The situation inside the antique shop was just as Duncan had guessed—clutter, decadence, and poor business everywhere. Even by looking at the dust piled up near the window, visitors could imagine how badly the owner had made his life.

The first thing he saw was the storage tables near the walls on both sides. Large vases, sculptures and totems of unclear meaning were placed on the low and stable tables, while the walls behind the tables were gridded for placing smaller "goods". The counter was located directly opposite the door and was a long bar. The shelves behind the counter were also covered in dust and were filled with dark-toned picture frames and small ornaments.

Behind the counter, you can see a staircase leading to the second floor, but it is dark and the structure cannot be seen clearly for the time being.

There is also a small door under the stairs. In my "memory", that door should lead to the warehouse behind the store - half of the space inside is filled with miscellaneous items.

It was hard to imagine that the cultist that he was possessed by relied on such a shop that seemed to be patronized by no one to make a living, and even had extra money to offer to the priest of the Sun God.

Duncan walked towards the counter in the back. The old wooden floor creaked a little. When he passed the stairs, he noticed the lamp fixed on the wall.

That is an electric light.

Duncan's brows immediately frowned slightly.

The style of the lamp is unfamiliar; the wrought iron frame and the gray lampshade both have an exotic feel, but no matter what, the structure of the tungsten filament bulb inside is clear at a glance - the light source of this lamp comes from electricity.

In this world, is electricity already so common? Do ordinary people in the downtown area also use electric lights?

Why were gas lamps, oil lamps, and torches used as light sources in the sewers? Why were gas lamps also used as street lamps outside?

A huge doubt arose. This was obviously unreasonable to Duncan, especially in an environment like a sewer - gas lamps with open flames and flammable gases had obvious disadvantages compared to clean and safe electric lamps!

Originally, he thought that it was the limitation of technology that forced the city managers to use gas lamps as the light source for the sewers. However, it now seems... at least in the city-state of Pland, technology has long developed to the level where electricity can enter the homes of ordinary people!

A huge sense of disharmony filled Duncan's heart. He tried to search for the corresponding knowledge from the fragments of memory in his mind, but he only got the answers "This is common sense" and "This is how the city is planned."

It seems that either this knowledge was not made public to the public, so that the cultist he possessed knew nothing about it, or this knowledge was too basic, so that it did not leave a strong enough impression in the cultist's mind, causing the corresponding memory to quickly fade after his death, leaving only the impression of "it's natural".

With a temporarily unsolved confusion in his heart, Duncan reached out and turned on the light - with a slight click of the switch, bright light immediately illuminated the area near the stairs and the counter.

There was another switch on the opposite wall that controlled the lights in other areas of the first-floor store, but Duncan was not going to touch it for the time being.

Nowadays, when it is late at night and everyone is asleep, a small light turning on in a closed antique shop can be explained by "the owner getting up and walking around at night", but suddenly turning the lights on may attract unnecessary attention.

With the limited light near the stairs, Duncan first swept his eyes over the nearest goods. The first thing that caught his eye was a totem-like object carved from wood, less than half a meter high. The wooden totem had strange facial patterns painted on it with red and blue paint. Next to it was an antique vase that should have been made of ceramic. There were price tags in front of them, with outrageous prices marked on them.

The original price is 420,000, and after the discount it is 360.

There is an air of self-abandonment.

Duncan's eyes quickly moved away and scanned the entire store.

If there was any genuine article here, he would have the Lost Homeland rammed into the walls of Pland.

It couldn't be more fake. There was no need for a real collector to identify it. No one with normal intelligence would believe that this antique shop in the downtown area would sell real antiques - would someone who is really good at dealing in antiques open a market in such a slum? The oldest thing in the whole store is probably the sign at the door...

But Duncan was not surprised by the existence of this store - the owner knew that he was selling fake stuff, and the people who came here to buy things did not expect to have a thousand-year-old statue in their home. Everyone knew what was going on, and the civilians in the downtown area also needed ways to satisfy their spiritual needs - the "antique shop" sign at the door was not put up by the owner for others to see, but by the people who came here to buy things for themselves to see.

After all, there are jade sellers under the overpasses on Earth. A bracelet that costs ninety-eight is said to be of old pit ice type, and if you wear it home and accidentally hit it against the door frame, shards of glass will fall all over the floor. Don’t the buyers and sellers know what’s going on?

Duncan was not interested in the owner's miserable life in the past. He was only concerned about one thing: this place should be the first "stay" for him, the captain of the Lost Homeland, on land.

An "outpost" for understanding the land world and modern civilized society.

He has secretly decided that, as long as the conditions for "walking in the spirit world" permit, he should maintain his current body as much as possible, and use this "antique shop" as a cover to move around in the Plande city-state. If the training of Ai goes smoothly, and if Ai can really transmit "real objects" between the Lost Homeland and Plande in a stable and controlled manner, this antique shop will also become a secret warehouse for material transfer.

Duncan came behind the counter, sat on a chair and carefully sorted out the fragments of memory in his mind, trying to figure out all the possible hidden dangers.

The original owner of this body was a believer in the Sun God, but he was only a member of the lowest level in the entire church system. Due to the city-state authorities' continuous crackdown on cult activities, the living space of the Sun God believers in Plande City has been compressed to the limit. Its members are extremely cautious in contacting each other. In addition to wearing full-covering hoods and masks when attending any gatherings, many low-level members only have one or two specific "contacts" to contact the upper echelons of the church. This is undoubtedly a good thing for Duncan today.

This means that even within the cult, there is only one person who knows "his" real identity and contact method. Once this person is gone, no one will know "his" hidden heretic identity.

He could walk in front of the city-state's administrators with dignity and be a good citizen with a clean record.

The better news is that after carefully sorting out his memories, Duncan confirmed that the biggest hidden danger has actually disappeared.

Because his contact was one of the three black-robed cultists that he saw when he just woke up...

Those three unlucky guys have been killed by pigeons.

He relaxed a little and sat in the chair in a more comfortable position.

After the biggest hidden danger disappeared, if there was anything to worry about, it would be the other Sun God believers who had held the sacrificial ceremony in the underground gathering place before, and the even larger, mysterious and dangerous Sun God Church behind those believers.

If my memory serves me right, four years ago the Pland city-state had dealt a severe blow to the Church of the Sun God entrenched in the city. Since then, this heretical belief has never recovered in the city-state. Not to mention holding any ceremonies, they are thankful that they can hide themselves well and not be caught by the church guards on weekdays.

But now, these extremely low-key cultists have done something rather high-profile.

The purpose of the sacrificial ceremony is to please the gods, and another purpose is to gather power or enhance the influence of the gods on the real world. The cultists in the assembly hall at that time, even the priest "messenger" who presided over the ceremony, were actually only grassroots members of the Church of the Sun God. Would these grassroots members spontaneously organize themselves to do such a big thing?

There weren't too many fragments of memory in Duncan's mind, and it was even less likely that a grassroots cultist would have access to the core secrets of the church. But based on the existing intelligence alone, he could guess that those cultists who suddenly became active must have received instructions from higher levels.

That heretical sect that worships the "real sun god"... they want to do something big in Plande, and the sacrificial ceremony that was accidentally ruined by himself is probably just the most insignificant splash before this big event begins.

Duncan didn't have any feelings for the "Pland City-State", but if he wanted to develop from here, he would have to consider the impact on him if a group of lunatics like the "Sun God Cultists" ran wild in the city-state.