Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 441 The Deserted Town
Fog is a relatively common prop in horror movies. Its main function is to show the protagonists walking along when they suddenly see something in the fog, and then after a while, they find that their companions have silently disappeared into the fog.

Fortunately, Li Wei did not encounter such a distressing situation. Or rather, although he was mentally prepared, nothing he expected happened along the way.

Of course, this is also related to the environment here. In fact, after walking in, Li Wei found that it was not the kind of dense fog in the movie where you could not see your hand in front of your face and could not distinguish people and animals a meter away. On the contrary, it was still very clear within a few dozen meters. There was a thin fog a little further away, but it did not affect the observation in a particularly large way.

It's the kind of car that allows you to drive on the highway with fog lights on.

Conversely, the fog above and around the edges was extremely thick, so thick that you couldn't even see your own forearm if you stretched out your hand.

Upon seeing this, Li Wei immediately thought of a scenario, so he decisively turned around and headed back the way he came.

Then, a moment later, he emerged from the mist again and appeared before Katie and Elizabeth.

"Alright, now I understand. This place is a no-go zone."

Seeing the girl reappear before him and the familiar road, Li Wei was not surprised at all; on the contrary, he felt relieved.

It's still a pattern within my own understanding, even if it only allows entry but not exit.

If there's no reaction in this thick fog, it will only worry Li Wei, after all... fog can cause all sorts of trouble in horror movies.

Now that I know what the fog is for, I can relax. It's like a crime scene investigation; as long as you know how someone died, you can relax. Even if you don't find the killer, it doesn't matter, because once you determine the cause of death, you can follow that path and eventually catch the killer.

On the contrary, if the cause of death cannot be determined, then the problem becomes much bigger, with all sorts of possibilities...

"let's go."

Li Wei collected his thoughts, checked his equipment, and spoke to the two men. Then the three of them walked forward along the mountain path.

What do you think caused this situation?

Li Wei looked up at the sky. The sky was covered with dark clouds, completely blocking out the sunlight. It was also relatively dark below, but it was still alright, similar to an ordinary overcast day.

But this is definitely not ordinary natural weather.

"Was it done by that evil spirit?"

Katie whispered something. Ever since she learned that the case involved an evil spirit, Katie had stayed by Levi's side and hadn't dared to go far.

“According to church records, there has never been such a case recorded.”

Sister Elizabeth also shook her head.

"What about the legends?"

"If it's just a legend, then there are even more outrageous stories than this, but something like this..."

Sister Elizabeth paused here, recalling the events.

“I did read in church records that in a certain Western country, there is a night called Nightmare Night. Every night on that night, every household keeps their doors tightly shut, and everyone kneels before the All-Seeing Eye to pray for the Holy Lord’s blessing and protection. Those who do not pray or recite scriptures, or who go out at night, will disappear forever and never return.”

"What's the reason?"

"It's just a legend, and we don't know if it's true or not. It's just a record of local customs and traditions."

"But that does explain where the missing people went."

Li Wei nodded. In anime and games, places like this are called barriers. In his hometown, they're called "ghost walls." Basically, once you go in, you can't get out. No matter how you turn around, you just wander aimlessly, lose your sense of direction, and then you disappear.

"By the way, have you ever encountered any cases involving evil spirits?"

Levi looked at Elizabeth curiously and asked, "In their team, everyone usually does their own thing. Currently, only Levi and Henry frequently handle mysterious cases. Anthony mostly does his own intelligence work, and as for Elizabeth… well, that's hard to say."

"I've had it appraised several times."

Elizabeth's expression was calm and her mood was stable.

"The results of it?"

"It's all fake, there's nothing real."

After asking a few more questions, Li Wei finally understood what Elizabeth's main role was in the Holy Bishop's office. To put it bluntly, she was mainly responsible for "evaluating" the authenticity of the information passed to the Holy Bishop.

For example, if a child is born somewhere, a holy relic appears in a church, or someone is possessed by a demon and talking nonsense, Elizabeth will go over to see if it's true or just a hoax.

Unfortunately, she mostly encountered people who were pretending to be ghosts or spirits.

"Can you see this too?"

"Yes."

Elizabeth nodded and then patiently explained.

"Sometimes, parents claim that their children are possessed by demons, but in reality, it's just that they have an excessive desire to control their children, and the children are extremely resentful. Perhaps some children have been enduring it until they can't take it anymore and suddenly explode, which scares their parents. Because they can't understand why their usually obedient children would suddenly become so rebellious, they think it's possession and seek help from the church."

"Wow, is that even possible?"

“Of course, there are actually many such cases…” As she spoke, Elizabeth told Levi and Katie a few more cases of spoofing that she believed to be true. Unlike detectives like Levi who only act when someone dies, the church has a more complex set of responsibilities, somewhat like a neighborhood committee. The priests are like neighborhood committee aunties, and they have to get involved in things like arguments or conflicts in the neighborhood.

Li Wei, on the other hand, is like a serious crime squad member; he only looks at cases that involve seven or eight deaths. Ordinary neighborhood disputes are even less within Li Wei's scope of concern.

On the contrary, what Elizabeth said was quite interesting.

As she just mentioned, one example is when parents believe their disobedient child is possessed by a demon. Another example is a family whose son claimed to have seen an angel and been blessed by it. When Elizabeth investigated, she discovered that the angel the son spoke of was merely their male servant, who had a penchant for young boys. Every night, he would dress up as an angel and deceive the boy into having sex with him…

Well, I have to say, these things are really speechless and make one deeply appreciate the diversity of humankind.

From a certain perspective, Elizabeth could be considered a detective, albeit only half a detective. Because all she needs to do is prove things wrong. To put it bluntly, unless the matter involves a miracle, divine intervention, or angelic blessing, Elizabeth doesn't care and can simply leave it to the relevant authorities.

Unlike Li Wei, who insisted on digging up the other party's ancestors for eighteen generations and eating them like sweet potatoes before he would be satisfied.

The three chatted all the way and eventually arrived in the town.

However……………

"Goodness, this is getting interesting."

Looking at the small town in front of him, Li Wei frowned slightly.

The reason was simple: the entire town appeared deserted and deathly silent. Not only could Li Wei's [Soul Vision] not detect any soul points, but there wasn't even a sound. Furthermore, the town's layout was quite peculiar; everywhere you looked, there were various kinds of churches. Li Wei roughly counted at least a dozen.

"Aren't there too many churches in this area?"

Li Wei took out the information about the town and looked at it. According to the city's statistics, the town of Miropes had a permanent population of less than three hundred people.

A town of three hundred people has more than a dozen churches?

The number of churches per capita here is a bit high. In Chongqing, there's only one church per block, and in some places, there's only one every two or three blocks. Those are calculated based on a population of tens of thousands.

If someone were playing a building game, they would definitely be aiming for a religious victory; otherwise, it would be incomprehensible why he would build so many churches.

"What do you think, Miss Elizabeth?"

Li Wei turned to look at Elizabeth; with so many churches, they naturally fell within her research scope.

In response to Li Wei's question, Elizabeth looked around the church and remained silent for a moment.

“The construction of any church must have its reasons, and perhaps we can find some clues in the murals of the church.”

"I agree."

Li Wei nodded, recalling the church where the plague boy had been. There were murals there too, but they had been destroyed by the paladins. Otherwise, Li Wei might have learned some of the dark history of the Holy Lord Church.

Hopefully, there aren't any crazy paladins here.

"Boom!"

Katie pushed open the heavy, tightly closed door. Although there was a thick, huge bolt behind the door, it was obviously insignificant to Katie.

The gate opened to both sides, and the wooden bolt, which was more than half a meter thick, broke in two and crashed to the ground.

Li Wei walked into the church, looked at the scene before him, and raised an eyebrow.

In the church hall, all the way to the pulpit, candles were lit, casting a soft glow that illuminated the church.

Well, so here's the question: who lit these candles?

If it were a game, no player would care about this issue.

But reality is a different story.

Li Wei quickly scanned his surroundings but didn't see a single person in the church. However, this did not make Li Wei lower his guard. He walked inside and looked at the murals on the side.

Upon seeing these murals, Li Wei couldn't help but whistle.

Wow, we've really found a treasure!

"Sister Elizabeth, Katie, come and take a look at this."

Li Wei beckoned the two over, then pointed to the murals on the wall.

The mural depicts a man in a long robe amidst mountains, raising his all-knowing eye and roaring angrily. Surrounding him are fully armed paladins, and opposite him is a large group of dark shadows. Although the artist did not depict their detailed appearance, they generally have bat-like wings, hold spears, and have bright red eyes.

These monsters coalesced together, like a plume of black smoke rising from the mountaintop, rushing towards the man's location.

"Sister Elizabeth".

Seeing this, Li Wei turned to Elizabeth and asked.

Do you believe that demons actually exist?

(End of this chapter)