The World Controlled By Dice Chapter 1

Translator: Endless Veil                  

Editor/Proofreader: NONE, so comment section

 

Chapter 1: The Antique Bookstore 

"Dear mum, I hope this letter finds you well."

"…I have been offered a position as a professor at the University of Lamifa, teaching the course History of Literature In and Before the Age of Silence. I have met my colleagues in the university, some of whom are my former professors, and they are all people who are nice and easy to get along with."

"..."

"...I hope you take care of your body."

Siles Noël sat at the desk with his eyes downcast, holding a feather pen in his hand as he wrote the contents of the letter he would send to his mother on the draft paper.

After a moment, he added a few more sentences: "The salary as a professor is enough for me to live in Lamifa" and "My current landlord, Mrs. Finn, is easy to get along with, but after school starts, I will move to the faculty dormitories provided by the university."

The contents of the letter have finally finalized, and Siles breathed a sigh of relief. He subconsciously looked up at the pocket watch beside him. It was already very late at night. The sound of raindrops could be heard outside the dirty and blurry window glass.

Siles stood up, walked to the window, and stared at the hazy night and flickering lights outside.

The past day had been a chaotic one for him.

At this time yesterday, he became Siles Noël, a research scholar who had just graduated from Lamifa University this year—conceptually similar to that of a graduate student on Earth. His major was Historical and Literary Studies.

Before he became Siles Noël, his name was He Jiayin, a novelist of considerable reputation on Earth.

While out on a trip with his friends, he got into an accident and died unexpectedly. When he opened his eyes, he appeared on the planet called "Fissure" and became a young male stranger.

Siles looked at the blurry visage reflected in the window glass.

He had black hair and black eyes, slightly pale skin, and a tall and thin figure. It was hard to tell how his appearance was, but when he was washing up this morning, Siles noticed from the mirror that this body had a handsome face with a deep look in his eyes, and a heavy and steady aura.

But still young. According to the memory of this body, he was only twenty-four years old.

He gained most of the original owner's memories, including his past experiences and all of his knowledge. This allowed him to successfully pass the recruitment test at Lamifa University this afternoon. However...

Siles' calm face suddenly twitched. He frowned slightly and turned his thoughts back to today's recruitment.

Although it looked very serious, from the written test to the interview, he was the only person participating in this recruitment from the beginning to the end, and the professors who interviewed him came and went in a hurry, as if it was only a formality.

Some colleagues from the School of Literature and History that he met later on also displayed very friendly and cordial attitudes.

…But how could a young student who had just graduated, who was only 24 years old, rise to the top and become a full time professor at the most prestigious university in the city of Lamifa?

It sounded a little unbelievable.

From what he had seen in the original owner's memory, he had graduated normally, step by step. He listened to his teachers and submitted his resume, and then he successfully got the position. Everything seemed to go too smoothly 

The previous owner of the body was a student at Lamifa University. During the interview process, Siles met several of his former professors. Judging from their actions, there seemed to be nothing strange about this matter. 

But Siles was deeply skeptical. 

He carefully included the question "Why was I able to become a professor" in his future investigation plans.

And he had many more investigation plans. 

For example, the geographical location of Lamifa City, his future living arrangements, and also, this world.

Last night, when he became Siles and received Siles' memories, he was surprised to realize that this world was very similar to the background setting of the role-playing game he had been playing with his friends before his death. 

It included the same city of Lamifa, the same apostate who defected and raised havoc in the city. He could even find a few slightly familiar figures from the original owner's memory, who looked very much like the character cards in the role-playing game. 

And then there was… 

Siles turned around and glanced at an object on his desk, placed next to the ink bottle. 

It was a dodecahedral die. 

Group runs were a type of tabletop role-playing game, similar to the murder mystery games popular among young people on Earth. But one of the great pleasures of running a group was the randomness brought by the dice.

In a tabletop role-playing game, players usually have a character card as their game character. The character card had three basic attributes, including physique, spirituality and willpower, as well as other different skills, including reconnaissance, psychology, mythology, etc.

During the game, the game's host was responsible for explaining the game settings and story progression to the players. He was also responsible for rolling the dice, informing the players of the results of the skill checks, and the impact of these skill checks on the subsequent story.

For example, if the perception attribute value of a character card was 25, and if the number rolled by the dice was 20, which was less than 25, then the skill check would considered a success, and the player would be able to uncover useful information.

On the other hand, if the dice rolled 30, which was greater than 25, then the investigation would fail and the player would not be able to find any clues through their investigations. They would ignore them even if the clues were right under their noses.

These types of uncertain skill check results would greatly affect the player's game progress. Some unlucky players may die inexplicably without finding any information during a group run. 

When Siles was playing the role-playing group game, he was the host of the game. His friends were players, and the script was searched from the internet. 

At the time, they didn't use real dice, and instead used random numbers generated from the computer.

But when he entered this world, he surprisingly discovered that a real die appeared next to him.

It was a regular dodecahedron that was completely black with golden edges, and was about three centimeters long in width and height. The numbers on each side kept changing, from 0 to 100, nonstop.

Due to his cautious nature, after becoming aware of the existence of the die, Siles had never used it or made movements such as throwing or dropping it.

During the past day, Siles had also not heard any rattling sounds of the dice rolling.

Everything seemed to be fine. 

However, he clearly knew that the die that had appeared beside him was probably related to his transmigration. But why did he transmigrate? Why did he come to this world? Where did the original owner of this body go? 

Did he die? But in the memories he had obtained, the original owner just slept normally, and when he woke up, he had turned into He Jiayin. 

He felt that this matter was extremely unusual and there were definitely some secrets behind it. 

At this moment, Siles suddenly thought of something.

In the group game he played, the host was called the secret keeper. Someone who kept secrets.  

Siles took a deep breath, held his breath for a moment, and then slowly let out a sigh of relief. He thought, at least no one with superpowers suddenly jumped out and told him that he was arrested because he had taken over someone else's body.

There were real gods in the world of Fissure, and so he also suspected the existence of the so-called "supernatural powers." After all, he was a novelist in his previous life. 

Therefore, before finding out the truth, Siles would keep the secret that he was a visitor from another world and try to survive in this world that was different from the earth. 

On this basis, he would try to find a way to return to Earth. Even if that may cost him countless time and energy, in the end, he was an outsider. 

Siles closed his eyes, then walked to the desk again, copied the letter to the original owner's mother onto a formal letter sheet, folded it, and put it inside an envelope. He planned to mail it tomorrow morning.

He wrote his mother's address on the envelope.

"Lamifa City, Merlin Town, Kanye Farm." 

Then he put the envelope aside, carefully arranged the papers, ink, quill pens, and notebooks on the desk, and went to the small washroom connected to this room.

After a short while, he walked out of the washroom, changed into his pajamas, laid down on the bed, closed his eyes, and soon drifted off into a dream. 

The next morning, Siles Noël changed into some suitable casual clothes and put the envelope in the inside pocket of his coat. He also took his pocket watch, a small notebook, and a sharpened pencil. Then, he carefully put the die in his pocket. 

He looked outside through the blurry window glass and noticed that the weather was still dark and gloomy, but at least it wasn't raining. Nevertheless, he still brought a long-handled umbrella and used it as a walking stick. 

He put on waterproof leather boots that were suitable for the muddy roads in this weather, took his wallet and keys, and went outside. 

The apartment building where he lived was 13 Milford Street, West Side of Lamifa City. 

The landlord, Mrs. Finn, owned the entire apartment building. Her husband was a wealthy businessman who was never at home, so Mrs. Finn managed and rented out the apartment to pass the time. 

Siles' apartment was at the east end of the second floor. There were three rooms on this floor, each around 20 to 30 square meters wide accompanied with a separate washroom. In the western side of Lamifa, an apartment like this was already pretty decent. 

Siles met Mrs. Finn in the first-floor foyer.

Mrs. Finn was a middle-aged woman in her forties, who always wore an apron on top of a long dress. Although she was wealthy, she was used to doing everything herself, not once hiring a maid. 

Her eyebrows were always raised. She was an inexorable woman who couldn't find anything nice to say. Her husband was absent all year round and her son was also extremely naughty. These setbacks seemed to make this woman look harsh and antisocial. 

Siles greeted her: "Good morning, Mrs. Finn." 

"Good morning, Mr. Noël." Mrs. Finn looked a little surprised, but she quickly asked, "Are you going out? Then you'd better be careful. That damn apostate is still in the city. I honestly don't know why those useless priests still haven't discovered his whereabouts yet." 

"Thank you for your reminder. I will be careful." Siles said politely, "I've found a job and plan to send a letter to my mother. By the way, I also want to tell you that if nothing unexpected happens, I will move out in about a week." 

"Oh..." Mrs. Finn frowned. "Mr. Noël, you should have told me earlier." 

Siles said apologetically, "I just got this job yesterday. It was already too late when I came back, so I didn't bother you."

Mrs. Finn nodded absentmindedly. "Alright, alright... hmm, I understand." She seemed to want to say something, but stopped herself in the end and said, "When I find the next tenant, I'll refund part of your rent. Of course, not all of it." 

Siles nodded his head.

The faculty dormitories at Lamifa University were free. So even if he would lose some money if he terminated the lease now, it would be better than continuing to live with Mrs. Finn. Besides, commuting to Lamifa University from here was also very troublesome. 

However, Mrs. Finn was too friendly. He had expected Mrs. Finn to be a bit more aggressive.

Siles glanced at Mrs. Finn's facial expressions with a slightly questioning look and felt that the woman seemed to be troubled by something, so she didn't care much about Siles' lease termination.

Was it because of her husband? Her son? Some misbehaving tenant? 

The former novelist immediately had a lot of ideas in his mind.

But he did not show his thoughts, and quickly said goodbye to Mrs. Finn and walked out of the apartment building. Not long after, he arrived at the horse carriage shop in the western side of the city and mailed his letter. 

There were no places to send letters in Lamifa, so he could only look for a carriage that might be going to his destination at a carriage shop. Siles was very fortunate that there just happened to be a carriage that was going to Merlin Town. 

Merlin was a small town located east of Lamifa City, and it was also where Siles Noël was born and raised. 

The Noël family now only had two people left, a son and a widow. Siles' father died when he was young, and his mother raised him alone. From Siles Noël's memories, she was a strict but loving mother. 

The mother and son depended on each other, and had a close relationship, so after Siles sorted out his thoughts and obtained a job, he wrote a letter to his original owner's mother firsthand. 

Even if he hadn't figured out how to face his mother later on.

After leaving the carriage shop, Siles recalled in his mind what he was going to do.

In the next period of time, what he mainly needed to do was to prepare for his lessons and to move out.  

There was still a week before the start of the semester at Lamifa University, so it was urgent to prepare for his classes. After his interview yesterday, he learned that the previous professor of literature and history still had his lesson plans in his office. He could borrow some parts from it. 

Siles decided to make a visit to Lamifa University today. 

The university was not on the western side of the city, but on the eastern side, which was separated from the western side by a river. The western side of Lamifa City was the area that was first developed and was now called the old sector, while the eastern side of the city was a more prosperous place. 

To go from west side to the east side, he can could rent a carriage or take a stagecoach. The latter ran along fixed tracks and stopped at specific stations, which was far less convenient and slower than renting a carriage. 

But stagecoaches were cheaper. 

In the letter, Siles had told his mother that his salary was more than enough to cover his living expenses. However, if he wanted to investigate the truth behind his transmigration, there would definitely be a lot of more places where he needed money in the future. 

Therefore, he would try to save as much as possible now, while planning to find more ways to make money. 

He followed his original owner's memories and went to a nearby stage station. 

The station was located at Logan Merchants' marketplace, southwest of Milford Street. This was the busiest place on the western side of the city, with all kinds of shops and vendors, including shoe shops, clothing shops, bakeries, butcher shops, spice shops, etc. Occasionally, some merchants from outside the city would set up stalls here. 

The city of Lamifa specially set up a stage station here to facilitate civilian travel. 

As he turned a corner, he could already smell the complex smells of Logan Market. Siles coincidentally happened to glance at a dimly lit shop on the corner.

At that moment, the sound of dice rattling played in his mind.

 

[You need to make a skill check.]

[Perception: 30/15, Success.]

[You stumble upon an antique bookstore. You think you can obtain some useful information from it.]