Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 471 Escape in the Night

The door opened a crack, trying to make as little noise as possible, and then a figure stepped in, tiptoeing but very familiarly navigating the hallway, the table, and…

"Hello, miss."

Li Wei's voice rang out, forcing the other person to stop in their tracks.

"I hope you will not act rashly."

Li Wei sat in a chair, holding the Persuader in his hand. Although the room was pitch black, the radiance of the soul before him was very clear under the [Soul Vision].

"I may not be able to kill you with one shot, but I can guarantee that the gunshot will wake up all the residents in this building, and I don't think you want that either."

The figure paused for a moment, and then a hoarse, aged voice rang out.

Who are you?

"My name is Li Wei, and I'm a detective."

Li Wei stood up, looked at the other person, and spoke.

“I am here to find Miss Anne Delint Darwin.”

Why are you looking for her?

"Because the Empire is currently under threat from the Krant, we need to rally all forces to fight against the Beast Legion."

"How can you be so sure that she can definitely help you?"

"It's simple, because she's wanted by the Kingdom of Krant."

Li Wei shrugged.

“Krant wouldn’t issue a warrant for the arrest of a biologist without reason, unless that biologist is very important to them. And given the current state of the Kingdom of Krant, anyone who could make them so anxious must have something extraordinary about them.”

"Is this your deduction? Interesting. How did you find this place?"

"Her contact address is available in the journal Biological Research."

"………………………"

Faced with Li Wei's answer, the other party remained silent for a moment, then sighed softly.

"Yes, I had completely forgotten about that..."

The voice was still hoarse and unpleasant. Then, the figure walked to the window and carefully lifted a corner of the curtain. Moonlight streamed in from outside and fell on her face. By the moonlight, Li Wei saw an old woman with white hair and a wrinkled face. Her eyes were squinted, making her look like a frail old woman.

However, the next moment, something unexpected happened to Li Wei. The old woman's wrinkled face suddenly seemed to melt and began to peel off. A moment later, a face that was quite familiar to him appeared in front of Li Wei.

"I really didn't expect that someone would find my address through a journal article. How did you come up with that idea?"

With white hair and red eyes, her face was exactly the same as the Anne Li Wei knew, her expression equally calm and composed, even her voice was identical. It seemed that in this world, this Miss Anne was indeed still the same as always, unchanged.

“I know some scholars, and I occasionally publish articles.”

Li Wei shrugged and said that he did publish papers, but Li Wei's papers were mostly reviews, mainly involving the application of criminal investigation and forensic identification techniques and future prospects—he was too lazy to bother with any innovation or development, so why not just copy what was already there?
"Even those idiots in the guards found this place by following me."

Anne looked at Levi and spoke.

"I don't think they ever bothered to look through any magazines, sir. You seem to be smarter than most of them."

"I'm not as smart as you think."

Li Wei smiled slightly at Annie's words.

"In fact, I originally just wanted to come here to see if I could find any clues about your whereabouts, but I never expected that you would be so audacious as to continue living here and come back so often."

"...How did you find out?"

"Dust and footprints on the keyhole."

Li Wei shrugged.

"If a detective wants to investigate something, he can still find clues."

"so………"

Anne nodded and thought for a moment.

"So, you're planning to take me to the Empire? That's impossible."

"why?"

“You should know that Francis has surrendered, and now two-thirds of this continent is under Krant’s control. Although the shapeshifter I created can disguise its appearance, it cannot escape Krant’s detection. I hid it here before because it was too big to be transported. But if I go to an airport, train station, or port, I will definitely be recognized. Not to mention, Krant has already released several sea monsters in the Storm Sea, so even smuggling is impossible.”

At this point, Annie's expression became somewhat serious.

"Therefore, I have no way to escape from here at the moment."

"I see," Li Wei frowned slightly upon hearing Annie's answer. No wonder she had stayed here. It seemed Annie had considered escaping elsewhere, but her problem was that even leaving the city was difficult now. So, she could only continue to disguise herself and hide in a room near her home.

Why didn't they notice you before?

“I had already made preparations and bought another room nearby under a false identity to hide in. After all, most people wouldn’t expect someone to put a safe house next to their own home.”

That's true. Generally, a cunning rabbit has three burrows, and it hides them far away. But Anne did the opposite, which is quite bold, I must say. And as it turns out, the Kingdom of Krant clearly didn't notice this. They probably did search the room Anne used to hide in, but they didn't expect that it was also Anne's.

This is really... "If you want to leave, then I have my own way of doing it."

"If I don't want to leave, I'm afraid I can't, right?"

Talking to smart people is simple; Li Wei clearly wasn't going to let her stay just because she said she wouldn't.

"But you should know that there is a curfew in effect throughout Asenstown. If we are caught, we'll be going to jail."

“I don’t think so, Miss Anne. If you’d like, you can pack your things.”

"…………………"

After hearing Li Wei's answer, Annie remained silent for a moment.

"Okay, but I don't have anything to take. My luggage is all packed and I can leave anytime."

"You can leave at any time?"

Li Wei raised an eyebrow.

"Then why did you come here?"

"Because this is my home, I find it easier to think about things here, that's all."

As Anne spoke, she left the window again, and then Levi saw her radiant spirit walk to the door and open it.

"Alright, let's go."

"Okay, Katie, you can come out now."

Okay.

Hearing Levi's words, Katie finally peeked out from the room next door. Anne didn't seem particularly surprised by the extra person; she just glanced at Katie, then opened the door and went out.

"Keep your voice down, I don't want the neighbors to hear us making noise."

Anne stepped out of the room and glanced at the equally dark corridor. Without turning on the light, she walked in the dark to the door next to her, opened it, and Levi and Katie waited outside. A moment later, Anne came out carrying a suitcase.

She looked at the two of them and nodded.

"let's go."

Soon, the three left the apartment building, but then Annie presented the other two with a difficult problem.

"You need to be careful of sniffer dogs."

Anne whispered to Levi.

"Sniffer dogs have a very keen sense of smell; they can distinguish the scent of modified beastmen from that of unmodified ordinary people. Therefore, I suggest that we try to stay downwind to avoid our scent being detected by the sniffer dogs. It's fine during the day, but at night when there's a curfew, those soldiers will definitely wonder why an unmodified ordinary person would be out walking in the middle of the night."

"Let's wait until that thing can find us."

Although Li Wei was also surprised, he calmly replied and then led the two of them quickly into the alley.

It must be said that, just as Anne said, the entire Asensbury was full of patrol teams of two people, each with a dog on their leash. The dog looked like an ordinary dog, but it had six legs and ran fast and steadily.

At first, with the help of the puppet bird's cheat, Li Wei easily bypassed several patrol teams and brought the two of them to the outer area of ​​Asenstor in no time.

But at that moment, Anne grabbed Levi.

"Be careful."

As she spoke, Annie pointed in that direction, and Li Wei had already seen two soul figures standing on the watchtower, one on the left and one on the right.

"Is there a problem?"

"They are beastmen specializing in night combat. They can see things very far away even in the dark. If we want to get through here now, it will probably be difficult to escape their sight."

"Oh?"

Upon hearing Anne's explanation, Levi looked at the two sentries again, then narrowed his eyes.

Are they as easily killed as ordinary people?

“It’s easier to stop their movement by hitting their head, but not by hitting their heart. The vitality and physical strength of the beastmen far exceed that of ordinary people.”

"I see..."

Upon hearing this, Li Wei's lips curled up slightly.

Just before he came to this world, he had obtained Benjamin's newly improved secret weapon from MI7.

Now is the time to use it!
Li Wei reached out, took out his cane, and gently twisted it open. This was the cane rifle that Benjamin had originally made for Li Wei, though Li Wei rarely used it after acquiring the Punisher. After all, rifles were rather bulky, unlike revolvers which could be carried around and used conveniently. But fortunately, before Li Wei came to this world, Benjamin had prepared a good thing for him.

He invented the silencer that Li Wei mentioned!
Now, this rifle will finally have a purpose.

Especially under the current circumstances.

Li Wei carefully installed the silencer on the muzzle, then raised the gun and aimed at the guards on the watchtower.

He then pulled the trigger.

(End of this chapter)