Chapter 384: Mechanical World

Upon hearing Wu Chang’s question, Olivia’s brows twitched for a fleeting moment, as if his words were too sharp and had stung her.

She walked to the side of the podium, pressed one hand against it, and looked down at Wu Chang from her high vantage point.

"Sir Xiao En, I hope you know what you are saying."

As if he had not noticed the warning in Olivia’s tone, Wu Chang continued on his own:

"Your Majesty Olivia, I certainly know what I am saying."

"My partner Lei Wendun once said: once you eliminate the impossible, whatever remains, no matter how improbable, must be the truth."

"Anyone who has seen the crime scene of Prime Minister Luo En’s death would find it hard to link his demise to suicide, but as we followed the clues and eliminated every suspect who could have done it, suicide became the only possibility."

Olivia pressed her lips together, then squeezed out a smile after a moment, saying: "The premise of that statement is that you have truly eliminated everything impossible."

Wu Chang picked up a chair, walked through the crowd frozen in their applause, stepped over the red warning tape, and placed the chair in front of the podium, directly facing Olivia.

He sat on the chair and looked up at Olivia, as if he were delivering a work report.

"At the beginning, when we investigated the Prime Minister’s assassination, we found four clues at the scene. Among them, the sound from the phonograph record and the blood-written words on the wall pointed the case toward murder."

"The documents spread out on Prime Minister Luo En’s desk provided us with two more directions: the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion and the workers' protest."

"Looking back now, one can see that Prime Minister Luo En wanted to guide us to investigate the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion from the very start."

Wu Chang paused for a moment, waiting for Olivia’s reaction. Olivia did not speak, but gestured for him to continue.

Wu Chang continued:

"In Prime Minister Luo En’s plan, Lei Wendun must have been chosen as the detective to investigate his death from the very beginning."

"In my view, if the Pine Tree Coal Mine wanted to hide the truth about the deep mining area, there were too many ways to do so, yet the person handling the incident left many loopholes. These loopholes were kept above a certain level; they were not easy to spot at a glance, but if one were certain there was a problem underground, with Lei Wendun’s level of skill, it would not be difficult to find the clues."

"This gave the truth of the Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion—that is, when everything began—a sense of controllability."

"That is to say, whenever the Police Department sought help from Lei Wendun and let him discover the anomalies at the Pine Tree Coal Mine, everything that followed would begin from that moment."

Using the hand resting on the podium as a pivot, Olivia walked behind it, leaned forward slightly, and asked:

"Sir Xiao En, what do you mean by 'the beginning'?"

Wu Chang raised an eyebrow and said bluntly:

"Naturally, using the position of Prime Minister as bait to lure all parties into fighting for power, while actually using the strife between them to weaken their prestige among the people, paving the way for your return to the pinnacle of power."

Wu Chang’s bluntness was difficult for Olivia to handle. She said: "Sir Xiao En, you had better be able to take responsibility for what you have said."

Wu Chang ignored Olivia’s threat and said:

"As the leader of the Conservative Party, Prime Minister Luo En had been treated as a traitor by party members since the Anti-Corn Law, but it is impossible that he did not notice the ambitions of the Chief Justice and the others."

"According to his plan, once we discovered the existence of the Extraordinary Steam Engine, we only needed to let out a little wind, and the Conservative Party, which had its eyes on industrial regulatory power, would soon provide an assist."

"It is just that Prime Minister Luo En miscalculated one thing."

Olivia asked cooperatively: "What did he miscalculate?"

Wu Chang sighed and said:

"Someone did not follow his instructions to leave Stilan, but chose to continue their plan alone."

"That person did not know that the exposure of the Pine Tree Coal Mine was intentional. He was afraid that Lei Wendun would follow the trail to him just like in the past, so to buy time, he wiped out Baron Philip’s family."

"It was precisely this action that allowed us to discover that the black hand behind the Pine Tree Coal Mine was not the Liberal Party led by Grade, but the Steam Council lurking in the shadows of Grimlan."

The smile Olivia had feigned slowly vanished, replaced by a blank, icy expression.

She seemed to want to say something, but she did not interrupt Wu Chang and continued to listen.

"The Steam Council only wiped out the witnesses at that time, which convinced Lei Wendun and me that Prime Minister Luo En’s investigation had not uncovered the deep secrets of the Pine Tree Coal Mine, so we did not continue to investigate the Liberal Party according to his predetermined trajectory."

"Instead, we followed the trail of the mine thief gang from the Pine Tree Coal Mine and investigated another clue left at the Prime Minister’s assassination scene: the labor movement."

"But unfortunately, the gang of mine thieves we were tracking belonged to you, Your Majesty. When you discovered that our investigation was veering off course, you influenced Connor through the mine thieves while slightly leaking information about the Pine Tree Coal Mine to the Conservative Party."

"The Connor you supported, plus the Nestor supported by the Conservative Party, were enough to sway the opinions within the *Lighthouse News*, steering our next target of investigation back to the Liberal Party—that is, the Sloan Textile Factory."

At this point, Wu Chang took Xavier’s cane from his personal space. He leaned the cane in front of him, with the side bearing the Steam Council’s emblem facing Olivia.

He looked into Olivia’s eyes and said:

"In the plan shared by you and Prime Minister Luo En, the Steam Council was already part of the scheme. When you discovered that some people had not left, you included him in the scope of your utilization."

"During the Sloan Textile Factory incident, we demonstrated the ability to oppose the Liberal Party. You only needed to send someone to incite them slightly to persuade Henry to abandon the Steam Council and turn to cooperate with us."

"Henry’s betrayal would certainly force Xavier to take action and trigger the Great Stench early."

"Next, everything returned to the trajectory you and Prime Minister Luo En had predetermined. You arranged for your extraordinary subordinates to send evidence of the Conservative Party creating the Great Plague to Connor, and then, with the help of the *Lighthouse News* and us, you forced the Conservative Party to exit the stage at the same time as the Liberal Party."

"Investigating Prime Minister Luo En’s assassination case up to this point, the culprits have been eliminated one by one. Every suspect eliminated, regardless of whether they were related to the assassination, ended up in a miserable state because of our investigation."

"Only you have been winning all along."

A smile suddenly appeared again on Olivia’s expressionless face. She walked out from behind the podium to the center of the stage.

"According to your deduction, since the beneficiary behind all these events is me, then the culprit who killed Prime Minister Luo En should be me."

Wu Chang nodded and said: "For a time, I thought so, until I discovered that Prime Minister Luo En was the behind-the-scenes sponsor of the Steam Council."

"Xavier has always called himself Councilor Number One, not because the Steam Council has unique naming rules, but simply because he is not the Speaker. The true Speaker of the Steam Council is Prime Minister Luo En."

Hearing this, Olivia could not hide the shock in her eyes. She asked:

"How did you know? Xavier could never have told you these things."

Wu Chang crossed his legs, folded his hands on his knees, and struck a victor’s pose.

"It seems Lei Wendun is a trustworthy companion. If he were a spy you planted by my side to report my movements to you in real-time, you wouldn't be asking this question."

"I often tell Lei Wendun that I am an inspiration-based detective; finding clues and making deductions does not rely on hard evidence."

Olivia shook her head slightly, looking at Wu Chang with some helplessness. "So, you guessed it?"

Wu Chang denied this: "My inspiration has a slight deviation from the vague intuition you perceive."

"For instance, my inspiration allows me to see that even before the Extraordinary Steam Engine came into being, you and Luo En treated Xavier as an advisor. When Lei Wendun led people to purge the Steam Council headquarters, you deliberately kept him in the workshop with a complex problem just to save Xavier."

Olivia showed an expression of disbelief, exactly the same as the look on Lei Wendun’s face when he first saw Wu Chang use his inspiration.

"If you hadn't been in the New World for the past five years, I would have thought you were hiding in the shadows monitoring Luo En."

"Sir Xiao En, tell me, what else have you seen through your inspiration?"

Wu Chang said: "I saw Prime Minister Luo En using Xavier to study the Steam Rules and the Difference Engine."

"I also saw that before Prime Minister Luo En took action, he told Xavier that the plan was out of control and asked him to go to the New World first and return after two months."

"He wanted to send Xavier away. Two months later, when the dust settled in Stilan, you would be able to take over Xavier as Prime Minister Luo En’s collaborator and let him continue to be used by you."

"Even before Prime Minister Luo En died, he was still considering things for you—or rather, for the plan between him and you. Compared to the idea that you killed Prime Minister Luo En yourself, I believe more that he was using his own death to detonate everything you had buried."

"Only if he were truly dead could Lei Wendun and I follow his death all the way, exposing everything done by the Liberal Party, the Conservative Party, the Charter Movement, and other organizations. It makes people realize that only by following your leadership, Your Majesty, can Stilan move toward the future."

"The people’s support for you, under the blessing of the First Law of Mysticism, will become the final piece of the puzzle for the completion of the Difference Engine, thoroughly realizing your plan."

Clap, clap, clap.

This time, it was Olivia’s turn to applaud Wu Chang.

Olivia laughed at herself. "I am starting to regret inviting you back from the New World. Your inspiration is far more terrifying than Zhu Li thinks."

"Since you knew all our plans before today, why didn't you stop me, or take the initiative to join my plan?"

Ever since Wu Chang saw the resentment of the phantom, he knew Olivia would eventually pull off a grand scheme. Olivia and Xavier were both Children of the Plane and both mastered the Steam Rules; combined with the Difference Engine that Prime Minister Luo En had always had Xavier study, guessing Olivia’s plan was simply too easy.

It was just that there was no conflict between him and Olivia, so he didn't bother to stop her and just watched the show from the sidelines.

After finishing his report, Wu Chang stood up from the chair. He held up two fingers and said:

"The reason I dragged it out until now to say all this is because I want to ask you two questions at this point in time."

"I cannot guess the answers to these two questions, and I want to hear you tell me the truth."

Olivia asked suspiciously: "Even your inspiration cannot see them?"

Wu Chang said as a matter of course: "Inspiration is not omnipotent. What do you take inspiration for?"

Olivia: ...

She felt that among all the people in the world, only Wu Chang had no right to say that.

She suppressed the urge to retort, adjusted her expression, regained the majesty of a Queen, and said:

"In return for you not disturbing me, speak. What do you want to know?"

Wu Chang put his left hand behind his back, curled the middle finger of his right hand held in front of him, and said:

"First, what is the relationship between you and Prime Minister Luo En? Why would he go to such lengths for you, even at the cost of his own life?"

"Second, you and Prime Minister Luo En were able to lay out the plan in advance, especially since you appeared exceptionally calm and composed throughout the entire event, as if you had seen everything that would happen today from a long time ago."

"This kind of power should not come from the Steam Rules within you, but from the Difference Engine."

"According to my guess, you and Prime Minister Luo En probably created a prototype of the Difference Engine a long time ago and obtained some kind of answer from it. I want to know what that answer is."

A look of appreciation appeared in Olivia’s eyes. She liked Wu Chang more and more—not the love between a man and a woman, but the appreciation of a Queen for a subject.

If Wu Chang had been willing to assist her from the beginning, her plan would have certainly gone much smoother than it had, and perhaps Luo En would not have had to die.

"The two questions you asked are actually one question."

Olivia walked toward the Difference Engine in the center of the Crystal Palace. Wu Chang followed two paces behind her; their relationship seemed to be that of Queen and Knight once again.

Olivia asked: "Do you know the term 'Child of the Plane'?"

Wu Chang nodded: "I have heard of it."

Olivia said: "There is more than one Child of the Plane, and every Child of the Plane has a mission they are burdened with."

"I was always skeptical of this, until I took over the Extraordinary Library of the Secret Knight Order and, based on old Anderson’s conjectures, created an extraordinary item capable of connecting to the will of the plane. That was when I discovered my mission."

"Even now, with the Extraordinary Steam Engine matured, Xavier’s ability can only design a prototype of the Difference Engine. But five years ago, relying on the artifacts left by the Secret Knight Order and some guidance from Xavier, I inexplicably created the core of the Difference Engine."

"At that time, only Luo En and I witnessed the birth of the Difference Engine’s core."

"It was precisely because of the Difference Engine that Luo En believed we could build the perfect world of his ideals, which is why he was willing to sacrifice himself for it."

As she spoke, Olivia had already reached the Difference Engine. The palace-like doors of the machine opened, and a large amount of mist surged out, swirling around Olivia.

Wu Chang felt the Difference Engine at close range, and he understood why Olivia was able to manufacture the Difference Engine core.

The Omniscient Crystal told him that it sensed the aura of the Primordial Spiritual Pivot inside the Difference Engine.

Like Xavier, it is indeed extremely difficult to craft a Difference Engine purely by relying on knowledge.

Even as a Child of the Plane and a genius in the field of mechanics, it took him five years to design only the prototype of a Difference Engine.

The Difference Engine core, much like the Extraordinary Steam Engine core Wu Chang had previously obtained, is the most important part of an Extraordinary Steam Engine; it only needs to be paired with a shell to exert at least eighty percent of its effect.

Theoretically, the probability of Olivia being able to manufacture a Difference Engine five years ago is similar to the probability of a monkey typing out Hamlet on a printer.

One can only say that Olivia had the possibility of manufacturing a Difference Engine, but it was unlikely she could actually build one.

However, if Olivia could find some Extraordinary item containing the Primordial Spiritual Pivot from the collection of the Secret Magic Knights, and accidentally activated the Primordial Spiritual Pivot within it, then her manufacturing the Difference Engine core five years early suddenly becomes reasonable.

Olivia’s voice stopped, her gaze turned toward the space behind the two, and she said:

"Zhu Li, come over. You should also want to know the answer we obtained back then."

Zhu Li walked out from the mist, stopped not far from Wu Chang, and whispered an explanation:

"Sorry, I didn't hide on purpose."

Wu Chang nodded in response: "I know."

He had sensed Zhu Li nearby from the very beginning; the reason he had detailed the investigation process so thoroughly while talking to Olivia was actually to let the Zhu Li on the sidelines hear it.

Even the two questions he asked were asked on Zhu Li's behalf.

Olivia looked at Zhu Li with a gentle gaze and said:

"Do you still remember our first meeting? At that time, I was trapped in layers of control; my clothing, hobbies, and expressions were all restricted by them, and I was at their mercy."

"I was about to become Queen, and I wasn't even allowed to keep the name Olivia, just because they felt this name was too mediocre to lead Stilan back to its Golden Age."

Zhu Li also revealed a look of reminiscence and said: "I remember it was in the garden of the Stilan Palace; I met you, who had escaped the palace and were throwing a tantrum."

"At the time, I was just acting on impulse when I spoke to you; I never expected we would end up where we are today."

Olivia said in a solemn tone:

"Although you acted on a whim back then, what we said at the time was no joke."

"Back then, you told me you would help me protect my name, help me obtain the throne, and cast off all shackles."

"In exchange, I promised you I would become a great King, protect my subjects, and let them be free from suffering."

"I have always remembered the promise I made to you, so the question I asked the Difference Engine was how to let everyone live happily in the world, without hurting each other, without falling into pain because of their own circumstances, and forever satisfied."

As soon as Olivia said this, Wu Chang associated it with the Omniscient Crystal's evaluation of the Difference Engine and immediately felt that things were going to go wrong.

At this moment, Zhu Li did not yet know the severity of the question; encouraged by Olivia's tone, she believed that Olivia had found a perfect solution.

So Olivia had not forgotten their agreement, and all this time, she had been working toward it.

Yet she had once thought that Olivia was obsessed with power and had forgotten her goal of becoming a great King.

She was now filled with a mix of excitement and guilt, and asked:

"What was the answer you received?"

Olivia looked at the Difference Engine and said: "The answer is machinery."

"Machinery?" Zhu Li looked at Wu Chang in confusion, failing to understand what Olivia meant.

Wu Chang shook his head, indicating that he didn't understand either.

Olivia said:

"Look, a massive machine like the Difference Engine is composed of hundreds of thousands of parts; there are important parts, such as the core of the Difference Engine, and there are also ordinary gears that are unimportant and can be replaced at will."

"The gap between them is vast, yet they can coordinate and operate with one another without rejection, existing as one, allowing the complex machine to function smoothly."

"If we view the machine as a whole society, and each part as a different group within society, if people act like parts, everyone will realize that the difference between whether they are important or not is merely their different division of labor within the machine. Setting that aside, their identity is that of a part."

"No matter how important a part is, it needs the ordinary parts around it to cooperate in order to exert its effect. When everyone possesses this consciousness, society will be like a machine: it will only achieve things together, will not hurt one another, and will not feel pain because they are not important enough."

This time it was Wu Chang's turn to be surprised; he had thought Olivia was going to do something big, but unexpectedly, at first glance, her theory actually had some logic to it.

He asked: "Your Majesty the Queen, the society you describe does indeed sound like it could reduce many disputes, but the human heart is complex and not as pure as machine parts. How do you plan to complete your project?"

Olivia looked at Wu Chang with approval, "I only need to combine the power of the Difference Engine to erase the complex parts of the human heart that you speak of, reduce people's excessive self-consciousness, and implant a fixed collective consciousness; then I can achieve the world that Luo En and I hope for."

"A perfect world with absolute order, full of peace, where people will not feel suffering."

Wu Chang breathed a sigh of relief after hearing this; the flavor was right now. He had just thought the Omniscient Crystal had misjudged, but it seemed he had been overthinking.

(End of chapter)