Extraordinary Puppet Master

Thursday, February 15, 545, eight o'clock in the morning.

Woo——woo——woo——

The whistle of the steamer drowned out the bustle on the banks of the Lamu River.

After declining the invitation of a noble lady, the young and handsome Eric slowly walked down the escalator of the passenger ship with his suitcase.

In addition to him, there were also many passengers who landed at the pier with their luggage, traveling thousands of miles from all over the Brent Kingdom to start a new life here.

‘City of Steam’

Carlin, who had been following Eric closely in a hidden state, muttered silently in his mind.

As the capital of the Kingdom of Brent, Kelland has a permanent population of over five million and is one of the most prosperous metropolises in the Old World.

It's just that the air quality here gave Karin a very bad impression when he first arrived here.

There was hazy fog everywhere on the pier, and the visibility was extremely low. If it weren't for the dim light of the gas lamps on the roadside, it would be easy to get lost.

As the landmark building of the steam capital, the Cland Bridge, which is more than two hundred meters away, is a majestic steel bridge, but Carlin estimates that ordinary people standing on the pier may not even be able to see its outline clearly.

Countless chimneys stood tall throughout the city, constantly puffing out smoke. Carlin had to mourn for the ordinary people living here. This kind of air quality could be considered murder in his hometown.

Shaking his head, he and Eric quickly broke away from the crowd at the pier and sat down on a bench in a street square.

Eric put down his suitcase and spread out the map of Kelland city he carried with him.

Unlike many young people who come here with longings and dreams, he has a very clear goal - to make money, build a throne steam engine, and collect materials needed for career advancement.

He left the underground cave on February 2.

But instead of going directly to the nearby station to take a train here, he returned to Wayne City and boarded a steam liner at the pier that came from the New World and was temporarily docked in Wayne City. It took more than ten days of sailing to arrive. The capital of steam.

He and Snicki are now out of sight, and the remaining three marionettes are still undercover after changing their appearance.

Although the management of household registration records in this era was not very strict, Carlin still hoped to have a flawless identity.

His parents died, his family's property was sold, and he returned from the New World with a lot of wealth. His status was quite good.

Although it can't be perfect, if you want to check, you have to send someone to the New World to check. It will take at least half a year to go back and forth, and you may not be able to find anything useful.

There are countless people with disguised identities in the entire Steam City, not even one more than him.

Moreover, this identity is considered a good citizen compared to those who don't care about making up stories, and the official will not spend much effort to get to the bottom of it.

'Anyway, we have to find a place to live first. ’

Carlin began to think about where his home should be for the next period of time.

The three districts, the North District where the Kland Police Station is located, the Palace District where the royal palace is located, and the East District where nobles and bourgeois gather, are located in the upper reaches of the Ram River. They have the best environment and security, but they are not suitable for him.

There are a large number of low-level civilians living in the dock area located on the lower reaches of the Lamu River, the bridge area where the Kelland Bridge is located, and the old and new factory areas.

There was a mixture of fish and dragons there that was suitable for hiding, so Karin simply abandoned it.

Many people who have committed crimes hide in these areas and are protected by some local snakes. They are not afraid of the police coming to search, but it is not a big deal. The police don't want to waste too much effort on small fish and shrimps, so they just turn a blind eye. Close one eye.

If there is really any big news, the people who come to our door will not be the police but the agents of the Secret Service. Those so-called local gangsters dare to be arrogant and not show off to the police, but they will be scared when they meet the agents of the Secret Service. Faster than anyone else.

A foreigner like Carlin would be at great risk of exposure if he lived there. After all, if he wanted to advance to the professional level, he had to make big news.

If something goes wrong, let the agents from the Secret Service come to several large areas downstream.

Those local snakes who usually protect a bunch of wanted criminals and gangsters and talk about how well-behaved they are, promise to tell the Secret Service agents the whereabouts of this foreigner as soon as possible.

After excluding several large districts in the upper and lower reaches of the Lamu River, only two large districts in the middle reaches are left - the commercial district as the financial and economic center of the kingdom and the central district where a large number of middle-class people live.

After looking at the map and thinking for a while, Carlin decided to settle in the Central District.

Not only does the Central District have better public security, but most of its residents are decent middle-class people, and these residents have serious jobs.

If there is any big news, unless there is definite information, the search in the central area will not be very intensive, which will at least give Carlin enough time to run away.

After making the decision, Carlin manipulated Eric to find a newspaper boy on the street and buy a few local newspapers in Kland. A considerable part of the pages were filled with house rental information.

Carlin also wants to rent a house with a specialized real estate agency. Although it is more expensive, it is also convenient. Unfortunately, he is a wanted criminal and cannot provide identification.

After sifting through the information about the houses, he wanted a detached duplex apartment where he could live alone and save trouble. He didn't have to worry about covering up things. Sharing a townhouse with other people was not a consideration at all.

After filtering out several symbols and required information, Carlin randomly selected one of them and prepared to visit him.

"The rent for a single-family apartment at No. 9 Jasmine Street in the Central District is 2 gold pounds per week. It has a small garden. Water and coal are at your own expense. If you are interested, please contact Mr. Winston at No. 19 Jasmine Street."

No. 9 Jasmine Street, in front of a clean two-story apartment, Eric added his name to the door number next to the iron gate and opened the iron gate.

This apartment has its own small front yard garden where you can usually grow flowers and grass.

The landlord, Mr. Winston, was also surprisingly easy to talk to. He didn't care about the fact that Eric's identity certificate was lost in the New World. Apparently he had heard about the situation in the New World.

It is known as a barbaric area far away from civilization and is full of uncivilized indigenous tribes.

Carlin knew that although this statement was somewhat inappropriate, the New World was indeed chaotic. There, all things related to the extraordinary existed openly and were not hidden from ordinary people.

Uncivilized natives with extraordinary powers, pioneering colonists, gold-mining adventurers, various humanoid or non-human alien races, etc., all make the New World extremely chaotic.

The Blackhand clan that Secret Puppet Snitch was born into during his lifetime was originally a small clan that had some background and lived in isolation from the world.

But after Weir knew about it and exposed it, the adventurers swarmed in like sharks that smelled blood, and had to move after suffering heavy losses.

And this is just a microcosm of the New World.

Compared to this, the loss of Eric's identification was nothing, but Mr. Winston was still wary at first.

But after talking for a while and discovering that Eric's speech and behavior were very decent, completely different from the rudeness of people from the New World as rumored, his expression relaxed.

In this way, after paying a year's rent of 96 gold pounds, Eric naturally became a resident of No. 9 Jasmine Street.

After hanging the house number, Eric locked the iron door, walked into the new home with Carlin, and inspected the entire house carefully.

There is a foyer, a dining room, a study room, a bathroom and a guest room on the first floor.

There are three bedrooms, a powder room and bathroom, a living room and a balcony on the second floor.

In addition, there is a basement, which is fully equipped with basic furniture and can be moved in after being tidied up.

Carlin also appeared at this time and released the other three marionettes and Eric to start packing up the new home.

Since then, he has finally settled down in the Steam City.

There were four marionettes sitting on the sofa in the living room on the second floor, which didn't look empty at all.

But loneliness arose in Karin's heart, and after sighing, he finally got down to business.

Eric's spirituality began to surge, and the pen of the story flew directly out of his pocket and he wrote on the low table in the living room.