Deep Sea Ember

Chapter 42 What We See in the Book

The curfew city is not suitable for exploring, and Duncan stays in the antique store all night - the excitement of stepping on land drives him to explore the entire building tirelessly.

It is true that the original owner of this body was a cultist, but as a cultist, he was also an ordinary person who needed a normal social life, he needed the convenience provided by modern civilization to maintain his survival, needed to communicate with people, and needed all kinds of daily necessities.

It is necessary to deal with the entire city.

And all of this will leave a lot of clues, allowing Duncan to roughly infer the way of survival in the city-state of Prade, as well as the general level of technology and people's livelihood in this era, even though the memory fragments are blurry.

He found a small amount of cash in a hidden compartment behind the counter on the first floor, including a handful of bits and pieces of blue and green currency of varying denominations, which were common in most city-statesThe main currency unit is called "Sora", and there is also a "peso" worth one-tenth of the main currency as the auxiliary currency. The cash Duncan found added up to only more than 200 solas, and according to the information obtained from his memory, this money was probably enough for a family of three to survive in the downtown area for about a month.

It seems that even though the business in the store is bleak and most of the family property has been donated to the church, the original owner of this body still maintains a basic standard of living - this shows that this "antique shop" still has its own stable customer base.

There are only two parts on the first floor of the entire store, two-thirds of the area is the shop at the front of the stairs, and the remaining one-third is the "warehouse" located behind the small door of the stairs.

The structure of the second floor of the store is a little more complicated, in addition to a washroom, there are two rooms, one large and one small, and a pipe room shared with the building next to it.

In addition, there is a small kitchen on the second floor, but it seems that the last time it was used was probably at least half a month ago, and everything was covered in dust.

After checking everything, Duncan returned to the master bedroom on the second floor, looking at the room that was smaller than his bachelor apartment, and his eyes fell on the small cabinet next to the bed.

There is a picture frame with ...... It is a black and white photograph.

In the photo, there is a family of three, a young man and a woman dressed plainly, with a little girl who looks only four or five years old, standing in front of the courtyard set with obvious artificial traces, with a faint smile on their faces, looking at the camera.

Duncan came to the photo frame, picked it up and examined it carefully, and kept corresponding to the vague and confusing clues in his memory.

The original owner of this body...... Not in the photo.

The person in this photo appears to be a relative of this body...... Very close people.

As he looked at the young couple, Duncan seemed to feel a faint sense of longing emerging from the depths of his memory.

However, more information about this photo is vague and seems to ...... More memories about them had disappeared into this world with the last breath of the original owner of this body.

He put down the photo and thought about what level of consumption such a black and white photo was among the civilians in the lower city, thinking about what stage the world's photography technology has developed and what principles the equipment used is based on.

At the same time, his eyes also fell on the neatly made bed, and a faint doubt appeared in his heart.

A cultist who has completely fallen into the belief in the sun will have a lot of time to tidy up his room so clean on weekdays?

The shops on the

first floor are obviously neglected, how can the beds in this bedroom be meticulously cleaned?

He walked out the door again, to the smaller room on the other side of the stairs, looking at the same neat and clean bed and desk.

He sorted out the memories in his mind and confirmed that the original owner of his body had left the store a few days ago and went to a secret meeting place to attend a meeting of the Sun God believers—that was the last time he left, and the memory of the details was blurred, but it didn't seem to have the impression of cleaning the house before leaving.

In other words...... Is there anyone else?

Is there anyone else living with this "cultist"? Is it a relative?

Duncan frowned slightly, looking for corresponding clues in his mind as he came to the desk in the small room, his eyes swept over the neatly stored paper and pen stationery, and finally landed on a book.

The book was placed in the most prominent position on the desk, with a dark blue cover with a pattern of gears and connecting rods on the cover, and the title was written in beautiful flower letters:

"The Art of Steam and Gears - General Textbook III"

Duncan frowned, he was already vaguely aware that the room should belong to "another person", but he still subconsciously picked up the book.

There were no books to read on the Lost Home, and there was not a half-word article to read in the master bedroom or elsewhere in the store, which might have helped him understand the world.

When he

opened the cover of the book, the illustrated inner pages caught his eye—it was indeed a "textbook" on engineering and the principles of steam mechanics, and many notes left by the owner could be seen between the passages of the textbook. The

slender and beautiful font seemed to have been written by a young woman.

Duncan rubbed his forehead, the original owner of this body didn't seem to have any relatives or friends, most of the pictures or "impressions" in his memory were cold and lonely, but after combing through his memory several times, he finally vaguely "recalled" a person...... It was a girl with dark brown hair.

It seemed to be the only figure in the mind of the cultist named Ron when he exhaled his last breath.

Duncan's eyes fell on the pages, and he did not bother to look at the words and drawings that involved specific technologies, but focused on the parts that were similar to the editor's introduction and conceptual discussion.

A line of text suddenly came into his eyes:

"...... Flames, or more precisely, specific flames released by burning the grease and mineral crystals of the deep sea, are the cornerstone of modern society and the protection of our civilization......

"The prosperity and order of modern civilization are based on flame and steam...... Clean and convenient electricity cannot replace the exorcism effect of fire, nor can it keep large machines running stably for a long time...... Experiments have proven that steam is the most stable form of power when affected by deep space......

"In this chapter, we will discuss the three typical structures of the steam core, and explain the mechanical principles and design ideas involved......"

Duncan's eyes froze slightly.

He remembered the gas lamps, torches, oil lamps, and gas street lamps that could be seen everywhere in the sewers before, as well as the gas street lamps on the city streets, and also remembered the doubts he had in his heart when he saw the electric light in the store.

It turns out ...... What is the reason behind these seemingly "strange" situations?

Even

if you take a certain risk, you have to use open flame lamps in the sewer, and when the electricity has developed to a certain extent, you have to use gas lamps to light on the streets outdoors.

Duncan felt an inexplicable emotion in his heart, and his eyes continued to look down, seeing complex drawings, dense annotations, and notes carefully left by the owner of the book.

It was a machine he couldn't understand at all.

And it was definitely not the "steam engine" he knew in his previous life.

Those precise gears, those extremely complex cylinders, as well as the connecting pipes and valves between various parts, are far beyond the concept of a steam engine, it is more like some kind of equipment that pops out of a fantasy encyclopedia, revealing a contradictory and grotesque beauty everywhere.

This is the "heart" that supports the civilization of this world today.

In contemplation, Duncan slowly put the book back to its original position.

Because he couldn't understand it at all.

As an earthling, even if he had been a teacher, he couldn't understand what the hell were about the steam-powered mechanisms in this book that had developed to the extreme.

But even so, a faint enlightenment still appeared in his heart:

the development of civilization in this world seemed to be on a completely different path from his understanding.

In order to survive in a world surrounded by crises, the mortal kingdom has also taken on a bizarre posture, but no matter how strange the world is, as long as it can still be called "civilization", it must have its own principles and logic in it that have developed so far.

Those gas lamps burning in the sewers, the electric lights lit in shops, and the steam mechanisms depicted in books made up of the wisdom of countless people all faintly reveal a ...... resilience.