Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 472 Arrow of the Night
"Pfft."

The sound of a bullet leaving the muzzle is about the same as a loud fart. Benjamin had also told Levi that while a silencer could reduce the sound from the muzzle, it would also reduce the bullet's range and power.

But for Li Wei, he didn't care about such trivial matters.

Because his bullets don't need range!
The bullet flew forward swiftly, slicing through the night sky before piercing the eye of one of the sentries. It spun and churned his brains into a paste before emerging from the back of his head and continuing forward, piercing the head of another sentry standing back to back with him.

The two of them remained silent, collapsing to the ground like puppets with broken strings.

"Alright, let's move on."

Li Wei glanced around, then lowered his voice and spoke, glancing at Annie at the same time.

"Miss Anne, how long will it take for these two sentries to be discovered?"

"Given the current patrol density, it might only last ten minutes."

"Then let's move on."

Hearing this, Li Wei didn't waste any words, nodded to the two, and continued forward. Li Wei had chosen a park on the outskirts of Asenstel City as his escape route. It wasn't crowded, and the terrain was relatively high, making it suitable for Sky Eye's rendezvous.

There were no guards around, for a simple reason—the park's large iron gate had been completely welded shut, and no one could enter or leave.

But this was certainly no challenge for Li Wei.

"Katie, open the door."

Okay.

Upon hearing Levi's command, Katie immediately perked up. She had been following Levi the whole way, with nothing to do, and was almost yawning from boredom. Now, hearing Levi's order, she excitedly ran out.

What are you going to do?

Looking at Katie, Annie was somewhat surprised. She turned her head and looked at the park gate in front of her—the gate was probably more than four meters high, and the fence was about as thick as her forearm. Not to mention, it was completely welded shut; logically speaking, it shouldn't be able to be opened at all.

Are they planning to blow it up? But that would immediately alert the patrolling beastmen...

Just as Annie was puzzled, a scene unfolded before her eyes that she could never have imagined.

Katie walked up to the large iron gate, reached out and grabbed the bars—bars so thick that Katie couldn't even grip them with one hand. But that didn't matter; Katie grabbed two iron posts and then whispered a shout.

"Hey!"

The next moment, the two thick, sturdy iron pillars were pulled apart by Katie as if they had been cooked until soft!
"???"

Seeing this, Annie's eyes widened in astonishment, speechless. She wasn't unfamiliar with powerful beast-like soldiers; some were strong enough to smash through a concrete wall. However, this girl before her was just an ordinary person, and judging from her appearance, she hadn't transformed into a beast at all.

How could she have such strength?

Anne stared in disbelief, while Katie paid no attention, easily snapping the fence in her hands as if it were made of chocolate, not steel. She quickly broke a gap in the gate.

"Alright, Miss Anne, let's go."

"Ah, um..."

Anne snapped out of her daze, looked at Katie who was grinning at her, opened her mouth, but knew that now was not the time to say anything, so she lowered her head and squeezed into the opening Katie had made.

Seeing that Annie and Katie had already entered the park, Levi planned to follow. But at that moment, Levi suddenly noticed a sign of danger through the puppet bird—not far from the sentry post he had previously shot down, a patrol consisting of four soldiers and a sniffer dog was advancing towards the post!
This is bad!
Seeing this, Li Wei frowned. If this patrol discovered that the sentry had been killed, they would definitely notify the others immediately. At that point, things would get a bit complicated.

However… fortunately, Li Wei had anticipated this.

Thinking of this, Li Wei raised his cane gun, then tilted it slightly and aimed it at the air.

While firearms are generally used for direct fire, earlier firearms were often used for projectile firing as well. And although bullets fly through the air, they are just as powerful when they fall back down.

For example, in a past incident, when a country won a football final, some citizens excitedly fired shots into the air in celebration, resulting in five deaths and nearly a hundred injuries from stray bullets. Similarly, someone once fired shots into the air in celebration at a shooting range, only to have a stray bullet kill an innocent teenager a kilometer away.

Actually, during World War I, soldiers initially used projectile fire as well. There's a very interesting historical anecdote about this—before World War I, it was generally accepted in Europe that noble generals were not killed during wars; instead, they would be captured and ransoms demanded. Therefore, noble generals at the time dressed extravagantly, afraid of being overlooked.

There's an old Chinese saying: "To shoot a man, shoot his horse first; to capture a thief, capture his king first." But this saying didn't apply to Europe at the time. War was a matter for commoners; nobles could be defeated, but not killed. Therefore, they dressed themselves up in particularly dazzling attire, precisely to avoid being mistaken for commoners and killed—that would be a humiliating death.

This is why many young nobles went to the battlefield full of vigor at the beginning of World War I. After all, based on their experience, even if people died, they were soldiers, and even if they were captured, they would at most pay a ransom and be sent back.

But times have changed, sir.

In World War I, firearms had a much longer range than bows and arrows, so soldiers could basically fire as soon as they saw the enemy from afar. At that distance, they couldn't even tell if the other person was male or female, so no matter how elaborately you dressed, they wouldn't be able to see you.

Furthermore, bullets have no eyes, leading to the unfortunate deaths of many nobles on the front lines. After that, no nobleman ever foolishly charged forward again. From a distance, people couldn't even tell if you were male or female; how could they expect them to spare you just because you were a noble? Even if they were willing, bullets wouldn't.

For Li Wei, this has an even more convenient use.

He took an armor-piercing bullet out of his pocket, inserted it into the gun, pulled the bolt, and aimed at the black night sky.

Then, Li Wei pulled the trigger.

"Pfft—!"

The bullet flew out, spinning and tracing an arc through the night sky before silently falling forward.

In front of this bullet was a patrol team of four people and a dog.

"—!?"

The sniffer dog was the first to notice something amiss. It stopped abruptly and looked around warily. Then it looked up—and just then, a spinning bullet pierced its eye and then went through its head.

However, this is not the end.

The bullet that pierced the sniffer dog's head hit the ground, bounced back up, and shot straight at the beastman holding the sniffer dog. Before the latter could even react, the bullet had already pierced his chin, spinning as it flew out the other side.

If it were a regular bullet, that would probably be the end of the line.

But it's quite possible that the bullets Li Wei fired were not just simple bullets.

As the bullet emerged from above the target, it once again made an impossible turn at an impossible angle and shot towards the third target!
It only took a few seconds.

The patrol team, which had been walking forward, stopped in their tracks, then collapsed without a sound, like sleeping babies, and never made a sound again.

Great, all done.

Li Wei put down his cane and spear, nodding in satisfaction. The max-level skill of the [Puppeteer] was indeed useful; the manipulation that ignored distance was simply a sure-fire kill.

For Li Wei, even a single bullet is something he can control at will. No matter where it flies, he can easily kill his target—and not just one.

This should be able to delay those guys for a while longer.

Thinking of this, Li Wei quickly put away his cane and gun, then turned and crawled into the gap.

The mountain forest was pitch black at night, with only the moonlight filtering through the trees barely enough to make out the road ahead. Li Wei and his companions naturally couldn't turn on their lights to avoid being spotted by other patrols, but fortunately, this wasn't too difficult for them.

It didn't take long for the three of them to reach the top of the mountain in the center of the park.

What should we do next?

Anne glanced at Katie, then looked at Levi and calmly asked.

"Are you going to fly me away with you?"

That's about it.

Li Wei nodded, then looked up at the sky.

"Yes, they've arrived too."

"You're here?"

Annie looked up at the dark night sky, wanting to see what was there.

At first, she saw nothing but the dark night sky shrouded in stars. But soon, Anne noticed that one patch of darkness was growing larger and larger, gradually obscuring the light of the other stars and casting a huge shadow over her.

Even the silvery moonlight was blocked by it.

Only then, under the moonlight, did Annie see a colossal creature silently descend from the sky and land beside the mountaintop platform.

"This is……………"

Staring at the enormous airship, nearly a hundred meters long, Annie was dumbfounded. She had never imagined that such a large airship existed. Was it built by the Empire? Did they actually have the capability to build such a massive airship?
"Hello, Miss Anne."

Li Wei opened the hatch, smiled, and gestured to Annie in an inviting manner.

"Welcome to the Eye of the Sky."

(End of this chapter)