The copy has 0 error tolerance, and the last words on the ground are all wrong for me.

Chapter 382 Conservative Counterattack
The news from Julie instantly ruined Wu Chang's good mood.

No wonder they didn't see any other members of the Steam Council in the workshop producing steam explosives when they raided the Gnar Chemical Plant.

No wonder the Steam Parliament had to inform Henry in advance through the Hills newspaper about the important base for producing the Great Stink, giving him the opportunity to reveal the information.

Wu Chang recalled the details of the Great Stink Incident and completed the plan of the Steam Parliament.

From the very beginning, the so-called big move of the Steam Council was not the Big Stink, but the Demon-Breaking Steam Press in the Royal Small Arms Factory.

They first used the great stench that enveloped Grimland to screen out extraordinary people who could maintain their mobility and combat power in the great stench.

Then, by deliberately exposing the source of the great stench, most of the top extraordinary people who can move in the great stench are attracted to the remote and desolate southeast.

In this situation, even if there are still top-level extraordinary people who can continue to move in Grimland, they dare not act rashly and must defend several important nodes in Grimland.

At this time, the Steam Parliament took advantage of the situation, gathered all its manpower, and attacked the Royal Small Arms Factory.

As for the great stench that could affect the entire Grimland, why was it used as bait to be exchanged one-for-one with the Demon-Breaking Steam Press?

Wu Chang narrowed his eyes and recalled the scene when he met Olivia.

The reason why the Steam Parliament did this was probably because they knew in advance that the area around St. George's Cathedral contained the Kingdom of the Holy Revelation, and that they could not break into it just by relying on the stench.

Following this line of thought, their ultimate goal is either Olivia or the Book of Revelation representing the Holy Revelation Church.

There is no doubt that the Steam Council's big move has been successful, which means that the magic-breaking steam press they obtained can help them gain the power to break through the Kingdom of God head-on.

Combined with the steam explosives they had produced before, Wu Changling told him that this group of guys would soon cause big trouble.

"Peace."

While Wu Chang was thinking, a call came from behind him.

The real me turned around and saw God's Tongue looking up at the sky with a serious expression and said:
"Is the fog in the sky this time more serious than the previous two times?"

Wu Chang looked up at the sky following the gaze of the Tongue of God. If the haze that originally shrouded the sky of Grimland was still just like the half-cloudy sky before the rain, it could still be dimly lighted and a spot of light could be seen in the sky, knowing that it was the sun or the moon.

Now, the sky of Grimland has left the realm of haze and is becoming thick and cloudy, with the outline of the moon completely invisible.

In the past, Grimland was called the City of Fog because of the fog that filled the sky all year round.

Now, I'm afraid we have to call this place the City of Shadows.

In the eyes of the natives of the plane, the smog above Grimland is the result of environmental pollution caused by industrialization.

But from the player's perspective, the concentration of haze also represents the influence of the root power of steam on the rules of the plane.

Every time a Super Steam Engine is discovered by players, the fog will be thicker, but now that the "Super Atomization Separator" has been obtained, the fog is exceptionally thick, and the extra fog is more than just a little bit, it's more like doubled.

Double...

Wu Chang felt the changes in the rules of the plane, and suddenly he had an epiphany.

Among the extraordinary people who follow the Steam Council, there must be players. The Steam Council obtains the Demon-Breaking Steam Press, allowing the players who follow them to complete the second main task and meet the conditions for the steam root power to influence the rules.

So the extraordinary steam engines obtained by the players tonight were not one, but two!

Jianxing once said that the Steam Council knew clearly how to influence the rules of the plane, and everything that was happening now was the result of their secret promotion.

Exposing the source of the stench and raiding the Royal Small Arms Factory at the same time would double the impact of the Steam Origin Force. Was this also part of their plan?

Wu Chang sighed. It seemed that these guys were not as bad as they appeared.

He couldn't tell God's Tongue and the others that they already knew the news that the Royal Light Weapons Factory was attacked. He could only say:
"Maybe something happened in the city. Take those two men in black robes with you and let's go back."

According to Julie's intelligence, the Steam Council snatched the Demon-Destroying Steam Press and left immediately, leaving no time to track them.

Things have come to this point, and there is no time to be anxious. On the way back, he moved from the driver's seat to the back seat and left the return journey to the automatic driving.

On the way back, everyone tested the impact of steam rules on supernatural powers in the car.

At this time, the steam rules covering Grimland had a concentration close to two-thirds of the workshop where the soul steam engine was located.

God's Tongue and others conducted a few simple experiments. At this moment in Grimland, all non-steam rules and skills below level B that require energy consumption have become ineffective.

These include Wu Chang's space teleportation and Shadow's concealment skills.

It will not be so easy to hide your tracks and quickly reach the Steam Council’s base in the future.

This level of restriction is a devastating blow to players of the level of Negotiation Master, Veronica and White Horse.

A-level energy skills are not very common. Not to mention ordinary players, even Wu Chang only has the Blind Abyss A-level skill at the moment.

Even in the four major organizations, except for the most powerful members, ordinary core members only have two or three A-level skills at most.

The skills of the three negotiation masters are originally focused on energy, and in the skill system, B-level and C-level skills account for a large proportion.

In the current copy plane, the strength they can exert is only 50% of their full state, or even less.

They are like this, and so are the other players in the dungeon.

Although the Great Stink disappeared, a more persistent and irreversible smog began to cover Grimland.

Moreover, the destructive power of this smog is still increasing.

As extraordinary steam engines continue to appear, it is only a matter of time before the steam rules begin to ban A-level skills, passive skills that do not require energy, and even other root skills.

By that time, players can only rely on physical attributes and skills that comply with Steam rules to fight.

Wu Chang glanced at Booker who was somewhat excited. By then, Booker who could summon a combat motorcycle would surpass all the powerful players and might even become the second best of the Arcane Knights.

Back at the Secret Security Department, Wu Changben told everyone Julie's information, and everyone understood the reason for the sudden increase in steam rules.

In order to reward the players for their performance in this mission, Wu Chang cooperated with Raventon and naturally told the players the relevant information about the Steam Council.

Players who can queue up to enter the Steam Phantom dungeon, after listening to the information from the Steam Council, all know that this information is worth at least 5% of the dungeon exploration degree.

Not only that, if Sir Sean in front of him was not lying, in the Steam Phantom copy, in addition to joining the Steam Council, only the Arcane Knights could obtain this information about the copy BOSS.

Thinking of this, everyone looked at Heping with more relief and gratitude.

Wu Chang's body told everyone to pay more attention to the information of the Steam Council, and then went straight to St. George's Cathedral to explain to Olivia the layout of the Steam Council in the Gnar Chemical Plant.

One is to tell Olivia that he has dealt with the big stink.

The second is to remind the other party to remember to fulfill her previous promise.

When he saw Olivia again, she was much calmer than Wu Chang had imagined.

Compared to the sudden stench, the attack on the Royal Small Arms Factory did not shake Olivia much.

With the success of the Steam Council's plan, the situation became even worse than before the Great Stink, but the more adverse the situation, the more Olivia revealed her composure as a king.

Her eyes were calm and steady, and she just said that the Great Stink was over and Julie didn't need to stay to protect her, and then asked Julie to cooperate with Wu Chang to put an end to the Great Stink.

I have to say that although Olivia is young, her aura when she enters the king mode can give people a full sense of security.

Just by seeing her expression, one can feel that the difficulties ahead are nothing more than minor hardships that cannot destroy Stian's confidence.

Similar to the previous two times of recovering the extraordinary steam engine, Julie brought the secret police and prepared to go to the Gnar Chemical Plant to recover the remaining parts of the extraordinary steam engine.

After every operation, Julie is always there to finish it off.

Before Julie left, Wu Chang asked her a question.

"The great stench tonight will bring many disasters to Grimland."

"What would you do without me?" Julie, who was originally walking, stood still after hearing the question. She was like a petrified being, without any movement.

After a long silence, she slowly opened her mouth and said:

"I... I don't know, but I think I'm afraid I'll keep my current choice and stay in St. George's Chapel to protect Her Majesty the Queen."

Protecting Olivia means that she will not bring anyone to the Gnar Chemical Plant, which means that the Great Stink will continue until the Great Stink subsides on its own or the Steam Council takes the initiative to lift it.

They all knew that many people would die from the stench tonight, and they also knew that if the stench was allowed to continue, more people would die.

But Julie chose to stay with Olivia.

Wu Chang pretended not to understand and said, "I actually want to ask you how you would investigate the source of the Great Stink, such as whether you have any secret intelligence organization under your command."

Julie's ugly expression eased a little, and she shook her head gently:

"It is a secret intelligence organization. It is difficult to find out the whereabouts of the Steam Council."

"If I were really asked to investigate, I would probably ask Raventon and the others for help."

Wu Chang smiled and said, "This is actually a good choice."

Julie asked, “What’s good about it?”

Wu Chang said:

"This choice actually provides you with a new way of thinking. When you are faced with a problem that you can't make a choice, instead of being stuck in a dead end, you can ask others for help."

"There are quite a few people who will lend you a hand if you need it."

Julie nodded slightly to Wu Chang and said, "If that day ever comes, I'll consider it."

"Thank you."

Wu Chang responded with a smile: "You're welcome. This is what I should do."

This was not just a polite remark. He entered the Steam Phantom copy not only to obtain the qualification for the world copy, but also to repay his debts.

Since Christine insisted on being the Riddler, he couldn't be sure whether the saint he needed to help was Julie or Olivia, so he could only help both of them first.

Of course, he didn't do this favor for nothing.

The guy who provided extra help can be regarded as compensation for him taking on the Steam Phantom Plane Faith and annexing the Holy Revelation Church after he broke through the copy.

While Wu Chang's real body went to St. George's Cathedral, his real self was not idle either.

He took the Arcane Knights with him and began to investigate the two Steam Council members they had brought back.

The guy whose head was blown up by Wu Chang was naturally dead, but the guy who was knocked unconscious by the murderous intent still had a breath of life.

Wu Chang first found Irene and asked Irene to help the target heal all the fractures. Then he found the Tongue of God and prepared a cup of pure natural truth serum.

The craftsmanship of the God's Tongue is such that it can even resist the strong stench of the root power. It is so easy to pry open the mouth of a native of the plane.

Soon Wu Chang and others learned that the two men in black robes who appeared in the steam explosives production workshop were Lewis the one who was alive and Gnar the one with the explosive hair. Both of them were prospective members of the Steam Parliament.

Apart from this, both of them have obvious identities.

Gnar was an industrialist and his property was the Gnar Chemical Plant, while Lewis was a professor at the University of Grimmland.

Neither of them was an early member of the Steam Council. Both of them joined the Steam Council during the reconstruction period after the Steam Council was destroyed by Revington.

According to Lewis, the management of the Steam Parliament is very cautious, and new members must go through a three-year probation period before they can become true members of the Steam Parliament and be eligible to undergo extraordinary transformation.

The organization has one-way communication between members, and members do not know each other. In order to ensure each other's safety, even when attending gatherings, they all wear black robes and masks.

He knew Gnar because they had completed a mission together before.

Just as Wu Chang guessed, this big stench was a sudden event, and Lewis and Gnar also learned about the plan temporarily from their contact, a steam senator named Xavier.

Not just this time, all previous actions, including meetings, missions, research needs, etc., were communicated to the two by Xavier.

Xavier, this name Wu Chang felt somewhat familiar. If he remembered correctly, the man in black robe who killed Baron Philip's family was named Xavier.

From Baron Philip’s resentment, we can see that Xavier and Philip are very familiar with each other. If nothing unexpected happens, Philip’s contact person is also Xavier.

Xavier is responsible for contacting many peripheral members, dispatching missions, and finally destroying the bodies. It seems that he is quite busy.

Afterwards, Wu Chang and others asked Lewis some more questions and found that Lewis was indeed a peripheral member, so peripheral that he seemed like a temporary worker.

They didn't even know the true goal of the Steam Council, nor did they know that the Great Stink they created was a major event that could affect the entire Grimland.

Convinced that Lewis had no further value, Wu Chang threw him to the players as a hidden reward task, asking them to try to get more clues.

The night passed quickly.

The Steam Parliament did not take advantage of the success of the major operation to immediately start the next action, but instead lay dormant for the time being and continued to prepare for the next action.

However, all the forces in Grimland except the Steam Council took action because of them.

The first things to be dealt with are those who died from the great stench.

According to inaccurate statistics, more than 50,000 people died last night due to the severe stench.

The Great Stink is an indiscriminate attack. It was originally a tragedy caused by man-made disasters. But the problem is that the Great Stink itself is not fatal. For ordinary people in good health, the Great Stink will only make the target weak, and they will recover quickly after the Great Stink dissipates.

But for those who are already seriously ill or have weak chronic diseases, the consequences of the stench are very serious.

In mild cases, like Hansen at John's shipyard, the symptoms increased rapidly and it was difficult to recover without resting for several months;
In severe cases, the person may die on the spot.

"Coincidentally", most of the middle class and wealthy people in Grimland are in good health. They can sleep for a night as if nothing happened, and they are full of energy to complain about the small factories and workers' lack of public morality and excessive pollution of the Hills River.

And 99% of those who died in the great stench were low-level workers, the homeless and orphans.

This reality has made the lower-class people particularly dissatisfied.

Especially the day after the Great Stink occurred, Connor and Nestor returned to the Lantern and wrote an article based on the information given to them by Wu Chang, saying that the source of the Great Stink actually came from pollution from a chemical plant.

A large amount of sewage containing chemical components was directly discharged into the Hills River, causing river pollution and affecting the entire city.

The news ends by pointing out that the workers' current poor health and polluted living environment are all due to the greed of factory owners.

Workers must take action and fight for their own interests instead of being manipulated.

Otherwise, when the next great stench strikes, even more people will forever sleep in the nameless night, unable to wake up.

During breakfast, Wu Chang and Raventon looked at the new issue of the Lantern. They thought that the workers would react most strongly to this report, and that it might trigger a new round of strikes.

But it was not until the afternoon that the two discovered that the people who really drew their swords with this report were not the workers, but the land aristocrats of the House of Lords and the Conservative Party.

A young Conservative Party member wrote an article in The Hill and the Daily News, citing the report of the Light.

He used the Great Stink incident as a starting point, and combined it with the previous Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion and the Sloan Textile Mill case to express a core idea, that is, unrestrained and wanton industry will not only not bring a better future, but will also destroy Stellan.

If they want industry to become a channel for progress rather than a pandora's box for disaster, they must strictly control industry.

It's not just about industrial manufacturing and environmental pollution, but also about workers' welfare and living environment.

Industry must develop under strict control in order to be beneficial to the empire and to effectively curb the greed of factory owners.

To this end, he called on the Stirling government to set up a new department to take charge of industrial regulation.

The most suitable person to control this department was the conservative who had just cooperated in the repeal of the Corn Laws and whose interests were inconsistent with those of the factory owners.

(End of this chapter)