"Praise the machine! Praise the steam!

Knowledge is power, and Mr. Newton is a world pioneer with infinite wisdom.

Listen up, the age of machines is coming! ”

The mechanized sound of the mission filled the streets.

Crimson robes with copper-plated sidebands,

Data prosthetic eye and semi-encapsulated respirators,

The structure of the skull is retained, and the rest of the body is replaced by a full-body steam-powered combat body.

In the center of the belt is a disc-shaped mechanical text, the "Book Gear" badge, and on either side hangs a thick book with a brass cover, the Mechanical Sacred Book, written by Newton himself.

Four "tentacle-like" mechanical appendages are mounted on the back, which can both increase work efficiency and allow them to kill enemies faster in battle.

These are the Priests from the Cult of the Mechanicus, who have been transformed more deeply than the inhabitants, and have even modified the anterior lobe of the brain to a certain extent, so as to serve the church more purely.

Promote the nobility of the Cult of the Mechanical, the importance of knowledge, and attract more people to join the religion.

At the same time, they will also deal with some of the residents of Steam City who have a sense of impurity.

The current visitors to the Frankie factory are not 'friendly' missionaries.

It was a fully armed, forty-strong squadron of priests.

They didn't come here to preach, but the Sacred Ring's oversight database issued a red warning, indicating that more than five people in the factory were potentially dangerous, and that the average mental risk factor of the factory as a whole had reached the 'warning line'.

Truly.

The factory director, Frankie, himself has a certain rejection of 'human body modification'.

He believed that machinery could serve and be used by humans.

Convenience was even a fight against the dangers outside the city, but he was not in favor of mixing machinery with the human body.

In particular, it rejects church organizations such as the Cult of the Machine God that attempt to transform the brain.

Therefore, the technicians recruited by Frankie and his factory are almost the same in concept, and belong to the [conservatives] in Steam City.

They are barely able to accept physical modifications, but absolutely no changes to the brain are allowed.

The same is true.

With the expansion of the Order's power, the Mechanics Cult has repeatedly come here, using the pretext of 'impure thinking' to try to bring the technicians here to the Sacred Ring for compulsory transformation.

But Frankie also has a back hand.

There are also a number of powerful conservatives in Steam City, including a captain in the Steam Knights.

At the same time, the owner himself said that the Cult of the Mechanicus must follow the autonomous will of the inhabitants to recruit priests.

Frankie is secretly in contact with the conservative knights, and he will contact the conservative knights as soon as the mechanics come to his door...... The knights came to the rescue, and these priests did not dare to arrest people in the open.

But this time is different.

The uneasiness factor detected by the Holy Ring is too high.

After receiving permission, a squadron approached the door.

The leader of the group was a steam knight with a command—a knight in heavy steam armor and armed with a giant power axe, three times larger than the average clergyman, and the constant pressure released was overwhelming the workers here.

"I am reading out the warrant for the compulsory arrest of the Ring, and Frankie and all the workers in the factory will be taken to the Ring for a "mind review".

Disturbed people who have blasphemous mechanical thoughts on the mental level will be dealt with seriously in accordance with the laws of the Holy City.

Take! ”

The law is here, and there is no room for maneuver.

Forty deeply transformed mechanical priests with infinitely close combat power to knights immediately imposed compulsory restraint on all workers.

It was when a priest approached the factory director, Frankie.

On the factory assembly line, a half-finished robot suddenly moved.

In an instant, he moved a distance of ten meters and approached the priest.

One punch!

Click~ (mechanical disintegration sound)

All kinds of mechanical parts are scattered and splashed.

The torso and limbs all disintegrated.

Only one head rolled to the ground, staring at the 'suddenly resurrected' mechanical doll, his face full of horror.

This bizarre situation is not only the bewilderment of the clergy, but even the workers here do not know what is going on.

The robot dolls they process and build are still just shells, and they need to be sent to the steam pillar through an "underground transportation pipe", and the advanced life technicians inside will install a 'brain' on them to carry out various activities.

Moreover, these puppets are not essentially combat, let alone can break a powerful priest with a single punch.

Only Director Frankie knew what was going on.

The only one who can do this is his friend, the puppeteer. Charlie].

"What is this? How hard are you guys secretly implanting an "intelligent system" into a mechanical golem? What a blasphemy! ”

The priest was wounded, which directly attracted the attention of the Steam Knight.

Huge steam armor moves, and it comes to the resurrected 'mechanical golem', driven by hydraulics.

Zizizizi!

The steam hissed, accompanied by the heavy crushing of the tonnage power axe.

While!

The air pressure spread, and even the whole factory trembled.

The next scene left everyone stunned.

The unfinished mechanical puppet on the production line was caught by a steam knight through his weak arms, and the "driving slash" released by a steam knight.

The iron plates under his feet are hollowed out in a large circular pit.

To be reasonable, this weight has long exceeded the theoretical limit of the puppet.

The reason why it can withstand it is that some silk threads that are not visible to the naked eye are interspersed in the body of the puppet, and the torso is raised several times.

Secretly manipulating a half-finished puppet can fight back and forth with a steam knight, which is the strength of [Puppeteer-Charlie].

In the rest room on the second floor of the factory.

There was a subtle aura of anger exuding from Knight Charles's body, a kind of anger that should have been erased by Captain Hugo in ten years...... If it had been before, Charlie would have killed them all out of his temper.

That's when it happened.

Han Dong held the cowering Mia with one hand and put the other on Charlie's shoulder.

"Senior Charlie, I have almost a comprehensive understanding of Steam City along the way...... In the next time, you will catch up with Director Frankie here.

Leave the things in the factory to me to avoid complicating things.

Anyway, I'm going to see Mr. Newton on a trip to the Sacred Ring.

It also saved me time by letting these priests take me there...... During the Great Expedition, I hope that my predecessors will take care of me. ”

Charlie was silent for a while, nodded silently, and took back his anger.

“…… Well. ”

Han Dong stared at the current mood and immediately returned to normal at the Charlie Knight, remembering the terrifying existence of being called a 'puppet demon' at the knights' conference ten years ago, and almost killed the contestants in front of the whole holy city.

I have to say that Captain Hugo really has a hand.

Han Dong, who stepped out of the lounge, stood next to the handrail leaning against the corridor on the second floor, cleared his throat, and then expanded his voice.

"Hey! Don't you guys know that I, Dr. Nicholas, are conducting biomechanistic experiments here? ”

"Dr. Nicholas? Who is it? ”

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