Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 479 Absolutely Terrible
For Li Wei, the advantage of airships over airplanes was that they allowed him to move around freely.

Li Wei had previously taken flights that lasted seven or eight hours, and being stuck in a cramped cabin the whole time was a nightmare. The aisle in the middle was also incredibly narrow, making it impossible for anyone to walk around.

But the airship was different. At least here, he could stand on the deck, leisurely enjoying the sunset while taking a walk with Katie.

Almost a week has passed since they arrived in this world, and everyone's curiosity about it has long since worn off. This world is completely different from the empire they are familiar with, and Li Wei can understand their thoughts on this. After all, in their world, the empire is a prosperous and powerful nation.

But the empire here is completely different; it appears decrepit, like a terminally ill old man. Moreover, it is extremely backward, lacking advanced steam technology, and the entire country's industrial level seems to be in the early stages of the steam age.

According to Anne, the Empire originally intended to pursue steam technology, but the growing influence of Darwinism abroad led them to abandon this path. After all, no one knew what the future of steam technology would hold, but the power of chimeras was undeniable.

Therefore, the empire abandoned its efforts in steam technology and turned to biotechnology instead.

Unfortunately, due to opposition from domestic religious forces, the empire was unable to continue down the path of biotechnology.

Giving up halfway, both sides are at odds.

So the empire now feels like it's neither good nor bad—of course, at present, it's clearly more bad than good.

Fortunately, there was plenty of food on the Eye in the Sky, thanks to the presence of freezers, including both meat and vegetables. And of course, there was plenty of canned food as well.

Annie didn't join their walk. Although the research institute was abandoned, it still contained some equipment used for synthesizing lifelines. Levi took it to the Eye of the Sky and had Annie use it to see if they could make some adjustments or interference to the common combination method.

It now appears that Levi's idea was correct; these chimeras do indeed share a common underlying port. Therefore, how to use this underlying port to turn the tables on them is also a question that needs to be considered.

"Now it seems that there is no better place in the world than ours."

Katie walked beside Levi, her hands behind her back, and turned to look at him.

"Miss Anne seems to really dislike the Empire, all that war, all that messy politics and stuff..."

"Understandable."

Li Wei nodded.

"Human nature will not change, not even in a hundred years, not even in a thousand years."

"is it?"

"That's right. You see, young people think older people are senile. And older people always complain that young people are immoral. It was like this before, it is like this now, and it will be like this in the future. Ultimately, this is human nature. Civilization will develop, technology will advance, but human nature will not change."

As Li Wei spoke, he recalled some novels he had read before, written by authors from over a hundred years ago or even earlier, yet the characters' ways of thinking were no different from those of people today.

Wives will kill their husbands, and husbands will kill their wives; the reasons for war are always the same, as are the reasons for the rise and fall of a dynasty.

People often say that learning from the past is a guide for the future, but in fact, even if the ancients recorded it, it doesn't mean that later generations won't make the same mistakes.

History is a spiral, but people never change.

"That's true. Those people I hate will always be the same, they'll never change."

Katie nodded in agreement, then blinked again and looked at Levi.

“Mr. Li Wei, do you think we can go back? I’m starting to find this world a bit boring. If we stay, we’ll probably have to put in a lot of effort to figure out the empires in this world.”

"I also hope to return as soon as possible, but we need to resolve the issues here first." Li Wei wasn't really concerned about whether the empire in this world lived or died; after all, even if it perished, it wouldn't affect his own world. However, he still needed to understand what this traversal between two worlds entailed, and how the Kingdom of Krant in this world had managed to travel to his own.

There is currently no information on this matter, so he is somewhat worried.

The two strolled along the outer deck for a while, then went to the restaurant for afternoon tea. By the time Levi received Lieutenant Horn's call and arrived at the bridge, it was already late.

"We are about to arrive in Muneck, sir."

"Hmm... I saw it."

Looking out the porthole, Li Wei gazed at the scenery. On the distant horizon, he could see a city dotted with lights. It was a large city, not as big as Fog City, but still quite substantial. No wonder Miss Anne thought it would be difficult to find a research institute in this city; after all, such a vast place wouldn't be easy to locate.

Fortunately, Li Wei has a cheat code. As long as he uses [Soul Vision] to take a look and find the colors that are different from the ordinary soul radiance, it will be easy to determine the destination.

Thinking of this, Li Wei opened his eyes wide and looked at the city in front of him.

Then he closed his eyes and remained silent for a moment.

Then Li Wei reached out, rubbed his eyes, opened them again, and looked down at the city.

in silence.

"Sir? Is there a problem?"

Lieutenant Horn was somewhat surprised by Li Wei's unusual behavior, but Li Wei was even more surprised.

"Ah, um... I guess there's a little problem."

As Li Wei spoke, he lowered his head. The airship had already arrived above the city of Munec, and the brightly lit city could be clearly seen through the observation window below.

However, in Livy's "Soul Vision," the picture is quite different.

Vast expanses of green light mingled within, giving Li Wei the feeling that they resembled the filth floating in the rivers of the foggy city, polluting the clean water and making it filthy.

But Li Wei was certain that even the filth in the rivers of the Fog City was not as great as that here. Right now, the entire city of Munec looked like a lake overgrown with algae, with no clean water in sight. The dense, dark green algae almost completely covered the lake, turning it into a nauseating color.

How many permanent residents does Munek have?

Li Wei turned to look at Lieutenant Horn and asked, after which the latter thought for a moment.

“I don’t know about this world, but I remember that in our world, the population of Munek was also around one million.”

"Then this place shouldn't be too different either."

Li Wei turned his gaze downwards again and sighed silently.

Even if all the weapons on the Sky Eye were launched, it wouldn't be possible to destroy such a large city, let alone all those people... Come to think of it, he still doesn't know what the situation is here.

But Li Wei was certain that the situation was terrible.

Very bad.

(End of this chapter)