Otherworld Bone Dragon Operation Guide

Chapter 217 Locomotive Assembly (Bonus Chapter 7)

"Is this how you find suspects?!" Zeflin couldn't help but complain. "Does that mean any crowded place is a human trafficking den?!"

"Watch me." Rupert smiled mysteriously, then turned and walked toward another house in town, clearly to gather information.

Zefflin assumed he was going to a tavern, but instead saw Rupert walk to a house with pink curtains. As the door opened, the faint glow of red candlelight shone through, and a woman's affectedly coquettish laughter drifted in.

At a time like this, this guy actually went to find prostitutes?
But unexpectedly, Rupert soon came out of the house and returned to Zefferin's side.

"It's over so quickly?" Zeflin asked irritably, his arms crossed over his chest.

"Tch, don't underestimate me," Rupert said smugly. "It's confirmed, this house is the target we're looking for!"

Zeflin looked puzzled. "Why?"

“The madam said she saw seven or eight burly men who looked like mercenaries frequently coming and going, but they never patronized their place,” Rupert explained. “Either they’ve all been castrated.” He sneered as he spoke. “Or, they have ‘better supplies’ in their rooms!”

Zeflin's eyes instantly turned sharp as knives, and he quickly made a hand gesture.

Ten priests in silver-white robes emerged from the shadows like ghosts, silently surrounding the target hut from different directions. Their staffs gleamed with a cold light in the moonlight.

Zeflin drew his scepter and suddenly charged toward the courtyard gate like an arrow released from a bow. With a deafening crash, the wooden gate collapsed under his violent impact. Without pausing, he continued rushing toward the house.

Rupert's longsword was already drawn, its cold light flashing as it followed closely behind.

A mercenary on night watch leaped from a broken second-floor window to intercept them, but was stopped in time by a priest. At the same time, an enemy spellcaster appeared, chanting incantations. Zeflin reacted swiftly, raising his staff:
"The Law Decree: Silence!"

The mercenary mage's spell abruptly stopped; he opened his mouth in terror, but no sound came out.

Rupert seized the opportunity and rushed forward, cleaving the opponent's staff in two with a single blow. At the same time, a beam of magical light shot from behind, piercing the mage's chest with pinpoint accuracy.

Several agile priest warriors burst through the window like silver eagles, and a series of fierce fighting sounds and the sound of furniture breaking immediately rang out on the second floor.

Zeflin began to employ a flanking tactic against the enemies on the first floor, avoiding them whenever possible and leaving the remaining battle to his teammates behind him.

He quickly found the entrance to the cellar, cast a triple holy shield on himself without hesitation, and leaped inside. A dazzling magical light and a deafening explosion immediately erupted from within the cellar.

Rupert rushed down into the cellar and found the enemy in the center already lying on the ground. Zeflin's shield was shattered, and he was being attacked from both sides by two enemies.

Rupert immediately lunged at the warlock on the left, slashing him back repeatedly. He stayed close to the warlock, giving him no chance to cast spells. On the other side, Zefrin also blocked the warrior's weapon on the right with his staff.

"Law: Disarm!"

As the incantation rang out, the warrior's weapon was knocked away. Zefrin swung his staff at the warrior's face, but the warrior grabbed the staff.

Another priest arrived just in time to provide support. He first restored Rupert's shield, then unleashed a holy shock that struck the warrior locked in combat with Zefrin with pinpoint accuracy, severely wounding him.

****
A few minutes later, the fighting inside the house finally ceased. The entire area was under control, and most of the mercenaries had been killed in the brief but intense battle. Of the twelve kidnapped girls, all but one were successfully rescued.

Zeflin acted recklessly this time in order to suppress the cellar as quickly as possible—a lesson learned from the devastating explosion in Rhys City.

The priests split into two groups: one treated the wounded girls and found them clothes, while the other carefully examined the mercenaries' corpses and, if necessary, finished them off.

Once his breathing had stabilized, Zeflin approached the leader of the human traffickers. Without any hesitation, he first swung his cane several times, leaving the man with a bruised and swollen face, before beginning the interrogation.

The ringleader was very cooperative and quickly confessed to agreeing to the transaction with the buyer in Wazhuang Town.

"Pack your things, we'll spend the night here," Zeflin instructed. "We'll head to Wazhuang Town first thing tomorrow morning."

But Rupert objected, saying, "This buyer is definitely not someone to be trifled with, given that he can organize such a large-scale kidnapping." He suggested, "We should report the situation to the Cold Mountain branch and request support from the adjudication team so they can handle it."

Zeflin pondered for a moment and had to admit that Rupert was right. They had the resources to deal with a mercenary group, but facing a buyer of unknown strength was too risky and would also endanger the kidnapped girl.

If the adjudication team were to depart from Bubing City overnight, it wouldn't be any slower than if they had traveled from Brundy Town.

"Then what do we do next?"

Rupert had already planned it: "We'll go to the surrounding towns and continue investigations like this."

Considering that Rupert's method had indeed worked—not only successfully rescuing eleven girls but also uncovering clues about the buyers—Zeflin nodded and agreed to the former sheriff's proposal.

****
The next morning, Su Ming got up a little later than usual.

His companions had left him breakfast and were now working on the remaining tasks in the shed. The materials needed for the final transfer had been sorted and neatly arranged to reduce Su Ming's workload.

The hinges of the two sections of the teleported doomsday vehicle were unfolded, and Violet, holding her staff, used levitation to slowly raise the second section. Under Newman's command, a group of zombies carefully adjusted the position of the section, aligned the hinge mechanism, and then slammed it into the fixing bolts.

Fu Hong stood by, rhythmically chanting a work song: "Heave-ho—navigating the whirlpool, rowing together!"

After several rounds of back and forth, all the hinge mechanism fixing bolts were in place, and the second and third chassis structure sections of the Doomsday Locomotive were assembled.

"You need to connect these, right?" Newman walked to the center of the section and picked up the data cable from the ground. These cables all used a foolproof interface design, and were marked with pairs of eye-catching symbols, so even people who don't know Earth languages ​​can easily connect them.

“That’s right, there are eight power cables and fifteen data cables in total,” Su Ming confirmed.

“Su Ming, when I used the Levitation Technique just now, I didn’t experience the abnormal energy consumption I felt when crossing the mountains,” Zi Jin said. “You seem to know what the problem is, but I don’t quite understand it.”

“…I did tell you it’s about the conservation of energy,” Su Ming said. “When the levitation spell takes effect, if it involves changes in gravitational potential energy, it requires your magic power to replenish it.” “Is it that much?” Zi Jin asked, puzzled. “The extra cost of maintaining it is more than ten times greater than the cost of casting the levitation spell!”

“You haven’t done enough physics calculations.” Su Ming sighed softly, pulled out a piece of paper, and recalled the scene at that time, “The Youth Civilization Train weighed about 1600 tons and was climbing a slope with a gradient of 0.6%, and its speed was 8 kilometers per hour.”

Su Ming wrote down the detailed calculation formula on the paper:
列车每秒势能增量=1.6*10^6*9.9*0.06*8000/3600
"Your levitation technique reduced the weight by half, so you filled half of the power in this calculation, which is about 1 megawatt."

This is roughly equivalent to the peak power of four or five heavy trucks running at full speed. The fact that Violet could maintain such output for several minutes shows that the power of otherworldly beings is beyond the imagination of humans on Earth.

"So when the Youth Civilization is moving horizontally, using levitation to reduce weight won't incur any extra cost," Zi Jin understood. "What happens when it's going downhill?" She extrapolated, "Will it give me back magic power?"

"I doubt there's such a good thing," Su Ming said. "Isn't the descent just the effect of a slow-fall spell? The heavier the object, the higher the falling speed, and the more magic power it consumes."

"So if you're short, you have to make up for it; if you're too much, you have to offset it... It's a waste of time on both ends," Violet complained. "I'll write a paper and get a few interested people to study this problem."

"Adding a bounty would be much more effective," Su Ming suggested.

“That makes sense.” Zijin readily agreed.

****
Inside the factory of Jingji Heavy Industry, the last section, after careful debugging, was finally ready. The tractor roared and slowly towed the huge component to its designated position.

[Su Ming, we're all ready here. How's things on your end?] Miao Xin initiated the contact. [There was a significant disturbance on your end last night.]

"Just a small breakthrough," Su Ming replied casually. "Let's begin."

As the view shifts, the monitoring equipment in the idle warehouse has undergone another round of adjustments. The sticker grid has become more precise and detailed, covering almost every inch of the floor and walls.

"What, did you find something interesting?" Su Ming asked Ling Wen, who was standing not far away.

“When you initiated the teleportation, there were distortions and fluctuations in space,” Ling Wen replied. “Experts are trying to capture the whole process in more detail.”

"Come on you guys."

Without the blessing of moonlight, Qiluo's "Aura of Dedication" effect was reduced by half. However, after assessing the situation, Su Ming decided that there was no need to wait for the next moonrise.

He took a deep breath and activated the magic array again. This time, he clearly felt his power become much more solid.

Conversely, an immense pressure emanating from an omnipresent and majestic presence also manifested. This thing had always been there, but Su Ming could only vaguely sense it now.

As insignificant human beings, it takes courage just to gaze upon this vastness. Su Ming steadied his mind and increased the output of his power.

"Summoning of All Things - Magic Array!"

A technician from the monitoring equipment exclaimed "Huh?" They had clearly noticed a change in the data pattern. The spatial distortion had intensified, but the time frame had drastically shortened; the process of extracting and transferring order was completed in just a few frames.

When the spatial ripples dissipated, only a large pile of metal scraps remained in the idle workshop—the last part of the doomsday motorcycle had been successfully transported to another world!

****
Thanks to the new modular design, the mechanical assembly of the Doomsday Motorbike was completed smoothly in less than half a day. However, the subsequent magical modifications were much more complex.

After careful planning, Violet and Newman decided to postpone the deployment of defensive magic arrays until the locomotive was in motion, prioritizing the parts that needed to work in conjunction with the mechanical systems. This included key functional modules such as the heat insulation system, lubrication devices, and water recycling system.

The Doomsday Motorbike was originally designed with a sophisticated water recycling system, but the recycling rate will be further improved when combined with magic. Violet has already made targeted adjustments to the auxiliary magic array to enable it to work better in tandem with the mechanical system.

The pre-drilled holes for crystal mounting greatly improved work efficiency. Newman was very satisfied with this; his only complaint was that Violet had messed up the rune standard formula.

"This violates the principles of standardization!" The halfling skeleton was so angry that it jumped up and down, its whole body making cracking sounds. "Modifying things might be fun for a while, but it'll be a headache when you need to coordinate with other magic arrays!"

"As long as it can be pieced together and run, why bother with so many details?" Zijin said dismissively. "Anyway, it will be dismantled after this trip."

“A few magic arrays can be put together like this, but now there are more than thirty magic arrays that need to operate in coordination!” Newman waved his bony hand. “A standard configuration must be used to ensure the overall stability!”

Su Ming couldn't get a word in edgewise as the two scholars argued. Just then, Catherine arrived, and he went to greet her.

Catherine did not come alone; she brought a man and a woman with her.

The woman Su Ming recognized was Gerus, whom he had met briefly in the town of Shafur. The man was a middle-aged priest he had never met before, standing ramrod straight and exuding a calm demeanor.

“Gelus Lopez, a healing priestess, you should already know her,” Catherine introduced to Su Ming.

The girl placed her hands together in front of her chest and performed a standard blessing of light to Su Ming.

Today, she wore a pure white healer's robe, the lapel embroidered with intricate gold thread patterns that radiated a divine light in the sunlight. She held a new staff inlaid with pure crystal, and around her neck hung a ring of a special material, on which mysterious runes could be faintly seen flowing.

"Hello!" Su Ming greeted him in a friendly manner.

“Hello!” Gerus responded immediately, but she seemed a little reserved, her fingers unconsciously rubbing her staff.

Su Ming was puzzled; this was quite different from his impression of them when they first met.

“This is Genndal, my capable deputy,” Catherine continued. “I intend to have these two stay here as your liaisons and guides. In case you encounter any people from the Northern Flow on the road, they can step in to defuse any unnecessary conflicts.”

"People from Beiliu?" Su Ming frowned slightly. "Are they planning something?"

“It’s a case about the trafficking of young girls,” Catherine explained. “Right now, all the branches in the entire northern region have dispatched priest squads to conduct a full investigation and crackdown. The court has also sent an elite squad to track down the girls’ buyers. If any of them run into you, it will truly be a case of the flood washing away the Dragon King’s temple.”

(End of this chapter)