mystery and magic, appearing in children's books.
The God of Alchemy and Craftsmen, the symbol of knowledge and human creativity.
The Mother Goddess of Destiny, synonymous with birth and death.
The Lord of the Raging Sea, representing the ocean, storms, and judgment.
The Dragon of Eternity, who was the guardian deity of warriors in ancient legends.
The Three-Phase Moon, symbolizing the three lunar phases.
There was no more memory of supernatural information beyond that.
This also indicated that the original owner was just an ordinary person.
However, that old man Crowley definitely knew something; he practically had the words "ask me" carved into the wrinkles on his face.
If he lived until a month from now, he hoped that old fellow could answer some of his questions.
Outside the window, the sky began to darken.
Luckily, the hallucinations did not reappear.
Elias planned to go back into the lighthouse to study it properly and familiarize himself with the job.
In his memory, the keeper's daily tasks were as follows:
Ensure the tower light remains lit all day and wind up the rotating platform at the top.
Patrol the sea daily, checking the buoys around the lighthouse to ensure each one flashes after sunset.
If a ship is wrecked, it's best to pray it happens during the day; otherwise, no rescue will be provided.
Record a lighthouse log every day, documenting weather, ship movements, maintenance work, and supply consumption.
It seemed simple, which explained how the poor kid was tricked.
Don't be fooled by there being only four tasks; the first one seemed contradictory to Elias.
Since supplies only came once a month, shouldn't they be saving lamp oil?
Why did they need to ensure the tower light remained lit all day?
The third rule was also eerie, but considering how abnormal this world was, he figured it was better to follow them.
Entering the tower, he looked up to see the winding, spiral staircase leading all the way to the small light at the top.
He set down his kerosene lamp and felt the cold touch against his waist, which put his mind at ease.
Having a gun really made a difference, even if it was just an early single-action revolver.
Fortunately, he had quite a few hobbies in his previous life and had bought an alloy toy version to fiddle with, so he knew how to use it proficiently.
The lighthouse keeper's code was posted near the entrance, and it was mostly consistent with Elias's memories.
However, beneath the fourth rule, a line of small, crooked words had been carved:
Do not sleep at night! Do not sleep! DO NOT SLEEP!!!
This seemed to have been left by a previous lighthouse keeper.
He didn't remember this rule being there.
Perhaps Elias hadn't observed closely enough; after all, the carvings were shallow and hard to notice in the dim light.
Heh, he was still too young...
The appearance of the hallucinations might be linked to this somehow.
Climbing to the top of the tower, the lens cover carried the bright white fire as it slowly rotated on the platform.
The strange glass material of the lens seemed capable of dampening the blinding effect of the flames on the human eye.
A section of metal stairs led to where the main lamp was located.
Beside it was an oil storage tank connected by pipes to the main lamp, with a funnel-like structure on top for easy refueling.
From here, Elias could see the buoys flickering slightly on the sea below, forming a line of flashing lights.
And of course, there was the distant coastline, where a port was situated.
In his memory, that place was called Hastings Port, the nearest port to this location.
There was a table at the top of the tower with a hand-drawn map on it, roughly marking the range of buoys this tower was responsible for along with some abstract hand-drawn landmarks.
Elias wound up the rotating platform connected to the main lamp. This kind of mechanical structure was something he had only seen in music boxes, alloy frogs, and mechanical watches in his previous life.
This one was just larger, fitting his impression of this era.
Suddenly, he noticed a strange symbol drawn on the map where the lighthouse was marked, located at the base of the tower.
He blinked, and it vanished.
Another hallucination?
Or was some supernatural power at work?
Should he be curious?
When he arrived, he had walked around the base of the tower and hadn't seen anything unusual.
Could it be on the inside?
Time for a gamble!
He had the "Truth" in his hand now, and besides, anyone who had to resort to this kind of method to harm people probably wasn't that powerful.
Powerful entities usually just whispered a few words in your head...
And then you'd vomit tentacles.
No, no, no, don't think about it, don't think about it...
Elias suppressed his racing thoughts and returned to the first floor with his kerosene lamp, beginning a thorough search.
The lighthouse's oil barrels were piled up here, greatly obstructing his vision.
Finally, beneath the stairs, Elias saw a corner of a trapdoor covered in various junk and draped in spiderwebs.
After a simple cleanup, he struggled to push the door open and followed the stairs down. A stale, musty smell wafted up from below.
He didn't know if it was because it smelled so foul, but Elias felt his mind become a bit clearer.
This was a basement, filled with the mummified remains of various dead things—rats and lizards.
The layout was simple: a bookshelf, a desk and chair, and a mummified corpse sitting atop it.
Elias drew his gun, terrified the thing would come back to life.
After all, the corpse's posture was very strange; it maintained a meditative pose, but its head was tilted toward the air.
He cautiously approached the desk, where a book lay: "The Moon Bay Chronicle".
The area where the lighthouse was located was known as Moon Bay.
Beneath it was a piece of yellowed paper.
The top line reads:
Spirit Vision Potion — Part 1
Rate on N.U.
