Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 393 Fierce Battle in the Air

The Cyclops turned on all its lights, illuminating the surroundings in a pure white light.

The dazzling light seemed to enrage the birds, who turned and swarmed back towards the Cyclops. The Cyclops, naturally, wouldn't stand idly by in the face of this attack. Soon, machine guns and anti-aircraft guns roared into action, bullets forming a dense anti-aircraft barrage that swept across the flock of birds.

The other soldiers ran around, dragging bird nets they'd taken from the warehouse and covering the warship's surface. They clearly hadn't used them much either, their movements somewhat clumsy. The remaining soldiers raised their guns and fired futilely into the air, trying to at least slightly slow down the flock of birds.

Many birds were hit by bullets, screaming as they turned into bursts of fire in the air, but some birds broke through the barrage and rushed toward the Cyclops warship.

This is war.

High in the sky, Li Wei also witnessed all of this through his reconnaissance scope, and silently sighed. Although this world has now experienced a mysterious resurgence, it's clear that there are no powerful beings like those in online novels who can single-handedly take on an entire army. In Li Wei's view, among the enemies he's encountered, the only mysterious beings capable of withstanding this level of warfare, excluding the Dream Realm, are that giant dragon and the sea monster.

Even statues are no good; the moment one of those things crawls out of the hole, it'll be blown to pieces by a mortar in no time.

The sea monster mainly had the advantage of terrain. After all, in Li Wei's memory, this world didn't seem to have invented anything like a submarine yet, and even if the warships on the surface had strong firepower, it would be difficult to cause any damage to the sea monsters located on the seabed—in addition, the concept of depth charges didn't seem to exist in this era.

Dragons are fine for dealing with infantry, but they're a different story when it comes to air power. When Li Wei first saw a dragon, his immediate reaction was to bring his fleet to engage it. As it turns out, with enough airships and sufficient firepower, dealing with a dragon is not a problem.

Anyway, Li Wei had no choice. Although he had killed so many mysterious creatures, he could only surrender when faced with military-level combat. That's why he was so determined to get an airship—as long as he could fly high enough, he wouldn't be affected by the war.

Besides, there's nothing he can do right now.

I don't know what's going on with General Hao. I clearly reminded him before.

Li Wei looked down at the battlefield and shook his head. There was no room for him to intervene below, and he wouldn't allow the Eye of the Sky to lower its altitude arbitrarily. After all, birds could fly several thousand meters, although they probably couldn't fly more than ten thousand meters. But if Li Wei descended, they might attack the Eye of the Sky.

The Sky Eye is only equipped with howitzers and anti-aircraft guns, and is not designed to deal with flocks of birds.

It seems the Kingdom of Krant has indeed created anti-air chimeras; is this their source of confidence against the Empire? Indeed, a large flock of birds is difficult to eliminate no matter how you fight them. No wonder swarms of insects in games are always the most difficult to deal with—a dangerous, highly lethal, and swarming group of creatures is truly hard to handle with mechanical creations.

Hmm? It doesn't seem like there's absolutely no way out? Thinking of this, Li Wei suddenly remembered a scene he had seen in a movie before. Although he didn't know if it would work, perhaps it could be used to deal with these chimeras?
But we'll talk about that after this night.

All he can do now is do what he can do.

found it.

Li Wei squinted, staring at the life-giving light emanating from the mountaintop below. This wasn't difficult. He only needed to follow the flock's trajectory to find out where they had been released from.

Now, he has found the attacker.

"That's it! Kill them!"

Seeing the distant flames, the Krant soldiers atop the mountain shouted and waved their hats excitedly. They had been seething with anger since their defeat that day, and now was the time to vent their fury. Watching the Empire's filthy airships explode into fireballs in the air, they were practically jumping for joy!
Now they just hope to see that huge airship explode and crash as well, that would be perfect!
However……………

"Something is not going well."

The lead soldier raised his binoculars and looked at the warship in the distance.

"This airship doesn't seem to have suffered much damage... That's strange, the firebirds we released were enough to blow the entire ship into the air!"

As the soldiers spoke, the flames erupting around them could be seen to be decreasing, indicating that the birds had been almost completely wiped out.

"let's go."

Until the last burst of fire appeared, the Cyclops remained steadily suspended in the air, leaving the soldiers somewhat frustrated. They had released nearly a thousand firebirds, but had only destroyed a few of the enemy's reconnaissance airships... Now they could only hope that the airship was severely damaged, so that their trip wouldn't have been in vain.

So he could only put down the binoculars, sigh, and then lead the others away.

No one noticed that in the pitch-black night sky, a pair of eyes were indifferently watching them.

For General Hao, this was clearly a very bad night.

Although Li Wei had indeed warned General Howe that the enemy might have anti-air chimeras, General Howe found them to be far more formidable than he had imagined when he actually faced them. These creatures would fly forward relentlessly, then crash headfirst into anything in their path, exploding instantly.

Not only were the warships damaged, but some soldiers also died as a result. Fortunately, the bird nets were more effective than expected. Many birds that should have crashed into the warships were caught in the nets and sticky glue and were struggling and making sounds like howling ghosts.

After the battle, the first thing General Hao did was lock up the adjutant on duty, awaiting court-martial. He had instructed that any message from the Sky Eye should be relayed to him immediately, but this guy actually didn't bother him because he thought the message was unimportant?
He'd rather these guys bother him! To save him from that headache of diplomatic affairs!

Sure enough, their previous victory in Melisia made these guys careless. This was a battlefield! Their opponents weren't just the Melisian barbarians with their muskets, but the Kingdom of Krant! These guys really thought they were from Melisia! Now, they've learned their lesson!
Fortunately, most of the armored airships escaped attack; only a few reconnaissance airships were damaged, and the Cyclops's damage was not severe, with its vital propulsion system well protected. However, that was due to the bird nets. In fact, just looking at the countless birds entangled in the nets, struggling incessantly, gave General Howe a chilling feeling.

He could imagine that if those birds destroyed the propulsion system, his victory today would become a complete joke. He probably wouldn't even have the chance to face a military court... He would definitely crash into the airship, and that would be the end of him.

However, what was originally a flawless victory ended up with such a flaw, which greatly displeased General Hao. It was as if he had painstakingly painted a picture, only to have part of it smudged at the end – just thinking about it made him furious.

"Report sir!"

Just then, a messenger walked in, saluted General Hao, and handed him the intelligence report.

"The message from the Eye of the Sky has just been decoded!"

"what?"

General Hao hurriedly walked up to the messenger, took the intelligence, and saw that it was a printed map, a coordinate and a line of text.

The location of the enemy's main base has been confirmed.

"it is good!"

Upon seeing this, General Hao involuntarily clenched his fist and excitedly pumped it. Then he pressed a button, and soon the second mate walked in.

"Sir."

"What is the current status of the Cyclops?"

"The general situation is alright..." "Is there a problem with the firepower system?"

"It's a minor issue, nothing serious."

"very good."

General Hao nodded, then looked at him with a serious expression.

"I'm giving you eight hours. Within eight hours, you must ensure that the entire warship is completely free of any problems, just like it came straight from the factory!"

"clear."

The second mate didn't ask any further questions, simply saluted, and turned to leave.

General Hao stared coldly at the map in his hand, his eyes filled with murderous intent.

When evening comes... it will be our turn to return the favor by giving you a warm welcome!

The war machine began to run, and the soldiers bandaged their wounds and prepared for battle.

But all of this had nothing to do with Li Wei.

"At night..."

Li Wei looked at the note in his hand, yawned, and then stood up.

"I'm going to my room to sleep for a while. Call me if you need anything. I've been staying up all night these past two days, and I feel like I'm turning into a night owl."

As he spoke, Levi left the bridge. Lieutenant Horn followed him before stepping forward.

"Sir..."

"Huh? What's wrong?"

"Excuse my bluntness, but isn't your work a little too... relaxed?"

"How to say?"

Li Wei turned to look at Lieutenant Horn, who hesitated for a moment before continuing.

"It may be somewhat impolite to say this, but as a Thistle Knight, this is your first battle. If you fail to achieve any results, it might affect your reputation in the Empire..."

"Don't worry, Lieutenant."

Upon hearing Lieutenant Horn's words, Li Wei chuckled.

"We deserve the most credit for this victory, and isn't that a good thing? We don't need to fight like everyone else; we can just relax high in the air and secure the win. The nature of warfare has changed, Lieutenant Horn. When dealing with monsters, we might still need some troublesome methods, but when it comes to humans... well, this is no longer the era of horseback warfare."

"I'm sorry, I still don't quite understand."

Lieutenant Horn still didn't seem to understand what Levi was talking about. When dealing with monsters, Levi's approach was simple and direct. Lieutenant Horn understood that the Sky Eye was responsible for providing air cover and attack. However, in the current battle against the Krant army, Levi had only kept the Sky Eye patrolling at high altitudes, occasionally relaying orders to the Cyclops.

In Lieutenant Horn's opinion, this was far too leisurely; it didn't look like a war at all.

"The situation of the war has changed, and it will change even faster in the future. Perhaps one day it will become something you can't even imagine."

"Something I can't imagine?"

"For example, if you fire a cannonball in the Empire, it can hit the capital of Krant."

At this point, Li Wei chuckled.

"Then they won't dare to hit us."

"I'm sorry, sir, I still find it hard to imagine how big a shell would be needed to do that."

Lieutenant Horn frowned and tried to think it through, but no matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure it out.

"Besides, at such a distance, isn't it possible to miss?"

"Oh, it's okay if it misses."

"why?"

"As long as it is powerful enough, it doesn't matter where it hits."

As Li Wei spoke, he patted Lieutenant Horn on the shoulder.

"Okay, I'm going to sleep now. Call me if you need anything."