Free Web NovelChapter 42: Chapter 42 Seen in the Book
The city under curfew was not suited for venturing out, so Duncan stayed in the antique shop all night—driven by the excitement of setting foot on land, he tirelessly explored the entire building.
The original owner of this body was indeed a heretic, but while he was a heretic, he was also an ordinary person who needed a normal social life. He needed the conveniences provided by modern civilization to survive, needed to communicate with people, and needed various daily necessities.
He needed to deal with the entire city.
And all of this would leave behind numerous clues that would allow Duncan to roughly deduce the way of life in Plunder City-State and the general level of technology and civilian status of this era, even with memory fragments that were obscure.
He found not much cash in a hidden compartment behind the counter on the first floor, including a handful of coins and several blue and green bills of varying denominations. These were the legal currency commonly used in most city-states, jointly accredited and issued by the Governors of the city-states and the Endless Sea Commerce Guild. The main unit was called "Sola," with a secondary currency known as "Pesos," valued at one-tenth of the main currency. Adding up the cash Duncan found, it was just over two hundred solas, which, according to the information in his memory, would be enough for a family of three to survive in the Lower City District for about a month.
It seems that even if business in the shop was dismal and most of the family’s assets had been donated to the church, the original owner of this body still maintained a basic standard of living—indicating that this "antique shop" still had its own steady customer base.
The entire first floor of the shop had only two sections; two-thirds of the space was the shopfront located in front of the staircase, and the remaining third was the "warehouse" behind the small stair door. There was another door at the back of the warehouse, which was the back door of the entire building and presumably also the entrance for receiving goods.
The structure of the second floor of the shop was a bit more complicated. Aside from a washroom, there was also a large and a small room and a shared utility room with the adjoining building. The large and small rooms were located on either side of the staircase landing on the second floor, and they were fairly clean.
Additionally, there was a small kitchen on the second floor, but it looked like it hadn’t been used for at least half a month, as everything was covered with a layer of dust.
After checking everything, Duncan returned to the main bedroom on the second floor. He looked at the room, which was even smaller than his own bachelor apartment, and his gaze fell on a small cabinet beside the bed.
There, there was a photo frame, inside... was a black and white photo. freēwēbηovel.c૦m
The photo depicted a family of three—a modestly dressed young couple with a little girl who appeared to be only four or five years old. They stood in front of an artificially marked courtyard setting, with faint smiles on their faces as they looked towards the camera.
Duncan approached the photo frame, picked it up, and examined it carefully, continuously matching it to the chaotic and blurry clues in his memory.
The original owner of this body... was not in the photo.
The people in this photo seemed to be relatives of the body’s original owner... Very close people.
As he gazed at the young couple, Duncan felt a faint sense of longing rising from the depths of his memory.
Yet, more information about the photo remained unclear, as if... all further memories of them had disappeared from this world with the last breath of the body’s original owner.
He set down the photo, pondering what level of expenditure a black and white photo would represent among the civilians of the Lower City District, contemplating the stage to which photography technology in this world had developed, and the principles upon which the equipment used was based.
Meanwhile, his gaze also fell on the neatly made bed, causing faint confusion to arise in his heart.
Would a heretic completely fallen into the worship of the Sun God have much time to keep his room this clean?
If the shopfront downstairs was evidently neglected, how could the bed in this bedroom be kept so meticulous?
He walked outside the door, ventured into the smaller room across from the staircase, and looked at the neatly kept bed and desk.
He sifted through his memories, confirming that the original owner of this body had left the shop days ago to attend a secret gathering of the Sun God’s believers—that was the last departure, the details in memory were vague, but there seemed to be no impression of cleaning up the house before leaving.
So... was there someone else?
Was there someone else living with this "heretic"? A relative?
Duncan frowned slightly, searching his mind for corresponding clues while approaching the desk in the small room. His gaze swept over the neatly organized stationery and finally settled on a book.
The book was placed in the most conspicuous position on the desk, with a dark blue cover. The cover featured a design of gears and linkages, with the title written in beautiful script:
"The Art of Steam and Gears - General Textbook III"
Duncan frowned slightly, having already vaguely realized that this room should belong to "another person," but he still subconsciously picked up the book.
Onboard the Homeloss, there were no books available for reading, and he had found no articles or even snippets of writing in the main bedroom or any other part of the shop; perhaps this book could help him understand the affairs of this world.
After turning the cover, he saw the inside pages with illustrations – indeed, it was a "textbook" that detailed engineering crafts and the principles of steam machinery, sprinkled with many annotations left by the book’s owner.
The delicate and beautiful handwriting seemed to have been penned by a young woman.
Duncan rubbed his forehead; the original owner of this body seemed to have no relatives or friends, his memories or rather "impressions" were mostly imbued with cold, solitary hues, but after several attempts to comb through his memories, he finally vaguely "recalled" someone... a girl with dark brown hair.
It appeared to be the only figure that a certain Ron, a heretic, held on to as he breathed his last breath.
Duncan’s gaze landed on the page; he did not bother to scrutinize the technical terms and blueprints, but selectively read parts like the editor’s introduction and discussions of concepts.
And so, a line of text suddenly caught his eye:
"...Flame, or more precisely, a particular flame that is released through the burning of deep-sea fats and the crystallized minerals near the sea, is a cornerstone supporting the operation of modern society and the protection of our civilization...
"The prosperity and order of modern civilization are built on the foundation of flame and steam... Clean and convenient electricity cannot replace the demon-repelling effect of fire, nor can it enable large machines to operate stably and continuously... Experiments have proven that steam is the most stable form of power when influenced by the deep spaces...
"In this Chapter, we will discuss three typical architectures of the steam core, elucidating their mechanical principles and design philosophies..."
Duncan’s gaze became slightly more intense.
He remembered the gas lamps, torches, and oil lamps seen everywhere in the sewers, as well as the gas streetlights on the city streets; he also remembered the doubt that had arisen in his mind when he saw that electric lamp in the shop.
So the reason behind these seemingly "odd" conditions was this?
Even at the risk of dangers, they used open-flame lighting in the sewers, and outdoors on city streets gas lamps were used for illumination despite the development of electricity to a certain extent—it was because "fire" could, to some extent, fend off the spread of certain "dangerous absurdities"?
A mixture of indescribable emotions rose in Duncan’s heart. His eyes continued to move downwards, landing on complex diagrams, densely-packed annotations, and the earnest notes left by the book’s owner.
They were machines he couldn’t understand at all.
And they definitely weren’t the "steam engines" he knew from his previous life.
The intricate gears, the highly complex cylinders, the connecting pipes and the valves between each part, all went far beyond the concept of steam engines. They more closely resembled equipment from a fantasy catalogue, exuding an aesthetic that was both contradictory and bizarre.
This was the "heart" that propelled the civilization of this world forward.
Lost in contemplation, Duncan slowly placed the book back where it had been.
Because he completely misunderstood it.
As an earthling, even having been a teacher, he didn’t understand the extreme state of steam-powered mechanisms detailed in the book.
But even so, a vague enlightenment began to emerge at the bottom of his heart:
The development of civilization in this world seemed to be on a path completely different from the one he knew.
In order to survive in a world fraught with crises, the realms of mere mortals had likewise taken on a bizarre appearance, but no matter how strange the world, as long as it could still be called a "civilization," it certainly has its own reasons and logic for developing to this point.
The gas lamps burning in the sewers, the electric lights ignited in the shops, the steam mechanisms depicted in the books, brought together by the wisdom of countless individuals, all subtly revealed a kind of... resilience.
