When Linnard regained consciousness, he felt weak as if the thick sea water was wrapping around his ankle.

In his vast mind, he seemed to be under a thousand abyss, and seemed to be pressed by tens of thousands of tons of sea water.

And in this dark and gloomy seabed, there are countless abominable and strange beings lurking around Linnard, like vultures waiting for a dying person, refusing to leave, just waiting for him to show fatigue, then

You have to swarm him and eat him.

"The ankle...cannot move"

"Wrist...cannot move"

Most of his body's mobility was lost, and his nose was filled with a strong smell of blood. He felt as if he was at a large cult sacrifice site, and he was the unlucky guy who was about to be sacrificed to the evil god.

Put away most of your thoughts, focus all your energy on your eyelids, and imagine that you are pushing open a huge door that is as heavy as a stone.

Accompanied by a soft and unheard moan, his eyelids trembled for a few times and slowly opened.

What caught the eye was a ray of moonlight as white as snow, which slanted in from the window and hit the mirror on the right. The silvery white reflected back illuminated the room dimly and brightly.

"Judging from my posture, I seem to be lying on the desk..."

Linard, who had taken over his body again, silently felt the joyful beating of the nerves all over his body, similar to a limb regaining consciousness after being paralyzed due to lack of oxygen for a long time. This same feeling happened all over his body, even on his scalp.

There were waves of surges.

"The wooden desk has traces of long-term use. Judging from the aroma and wood grain, it seems to be mahogany or teak. It has an oily hardness and is fine and tight. The only problem is that it cannot suddenly appear in my study."

Some judgments flashed subconsciously in Linnard's mind, and he raised his eyes to look at his left wrist, which was the culprit that caused him to be so weak.

The left hand was pale and weak. Judging from the hand bones, it belonged to an adult man of about 20 years old. The wrist was hidden in a sleeve of black natural fiber fabric. A hideous bloody wound was firmly attached to the wrist, and blood was gushing out.

Against gravity, he rushed towards the palm of his left hand.

The palm of my hand felt extremely moist, and at the same time, I felt something hard clattering. I turned my palm over and saw a pocket watch with a simple shape that seemed to be extremely ancient, lying there quietly.

The blood seemed to be the connecting line between the pocket watch and the wound on the wrist. The pocket watch greedily sucked Linard's blood insatiably. However, when Linard's eyes came over, it was like a thief caught by its owner, quietly

Changed the flow of blood and began to transfuse blood towards the wound.

Blood flowed continuously into the wound where Linard cut his wrist, and the feeling of weakness and decadence that spread throughout his body seemed to be shedding skin, going down from the top of his head and gradually disappearing.

Seeing a scene that went against scientific common sense, Linnard looked at the pocket watch in his hand with a blank expression.

Its material is different from common pocket watches. Even with Linard's knowledge, he is unable to determine the specific material it is made of. He can only roughly conclude that this pocket watch cannot be related to any material known to human civilization.

The relationship, just looking at it, gives people a terrible, unreachable terror. The whole thing seems amorphous, flashing with rainbow light from time to time, and the cover of the watch grows scales, which are slippery and smelly. However, if you look closely, you can see that

It seems like it's just an illusion.

Lynard didn't know where the blood it sucked was stored, nor where the blood it flowed from. In just tens of seconds, his wrist was full of blood, and even the scars squirmed a few times and slowly faded until they disappeared.

He closed his eyes slightly, searched his thoughts, and accurately recalled everything he had experienced from three days ago to the last time he closed his eyes. He confirmed that he did not have any amnesia or madness. Then he put away his pocket watch and stood up to pace.

Go to the half-length mirror hanging on the wall next to the desk.

"The size is about 100*45 centimeters. Judging from the usage scene, his owner pays great attention to appearance and has narcissistic tendencies. The frame is made of wooden material with gold foil and engraved with floral patterns. It is a handmade product. The construction technology is mercury mirror. 19

Works from the early part of the century.”

The analysis of this mirror flashed in his mind, and Linard saw himself clearly in the mirror.

He has black hair and black eyes. He looks very delicate and slightly bookish, but his facial features are deeper than those of traditional Asians, similar to those of mixed Asian and European descent, and have nothing to do with his original face.

Stroking his face to make sure there were no signs of surgery, he quickly looked around and scanned the surrounding environment.

"Leather hand-cut sofa...birds and beasts, angels and fruits, typical Byzantine style...Judging from the wear and tear on the hidden drawers, it shows a high degree of use."

"Greek Ionic columns...printed pattern carpets...parquet floors, stained glass, romantic and artistic, wealthy families."

"But it lacks some cultural flavor, and few people will match it like this."

"Victorian, Persian, Greek style... In other words, I have traveled through time." Linard closed his eyes and tapped his temple with his right index finger: "19th century Europe? A private detective?"

He "saw" a young man dressed the same as himself, holding a notebook in his hand, lying comfortably on the sofa, listening carefully to the explanation of the person opposite him, and taking a few puffs of his pipe from time to time. The smoke continued to rise, browning the kerosene lampshade above.

"No, the body shape doesn't match."

The young man's height and weight continue to change until they match the depression in the center of the sofa.

"So, I'm a lunatic who went to someone else's detective agency to commit suicide for no reason?"

He opened his eyes, recalled how to operate a kerosene lamp, and lit the kerosene lamp on the cabinet next to the sofa. The orange light replaced the darkness in the blink of an eye, and his pupils flickered a few times to adapt to the light.

A mural is hanging quietly behind the desk. The man in the mural looks to be in his fifties. His wise eyes make him look full of fighting spirit. His slightly red nose reveals his alcohol addiction. The most conspicuous thing is

The checkered deerstalker hat and the pipe in his hand show that he is the owner of the detective agency.

Linard compared the face and skeleton of the person in the mural with the image in the mirror in his mind, and came to the conclusion that the two people were related by blood for no more than two generations.

"Father? Uncle?"

He and the man in the mural looked at each other and returned to the desk. A gray and black suitcase was lying quietly next to the wooden chair. There was no doubt that it belonged to him.

Opening the box, there were a few changes of clothes, a letter, and nothing else.

Opening the letter and sniffing the pages, Linnard could not determine the source. When he looked closely, he found that words like earthworms were spread all over it, making it impossible to decipher. He could only confirm that it did not belong to any language he knew.

At this time, the pocket watch in his coat pocket became inexplicably hot. Linnard felt that it seemed to be squirming. There were whispers in his ears, and the words in his eyes were changing. When it stabilized, he suddenly understood the meaning.

mean.

"Lynard, my nephew, I'm dying."

After seeing the first sentence and knowing his own name, he not only understood the words, but also saw the great fear and incomprehensible madness contained in the words.

"I, Eisenhower Alfred, have been chasing the truth hidden in the darkness all my life. However, when I was really exposed to the truth, I found that the greatest mercy the world has given to mankind is ignorance. Those (here

Blackened and difficult to read) You are right. The place where we live is a peaceful island in the endless vastness. This is a gift from God. The endless black mist is the last barrier to protect us. Anyone who wants to explore the truth outside the black mist

Human beings in the world will be irrigated by fungi-like knowledge. Those knowledge are so ugly that they are parasitic on my body. Every day I can feel myself being covered, layer by layer, layer by layer...

cover."

As Lynard Alfred described the words, he seemed to vaguely realize his uncle's indescribable pain. He only felt that the color of the words in the book was darker and lighter, and the strokes of the words were also thicker and thinner.

"Now that things have happened, even if I regret, I can't change anything. I know that my death is approaching, and I don't have any children. The only one I can think of is you, my nephew."

"I will change all the heirs of the detective agency and property under my name to you. I hope you can handle them properly. There is also a box in my desk. Remember, remember, remember!!!"

At this point, the text suddenly became extremely trembling, and one could see the strong fear in the heart of the person holding the pen. He seemed to be taking several breaths of air, and his heart was racing to the limit.

"Don't open that box, don't touch...that pocket watch!!"

"Don't pay attention to them... don't look at them... don't listen to them... don't smell them... they're coming... Lai..."

Lynard looked at the letter his uncle had written to him and noticed keenly that he used "he" instead of "it" here.

The letter came to an abrupt end here, as if a person who wanted to say thousands of words suddenly lost his ability to speak. The words were stuck in his throat, and the words jumped out one after another, but the pronunciation was mixed and he could only spit out indistinct words.

The whining sound was like the barking of wild dogs in a mass grave.

"You didn't choose to deal with it yourself, but specifically reminded your nephew in the letter not to touch it? Obviously, he went against your wishes."

After sorting out the relationship between the characters, Lynard closed the letter, looked at the desk, and found that the drawer was indeed open, with a brass key inserted in it, and a metal box inside.

His thoughts flashed quickly and he picked up the metal box. There was no pocket watch in it because it was inserted in his coat pocket.

The space in the box is very deep and wide, but only a few briefing papers and manuscripts are scattered at the bottom. All the papers are yellowed and look like they have been there for some time.

Without looking at the information in the box first, Linnard took out the pocket watch from his pocket and observed it carefully.

He had already looked at the front of the pocket watch. After looking at it and finding that there was no change, he turned the pocket watch over and looked at the back - it was the same as the front, except that there was an extra line of small fonts engraved on it, which he could now identify.

"Even if you are not dead, you will sleep forever, and your life span will come to an end."

Opening the cover of the watch, unlike traditional pocket watches, there is no time display or decoration related to time. A strange relief takes up all the space. It looks like a head and tail with sharp points.

The unknown creature curled up in a ball, with its head and tail connected, and its body looked a bit like an alien shape. Its thick bones and sharp spines were squeezed together, making it impossible to recognize its original appearance.

Staring at the relief, Linnard suddenly felt an unusual itching all over his body, and his skin seemed to be cracking. In his mind, he imagined walking in a damp and degenerate cave, surrounded by darkness, the air full of dust, and walking through the caves filled with dust.

The murmuring cave wall leads to a deep, pitch-black pool. The water is bottomless. There is a head of a deformed and strange creature floating in the water. The space under this pool is endless. Even with the size of this strange creature, which is as huge as a mountain, it is only a mere

It occupies very little space.

The part of the monster's head above the water was filled with moist mucus and was extremely elastic. Linnard felt like he was touching its surface skin. It felt like the surface of a rubber ball was covered with glue and then moistened, one after another of 20 centimeters.

Thick tentacles stretched out from the monster's face, wrapped around Linnard, and in the next second would drag him into the bottomless abyss, where he would never see the light of day.

"Click... click."

The sound of the door lock woke up Linnard. He subconsciously looked up to the living room and listened attentively.

"Two...three adults, walking in neat steps, showing signs of training and the sound of firearms."
Chapter completed!