Chapter 169: Advance |
The speed of the Infernal Three-Headed Hound was far beyond imagination. When it set off, Levi felt his vision blur. The next moment, they had already left their original spot and arrived at the main entrance of the Central Data Tower.
What was even more incredible was that despite such rapid speed, Levi remained seated stably on the hound's back. Even though he could feel the oncoming airflow, he showed no signs of being thrown off or shaken at all. Where did the inertia go? As for this question... blame it on magic.
"What is that thing?!"
Just as Levi was mourning the laws of physics in this world, the rioters at the main entrance also spotted the Infernal Three-Headed Hound charging straight at them, instantly screaming in terror.
"A monster! A monster!"
"Shut up! Hurry and stop it!"
To ordinary people, the three-headed hound was indeed a strange creature, perhaps even a monster. But that was just it—the public was ignorant. A dog with three heads that happened to grow a bit large was not that strange, right? However, for the Luddites, it was a completely different story.
They knew those ancient, mysterious legends very well. Because of this, when the three-headed hound turned into black lightning and charged at them, those mythological stories immediately surfaced in their minds—the pitch-black hound of hell with three heads, roaring as it emerged from the shadows, dragging its prey into the eternally burning fires of hell...
"What are you standing around for! Hurry and stop it!!"
The steel mechs, sturdy enough to withstand bullets, were torn apart directly by the sharp claws of the three-headed hound. The thick steel plates let out a piercing screech, folding and ripping open with ease, turning into scattered wreckage that flew backward in the blink of an eye before crashing heavily to the ground.
"Thud!!"
The wreckage of the mechs, fully two to three meters tall, spun and smashed into the ground, making the surrounding rioters shudder instantly. Just imagining what would happen if such a thing smashed onto them was enough to make an ordinary person's legs go weak with fear. As it happened, most of the people here were ordinary people.
"Roar—"
Clearing the obstacles at the entrance with ease, the three-headed hound strode through the main doors with its head held high. At this moment, those rioters were so terrified that they almost collapsed to the ground, trembling uncontrollably. Levi swept a glance over them and noticed that these rioters were all wearing blue, janitor-like uniforms. Obviously, they had entered the Central Data Tower using this identity.
He just did not know whether they had sneaked in or originally worked here. After all, that primitive man had also said that their companions in this city were unexpectedly numerous...
"Clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter, clatter!"
Almost at the same time, accompanied by rushed footsteps, the police officers also quickly rushed inside.
"Handcuff all of these guys for me!"
The leading police officer gave an order, and soon the other police officers quickly stepped forward, capturing all the rioters who had collapsed to the ground in fear or had not yet had time to resist.
These police officers were doing a pretty good job. Seeing this scene, Levi was somewhat surprised. He had originally thought that even if these police officers dared to come in, they would only do so after he and his companions had left. He did not expect them to be quite fearless; though they carefully bypassed the three-headed hound, they did not show any signs of being afraid of it. They were completely different from those guys who collapsed to the ground in terror, shaking like sieves.
Are these the ordinary people of this era? Levi looked at those police officers, somewhat surprised. It seemed that the people of this world were indeed somewhat different from his original world. Perhaps this was a cultural difference? But no matter what, this was a good thing.
"Alright, next we... which way should we go?"
Levi looked at the paths extending in all directions before him, completely dumbfounded. Ordinary buildings usually had two or three paths, divided into left and right or left, middle, and right, but the paths here numbered a full six, looking just like a clock face.
"The, the third one on the left..."
Just then, Kiya's voice came from beside Levi. She seemed to have just recovered from the shock of riding the terrifying three-headed hound, speaking with a pale face. "I, I have been here a few times before to adjust the data transmission of the Central Data Tower... I know this place fairly well..."
"Then your coming along wasn't in vain. Let's go."
"Little Black, the third one on the left!"
Ovelia issued the command, and then the hound let out a howl, charging into the third path on the left. However...
"How should I put it, this really is a spectacular sight."
"Yeah."
Walking into the path and looking at both sides, both Levi and Ovelia could not help but express their admiration. The so-called path was actually not just a path; it was more like a long bridge. On both sides of the bridge, thick, massive metal rods stood upright. On the metal rods, countless metal gears were stacked layer upon layer. The initial gears were only of ordinary size, but the further inside they went, the larger they became, and every single gear was engraved with numbers from 0 to 9.
Walking along the path and looking toward both sides, everywhere the eye could see were dense, continuously and slowly turning gears, and on them, numbers flickered and rotated one by one. So spectacular, so magnificent, it was simply the crystallization of human wisdom and strength.
As if the three-headed hound also sensed its master's mood, it slowed its pace slightly, allowing the two of them to immerse themselves in this unparalleled world of gears. But this awe only lasted for a moment. In the next instant, the three-headed hound continued to dash forward.
"Left!"
"The second one on the right!"
"The middle!"
The internal paths of the entire Central Data Tower were like a maze. Whether it was to guard against intruders or for some other reason, if Kiya had not been guiding them from the side, Levi and Ovelia would not have been able to tell north from south at all. They simply followed Kiya's instructions, adjusting their direction time and again, and then... when they crossed through a path once more, what appeared before the three of them was a massive room that had already been occupied by rioters.
Unlike the other rooms, this room was very empty, with only a mechanical calculating device standing in the center, and several rioters currently standing guard around it.
"Here is the First Calculation Room!"
"Ovelia!"
"Little Black!"
"Woof!"
The three-headed hound plunged inside, pouncing straight toward those rioters. And those rioters were also greatly shocked to see this three-headed hound suddenly pop out. However, unlike those guys at the entrance, the rioters inside seemed to have a bit of courage; they raised their weapons, attempting to launch an attack on the hound.
And right at this moment, Levi and Ovelia jumped off from the back of the three-headed hound, one to the left and one to the right, simultaneously launching an assault on the rioters.
"Bang, bang, bang!"
Levi raised the Persuader in his hand, launching an attack on the rioters in front of him without showing any mercy. Accompanied by the sounding gunfire, the heads of several rioters gathered around the machine instantly exploded. On the other side, the moment Ovelia landed, she also flung her right hand forward; the rioters charging over suddenly went stiff along with her movement, subsequently collapsing to the ground. In their necks, silver-flashing small knives were embedded.
Compared to Levi and Ovelia, the three-headed hound's offensive appeared less brutal. It merely let out a furious roar, extending its claws to swat away the rioters blocking its path, and then roared again, instantly scaring back the rioters surrounding the area.
This was also the result of the discussion between Levi and Ovelia. Although with the three-headed hound's strength, eating all of these rioters would not take much effort, the opponents were after all just mortals. If they encountered that kind of werewolf monster in the Delicat Region, it would be fine, but against mere mortals, there was no need to let the hound get truly serious. Of course, there were also political considerations in this.
Levi could use a gun to blow someone's head off without hesitation, and Ovelia could use small knives to turn those rioters into corpses, but if the three-headed hound tore these rioters apart and ate them, it would give people a completely different impression. Although Her Majesty the Queen might not mind publicizing a part of the supernatural, it was not good if the supernatural was always associated with things like torn corpses and internal organs, right? Ovelia agreed completely with this; she also did not want Little Black to be regarded as a man-eating monster.
Thus, the final result was to let the three-headed hound act as a tank to draw aggro, and then Levi and Ovelia would take the opportunity to deal damage. As for Kiya... as long as she did not get in the way, it was fine.
Facts proved that Levi's plan was very successful. Obviously, when a person saw an incomparably massive monster with three heads swinging around in front of them, it was very difficult to maintain composure, let alone pay attention to other dangers. Levi and Ovelia took this opportunity to quickly clear out the surrounding rioters in one breath, then fetched Kiya down, who was trembling with fear while lying on the back of the three-headed hound.
"Is, is it over?"
Walking down from the three-headed hound, Kiya looked at the rioters collapsed all over the ground with dread and unease, trembling with fear. She was just a child after all, and had airily participated in combat. Hearing the gunfire and shouting that continuously resounded in her ears just now had made her legs go weak with fear.
"Not yet, but please hurry up, we don't know how to use this thing."
Levi stood before the mechanical calculating device, looking at the instrument before him with a helpless expression. The exterior of this thing indeed closely resembled the layout of a computer, having numbers and letters, and on the card reader beside it, that black punch card was indeed inserted. At this moment, the latter was being read with a clatter-clatter sound, and the surrounding levers and gears turned along with it, driving the entire machine to calculate upward.
To think that such a small thing could ultimately drive shafts and gears as large as a tall tower, one could only marvel that this was truly a wonderfully ingenious design.
"What do we do now? Do we pull this thing straight out?"
"Please absolutely do not do that!"
Once she arrived in her field of expertise, the previously dizzy Kiya instantly snapped out of it, hurriedly scurrying to the front of the console. "Although the purpose of these punch cards is to destroy the calculations, the logic of their programs themselves also follows a certain sequential order. If you forcefully destroy it, entering an incomplete program might make things even more unmanageable!"
At this moment, Kiya was the complete opposite of her previous submissive self. Her two eyes stared intently at the console, and her two small hands extended onto the keyboard, typing away with a pitter-patter. "Don't get in my way, move to the side!"
"..."
Levi shrugged his shoulders, taking two steps back, and at this time Ovelia also walked over curiously.
"This young lady seems a bit different from before?"
"Perhaps experts are all like this, turning into a completely different person in their field of expertise."
"Can this... young lady really pull it off?"
"We can only pray that she can pull it off. Or would you like to try?"
"I don't understand this either." Ovelia shook her head, looking at Kiya who was currently burying her head in the work. "It seems that wanting to engage in these things in the Delicat Region really is very troublesome, requiring quite a lot of talent..."
"That's right, talent is the most important thing no matter where it is. But be careful, character is also very important. A mess like the one we are encountering right now was created by a researcher from the National Research Institute."
"It's truly unimaginable that a single person could cause such huge destruction to Steel City... Previously, I had only read in fairy tales about giant dragons being able to destroy villages, plunging cities into a sea of fire and whatnot..." Ovelia looked with amazement at Kiya's busy figure, who had her back turned to them and was completely oblivious to their conversation, and could not help but express her admiration.
"It indeed is quite unimaginable." Levi nodded. In their era, those hackers could also rely on just one person to cause hundreds of millions in losses to a multinational enterprise, or disrupt the operation of a city... how should one put it, the more developed the information age was, the more unavoidable this became. Although Levi did not remember when the first hacker and computer virus of his era appeared before the public, at least through this attack, the Empire should understand the importance of data security.
As for how they would solve it... this thing did not look like it could be fitted with a firewall either, so who knew?
"Alright!"
Just then, Kiya's joyful cheer suddenly came from ahead. Hearing this, Levi and Ovelia also felt their spirits lift, hurriedly looking forward...
"Clack, clack, clack."
It was still the rotating gears, appearing as though nothing had changed. If there was anything different, it was that the punch card that had originally been swallowed was currently being ejected slowly. Kiya carefully took out that punch card, then turned around excitedly, coming before Levi and Ovelia.
"Mr. Levi! I did it!"
"Indeed, how did you do it?"
"Hehehe." Hearing Levi's inquiry, Kiya grinned and stuck out her tongue playfully. "When I was analyzing that card we obtained previously, I discovered that it was entered chronologically. Of course, all current difference engine programs are like this; they must allocate it through the read time in order to perform calculations sequentially. Therefore, I reversed this process, restoring the time to before the last storage node... This can forcefully compel the entire calculation process to reverse..."
As she spoke, Kiya also revealed a hint of a sad expression. "Of course, this will also bring damage to the difference engine..."
"No matter what, now that the problem can be solved, that is enough."
Whether the difference engines of Steel City required repairs was completely outside the scope of Levi's concern, and Ovelia cared even less. Levi extended his hand, patting Kiya's head. "Let's continue!"