Volume 7 The Inverted Man Chapter 1 This Night

　　Late at night, the clanging and clanging of doors and windows opening roused Wendell from his deep slumber and alertly rolled out of bed and looked around.

　　What on earth had happened? Utopia had been hit by a mega-storm? Wendell, who hadn’t slept well for a few days, had managed to get into a deep sleep, but had to get up, his thoughts still a bit frozen for a moment, and the whole thing looking rather dazed.

　　He immediately realized that there was no wind blowing in at the wide-open window, nor was there any rain drifting in, so it was as if he had opened it while sleepwalking in order to get a breath of fresh air.

　　Wendell was suddenly reminded of the extraordinary events he had experienced and learned about through the dossier, and of the fear of the unknown that had ruled his mind.

　　He didn’t know what was coming next, and he couldn’t guess what would happen to him, and a chill ran down his back, and a shiver ran down his spine.

　　Just then he heard a clamor outside the door, and a variety of voices penetrated his ears.

　　There was the sound of stomping and running, the sound of judgment on certain behaviors, the sound of modifications to the current order, and the sound of undisguised shouting:

　　”An anomaly has appeared in the underground portion of the seal!”

　　”Raise the level of alert!”

　　An underground partial seal? “What is sealed under the ground of the Iris Hotel? Amazed and confused, Wendel couldn’t help but walk to the door and look around.

　　He then saw his not-so-familiar but barely recognizable MI9 colleagues, and Colonel Hugh Dilchar, who was on duty tonight.

　　MI9 found Utopia through me? To deal with the anomaly here? Wendell had just flashed that thought before he subconsciously frowned.

　　He noticed that the corridor outside was very different from the Iris: there were not only gas wall lamps on both sides, but also classical lampstands; the floors were very well-maintained and shiny; and the height of the floor was more than three meters. ……

　　This …… is not the Hotel Iris …… Wendel turned sharply and re-examined the room he was in.

　　He quickly recognized that this is his own sleeping room in the headquarters of MI9, the suitcase is quietly placed in the corner, there is no sign of movement.

　　Wendell remembered very clearly that he had traveled to Utopia through that lavatory in the room, and hadn’t been too sure of himself beforehand, so he hadn’t brought any luggage at all, and had only taken the piece of paperwork that came from the Utopia Magistrate’s Court.

　　Stomp! He ran quickly to the window and looked out.

　　What met his eyes was the garden and the lawn that belonged to the headquarters of MI9.

　　Me, I’m back in Birkeland? Or, I didn’t return to Utopia at all, and I was just too tired to fall asleep and had a dream just now? Wendell walked blankly back to the bed and sat down.

　　After an interval of ten seconds or so, he suddenly leapt up and picked up his jacket from the floor.

　　Then he saw the utopian court papers that should have been kept inside the drawer lying quietly in the inside pocket of the jacket.

　　Wendell fell silent, as if he had become a statue.

　　……

　　Monica, the travel columnist, likewise awoke to the commotion of the window and the door slamming against the wall.

　　She sat up with a start and pulled the covers up over her chest.

　　Her first thought was that a robber had broken into the hotel, and she was about to scream and call the police.

　　But for the next ten or twenty seconds, Monica heard no footsteps enter her room at all, except that more and more people seemed to be gathering in the hallway:

　　”What’s happening?”

　　”Doesn’t look like a storm ……”

　　”Did someone pull a prank?”

　　”Damn clown, if I knew who it was I’d kick his ass!”

　　……

　　The discussion was a flurry of voices, interspersed with all sorts of curses.

　　Monica didn’t think anything of it at first, but instead followed the words of the crowd outside and thought seriously about the cause of this strange event, wanting to write it down in her travelogue.

　　But as she listened, she gradually realized that something was wrong:

　　Utopia’s “Iris” hotel had so many guests!

　　She remembered very well that on her floor there were at most five rooms with guests, including hers.

　　At that moment, Monica thought of the ghost stories she had read and heard, and immediately had the feeling that there were ghosts outside the door.

　　She had stretched her feet toward the bed, ready to go out, to participate in the discussion, to get more details, to accumulate material for later writing, at this moment, brushing her feet back, the whole person shrunk into a ball, shivering.

　　Several seconds later, she heard a man speaking:

　　”I asked the innkeeper, and he said he wasn’t sure what had happened; perhaps, there was a brief storm just now.”

　　”All go back to your rooms and rest, lock the doors and windows, yawn, I have to get up early tomorrow to go to the Kingdom Museum.”

　　Kingdom Museum …… Monica froze for a moment.

　　As a travel writer and as a traveler who had spent a lot of time in Utopia, she knew of course that there was no Kingdom Museum here.

　　In the Kingdom of Ruin, a museum with such a title was bound to be in Berkland.

　　And it would still take many hours to travel from Utopia to Beckland by steam train, so even if one woke up early and got there, it would still be too late to make it to the Kingdom Museum before it closed.

　　Puzzled, Monica slowly lifted the covers and heard the sound of doors and windows closing one after the other.

　　She carefully got out of bed and made her way to the door.

　　In the process, she gradually got a better look at the room illuminated by the moonlight.

　　Hiss …… Monica almost screamed out.

　　This was not at all the guest room she had slept in before!

　　No matter the layout, or the arrangement, it was completely different!

　　The ghost stories that she had just remembered once again flooded into her mind, causing her legs to go weak and she was nearly unable to support herself.

　　Just as Monica’s teeth clashed and she made a sound of “gotta have it”, she saw a hotel business card on the table – it was prepared for the residents, so that when they went out, they could bring it with them and would not be unable to find their way back. Even if you can’t read, you can still use it to ask for directions.

　　Monica subconsciously moved closer and recognized the words on the card by moonlight:

　　Kalpensa Hotel, Bakerland West, 19 Monin Street.

　　Bakerland West …… Bakerland …… Monica s eyes widened for a moment, creating a feeling of time and space dislocation.

　　……

　　Inside a house with a fireplace in the Hilston neighborhood of Birkeland.

　　Forsyth heard the sound of a door or window clanging open, but didn’t wake up right away because she was caught up in a grotesque nightmare that she couldn’t break free from.

　　She dreamed that her teacher, Dorian Gray Abraham, was affected by the family seal and died a bloody death in front of her, that she mutated out of control and transformed into one astral bugbear after another that bent into the shape of a door and flew uncontrollably toward a door of flesh and blood, that the end was coming, and a raging tidal wave of blood flooded the entire world, and that the likes of Hugh and Gelman Sparrow were not spared… …

　　Finally, Voorhees shook off the dream and sat up, breathing heavily.

　　As a demigod, a former “astrologer” demigod, she knew what a dream like this was bound to mean, and was busy collecting her emotions and looking ahead.

　　In the bedroom, the convex belly window glass at some point completely opened.

　　There must be something happened …… and with the end of the day and the Abrahams family with the “Apprentice” pathway there is a certain relationship …… Forsyth murmured two sentences to himself, immediately got up, put on the cloak, ready to “teleportation”. The cloak, ready to “teleport” to the teacher, to confirm his safety.

　　This change makes her promotion to Sequence 3, or even Sequence 2, added a little sense of urgency.

　　–After learning about the end of the world from Mr. Fool and Gelman Sparrow of the World, Voorhees has been trying her best, but the “Secret Mage” potion is not something that can be used by a person who is a “secret mage”. But the “Secret Mage” magic potion could not be digested in a short time, and she was too embarrassed to ask her teacher for the “Wanderer” formula and materials without contributing anything.

　　Of course, if she wanted to, she could get it from Mr. Gate, but she had been warned beforehand, how could she be compelled?

　　In a flash, Voorhees disappeared into the room.

　　A few seconds later, she appeared in Dorian Gray Abraham’s quarters and saw her teacher sitting there, pressing on his heart, looking shocked.

　　”…… Need a potion?” Forsyth asked cautiously.

　　She had purchased some potions from Mr. Moon for old age.

　　Dorian took a deep breath and shook his head down:

　　”No need.”

　　Voorhees relaxed a bit:

　　”Teacher, I dreamed that you were experiencing the negative effects of the sealing object, ergo, the doors and windows around me also changed unnecessarily, so I came over to take a look.”

　　Dorian looked up at the cavernous window with a grave expression:

　　”Your dream wasn’t wrong, I nearly died just now, but at the most crucial moment, the seal took effect again ……”

　　Speaking here, he got up violently and said to Voorhees:

　　”Quickly! Take me somewhere else, I’m worried about other family members having accidents!”

　　Foerth didn’t hesitate and immediately grabbed his teacher’s arm and asked for the exact location.

　　Their figures quickly faded into transparency and disappeared.

　　After weaving through the color block layered light fog filled spirit world for several seconds, Voorhees and Dorian suddenly detached themselves from their current environment and landed in a place that looked suspiciously like a study room.

　　There were several people standing here, all of them members of the Abraham family who possessed different seals and could “travel”.

　　”Velos? What are you doing here?” Dorian asked offhandedly.

　　Velos and the others shook their heads at the same time, bewildered and terrified.

　　In the next second, uncountable bright starlight emerged from the void.

　　These starlights flew and coalesced together, transforming into one thing after another that fell to the ground.

　　There was a miniature door of starlight, a crystal ball held by a bugbear, a translucent, strangely styled key, and a sparkling fire that burned silently ……

　　For some reason, Dorian, Velos, and the others had one term after another popping up inside their heads:

　　Sequence 3 “Wanderer” Extraordinary Characteristics …… Sequence 4 “Secret Mage” Extraordinary Characteristics …… Sequence 1 “The Star Key trait, Sequence 2 The Traveling Mage trait ……

　　Moreover, these are not single copies, even the Sequence 1 “Star Key” extraordinary trait, there are two copies! In addition, the “Traveling Mage” reached three copies, and the rest more.

　　Several key members of the Abraham family and Forsyth opened their mouths a little bit and couldn’t close them for a long time.

　　When these extraordinary characteristics had finished falling, there was no longer any abnormality in the surroundings, and it became quiet.