The Mysterious World Under Steampunk

Unlike the suburbs of Port Dorset, which are full of factories and handicraft workshops, the suburbs of Simps are wastelands. This is not only because there are no trains passing through here, and it is not possible to use the railway to transport a large amount of supplies. It is because this wasteland is soft muddy land, unlike the foundation of the port, which is hard rock, once a large building is built here, it will gradually sink over time.

However, this does not mean that this land has no economic value. At some point in the past, someone brought a kind of reed seed from the Mozambique continent and sprinkled it on this land. This kind of saline-alkali marsh grows, and the growth cycle is very short, and it can fully grow and mature within a week.

Some paper craftsmen found that the paper made of this reed is soft and white, which is very suitable for some special situations, so dozens of such handmade paper workshops were built in the slums of Simps, because of its The source of raw materials is very simple, almost no money is required, and only a little manual labor is required, so over time it has become an important economic pillar for the poor in the city.

On the way the steam trailer passed by, you can see many low-level citizens from the slums harvesting reeds in the dense reeds. However, this situation can only be seen in the suburbs, and the far-flung suburbs are where swamp beasts and poisonous insects grow. , unless they form a team that can take care of each other, it is impossible for ordinary citizens to go to such a dangerous place to harvest reeds.

For those who are familiar with the surrounding environment of Simps, the dangers of the outer suburbs are well known. Although the passengers in the car are very trustworthy of the newcomer's hotel, they still react instinctively.

For example, the voices in the car were much quieter, and everyone put their hands in their clothes or purses. It seemed that they were all prepared to deal with possible attacks.

However, the attack that everyone was worried about did not happen, and the steam trailer finally stopped on a small barren hill in the reed field in the outer suburbs. Followed by signaling that everyone can wait in the car or get off the car.

Everyone in the room didn't understand what the other party was waiting for. Some of the impatient people asked the driver who brought them over to ask about the situation, but the driver just responded and told them to wait.

Everyone had no choice but to wait in the car. After about ten minutes passed, there were bursts of noisy mechanical sounds in the open reed field outside.

Everyone in the car heard the sound and looked out through the window, but what is surprising is that although the sound was loud, as if it was nearby, no one saw anything unusual in the reed field .

Among the passengers in the car, only Leo looked up, his eyes seemed to see the sky through the ceiling above his head.

But Leo's actions were too prominent, and soon someone noticed, and this person seemed to have thought of something, looked at the ground, and shouted in surprise: "The airship, it's an airship."

Following this person's reminder, everyone realized where the noisy mechanical sound was coming from. It was only because of the limitation of the roof that they couldn't see the sky outside, so they got out of the car one by one. Looking up, they all let out exclamations.

It's just that the emotions mixed with their exclamations changed quickly, and it only took a short time from the initial surprise to amazement.

At this time, Leo also got out of the compartment like other passengers, and looked up at the sky, and when he looked up too much, a very large shadow covered the passengers and the compartment below.

I saw a huge airship floating in the cloudless sky at this moment. After a rough estimate, this airship is about 100 meters long and more than ten meters wide. Looking up from the ground is like looking at a huge monster. It made people feel an inexplicable shock.

In the world of Velen, airships appeared a long time ago, even before steam engines. Its appearance originated from an accident in the laboratory. In that accident, the master craftsman of the royal student of the French Empire discovered a very light gas, and used this gas as power to make the first carrier man balloon.

At that time, this invention attracted the attention of the emperor of the empire, because if this balloon proved to be able to carry people, then the Black Forest would no longer be an obstacle to the French Empire, and they could cross the Black Forest from the sky. , to more effectively rule the western part of the French Empire.

As for the people in the western provinces of the French Empire, they were also keenly aware that the invention of this balloon might change the relatively free and relaxed political environment of the people in the west at that time.

Because of this, the first public test of a manned balloon attracted the attention of the entire French Empire, and other countries also set their sights on this place for various reasons.

The first balloon test was very successful. The balloon carried the expected maximum weight of goods and people successfully lifted into the air, and reached the expected height.

Because of this success, the governments of various countries began to order their domestic academies to start researching similar balloon devices, and the French Empire increased their investment in the practicality of balloons. Aerial guides for balloons and human-powered spiral air propulsion were invented within a month.

In this case, the second balloon test soon began, this time no longer carrying cargo, but fully carrying people, a total of five people, one of whom was responsible for controlling the guidance device, and four were responsible for operating the human-powered propeller , create an artificial airflow, and push the balloon to move in a predetermined direction.

This test is a practical test, which is more eye-catching than the first test. The countries no longer just send observers to watch the situation, but the ambassadors of various countries in France personally lead the team to participate.

However, this test was both a success and a failure. After the test balloon was lifted into the air, it began to move in the air as expected. It can be said that it was completely successful, but then an accident happened. The birds seemed to be stimulated, and flew out of the woods on the ground like crazy, attacking the balloon in the sky frantically, and the people inside the balloon were also the targets of attack.

The crazy birds did not disperse until the balloon was destroyed and crashed, and the people inside the balloon did not die from the crash, but from the attack of those birds.

Although this test ended in failure, it did not dampen the confidence of the French Empire and the Velen countries in manned balloons. They believed that the balloon was attacked by birds because it accidentally broke into the airspace of birds. Some people in the empire also believe that the power of the Black Forest is controlling the birds. They do not want the balloon experiment to be successful, because the location of this experiment is just on the edge of the Black Forest, and in the plan of the experiment, the balloon will also fly into the sky. Over the Black Forest for a while.

Therefore, after the failure of this test, the support of the French Empire for this test has not weakened, and the same is true for all countries, and according to the data and plan of this test, they conducted their own balloon flight tests.

But soon they discovered that things were not as smooth as they had imagined. In all the balloon flight tests, except for a few failed tests due to faulty test equipment, all the other failed tests were, without exception, caused by flying birds. Such attacks lead to crashes of test equipment and casualties of test personnel.

At this time, a biological researcher from the School of Medicine stood up and explained the situation. It turns out that all the birds in the world of Velen have a strong desire for air supremacy. They will divide the airspace according to some undiscovered law. Once other birds enter If they enter their airspace, the birds sharing that airspace will attack the intruder together until the intruder dies, and the flying balloon is an intruder in the eyes of these birds.

After that, various countries have searched for various methods to solve the problem of bird attacks in the past few years. Some of them are effective. The edge of the airspace with weak desires, etc., but these methods have ultimately proved to be unable to solve the problem.

For example, let the balloon walk on the edge of the bird-controlled airspace. This approach seems feasible, but the premise is that there must be a detailed bird airspace control map. After research, it has been found that the division of the bird's airspace will follow this. It varies from group to group, that is, the airspace is not fixed.

As for blessings from the priests of the Lord of the Sky, that's fine. No bird will attack with the Lord of the Sky's blessing, but the Lord of the Sky's blessings are usually given to believers during major celebrations. The number of blessings that each priest can initiate in a year is limited. If they can't take care of careful believers, how can they bless some balloons used as transportation tools?

Because of these birds, the idea of ​​transporting balloons fell through. In addition, the invention of steam engines and steam trains made countries see another convenient and powerful means of transportation. Balloons became an unrealistic fantasy in the eyes of everyone. Gave up the exploration of the sky.

However, this situation changed after the French Empire produced practical airships.

As the initiator of transport balloons, the French Empire has never given up on the research of transport balloons, and finally let them create a flying tool such as an airship, and let it play an extraordinary role in some subsequent wars Among them, the most famous airship is naturally the current emperor's car.

Why the airship was able to avoid being attacked by birds has always been a mystery.

Some people say that the French Empire has developed a sound device that can interfere with birds and make them unwilling to approach the airship. Many people agree with this statement, because every time an airship appears, it is accompanied by loud noises, even humans cannot bear these noises, let alone birds that are more vulnerable than humans.

But more people think that the French Empire should have received some support from the Black Forest, so that they can avoid the attacks of birds, because people who have been on the airship have seen it, and there are some decorative statues and statues on the airship. The church gods announced by the Orthodox Church are different.

In any case, everyone agrees that the French Empire has mastered a mature technology that can evade birds in the sky, but due to the manufacturing cost and technical requirements of airships, it is impossible to build airship legions on a large scale, but it is undeniable that The Fran Empire was the first mortal kingdom to conquer the skies.

Now that everyone saw an airship falling from the sky, they were naturally shocked and amazed, and they were even more curious about how the airship avoided the attacks of birds.

However, when they saw the shape of this airship clearly, all emotions such as shock, astonishment, curiosity, etc., turned into strong doubts, because the appearance of this extraordinary ship was really terrible.

I saw that the airbag of this spaceship felt like it was made of pieces of rags and skins, and some patches of skin could be seen everywhere. As for the cabin hanging under the airship, it was even more outrageous. A small boat was transformed, and even the barnacles attached to the bottom of the boat were not removed.

"Are you crazy? You actually want us to achieve such a thing and pass through the blockade." After regaining consciousness, some bad-tempered passengers immediately yelled at the driver of the hotel who was in charge of delivering people, and put their hands on the Putting the weapon on his waist, it looks like he will kill you if you don't give a satisfactory answer.

"If I were you guys, I wouldn't do that!" The driver was not afraid of the threats from the irritable passengers, and said coldly: "You should follow the rules of the hotel. If you dare to break the rules, you will be considered as fleeing to the mainland of Mozambique." , the hotel also has a way to find you."

Hearing the coachman's words, the restless people calmed down quickly. They seemed to know the strength of the hotel. They couldn't help but bear the anger in their hearts, removed their hands from their weapons, and glared at the coachman fiercely, waiting The other party explained.

The coachman looked at the crowd, smiled and said to the crowd in a relaxed tone: "I know that you will question the transport capability of the airship after seeing this airship, but our hotel can guarantee that this airship is safe and effective." , because you are not the first batch of people to be transported by the airship, and everyone else arrived at their destination smoothly, so you don’t have to worry at all.”

What the coachman said didn't reassure everyone too much. Many people were already planning to give up the deposit and go back to the hotel to find other ways to get through the blockade.

But when the airship landed and the cabin door was opened, one by one pale Daliats came out of the cabin. Many of them sat on the ground with limp hands and feet as they came out. The image is vomiting and looks a little bad.

"Uh, this is not suitable for long-term air travel. It is just a normal reaction. Please rest assured that it will not cause any substantial harm to your body." Seeing this situation, the driver's face was a little ugly, and he immediately turned to Everyone explained.

However, for the people present, they didn't care about the situation of these people, they cared more about whether these people really came across the blockade from Deliyat.