Chapter 30:

When Murphy transmigrated to this world and saw that broken steam-powered 800 refrigerator in Tris’ courtyard, he knew that this world contained some “unique technologies” that were difficult to explain through common sense. Later, in Morland Village, he saw the steam-powered repeating crossbows. He had thought that using steam power for war was probably the most vicious thing the steam engineers could come up with, but the facts proved that the words he used to persuade the young players to be more humble in recognizing this new world could also apply to himself. “Spirit Computation Beads?” Murphy looked at Miriam with an expression that was one-quarter puzzled mixed with three-quarters curious and three-quarters confused. He could understand those three words individually, but combined he had no idea what they meant. Beside him, Maxim also looked completely baffled. Miriam only told him that this matter was serious, but the loyal vampire worshipper’s understanding of “steam engineering” was also limited to just those two words themselves. He and his master were both true novices in this regard. “Ah, let me explain from the beginning.” Miriam knew from their blank expressions that they simply did not understand her concern. She took out another bead array from the box under her butt and held it up at a special angle above her eyes, saying to Murphy: “Look at the bead from this angle and tell me what you see?” Murphy held up the bead array according to Miriam’s instructions. Vampires have quite good night vision, and when the gems were turned to a certain angle, he immediately saw unique structures reflected inside the semi-transparent beads. It looked very much like tiny gears and mechanical structures combined into an extremely complex system, densely packed together yet arranged in an orderly and visually appealing industrial manner. There were exactly three such systems inside the transparent bead, which was only a little bigger than a thumbnail, interconnected by a geared lever system into one larger whole. “This is impossible!” Murphy immediately refuted: “If I’m not seeing things... no, I must be seeing things! No matter how advanced the industrial level of the Halflings, they could not possibly make components this precise on such a micro scale! There are at least tens of thousands of parts combined here. Is this some kind of illusion?” “To be precise, it’s a third-generation triple-linked micro spirit differential engine with 44,327 parts combined, updated to the latest version. It’s said to have extremely fast computing speed!” Miriam shrugged smoothly as she said a rather complex phrase in Transian that made Maxim’s head spin a little. But Murphy understood. He continued looking at Miriam with a questioning gaze, and she explained: “Don’t look at me like that, I don’t understand how it works in detail either. I’m just a liberal arts student. Those terms are from old Professor Bach Gaslamp’s writings, which I read just to get credits for the Mechanical History elective course. I never expected it would come in handy in this kind of situation. Anyway, the micro differential engines inside the Computation Beads aren’t real, of course! The prototype took up an entire exhibition hall that big in the underground museum of Shaldor Engineering Academy. But the halfling mechanics got inspiration from the ‘spirit erosion’ phenomenon found all over this world. They and their dwarven brothers used special techniques to manipulate spirit energy, using spirit formulas with the help of Circle Tower’s spirit mages to coordinate the spirit factors widely present in nature into some kind of esoteric art, eventually simulating the operating principles of differential engines on a microscopic level. After that, micro computational beads were born, and the halflings’ steam engineering entered a new era.” Miriam shook the bead in her hand and said: “All the automata in Shaldor Harbor have these things. This is a pure computation type without control attachments. You just need to infuse it with spirit energy and it can help the user do many things.” “Like what?” Maxim asked naively. His brain, too muddled from excessive exposure to the occult from a young age, simply could not comprehend everything Miriam had just said. But his question came at just the right time. The red-haired girl rolled her eyes and patiently explained: “Like translating an entire book of elvish poetry in a minute, or planning how to spend your salary next month and how much you’ve spent this year in a few seconds. If necessary, it can even make you an income statement. Just activate the spirit projector and you can see the calculation results with your own eyes. When I enrolled at the Engineering Academy, I was also issued a second-generation Computation Bead the size of a fist as part of the student welfare. Now many campuses at Greater Shaldor University are undergoing a ‘storage reform’, where those professors plan to use spirit beads and databases to replace ancient paper documents. It’s really convenient! He looked up at Miriam and Maxim and said: “Search the cargo! If that General Loren plans to use these to build his own command system, there should be a higher node, the commander’s bead for his own use. Find it!” “Oh right, how did I forget that!” Miriam immediately jumped up. Murphy was correct, the Spirit Computation Beads had a strict permission tree design, and the whole system couldn’t be activated without the higher node. She instructed Maxim to lift up the overturned wagon, but it was too heavy and the injured blood servant couldn’t do it. Murphy shook his head and stepped up, gripping the wagon’s edge with both hands. Exerting his rare 10.5 strength template boosted by the night, he easily lifted one side of the entire wagon. The two assistants immediately crawled inside, first pushing out the crushed soldiers before removing all the large and small boxes from inside. In the deepest part of the wagon, Miriam found an exquisite brass box. She carefully brought it out and placed it before Murphy. There was a metal panel on the lock area with just 0 and 1 buttons. “It’s a binary encryption lock, I’ve seen these safes in books! A rather traditional pure mechanical structure, but very useful. It has inert materials inside so it’s unaffected by spirit spells. They’re usually configured with acid vials or masterwork combustion gold bombs, powerful enough to destroy anything within ten meters.” The red-haired girl rubbed her head and said: “This is tricky now, entering the wrong code could destroy whatever’s inside.” Murphy didn’t speak, only placing his hand on the brass box. Item Appraisal activated! The information tag popped up: Name: Ryuk Flywheel’s Self-Destructing Safe Model 400 Use: Storing valuables. Item Description: 【Ryuk Flywheel was a brilliant halfling mechanic from a prestigious family who went rogue. He had many bad habits! Like using a uniform passcode for all his lockboxes, one of the countless little secrets of that genius madman now living in the Dark Mountains. People still don’t know the background of the arms dealer Ryuk Flywheel, but there are rumors that his favorite girl’s birthday was April 14th.】 “Click click click” As a former professional software tester, Murphy unhesitatingly entered the binary string 110011110, making Miriam look at him in horror. She thought Murphy was just randomly pressing and quickly backed away, crouching with her head covered in case the safe exploded. But a miracle happened! As Murphy lifted his fingers, the little brass box clicked open, revealing the round Computation Bead inside. Larger and more exquisite than other spirit beads, about the size of a baby’s fist, with the halfling mechanics’ factory serial number on the decorative silver-grey base. This was actually an official product? But why did its appearance differ so much from regular Computation Beads? With this puzzlement, Murphy reached in and took out the core Computation Bead serving as the higher node. But the moment he touched it, his semi-transparent character card blurred for an instant, like TV static interference. It returned to normal a second later. Then, to Murphy’s surprise, a prompt jumped out before his eyes: Special tech item【4th Generation Spirit Computation Bead Prototype – Codename 003】detected. Its spirit tech level is sufficient to partially recreate simplified test admin system functions! Please designate functions from the currently unlocked list for simplified recreation by Alpha. Note! Due to this item’s outdated manufacturing process and convoluted principles as an early stage of this tech tree, its data memory is limited, so do not designate complex functions for recreation. “My luck today is just fantastic!” Murphy whistled, his face beaming with double joy. Although he still didn’t understand how this thing worked or comprehend the strange level this world’s eccentric steam engineering had developed to, that was unimportant! Because the player interface he had longed for was now here, wasn’t it? Ah, thanks to nature’s blessings!