Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 287 I have an idea!

Betty the puppy's successful experiment led Levi to a completely new path—one that allowed him to apply the rules of this world.

He had always focused on living things, but after discovering that he could create soul cores, Li Wei realized—well, he could be bolder and there was no need to be confined to living things.

The fact that a ghost ship can serve as a soul core illustrates what? It shows that even inorganic matter can utilize this rule to acquire power.

In fact, using inorganic materials is more convenient and reassuring than using biological materials, since you are in control of them no matter what.

As for what to do, Li Wei had already figured it out.

In fact, there are quite a few works about similar things in modern times, such as robots used in space warfare, cars with their own artificial intelligence, and Skynet hunters from the future, etc.

Of course, even in Livy's time, these were still just fantasies, not reality.

But with a soul core, it's different!

Suppose Levi drew a robot for space warfare, and it became quite popular, what should he do next?

Of course, we'll just copy it exactly and build one directly in reality.

Of course, this "creation" only refers to the external appearance. As for jetpacks, power plants, and lightsabers, those are naturally impossible to build. Just like those models placed in parks in the modern world, they are merely for show.

After all, we don't have the capability or the technology.

However, once Levi obtains the soul core of that space combat robot through this work, he can attach the soul core to this large iron block and give it the same power as the robot in the work!

This is actually the same principle as ghost ships. People believe that ghost ships are ships that appear in the fog, mysterious and unpredictable, so they will look like that. And if you attach the core of a ghost ship to an ordinary ship, then the ordinary ship will also acquire the characteristics of a ghost ship.

Moreover, Li Wei saw the dawn of victory over the gods here!
Continuing with the previous example, if Levi could program that robot to defeat gods... hehehe... then maybe it really would possess the power to defeat gods!

After all, in online novels, the protagonists often fight against the heavens and the earth, and they often kill gods, right?
Of course, considering the current social environment, Li Wei could change his approach. As long as he doesn't target the Holy Lord, he shouldn't be dragged to the stake by the Church. Alternatively, he could exclude the Holy Lord and make other gods his opponent. That way, as long as he doesn't mention the Holy Lord, there shouldn't be any problems.

Anyway, according to the Holy Bishop's theory, all gods except the Holy Lord are evil gods, and evil gods should naturally be eliminated.

With that in mind, Li Wei began to happily ponder what would be the best choice as the core of his soul.

In Li Wei's view, robots are actually a very good goal.

This world has things like steam-powered mechs and knight mechs; people are no strangers to robot-like beings. However, because they need to boil water, the Empire's steam-powered mechs are basically just large water tanks with two or four legs, and then equipped with heavy cannons and machine guns—that's all.

However, Li Wei was simply drawing comics, so he wasn't worried about such things. After all, as long as he could create a soul core and attach it to it, it could move directly!

For example, he could design a power armor similar to that of a steam-powered soldier for his own use in his daily activities.

Then design a relatively tall robot to deal with monsters that are several meters to over ten meters tall. All you have to do is crawl inside it and connect to the robot with your power armor to move around.

Finally, we'll set up five other robot forms. If they encounter larger enemies, such as those tens or hundreds of meters tall, they can directly transform and combine to become even bigger and stronger robots!
In this way, we have small, medium, and large sizes!

Combining bodies is truly a man's romance.

As for the enemy, let's just blame the Luddites; they've done this kind of thing more than once or twice anyway.

"The Thunder King, a fusion of six gods, waaaaaahh ...

Humming a song, Li Wei happily doodled on the paper.

However, he wasn't entirely happy either…

"Uh... Alice, what are you looking at?"

"Dad? When will you continue drawing Betty's stories?"

"I'll draw it when I have an idea. I'm quite tired after just getting back..."

"Okay, Daddy, you should get some rest."

Clutching the puppy, Alice turned and left with a grin, while Levi glanced at the draft in his sketchbook.

Sigh... I never expected that just conducting an experiment would lead to such a mess. But it's not really possible to stop drawing altogether, since Li Wei still wants to see if his artwork will have any other impact on the puppy.

Well, to put it bluntly, this is just a guinea pig, used by Li Wei as a test subject to verify his hypothesis.

However... drawing for fun when you're bored and turning it into a job are two completely different things.

The thought of work made Li Wei reluctant to even pick up a pen. Although this publication had earned him a considerable amount of money, for Li Wei, it wasn't worth the effort he'd expended…

In short, let's take it slow.

The puppy quickly won the hearts of others, and Li Wei observed it closely. He discovered that the puppy wasn't like an NPC in a game, only performing pre-programmed actions; it often made moves not seen in the comics. But thinking about it, it made sense. Li Wei had simply attached the concept of "Betty the puppy" to it, much like the girl transformed into a vampire in the vampire case. Although she possessed vampire characteristics, her mind remained her own; she hadn't become someone else. Similarly, this puppy was more like a mutant.

There's a saying that different breeds of dogs have different personalities.

For example, sheepdogs are highly intelligent.

Golden Retrievers are gentle and friendly.

Huskies love to destroy things in the house.

Everyone wants to pet a teddy bear.

The puppy she picked up turned out to be more like the "Betty the puppy" breed from the comics than the "Betty the puppy" itself.

It's like turning from a poodle into a German Shepherd.

Although they are both dogs, the differences between them are huge.

In short, this puppy behaves very much like Betty the puppy in the comics: smart, gentle, understanding, intelligent, brave, and protective of its family.

To put it simply, it's more like a manifestation of the readers' impressions of the existence of "Betty the puppy".

It has to be said that having such a smart and well-behaved pet has definitely made the house much more lively. Alice also really enjoys playing with the dog. After all, besides studying at home, she mostly just takes walks nearby. Now that Betty is with her, Alice is naturally much happier.

Not only that, Alice takes Betty for a walk every afternoon. Clearly, she has grown fond of the little dog.

It's the same today.

"Hahaha, Betty, wait for me..."

Li Wei walked along the road, watching Alice running around happily with Betty on a leash, a smile on his face. Indeed, having a pet at home makes one more energetic. Judging by this, Li Wei could probably add a few more other dogs to the family.

After all, in his memory, there were several dogs in the village back then, such as Big Yellow who liked to bully others, Little Gray who was greedy, and Big Zhuang who was the village's leader and always led the village dogs to fight with dogs from other villages... Hmm, looking back now, the memories of my childhood are really interesting.

"father!"

Just as Li Wei was immersed in his past memories, he suddenly heard Alice's voice. He looked up and saw Alice waving at him.

"What's wrong, Alice?"

“Betty is acting strange…”

"strangeness?"

"Hmm... come and take a look."

Li Wei walked up to Alice and saw that the little dog was arching its back, staring intently ahead, blocking Alice's way, as if it were about to attack.

"What's wrong, Betty? What did you see?"

Alice crouched down and gently stroked the puppy, trying to calm it down, while Betty turned her head and barked twice at Alice and Levi, then turned her head away again, looking as if she were facing a formidable enemy.

"Ok?"

Seeing the puppy's expression, Levi raised an eyebrow. Betty in the comics had never acted this way before. Although Levi had been protected by his own puppy before, he hadn't drawn that part yet. In other words, the puppy's current behavior was clearly not the impression the reader had formed.

So what did it see?
Li Wei looked in the direction the puppy was watching warily. His gaze traveled across the street and landed on the shop across the street, which seemed to be a... store?
Seeing this, Li Wei frowned, then turned his head and patted Alice's head.

"Be careful, let's go take a look."

Li Weike also remembered that in the cases he had previously encountered that involved extraterrestrial life forms, there was a common feature.

That is, local creatures would be extremely disgusted with, and even refuse to approach, the places where those alien monsters are located.

For example, the police dogs were unwilling to approach the corpses in the woods at the beginning.

The forest surrounding the sanatorium was deathly silent; not even the chirping of insects could be heard.

Could it be that there's something related to alien monsters in that shop?
"Okay, Dad."

Alice picked up the puppy, nodded, and then obediently hid behind Levi. Levi, meanwhile, stared at the shop and sighed helplessly.

How come I ran into this mess as soon as I got back? Couldn't I have rested for a few days?
Muttering to himself, Li Wei walked toward the shop.

(End of this chapter)