Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 311 Two Professions
"…Good morning, listeners. Here's today's top news. Breaking news: Last night, Imperial Detective, Earl Levi, the Thistle Knight, led a raid on Caesarblanca and captured the heads of the Imperial mafia there. According to intelligence, these mafia leaders came from all over the country and were gathered in Caesarblanca for a summit meeting of Imperial mafia leaders…"

The news from the city of Caesarblanca spread rapidly throughout the empire the next morning, becoming the most talked-about topic of conversation.

Unlike modern society, gangs in this era are closely intertwined with the lives of ordinary people, though this intimacy is not for good. Theft and robbery are the most common occurrences for ordinary people, but for small vendors, their greatest fear is gangs sending people to collect protection money.

This operation initiated by Li Wei has severely dampened the arrogance of the gangs, and in many places, gangs no longer dare to act recklessly as before.

However, this news still amused everyone.

The most amusing part is that all the gang leaders in the empire gathered together and were caught red-handed. It's laughable no matter where you tell the story.

Of course, the people of Cairo are not laughing.

At the same time, Li Wei also took this opportunity to announce that the special operation had entered its second phase.

Gang leaders from all over the country have been arrested, so what happens next?

Of course, we should strike while the iron is hot and kill him!

Therefore, the second phase is specifically aimed at cracking down on organized crime in various regions!

Furthermore, detailed rules were provided, including cross-regional reporting and cross-regional investigation!
Local organized crime is often inextricably linked to local politicians, so reporting it locally is practically useless. However, reporting from other areas is a different story. For the police, it's difficult to deal with local criminals, but they show no mercy when dealing with strangers from other places.

For whistleblowers, reporting from a different location is also safer.

Of course, most lords in various regions opposed this. Although the police were nominally government employees, they were actually mostly supported by the local lords.

The problem is that they are nominally subordinate to the Imperial Government!

The Queen wants to transfer officers to other locations to handle cases; would a mere policeman dare to disobey?
You don't want to work here anymore?
In truth, Levi didn't want to take swift action so quickly, as he was quite exhausted. However, the Queen wanted to seize this opportunity, and Levi had no choice but to agree. He understood the Queen's meaning. Although the empire had risen again, the lords of the various territories still retained some degree of independence. Of course, this was a legacy of history. For example, the Baskerville family in Delicatul—the local people clearly trusted the Baskerville family more than the royal family.

Does the Queen think this will work?

That's definitely not going to work.

This time, Li Wei captured the leaders of gangs all over the empire, giving the Queen a good opportunity.

As mentioned before, the development of local organized crime is inevitably inseparable from the political protection they receive. In other words, cracking down on these gangs is equivalent to seizing leverage over local lords and weakening their power.

In fact, this can be considered a combination of favorable timing, location, and people. If the three major families of Caesarblanca hadn't been so foolish as to hold such a ridiculous first All-Imperial Mafia Summit, the Queen wouldn't have been able to use it to interfere in the affairs of various territories.

But now... how could the Queen possibly let such a good opportunity slip by?

Her goal is to weaken local power and strengthen central authority!

Furthermore, such a large-scale operation naturally requires a significant police force. Therefore, the Queen has decided to expand the Imperial Police Department and, following Li Wei's suggestion, further refine the police structure. The advantage of this is that the Empire can then completely control local police departments through the police department of Fog City, which can be considered a form of reverse infiltration of local power by the central government.

Li Wei naturally understood what the Queen wanted to do, but he wouldn't object. After all, Li Wei came from a unified country and disapproved of local separatism and protectionist forces. To borrow a famous saying, "What 'you' and 'us'? The whole country is one chessboard."

I'm just a little tired... After defeating that vampire late at night, I was forced to hold a communications conference with the Queen for half the night. In addition to reporting on the fight against the vampire, I also had to discuss reform measures for the police department with the Queen. I was so sleepy.

On the contrary, the Queen looked remarkably energetic. This, it must be said, reminded Li Wei of a certain emperor in his country's history who had slaughtered a large number of officials, skinned them alive, and yet still possessed boundless energy, tirelessly handling state affairs every day…

Fortunately, the Queen isn't that extreme.

As for whether the empire will become what the queen hopes for... we'll see. Anyway, Li Wei is now practically tied to the royal family.

The advantage is that, since he wasn't from the empire, he could simply run away if things went wrong.

Of course, if things look bad... you should only run away when the situation becomes so dire that you can't handle it.

After a night-long conference call with the Queen, Levi returned to his hotel and fell asleep immediately, sleeping for the entire day until he woke up in the afternoon.

However, Li Wei had nothing to do after waking up. If Cairoblanca had maintained a semblance of liveliness for a while, it had been under lockdown since dawn. After taking down the leader, all that remained was to arrest the members of the three major families; even now, sporadic gunshots could be heard outside.

Of course, Li Wei doesn't need to worry about this; the Queen will send someone else to clean up this mess.

After finishing dinner, Li Wei sat on the sofa and then opened the system.

Li Wei usually prefers to wait until he has some free time to study upgrades, mainly so that he can think things through properly. After all, every upgrade is hard-won and needs to be carefully considered.

By the way, all the people who besieged the castle last night, except for Levi, including Henry and Anthony, are still in bed. The doctor's examination results showed that they had concussions and needed to rest. To this, Levi could only say... thankfully he had added mystical resistance.

This thing is only relevant in this era. If we went back to the Middle Ages, there would be rivers of bloodshed.

In the physical sense.

Incidentally, the ancient castle had been completely burned to ashes by the airship's incendiary bombs, leaving nothing but ruins. Li Wei sent the puppet cat inside to take a look, and only after confirming that all the flesh and blood inside had been burned to charred pieces and there was no longer any sign of life did he leave with peace of mind.

After all, many Hollywood movies feature a scene where the protagonist goes through great lengths to defeat the BOSS, and after the credits roll, there's another shot where, in the wrecked ruins, there's a sudden "click," and some survivor emerges from the wreckage.

Although it's obvious this is in preparation for a sequel, to Levi... this thing would be disgusting in real life.

So he preferred to go through it himself to make sure there were no problems. After cursing the director for being heartless in his heart, Li Wei opened the system and looked at the task rewards.

[Quest "The Death of Bloodlines" Completed]

[Time consumed: s]

Survey efficiency: S

[Impact/Effect: S]

Overall Rating: SSS

[Gain lifespan +300, plus an additional +100]

It's just as difficult as that forest—speaking of which, Levi gets annoyed just thinking about the forest he encountered when he rode the Orient Express. It's just that his airship isn't finished yet; once it is, it'll be the first thing he'll target! Levi is very petty; he hasn't forgotten how he fled from that forest in such a sorry state.

This revenge will be taken sooner or later!
[Special job skills can be selected]

[Bloodline/Witcher]

Professional skills...

Upon seeing this, Li Wei's eyes lit up. The last professional skill he acquired was the [Puppeteer] skill, which he obtained from the Big Head Doll case.

As for whether it's easy to use or not... well, everyone has seen it.

It is indeed useful.

Now, Li Wei has finally acquired his second professional skill.

Bloodline or Witcher, choose one!

Li Wei examined them carefully and quickly discovered their advantages and disadvantages.

The abilities of [Bloodline] come from vampires; basically, they are vampire abilities, primarily related to blood.

What Li Wei finds particularly enviable is that the job description for "Bloodline" states that "Bloodline" members can acquire knowledge and information from the blood of others by tasting their blood.

To put it simply, if you choose the "Bloodline" option, Li Wei can transform into a human blood analyzer. Just by tasting blood, he can investigate criminals' information through DNA, much like in modern police dramas, including whether they are male or female, old or young, and even compare data to determine if they are biological father and son, or father and daughter…

This initially excited Li Wei so much that he almost chose it.

But then he thought about it again and realized that this wasn't right.

With current scientific methods, we're not yet capable of detecting DNA. Even if we could analyze it from blood, others wouldn't be able to verify it. And unverifiable evidence is worthless. Not to mention, it would mean having to scavenge for blood everywhere.

It's one thing if she's a pretty girl, but what if she's a fat, unwashed otaku, or a homeless person, or... well... just thinking about it makes me nauseous.

Forget it. After all, I'm a handsome and dashing man. If people saw me licking someone else's blood, who knows what they would say?

Besides, vampires don't have a good reputation in this world.

The Demon Hunter is naturally the opposite of the Bloodline. As the name suggests, this class specializes in slaying demons and monsters. However, it's not the kind of class that directly confronts enemies. Instead, Demon Hunters excel at stealth, assassination, and ranged attacks, making them highly effective killers specializing in combating demons.

For Li Wei... isn't this perfect?
I'm a detective who specializes in dealing with these mysterious creatures, so the profession of [Witcher] is practically made for me!

Li Wei then made a quick decision.

Choose the Witcher!
[Gain Demon Hunter class skills]

[Witcher LV1]

[Acquire the skill "Demon Hunter Flying Knife"]

As the system message appeared, a gleaming silver throwing knife quickly appeared in Li Wei's hand.

Li Wei weighed the throwing knife in his hand, then tossed it forward.

The next moment, the throwing knife turned into a bolt of lightning and pierced the pillar next to it!

Hmm, not bad, very good.

Li Wei stood with his hands on his hips, looking with satisfaction at the throwing knife stuck in the pillar.

From today onwards, I can call myself Little Li Flying Dagger!
Hehehe, Li Wei has long admired this, and now he never expected that he would actually have this ability.

Li Wei glanced at the system again. No other rewards appeared, but just considering this professional skill alone, it was a huge win for Li Wei!
Next... well, first of all, let's go pick up the little mermaid.

(End of this chapter)