The Strange Adventures of Hearn the Believer

"So don't try to experience the detective profession in a world with magic, especially if you're a bad detective, you'll just get frustrated."

Ignoring the surging tide that was crawling towards him, the believer walked several steps in the opposite direction, arriving at the spot where Alcott had died. She sat down, clasped her hands together in deep thought. The small snakes that had smeared his face seemed to flow like invisible water down Drake's undead body, disappearing back into the swarm of snakes.

The fireflies of the snakes illuminated the room, which writhed like a living hell. An ordinary person would be driven mad after just one glimpse of them, but the thinker sitting in the center of the sofa remained unmoved. After a long silence, a soft laugh broke the stillness.

"Feathered Robe".

"I'm here."

Do you know what the most awkward situation is for a detective?

"Was there multiple locked rooms at the crime scene? Or were the killers actually twins? Or were there Far Easterners among the suspects?"

"Ah, even though the inclusion of a Far Easterner among the suspects is a terrible omen, it's enough to rack up the detectives' brain cells. After all, nobody wants to be stuck with an autopsy report that says 'the deceased died of cardiac arrest without any external injuries,' go through all that deduction, and just when they're about to conclude that 'the deceased died of spontaneous organ failure,' they're suddenly told that 'the deceased was actually struck in the chest by a Far Easterner with a punch like the inch punch or Bajiquan, causing cardiac arrest'—that's the kind of workplace drama we're talking about now. But I want to talk about something else."

"Hmm?" The fox was slightly intrigued by him, but only slightly.

"That is—when all the clues at the crime scene point to the detective himself, the incompetent detective is completely unaware of the truth."

As he finished speaking, the swarm of snakes that had transformed the scholarly living room into a living hell seemed to obey a command and wriggle away. They eventually gathered together, like rivers flowing into the East Sea, and transformed into a coiled white snake directly in front of the sofa, its body shimmering with a mercury-like blue light in the dim night.

Its snake eyes were devoid of any intelligence, yet it humbly lowered its head and prostrated itself before the man, as if it were the most natural thing in the world.

“Hearn, this thing isn’t…”

"Interesting, I'll take the blame."

The believer's lips curled up slightly. This strange adventure, which seemed to have originated from the jinx of some muscular man, had finally aroused his curiosity after several days of its opening.

"Now, take me to Valentine."

……

Released at midnight, I'm all better now, remember to vote.

Chapter 77 The Student Surpasses the Master

"I'm fascinated by steampunk."

"Oh."

"However, I am not a believer in Dombo in the traditional sense. In fact, what fascinates me is the post-Age of Discovery era, which was a transition from ignorance to civilization. Half of the earth's surface gradually transitioned from the unknown to the known due to the rise of industry, while the other half, a new world waiting to be explored, and some small corners of the old world still hide fascinating secrets of a lost era. They ignited the passion of countless speculators, robbers, navigators, colonial leaders, and creators. Compared to that era of great change and prosperity, the world on the eve of Christmas 2092 is like the embers of a furnace that have been extinguished."

"And you also have a fondness for those aristocratic ladies of the Victorian era who wore cardigans and ruffled skirts, right? I get it." The fox, accustomed to her current role, looked at Hearn with a kind of elder's loving concern for the younger generation when she looked at him with her narrow fox eyes. "You've always been a football fan."

“Ah, I don’t deny it.” The believer’s voice was sincere. He thought for a moment and then added, “But I have to fall in love with that person first.”

The long, white snake, leaving a fleeting, mercury-like trail, slowly made its way underground. A human and a fox followed behind the snake at a leisurely pace, strolling through the desolate and dilapidated streets of the lower city, chatting and joking in their spare time.

Thanks to the cleansing efforts of the Mechanicus for days, no ungrateful night travelers bothered us along the way. Even drunkards were nowhere to be seen in the winding streets, and every household kept their doors and windows tightly shut, their lights off, oblivious to what was happening outside.

Now, as time passed, Hearn, through Officer Drake's dilated eyes, looked up one last time at the starless night sky of the icy city, thinking that it was time to let the unfortunate young man rest in peace. So, she straightened her increasingly stiff joints and slipped sideways into a crack in the wall of the basement ruins, where the white snake had slithered and disappeared a minute earlier.

……

"Phew—" The maiden who emerged from the crack in the rock wall let out a long breath. She looked around and sighed softly, "Although Stirling's manuscripts mentioned information about the ruins of the Upper Ages beneath Is Castle many times, there are still some things that surprised me after I came here in person."

"Is this any different from the tombs and underground palaces you dug in the primeval forest near Sweetwater Bay for food and clothing? Apart from the size."

Yu Yi also stood up from his shoulder and looked around. In her opinion, this was just a corner of a regular underground palace, not even connected to the main body. It was a side hall within a side hall. Due to the long time that had passed, the etheric magic in the runes carved by the original builders had long since flowed out and returned to nature.

“No, no, no, this isn’t a grave. I didn’t dig up all those graves for nothing. There’s not a trace of Shadow Realm energy left here.” The believer walked around the narrow side hall for about twenty steps, completing one of its relatively intact sides, and unsurprisingly found nothing. She shook her head and turned her gaze to the other side of the exit. “There are signs of secondary repairs, but the work is very crude, done by an amateur. Many of the rune circuits inscribed in the previous chapters were blocked by cheap cement used by the plasterers during the secondary renovation. It couldn’t have been too long. I think we’ve come to the right place. This should be the entrance to a private workshop built by some Yisu person using laborers they hired.”

Without delay, although it was unclear where the seemingly mindless white snake had gone after entering this place, its intended destination was most likely just ahead. With the beautiful wish of quickly settling things peacefully and giving the police officer a proper burial, the believer, accompanied by Yu Yi, hurried through the door of the side hall and came outside. What came into view was a lifeline suspended above a bottomless abyss—a suspended corridor bridge just wide enough for two people to walk side by side.

The handrail-like structures on both sides were already dilapidated, serving more decorative than practical purposes. Some parts of the bridge surface were so damaged that only one person could pass at a time. The amateurs who attempted the renovation seemed to have tried to make some improvements, but due to the extremely poor construction conditions, the effect was quite limited. The other side of the covered bridge was straightforward enough. The believer looked up and saw light faintly shining through a bunker-like building that was half-embedded in the mountain.

“Mr. Valentine’s private workshop is cleverly hidden,” the believer whistled. “Without that snake to lead the way, we might not have been able to find it.”

"Don't get too excited, Hearn. With Alcott's example, I don't think this Valentine kid will be able to get away unscathed. Don't forget we came here with that snake; he might already be half-swallowed."

"I don't care whether the hostages live or die. What I want is the specific coordinates of Ys City hidden in the complete set of design manuscripts."

A mocking smile appeared on the believer's lips. He hummed a Finnish nursery rhyme that only echoed in his childhood dreams, and leisurely stepped onto the suspended bridge above the bottomless abyss, like a child wandering in the middle of the night, who had forgotten the way home.

However, he was not the only child who wandered around midnight, forgetting his way home.

Having long since broken free from the constraints of gravity, the soul naturally harbored no fear of falling into the abyss. The seemingly narrow corridor bridge was easily traversed in a few words between him and the fox. The believer, Hearn, stopped outside the cement workshop, looked it over, and decided that the upside-down, mud-bowl-like building was a decent grave, just right for burying its owner.

With this thought in mind, the believer gently released the safety on Officer Drake's service pistol and silently slipped into the Valentine Workshop building. After less than three turns, she stopped in front of a metal blast door. The door and the wall were seamlessly integrated, and the metal combination lock had a rugged appearance but a rigorous core, showing that it was a high-quality product that cost a lot of money.

Hearn stood in front of the door for a moment, raising and lowering his hand to knock. After a while, he took out one of Mr. Drake's most treasured possessions from his pocket—a small engineering bomb. It looked like it came from an illegitimate source, probably a piece of stock that the police officer had confiscated when he was cracking down on the underworld gangs.

"Steam technology, truly awe-inspiring." The believer played with the cold, apple-sized object one last time, then embedded it into the wall next to the blast door before returning to the corner of the corridor and squatting down. She then pulled the fox off her shoulder and held it in front of her.

"Try to understand, this zombie has limited defenses," he explained with a smile.

Yu Yi rolled her eyes and summoned a dark blue shield from the void, encasing herself and that heartless man like an eggshell.

With everything in place, Mr. Hearn pressed the trigger button in his hand and, with a clear conscience, took a deep breath of the fox amidst the earth-shaking chaos.

"I told you not to touch me with your filthy, zombie-like hands!" With the dust settled, the fox cursed as it broke free of the demon's clutches.

"So that means it's okay if it's my real body?" The believer smiled and let go of her hand.

"That's natural."

"I didn't realize that you, with your fox-like eyebrows and eyes, are such a superficial person."

"Didn't you yourself say that working with beautiful women makes you feel good? I feel the same way."

"Okay, you've convinced me."

The believer emerged from the disintegrating bunker, inching closer to the blasted-open workshop opening along the last remaining intact wall. For a moment, blood and scraps of paper flew through the narrow passageway, sparks and smoke dancing together. When patience wore thin, the zombie police officer tumbled into the workshop, raising his firearm and sweeping it across the dimly lit office. He saw a gaunt, blond man—his upper body pierced by spiderweb-like metal wires, suspended in mid-air like a tattered half-doll, while below, blood gushed forth.

"Oh no!" the believer exclaimed, realizing she was doomed.

"Hearn, your engineering bomb blew his lower body off."

"He had already collapsed before that, so it's none of my business."

With a look of disgust, the believer Hearn carefully walked around the mess of "sewage" and came to the still intact desk, only to find, as expected, that it was completely empty.

“Someone beat me to it.” The believer’s gaze swept over several opened manuscript boxes, which were empty. “The person who made the move had a clear target; they seem to be a fellow professional.”

“That’s Valentine, Hearn, look at this.” The fox returned from another room and tossed him a roll of rather large negatives. “It’s not a complete loss. The previous visitor took the ready-made documents but not the negatives in the darkroom. You can look through them and memorize them. There’s a lot of aircraft design data in there, but it’s a bit hard on your eyes.”

The believer held the film up to the light source in the room and quickly scanned it one frame at a time. When his gaze lingered on one of the negatives, he couldn't help but whistle a light, flirtatious tune that men throughout the Pan-European region had understood for centuries. Then he continued working, imprinting the information from the remaining negatives into his mind.

"Found it?" the fox asked.

"Yes, found it. Officer Drake's mission is over." Mr. Hearn seemed to be in a good mood after finishing his work.

"Then I'll head back too. Transforming in this icy wasteland, thousands of kilometers away, is quite tiring, especially considering I'm only able to anchor myself to the living corpse you control." The fox yawned lazily, making a move to leave, then realized something was amiss. "Wait, Hern."

"what?"

"You seem a little too happy, don't you? That whistle just now didn't sound like a celebration of completing a mission, or at least not entirely," Yu Yi said suspiciously, observing his cheerful expression.

"You really know me, Hagoromo."

"That's right, do you think I've been with you for so many years?"

"Then you should know me better."

"What do you mean... Alright, I understand." The fox came to its senses and understood.

"I found a thorny little violet in the negative. Although she disguised herself as a roadside weed or wildflower, the look in her eyes when she noticed the camera betrayed her. It was a daily work photo of a member of the Morgan Society. The photographer's candid shots were excellent, and each member's image was very vivid." The believer found the negative again and praised it while examining it.

“If Morgan hadn’t taken her away, then she would undoubtedly be the last survivor of Morgan’s organization,” the fox pondered. “Wait, what does that have to do with you?”

"You'll understand once you take a look."

The believer handed the negative to Yu Yi, who glanced at it casually, and in that single glance, he understood immediately.

"Hearn".

"what?"

"You need to know that you have become the very thing you used to hate the most."

"Bullshit, how do I resemble that blond old bitch?"

With a laugh and a curse, Hearn picked up the fox and tossed it back onto his shoulder. He then recounted the personal belongings of Officer Drake that he was carrying, before leaving the Valentine workshop and gazing at the opposite side of the suspended bridge, where explosions could be heard from the shadows of the side hall.

Soon, an unknown number of steel monsters filed out, cutting off the only escape route on the other side of the covered bridge.

“The way we came was through One Way Pass, and Valentine’s bones are still warm, so there must be a secret passage in the workshop leading to another part of the underground ruins.” The believer raised an eyebrow as she looked at the group of steel lumps that hadn’t moved yet. “The little bastards who got there first must have slipped away through the secret passage.”

"How do you know that the one who got there first was the young lady you liked and not some rough guy from another underground society who came to kill you out of vicious competition?" Fox said casually, the group of metal lumps with their brains screwed into power armor were not worth her attention.

“It’s her sense of smell,” the believer asserted confidently. “She has injuries, probably from before. I’m not so sure I would mistake a young girl’s blood for a rough man’s.”

Without hesitation, he unleashed another bomb, reducing a portion of the structure on the opposite bank to dust before the Iron Paladins could take their first step onto the bridge.

However, the next moment, the awe-inspiring power of steam once again shocked Mr. Hearn's mind. As the bridge broke, the dozen or so heavy steel paladins neatly spewed out pale, high-temperature steam. The power structure on their backs, which resembled rocket jetpacks, was enough to support them in completing this super long jump spanning 100 meters.

"Purify the filth!"

Steam is roaring, steel is shouting!

"Damn it!"

The believer, Hearn, turned and ran.

……

I'm all set. Please vote, recommend, and promote this. Thank you.

Chapter 78 A Childlike Heart

The steel monsters rubbing their hands together outside the workshop originated from the failed exploration of underground ruins in Ys City over a century ago. After the "short-lived generation" became a thing of the past, official ruin exploration operations were halted by all parties in Ys, at least on the surface. However, the tendency to court death is human nature, and even the Child of Earth, who fell to the bottom of the Tree of Reversal after a perfect being ate the forbidden fruit, was not immune. Unable to sit idly by while a treasure lay buried beneath their feet, the upper echelons of the Cult of Machines, after years of secretly plotting, finally proposed a feasible alternative plan.

They sacrificed their flesh and blood to steel to escape physical deformity, and deliberately abandoned their intelligence because wisdom is the source of fear. Thus, a perfect tool, called the "Machine Slave," was born—a creature whose lower body consisted only of cylindrical screws, its brain having undergone devastating surgery. Priests used nylon thread soaked in machine oil blessed by the sages to sew up their eyes, ears, and mouths, hoping to achieve a state of "not seeing, not hearing, not asking, not thinking," a state of complete isolation. In this way, the Machine Slave could safely and orderly carry out engineering work on the mysterious and insane gray elf ruins beneath Ys under the control of the Highland Church—at least, that was their initial, beautiful idea.

However, what followed was far beyond their control. The immense evil buried deep beneath Ys far exceeded the conservative expectations of the Mechanic Church. Even the perfect cyborgs could not withstand the spiritual corruption emanating from the depths of the earth.

Even with their thorough preparations, the Church's exploratory army, which was essentially a tool of the Church, still suffered a devastating blow. The blow did not originate from the outside, but from within themselves. After the machine slaves ventured into the shallows of the bottomless abyss—a depth almost five times greater than the initial "short-lived generation" had explored with their own flesh and blood—the charlatans far behind the Upper City, who were manipulating gold miners, were horrified to discover that their miners, after crossing a certain boundary, would instantly transform into a group of moving cauliflowers stuck in steel shells with a burst of "poof" sounds. Those were their brains.

"Years of research investment were wasted before the costs were even recouped, and the clandestine underground development was eventually halted. However, the technology was preserved and, after years of improvement, ultimately created a group of perfect soldiers loyal to the church."

Hiding in the workshop, the believer Hearn pointed to the outside of the workshop with a look of disgust. "It's those weirdos who are called Iron Paladins. They believe that wisdom without will only become a bridge to the corruption of demons. So they are willing to abandon human intelligence and convert to doctrine. They use drug-induced fanaticism to block the whispers of demons and drive steel bodies built of machinery and steam. I admit that they are a group of tough guys with firm beliefs, but that does not change the fact that they are all cowards."

"If one does not fear evil, how can one become a steel-willed warrior?"

Hearn, the believer, didn't want to play with the group of steel behemoths who were about to sweep in. Part of it was because the zombie police officer's body was indeed not very convenient, greatly reducing his combat effectiveness. The other part was because he looked down on these fanatics from the bottom of his heart.

Mr. Hearn was a staunch "purist" in 2092, and even after ending up in this godforsaken place, he hasn't forgotten his original aspirations.

He walked quickly past Valentine's workshop office, ignoring the demolition fire outside the workshop. The fox easily sensed the strangeness of Valentine's bedroom and guided him to check it out. The believer entered the bedroom and quickly found a hidden door embedded in the rock inside the wardrobe.

The door was about the height of a person, but the passage inside was only big enough for a person to sit or lie down. The believer reached out and touched the living corpse's fingertips, and they returned a damp feeling—a natural tunnel. The visible part of the tunnel sloped downwards, and the inside of the tunnel had become slippery due to the erosion of underground water veins over the years. It was pitch black inside, and no one knew where it led.

The traces of artificial expansion extend less than two meters from the entrance into the interior. This part was probably done by Valentine himself, but he eventually gave up due to lack of energy or time.

“Actually, you really don’t need to go through all this trouble…” Yu Yi sighed. “This body is inconvenient. Northern men are naturally large-boned. Drake was 1.85 meters tall when he was alive. I’m afraid that while you’re enjoying the slide, you might get stuck and unable to move. That would be really embarrassing.”

“Valentine himself is quite a big guy, I don’t believe he hasn’t personally tested this only escape route. Besides, if I really get stuck, I can just pay homage to the Far Eastern samurai culture, disembowel myself to reduce the cross-sectional area, and then fight again.” The believer answered lightly, one foot already stuck into the hole. “If that still doesn’t work, I’ll admit defeat, dispel this troublesome necromancy that’s thousands of kilometers away, and go back to Sweetwater Bay to live my carefree life.”

"Just ten minutes ago you were saying you wanted to give Drake a proper burial," the fox said mockingly, turning back. Seeing that he was determined to leave, the fox didn't interfere further.

"Feather Robe, being stuck inside is just like being laid to rest, isn't it? It's better than being blasted into mincemeat by those steel sledgehammers outside." The believer replied righteously. This time, he was completely sitting on the natural, slippery door frame, about to let himself go.

"You've convinced me." The fox rolled her eyes, leaped onto his chest, and lay down. "I've already become a spirit. Good luck to you."

"Got it. Whether Drake can rest in peace depends on this. Let's go!"

"I have a bad feeling..."

……

Beneath the city of Ys, in a corner of the vast, fragmented cavern, this place is still in its shallowest stage, yet it far exceeds the limits of our initial exploration. Valentine had indeed never attempted this only escape tunnel during his lifetime. In his mind, the location of his secret workshop was flawless, and the so-called escape passage was merely a natural bonus, an added bonus.

In reality, he was not destined to make such a reckless attempt. When he reached the end of the tunnel alive, the extreme vertical depth of the abyss would send him to follow in the footsteps of the pioneers of Issu a century earlier.

A soft cry suddenly rang out from the deep abyss, accompanied by the slight sound of flesh coming into contact with the cap of a wildly growing underground giant fungus. After the shimmering, dark blue cap returned to calm from its trembling, the only girl in Issu City who had personally reached the bottom of the abyss slowly sat up from the giant fungus cap.

Pandora tried moving her limbs slightly to check if her bones were intact and if her internal organs were experiencing any pain. She quickly ruled out the possibility of fractures and internal bleeding, and then checked her body for any large abrasions.

Fortunately, her body was small enough, and the gray cloak that kept her warm was thick enough, so it took some of her suffering, at the cost of becoming even more worn out.

She should mend it privately when she gets back; if her father finds out she's skipped class and disappeared again, she'll definitely get a lecture.

With these thoughts in mind, the Cinderella, who was not yet thirteen years old, began to examine the long, narrow cylinder she carried with her using the light source of the luminescent fungus. This cylindrical metal box was a common document container in Ys, durable and easy to store, suitable for storing soft media rolled up in bundles.

She carefully pulled out the rolled-up documents and a few selected photos, spreading them out on the broad, glowing fungus cap. After spending several minutes checking and confirming that everything was correct, she finally relaxed completely, let out a long sigh, and then lay back on the soft cap without any guard.

It's over. What remains is a long wait, preparation, and organizing new manpower. The design plan has been put into practice, and what's needed is to start from scratch on the material side.