Extraordinary Puppet Master

Since the rapid development of the steam industry, smoke from countless chimneys has shrouded the urban area of ​​Kland, the steam capital, all year round.

Even the Palace District and the East District, which have the best environment in the upper reaches of the Lamu River, are no exception. The architectural tones here are also cooler.

Among the mansions of the East End nobles and the riverside estates, there is a brass-colored tower that is incompatible with the surrounding urban architectural environment.

The tower is more than three hundred meters tall, piercing the fog and reaching into the sky. This is the tallest building in the Steam City - the Brass Tower. The headquarters of the Security Bureau and other agencies are located in the tower.

The Brass Tower is completely closed on the outside and isolated from the outside world. Although it stands in the mortal world, it is connected to the spiritual world internally.

Inside the tower, there are countless independent spaces. Even the staff of various departments stationed inside cannot tell how many floors there are.

However, the public information recorded on paper is that the tower has 365 floors.

The important department of the Security Bureau only occupies a small part of the space.

It has three departments under its jurisdiction: the Secret Service, which is responsible for handling extraordinary cases, the Astrology Academy, which is responsible for divination and collating collected intelligence information, and the Royal Geographical Society, which is responsible for secretly spying on intelligence. The former two are working openly and the latter is secretly.

At this moment, on a certain floor of the Brass Tower, staff members wearing white uniforms were coming and going, walking nervously on the smooth metal square.

The floor of the wide square is made of brass, and there is a huge brass differential engine in the center. Judging from the outline, you can still vaguely see some shadows of the [Throne Differential Engine], but it is much larger.

Several steam cores provide surging power, driving the gears and springs to rub at high speed and make a low humming sound.

The copper pillars are in endless reciprocating motion, punching holes one after another on the illusory paper tape formed by spiritual condensation.

When the paper tape reaches its end, it turns into strips of light that spread out on the brass floor, carving out a star map like a spider web.

Countless stars shine and fade, the brightness of these stars varies, and each star represents a transcendent person.

The staff of the Astrology Academy in white uniforms kept recording and interpreting the spirituality emanating from the stars of a transcendent being.

Almost the vast majority of officially registered extraordinary beings were recorded in the square of the Astrology Academy from the moment they registered.

Just when the Secret Service team led by Lear met the Witch, Drake, and Angela, suddenly several dim stars appeared on the star map.

"The Dark Star of the Shadow Troupe appears!"

There is suppressed excitement in everyone's heart. Every star has a fixed position, and its spirituality will also change when it shifts.

At this time, the brass differential engine will assist the professional fortune tellers of the Astrology Academy to perform divination based on the positions and spiritual changes of the stars.

"The star has shifted by 0.16 seconds!"

"There's another one this time, there's a new member of the Shadow Brigade!"

"Wait a minute, there is more than one, there are two lines separated from the three dark stars, and there may be two unknown extraordinary beings connected with him!"

"The Secret Service team met the Shadow Brigade!"

"No, the Secret Service team suffered heavy losses. Everyone except Charlotte and Lille are dead!"

"Quick, increase the power of the differential engine, their stars will disappear!!!"

A group of people in the astrology academy just watched Karin and his stars collide with the stars of a group of people from the Secret Service.

Soon, the twenty-odd stars in the Secret Service disappeared, leaving only the stars of Charlotte and Lille, who were quickly moving away from those dark stars, as if they were running away.

Immediately, all the dark stars of the Shadow Brigade disappeared again. At this time, a stack of punched cards tied with white paper tape suddenly spat out from the slot on the surface of the difference machine.

These cards are about the same size as playing cards. They are made of a milky white gel material, like plastic, very thin and reflective.

Each card has more than thirty rows of densely packed holes. Three corners are slightly curved, and the fourth corner is cut off, as if to distinguish the pros and cons.

Next to the cut corner, there is a series of numbers.

A staff member at the scene quickly took out the stack of cards from the slot and walked quickly to the wall of the room. A small drawer-like box suddenly popped out of the white and smooth wall without any gaps.

The stack of cards was put directly into the drawer. It bounced back immediately with a bang, and the wall returned to its original shape.

Three seconds later, Mycroft, who was in the director's office on the first floor of the Brass Tower, suddenly heard the signal bell on his desk ringing automatically.

Sitting behind his desk, he immediately knocked on the wall three times when he saw it. Two small drawers popped up on the wall, and the stack of milky white punch cards lay quietly in one of the drawers.

In another concealed drawer is a brass tray.

Mycroft took out the stack of cards and his pupils shrank sharply when he saw the series of numbers next to the missing corner of the first card.

"06-13-4587-12

Damn it, Charlotte and Carlin’s numbers are on the same information card. Couldn’t he have met Carlin? ! "

Worried about his brother's safety, Mycroft quickly took out the card and put it on the brass tray in the drawer next to him, and then pulled the rope on the signal bell as quickly as possible.

After a crisp jingle, the two drawers bounced back instantly, and the stack of punch cards recording a large amount of information was sent to an unknown place to be interpreted by an analysis machine.

Mycroft was waiting anxiously. He wanted to know as soon as possible what the astrology academy had divined.

When Charlotte was going to the sewers, he actually objected. The [Moth Sloughing] ritual caused the evolution of an unknown number of creatures, and some dangerous creatures might appear.

Moreover, a large number of extraordinary people have also entered the sewers, either trying to find the location of the ritual to seize the fruits of evolution, or hunting extraordinary creatures born from evolution.

The situation there was extremely complicated now. He didn't want Charlotte to go into the muddy waters there, but he couldn't win over his stubborn brother, so he arranged for him to act together with the people from the Secret Service.

Ordinarily, with five professional-level agents and more than twenty well-equipped trainee-level agents, coupled with their official status, the chance of encountering danger is not very high.

But they didn't expect that they would encounter the Shadow Troupe!

Mycroft also knows a little about Carlin, and he knows that the other person will never show mercy because of some previous friendships.

‘Charlotte, you must be okay! ’

Just after he waited anxiously for a few minutes, suddenly a middle-aged man wearing a black trench coat and a slinging pipe appeared in the office.

The man looked unremarkable, just like an ordinary person, but Mycroft was extremely respectful after seeing him.

"Lord Reis."

"What's wrong, Mycroft, what happened to make you so nervous?"

Just as Mycroft was about to say something, the drawer on the wall popped out again, and lying quietly on the brass tray were a few pieces of white paper filled with text and still smelling of ink.

His husband quickly took it out and browsed quickly. He was relieved when he saw that Charlotte was fine, but his face became serious.

"Lord Reis, Charlotte and Lille encountered the Shadow Brigade. After a brief battle of less than a minute, 3 first-level detectives and 25 second-level agents were all killed. Only Charlotte and Lille escaped. In distress!"

Leis's face turned dark after hearing this.

The current professional level is not a big deal. Each professional level is cultivated by spending a lot of resources.

Even the Brent Kingdom cannot arrange for a professional to serve as the director of the Secret Service Branch in every city.

Only a few important cities like Wayne City have professional-level branch ministers.

There are only 13 professional first-level detectives in the entire Secret Service, 6 of whom are dispatched to six other important cities to head the branches, and only 7 of them are located in the Steam City.

Carlin was stunned three times at once, which made him angry and at the same time pay attention to it.

"Has the Shadow Troupe left the sewers now?"

"The divination information from the Astrology Academy showed that they were still in the sewers five minutes ago!"

"Very good, this time I take action personally, but I want to see what this shadow brigade is capable of!"

After saying that, Leith's figure disappeared, and Mycroft breathed a sigh of relief.

‘The old director at the mentor level personally took action. As long as Carlin remains in the sewer, there is absolutely no way he can escape from the old director’s personal action! ’

Carlin, Angela and his team were shuttled through a maze-like network of underground tunnels under the leadership of Salin, and they slowly moved towards the central area with twists and turns.

At this time, Salin suddenly sensed it and said.

"A mentor has entered the sewer, less than thirty meters above our heads."

Angela immediately asked: "Do you know who it is?"

Salin recalled for a moment and said, "The last director of the Security Bureau, Reis."

Kalin smiled: "I guess he is here to find us. The execution of three professional-level agents by the Secret Service was enough to scare him. The action was quite fast."

At the same time, Reis, who was in an abandoned pipeline, also sensed thirty meters of Salin under his feet, but he didn't think much about it. He just thought that the vampires were also alerted and asked Salin to lead the team out in person.

The two sides just passed each other, and the distance became farther and farther. Half an hour later, Carlin and Angela said goodbye to Salin and appeared in a small alley in the Central District.

Before the two said goodbye, Angela took out a blue card and handed it to him.

"You take this card. If you encounter danger in the future, you can use the card to enter this bookstore."