Edward froze for a moment, not quite understanding what He meant.
"What?"
"That…is a very, very long story."
He looked through the carriage window at the boundless stretch of water outside, then continued, "As you've already guessed, I'm a transmigrator. The first world I crossed into was Harry Potter. Only later did I inexplicably arrive in Lord of the Mysteries."
Edward's heart abruptly skipped a beat.
"Hahaha, getting déjà vu?" He said with a squinting smile. "That's right—your situation is almost the same. Except now you know the truth: from beginning to end, you were always in the world of Lord of the Mysteries. You never entered the real Harry Potter world."
"When I first transmigrated into the Harry Potter world, I was already seventeen. I was long past the age to attend a magic school. If it weren't for the fact that Hermione happened to live in the same neighbourhood, I might've gone to my grave thinking it was nothing more than an ordinary 1990s Britain."
"So naturally, I was unwilling. I had arrived in Harry Potter—not learning magic would be like going to Naruto and refusing to learn ninjutsu, or entering One Piece and not learning Haki. So, relying on my knowledge of the original story, I loitered at the entrance of Diagon Alley for a long time. At last, I encountered a wizard. I closed my eyes and slipped into the Leaky Cauldron behind him."
"Then my 'cheat' activated…though it wasn't really a cheat. My magical power simply awakened, granting me the possibility of learning magic. But as I said, I had already missed the age for school. If I wanted to study magic, I would have to rely entirely on myself."
"And the first step was getting enough wizarding currency to purchase books, a wand, and other necessities. Just as I was racking my brain over how to make money, I spotted Gilderoy Lockhart at a book signing—and inspiration struck. I decided to plagiarise books. Perhaps due to the awakening of my magic, my memory had become exceptionally sharp."
He propped his chin on his hand and gave a pitiful smile. "Forgive me. Before transmigrating, I was just an ordinary university student. Other than having read a lot, I really couldn't think of any other way to make money."
"Skipping the details—my book became mildly popular, and I quickly earned enough Galleons. After that, my self-taught magic progressed smoothly. Just a single year of studying gave me magical prowess stronger than most Aurors."
"At that point, I got lazy. After all, I learned magic only because I wanted extraordinary abilities. I had no ambition. Instead of getting dragged into the game between Dumbledore and Voldemort, why not lie flat, make money, and wait for the timeline to develop until the era I originally came from? Then I could watch videos, binge shows, and play games in different places every day."
"Of course, whenever I heard occasional news about Voldemort throwing the British wizarding world into chaos, I did consider—briefly—whether I should jump out like the protagonist of a typical novel, punch Voldemort, kick the Ministry of Magic aside, and replace Dumbledore as the strongest wizard."
"But every time I thought about it, I felt it was a far better use of my time to sunbathe on a beach in Hawaii…so laziness won again."
As He spoke, He seemed to drift into pleasant memories. "After that, I copied Lord of the Mysteries."
Edward's attention sharpened, listening even more intently.
"When I finished writing the entire book, news reached me that Dumbledore had died. I couldn't help sighing. Wizards in Harry Potter might have resilient bodies, but they still aged and eventually died. And alchemical items like the Philosopher's Stone granted only a false immortality. So I lamented at the time—if only I had transmigrated into Lord of the Mysteries, achieving true immortality would be so much easier."
"Then something miraculous happened. In a moment of haziness, I arrived in the world of Lord of the Mysteries—in the era when the Ancient Sun God was brutally beating down the Ancient Gods during the Third Epoch."
He leaned back, fingers interlacing. "And this time, I truly gained an overpowered cheat. Upon arrival, I possessed divine authority—power that corresponded to the 'Heart' or 'Emotional' aspect from the Harry Potter world. The power of 'I will, therefore it is…', similar to the Visionary pathway, but even more abstract, even more aligned with causal effects. So long as I had sufficient imagination, I could even go head-to-head with a Pillar as a Sequence 0."
"But that wasn't a good thing—because the consciousness of the Original Creator began to revive within me."
Edward had heard parts of this from the Ancient Sun God.
"To survive, to resist the Oldest One's consciousness, I quickly devised a plan—and swiftly reached a cooperation with the Ancient Sun God."
"I planned to reverse-engineer an entirely new Beyonder pathway based on the authorities I possessed—one that circumvented the original formation of the pathways in the LoTM world. Using the Harry Potter 'I will…' power, I intended to completely 'digest' the Original Creator's consciousness and take its place."
After listening to this long explanation, Edward finally spoke. "So…did you succeed?"
"Mm."
He rolled His eyes. "You are the last person qualified to ask that question."
"???"
"No, seriously—do you really not understand, or are you just pretending?"
With arms crossed, He huffed, "My plan failed from the very beginning, didn't it? The pathway I meticulously crafted for myself, the script I wrote for myself…suddenly got taken away by someone else who popped up out of nowhere. Guess who that person was?"
Edward: "…"
After several seconds of silence, he frowned. "But why would that happen? I don't have that kind of ability."
The "Creator"–conductor replied, "It's very simple. As a reader of Lord of the Mysteries, the moment you transmigrated into the LoTM world, you became like me—you automatically obtained an extremely high level of existence. But the 'quota' for obtaining such a high status might be limited. Since I occupied it first, all you could become was an ordinary person."
"Later, when I fell asleep to fight the Oldest One's consciousness, due to the law of convergence of Beyonder characteristics…everything I had prepared for myself simply drifted over to you, unknowingly, naturally."
"By the time I realised it, it was too late."
Edward was stunned. He had considered many possibilities for the truth behind everything, but this was not one he had ever imagined.
Still, he asked with confusion, "Why would it be too late? You should be able to forcibly strip away everything I possess at any time, right? Don't tell me you stopped because doing so would kill me—and you felt soft-hearted?"
"Of course not."
He shook His head. "In fact, the reason you first transmigrated and became amnestic—a complete fool who remembered nothing—was because of me."
Edward froze. "…What do you mean?"
"Heh. Did you really think you transmigrated only three years ago? You didn't. You've been in this world for seventeen years. It's just that for the first fourteen of those, you were mad and witless, with no memories at all."
Fuc—
So that was how it was.
If he had learned this at any other time, the shock would have been enormous. But compared to everything this "Creator" had just revealed…it suddenly felt rather minor.
Edward took a deep breath. "Then why did you stop afterwards?"
"Because I suddenly realised I had overestimated myself—and underestimated the difficulty of digesting the Oldest One's consciousness and replacing it. Even if everything went according to the original plan, the best possible outcome would have been similar to the ending of the original LoTM—like Klein and Celestial Worthy, the two consciousnesses stuck in deadlock, falling into slumber."
"But the Oldest One and Celestial Worthy are completely different. Celestial Worthy has consciousness and rationality. He has clear goals, weaknesses. But the 'Oldest One'…it's more like the Heavenly Dao in xianxia novels."
"All of Its actions are purely instinctive. Whether merging with others, creating offspring, or splitting apart everything—it is all instinct. I couldn't fight for power while simultaneously wrestling with Its consciousness."
He then turned to Edward with a smile. "And that's where your appearance introduced a turning point. What was originally my solo battle became a two-person cooperation."
"I would handle resisting the Oldest One's consciousness. You would seize the Oldest One's authority and power. In the end, you would defeat Its consciousness and restore my freedom."
"And what do we call this? Two transmigrators teaming up to beat down the local 'Heavenly Dao'."
With that, He raised a hand toward Edward. "So? Not bad, right?"
Edward's mind buzzed. For a moment, he had no idea how to respond.
The "Creator" had said so much—smoothly, confidently, and logically. But Edward couldn't simply trust Him blindly. Who knew how many parts were true?
Yet the other party was a being who wielded both the Chaos Sea and the River of Eternal Darkness—someone even the Ancient Sun God treated as an equal collaborator. If He had really wanted to do something to Edward, He wouldn't need a convoluted story.
Instinctively, Edward wanted to divine the truth—but the moment he considered the other's level of existence, he immediately abandoned that foolish idea.
Just then, the "Creator" shook His raised hand.
"Hey. If you don't high-five me, it makes me look really stupid right now."
"…"
Edward sighed and lifted his own hand to meet His.
Clap.
"Good. Now that's the truth behind everything you wanted to know."
Satisfied, He lowered His hand and continued, "The first two times we 'met', one time I erased your memories, and the other I didn't say much. That was simply because the timing wasn't right. But now that you've nearly ascended to Sequence 1 and only half a step remains, the timing is finally perfect."
"Because the dawn of success is already within sight."
Edward asked in confusion, "But the ritual for ascending to Sequence 1 is 'constructing a real, complete world'. So far, I don't have any great ideas for that. Do you have any suggestions?"
The "Creator" stood up, laughing. "Why do you think I created the Harry Potter world? Yes, the fundamental purpose was to use the Harry Potter 'I will…' authority to seize the Original Creator's power. But it was also to complete the ritual for your Sequence 1."
"But…that world isn't mine…"
"Now…it is."
"???"
He waved His hand and smiled faintly. "Just now. At the moment we high-fived."
———
[Note]: Don't forget to VOTE. It keeps me motivated.