Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 430 Simple and crude

"right here?"

Looking at the river in front of him, Li Wei asked a question, while the little mermaid sitting in the wheelchair next to him nodded vigorously, looking at the lake in front of him with lingering fear.

This is an ordinary-looking lake; at least on the surface, there is nothing particularly strange about it.

"where is this place?"

Levi looked at Olivia, who frowned.

"This place is called the Lake of the Dead..."

"This name doesn't seem very auspicious."

"I don't know the specifics, but it seems like a war was fought here before, and many people died. There were a lot of corpses floating around, which looked like they were formed from the bodies, hence the name... Of course, if you ask me when this happened..."

Olivia shook her head.

All I can say is, a long, long time ago.

Since Olivia said so, it's probably just a local legend.

However, underwater...

Li Wei frowned, staring at the lake surface before him. Through the doll-like bird's vision, he could indeed see a dark red patch beneath. According to the little mermaid, was there a door down there?

In other words, those red things were sealed away?
But the little mermaid said she'd be attacked by seaweed... um...

Just as Li Wei was pondering, he suddenly saw several policemen appear on the opposite side of the lake, talking to each other as they looked at the lake.

"Those are police officers, right? What are they doing here?"

Looking at the police officers across the lake, Li Wei asked curiously. These officers were all in uniform, clearly not here for a vacation. Hearing Li Wei's question, Olivia glanced in that direction.

"That is a bit strange. We'll find out if we call them over and ask them, Little Black!"

With Olivia's command, the puppy instantly transformed into Cerberus, then howled loudly.

"Awooo—!"

Hearing the screams, the police officers were startled and turned to look in their direction. When they saw Olivia and Levi, they paused for a moment before rushing over.

"………………………"

Li Wei glanced at Olivia speechlessly.

What exactly did you use Cerberus for?

"My lord, Lord Li Wei!"

At this moment, the policemen also ran over, panting, and saluted the two men to report.

"What are you doing here? Are you slacking off on patrol?"

When Olivia asked the question, the lead policeman quickly waved his hand.

"No, my lord, it's actually... this lake is a bit strange, so we came to take a look."

"Strange?"

"Yes, lately, there have been frequent reports of accidents in the lake. While it's true that the chances of accidents in rivers and lakes are higher in summer, the number of deaths lately is a bit too high..."

"how many people?"

Upon hearing this, Olivia's expression darkened slightly, and she asked a question.

"Since the beginning of summer, there have been about thirty people."

"so much?"

It has to be said that even Li Wei was somewhat surprised.

The policeman sighed.

“At first, it was just some children playing by the lake. Their parents came to us and said that their children had gone to the lake and had not returned home. So we came to the lake to search, but we only found the bags and clothes left behind by the children.”

"Didn't they find the body?"

"This place has always been like this. The old folks say it's cursed and they usually don't go near it. But the young people are different, especially the kids. They don't listen to any talk of curses or anything like that; they think it's just superstition. Especially that boy from the Grimm family, who said he wanted to do something like a yacht party like the gentlemen in the big cities. So he borrowed a fishing boat to cruise around here, and he didn't come back the next day. His parents came to us crying..."

"how many people?"

"Thirteen or fourteen, so we had to come and take a look."

"………………………"

No wonder the death toll has increased so much all at once.

"But there's really nothing to see here, and we don't dare go into the water."

The police officer sighed as he spoke, while Olivia's expression turned somewhat serious.

"Is it that dangerous? Didn't you send anyone who's a good swimmer down there to check the situation?"

“In the past, a person who was good at swimming volunteered to go down to find the body of his friend. Before we could stop him, he jumped in and never came back up.”

"I can't believe such a thing exists..."

Olivia looked serious, and Levi began to ponder. It had to be said that this was the first time Levi had been stumped since he had transmigrated to this world. Water was never a place Levi liked. Moreover, this lake, though small, was very deep, and the power Levi possessed was almost impossible to utilize underwater.

Um?and many more.

Li Wei seemed to have thought of something and looked at the police again.

"You said before that this place has always been like this, so how many people died in previous years?" "Ah, yes."

The police officer nodded.

“In previous years, many young people came to the lake to play, but very few actually drowned. However, it's true that once someone drowns in this lake, their body is never found. But this year is very strange; almost no one has come back alive from the lake, or rather, everyone who comes here has disappeared…”

So that's how it is. In other words, people who drowned in this lake in the past would simply disappear without a trace. But the number of drownings wasn't large, or rather, drownings are naturally prone to occur near lakes and rivers in the summer, even in modern times. But this year's situation is clearly different. If in previous years people drowned "occasionally," this year it has almost become a place of certain death.

Li Wei raised an eyebrow, then looked at Olivia.

"Miss Olivia, what do you think?"

"What's your opinion, Sir Levy?"

"My opinion..."

Li Wei silently gazed at the lake.

"This is absolutely unacceptable, let's just pump out the water."

"Pumping water?"

"That's right, drain this lake and see what secrets it holds!"

Li Wei would definitely not go into the water to die, but conversely, as long as it's not in the water, then everything will be fine, right?

"Okay, it's decided!"

Olivia was a decisive person; she made a quick decision, then looked at the police officers and swiftly gave the order. The officers, though somewhat surprised, hurried off to carry out the task.

Large water pumps are not uncommon in Delicat, since fields need irrigation. When Olivia said she needed one, several water pumps were quickly delivered. Thick pipes were inserted, and then they started pumping water with a rumble.

The pumping process wasn't anything interesting to watch, so Levi and Olivia naturally kept their distance. Olivia took the opportunity to chat with Levi.

"By the way, I inquired about Gortat's situation. His family are devout Catholics who used to attend church regularly and actively participate in various church activities. The priest at the church had a deep impression of them, but since returning, he rarely goes to church anymore."

"oh……………"

Li Wei narrowed his eyes thoughtfully, then asked another question.

"By the way, when did you say his father committed suicide due to debt?"

"It was last year, probably in winter."

"I see..."

Li Wei nodded, indicating that he understood.

"Any ideas?"

"There is a little, but not much. It's not the time to talk about it now. Let's see how things go first."

When Olivia asked him a question, Levi shook his head.

"Now, we still need to figure out what he's going to do back in Delicatus. If he's a spy, it's nothing more than gathering intelligence or causing sabotage."

"But he's only one person, so his ability to cause destruction is limited, right?"

Olivia was equally puzzled. To put it bluntly, Delicat was just a large rural area, mostly farmland. Of course, there had been Luddites who sabotaged machinery before, but there weren't many of them now. Moreover, Olivia had strengthened security patrols within her territory, and similar incidents had basically stopped happening.

Curly-haired guy is all alone, what can he possibly do?
"That's hard to say. If he gets some kind of chicken or swine fever, that would be a problem too."

Li Wei didn't have any immediate ideas, so he just made up a random thought. After all, this guy who spent all his time at the radio station and never went out didn't seem like someone who knew anything about crops.

Olivia had no idea what to do; she was just a lord, not a detective, so she could only watch from the sidelines.

The two chatted and discussed things, but there wasn't much to say; it was all just idle chatter.

"Gathering intelligence?"

"Collecting Delicat's food reserves?"

"It's hard to say. It might also depend on whether there's a large amount of food being transported, since military rations need to be stockpiled during wartime..."

"grown ups!"

Just as the two were talking back and forth, suddenly, a worker rushed over and waved vigorously at them.

Something has been found in the lake!

Upon hearing this, Levi and Olivia quickly stopped talking and went back to the lakeside.

The lake level had already dropped by more than half a meter, and several water pumps taller than a person were now spraying water like waterfalls in all directions with a "whoosh whoosh whoosh" sound. The aquatic plants in the lake had also been exposed long ago, lying on the water's surface like wilted crops, swaying incessantly.

Of course, it doesn't matter.

Li Wei spotted the object in the lake immediately. Just as the little mermaid had said, it looked like a tomb, right next to the lake shore, with a heavy, tightly closed stone door.

Above the stone gate is the symbol of the All-Knowing Eye.

Yo ho?

Upon seeing this, Li Wei's spirits lifted.

This is going to be interesting.

　These past two days have been awful. Yesterday I wanted to fix the computer I brought back from Hainan. It was working perfectly fine, but then for some reason it couldn't read the hard drive and broke. Today someone came to repair it, and they think it's a motherboard problem, so I took it back with me.

　　Thankfully, my old computer is back in business. I really love this computer; it's been with me for over ten years. If it weren't for that damn CPU not being able to handle so many games these days… sigh…

　　
　
(End of this chapter)