Chapter 2: Lynn Sotos

"Who the hell is this!"

Lynn couldn't find words to describe what he was seeing, as everything in front of him defied his worldview.

Even though he had mentally prepared himself upon seeing the monster's corpse, Lynn was still deeply shocked.

It was at this moment, perhaps due to a delay or triggered by some keyword, that shattered memories and vast amounts of information flooded Lynn's mind, causing unbearable pain. With the influx of this information, Lynn finally understood what was going on.

He had indeed crossed over again, and he had gained the ability to project avatars into different timelines. Currently, he was inhabiting his secondary avatar, lying atop the monster's corpse.

The avatars seemed to be randomly generated, but each one had a complete background.

Moreover, as long as Lynn had avatars alive, even if his primary avatar died, he could transfer the surviving avatars into secondary avatars. However, this came at a great cost, so it was best not to switch primary avatars unless absolutely necessary.

Lynn's current primary avatar was named Lynn Sotos, a somewhat famous detective in the Loen Kingdom's Becklund region.

But this was just the surface identity. Lynn Sotos was actually a Sequence 9 Mystery Pryer, possessing extraordinary powers, a member of the secretive organization known as the Moses Ascetic Order, and also an informant for the Evernight Church's NightHawk squad.

Lynn found himself in this situation because he accidentally discovered that his colleague, Zerel Victor Lee, was suspected of being a spy from the Feysac Empire. To confirm this, Lynn conducted a thorough investigation, only to later discover that Zerel Victor Lee seemed to know clues about the Turani von Helmosuin's manuscript.

Out of curiosity, Lynn chose not to immediately report this to the Evernight Church or the Moses Ascetic Order but instead decided to investigate further on his own.

Then, Lynn was discovered by members of the Bakarland Party who were also monitoring Detective Zerel. They ruthlessly silenced him.

Lynn: ... Is it you, Ambassador of Five Pounds?

A little bit of sarcasm, but I don't know how to be sarcastic.

Lynn had read Lord of Mysteries.

Before crossing over to the Conan world, Lynn had never left the underground base where he was raised. He didn't know whether to call it a laboratory, a shelter, or a cage. A man raised, taught, and protected him there. Although Lynn never left the base, he was allowed to use the internet, which helped him learn about the outside world through books, novels, anime, and movies.

Later, Lynn crossed over and became a classmate of Kudo Shinichi. After the "washing machine" incident, he turned into Conan, went to high school many times, experienced thousands of murder cases, infiltrated a distillery, learned new skills, and stole money. He helped the Red Side destroy the Black Organization. Despite all this, his perfect memory still vividly recalled Lord of Mysteries.

Lynn knew exactly how dangerous and crazy this world was.

"But even though the Conan world doesn't have mysterious powers, except for Kid's tricks, it's still not safe for ordinary people..." Lynn commented sarcastically. As someone who knew the "washing machine" well, he felt he had the right to speak on this matter.

During his high school years, Lynn witnessed many bizarre deaths and often felt he might become one of Conan's cases.

"Maybe I've already become a case. Otherwise, why would I leave the Conan world?" Lynn muttered, deciding to stop dwelling on this sad thought and focus on his current situation.

Although his primary experience was worth mocking, as long as he didn't seek out trouble, Lynn's current situation was relatively safe. At worst, he could seek refuge with the Evernight Church or flee Becklund overnight.

But the situation with Avatar No. 1 was more complicated.

Whether it was fortunate or unfortunate, Lynn's first avatar was born as an angel and became a Sage on Sequence 2 of the Mystery Pryer Pathway.

As a result, Avatar No. 1 naturally had divinity. Lynn had just been affected by the backlash of having divinity, and although he broke free afterward, it didn't mean he could ignore its influence.

In the short term, Lynn was indeed able to resist the divinity inherent in Avatar No. 1 for unknown reasons. However, if he remained in it for too long, Lynn would inevitably be assimilated and contaminated by the divinity it possessed.

In addition, Lynn's main body could borrow the power of Avatar No. 1 to a certain extent, but this would lead to severe divine corruption. The more power Lynn borrowed, the greater the impact he would receive. If Lynn directly used the angel-level power borrowing for his main body, he would most likely go crazy.

"But that doesn't mean this avatar is useless, it just means I need a psychologist..." Lynn muttered silently.

As everyone knows, the Spectator pathway is the best psychologist and can also alleviate the divinity and madness of others to a certain extent. In the original work, Klein had sought treatment from Miss Justice several times to stabilize his humanity and regulate his madness.

And if Lynn could find a reliable psychologist to treat him, even if he couldn't solve the problem directly from the root, as long as he could heal the divine contamination Lynn encountered after controlling Avatar No. 1 each time and alleviate the aftereffects, Lynn would naturally be able to slowly allow Avatar No. 1 to establish his own beliefs, find other "doctors," and thus restore his humanity and rid himself of madness.

By then, Avatar No. 1 would be his true ace and external plug-in, rather than a time bomb.

But the existence that could alleviate this degree of psychological problems... Lynn's mind was already calling out several names, but he forcefully stopped himself.

No, I can't think about it!

Direct thinking will definitely be sensed. I can only... Lynn's eyes flickered as he restrained his thoughts while simultaneously extending a portion of his consciousness to Avatar No. 1.

The more you understand him, the more he understands you; this is the characteristic of high-level Spectators.

What Lynn was doing now was actually imitating Klein's method of dealing with 0-08.

Klein used the Sefirot to shield 0-08's perception, He thought about the plan involving 0-08 and Ince in the Sefirah Castle. After being released from the Sefirah Castle, he simply followed orders without thinking about the plan, thus deceiving 0-08.

This also showed that the perception of other people's thoughts without any connections by high-level Spectators was indeed restricted. Only thoughts explicitly related to them would be perceived.

Although Lynn didn't have a Sefirot, his secondary avatar was in another timeline, and while both avatars were under his control, their thoughts could to some extent be separated. This meant that Lynn could likely copy Klein's method.

(End of this chapter)