Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 172 If you're a man...

“Hoo-ha…hoo-ah…”

In the dimly lit corridor, the girl ran desperately. Her eyes were bloodshot, and the screams of her parents still echoed in her ears.

"Quick, get out of here! Don't worry about us!"

"Even if it's just you..."

"Dad, Mom..."

The girl murmured the names of her parents, but her steps did not falter. She had to leave this place, she had to leave this place filled with death and evil…!
"Whoa!"

Just then, the girl turned the corner and bumped headfirst into a dark figure in front of her, screaming as she fell to the ground. When she looked up, she saw a group of miners dressed in tattered clothes. Normally, they would have greeted her warmly and even chatted with her.

But now, they simply stared silently at the girl, their eyes revealing cruelty and unrestrained bestiality.

"No, no, don't come any closer..."

Seeing the crowd slowly walking towards her, the girl who had fallen to the ground instinctively stepped back. However, as if enraged by her action, almost at the same time, the workers swarmed forward, pounced on the girl, and then opened their mouths and bit her hard.

"Ah ah ah ah ah!!!"

The girl screamed and reached out her hand, but her feeble struggle was of no use. Soon, her struggling and screaming body gradually calmed down amidst the sounds of flesh being swallowed, and then disappeared without a trace.

"...Plague, riots?"

Li Wei narrowed his eyes as he looked at the contents of the secret document.

According to the coded message, a mysterious and strange plague has broken out in the Rune Mines. Those infected become enraged, aggressive, and even attack others. Furthermore, these infected individuals gain superhuman strength, rendering ordinary suppression ineffective against them.

The entire Rune mine area has been completely sealed off and is under Level 1 alert. Li Wei's mission is to figure out whether this plague is a natural or supernatural phenomenon.

It's no wonder they sought out Li Wei; after all, from the descriptions of these plague victims, Li Wei easily recalled the two ghouls from the vampire incident. Clearly, the authorities were also worried that a similar monster might be at work.

Sure enough, this was an emergency.

Li Wei handed the secret document back to the captain, who immediately took out a match, lit it, and put it into the nearby incinerator. Moments later, the document turned into a pile of black ash.

"I'm going to rest for a while. Call me when we get there."

"Okay, I have prepared a room for you. We will arrive at the destination in three hours."

Led by a soldier, Li Wei arrived at the reconnaissance boat's rest room, then lay down on the bed, closed his eyes, and began to recall what he had read in the library about the Rune Mine.

As is well known, the steam engines in this world are powered by a mineral called jet, which is ultimately coal and naturally extracted from underground. The Rune Mines are the Empire's main jet-producing region; it can be said that almost half of the Empire's jet is produced in the Rune Mines.

The Rune mine itself is also quite "unique".

Since it's mining, naturally it involves digging downwards, but the scale of the Rune Mines is far more complex than simply digging downwards. From the surface, it resembles a giant cone-shaped cave. According to this year's imperial records, its mining depth has reached nearly three thousand meters, and its width is almost comparable to that of a city.

In fact, the Rune Mine itself is a city built within a mine. Li Wei had read in the Empire's travelogue that the entire mine was divided into hundreds of levels, with the higher the level of the inhabitants, the lower their status. Currently, one-tenth of the people in the Rune Mine live on levels 1-10, which are closer to the surface, while the rest live in the lower levels of the mine. Some are even born into the dark, sunless mines, working their entire lives until their death.

No wonder the captain was so certain that the Rune Mine had been completely sealed off. It's essentially a huge mine, and as long as the surface is sealed off to prevent anyone from escaping, the spread of the epidemic can be guaranteed.

But this also means that the trouble happening in the Rune mines... is real trouble.

So, what exactly is the problem?
Li Wei couldn't be sure either; even in the disaster movies he had watched, there were many possibilities for similar situations.

In a more fantastical way, it's said that someone unearthed a cursed tomb and became infected by the curse inside.

From a more scientific perspective, it's possible that they unearthed something ancient and got infected with a virus from ancient times... anything is possible.

The only thing that reassured Li Wei was that he wasn't afraid of getting infected.

No, it's not that I'm not afraid of infection, but rather that my "injury symptoms" are different from others.

As mentioned before, Li Wei has discovered that the damage he suffers in this world doesn't cause him to lose health, but rather directly takes his life.

Examples include being knocked out of five lives by Katie's punch, and illness.

For example, symptoms that look like a cold, and indeed resemble those of a cold, will be cured instantly after deducting a few days of lifespan.

Similarly, during the battle at the Imperial Bridge, Levi was grazed by a machine gunner, but he recovered instantly, at the cost of losing several hours of his lifespan.

From this perspective, this level of life deduction should be calculated from the start of the injury to the point of recovery, directly reducing one's lifespan to ensure that the body remains in optimal condition.

As for Li Wei, he would rather it be this way. After all, before transmigrating, Li Wei had spent several years lying in bed, and those days of living hell were truly unbearable. If he could spend all his lifespan to enjoy a day of perfect health, free from pain, and able to do whatever he wanted, he would be willing to die the next day.

After all, being sick is the most painful thing.

Judging from this, even if Li Wei were to contract the plague here, at most it would just cost him his life, not leave him half-dead. Anyway, he'd already gained a considerable amount of lifespan from completing so many missions, so losing a little wouldn't bother him.

Oh, right, speaking of missions…

Li Wei silently waved his hand, and a treasure chest appeared in front of him. Just like before, because the attack on the central data tower was an ordinary case rather than a mysterious one, the system did not give him a mission, but simply sent him a treasure chest after the case was over.

However, Li Wei didn't open it immediately this time. Who knows what might be inside the treasure chest... Should he save it for now, or open it?

Li Wei stared at the treasure chest. It felt a bit like a single draw in a mobile game; nobody knew what they would get.

The Punisher revolver I got before was pretty good, but the outfit before that... well, it was actually alright too?

Hmm... let's wait and see how things go when we get there.

With that thought in mind, Li Wei put away the treasure chest, then closed his eyes and began to rest.

After all, given the current situation, the situation in the Rune Mine cannot be ignored. Once we get there, we may not have time to sleep anymore.

After a short rest, Li Wei was woken up again and brought to the bridge. It was still dark, but the scene before him still surprised him. "Wow, this is really impressive."

Standing on the bridge and looking out through the porthole, Li Wei couldn't help but sigh with emotion.

Although it was described and recorded in the empire's travelogues, only by actually seeing it could one realize how exaggerated it was. From the sky, one could see an enormous cave on the ground, illuminated by countless lights from all directions, which allowed Li Wei to clearly see its structure.

Under the light, the path along the edge of the cave wall was clearly visible. To put it simply, it was like an ice cream cone buried in the ground without any scoops, only magnified tens of millions of times.

There are also huge steel structures and elevators on both sides, and near the ground there are even rows of chimneys spewing white steam.

In some ways, this is a different kind of spectacle than a steel city.

This is especially true when you think about how this enormous crater was dug out by humans from scratch.

Well, it's no wonder that humans love creating wonders.

In fact, Li Wei could understand very well why people in this era were so confident, because steam-powered machines were mostly very large, especially those with strong power.

Whether it's the central data tower I saw in the Steel City, the North Star, the airship, or now this Rune Mine, seeing them all evokes a sense of grandeur.

If humans can create something like this, what else can stump us?

It must be said that this visual impact is truly the most impressive.

More is beautiful, bigger is good.

Simple and straightforward, how wonderful!

Conversely, CPUs from the Levi era were certainly important, but people generally didn't understand things like 2nm and 5nm. Besides, something the size of a fingernail is unlikely to have much of an impact... Things whose performance needs to be officially announced to be known are different from things that can be seen at a glance.

After that, the reconnaissance boat landed on the helipad at the edge of the mining area. However, the boat did not stop. As before, it opened the hatch almost close to the ground and lowered Li Wei down by rope.

Looking at it this way, it seems to be a complete isolation measure. I have to admit, the Empire is really good at this.

Standing alone on the deserted tarmac, Li Wei glanced around. Perhaps due to the blinding light of the searchlights, the surrounding darkness was unusually intense. Dozens of fully armed soldiers stood on both sides of the tarmac, their faces tense. Judging from the weapons they gripped tightly, the situation here was clearly very serious.

"Mr. Li Wei...it's been a long time..."

Just then, Li Wei saw a figure approaching. She was dressed in a nun's habit, her attire unchanged from before…

"It's been a long time, Miss Elizabeth."

Li Wei nodded to Elizabeth, who bowed in return.

"The situation is urgent, let's talk as we walk."

As she spoke, Elizabeth turned and walked toward the exit, with Levi following beside her.

“A few days ago, we learned that an infectious disease had begun to spread in the Rune mining area. At first, the authorities thought it was just a common epidemic, but they did not expect its infectivity and mortality rate to be so high. Those infected will develop a high fever within 48 hours, then fall into a coma, and then die.”

Elizabeth's voice was as calm as ever, but it carried a hint of sorrow.

"Not only that, after their deaths are confirmed, these dead will resurrect and then indiscriminately attack others like wild beasts, and those they attack will become just like them..."

Good grief, is this Resident Evil?

Li Wei's lips twitched; he wanted to complain but didn't know what to say.

What's the current situation?

"The entire Rune mine area has been completely sealed off. All mine cars and elevators have been shut down, and transportation between the mines has been completely cut off. Communication below the 80th floor has been completely cut off. Cases have been reported starting from the 10th floor, while the 1st to 9th floors are currently relatively normal."

As she spoke, Elizabeth turned her head and looked at Levi.

"We invited Mr. Li Wei here today because we hope to have your help."

"What do you need me to do?"

"Based on our investigation, we believe the initial outbreak of the plague originated from the lower levels. The problem is that we cannot currently determine the source of the plague or the initial cases. We previously dispatched special task force members to the bottom of the mine, but... we lost contact with them."

"We suspect that this is likely not just a common plague infection."

"You mean you suspect the existence of supernatural forces?"

"The resurrection of the dead must be a very supernatural thing, right?"

"That's true..."

This might seem like the case to people of this era, but for Li Wei, the creation of a zombie apocalypse through various biochemical virus contaminations was a basic premise.

But does that mean... every man has to go down a hundred floors?

Well, that happens all the time.

"I understand."

Li Wei thought for a moment and nodded.

"Anyway, let me prepare first."

　It doesn't have to be special chicken, just frozen chicken legs from the supermarket, those small ones. You all say they're tasteless, but they really whet my appetite. I can easily eat three or four in one sitting, it's so satisfying!

　　Maybe it's because my taste is particularly mild; this is just right for me. Any stronger and it would be too stimulating.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)