Mystery Detective of the Steam World

Chapter 26 Perspective and Stance

interesting.

Watching the old man leave, Li Wei smiled slightly, a thoughtful look appearing in his eyes.

Li Wei did this for a simple reason: he wanted to see how the imperial high command would react to these supernatural phenomena.

This idea came from a discussion that Li Wei had seen on a forum before.

Many games feature a storyline where the player, as the protagonist, joins a secret squad tasked with eliminating supernatural threats. However, these squads share a common mission: to keep these supernatural secrets hidden from those in power or high-ranking officials. The NPCs explain this by saying that if these powerful individuals learned of these secrets, they would try to use them to gain immense power and eventually rule the country or the world.

Of course, such games usually end up like this: the high-ranking officials lead their armies in an attempt to seize the secrets hidden by the protagonists and others to satisfy their own ambitions.

Most players felt this was reasonable and there was nothing wrong with it.

However, some players scoffed at this, saying that it was simply a poor man's delusion, a golden carrying pole for the emperor, and completely illogical!

Several players, whose identities were difficult to disclose, said this.

At the higher levels, what they need first is stability, not drastic change. Indeed, the mystique seems appealing, wonderful, and dreamlike, but it has a major problem.

unknown!

Interactions between high-level officials are about checks and balances, similar to nuclear deterrence. I know what you want to do, and you know what I want to do. You know what the consequences of my actions will be, and I know what the consequences of your actions will be.

That's why everyone can sit down to negotiate, trade, and maintain stability and balance.

But this mysterious thing is different.

To give an analogy, it's like a country acquiring a UFO. If nobody knows about it, that's fine, but if others find out, the balance will be disrupted.

Especially between major powers—I don't know what you'll get out of it, what you'll do, or even what it is.

Do you think I'll just let you have your way?

Of course not! Either we hand it over and everyone can share it, or—nobody can get their hands on it!

And contrary to what ordinary people think, most high-ranking officials in power prefer the latter!
For ordinary people, or those who are marginalized and ostracized, the changes brought about by this might allow them to gain more benefits. To put it bluntly, they have nothing to lose and are fearless; they're already in this situation, so how much worse can things get? Maybe with a change, they can turn their lives around.

But what good would it do those who hold power and wield great authority to change the status quo?
Indeed, mystery is powerful; it might even grant them the power to rule the world, achieve immortality, and control everything—but that is only a possibility!
Anyone who reaches the top is not a gambler! No one would willingly stake everything—their family's everything, their power—on something they don't even know what it is!

Of course they wouldn't, but those desperate guys might take the opportunity to make a gamble, and that's how the players came up with their answer.

That is—if you encounter something like this, just destroy it!
I don't know what it is, and I don't want to know what it is. I also don't want it to fall into the hands of desperate people who want to change the status quo. Therefore, eliminating it is the best option.

Of course, these players' comments didn't resonate with most, who felt they were trying to whitewash themselves. The players themselves countered that they didn't need to whitewash at all. They argued that even without superpowers, they could still live a life of luxury and sleep with women, and they had nothing in common with losers like these who couldn't even find girlfriends without dreaming of mysterious powers!

Since things have come to this point, all that's left is personal attacks.

Li Wei did not agree with the players' arguments, but through the actions of the imperial high command, he could at least learn some of the intentions of those above.

Li Wei had already guessed that Katie's true identity was definitely that of a young lady from a high-ranking position in the Empire. And judging from how happily she was running around in Fog City, this family must be quite powerful, not some declining or marginalized group. Therefore, knowing this meant that Katie's family's statement was equivalent to a statement from the Empire's high command.

Their stance has already been made very clear.

Find the culprit who committed this crime and eliminate them!

Great, that's what I wanted too.

If the other party's demand is to find the culprit who caused all this and catch them, then Li Wei will immediately find a chance to run far away.

After all, there's more than just one country in the world.

Furthermore, from the old man's words, we can infer that they did know Katie had been following them everywhere, but... why didn't they do anything about it?
Li Wei still had some doubts. Even if it was due to spoiling at home, today they had seen these zombies that couldn't be killed except by fire, and they knew that the ones they were tracking were definitely not easy to deal with. Didn't they mind if Katie turned into a zombie one day?
Furthermore, judging from the soldiers' reactions just now, they don't seem to be a unit specifically designed to deal with these special monsters. Otherwise, they wouldn't have panicked at the sight of an unkillable zombie. But what's going on? Does this world really not have any official, mysterious unit or organization similar to the Dragon Group?
Of course, if Li Wei were to make a guess, he could find similar templates in the novels he had read.

That's the so-called "spiritual energy revival" in urban novels. It's set up like this: spiritual energy was abundant before, then it became scarce, so things like exorcisms and feng shui lost their effectiveness. Then, in modern times, spiritual energy revives, and the protagonist gains magical powers, etc... Could this world follow the same formula?
The reason this thing didn't exist in this world before was because the spiritual energy was depleted, and all the demons and monsters disappeared. But now that the spiritual energy in this world has recovered, all the demons and monsters have come out.
If that's the case, it doesn't entirely make sense. But the problem is, what is the spiritual energy in this world? It can't be steam, can it...?

Oh, and Katie too…

Levi didn't know Katie's true identity, nor did he ask, though he figured Katie would tell him anyway. But that wouldn't be ideal—Levi and the forces behind Katie had reached a tacit agreement: I don't know who you are, and I don't need to know. We're only together because of Katie, doing things that align with our goals, it's that simple.

Once this tacit understanding disappears, things get boring. It's like an emperor traveling incognito; you only need to know his high status, not that he's the emperor, otherwise it's difficult for either of you to get along.

Of course, Katie couldn't possibly be the Queen. After all, Levi knew that Her Majesty the Queen of this empire was already over fifty years old, and there was no way she would dress up as a teenage girl to act young.

She's not the Heavenly Child Granny.

However, regardless, Li Wei now possessed official authorization, making his actions much easier. Since it was late, and everything was settled by then, Li Wei bid farewell to Inspector Lestrade and went home to sleep. Inviting the latter was primarily to act as a witness; after all, this was Inspector Lestrade's territory, and he couldn't simply leave him with nothing. Inspector Lestrade, faced with this monster, was also at a loss and likely wouldn't sleep well tonight either.

As for Katie, she had already left with the old butler.

After returning home, Eileen had already gone to her room to rest as Li Wei had instructed. Li Wei turned off the elevator, yawned, and lay down on the bed, intending to have a good night's sleep.

We can talk about it tomorrow!
That's what Li Wei thought, however...

"...Ugh...not again..."

When Li Wei woke up the next morning, he felt exhausted and speechless.

The reason is simple: he had that dream again!
The moon is still full, the clock tower is still towering, and the city is still deserted and shrouded in fog. A girl screams and runs through the streets, and a masked, knife-wielding psychopath chases after her.

Now Li Wei doesn't even need to run anymore. Upon hearing a scream, he will be immediately teleported to the girl's side, where he can then kill that weird pervert.

The process was similar to what Betty went through, but there was one problem.

That means this dream happened more than once!
Every time Li Wei kills that monster, he hears screams coming from other places, and he is immediately teleported there automatically. There he encounters the girls being chased, and the masked monsters chasing them...

What left Li Wei speechless was that he didn't even know these girls!

Some of them appeared to come from wealthy families, while others looked quite ordinary, or even impoverished. Furthermore, the women varied in age, the youngest being only seven or eight years old, and the oldest appearing to be in their early twenties.

Moreover, Li Wei could assure him that he had never seen them before. Yet, he was now frequently appearing in their dreams, helping them fight that masked monster!

What exactly is that thing?
Although Li Wei had considered communicating with the other party, the masked monster was more like an NPC with a fixed program, only able to shout the same few sentences over and over again. Even if Li Wei wanted to ask the girls questions, he would be "dragged away" by screams coming from other places before he could even open his mouth.

As a result, Li Wei felt even more tired after one night than during the daytime investigation, as if he had run a 10,000-meter marathon.

what is the problem?

Levi was completely bewildered and couldn't figure it out. If it were just a single dream, it wouldn't be so bad. But it had been going on for several days now, with the same dream every single day, and each dream was more complicated than the last. At first, Levi only needed to help Betty, but now, he had lost count of how many hundreds of girls he had saved.

Although Li Wei had considered standing by and watching what would happen to the girls after they were killed by that strange man, he couldn't just ignore it. After all, the girls' fear as they screamed in agony while being chased by the strange man was genuine, and as a human being, he felt it was simply unacceptable to sit idly by.

Li Wei also suspected that the underground temple he had visited that day might be behind it, since his strange dream started after that.

But what puzzled Li Wei was that if that was the case, then Katie went too, so why didn't she dream?
Li Wei also subtly inquired with Katie, but she said she was in excellent health, had a good appetite, slept soundly until dawn, and hadn't had any strange dreams at all.

He went to the chapel below the Pink Lady again after that, but still found nothing. Li Wei even sat on the chair out of curiosity... well, nothing happened.

That's really strange...

The constant switching between reality and dreams left Li Wei quite exhausted, to the point that he was listless even when eating breakfast.

"Sir, have you been very tired lately?"

Seeing Li Wei's appearance, Eileen asked him somewhat uneasily, after all, she was a maid and had to pay attention to her master's health.

Should we see a doctor?

"Need not."

Li Wei waved his hand.

"I'm just a little tired of dreaming lately..."

"Is dreaming a bit tiring?"

"Yes."

As Li Wei ate his bread, he looked at Eileen and suddenly remembered something, so he asked her a question.

"By the way, Eileen, have you ever heard the story of that strange man who wears a mask and chases girls through the streets at night?"

The women appearing in his dreams were all young girls and teenagers. Li Wei suddenly felt that perhaps he could get some clues from Eileen.

"Hey?"

Hearing Li Wei's question, Eileen paused for a moment, then looked at Li Wei and spoke.

"Isn't that the socialite killer?"

(End of this chapter)