Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 175 Locking in the Investigation Target
"Boom!"

The ceiling cracked, and a gigantic claw emerged. However, for Li Wei, this attack was not unexpected. After all, as someone who used [Soul Vision] as a kind of X-ray vision cheat, it would be truly embarrassing to be ambushed by someone hiding behind a wall!

Just as the attackers launched their attack, under Li Wei's control, the Death Puppet also quickly dodged backward, grabbed the scythe in its hand, and chopped down hard at the arm that was extending from the ceiling!

"Whoosh—!"

With a flash of cold light, the thick arm was severed like a tree stump. With a roar full of anger and pain, Li Wei saw the blazing soul light disappear rapidly into the cave deep above his head.

"…………………"

If it were just an ordinary corridor, it wouldn't be so bad, but mines are interconnected and scattered everywhere. From a certain perspective, this is much more difficult for Li Wei to deal with than monsters. Li Wei withdrew his gaze and walked to the Death Puppet, staring at the enormous arm in front of him. This arm had been severed from the elbow by the Death Puppet under Li Wei's control, and it was about two-thirds the size of Li Wei.

Hmm... You can imagine how enormous this monster would be if it were to fully emerge.

However, it seems to have some intelligence, unlike ordinary zombies. Anyway... let's contact Elizabeth first.

Li Wei thought for a moment, then returned to the elevator entrance and picked up the microphone.

"—————————"

There was only a busy tone inside; no matter how he dialed, there was no response. Li Wei looked up and followed the communicator's cable, which stretched all the way to the ceiling and then continued forward, connecting to the other side of the corridor... if a large hole hadn't suddenly appeared in the middle.

That damn bastard cut off the communication lines during the sneak attack… that’s just too much…

Li Wei sighed helplessly. To be honest, his luck was really bad.

I wonder how Elizabeth will react. Oh well, I'll just continue doing what I need to do.

After that, Li Wei used the Death Doll to clean up the surroundings as usual, and then went to the infirmary on this floor.

That's right, the infirmary.

Li Wei is, after all, a detective, and naturally needs clues to solve cases. Searching for clues layer by layer in such a vast mine is practically impossible. Therefore, Li Wei chooses an important place—the infirmary.

After all, miners often get injured, so a medical clinic is essential. However, the medical clinic here mainly treats external injuries, which is understandable, since they live underground all day long and it's unlikely they'd contract infectious diseases unless they got an upset stomach or something.

This is one of the reasons why the plague spread so quickly. The doctors here are very skilled at treating external injuries, but they are somewhat helpless when it comes to infectious diseases and plagues.

But the infirmary...

Looking at the infirmary before him, Li Wei frowned, making no attempt to hide his disgust. The deeper they went, the worse the situation became, especially after reaching the 80th floor, where the infirmary was practically indistinguishable from a morgue. Moreover, because the temperature underground was higher than above ground, many of the corpses had already begun to decompose.

Although Elizabeth said that the entire Rune Mine was equipped with ventilation systems, given the current situation, even if the ventilation systems were running at full capacity, it would probably not be able to completely dissipate the stench.

Well, the things that need to be done still need to be done.

Just to be on the safe side, Li Wei first scanned the inside with [Soul Vision] to make sure there were no zombies lying there pretending to be dead before he went in. He went to the doctor's office inside the infirmary and quickly found the medical records.

I've seen similar medical notes in other mineral layers before. Most of them describe the characteristics of the disease, the speed of infection, and the possibility of a cure. Frankly speaking, in Li Wei's opinion, even if it weren't this infectious disease, using these doctors' methods to treat it would be a dead end.

For example... someone used bloodletting therapy. Well, they were already quite ill, and after bloodletting, they died completely.

Some people even give patients mercury... using poison to fight poison, that's just idiom.

Because the patient had a headache, a hole was drilled in the patient's head to release the air.

Apply carbolic acid to the patient's infected and ulcerated wounds.

To be honest, after reading these records, Li Wei felt that even a healthy person would be tortured to death by them.

He was now extremely grateful that he had been treated by risking his life; otherwise, if he had contracted the disease in this era, it would have been worse than death—when a doctor confidently poured mercury into your mouth, would you drink it or not?
If you don't drink it, people will think you don't believe in medicine.

But for Li Wei, in this era, he preferred to believe in the herbal remedies of shamans rather than in "medicine." Ironically, most of the lower classes in the empire could not afford expensive medical care, so they could only buy some herbs from shops like those run by shamans and witch doctors to drink themselves.

As for those who pay money to enjoy "modern cutting-edge medical services," they might all end up dying from the stress.

"Ok?"

Li Wei kept complaining as he looked at the treatment records, but soon he realized that these records were quite different from those written by other doctors he had seen before.

[Month X, Day X]

[...The infectious disease is spreading, and we lack sufficient medication. Conventional treatments only worsen their conditions. We need more medicine, but the Inspector (the de facto commander of each level of the mine) states that without it, the situation across the entire Rune Mine region is extremely dire, and there isn't enough medicine available for treatment...]

[Month X, Day X]

[...I think this infectious disease outbreak is rather strange. At first, I thought it was brought in from outside. But according to our private communications, we unexpectedly discovered that the lower the level, the more severe the illness, while the higher levels had fewer cases. This is really strange, because this isn't a common disease in mining areas. If it wasn't brought in from outside, where did it come from?]

[Month X, Day X]

[...People began to panic. I heard rumors that it was an imperial conspiracy...that they wanted us to die in the mines, so they deliberately poisoned us. Of course, those who spread the rumors were quickly executed, but everyone was terrified...]

The empire poisoned them?

Upon seeing this, Li Wei frowned. This possibility... he couldn't really say it didn't exist!

At first, perhaps because he had watched too many movies, Li Wei always thought that the miners might have dug something up underground and then been infected by an ancient virus.

However, these medical records gave him a new perspective. The Empire couldn't possibly have poisoned the people in the Rune mines, but the possibility of poisoning still existed! Li Wei reached this conclusion not based on evidence, but on reasoning. Considering the timing, the incidents in Steel City and the Rune mines occurred almost simultaneously. If it weren't for Li Wei and Olivia's decisive actions, plus the help of the young genius Qi Ya, the entire Steel City would probably be finished by now.

The Steel City is the empire's industrial heartland, and the Rune Mines are a vital coal-mining region. The simultaneous disruption of both locations would inevitably impact the empire's operations, particularly the manufacturing of various equipment and machinery. Without sufficient fuel and machinery from the Steel City, many of the empire's plans and projects would likely be halted or even delayed!

From a Luddite perspective, this is absolutely a good thing!

Moreover, this is definitely a good thing for other countries around the empire!

It can be said that this series of events was good for other countries, except for being bad for the empire!
Based on the principle that whoever benefits is suspected, the possibility of poisoning cannot be completely ruled out!
This could also explain why the infection started from the lower levels. It's very likely that someone deliberately disguised it as some kind of imperial supply, transported it to the lowest level, and then released it, thus causing this crisis.

If the Empire is forced to completely destroy the Rune Mines as a result, then that would be exactly what they want!
With that in mind, Li Wei immediately took the medical record and left the infirmary, returning to the management office where the inspector was located. He then pulled out the material transport records and began to carefully investigate each entry.

Sure enough, just as Li Wei had expected, he discovered a record of supplies being transported a few days before the outbreak of the epidemic.

According to records, it was a box of "mineral mining and supply materials" that was transported via the No. 13 track to the lowest level of the current Rune Mine—the 123rd level.

This happened two days before the outbreak of the plague. After that, the entire mining area never received any supplies from above again!

Let's start the investigation here!
Having identified his target, Li Wei no longer hesitated. He quickly reached out and put the transport logbook into his pocket as well. Then…

"Whoosh—!"

The Death Puppet, which had been silently following behind Li Wei, suddenly turned around. The scythe in his hand flashed with a cold light and swept across an arc, cleaving a monster that had silently pounced from the ceiling in two!

"Clap!"

The monstrous corpse, cut in half and resembling a giant gecko, slammed heavily to the ground. Li Wei turned around and saw dozens of bizarre humanoid creatures appearing outside the door.

They used both hands and feet to cling to the wall like geckos, their hands and feet transformed into sharp claws, their skin bulging and bursting open to reveal the blood-flowing muscles beneath.

"I've seen similar things before."

Li Wei put away the documents and turned to look at the seemingly real but actually strange monsters in front of him.

"As expected, compared to ordinary zombies, they evolve the further down you go. In that case, we can't waste any more time."

As he spoke, Li Wei drew the Persuader and the Punisher from his waist.

"Next, I need to speed things up!"

"boom!!"

At that very moment, the wall shattered, and a gigantic monster, missing its right arm, charged toward Li Wei.

In a corner deep within the mine, the tranquility was shattered with a violent explosion that sent the walls flying. Simultaneously, Li Wei and the puppet emerged from the smoke, plummeting straight down. Behind them, dozens of evolved, mutated monsters, baring their fangs and claws, crashed to the ground.

"Uhhhhhh!!!"

The monsters completely ignored the risk of falling, only shouting at their prey. Levi, however, paid no heed; he simply raised his hands, aimed at the monster behind him, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang bang bang bang!!"

With the sound of gunfire, the spinning bullets easily pierced the monsters' heads, blasting them apart one by one. Then, Li Wei flashed and switched places with the puppet bird, appearing above the headless corpses that had lost their ability to resist. He stepped on a corpse and changed direction again. At the same time, the Death Puppet swung its scythe, once again cutting all the monsters around Li Wei into pieces.

Just then, a long tongue, like a whip, suddenly shot out and aimed straight at Li Wei's neck, trying to wrap it tightly around him.

But almost at the same time, Li Wei's figure flashed and disappeared, and the Death Puppet appeared in front of the long tongue in his place. The scythe in his hand swung down suddenly, and with several bursts of cold light, it cut the thick, huge tongue, which was like a python, into pieces.

"Oh oh oh oh oh oh!!"

The enormous monster, its tongue severed and one arm gone, screamed and lost its balance. It crashed through the surrounding mutants and reached out its other hand to grab the Death Doll—compared to its previous thick arm, this arm appeared so thin, wiry, and even eerie.

Just then, a bird flapped its wings and came to the monster's eyes. Its fluttering, azure silk wings covered the monster's vision—then transformed into a black cloak and a gun barrel.

Li Wei gripped the Punisher tightly, aimed at the monster's head, and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"
.
The .50 bullet, like a cannonball, pierced directly through the enormous monster's head, which was also the size of a basketball, and mercilessly blasted it into pieces.

Then, the heavy body completely lost its strength and fell into the depths of darkness.

Go all the way to the end.

"Thump! ...Thump thump thump thump!"

Dozens of corpses fell from the sky, crashing to the bottom of the mine and turning into piles of mangled flesh. Only at the very end did Li Wei flash by, landing silently on the ground like a ghost.

"Phew...not bad."

Li Wei reached out and straightened his hat, then looked around.

The surroundings were completely dark, and it wasn't just a simple shadow. In fact, Li Wei could feel a strange power emanating from here, which was what formed this thick, dark fog that was almost impervious to light.

"It seems we've reached the very bottom."

(End of this chapter)