Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 1028: Section 658: Love from the Past (5)_2

Chapter 1028: Section 658: Love from the Past (5)_2

But speaking of which, at least for the next week, I won’t have to worry about this carpet. After all, since meeting Malin, this Magic Carpet seems to have started fearing Malin, especially after the appearance of the Malin from the Mechanical Realm, this Magic Carpet will behave for at least half a month.

Zem exited the room and began his tour of the containment chambers.

Walking past the first containment chamber where the Magic Carpet was located, at the door of the second chamber, Zem pushed open the door like he was returning home.

This is the room of the Greedy Doll. Originally, this thing was extremely dangerous, but ever since Lord Malin came here for inspection last year and made a chair out of World Tree Sapling branches for this little thing, it has become the most harmless thing - now it clings to this small wicker chair as if it’s the best thing it could possess.

In the past, it wanted to snatch the sapling directly from Lord Malin, but after being hung and beaten by the World Tree Saplings, it became much more obedient.

Furthermore, every time a trade with the Malin from the Mechanical Realm occurs, agents would move both the doll and its chair to the corridor.

The way the doll both fears and clings to the chair is the time when the agent responsible for caring for the doll finds the most joy.

"Good afternoon, Director Zem." The agent was sitting in the chair made by over a dozen elf masters that the doll once used, a once unique existence now discarded by the doll as worthless.

This once dangerous anomaly has now become the safest thing.

If not for safety considerations, someone wouldn’t even need to look after it; as long as the chair is there, it’s the safest of all.

Leaving the second containment chamber, Zem came to the third, which housed a new anomaly, a flowerpot.

This is one of the safest and most dangerous anomalies. It is considered safe because as long as it receives sunlight, it will quietly enjoy it.

It is considered dangerous because when the sun sets, this thing begins its mutation journey, and before agents discovered it, the nocturnally twisted flower mutant had already devoured all the animals in a village apart from humans.

If it weren’t so small, humans would certainly be on its menu.

So, in this room, there’s a sunlamp—this is a good thing dug out from the academy. With it, only an agent wearing sunglasses is needed in the room to handle any potential issues with the lamp.

Of course, using the flowerpot to control its growth is also necessary; a flower is easier to deal with than a tree, right?

Today’s agent is a newbie, because this thing is too safe. Even if the light breaks, as long as it’s replaced within five minutes, there’s no problem. Plus, even if it isn’t replaced, this little flower will only eat all the mice and cats in the bureau.

Zem isn’t joking because this little flower did indeed eat... Let’s have a moment of silence for the poor little cat of the Director’s son.

Zem sighed, shook hands with the new agent, comforted him, and then left the room.

"The anomalies are very quiet now, and nothing is happening," said Agent Hill.

"Quiet is good," Zem said as he approached the fourth containment chamber and knocked on the door.

The agent inside the room opened the door, holding a rabbit in his hand: "Director Zem, it’s feeding time for the Animated Dagger."

"No problem, I’m just here to take a look," said Zem.

Then the agent turned around to start the feeding process—cutting the rabbit’s throat with an ordinary dagger, and then collecting the blood in a large bowl where the Animated Dagger is placed, held by a stand, with its tip just right for a sanguine feast.

With the Mechanical Realm’s portals opening more frequently, the Animated Dagger, which is gorging on blood in the bowl, behaves docilely like an ordinary dagger, only showing its bloodthirsty side in the hands of agents during missions.

"If the portals of the Mechanical Realm could stay open, I’m sure all the anomalies here would become adorable little cuties," Agent Hill said, leaning against the wall, watching Zem. Zem nodded.

"Yes, but there’s one problem: we don’t have enough things to trade with His Excellency from the Mechanical Realm." This is the most painful issue for the entire Hiddell Union—the alloys provided by the Mechanical Realm are incredibly useful; the academy has already used them to create heavy cannons—giant cannons that can fire 400mm shells and send those monstrous things flying to enemy heads dozens of kilometers away.

"Alright, let’s move on." Seeing the Animated Dagger eat like a kitten drinking milk, Zem lost interest in watching further and took Agent Hill to the Magic Mirror’s room.

"Speaking of which, has it been raising any questions lately?" Zem asked Hill before knocking on the door.

"Of course, it recently developed a liking for philosophical questions, always asking damned questions like which came first, the chicken or the egg. Our agents aren’t in danger of dying, but at least five who were responsible for taking care of it have had to be handed over to the Benevolent Church for long-term treatment due to nervous breakdowns and schizophrenia."

Hill’s answer made Zem shake his head—the Magic Mirror really is a headache.

While thinking this, the door was knocked on, and Zem saw the agent responsible for taking care of the Magic Mirror, sporting dark circles under his eyes.

Out of concern, Zem asked: "Hello, Agent, are you alright?"

"Yes, it’s just that Mr. Magic Mirror chased me asking questions all night," sighed the agent.

Then words appeared on the mirror’s surface immediately—Zem, Zem, I have a question for you, why is the night sky in this world so captivating?

... What kind of bullshit question is that, why don’t you ask what color panties the Goddess of Fate is wearing today?!

As his scalp tingled, Zem pondered, while Hill had already run towards the east exit—there was a problem with the Magic Mirror, the person being questioned seemed unable to answer, which called for an alarm to be raised.

Left on scene, Zem watched the countdown on the mirror diminish and ultimately had to brace himself and raise his hand.

Then the mirror displayed another line—Haha, is this question difficult to answer, Zem, my old friend, hurry up and answer.

"Magic Mirror, I should tell you, I’m busy working every day and have no spare time to look at the sky. But if I had the chance, it would be during a moment of idleness when I steal time to relax. I look at the night sky only because I want to be lazy."

Words on the mirror changed again—You are a self-righteous corporate drone, but you do make sense, stealing a moment of leisure is a common enough topic. Congratulations on answering correctly, Zem.

"I have work to do; if you have nothing else, I’ll take my leave." Although he didn’t understand what the term ’corporate drone’ meant in Thainan, Zem saw the hint of pity in the lettering on the mirror.

Damn, is an anomaly pitying me?

The mirror revealed more words—Get lost, you useless toy.

... Are you becoming sentient or something?

Zem exited the containment chamber, grumbling, then smiled as he looked at the operations chief running over.

The chief, with a horrified expression, stared at Zem for a long moment: "You answered correctly?"

"Yes, I answered correctly, plus, don’t look at me like that. If you were worried I’d vanish having answered incorrectly, why didn’t you ask me yourself?" Zem sighed helplessly.

"You’re really lucky. Last time, with a single question, it took us over forty agents to stumble upon the correct answer. If that mirror hadn’t claimed to be inspired not to kill anymore, I would’ve been writing death notices all night." The chief finished and began writing something in his handbook.

"I’m leaving. How many more anomalies are there?" Zem asked as he looked at the department head: "Do you have other questions for me?"

"Forget it, leave your task to me. I heard about the main director’s assignment for you, and to avoid having to later explain you couldn’t complete it, you should just leave quickly." The chief readjusted Zem’s workload.

"Thanks a lot." Zem wiped his face—yes, the Magic Mirror’s question was indeed a headache, why is the night sky captivating.

I’m not a damned astronomer.