Deep Sea Embers

The city under curfew is not suitable for going out to explore, Duncan stayed in the antique shop all night - the excitement of stepping on land drove him, and he explored the entire building tirelessly.

It is true that the original owner of this body was a cultist, but while being a cultist, he is also an ordinary person who needs a normal social life. He needs the convenience provided by modern civilization to maintain himself, communicate with others, and Various daily necessities.

Need to deal with the whole city.

And all of this will leave a lot of clues, allowing Duncan to roughly infer the way of life in the Puland city-state, as well as the general level of technology and the state of people's livelihood in this era even though the memory fragments are blurred.

He found a small amount of cash in the hidden compartment behind the counter on the first floor, including a handful of odds and ends, and several blue and green coins of different denominations, which are the common law in most city-states. The currency is jointly certified and issued by the governors of the various city-states and the Boundless Sea Chamber of Commerce. The main currency unit is called "Sola", and another "Peso" worth one-tenth of the main currency is issued as a secondary currency. The cash Duncan found was only more than two hundred sola, and according to the information he could remember, the money was probably enough for a family of three to survive in the lower city for about a month.

It seems that even though the store's business is bleak and most of the family property is donated to the church, the original owner of this body still maintains a basic standard of living-this shows that this "antique store" still has its own stable customers. source.

There are only two parts on the first floor of the entire store, two-thirds of the area is the pavement at the front of the stairs, and the remaining third is the "warehouse" behind the small door of the stairs. There is another door behind the warehouse, which is The back door of the entire building should also be the entrance and exit for goods.

The structure on the second floor of the store is a bit more complicated. In addition to a bathroom, there are two rooms, one large and one small, and a plumbing room shared with the adjacent building. It's clean.

In addition, there is a small kitchen on the second floor, but it seems that it was last used at least half a month ago, and everything is covered with a layer of dust.

After checking everything, Duncan returned to the master bedroom on the second floor. He looked at this room, which was a circle smaller than his bachelor apartment, and his eyes fell on the small cabinet next to the bed.

There's a picture frame in there, and inside it's... a black and white photo.

The photo shows a family of three, a pair of young men and women in simple attire, and a little girl who looks only four or five years old. They are standing in front of the courtyard scenery with obvious artificial traces, looking at the camera with a faint smile on their faces. here.

Duncan came to the photo frame, picked it up, looked at it carefully, and kept corresponding to the vague and messy clues in his memory.

The original owner of this body...is not in the picture.

The people in this photo seem to be relatives of this body... very dear ones.

While watching the young couple, Duncan seemed to be able to feel a faint sense of missing emerging from the depths of his memory.

However, more information about this photo is vague, it seems... more memories about them have disappeared in this world with the last breath of the original owner of this body.

He put down the photo, thinking about what level of consumption such a black-and-white photo is for the common people in the lower city, thinking about what stage the photography technology in this world has developed, and what is the principle of the equipment used.

At the same time, his eyes fell on the neatly made bed, and he felt a little doubt in his heart.

A cultist who has completely fallen into the belief in the sun, will he have a lot of time to tidy up his room so clean?

The storefronts on the first floor are obviously neglected, how is the bed in this bedroom so meticulous?

He walked out the door again, and came to the smaller room on the opposite side of the stairs, looking at the same neat and clean bed and desk.

He sorted out the memories in his mind, and confirmed that the original owner of his body left the shop a few days ago and went to the secret meeting place to attend the gathering of Sun God believers—that was the last time he left, and the details of the memory have been blurred , but didn't seem to have the impression of cleaning and tidying up the house before leaving.

That is to say... someone else?

Anyone else living with this "cultist"? Is it a relative?

Duncan frowned slightly, and while looking for the corresponding clues in his mind, he came to the desk in the small room. His eyes swept over the neatly stored paper, pen and stationery, and finally landed on a book.

The book was placed in the most conspicuous position on the desk, with a dark blue cover, a pattern of gears and connecting rods on the cover, and the title of the book was written in beautiful cursive letters:

"Steam and Gear Art - General Textbook III"

Duncan frowned. He had vaguely realized that this room should belong to "another person", but subconsciously picked up the book.

On the Lost Country, there were no books to read, and there was no half-written article to read in the master bedroom or other places in the shop. The book in front of him might help him understand things in this world.

After opening the cover of the book, the inside pages with illustrations came into his eyes-this is indeed a "textbook" about engineering technology and the principle of steam machinery, and the owner of the book can be seen between the paragraphs of the textbook Many comments left.

The slender and beautiful typeface seems to have been written by a young woman.

Duncan rubbed his forehead. The original owner of this body didn't seem to have any relatives or friends. Most of the pictures or "impressions" in his memory were tinged with coldness and loneliness. Vaguely "remembered" someone... a girl with dark brown hair.

That seemed to be the only figure that was tentatively concerned in the mind of the cultist named Ron when he exhaled his last breath.

Duncan's eyes fell on the pages of the book. He didn't bother to look at the words and drawings related to specific technologies, but specifically picked out the parts similar to the editor's introduction and concept discussion.

A line of text suddenly caught his eyes like this:

"...fire, or more strictly speaking, the specific fire released by the burning of fats in the deep sea and mineral crystals near the sea, is the cornerstone that supports the functioning of modern society and protects our civilization...

"The prosperity and order of modern civilization are based on flame and steam... Clean and convenient electricity cannot replace the exorcism effect of fire, nor can it make large machines run stably for a long time... Experiments have proved that steam is affected by deep space The most stable form of power...

"In this chapter, we will discuss three typical architectures of steam cores, and explain the mechanical principles and design ideas..."

Duncan's eyes froze slightly.

He remembered the gas lamps, torches, and oil lamps he had seen everywhere in the sewers, as well as the gas street lamps on the city streets, and also remembered the doubts in his heart when he saw the electric lamp in the shop.

It turns out...these seemingly "weird" situations are actually such reasons?

Even if you take a certain risk, you still need to use open flame lamps in the sewer, and when the electricity has developed to a certain extent, you also need to use gas lamps to illuminate the streets outdoors. The reason is that "fire" can resist certain The spread of "dangerously grotesque"?

Duncan felt an inexplicable emotion in his heart. He continued to look down, and what he saw were complicated drawings, dense annotations, and notes carefully left by the owner of the book.

It was a machine he could not understand at all.

And definitely not the "steam engine" he knew in his previous life.

Those precise gears, those extremely complex cylinders, and the connecting pipes and valves between the various parts are far beyond the concept of a steam engine. It is more like some kind of equipment that popped out of a fantasy illustrated book. Contradictory and grotesque beauty is revealed.

This is the "heart" that supports the advancement of civilization in this world today.

In deep thought, Duncan slowly put the book back in its original place.

Because he couldn't understand it at all.

As a person on Earth, even if he had been a teacher, he still couldn't understand what the hell the steam-powered mechanisms in this book were developed to the extreme state.

But even so, a vague enlightenment still emerged in his heart:

The development of civilization in this world seems to be on a path completely different from what he knows.

In order to survive in a world surrounded by crises, the mortal kingdom also presents a grotesque posture, but no matter how weird the world is, as long as it can be called "civilization", it must have its own reasons and reasons for its development. The logic is in it.

Those gas lamps burning in the sewers, the electric lamps lit in the shops, and the steam mechanisms described in books, which were condensed by the wisdom of countless people, all reveal a kind of... tenacity.