Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 465 Reality Restoration
The Eye of the Sky quickly changed course and flew towards the direction of Baron Hanklis's house.

Along the way, Li Wei also carefully observed the army of chimeras in the Kingdom of Krant and found that they were indeed completely different from what he had seen before.

Simply put, the Krant chimeras here are larger, more numerous, and more diverse. To use a game analogy, the Krant kingdom chimeras in your own world are merely half-finished products in an "early access" phase. Meanwhile, the Krant kingdom chimera army here is a fully enhanced, DLC-rich bundle.

Take the soldiers here, for example. Li Wei discovered that these soldiers could transform.

It wasn't like the magical girl transformation; it was more like a werewolf's transformation. They would change size during battle, gaining greater strength as a result. Li Wei saw a strong soldier tear his clothes and transform into a werewolf-like monster, crashing into a nearby house.

Yeah, it does wear out clothes a bit.

However, Li Wei had to admit that if he encountered a team of guys like this on the battlefield, they would be really difficult to deal with. Not to mention that these guys could transform; they were ordinary people most of the time, only changing their appearance during battle. This made them perfect candidates for infiltration and attacks.

But the Krant soldiers in his own world don't have this ability, huh? Wait a minute, Levi remembers hearing a young voice mention beast armor or something when he was infiltrating before. Could this be it? Now it seems that the Krant Kingdom hasn't popularized it either?
what is the reason?
Could it be because the Krant people aren't very accepting of these beast-like armors? Come to think of it, it makes sense. This world seems to have been using biotechnology for a long time, and the people here should be quite used to it by now. So, transforming into a beast shouldn't be particularly objectionable.

However, their world has always relied on steam technology, and given the prevalence of mysterious phenomena there, some might mistake this beast-like armor for black magic or a curse. Krant could certainly find a group of elite soldiers to test it on, but large-scale deployment within the army would be virtually impossible.

After all, nobody wants to become a beast or a monster.

Unless the Kingdom of Krant faces a life-or-death crisis...

Of course, there's no point in discussing this now.

Li Wei silently recorded everything he saw, while ordering others to take photos. Back then, there was no Photoshop, so the photos were highly credible.

After leaving Grida, Levi noticed a large flock of dark birds flying around the town; these must be the fully formed army of Firebirds. He had to admit, Levi didn't have a good solution for such a group of self-destructing aerial monsters. Fortunately, his Eye of the Sky was high enough to evade their detection.

And in this world... it's hard to say whether airships even exist.

After a moment, Levi saw Baron Hanklis's house. The luxurious manor was now riddled with holes, but not completely destroyed. Or rather, most of it remained intact, but that was about it.

This place had clearly been attacked and destroyed. The people inside were most likely all dead. Li Wei activated his Soul Vision and scanned the surroundings, but saw no living beings or human soul radiance.

"Yes, this is the place. Let's land."

"Are you still sure you want to take Baron Hanklis's coffin down with you, sir?"

Lieutenant Horn clearly had a different opinion on this.

"This place has clearly been attacked and has been abandoned..."

"I just wanted to conduct an experiment; it's important."

Li Wei didn't say much, he just gave the order.

"Now, land."

"Yes, sir."

The Eye of the Sky slowly descended onto the grass in front of the manor. Levi stepped down, followed by Katie, who carried Earl Hancock's coffin on her shoulder.

Well, that means Katie can withstand the movement.

"You stay here and keep watch on your surroundings. Notify me immediately if anything happens."

Li Wei gave orders to Lieutenant Horn, and then led Katie out of the Eye of the Sky and back to Hanklis's manor.

The place was clearly littered with blood and corpses. Li Wei could see many servants' bodies on the ground, most of which showed signs of being torn apart. Before seeing the beast-like soldiers, Li Wei might not have understood what had happened, but now, he could clearly confirm what had occurred through these traces.

The army of the Kingdom of Krant surrounded the area, while Baron Hanklis's men and servants fought to the death, throwing grenades and firing at the enemy in an attempt to stop them from getting closer.

But this resistance did not last long. Soon, a group of soldiers turned into beasts. They ran forward on all fours, dodging attacks, and then smashed through the window and rushed inside.

Then came a massacre.

"The rest of the people should have already been arrested."

Li Wei withdrew his gaze from the corpses lying in the corridor. The fighting seemed to have ended there; clearly, after this group of resisters was eliminated, the others had chosen to surrender. Indeed, there were no further signs of struggle elsewhere.

However, the house was not spared; everything was looted, including the paintings hanging in the corridor and various silver items, all of which were plundered by the Krant army.

However, this was not Li Wei's main concern. He followed his memory and arrived at the lounge.

Like other places, this place was looted, but Li Wei didn't care.

“I remember that chaise lounge was right next to the fireplace, Katie, put Baron Hanklis over there.”

Okay.

Katie responded and then placed the coffin in the spot Levi indicated. Levi then walked over, stood beside the coffin, and looked towards it.

"Then, a strange man appeared here, and Baron Hanklis shot him dead. His body is right here... um?"

As he spoke, Li Wei activated his Soul Vision again. However, to his surprise, this time the Soul Vision gave him a response that was beyond his expectations.

In Li Wei's eyes, the space in front of him was fluctuating. Especially when Li Wei moved, he could see that the "screen" in this part of the screen was choppy and wave-like, much like the kind of problem that can be solved by turning on V-Sync in a game.

Moreover, only this part will appear.

Li Wei reached out and cautiously touched that area, but he didn't touch anything. His fingers simply passed through it without anything unusual.

No, his fingers didn't seem to touch that spot. Levi frowned and looked at Katie.

"Katie, did my finger touch here just now?"

"No, Mr. Li Wei."

Katie shook her head.

"Your finger moved outwards."

"Moved?"

"Ah."

After hearing Katie's answer, Levi thought for a moment, then stood up, walked straight from one side to the other, and looked at Katie again.

Did I come here in a straight line?

"No, Mr. Li Wei, you went around it for a bit, as if there was something there."

"Um……………"

But Li Wei was certain that he had not deliberately avoided anything.

Does this mean that only people from other worlds can sense the problem? Because the people of this world are already in this reality, they wouldn't notice anything wrong here?
So now, is the problem with reality?
and many more.

Thinking of this, Li Wei suddenly had a flash of inspiration.

What would happen if I used [Reality Anchoring] here?
Based on what I've observed, the rules of reality here seem to have been broken for some reason. So, can my [reality anchor] repair it?

Thinking of this, Li Wei stared at the constantly shaking space, and then a thought struck him.

[Reality anchoring].

The next moment, a bizarre thing happened.

Suddenly, a red carpet appeared on the floor in front of Li Wei, where only the wooden floorboards had been stripped away. Then, the next moment, a man seemed to be spat out of thin air and fell to the ground with a "thud." He was wearing a white shirt and a white mask, and he was as still as a puppet.

However, before Li Wei could even step forward to examine the man, he saw him begin to decompose rapidly. From his body to his clothes, everything turned to dust at a speed visible to the naked eye.

When Levi and Katie realized what was happening, all that remained on the ground was a small patch of red carpet covered in dust, and that strange white mask.

"What... what's going on, Mr. Li Wei?"

Katie was startled, while Levi used [Soul Vision] to look at that place again. Sure enough, the fluctuation patterns there had disappeared, and now it looked exactly the same as the rest of the place, with no difference whatsoever.

This time, the [Reality Anchoring] process took... ten days?
That's quite a few.

Looking at the system's recorded consumption, Li Wei was somewhat surprised; he had originally thought it would be very difficult. He hadn't expected that [Reality Anchoring] would solve the problem so easily.

So it seems my guess was correct.

Li Wei walked over, reached out and picked up the white mask, examining it closely. Clearly, Baron Hanklis's counterattack against the masked man had caused some kind of error in the rules of reality, creating a bug. When Li Wei used [Reality Anchoring] to fix this bug, the corpse, which should have been "stuck" there, was ejected from reality.

It's like a corpse in a game getting stuck in mid-air and unable to come down. You try all sorts of attacks and displacement methods, but nothing works. Then Li Wei opens the console, enters a reset scene code, and the next moment the stuck corpse comes down, and everything returns to normal.

However, fixing reality was simpler than erasing the mysterious force, which was beyond Li Wei's imagination, but upon closer reflection, it made sense.

Repairing definitely requires fewer resources than building, which is reasonable.

"So now the question comes back to this mask."

Li Wei stared intently at the mask. It was blank on the front, but there was a number and a double-headed eagle pattern on the back.

It's obvious that the masked man gained his power because of this mask. So what is this mask, and where did it come from?
"It seems we won't find the answer here."

Li Wei glanced around again and sighed.

"Let's go, Katie."

"Where are we going now, Mr. Levy? And what about Baron Hancock's coffin?"

"Just leave it here. I don't think anyone will touch it. If we have time, we can come back and dig a grave for him, but right now, we obviously don't have that time."

As Li Wei spoke, he turned and walked out of the lounge, and Katie hurriedly followed.

Where are we going now?

"Fog City".

When Katie asked him a question, Levi quickly gave an answer.

"The Krants in this world are fighting so fiercely, I wonder what the situation is like in Fog City. If we can find some people in Fog City, it might be helpful for us to understand and learn about this world."

"Yes, I was quite worried too. I hope everyone is alright."

Hearing this, Katie also became uneasy. Although it was a different world, the Empire was still the Empire, and it was also her homeland. Of course, she didn't want to see the Empire defeated by the Kingdom of Krant. If Fog City could still hold out, then perhaps they could obtain some intelligence and figure out what had happened.

(End of this chapter)