Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 257 Hiding the Tree in the Forest
This plan has given Li Wei a lot of headaches.

This was, after all, a different era than his own, and the upper classes of the empire were clearly not benevolent people, let alone possess any concept of serving the people. Declaring slavery illegal was already an act of extraordinary leniency from these noble lords. To expect them to prioritize national development and the interests of the people was like hoping pigs would fly.

Even Her Majesty the Queen may desire a prosperous and powerful empire, but she might not necessarily care about the lives of her citizens, as long as they don't die. Or rather, without sufficient exchange of benefits, such conditions would be very difficult to meet.

So Li Wei had no choice but to find another way.

His proposal was reasonable, well-founded, and beneficial.

First, Li Wei is the Knight of Thistles, an earl, and certainly qualified to spearhead this proposal; his status and position are not an issue. While Inspector Lestrade might be more professional in law enforcement, no one would care about the thoughts of a mere minor inspector.

Secondly, Livi has just been appointed, and as the newly appointed Knight of the Thistle, you can't possibly disregard my first proposal. After all, I represent the royal family; if you reject my proposal, wouldn't that be disrespecting the royal family?

Moreover, since Li Wei was originally a detective, it was only natural for him to propose a bill on combating the crime rate in Chongqing. It would be absurd for him to propose a bill on tariff exemptions.

Of course, this only makes sense in theory, but theory alone is not enough. There are many things that seem obvious but just can't be done. In the end, it all comes down to four words: exchange of benefits.

Glass Street gave Li Wei a great inspiration.

Over time, these gangs, wielding power and influence, have indeed evolved into large-scale family businesses. The advantage, however, is their vast wealth and lucrative profits. When the time comes to arrest them, these areas will become unclaimed land, naturally reverting to national ownership. The royal family can then use this territory to negotiate with capitalists or nobles who wish to develop it.

As for what price he could get, that was not Li Wei's concern.

Ultimately, Li Wei chose this plan because it faced less resistance. After all, combating crime primarily relies on the police force, and the Wudu police, like the Prefect of Shuntian Prefecture, are easy targets—anyone with high status can easily bully them. So, if Li Wei were to bully them too, they wouldn't resist much; at most, he'd share some of the spoils with them, and they'd obediently comply.

After all, only by being easy to control can the plan proceed smoothly. If the army or nobles get involved, they will argue endlessly about the distribution of benefits, and by the time the argument is over, everyone will have left.

Besides, this isn't without its benefits for the police.

In addition, this also benefits Li Wei's actions.

Li Wei hadn't forgotten that the reason he'd made such a big fuss was ultimately to capture that strange painter and confiscate his paintings. This kind of thing was easier to do openly. If you investigated privately, and the news leaked out, others who knew the value of the paintings might smuggle or hide them, which would be much more troublesome.

But putting the plan out in the open makes things simple. With the phrase "confiscate the stolen goods," the reason is clear and legitimate. If you dare not hand them over, it's an illegal act of buying and selling stolen goods. Li Wei wants to see how many people are stubborn enough to directly confront the state apparatus.

With direction and goals in mind, things become much simpler.

Livy submitted the bill, which was approved by Parliament and then received the Queen's permission.

It took half a month to complete just one simple sentence.

But that's how bureaucracy works; the fact that it didn't drag on until next year is already a mercy from the parliament, considering Li Weixin's initial burst of activity as a new official.

Of course, the reason they agreed so readily was also related to the interests of these nobles. After all, everyone hoped to profit from the expansion project of the new city in Fog City, and the development and renovation of the lower city was a tough nut to crack. If Li Wei was willing to help them crack this tough nut, then those noble lords wouldn't mind giving him a hand.

Besides, the Queen has already given her permission. If you oppose it here, who are you disrespecting?

Of course, Li Wei wasn't idle during these two weeks. Using his abilities, he wandered around the city centered on Glass Street, gathering intelligence and pinpointing the location of his targets.

In fact, Li Wei had already located the painter named Christo. He lived on the third floor of an apartment building on Glass Street near the Iron Blade Gang. The Iron Blade Gang provided him with 24-hour protection, with three to five burly men always by his side as bodyguards. Even when Christo returned home, there were two doormen standing guard at his door.

It's clear that the Iron Blade gang and that Christopher were being quite cautious, but unfortunately it was all in vain.

Not only that, Li Wei also obtained information about the real estate held by the Iron Blade Gang and the Crocodile Gang. It was a huge amount of real estate. One can imagine that after this crackdown on organized crime, those lands will become unclaimed and will definitely fetch a good price.

However, this has nothing to do with Li Wei; the price he can get depends on the royal family's own abilities.

"Wow, to be honest, I didn't expect you to go this far."

Inspector Lestrade stood by the porthole, yawned, and then looked at Levi beside him, complaining. When Levi approached Lestrade earlier, he simply thought Levi wanted to solve a case, but he didn't expect that after coming back, Lestrade would launch a crackdown on organized crime, aiming to wipe out all the gangs in the lower city.

"Isn't this good for us too? These gangs are a menace wherever they go."

Li Wei snorted coldly. He wasn't wrong. Eliminating the gang would also help reduce mysterious incidents. From the nursing home incident to the gallery incident, these lawless bastards had indeed objectively contributed to the occurrence of certain mysterious cases. That bastard who facilitated the sale of illegal immigrants to the nursing home still hadn't been found; no one knew if he was dead or had escaped.

"That's right."

Inspector Lestrade nodded, then yawned.

"what time is it?"

"It's almost 4 o'clock, it's about time to take action."

Li Wei glanced at the pocket watch in his hand. He looked out the porthole at the foggy city. For this operation, Li Wei had borrowed an airship from the military through Henry (after all, his own wasn't finished yet), and he specifically chose to act at four in the morning, as this was the time of dawn, when even the gangsters who operated at night were most careless. At this moment, the airship was hovering above the lower city, the pitch-black night completely concealing its presence. Li Wei lowered his head, looked down through the X-ray lenses, and activated [Soul Vision].

Soon, countless radiant souls appeared before Li Wei's eyes, as densely as stars.

Yes, basically all the targets are in the reserved locations, no problem.

Li Wei glanced around, then focused his attention on one of the souls—among a sea of ​​white souls, only this one's radiance was tinged with crimson. This reminded Li Wei of Alice, except that Alice's soul was blue, while this soul's radiance was merely ordinary white.

And this soul belongs to the painter named Christo.

Why did he become like this?
Li Wei thought for a moment, then put the question out of his mind.

It's not too late to interrogate him after we catch him.

"Can you really see things like that?"

Levi withdrew his gaze, and at that moment, Inspector Lestrade also curiously came over, craning his neck to look at the lens below.

"All I see is black."

"Of course I have my own way."

Levi chuckled and brushed the topic aside. However, Inspector Lestrade knew that Levi had unique abilities, so he didn't dwell on the issue. He simply clicked his tongue and nodded.

"You know what, if only we could solve cases like this in the future, just find someone to sit in the sky and keep an eye on the ground all day, and we could spot any case that happens immediately... Hahaha, I guess that's just my wild idea."

"There will be more in the future."

Levi smiled slightly at Inspector Lestrade's words. Indeed, people of this era might think it was a pipe dream, but in Levi's time, Skynet had indeed covered the entire city and could monitor criminal activities anywhere.

On another note, Li Wei remembered seeing some paintings in his original world depicting people's fantasies about life in the 21st century, which included things like cell phones and the internet.

That's the difference between science fiction and fantasy, since science fiction can actually be realized.

For example, 20,000 leagues under the sea, or from Earth to the Moon.

However, given the nature of this world, it seems that fantasy is also possible.

As long as everyone believes...

Well, how should I put it... Li Wei really wants to see what this world will look like in the end.

After all, the reason why Li Wei's world has developed into a technological world is because they don't have the ability to "make their wishes come true." But even so, many people still believe in ghosts, spirits, UFOs, monsters, and the like.

But those things in this world really do come out and steal food, so Li Wei was very curious about what this world would be like if it developed to the level of his own world.

Moreover, thanks to the system, if he can continue to prolong his life like this, he might actually live to see that day.

However, that's all for the future.

Li Wei pulled himself out of his thoughts, shook his head, and looked at the city before him again. In his vision, a series of radiant soul lights flowed from all directions like streams toward the center where the glass street was located.

The action begins.

This time, Li Wei mobilized six police stations, totaling hundreds of officers, to conduct a sweep of the entire district. Of course, these police officers were just the "forest"; the real "trees" were MI7 agents, who were also disguised as police squads and mixed in among them. Since it was a coordinated effort between several police stations, there were naturally many people among them who didn't know each other, so there was no worry that the MI7 agents' identities would be discovered.

Li Wei wasn't worried about the information leaking out, because each police station was assigned a different task. They only knew the location they were responsible for and the people they were to arrest, and nothing else. The one in charge of overall coordination was Li Wei, who was in the air.

As long as he stays here to oversee the whole situation, none of those guys on the ground will be able to escape.

"Yes, very good, everyone arrived right on time."

Li Wei glanced at his pocket watch, looked down at the street again, and then picked up the radio.

"Let's get started."

Then, Li Wei gave the order.

(End of this chapter)