Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 119 Arrival at Port
The room was dark.

The man sat in the chair, staring blankly at everything before him, remaining silent.

Everything here made him nauseous: the metal walls, the metal doors, the metal chairs—there was almost nothing natural about it.

Everything comes from steel.

Man-made evil.

The man scoffed inwardly. Nothing could better prove humanity's arrogance and ignorance, and its foolish attempt to defy nature, than this ship.

But soon they will realize their insignificance and powerlessness.

Before true power, everything humanity does is futile, just like…

"Click."

The hatch opened, and the man looked up. When he saw the figure entering the cabin, his eyes narrowed slightly, but he quickly regained his composure.

"Hello, Mr. Damon."

Li Wei took off his top hat, smiled slightly at the man, and sat down on the chair next to him.

"Let me introduce myself. My name is Li Wei, and I'm a detective. I'm here to investigate your 'accidental' operational error that caused the engine room to shut down."

"...This is the duty of the head inspector."

The man was silent for a moment before speaking.

“I know that, which is why the Chief Inspector is here too.”

Li Wei made a gesture, and then the chief inspector and the second deputy also walked in. Upon seeing the two of them, a hint of tension appeared on the man's face.

"What do you want to do?"

"Just some routine inquiries."

Li Wei leaned back in his chair, his hands clasped together, and squinted as he stared at the man.

"According to the records, you shut down the turbine pressurization system without orders, which led to the shutdown accident. Do you admit it?"

"I...I'm so sorry."

The man lowered his head.

"I was half asleep and thought I heard a shutdown command, so..."

"But it wasn't your group on duty at the time, and you weren't in charge of the engine's pressurization system."

Li Wei remained expressionless and spoke calmly.

"I asked your foreman, and he said you're only responsible for heating the boiler and operating the valves. You have never been, are never, and will never be a technician. So, what made you go to the engine room and shut down the pressurization system?"

"I... I was just curious..."

"You walked through five cabins just out of curiosity. Your curiosity is a bit too much."

Li Wei chuckled, then his expression changed, and he reached out and grabbed the man by the collar, lifting him up.

Do you know what's happening outside right now?

Li Wei glared fiercely at the man and roared in a low voice.

"We've been attacked by monsters, and now the ship can't even move. All we can do is wait here to die. And you're telling me it was just an accident?"

"………………………"

Faced with Li Wei's questioning, the man stared at him, then revealed a smile.

"This is your retribution, the retribution you deserve."

"What did you say?"

"Humanity is too arrogant; they believe they can challenge nature and defy the will of God. But all of this is in vain. Steel should not float on water, and humanity should not challenge the wrath and power of nature! You think you have gained the power of machinery and steel, but this is nothing but arrogance and ignorance! Everything you do will only lead humanity to destruction!"

At this point, the man grinned, revealing a smug smile.

"So I want you to know the disasters brought about by human fragility and arrogance!"

"Is this why you sabotaged this ship?"

“That’s right, unsinkable. Listen to that! What arrogance and hubris! We must let people know that steel and steam bring not opportunity, but destruction! Nothing can demonstrate this problem more clearly than sinking a ship that embodies the arrogance and hubris of the current empire!”

"Did you summon that monster?"

"Hahaha, I don't have that ability. Only foolish idiots like you think you can control everything. I just know it will appear here, so as long as I prevent you from leaving, you will personally experience that great power of nature..."

Li Wei stared at the man, trembling as if unable to contain his anger. But the next moment, he suddenly smiled and released his grip.

"Thank you for your cooperation. I understand the situation now."

As he spoke, Li Wei walked back to the cabin door and looked at the second mate and the chief inspector.

“Now everything is clear. This was a terrorist attack carried out by Luddites… You know how to report this to the captain.”

"Of course, Mr. Li Wei."

The head inspector was now completely obedient to Li Wei. To be honest, he was a little confused by Li Wei's behavior earlier. Everything was normal, so why was Li Wei talking as if the ship was about to sink?

Unexpectedly… this guy actually…

Thinking of this, the head inspector also glared fiercely at the man.

"I will report to the captain immediately and then deal with this Luddite!"

"Hahaha, so what?" However, the man still seemed completely unconcerned.

"You're all going to die anyway!"

"Oh, actually we won't die."

Li Wei looked at the man and smiled slightly.

"Actually, I lied to you earlier. That so-called sea monster has been killed and is currently drying out on the deck. The North Star has also set sail again, continuing its journey to its destination according to the original plan. As for you... just wait to go to jail. I wonder if the prison food in Melisia will be any better than on the ship."

"…………"

Upon hearing Li Wei's answer, the man's expression suddenly turned extremely gloomy, and he stared coldly at Li Wei.

"Impossible! The sea monster is enormous, hundreds of meters long. It is indestructible; even cannons cannot penetrate its body. You are no match for it!"

"In fact, that thing is less than thirty meters long, and even a harpoon can penetrate its surface."

Li Wei smiled again.

"Sleep talk is best left to dreams."

"Impossible! You're lying to me! This is absolutely impossible!"

The man stood up again, intending to pounce on Li Wei. However, his hands were already handcuffed to a nearby pipe, and all he could do now was glare at Li Wei and shout. But Li Wei clearly ignored him and turned to walk out of the room.

As for what will happen to this person, that's not something I need to worry about.

That being said, persuasiveness is indeed very important.

After talking with the man, Li Wei felt he understood why sea monsters varied so much in size.

In short, the data on the legendary sea monster is too vague. For example, the man's claim that the sea monster is hundreds of meters long and has skin that even cannons cannot penetrate is completely unconvincing.

Is it several hundred meters? One hundred meters? Or nine hundred and ninety-nine meters? Skin that even artillery can't penetrate—how thick and hard is that skin? What is it made of? Is the artillery you're talking about the medieval kind? Or the modern kind?

However, Annie's research on sea monsters, even if it is only in the inference stage, has enough data and information to support it, at least making people feel that it "makes a lot of sense" rather than "what kind of nonsense is this".

Hmm, it seems that the work of "debunking" the "mysterious monster" should also be put on the agenda. As long as I can trick Annie into doing this job in the editorial department of "Discovery", then if we need to deal with any monsters in the future, I can have Annie publish a report in the newspaper that looks at those monsters from a scientific perspective. It might be able to weaken the opponent's power, just like with this sea monster.

If I fight it myself then, wouldn't that be twice as effective?
Of course, we'll talk about that later.

After that, everything went smoothly.

Although Levi encountered one frustrating thing after another at the beginning of the voyage, the storm has finally passed, and the Arctic Star has sailed smoothly for the next few days without any further problems.

Therefore, many sailors believed that the previous troubles were caused by the sea monster, and now that the sea monster had been killed, their ship was like having a lucky charm and would no longer encounter any danger.

Li Wei thus found some free time, enjoying a leisurely life of drinking tea and chatting with Mr. Howard and Mrs. Molly every day. Annie, on the other hand, was extremely busy during this period. Afterwards, the sea monster was dragged into the upper ice storage to be frozen and prevented from decaying. Annie also made the most of her time each day to investigate the sea monster and categorize it.

Something like phylum, class, order, genus, etc...

After that, Li Wei took the time to interrogate the unfortunate fellow again. The only order the latter received was to find a way to disable the North Star when it reached this area, preventing it from continuing its journey. Then, "the sea monster's wrath would completely engulf this blasphemous man-made creation."

Although this guy was just a lackey, Li Wei still made some inferences from his answer.

It is clear that the operation against the North Star was a premeditated plan by the Luddites. They placed the cursed bottle ship into the North Star via mail, and then had this henchman sabotage the propulsion system so that the sea monster could sink the ship.

If successful, the ship will become a ghost ship wandering the waters. As for what other plans the Luddites might have, Levi had no idea.

Among these events, the death of Ms. Porto, Levi's boarding of the ship, and the iceberg were all uncontrollable and unexpected factors.

However, that's how crimes are; the more meticulous the plan, the more likely it is to encounter unexpected problems. As the saying goes, "A flurry of activity may turn out to be nothing but a fool's errand."

That's exactly what I meant.

If you're going to take a simple and brutal approach, like bringing up a bomb and saying you're going to sink this ship, then Levi probably really won't have any solutions.

But if you insist on creating a romantic scenario by having a sea monster unleash some kind of nature's wrath, then don't blame others for being uncivilized...

However, according to Livy's reasoning, the Luddites didn't not want to do it, but probably couldn't.

What the two sides are now arguing about is the definition of the world itself. For Luddites, the North Star "must" have been sunk by a sea monster to prove their beliefs. But conversely, if it was sunk by an explosion, then it has nothing to do with sea monsters; it's simply human power.

Of course, an ordinary conspirator can do this kind of thing secretly, but you can't do this kind of thing based on cognition.

Because you can fool anyone, but you can't fool yourself.

Everyone else thought it was a sea monster that sank it, but you know perfectly well that you blew it up yourself with explosives. Is that acceptable?

I guess not.

Therefore, it seems that both sides are essentially dancing in shackles, and can only act within the specified rules.

Li Wei, for example, only used guns and cannons to kill monsters; he didn't use any magic like a soul torrent or fireball...

And so, on the rest of its journey, the Arctic Star arrived safely at the port of Mules in Melicia without any obstacles.

The arrival of the empire's largest ship naturally caused a sensation in the local area, with many people coming to the port specifically to catch a glimpse of the passenger ship.

The discovery of the sea monster's corpse drove the reporters present into a frenzy.

The arrival of the Arctic Star was already big news for reporters, but then it encountered a sea monster on its new route, killed it, and brought it back – that was even bigger news! For the reporters, two happy events coinciding brought even more joy…

Not to mention, there was also the suicide of Lady Porto—a case that had already become the front page of major newspapers in the empire, and as a detective, Levi had no choice but to accept interviews from the newspapers because of it.

As for the two unfortunate victims, Li Wei decided to join the others in saying that they couldn't bear the pangs of conscience and chose to commit suicide—after all, even if an autopsy were performed, no trace of homicide would be found.

However, these matters were minor to Levi. After giving a few simple interviews and explaining the Porto Lady case and the sea monster, Levi left the rest to others to handle the interviews and went to the Governor's Palace—after all, he hadn't come to Melicia for tourism.

He still has a proper job to do.

(End of this chapter)