Steampunk Era: Mad Abield
Chapter 898: Section 594: The Scroll of the Future (Part 1)

Chapter 898: Section 594: The Scroll of the Future (Part 1)

The chirping of birds outside the window startled Malin awake from his dream.

In that very strange dream, he had returned to his homeland, where ruins strewn about and zombies roamed the streets without a sign of life. He was the only one singing a song atop the Bell Tower, a song he couldn’t even understand himself.

He didn’t know what it meant; Malin rubbed his nose and then noticed his small hands.

Definitely not the dominant traits of his father’s lineage.

It was only then, plagued by low blood sugar upon waking, that Malin realized the room was decidedly not the grand room of the Rongma palace he was familiar with.

Come to think of it, the familiar floral bedsheet gave Malin a sense of déjà vu as he flipped off the blanket, clicked his tongue, then with a flick of Spiritual Energy, the small boy standing on the bed got dressed in pajama bottoms and a robe under the servicing of Spiritual Energy.

Just as he was about to use his powers to draw the curtains and take a peek at the scenery outside, a dwarf aunty in a maid outfit, but with muscles bursting like she was always on the verge of exploding, pushed open the room door, her first words invading the room along with the cold air from outside.

"Master Mamar! You’ve awakened your Spiritual Energy!"

Then the aunty’s joy was replaced by horror, Malin went silent for a moment, raised his hand, and a mirror of air appeared before him.

In the mirror, there was Pure White Soul Fire in his eye sockets.

Good, there was no skull showing up, but this appearance was obviously enough to make the aunty anxious. She closed the door, and then her panicked screams coupled with heavy footsteps receded together.

Malin shook his head, adjusted the slack in his waistband, gestured with his small hand, and the curtain was drawn aside by Spiritual Energy.

In front of Malin was a giant city full of tall buildings, and the fact that he took all of this in told him this was an era unlike any other.

It couldn’t be the era before the Great Devastation because Malin saw a robot dog with twin cannons in the yard, marked with his familiar five-star symbol.

Mamar, slight in stature, looking like a Domestic Fairy—ah, he hadn’t expected that. The child of Rewo.

With this thought in mind, Malin tried to open the window but found he couldn’t budge it.

"Master Mamar, I detect you’re attempting to open the window. As the intelligent housekeeper of the large house, I would suggest you issue a direct command," a voice prompted Malin to look up, and he glanced at the ceiling: "That maid just now ran quite fast, don’t you want to know why?"

"The Iron Steel lady has always been prone to overreacting. Her mortal vision was deceived by your appearance, yet I observe that your body is still my young master, regardless of whether it is you or him, opening a window shouldn’t be a problem," came the reply.

Are intelligent housekeepers this unflappable nowadays?

While muttering his complaint, Malin issued the command to open the window.

Then he was hit in the face by the cold wind. Having no resistance to the cold at all, Malin, after many years, felt once again what it meant to be faced with chill winds.

He quickly grabbed the thick coat from the chair to throw it on, then patted himself with a Spell Formation to resist the cold.

The elements in this world were thinner than the era Malin came from, but not so thin that a Spell Formation couldn’t be performed.

"Where are we, housekeeper?" Malin asked while looking out the window, as the sun rose in the distance and the city awoke in its own way.

When asking this question, Malin was pleading for a beautiful future, pleading for a new era that no forebear would regret.

"That question would be better answered by the mother of the body you are in," came the answer.

Following this response, Malin heard footsteps in the hall—completely different from the domineering, crushing heavy footsteps of the muscular dwarf aunty from before; these new footsteps were light and came from only two distinct sources.

So, Malin leaned out the window and watched the door until it opened on its own, revealing a Domestic Fairy standing there dressed in office attire, seemingly out of breath, probably from rushing over.

She saw Malin: "My Mamar, are you all right?"

Her first words were just like those of the descendant of Lillim from those years ago.

Malin nodded: "If it’s like before, I believe this child will be fine; even his Spiritual Energy will be ignited by me."

The lady blocked her husband’s eager advances: "This is my mate, my ancestor, long time no see."

Malin was baffled, "Have we... met before?"

"I met the future you when I was young, and you will meet the young me in the future... Time is crueler than Fate, my ancestor, I salute you."

Her husband digested all that his mate had said, then his eyes bulged: "You’re the legendary pinnacle of both the Gaiate and Haus families?"

"It seems I still have some fame in the future; you may address me as such. What about you, kid? Can I know if there’s anyone from your ancestry who is from my era?"

"I... my famous ancestor from that era was Logan of Thanan, I am not sure if you know of him," the somewhat adorable Domestic Fairy replied with slight embarrassment.

Malin smiled—this damn Logan really was a descendant of the Habsburgs, wasn’t he? Should he go back and get rid of him? But seeing the man standing resolutely one step in front of her, Malin thought he was indeed a responsible man... Well, the matters of his descendants were probably not his to meddle with too much.

With this in mind, Malin smiled at the lady: "Child, could you explain to this old relic what time it is in this new world?"

After the lady’s explanation, Malin learned that this should be about the second millennium after the last invasion of the Tide of the Dead.

The location was East Asia, New Hangzhou.

It was about the same era as Mars; Malin wondered how old he was now.

So it seemed that this time he had come to see Mars. Of course, this was not something Malin could tell the lady—who knew what the situation with Mars was at this time.

"My ancestor, you must have come to this time because a child is summoning you. Here is my credit card; if you want to have a look around the city, please go ahead." The lady handed over a few cards from her wallet, and Malin reached out, immediately attracting the cards into his hand.

"I still don’t know your names."

"Narian Rewo Haus, my father likes to call me Nana." The lady introduced herself, then pointed to her husband: "My spouse, Zhang Daping."

At this, Malin let go of his worries—Ha, Logan, even you have days like this.

"By the way, which child of yours is this?" With such a large house, it seemed unlikely they’d only have one child, so Malin inquired further.

"This is the fifth child between Daping and me, Mamar Rewo Haus." Noticing Malin’s silence, Narian wrapped her arm around her husband’s: "The first four children with Daping all have the surname Zhang, three daughters and a son, so the second son takes my surname."

"I see." Malin nodded, marveling at everything before him: "There’s no point in me telling you my name as you wouldn’t hear it, so I won’t bother. Rest assured, once I’m done here, I will return to my own time, and your child will come back safely."

"Yes, sir, please do." Zhang Daping finally opened the door to the room for him.

As Malin walked out the door, he reached out his hand.

And eventually, the man reached out his hand as well.

"Take good care of your wife and children, and don’t live to regret not doing so."

After speaking, Malin pulled his hand back, smiling and patting the man’s arm: "I’m off, both of you."

.........

After leaving the house, Malin saw the Dwarf auntie at the doorway holding something like a skateboard, her expression of unspeakable concern made Malin halt his steps.

"I don’t look that scary now, do I?" Malin had already checked in the hall, and now he’d taken on the appearance of the child.

It seemed he had a great affinity with this child, unlike before, and Malin thought this to be normal; though the saying goes ’both the palm and back of the hand are part of the body,’ the palm has no pores.

It’s natural for differences to exist between people, not to mention, Clovis had a child called Nanaqi who was a girl.

So, it’s normal to have disparities.

"Yes... I apologize, sir, this is the young master’s favorite anti-gravity skateboard, his beloved toy. Would you... would you mind taking it with you? After you’ve gone, it would make it easier for the young master to use." The Dwarf auntie, while speaking, was hesitating with the skateboard in her hand, which Malin saw and eventually, with a smile, extended his hand to take the skateboard from her.

"I’m off, and... thank you, Mrs. Steel Forge."

Having said this, Malin hopped on the skateboard and then drifted away from what looked like a mixture of a fortress and a villa he called home.

Following the streets and drawing closer to the city, Malin saw a tall... tower on the distant horizon.

What place is that?

With such curiosity, Malin entered the city, a city filled with both a sense of the era and the future, inhabited by various creatures. Malin saw Thanan people, Elves and Dwarves, and various Orcs. He noticed a lady fox with four tails who was completely oblivious to Malin, instead, she was arguing with another party.

Too far to hear what they were debating, but the Chinese characters on the sign for 17th Avenue, the Thainan language with its various accents spoken by the people, their prosthetic mechanical bodies, all gave Malin a sense of nostalgia and surprise.

What a wonderful era indeed.

Such were Malin’s thoughts until he saw a young leopard with his father.

The former walked ahead, clearly just a child, yet clad in a black leather jacket and pants, looking every bit like a little punk.

"Mark, don’t walk too fast."

"I’m not an old man!"

The father-son conversation ended there, and Malin noticed the child’s father who didn’t mind the winter chill, the full tattoos across his bare upper body making him look like a standard gangster from District 11.

Except that he smoked a cigarette named after West Lake and wore a thick gold chain on his neck that glinted in the light, his left forearm holding the cigarette was a black prosthetic.

"Big brother Malai, taking your son out for fun today, huh?" Gangster-looking individuals greeted him.

The big man nodded then threw them a pack of cigarettes: "Keep a lookout, and remember, if you meet cops, tell them you found this cigarette pack."

"Yes, yes, we found it." The gangsters waited until the pack hit the ground before eagerly picking it up.

Malin looked up to see surveillance cameras at the corner.

Cars flew overhead; in the middle of the street, four-wheelers powered by fuel emitted invisible smoke, and officers walked by, shielding Malin and the riff-raff with their bodies.

Malin started to walk, people selling various storage chips on the roadside, under signs with dense or sparse headlines.

Malin pricked up his ears; he heard voices from alleys, saw ladies, madams, and old women standing by the alleys.

Sharp-eared, white-haired, and unmarked faces made Malin reflect in his heart.

Malin, is this all worth it?

Of course, it is all worth it; without Chaos, without deities, humans still remain the masters of this planet under their feet.