Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 230 Eternal Death
"So you mean, an old man turned into a monster and is trying to capture you?"

Li Wei looked at Katie in front of him, and the latter nodded vigorously.

"That's right, so I rushed out and shouted, but when I came back, the old man was gone..."

Li Wei had long ago told the people around him that when something happens, the first thing to do is to call for backup, not to rush in and get yourself killed.

After all, it's his problem if you call for help but the players don't come, but it's your own problem if you don't call for help at all.

So Katie remembered Levi's teachings. After smashing her head against the wall, she shouted for Levi to come over. Then she went back into the room and was surprised to find that the old man who had been blocking the door was nowhere to be found.

"Should I have knocked him down first before calling you?"

"No, you did the right thing."

Li Wei shook his head.

"The situation with the other side is unclear. If you rush in rashly and get subdued, that would be a real problem. At least we know now that these guys have finally shown their true colors..."

As he spoke, Li Wei turned his head to look at the C team members who had followed him.

"Evacuate everyone in the nursing home. Tell them we've discovered a wanted criminal and are pursuing him. Drive them all out. Also, arrest the director. If she resists, kill her without mercy!"

"Yes!"

As Li Wei said, calling for reinforcements might allow the other party to escape, but they can't hide forever. At least for now, the entire nursing home is in an uproar because of this, and the more it's in an uproar, the easier it is for those hiding in the shadows to be discovered.

Watching the C team agents turn and leave, Levi withdrew his gaze and re-entered the warehouse. According to Katie, the old man originally intended to lure her here, knock her unconscious, and then perform a sacrifice. However, Levi didn't see anything resembling a magic circle or altar here, meaning this wasn't the place of sacrifice, but it was likely connected to one.

Li Wei's gaze swept across the warehouse, quickly locking onto the iron cabinet in the corner. He walked forward, intending to open it, but the cabinet seemed to be integrated with the wall, completely immovable. No matter how hard Li Wei tried, the cabinet wouldn't budge. However, according to Li Wei's investigation, the old man's footprints disappeared behind this cabinet.

"Katie, take this cabinet down!"

"Okay!"

Upon hearing Levi's command, Katie hurriedly stepped forward, stretched out her arms, made a hugging gesture, held the metal cabinet to her chest, and then lifted it upwards with force!
"Boom—!"

With a loud bang and a piercing metallic twisting sound, the iron cabinet that had been integrated with the wall was forcibly ripped off by Katie. Levi also saw on its back a complex-looking iron lock mechanism that almost covered the entire back of the door.

Clearly, this must be an extremely ingenious and complex mechanism.

Unfortunately, in the face of classical mechanics, all ingenious tricks are nothing but rubbish.

"Boom!"

Katie tossed the cabinet aside, and then she saw a stone staircase leading into the dark depths, which looked like it led to the basement.

"let's go."

For Li Wei, there was naturally only one choice.

The staircase leading to the underground was much longer than expected. Levi and Katie, flashlight in hand, ran as fast as they could to the top of the staircase. Then they heard a series of ancient, ugly prayers that sounded like a mixture of screams and hisses.

The sound came from inside the door at the end of the stairs. Li Wei kicked the door open, then raised the Persuader and aimed it forward.

This place looks like a cellar, but at this moment it is filled with evil and ugliness. Under the firelight, you can clearly see magic circles and twisted and strange runes that look like they are made of blood on the ground, walls and ceiling.

In the center of the cellar, behind an altar made of stone slabs, an old man was raising his hands and shouting incantations.

"shut up!"

As Li Wei roared, he pulled the trigger. With the sound of the gunshot, the old man's head snapped back, and the twisted, vicious chanting was abruptly cut off.

But then, the old man's head, which had been tilted back, slowly returned to its original position. In the firelight, Levi and Katie saw a silver bullet strike the very center of his forehead. Incredibly, the muscles in the old man's forehead began to twitch on their own, as if gradually returning to normal, and then slowly expelled the bullet that should have been lodged in his brain.

"Ding."

As the bullets landed, the old man squinted and looked at Levi and Katie with a smug smile.

“Foolish mortals.”

The old man raised his hands, and the tentacles behind him swayed and waved in response.

"Everything you've done has been utterly meaningless; your courage and conviction are worthless before a great being! I don't know what you've discovered, but it's clear your foolishness has ruined you! You will…"

"boom!"

Gunshots rang out again, interrupting the old man's impassioned speech. He shook his head. This time, the old man's right eye was completely pierced by Li Wei's bullet, but quickly, under the firelight, his eye returned to normal.

"It seems he really can't be killed, Mr. Li Wei. What do we do now?"

Seeing this scene, Katie was also a little uneasy, while Levi remained quite calm.

"It's just that he's immortal, what's so great about that?"

As he spoke, Levi leaned close to Katie's ear and whispered a few words to her.

"Huh? This works too?"

"You're exaggerating the importance of immortality. He's just immortal, not invincible."

“That’s true…”

"Foolish...ignorant! Your blood and lives will be offered to the great ancient beings!"

Shouting, the old man stared intently at the two, his hands pressed on the pages of the ancient book on the altar. At the same time, the flames burning on the torches around them turned a sickly green, a pungent stench wafted out, and the surrounding darkness began to writhe and condense.

Then, they transformed into a flowing river of the Styx, seemingly originating from the abyss. Several winged, long-limbed monsters emerged from it, emitting piercing screams as they pounced on Levi and Katie.

"Goodness, if Annie were here, I'd love to ask her what she thinks of this thing!"

Looking at the monster before him, Li Wei muttered a complaint, but his hands didn't stop. He raised his gun, aimed it at the monster, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang bang bang!"

With a series of gunshots, the monster at the forefront let out a painful howl, crashed to the ground, and then turned into a foul-smelling, putrid liquid.

It works, so there's nothing to worry about!
Seeing that the monster could be killed by gunfire, Levi immediately felt relieved. If it were a monster immune to physical attacks, that would be one thing, but since this monster could be taken down by guns and cannons, there was nothing to be afraid of! "Katie, charge!"

Shouting at Katie, Levi raised his hands high, holding the Persuader and the Punisher respectively, aiming at the monsters swooping down from the sky.

Then, the passage of time began to slow down.

"Bang bang bang bang bang...!!"

Li Wei pulled the trigger, firing all the bullets in the cylinder in one go. Then he reloaded, fired again, and reloaded once more.

After repeating this process three times, the passage of time returned to normal.

"————!"

A hail of bullets, like a machine gun blast, swept in, mercilessly tearing apart the monster army before them. They screamed and fell, while Katie seized the opportunity to break through the encirclement, rushing forward and heading straight for the old man behind the altar.

Perhaps the old man hadn't anticipated that the monster he summoned would disintegrate in the blink of an eye. A flicker of panic crossed his eyes as he watched Katie rush towards him, but he quickly regained his composure and pointed at Katie. Then, as if receiving a command, the tentacles on the old man's back lunged at Katie.

Facing the tentacles lunging at her, Katie neither dodged nor flinched, but walked straight forward, simply extending her arm to shield herself. The tentacles naturally wrapped around Katie's arm.

But what happened next was completely unexpected for the old man.

As the tentacles wrapped around Katie's arm, the old man saw Katie extend her arm, flip it over, and firmly grasp the tentacles. She was wearing those silver metal gloves, holding the tentacles firmly in her hands, and then suddenly pulled them back.

"————————!"

The old man felt an overwhelming, irresistible force surge through him. Before he could even scream, he was pulled from behind the altar and launched into the air before crashing heavily to the ground. Then, Katie swiftly stepped forward and used her tentacles, like ropes, to tightly bind the old man.

Then, Katie tied a bow on the old man's back with her tentacles before standing up and waving to Levi.

"Alright, Mr. Li Wei!"

"Well, please."

At this moment, Li Wei also came over. Perhaps because the old man was pulled away from the side of the altar, the ceremony was forced to stop. The torches that were originally emitting a green glow around them now regained their original warm red light.

"hehe."

Looking at the old man in front of him, who was bound like a rice dumpling by his tentacles and had a bow tied on his back, Li Wei smiled slightly.

"You think you're invincible, huh? You think you're so powerful just because you're immortal?"

As he spoke, Li Wei glanced at the mission prompt that had just appeared in front of him.

Activate the quest "Eternal Death"

Objective: To disrupt the ritual and completely kill the wizard.

Disrupting the ritual is easy, but completely killing this wizard... well, that's a bit of a hassle.

"You can catch me, but you can't kill me..."

The old man glared fiercely at Li Wei.

"And I have found the secret to successfully summoning the Great Old Ones. One day, I will complete the ritual and successfully summon the arrival of these great beings. At that time, you will all be utterly destroyed!"

"Well, I don't think that day will ever come."

As Li Wei spoke, he reached out and searched the old man's body. He quickly found a diary in the old man's pocket, then opened it and began to examine it carefully.

Through this diary, Li Wei finally understood what had happened, including why the corpses were abandoned in the forest—it turned out that the old wizard had no idea where the corpses were thrown; he had simply summoned the monster called Byakki and ordered it to dispose of the bodies.

As a result, those monsters were just thrown wherever they were.

And also...

"You're over a hundred years old, and this ceremony still hasn't been successful?"

After reading the diary, Li Wei looked at the old wizard with a mixture of amusement and exasperation. He learned from the diary that the ritual the old wizard had been chanting about to grant eternal life had never actually been completely successful!
Only the old wizard succeeded once, but he didn't know how he did it, and it wasn't a complete success. Because if he had succeeded completely, he wouldn't have become such an old man, trapped in such a weary and frail body.

After that, the old wizard kept trying, but he never succeeded.

Until now.

However, Li Wei did find a clue.

According to the old wizard's diary, when he was being chased by the villagers, he desperately held this terrifying book and recited the incantation. The old wizard's diary also stated that immortality was likely related to this "Book of Dijan," which is why he asked the headmaster to find the book and retrieve it.

If that's the case, then it's much simpler.

Li Wei closed his diary and looked at the magic book on the altar, which remained open and motionless.

"You, what do you want to do?"

The old man was startled when he noticed Li Wei's gaze.

"No, you can't do that! It contains secrets from the eternal past! The truth of this world! The mysteries of the endless void…!"

"What does it have to do with me?"

Li Wei silently loaded an incendiary bomb into the Persuader, then aimed at the Magic Book and pulled the trigger.

"boom!"

The next moment, flames erupted and rose up, instantly engulfing the ominous-looking demonic book.

"No-------!"

As the demon book was engulfed by flames, the old man let out a heart-wrenching wail, looking as pained as if he were seeing his beloved woman in bed with another man.

However, the wailing soon ceased. Li Wei turned to look and saw the old man's body begin to disintegrate, like a stone sculpture. His skin and bones began to turn into fine grains of sand. In the blink of an eye, the old man had vanished, replaced by a pool of dust on the ground that resembled ashes.

At the same time, Li Wei heard the system notification that the mission was completed.

(End of this chapter)