Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 283 Times have changed
After giving instructions to Katie, Levi led Sophia into the basement. Since Sophia had been there once before, the two quickly found the tunnel leading underground and then entered the secret room.

There, someone was waiting for him, just as Li Wei had expected.

“I knew you would come, Mr. Levi, Miss Sophia.”

The bandaged man remained unchanged, standing before a massive stone door, looking at Levi and Sophia.

Where is Miss Katie?

Katie has other things to do.

Li Wei glanced at the strange man, then looked away.

"It seems you're eager to see your master?"

“I am not lying, Mr. Levi.”

The strange man's tone remained unchanged.

“As long as you open this door and enter, you can completely destroy the seal. In that case, the eternal night that shrouds this city will dissipate, and you can leave here... I am not lying.”

"But... but... that extraterrestrial demon..."

Sophia frowned, looking uneasily at the strange man, who shrugged.

“This is not something you need to worry about, miss. My master will know everything you have done and will approve of it. At least, you don’t need to worry about your souls being corrupted in the endless darkness.”

"………………………"

Upon hearing this answer, Sophia clenched her fists. She wanted to say something, but couldn't utter a word, and could only look to Levi for help. Levi merely glanced at Sophia before looking away.

"Alright, open the door."

"Then, please put these things up there."

The strange man moved aside, and Li Wei stepped forward. He stood before the stone door, gazing at the statue above. It was an all-seeing eye, missing its pupils, with a recess in the center specifically for setting sacred objects. Li Wei reached out and placed the two sacred discs and the golden sphere into it.

Just after Li Wei embedded the golden sphere, a flowing golden light flashed along the pattern of the Eye of All Wisdom before disappearing.

Upon seeing this, a hint of excitement appeared in the strange man's eyes.

"Now, Miss Sophia, please drip your blood onto the sphere."

"…Detective?"

Sophia finally couldn't help but look at Levi again and ask him a question, but Levi just nodded to her.

"It's okay, just do it."

"……………OK."

Sophia was clearly experiencing mixed feelings, but in the end, she decided to follow Levi's decision. She took out a small knife from her pocket, made a cut on her fingertip, and blood quickly welled up. Sophia then placed her finger on the golden sphere at the center of the Eye of All Knowledge.

Fresh blood dripped from the wound onto the golden sphere.

"—————————!"

The next moment, the entire Eye of Omniscience suddenly began to emit a golden glow, accompanied by a deep rumbling sound, and the stone door slowly slid open to the side, revealing the corridor inside.

"Thank you, miss."

The strange man gave Sophia a perfunctory bow, and Levi also looked at Sophia.

"Thank you for your trouble, Miss Krant. You can leave now, and it would be best if you left this castle."

"Ah, um... okay, I understand. Be careful, Mr. Detective."

Sophia hesitated for a moment, then nodded and turned to leave. At that moment, the strange man had already entered the passage, and Levi followed him.

The tunnel behind the stone gate wasn't particularly long or short. Li Wei and the strange man walked side by side, neither speaking. Under the lamplight, they could gradually see the tunnel changing. What was originally an ordinary tunnel slowly began to appear on both sides, resembling vines extending from the ground. These vines clung tightly to the tunnel walls like roots, as if drawing nourishment from them.

Gradually, the roots became denser and then turned into dark red chunks of flesh formed from congealed blood and flesh, covering the entire tunnel.

Then, the strange man stopped in his tracks.

"Lord Deans, it's been a long time."

The strange man looked ahead and spoke. Li Wei followed his gaze and saw that at the end of the tunnel, twisted flesh had formed a wall, blocking the way. In the very center of this solidified wall of flesh, a haggard human face could be seen, now fused with the wall itself.

Upon hearing the voice, the latter opened his eyes and looked at the strange man with a surprised expression.

"Harold...?"

"Yes, it's me. Are you surprised to see me?"

"...This is impossible. How did you break the seal and get in?"

"A bit of luck, and some hard work."

The strange man said, glancing at Li Wei.

“Thanks to some people who didn’t know the inside story who broke in, I was able to open this sealed door… And I also found your descendants. How about that? You didn’t expect that, did you?”

“…My descendant? You…!”

"Do you think that by killing everyone in the castle you can keep me out forever? How naive, Lord Deans."

Holy crap, this guy is ruthless.

Hearing their conversation, Li Wei raised an eyebrow. It seemed that Deans had gone to great lengths to prevent the bandaged monster from entering, even going so far as to slaughter his entire clan.

However, it must be admitted that this method is indeed effective.

"…………………"

The face seemed too lazy to pay attention to the bandaged man, and only looked at Li Wei.

"I don't know what he said to you, but if the seal is broken, the whole world will be destroyed!"

The bandaged man remained silent, merely sneering. Li Wei, on the other hand, stared at that face.

“I have a question, Mr. Deans.”

"...What's the problem?"

"Do you remember which year it was when this city was sealed away?"

Li Wei had no idea how much time had passed since the city was established; some said more than ten years, others said several decades. There was almost no contact between the outside world and the Great Salt Lake, and even the intelligence obtained by MI7 was vague.

"It's probably..."

Although he didn't know why Levi asked this, Deans still gave an answer.

"More than sixty years have passed..."

Upon hearing Deans's reply, Levi shrugged.

"Then, please open the seal."

"No, you can't do this! Once the seal is broken, that extraterrestrial demon will be fully awakened..."

This time, however, the strange man didn't chat with Deans anymore. Instead, he took out a strangely shaped dagger and stabbed it forcefully into Deans' face.

"Aaaaaaahh ...

A shrill scream rang out, and the strange man swung his dagger down with force. Deans' face, along with the wall, began to gradually crumble and dry up, like a plant that had lost its moisture. In just a moment, the screams disappeared, and the flesh that had covered the ground and blocked the way had completely turned into dry fragments.

Almost simultaneously, a thunderous roar came from the other side, causing the ground to tremble slightly.

"Our lord has awakened!"

Upon hearing the shout, the strange man became incredibly excited, then looked at Levi. "Detective, do you still wish to continue?"

"Of course, I still have things to do."

"Heh heh, it seems you now understand the great power of our Lord. In that case, join me and become his servant. Abandon this filthy human body and transform into a higher being! Immortal! Eternal! We will serve it forever!"

The bandaged man was extremely excited. He gripped his dagger and continued striding forward, while Li Wei shrugged and followed behind him.

The two passed through the last tunnel and then came to a huge hollow.

The void seemed bottomless, as if it led all the way to the earth's core. And the somewhat frenzied roar emanated from within the void, growing louder and closer—

"My lord! My lord! It is I, your most faithful servant!"

The bandaged monster lay prostrate before the hollow, shouting loudly, its eerie roar blending into the silence.

The next moment, a dark shadow darted out of the hole and flew straight upwards.

It looked like a giant moth, with a long body and claws. At that moment, these claws were like excavators, easily digging through the thick, hard stone wall. In the blink of an eye, the huge monster had dug a passage to the surface, let out an angry roar, and rushed straight to the ground.

"Our Lord has awakened!"

Seeing this, the strange man became even more frenzied.

"Soon, it will take to the skies and make everything it goes its own territory! All life under its wings will be assimilated and become a part of our Lord!"

"Um……………"

Listening to the strange man's frenzied cheers, Li Wei's expression became somewhat subtle.

"Sir, do I need to remind you?"

"What? What do you want to say?"

"Sixty years have passed, do you understand?"

“…………………?”

"I admit that, as it stands, this monster is very difficult to deal with. It is enormous, can fly, and seems to have the power to infect."

"...What exactly are you trying to say?"

"But that was sixty years ago."

Li Wei looked at the strange man and shrugged.

"I think you might not have considered this question—sixty years can change a lot of things. For example…some monsters that were once impossible to deal with don’t mean they are impossible to deal with now."

"Ha...hahahaha!"

Upon hearing Li Wei's words, the strange man paused for a moment, then burst into laughter.

"You mean, modern humans can defeat our Lord with just guns? Hahaha? That's utterly ridiculous..."

"Boom boom boom boom boom!!!"

However, before the strange man could finish speaking, a violent explosion and blasting sound suddenly came from the ground, followed by heart-wrenching screams and wails, which immediately changed the strange man's expression.

"No, my lord, my lord! What's wrong? What happened!"

The strange man turned around and stared fiercely at Li Wei.

"What have you done! You damned bastard! What have you done?!"

"It's very simple."

Li Wei remained remarkably calm in the face of the strange man.

"Just like I said, just because humans couldn't deal with something sixty years ago doesn't mean they can't deal with it sixty years from now..."

As he spoke, Li Wei looked at the strange man and smiled.

"After all—times have changed."

"No, this is impossible, this is impossible...!"

The monster screamed loudly, and then a pair of wings that looked like moths appeared behind it. Then the monster spread its wings and flew into the tunnel dug by the giant monster.

Seeing this, Li Wei shrugged and then snapped his fingers.

【Teleportation】!
The next moment, he emerged from the depths of the earth and arrived at the top of a tower in the Krant family castle, where Katie was standing holding a flare gun.

"Hey Katie, how's it going?"

Levi greeted Katie.

"Ah, Mr. Li Wei!"

Upon hearing Levi's voice, Katie turned around and looked at him.

"Perfect timing, just as you said! I had barely sent the signal when that monster dug itself out of the ground and came out!"

"and then?"

"And then it turned out like that."

Katie smiled and gestured towards the distance. Levi looked up and saw that not far from Krant Castle, what should have been a residential area had been completely razed to the ground. In the ruins, a monster that looked like a reconnaissance boat, and resembled a combination of a fly and a moth, was smoking and trembling on the ground.

"Give me the flare gun."

"Ok!"

Li Wei took the flare gun, reloaded it, raised it again, aimed in the direction of the monster, and pulled the trigger.

"Bang-------!"

A series of red flares streaked across the sky and flew toward the monster.

This is exactly the signal Li Wei is giving!

"———————!"

A moment later, a series of fires and explosions suddenly appeared, completely engulfing the giant moth!
"roar-----!"

Amidst the flames, the moth struggled desperately, letting out a cry of despair. However, its body was already riddled with holes; the flames from the high-explosive incendiary bomb relentlessly consumed its flesh, leaving the monster utterly powerless to fight back!

"That's why I say, times have changed."

Looking at the alien monster struggling amidst the artillery fire on the ground, Li Wei sighed. Through the Necronomicon, he already knew the monster's true identity. In truth, if this so-called "extraterrestrial demon" was truly some kind of cosmic evil god, it would certainly be much more difficult to deal with.

The problem is that, based on the information obtained through the Necronomicon, Li Wei discovered that this creature is merely a lower-level race. At best, it can fly, is large, can infect other creatures, and has some telepathic abilities.

To put it bluntly, in a science fiction movie, it would just be a relatively ordinary alien monster.

It's not even as good as the Alien.

Of course, sixty years ago, or even in the time of the ancestors of the Krant family, such a terrifying monster was enough to dominate a region.

But now... if I didn't know, fine, but if I did know, would I make you fly?

is it possible?
The night that had shrouded the sky had dissipated, and sunlight once again descended, enveloping the city. But at this moment, the monster was completely unable to take to the sky; its wings had been completely blasted to smithereens in the first wave of explosions. Although it desperately wanted to dig another hole to hide, the continuous bombing and burning gave it no chance!

Li Wei stared at the battlefield below until he heard a pleasant system notification sound, at which point he finally breathed a sigh of relief.

"Alright, all done, let's go."

Then, Li Wei spoke.

(End of this chapter)