Chapter 30: The Smugglers

The old Dunling was dull again, with a faint mist spilling out of the ground, and gray and black plumes rising from the chimneys, one after the other, holding up the distance from the earth, and the machines moving slowly, propelling the miraculous creations, and in between, like whale-like airships, swam in between, like visions of another world.

For someone like Lorenzo, who has lived in Old Dunling for a long time, this is the cutting edge of steam technology, where something new is born, but for those who come from afar, everything here is nothing new.

The street lamps were already full of banners, adding a bit of color to the gray world, and many strange strangers could be seen on the streets, walking excitedly on the streets of Old Dunling, looking at the dark shadows in the clouds.

Because of the visit of the mission, the number of tourists also increased, and most of them went to visit the factory, this kind of large-scale mechanical assembly line, which is extremely rare in their country, in this case, it actually became a tourist attraction.

In order to maintain law and order, there are more mounted police, and the roads are a little crowded and lively, but these have nothing to do with Lorenzo, he hides the weapons that Joey brought under his coat, and he is very busy, busy solving cases and killing people.

The Purifier was busy searching for the whereabouts of the Book of Revelation, so the rest of the knights were transferred back to Old Dunling, so the stowaways had to rely on Lorenzo himself.

Like the connection in the shadows, Lorenzo had the strange feeling that this humble case would lead him to some grand vortex

It was obvious that there was a lot more police in the area bordering the lower city, and around the sight of the mounted police, Lorenzo infiltrated the lower city again, he needed to find the rat king, that guy must know something.

Lorenzo searched for the traces of the bad rats, as usual, these homeless people were very common, they wandered around, sometimes not only in the lower town, but for some reason Lorenzo walked here for a long time, and he didn't see a single homeless man, as if they had disappeared overnight.

His gaze was a little wary, he lowered the brim of his hat, completely hidden his face in the shadows, and put his hand in his pocket, as before, the pocket was torn, and his hand could reach directly under his coat and grip the handle of the gun.

What happened...... In Downtown, the atmosphere isn't quite right.

Though the lower town was chaotic and dirty, it had never been so lifeless, and as Lorenzo went deeper, he couldn't see anyone else until a mouse flashed before his eyes.

Rats are all too common, but there aren't many rats with chains tied to their tails, and they're the same yellow chains Lorenzo had ever seen.

He looked around, as if trying to find the guy who was secretly manipulating all this, but he found nothing, and the mouse was about to disappear from sight

Lorenzo followed without even thinking about it, and judging from his previous pursuit in the rat's nest, this police yellow was an indication of the location, and the mysterious rat king wanted to let him go somewhere.

It could be a trap, it could be a clue, Lorenzo didn't care about that, his clothes were full of weapons, and the detective was fully armed at the moment.

The rat eventually led Lorenzo to a twisted building, like the other houses in the lower town, a proper dilapidated house, with the door open and pitch black inside, and Lorenzo walked in to find that it was basically empty, with nothing but the disgusting smell

"I'm getting more and more curious about who you are......"

Lorenzo looked at the empty room, paused for a moment and suddenly thought of something, he went to the corner, threw out his folding knife, and thrust it into the ground with a sharp edge, the sharp tip of which easily pierced the hidden wooden cover.

Just as Lorenzo did when he first went to the Rat's Nest, the Rat King seemed to anticipate all of Lorenzo's actions, and the hints were given just right.

Forcefully slashed open the hidden wooden cover, and a dark hole appeared in front of Lorenzo's eyes.

"Isn't it......"

Sniffing the stench, Lorenzo knew exactly where the hole led, but he had to go there for the truth of it all.

Leaping down, there was a sparse sound in the darkness, the mouse was waiting for Lorenzo, and when it saw Lorenzo coming down, it moved up again, guiding Lorenzo through the complex tunnel.

Lorenzo didn't know how long he had been going, but when he lost track of the mouse, a light appeared at the end of the tunnel.

But without waiting for Lorenzo to lean out to observe the outside world, the surging steam poured in from the outside world, and the moist high-temperature gas suffocated Lorenzo for a while, but fortunately, these gases seemed to have been overflowing for a long time, and the temperature dropped a lot, otherwise the instantaneous high temperature could easily burn and steam people.

Wiping the water from his face, Lorenzo breathed heavily, and headed towards the hole again, as if he knew where he was.

poking his head out, the outside world was dim, only there was a faint light above his head, but because of disrepair, the light was not strong, and it flickered from time to time.

The creature of steel breathed steadily, as if in a deep sleep, and every now and then the sound of machinery turning sounded, like its dream.

It slept peacefully, and for an unknown amount of time it was silent in the dark, and Lorenzo saw it breathe again, and the hot steam spilled out of the cracks in the machinery, surging out like a dam breaking wave, filling the space in an instant.

Lorenzo hid directly in the cave, and ran a few steps as hard as he could, as far away from the hole as possible, but the rushing air still caught up with him, and he stumbled and fell to the ground, and then the hot steam wave swept over his body, and after the heat, it was cold.

One cold and one hot, Lorenzo couldn't help but sneeze.

The outside is the pillar of the furnace, to be precise, a certain exhaust part of the pillar of the furnace, presumably this is the place where every steam overflows, from which it is released, guided by the pipe, and returned to the ground.

It's just that Lorenzo didn't expect it to be so massive and so deadly.

True to its name, the main structure of the Furnace Pillar is columnar, like a stone pillar embedded deep into the earth's surface, but no one knows exactly how deep it is, even its creator, according to the design drawings of the Furnace Pillar, there are thousands of blueprints, and the stack weighs more than twenty tons.

Of course, this is only the original size of the Crucible Pillar, after so many years of technological updates and the whimsy of those scientists, more and more new functions have been placed on it, and the Crucible Pillar has grown wildly with the expansion of the old Dunling, until it is today.

Lorenzo stood at the mouth of the cave, the darkness was not an effect on him, he could see the steel barrier stretching all the way to the end of the eye, the rusty surface with countless exhaust holes, the air warm and humid, and a little standing water.

Looking like the exhaust was over for the time being, Lorenzo jumped off the hole vigilantly and stepped on the wet ground.

There were several corpses from where he had fallen, looking like they had been dead for a long time, their flesh rotting and entangled in their clothes, looking disgusting, and their arms were lifted upwards with difficulty, which was the last posture of the deceased.

Lorenzo could easily guess who they were and what they died, they were supposed to be bad rats, and the old Dunling had a very difficult winter, and they tried to keep warm here, but they were suffocated and steamed by the hot steam in an instant.

Looking away, Lorenzo knew very well that the Rat King must have pointed him here, and he was moving forward in the dark, a little anxiously searching.

He didn't dare to go too far from the entrance of the cave, although he was a witcher and had encountered any critical situations, but Lorenzo had not been steamed by steam, and he was still a little panicked.

Not knowing when the next exhaust would be, Lorenzo feared that he was too far away from the hole, but he didn't have shelter.

After a period of intense walking, the sound of the machine turning, the hot gas was about to be released, and at this time Lorenzo also saw the way out, and there was a staircase on the other side of the wall, which extended to the faint light above, which was the maintenance passage of Gongrao.

With little time to think, Lorenzo ran straight towards the pit tunnel, confident that he would get there before the steam engulfed him.

The so-called athleticism is probably like this, jumping up, stepping back and forth on the rusty iron ladder, and at the same time the hot gas began to be released, and the sound of the wind whistling in the darkness was heard.

Suddenly, Lorenzo stepped on the air, and the iron ladder was eroded by dampness day and night, and it was already fragile, and finally it could no longer bear it under Lorenzo's pedaling, and it cracked directly.

Lorenzo directly swung the folding knife, just as in the rat's nest, slashed into the wall, and moved forward again, the door lock had long been rusted, but fortunately, Lorenzo's physique was very suitable for violent locking, the handle of the knife hit the door lock, and in a tooth-aching screeching sound, Lorenzo opened the door and closed it hard when the hot gas hit.

He was in a safe space, the air was muddy and stuffy, like in a steamer

Lorenzo became more and more curious about what would await him next, and of course, if he had time in the future, he also wanted to explore this mysterious underground world, and no one knew what kind of strange things were in these shadows that could not be illuminated.

The passage was very long, and there were traces of people coming inside, so Lorenzo kept going deeper, and it didn't take long for him to revisit the outside world, but this time it was not what he thought.

It was a large underground space, and at the end of the passage was the machinery of the Furnace Pillar, but I don't know who had renovated it, and I could see many buildings built on it that didn't belong to these machines, and from a distance, Lorenzo could see some figures walking around in it.

The sound of the water came from it, and Lorenzo fell to the ground, he was in a high position, and the iron ladder leading to it looked like it had long been damaged, and the men did not realize that there was such a hidden junction here.

Lorenzo hid behind the pipes, because the space was located in a dim underground, and only a few searchlights at the top maintained the illumination, but due to its limitations, it could not illuminate the whole situation, and Lorenzo hid in the dark undetected.

"These people...... Are you digging for garbage?"

Lorenzo looked intently, and it seemed to be one of the inlets of the Furnace Pillar, because the boiler needed water, and the Thames was diverted into the Furnace Pillar, which was supposed to be one of several inlets, but the group had built a barrage on the inlet channel to filter the debris from the water.

No...... It's not just as simple as filtering debris, they purposefully find what they want from the debris, one after another boxes wrapped in tarpaulins.

"Smuggling?"

Lorenzo was a little surprised, although smuggling was common in the lower city, such as swallowing objects in order to smuggle something, or hiding things in buckets and fixing them to the bottom of the boat, but for so long, Lorenzo had never seen anything like it.

They drop their items directly into a fixed section of the Thames, where they follow the current.

Although it's not talented, it's also a strange idea.

So what is the Rat King doing to guide himself here?

Lorenzo approached with some curiosity, he lurked in the shadows, approaching the underground dock little by little, his hand already clenched with a folding knife, and his eyes were cold.

"Is this all the goods?"

Someone asked.

"Yes, the last box. Someone replied.

The man pried the box open, and although he had taken measures to release the water, there was still some water inside, but it didn't make any difference, and he looked down at the potion soaked in the water, which glowed with a mysterious color.

"Now that the investigation is getting stricter and stricter, the channel of hallucinogens has basically been blocked, and now we are the only ones who have the goods, which is an opportunity to make a fortune. "It's humane again.

"The big fortune has nothing to do with us, but as long as we drink and bring some soup, it is enough. ”

The man said, put his hand into the box, and took one out casually.

"The shipment was intact and nothing damaged...... However, there is a damage standard on the top. ”

He looked at the guys around him, and everyone's faces were filled with a wicked smile, after all, with such a mode of transportation, the goods will inevitably be damaged, this batch of goods is so complete, but it also needs to be "damaged" by man, only them here, no one will find out.

The man distributed the hallucinogen, and someone couldn't wait to inject it here, and his face showed the beauty of going to the country.

The pace staggered, and then fell, causing a burst of laughter, but the men were not aware of the danger lurking in the darkness.

Lorenzo slowly approached in the shadows, his face cold, and he suddenly understood

Despite the distance, despite the darkness of the place, Lorenzo was clearly aware of the unsettling aura when the man was injected with hallucinogens.

The breath of the demons.

The man who fell to the ground got up, the hallucinations had already worked in his mind, his gaze drifted in confusion, but suddenly something caught his gaze, and he looked at the darkness.

The burning blazing white slowly rose in the darkness, probably the dreamlike hallucination was at work, he rubbed his eyes, and sure enough, the blazing white disappeared, he smiled silly, and relaxed.

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