Mr. Death in the Steam World

Even though the pain of being dead is not intense, under stress, Moen's eyes were still bloodshot and his blood was rushing to his head.

He grabbed the broken glass bottle from the ground, and just as the cat pounced in front of him, he sidestepped and swiftly thrust out—

"Click—"

The cat's body froze in mid-air before crashing heavily to the ground.

It twitched a few times, its dark red eyes slowly lost their luster, and then it stopped moving.

Moen collapsed to the ground, panting heavily.

"That scared me to death! If I hadn't played so many horror games and had such quick reflexes, I would have really been in trouble here."

"But that stab I just did was kind of cool, wasn't it?"

Moen clutched his chest, feeling a lingering fear, but in the midst of that fear, he actually burst out laughing.

Unlike killing rats before, which was considered cruel killing, he would have psychological burden.

But killing this cat this time, that's called a fight to the death!

He had never experienced this feeling of life and death in an instant before, but now that he saw it, it seemed pretty good.

In his mind, the Death Note automatically opened.

Harvesting death brings blessings.

Harvesting progress: 20%

[Note: Level 4 containment object traces detected. The quality of this essence is: Green]

Moen was somewhat stunned.

20%? Green quality?

The white "Mouse's Skillful Hands" had already made him a sensation in the Dragon Breath Grass experiment, and even that precise stab just now was mostly thanks to this ability.

If the white essence is already so effective, what about the green one?

Moen suppressed his longing for the green essence.

Perhaps the "quality" of the harvested objects will affect the quality of the extract and the harvesting speed?

He secretly kept this guess in mind.

By the way, Death Note seems to say something about detecting traces of a Level 4 containment object. What is a containment object?

He looked down at the dead cat and felt that it did indeed retain some kind of aura that did not belong to ordinary animals.

This is probably the trace of what is called a contained object.

Based on the various movies and novels he had seen in his previous life, he guessed that the contained objects mostly referred to things with extraordinary powers.

If a cat affected by a containment object can produce green essence, then harvesting the containment object itself would be...

Moen suppressed the thought that had such implications.

After all, he knows nothing about that world, so it's best to be cautious.

He climbed out of the old chemistry building and stood in the open space, hesitating for a moment.

Go home? No way.

Since the cat had signs of being a shelter, and he had just been covered in the cat's blood, he might not be clean himself either.

He couldn't bring the risk to Clara.

Moen sighed and turned to walk towards the academy.

He remembered a street near the college with a coffee shop on the corner that stayed open all night. The decor was shabby and the coffee was terrible, but it was cheap.

In the original owner's memory, that place was a holy land for poor students to stay up all night to finish their papers.

Twenty minutes later, he pushed open the door of the coffee shop, ordered the cheapest black coffee, and sat down.

Moen took the stack of papers out of his pocket and spread them out on the table one by one.

The papers were out of order, and some page numbers were blurred, but he quickly put them back in the correct order.

To his surprise, he discovered that the papers were more like Leonard's diary than experimental notes.

The first few pages record daily trivialities—classes, experiments, meals with colleagues, and the occasional complaint about how stupid a certain student is.

There's a sense of humor in his writing, showing that Professor Leonard is a seemingly serious but actually witty person.

However, everything changed on January 13th.

"January 13, 1735. The weather is fine today. I hope the gods will bless my journey to the ruins."

......

"Pip told me that this thing is called the Flower of the Other Shore, and it seems to be a legendary containment object."

"I never thought I'd have the chance to come into contact with extraordinary power in my lifetime. I'm really lucky."

Moen continued scrolling down.

"January 15th, Pip really wasn't lying to me, this flower really does nourish the life around it, my experimental subjects are growing so fast, hehe."

"January 20th, damn it, I shouldn't have studied this flower, it seems to have haunted me, what bad luck."

His handwriting became messy, and his irritation was evident in the strokes.

"On February 1st, its appetite grew bigger and bigger. It ate almost 100 pounds of meat this week. I swear, none of Pip's dogs have eaten as much as it."

"On the 18th, my headache has been getting worse lately, and I seriously suspect that this flower is affecting my mind."

His brows furrowed more and more deeply.

"In March, who knows what day it was, someone saw me fighting with a stray dog ​​on the street in the middle of the night. I swear I have no memory of that; it was definitely that flower that did it!"

This line of writing was written with particular force, and the paper was torn in several places.

"In May, I tried everything, but I still couldn't get rid of that flower. I gave up."

"I told Pip everything. I've decided to find a place to end it all, taking that damned flower with me."

That was the entire diary entry. Moen rubbed his temples, feeling his brain was a bit overloaded.

Professor Leonard is dead?

In short, Professor Leonard found a containment object called "The Flower of the Other Shore" during a relic expedition, and his mind was gradually controlled by it, ultimately leading him to choose to end his own life.

Relics, contained objects, extraordinary power—this world is indeed extraordinary.

He closed his diary, leaned back in his chair, and closed his eyes.

The diary entry states that the last day was in May, and today is May 30, 1735, which is only a few days apart.

Professor Leonard was driven insane by a flower in the last few months of his life.

The diary reveals that the flower can control the host's mind, feed itself, and cannot be destroyed (at least not by conventional means).

Moen remembered Clara and Phil saying that the original owner had also shown abnormalities a few days before committing suicide.

He was mentally confused, had a vacant look in his eyes, and behaved abnormally, exhibiting symptoms identical to those of Professor Leonard.

If the flower of the other shore hadn't been killed along with Professor Leonard's suicide, it would surely have been lurking somewhere, waiting for its next victim.

The original owner of this body, an ordinary poor student, happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time.

Moen's fingers tightened slightly; he had discovered a very serious problem.

If it really was the flower of the other shore that lured the original owner to commit suicide...

The flower probably already knows that he has come back from the dead, or rather, that he is "still alive".

Realizing this, and thinking back to the strange cat he had just encountered in the old chemistry building, Moen suddenly felt that everything made sense.

That cat was most likely sent by the Flower of the Other Shore to test him!

[Remaining Time: 11:56:54]

Looking at his remaining life, Moen felt utterly hopeless.

With less than half a day left to live, and even being targeted by a mysterious containment object, what a hellish start!

He took a deep breath, put the diary in his pocket, and got up to pay the bill.

He pushed open the door of the coffee shop, and the night wind rushed into his collar. He subconsciously shrank his neck, quickened his pace, and his mind raced.

If his guess is true, then he should either run away as soon as possible or confront them head-on.

But what could he use to fight back? A poor student who had just transmigrated, he was powerless and his only reliance was the Death Note.

The only ability the notebook has given him so far is a pair of dexterous hands.

Even if he were to run away, given his current physical condition and financial resources, he couldn't go very far, especially since he would have to take Clara with him.

Not enough, far from enough. He needs more harvest, more essence.

Moen thought for a moment, then turned and walked towards the academy.

If he remembered correctly, his dear Professor Pip was supposed to teach vivisection.