In this world, steam generators have been around for more than a decade, and they were a sensation at the time, and many people thought they represented the future of technology, but in the end they found that they didn't know where to use it.

Until a warden, who was always having a headache for prisoners escaping, felt that the steam generator could help him manage the prison, so he put a ring of electricity around the prison wall to prevent prisoners from escaping.

Later, after dozens of examples, everyone found that the steam generator can play an extraordinary role in the power grid, so the grid security has become the only use of the steam generator.

If the simple microphone and speaker installed next to the elevator before entering the cage city only made Leo curious, the current electric light makes him realize that the person who invented this thing has a far better understanding of electricity than anyone else in this world, and if he is lucky, this person will definitely become a pioneer in the use of electricity.

"Valjean, Valjean!" Martin probably got used to the electric light, he didn't show much surprise, and after entering the house, he brushed aside all the strange mechanical parts on the floor and walked to the stairs on the side of the room, and shouted a few times upstairs, and after getting no response, he muttered in some irritation, "Damn! Didn't you tell him you were going to stay here for a few days? This guy ran out again!", and said apologetically to Leo and Jason. Wait here for a while, and I'll go out and look for him. ”

With that, he walked out of the house quickly, and his figure disappeared into the dark hallway.

"Leo, this thing is so bright!" Jason, who was relaxed, leaned under the light bulb with a curious face, squinted his eyes, looked up, and after a while, his eyes felt a tingling pain, before he lowered his head, rubbed his eyes, and said, "It's just a little dazzling after looking at it for a long time." ”

"You idiot, who made you stare at it for so long. Leo cursed with a smile, then looked at the strange machines piled up in the room.

On Leo's left-hand side, there is a machine that looks like a piano, but instead of the strings, the keys correspond to the strings, but finger-thick vacuum tubes, and there is some unknown liquid flowing in the vacuum tubes, which looks very strange.

On the right-hand side is a mechanical arm made of trachea, steel bars and gears, and the trachea of the arm is connected to a small steam engine similar to a steam repeater power unit, but this small steam engine is far from being so delicate and light, but very bulky, even Leo has some difficulty carrying it.

In addition, there are machines similar to gramophones not far away, and there are models of gliders like the old Earth era hanging on the roof, and the walls are covered with all kinds of complex mechanical drawings, mechanical stereoscopic diagrams, and so on.

Although he had not yet met this man named Valjean, Leo already had a fixed impression in his mind that this man was definitely a self-taught mechanical genius.

"I don't like that guy. As Leo walked around admiring the interesting machines in the room, Jason suddenly spoke.

Leo stopped, turned around, and asked Jason calmly, "I don't like him either." ”

"Do you know who I'm talking about?" asked Jason, stunned.

"Of course I do. Leo tilted his head in the direction of the room door.

Jason smiled, stepped forward again, and asked in a low voice, "Do you believe what he said?"

Leo looked at Jason in surprise and asked, "Don't you believe what he said?"

Jason thought about it seriously, shook his head and said, "I don't think it's good, my mother told me that things that don't feel good are not good things." ”

"Your mother is right, and you will listen to your mother in the future. Leo nodded with a smile, and then deliberately whispered: "I don't like that guy as much as you do, just like that guy himself said, politicians are all, who would believe what says?"

Jason wondered, "Why do you ...... if you don't believe what he says?"

Leo directly confided in his thoughts: "I want to know what the hell he wants to do, what the hell he wants from the doctor?"

"Doctor?" Jason was even more confused.

Leo casually picked up a spherical mechanical object from the table, looked at it in front of him, and said while studying its structure: "Don't look at him from beginning to end as if he was trying to convince me to have this inexplicable cooperation with him, in fact, his goal has always been the doctor, and you and I are just adding to the head." ”

"Is he here for the doctor?" Jason didn't know why Leo thought that, but he believed what Leo said, so he was a little worried about the doctor, and said, "Shall we inform the doctor?"

"Don't tell the doctor," Leo shook his head, "the doctor is so enchanted that he can't even hide anything, and I don't even believe in that Catherine," perhaps thinking that the words were a bit absolute, added, "at least not for now." ”

As soon as Leo's words fell, his fingers seemed to touch a switch in his hand, and the mechanical ball snapped from the middle part to separate the sides, and then the upper half of the shell opened out like a flower.

Then he saw a delicate gear-driven hut slowly rising from the hemisphere below, and every person and animal in the chamber would make different movements as the gears turned.

It wasn't until all the movements were done that another snapping sound was heard, and the room slowly sank into the hemisphere below, and the other half of the petal-like flower closed again, and then reduced to a mechanical sphere.

"Wow! What a beautiful gadget, I'd definitely pay for one for ten gold guilders." With an exclamation, Jason took it from Leo's hand and looked through it carefully, as if trying to find out the mystery of what worked inside.

"It's a nice gadget, but I'm more interested in the people who make it. Leo, who was accustomed to seeing extreme machines such as space battleships, was amazed at the elaboration of the gadget in front of him, but he didn't show it too strongly, but instead became curious about the maker.

At this moment, there was a sudden sound of a heavy object falling on the ground from the upstairs, which was supposed to be empty, and because it was an iron-plate roof and floor, the sound was very loud below.

Leo and Jason glanced at each other, each took a Paniel tomahawk from their waists, and headed straight upstairs.

The situation on the second floor is the same as that on the first floor, there are all kinds of strange mechanical devices, but the difference with the first floor is that most of these mechanical devices are very complete and should be finished products, so the placement should also be more particular, far from the random stacking downstairs.

I saw that on one side of the room on the second floor, against the wall, there was a large workbench, on which there were several disassembled small steam engines, and a spotlight made of iron sheet was fixed on the workbench with a bracket similar to a mechanical arm, and under the spotlight, a figure was sitting in front of the workbench, burying his head in doing something.

Leo and Jason stepped over, and although they didn't deliberately increase their footsteps, the footsteps were still loud, and they stepped on the tin floor, clattering. However, the person sitting at the workbench was deaf and could not hear anything, and continued to do his own thing.

Soon, the two of them walked up to the figure, and Jason raised his hand to pat each other on the shoulder to warn him of his arrival, but Leo grabbed his hand, shook his head, and looked down at the workbench.

I saw that this figure was wearing a dirty overalls, and a leather helmet similar to a flight cap from the old Earth era covered the entire head.

In addition, he wears a pair of very fine mechanical eyes, some fine gears around the eyes, and the eye frame is a special device that resembles a single-barrel telescope, retractable and mediated. Judging by what he's doing right now, the eyes are supposed to be able to magnify the objects in front of them, similar in function to the eyes on the doctor's mask, but more sophisticated.

At this moment, this person is using tweezers, carefully assembling the delicate machinery placed on the table, these machines have a large number of tiny gears, although I don't know what this machine is ultimately used for, but in terms of complexity alone, it is far more than the mechanical ball downstairs.

At this time, the gear on the machine has been assembled to the last, the person took a deep breath, stabilized his mood, moved his somewhat stiff hand, and then picked up the tweezers, clamped the small gear that was not much larger than a grain of rice, slowly approached the installation position, put it into the bearing, fixed it, and then picked up the cover that had been prepared long ago, covered it, and twisted it.

When he had done this, the man let out a long breath of air, shouted a word of celebration in a strange language, and then stretched and removed his eyes and helmet, revealing a young face in his early twenties.

Even with the removal of the obstacle to sight and hearing, the young man still did not notice that there was a person standing behind him, and his attention was all drawn to what he had created, and he picked up the mechanical device on the table with the enclosure installed and placed it under the light to play with it carefully.

"Can you show me?" said Leo suddenly.

"Ah!" the young man was immediately startled, and let out a cry of exclamation, and his body could not help but tremble, but fortunately his hand was steady, and he did not drop the mechanical device in his hand.

After stabilizing his mind, he turned his head and saw Leo and Jason standing behind his body, although there was fear in his eyes, his face was as calm as possible, and he also said to the two of them in a stable tone: "If you want money, there are thirty gold flanges in the cabinet next to the workbench, if you want Hagen powder, I don't have it here, if you want ......"

"Damn, boy, we're not robbers. Jason scolded.

When the young man heard this, the fear in his eyes decreased slightly, and then he asked, "Are you here to buy something?"

"We came with Martin. Leo said truthfully, "Your name is Valjean, my name is Leo Dodd, and Martin said you have some good equipment for us here." ”

Hearing Leo's words, Valjean's brows furrowed very slightly, as if he didn't have much respect for Martin, although his eyes were well concealed, Leo could still see a trace of disdain in his eyes.

"What about the Martins?" asked Valjean, looking behind the two of them.

Leo explained, "He just called you downstairs, but you were busy with your own business and didn't respond, so he thought you weren't there and went to look for you somewhere else." ”

"Damn! I'm going to be scolded again. Valjean scolded depressedly.

Leo pointed to the mechanism in Valjean's hand and asked, "Can you take a look?"

"Do you understand?" Valjean handed Leo something a little arrogantly, and said, "Light, don't break it, I did it with great difficulty." ”

Leo ignored the young man's tone and looked at the mechanism in his hand.

I saw that this device was about the size of two palms, and the gears inside had been covered by a box made of iron sheets, and there were some holes in the box, each hole corresponding to a number and symbol, and a long window was opened on the side of the box, and inside the window were seven roller-shaped gears.

Although the style of the box is a bit odd, it is still easy to guess what this device is for from the logo of the buttons on it.

Under Valjean's slightly surprised gaze, Leo skillfully pressed some buttons, then twisted the clockwork on the side of the box, twisted it to the extreme, and released his hand, and saw the seven rollers of the long window turn rapidly, and finally stopped on a number in turn, forming a set of seven digits.

"This calculator is a great thing! it can calculate addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division within seven figures, as well as percentages, and I think businessmen will be very interested in this thing. Leo returned the thing in his hand to Valjean, and gave another suggestion, "It's just that this thing still has some shortcomings, that is, it can't calculate the exact number after the decimal point, and once the number after the decimal point appears, your calculator will have a single digit error." ”

"Calculators?" Valjean pondered for a moment when he heard Leo's words, and then said happily: "Yes, this thing is called a calculator!" Do you know mechanics too?"

Leo told the truth, "I don't understand, but I know how to use it." As he spoke, he pointed to the spotlight on the workbench and said, "The spotlight is well done." ”

"Spotlight, it seems that you really know how to use it. As a mechanic, Valjean not only liked to communicate with his peers, but also liked the appreciation of his work, so his attitude towards Leo became much more friendly, not with a defensive arrogance in his expression and words as he did at the beginning.

"Why don't you promote this kind of lamp in Cage City?" Leo asked again, "In the dark environment of Cage City, this kind of lamp is the most suitable." ”

Leo's words seemed to hit Valjean's sore spot, and his tone immediately cooled, as if he was answering Leo's question, but he deliberately rushed behind Leo and said, "This is someone who doesn't want to promote." ”

Leo turned his head to look at Martin who was coming up the stairs and asked, "Why?"