Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 539 Alchemy Techniques (Happy Lantern Festival everyone!)

The Mithril Guardian stood atop the highest point of the gate, like a guardian protecting it. Facing the Night Raven charging towards it, the Mithril Guardian drew its bow again and fired an arrow. Levi swiftly maneuvered his mech to dodge the Mithril Guardian's attack.

Then the Night Raven raised its machine guns and opened fire on the Mithril Guards.

"Boom!"

With a deafening roar, the bullets flew towards the Mithril Guardian. Instead of dodging, the Mithril Guardian flicked its right hand, and a sharp blade sprang from its arm. Then, with a flash of light, the two bullets flying towards the Mithril Guardian exploded in mid-air.

???

Are you kidding me?

Watching his opponent effortlessly execute a "sword cleaving a bullet" maneuver—a feat usually only seen in games and animations—a look of disbelief crossed Li Wei's eyes. But at that moment, the Night Raven had already reached the Mithril Guards, its right hand slamming down with its hammer!
"Whoosh—!"

A flash of sword light, and the Night Raven's right hand, along with its hammer, flew into the air. But the sword light that had severed the Night Raven's right hand didn't stop; it continued forward, slashing down directly at the Night Raven!
The Mithril Guardian landed as lightly as a ghost, and behind it, the Night Raven had been cleaved in two, scattered on the ground like a broken toy.

"My mecha...!"

Having escaped being cleaved in two by teleporting, Li Wei was utterly speechless. Looking at the Night Raven beside him, cleanly split in two like a block of tofu, he was already contemplating killing.

"If I don't kill you today, I'll write my name backwards!"

At this moment, Li Wei also became fierce, glaring angrily at the mithril guard in front of him. "Damn it, I spent so much money and went through so much trouble to build this mech, and you just cut it open like that?"
Thinking of this, a murderous intent appeared in Li Wei's eyes as he stared at the Mithril Guard.

[The Mark of Death]

With a thought, a crimson light appeared before Li Wei, transforming into a skull-shaped marker that hovered above the mithril guard's head. Simultaneously, Li Wei raised his twin pistols, aiming at the mithril guard. The mithril guard, in turn, raised his bow and arrow, aiming at Li Wei.

"Boom!"

Gunshots rang out, and Li Wei vanished instantly, dodging an arrow that the mithril guard had fired almost to his chest. The next moment, Li Wei reappeared behind the mithril guard, preparing to launch another attack…

"Swish, swish, swish, swish, swish."

However, to Li Wei's surprise, this time the Mithril Guard did not display the agility it had shown against the Night Raven. Instead, it remained standing in place, repeatedly making shooting motions towards the spot where Li Wei had disappeared. But its arrows were not nocked on its longbow; instead, they were positioned behind the Mithril Guard.

Logically, the mithril guard should first draw its arrow, nock its bow, and then fire. That's what it did before, no different from the actions of an ordinary human.

But now, it's just keeping the bowstring drawn, how should I put it...

In online gaming terms, it feels like... it's lagging?
"what's the situation?"

Li Wei raised the Persuader with a puzzled look and shot the Mithril Guard in the head.

"boom!"

The bullet struck the mithril guard in the head and, unsurprisingly, bounced off. However, the mithril guard continued to face forward, making a pointless drawing of his bow.

what happened?

"Huh? What's wrong? Is there a problem?"

At this moment, the saintess, who had drawn her longsword to prepare for battle, also curiously came over and looked up and down at the mithril guard in front of her who was doing useless work and looked like there was a bug in the system.

"It might be broken. This piece of junk has probably been running here for thousands of years, it should have broken long ago."

Li Wei grumbled in annoyance. This thing was so graceful when it was hacking at his Night Raven, but now it seemed like an idiot. Li Wei suspected that this piece of junk might have been designed specifically to target him. Why did it turn into this mess after he shredded his mech?
Could he have done this on purpose?

"Hmm, let me see..."

The saintess also put away her weapon, carefully circled the mithril guard who was still constantly drawing his bow twice, and then clapped her hands as if she had thought of something.

"Ah, right, could it be that......"

As she spoke, the saintess nimbly circled behind the mithril guard, climbed up in a few quick movements, and then carefully examined the top of the mithril guard's head before reaching out and opening a lid on its head.

A moment later, Li Wei saw the mithril guard who had been constantly drawing his bow suddenly tremble, then his hands fell limp, and he stood there motionless like a robot without power. The [Death Mark] in Li Wei's eyes also disappeared... meaning, the mithril guard was killed?

Can it be killed? Or rather, what did the saint do?
Just as Li Wei was puzzled, the saintess jumped down from the mithril guard again. Unlike before, this time the saintess had a small rhombus-shaped crystal in her hand. It looked transparent and had strange patterns on it.

"Just as I thought, I never expected that Mithril Valley would actually create this thing."

Looking at the crystal in her hand, the saintess couldn't help but sigh, while Li Wei looked at her curiously.

What are you saying?

"Ah, you should know that I have the ability to manipulate puppets."

Since Li Wei had already demonstrated his ability to manipulate puppets to the Holy Maiden, she did not hide it from him.

"Yes."

"Simply put, the puppets I control can only act under my command. Without my orders, they cannot act or can only react minimally."

"Ah."

Li Wei nodded; his puppets were actually similar. Simply put, the puppets controlled by Li Wei and the Saintess were much like the "Fifty-Coin Brothers" in real-time strategy games. You draw a box around them, then press F2A, and they will attack enemies or buildings according to the player's commands.

Alternatively, if the enemy enters their attack range, they will automatically counterattack.

But that's precisely why they lack their own thoughts and are incapable of staging a solo hero's journey like Rambo; they're just pure expendable resources.

Without the operator's command, these puppets cannot even take a single step; in other words, they have no self-awareness.

This is only natural; they are puppeteers, not creators.

"The people of Mithril Valley once asked me about the methods of making dolls. I heard that they wanted to create a doll with self-awareness. Simply put, a doll that can understand and obey commands, but is not smart enough to disobey its creator."

It's similar to low-level artificial intelligence.

However, Mithril Valley wants this...

"Do you think they're planning to build an army of mithril puppets to conquer the world?"

The mithril doll was indeed powerful; at least Li Wei couldn't do anything about it, while the saintess just smiled and shook her head.

"They're just mithril puppets. Besides, even if they're invulnerable to swords and spears, it doesn't mean we can't deal with them. Unlike this era, back then, if you wanted to create an army and conquer the continent simply by using mithril puppets, Mithril Valley would have been completely destroyed long ago."

That's true. How can the Dharma-ending Age compare to the Immortal Cultivation Age? "Besides, those old men don't have such ambitions. The reason they want to create Mithril Guardians is because people can't be trusted. Even guards are still people. I've also heard news of guards secretly escaping Mithril Valley. For Mithril Valley, the Mithril River is everything. If someone wants to collude with external enemies, they are a threat to them."

"I see. Compared to humans who can betray you, puppets that only obey orders are easier to use, right?"

Li Wei understood what the saintess meant. The rulers of Mithril Valley were content with their life as local tyrants. But others were clearly not. Li Wei knew this well; the wealth and power Mithril Valley possessed had brought not only prosperity but also crisis.

The crisis comes not only from the outside, but also from within.

"That's right, that's why I was invited to Mithril Valley to discuss these matters with them."

As she spoke, the saintess seemed to have thought of something, and her expression turned somewhat unpleasant.

"You didn't see the ugly faces of those old men. They actually thought they could get my puppet-making technology from me with just a few pieces of mithril... The way they looked at me back then was like giving alms to a beggar. It disgusted me to see it."

Um……………

Li Wei could understand why the saintess was so angry. It was basically like someone coming right up to you and saying, "Hey, come and eat." A poor man might grovel on the ground to thank the lord for his favor, but for someone as capable as the saintess, not throwing a punch was already a sign of good manners.

"But I digress. To get back to the point, those old men certainly didn't have the ability to control the puppets, but they also didn't trust others to operate them."

That's natural. Whoever controls the puppets controls the entire Mithril Valley—the principle that political power grows out of the barrel of a gun is timeless.

"So they planned to use alchemy to create these dolls."

What are they planning to do?

Hearing this, Li Wei also became interested, while the saintess gave a soft hum.

“A very… primitive method, that’s it.”

As she spoke, the saintess raised the crystal in her hand.

"This is……………?"

"White quartz, a very common alchemical material, which you also have now, called crystal."

The saintess continued speaking.

"Their idea is simple: this kind of stone can be used to store alchemical arrays. Their plan is to link the alchemical arrays with the puppets, so that the alchemical arrays can control the puppets' actions. But in my opinion, this is a very foolish idea."

"How to say?"

“These small crystals can only store single-command magic circles. For example, one magic circle can only command the puppet to move forward. If the puppet turns left, right, or backward, another magic circle needs to be added. Similarly, to make the puppet extend its hand, a magic circle is needed; to stop the movement, another magic circle is needed… Even to make the puppet imitate the most basic and simple human actions such as walking, turning, and raising its hand, dozens of magic circles need to be connected together, and the order must be clear. You can’t wave your hand before lifting your leg, or turn your upper body before turning your lower body…”

"Hmm...hmm?"

"In short, in my opinion, it was a very inefficient and rather boring idea. They wanted me to do this hard labor, but I wasn't going to do it, so in the end we broke up."

That makes sense. The saintess is a professor, and things like moving bricks are done by lab dogs. You don't see professors doing manual labor like moving bricks.

"So, this is what's in here?"

"That's right, it seems they did manage to finish."

"I see……………"

Upon hearing the saintess's answer, Li Wei nodded. He now seemed to understand why this mithril puppet had suddenly transformed from a seemingly invincible powerhouse into a stuck idiot.

Li Wei remembered that his [Death Mark] had the effect of reducing all of the opponent's attributes by 5%. For ordinary people, 5% might not be much, but it was a different story for this mithril puppet. According to the saintess, the alchemical array that constructed this mithril puppet must have been extremely intricate, with layers upon layers of magic.

As a result, after Li Wei was marked with the [Death Mark], his stats instantly decreased by 5%... Well, he could only execute simple commands to begin with, so if he lost another 5%, wouldn't he become completely incompetent?

I never imagined that the [Death Mark] could be used like this... Did Mithril Valley not consider redundancy when developing artificial intelligence?

However, this technology...

"Alright, it seems that this thing is indeed no good after all."

As she spoke, the saintess tossed the crystal in her hand.

"It broke so easily. It seems Mithril Valley's technology isn't up to par."

"Hmm...maybe."

That might be true for the saintess, but for Li Wei, it did give him some... little thoughts.

"Miss Saint, you just said that these alchemical arrays can be given a single command, right?"

"Yes."

"So what do they need to activate? Magic?"

"Anything that provides energy will do. Some ancient alchemical arrays can be used by heating them in a fire, though how long they will last is another matter."

"Is electricity okay?"

"Of course, I remember an alchemist once built a mage tower on the top of a high mountain, with a lightning rod on it, specifically to attract lightning."

"If I want an alchemical array to lock onto a target, is it possible to create one?"

"Target locked? What do you mean?"

"It's like keeping a close eye on the other person, so no matter where they run, they can't escape."

"Of course you can... but what's the point?"

The saintess looked at Li Wei with a puzzled expression, blinking curiously, not understanding why Li Wei was asking this.

Li Wei breathed a sigh of relief after receiving the saintess's reply.

This woman has really hidden a lot of good stuff, and she doesn't even realize it herself.

Thinking of this, Li Wei silently looked at his mech that had been cut into pieces.

Just for that, at least you didn't die in vain...

(End of this chapter)