Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 450 Don’t forget your original intention
Faced with these two skills, Li Wei pondered for a moment and ultimately chose [Infinite Control].

As can be seen from the skill description, the [Soul Legion] is basically a frontal assault, but for Li Wei, who is backed by MI7, he can just use it directly if there is no one else around, so there is no need to make a bunch of puppets himself.

Besides, in this day and age, human wave tactics are really useless. Even if you're a sharpshooter, I can just fire a single shot and kill you. Even a group of sharpshooters would be killed.

It's only natural that the quantity can't match the equivalent.

However, [Infinite Control] is different. Li Wei can simply place a puppet in his home, which is equivalent to planting a ward, allowing him to return to the city anytime, anywhere.

After all, he's a knight, and Invincible Hearthstone is a standard skill for knights, okay?

Of course, this means that Li Wei can only manipulate a maximum of ten puppets at a time, but Li Wei also discovered that there are loopholes in this standard.

The vulnerability lies in the skill "Shadow Shift".

Li Wei had long discovered that when shifting forms, one could exchange positions with the Creator, which was not surprising.

However, he always went there fully clothed, which means that the [Shadow Shift] not only transferred Li Wei, but also the clothes and weapons that accompanied him.

So Li Wei had an idea: suppose I pack a group of dolls into a box, and then swap the box with the target object, what is swapped? The box or the dolls inside?
After this idea was verified, Li Wei used it to deal with the demons.

Yes, they replaced the doll along with the doll.

In other words, although the "Shifting Shadows" technique swaps positions 1:1, the range of this "1" can be very large! It could even be a shipping container, a ship, or an airship!
In this way, although it seems that Li Wei can only control a maximum of ten puppets, which is a bit few, if he can make good use of the [Shadow Shift] ability, then it's a different story.

Just like how Li Wei dealt with the demon this time, one sprite can be exchanged for ten boxes containing sprites, then the ten sprites can be positioned and exchanged for ten standard bombs...

It now appears that the skill 【Teleportation】 does not have any special requirements regarding the properties, volume, size, or weight of the transferred material, but it must conform to the “1:1” description.

Even if you can only exchange a grain of sand for a box of gold, as long as it's a 1:1 ratio, you can pass the test.

This makes the [Infinite Manipulation] skill even more useful.

This case yielded many results. Li Wei saved up a lot of lives and gained a powerful skill, so he happily went back to report.

"You actually encountered a demon?"

Even the old butler was quite surprised after reading Li Wei's report.

Why not bring it back?

"That guy was dying at the time, there was no way to bring him back."

Li Wei shook his head. He had considered putting the demon in a bottle and bringing it back for the Queen and the others to see, but then he thought it best to avoid such trouble. It was difficult to judge what the Queen was thinking, but keeping a demon alive was definitely not a good thing. If the Queen saw it and found it interesting and wanted to keep it, his objections would be useless.

They might as well exercise their on-site decision-making power and just kill him outright.

"By the way, what's Susie's family situation like?"

Li Wei immediately changed the subject and asked a question. The old butler paused for a moment, then flipped through the files.

"She is an only child and lives with her mother."

Is there any compensation?

"Are you planning to apply for it for her?"

"Ah."

Li Wei nodded.

“If these three people hadn’t died outside, we wouldn’t have discovered the existence of this demon. I think she sacrificed those three people to warn us.”

Li Wei believed the demon's words were half true and half false. In his view, since the demon had already cursed those three people, the best course of action would be to keep them alive and then find a way to cause trouble, rather than killing them outright. Elizabeth said that demons would make deals with humans to obtain their souls, and perhaps Susie had indeed made such a deal with the demon, letting it kill them in exchange for the demon possessing her.

Whether she used this method to inform the Seventh Bureau is now unknown, but in any case, if these three people hadn't died outside, the Seventh Bureau wouldn't have paid attention, let alone sent Li Wei to investigate, discover the existence of the demon, and eliminate it.

Regardless of whether Susie's initial intention was revenge or to deliver a message, the result of her actions was indeed the elimination of a hidden demon.

Li Wei felt that this was a meritorious deed that could be rewarded.

"Okay, I'll report it."

"Oh, and submit the reports those three guys wrote as well, and circulate them throughout the department."

Li Wei, of course, had not forgotten the report written by those three idiots.

"This thing is as good as nothing; it can't be used for intelligence gathering at all, and it won't pass the review. Tell the other teams that from now on, when they write reports, they need to be clear and specific. Don't try to be mysterious; otherwise, they'll be the ones who suffer the consequences."

"By the way, you haven't been watching the news these past few days, have you?"

"what happened?"

Hearing the old butler ask this, Li Wei looked at him curiously. He had only been gone for a few days, could something have happened?

"Hehe, you'll know if you read the newspaper."

The old butler chuckled and handed the newspaper to Li Wei, who took it and glanced at it.

"Francis's great victory?"

“That’s right. Francis took advantage of this opportunity to launch an attack on the Kingdom of Krant and successfully recovered a large amount of land that had been ceded to the Kingdom of Krant. Right now, in the City of Flowers, those Francisans are celebrating with flags raised.”

"oh……………"

After reading the report, Li Wei felt he had no particular thoughts. The Kingdom of Krant was truly unlucky to be in such a state. What Francis had reclaimed were their former industrial strongholds, and still are the Kingdom of Krant's industrial heartland. Losing these places would undoubtedly cripple the Kingdom of Krant.

"Actually, it was also the Sasha Alliance that caused this," the old steward commented.

"The Sasha Alliance's campaign against the Duchy of Seth has been unsuccessful, and they were even caught off guard by a surprise attack in the valley. They urgently requested support from the Kingdom of Crant. Since William II had already made his promise, he naturally had no choice but to send two legions. As a result, Crant now has to send troops to the south to aid the Sasha Alliance, while also having to divide its forces on both the eastern and western fronts to fight against Francis and the Western European Empire, and they also have to worry about an attack from the Empire..."

At this point, the old butler shook his head.

"So what's so good about alliances? It's just asking for trouble."

"Yes."

Li Wei nodded in agreement. It was understandable for small nations to form alliances against larger ones, but alliances between large nations were truly troublesome, because you could never be sure if your ally would cause any trouble. The Kingdom of Krant had been badly burned by the Sasha Alliance this time, so it's no wonder the Queen chose neutrality.

What's the benefit of allying with countries like Francis or Western Europe? What if they think they have the Empire backing them and start causing trouble, leaving the Empire with no choice but to help? What's the point of an alliance if they don't help?

If that's the case, it's better to just watch them fight to the death.

"What's the situation in Port Deloitte?"

"Reconstruction is underway. Currently, land reclamation is being carried out in Port Der Lai to rebuild a deep-water port."

"Good guy."

Hearing this, Li Wei was slightly surprised. Reclaiming land to build a deep-water port, the Empire was really going all out. No wonder it was the world's number one country in steam technology.

Clearly, the Queen was furious about the attack on Port Der Lai.

The Empire has already mobilized a large number of troops to Port Drey. Incidentally, the Rothfield family has been completely wiped out; family members have been either executed by firing squad or hanged, and those not deserving the death penalty have been sent directly to hard labor, such as quarrying and mining. Most people don't even live to see their sentences served.

Especially since this group consists of capitalists, it's easy to imagine that once they enter prison, they will definitely receive "special attention" from other inmates.

As for whether it was worse than death, that's hard to say, but Levi didn't care. Sixty thousand people died in Port Dreyfus before, and the Rosefield family, including the elderly and children, couldn't even claim sixty thousand lives. That was too lenient for them.

Nowadays, people say that one should not bring misfortune upon one's family, but Li Wei has done so many cases that he feels there is some justification for punishing nine generations of relatives.

After all, you're taking other people's money, causing their families to be ruined, while your own wife and children live a life of luxury. That's just not fair.

To be fair, at least the criminals should also suffer the loss of their families and be torn apart. For example, in the case of child traffickers, the criminals should go to jail while their own children are sold. That would be a more balanced relationship.

Some might say that the family members are innocent.

Ah, well said, the victims are innocent too.

Levi has always viewed people like Rothfield, who are involved in finance, as criminals.

He wouldn't feel heartbroken even if his entire family were executed.

As for the family members, they might cry out, "Why?" But those who were cheated might not even be able to utter a single "Why?"

Li Wei gathered his thoughts and inquired about the situation of those in the team who possessed mysterious powers, but the old butler shook his head vigorously.

“We found quite a few people, but not many are willing to work for us, and some even want to quit.”

Li Wei could understand; MI7's requirements were simply too high.

For ordinary soldiers, the requirements are strict training and obedience to orders.

For elites, there will be even more requirements.

The elite among the elite are required not only to be patriotic and have a spirit of sacrifice, but also to possess a variety of skills.

The requirements for MI7 are patriotism, a spirit of sacrifice, strong professional skills, and superpowers.

This is even more outrageous than Radish Hill, because these kinds of radishes are hard to find.

After all, everything else can be trained, but superpowers are innate.

This isn't like conscription; if someone doesn't want to come, there's nothing you can do. Forcibly recruiting them would just be asking for trouble.

However, the advantage of an empire lies in its vast territory and abundant resources, thus providing more than one way to solve problems.

For example...

"But we also have good news."

The old butler also told Li Wei about the progress on his side.

"Actually, many team members have encountered the kind of fantasy creatures you mentioned during missions and successfully subdued them. I think this could be a direction for MI7's personnel development going forward."

"Can this still happen?"

Hearing the old butler's words, Li Wei was taken aback for a moment, but he had to admit that this move did seem quite appropriate. Especially with Olivia as a precedent…

“That’s right. We’re planning to hold a meeting specifically about this. All the teams will be there with members of the Fantasy species. Why don’t you come and take a look?”

"No problem at all."

Li Wei readily accepted the old butler's invitation.

He also wanted to see what these people who had made contracts with the fantasy species, as mentioned by MI7, were really like.

Ok?
Does this mean that from now on, MI7 agents will be throwing a ball during battles?

Li Wei thought for a moment, then looked equally puzzled.

This seems quite interesting?
(End of this chapter)