Chapter 61#

Gears of Fate 03#

At the end of the suspension bridge, behind the gate of the inner fortress, was a dim tunnel lit by several yellow gas lamps. The gas lamps pierced through the fog to illuminate a gargantuan object in the tunnel—something that looked like a train, its entire body made of brass-colored and red metal. The locomotive was cylindrical, with an exquisite griffin relief at the very front, and even the chimney was carved with a lifelike copper snake.

The broadcast continued: “New students, please board the school bus in an orderly manner to tour the academy. Tip: please buckle up your safety latches~”

Anfield walked at the very front. When Yu Feichen entered the carriage, he saw that he had already sat down in the middle row by the window. This train was very long, with a large distance between the front and back seats, but the body was narrow, with only two seats per row: the left side by the window and the right side by the aisle.

He sat down in the same row as Anfield. Bai Song was dumbfounded, realizing he had been completely abandoned just like that. So he sat in the row behind, next to Brother Chen Tong. The interior of the train was elegantly and exquisitely decorated, with seats even having deep red velvet cushions and pillows. Chen Tong clicked his tongue in admiration, touching the cushions while also reaching for the tassels on the ceiling.

Yu Feichen said briefly: “Pay attention to the safety latch.”

Speaking, he pulled out a bar that looked like a fixing device from the right side of the seat. The lower end of the metal bar was connected to a mechanical winch. After pushing the bar toward himself to a certain extent, the winch made a “click” sound, the bar was fixed, and his entire person was firmly locked at the waist to the seat.

At the same time, Anfield on the right also fastened his latch. Then others fastened theirs one after another. When the last “click” sound rang out, a metal part inside the train body fell with a “clang,” and then the train body started to move. This feeling of moving was not the smooth starting sensation of a regular car or train, but rather that countless large and small parts inside began to operate simultaneously. The movement of every part sounded clearly in the carriage; their rhythms were not synchronized with each other, but each had its own individual pattern. This could only make Yu Feichen think of one thing—gears, a gargantuan amount of gears.

Chen Tong: “Damn, it feels like this car is about to fall apart.”

The mechanical engineering university student in the last row said: “This train isn’t purely pieced together with metal structures like a wall, is it? Why does the sound seem so off?”

As the words fell, the train suddenly let out a long whistle. In the next moment, the seat backs slammed into them, and the train rushed forward at an almost insane speed!

“Holy sh*t—” Chen Tong shouted.

A bad premonition arose in Yu Feichen’s heart, and he adjusted his breathing slightly. Seeing Anfield’s calm profile out of the corner of his eye, he said in a cold, hard voice without much emotion: “Be careful.”

Anfield gave an almost imperceptible nod.

In almost a blink of an eye, the train drove out of the dim tunnel. Strong but not dazzling light shone in, the field of vision ahead suddenly became broad and bright, and a complex, huge space rushed toward them!

The four walls of the huge fortress were full of unknown metal mechanical devices, and a giant gear occupied half of the entire ceiling. Old silver, brass, and deep ochre were the main colors of this place. The mechanical bodies were huge and cold-hard, with sharp edges, full of weight and power. Any single component falling down would be enough to crush a whole carload of people into meat paste. The huge machinery, far exceeding the human body, brought an almost savage intimidation, but on careful inspection, every detail was incredibly exquisite. Tens of thousands of gears and torques of different sizes operated without stopping, working with their respective driving mechanical patterns. The entire space was also interspersed with intricate metal tracks and conveyor belts.

Facing such a scene, almost everyone held their breath. But before they could come back to their senses, a girl’s scream suddenly rang out from the very front!

“Aaaaaah—!” Nini’s voice reached almost the limit of what the human ear could hear: “There’s no road ahead!”

A piercing sound of metal friction rang out, and the train body in front suddenly collapsed downward entirely! Before they could prepare, the collapse quickly affected the rear, and a sense of weightlessness struck Yu Feichen.

The car didn’t fall apart, and the people were fine, it’s just that the train took an almost ninety-degree downhill slope and rushed down.

They passed between two strangely shaped brass hanging arms, and the mechanical world suddenly magnified. However, before anyone could adapt to the downward rhythm, the train passed through a bunch of cold, gleaming mechanical axes and turned a three-hundred-and-sixty-degree vertical curve.

“Aaaaaaaaah—”

Screams from the front and back pierced their ears. Yu Feichen stretched his body, trying to make maximum contact with the seat and the floor. That bad premonition was right; this was no train at all, it was a complete roller coaster. An amusement park roller coaster at least ensures safety, but the metal train in this place—who knows what kind of ghost thing it is, and the only thing protecting the body was a bar no thicker than a pinky finger.

However, no matter how insane a fragment world is, it wouldn’t wipe out everyone as soon as they entered. Therefore, to him, no matter how thrilling the roller coaster was, it was about the same as playing house. Weightlessness and centrifugal training were, after all, introductory courses at the air force academy.

The train continued to advance, weaving back and forth through this metal labyrinth. Blood surged in his heart and head. A second before a plane crash, the world is also upside down and chaotic like this. The familiar scene evoked past memories again.

Carrier-based aircraft were two-seaters, meaning two control positions. Usually, the main seat was responsible for real-time piloting and combat operations, while the co-pilot performed target identification and information communication. He was in the main seat more often and had taken many people in the co-pilot seat, including various officers on the mothership, but never that officer.

Because the officer was fussy and cherished his life, and he was prone to dizziness and afraid of the sun. He once pointed out thirty-three errors in the video replays of Six and Eight, which for a time became a legend on the ship. The template for pilots to talk tough to each other during that period was “Send your operation video to the officer.” But pointing out errors is one thing, and getting on a plane is another. If this person were to get on a plane once, he would surely go up fine and come out with a pale face.

Only once, when an emergency necessitated evacuation, even a porcelain person who would break at a touch had to get on a plane with them. Moreover, someone who could point out thirty-three errors for an ace pilot was inherently incredibly strong.

Actually, that day the officer followed him of his own accord. Goggles were even worn properly, but when it came time to take off, he pushed the person to Four. No other reason than that Four’s talent points were skewed, and his style was exceptionally steady, able to fly a fighter jet like an aerial subway.

The officer gave him one last look before entering Four’s cockpit. That day his co-pilot seat took no one; he switched to single-seat mode to complete all tasks alone. He could handle it; there were no problems with the operation, and his on-the-spot reactions were good. Taking no one else, just his one life; if he crashed, he’d crash calmly. There’s never a shortage in the world of people who sacrifice themselves to guide and cover their teammates. Anyone would have done the same that day; it wasn’t very original. It’s just that looking back on the past several times, because Four’s plane had an extra officer who liked to make things difficult for him, he felt that this glorious deed of sacrificing himself for him wasn’t too lost among the crowd.

Just a second before crashing into the seawater, he even thought that such a perfect flight—it was a pity that porcelain person wasn’t in the co-pilot seat. The expression of wanting to find faults but being unable to would surely have been very funny.

It’s just that memory is something that doesn’t stand up to scrutiny; the more it’s replayed, the more it fades. When the tear mole first appeared, it was as soul-shaking as flowing seawater, but recalling it again, he wasn’t so immersed in it. After Yu Feichen reviewed his naive moments from his early twenties, he easily withdrew. In reality, the roller coaster was still rushing about in the fortress like it was having a fit. The rust and gleam of metal sometimes magnified and sometimes disappeared, like the shimmering light on seawater.

He was unmoved, just looking calmly at Anfield on the right. He didn’t know if the Blood Salt Heart could cure face blindness, but he really couldn’t distinguish what the difference was between this young face in front of him, besides being younger, and the officer, Anfield, and Ludwig. Since the tear mole was there, he’d treat it as that same face.

So he returned to that original ocean again, back to those few seconds before death—only this time the co-pilot seat was no longer empty.

The process of crashing lasted for a long time. He felt Anfield silently accompanying him time and again from the peak to the bottom of the valley, until after one last crazy flip, his surroundings finally returned to steady.

End. That Seven from back then was naive to the extreme, but that blue sea was the only place he had truly lived seriously. Now that he had seriously completed the wish of ‘placing the officer in the co-pilot seat,’ it could be considered to have a beginning and an end.

And thus, the slate was wiped clean.

The train stopped. He unbuckled the latch, stood up, and walked toward the car door. He felt that everything that happened today was quite ritualistic and could serve as a complete farewell to a period of time. From then on, there would be no Seven and no officer in the world, and he and Anfield were just temporary teammates meeting occasionally.

But at the moment he was about to leave, he still wanted to take a look at that tear mole that haunted him and Anfield like a nightmare.

—So he turned around.

Anfield, who had just stood up, fell into his chest like that, his blonde hair spreading out in disarray. His slender right fingers weakly gripped his arm, his forehead pressed against his chest, panting rapidly one breath after another.

Yu Feichen tilted up his face and saw that it was deathly pale, his pupils slightly dilated.

The porcelain person had shown his nature again. His ritual ended abruptly just as it was about to reach its conclusion, which made Yu Feichen slightly irritable. If this person had known earlier that there would be a time when he would need help, would he have been so quick to walk away in a huff just because of a small thing like his identity being pointed out?

He reached out and roughly grabbed Anfield’s shoulder, leading the person forward.

The broadcast voice was as sweet as ever: “The academy tour is over. New students, please get off the bus in an orderly manner. Do not crowd.”

Chen Tong was panting and cursing as he unbuckled the safety latch, leaning against the car window and patting his chest to catch his breath: “He… holy sht… what kind of tour is this? This is playing us. This roller coaster is fcking ridiculous. My heart has been puked out, damn, go to hell…”

Ling Wei’s voice from behind was slightly weak, but the articulation was still clear: “Fellow Daoist, please refrain from foul language.”

Chen Tong: “Hui yan? What salt?”

On another side: “Mutter-mutter—&—mutter-mutter#——#*@”

It seems that even the same language can have a gulf of understanding like a foreign language.

The extra-long, extra-curved roller coaster with giant mechanical intimidation version finally ended. The group stumbled off the car, and curses rose and fell. It just so happened that there were several buckets in the corner of the wall. Several people began to dry heave into the buckets as soon as they got off the car.

Anfield seemed only dizzy, not too bad. Besides them, the only ones who could remain upright were Vincent, Lilia who was copying spells, and the Daoist Ling Wei.

Lilia scratched her hair and looked at her squirming teammates, saying: “Haven’t you guys… ever ridden a dragon?”

Ling Wei leaned over and patted Bai Song’s back. Bai Song’s gaze was stiff. He said: “Small Daoist priest, don’t tell me you often fly on swords.”

Ling Wei nodded: “What fellow Daoist says is correct.”

Bai Song: “…”

Just then, the death-inducing broadcast rang out again: “Welcome new students to officially enroll in Alice Academy of Magic. Next, please enter Classroom 1 to start the trial course. Tip: the trial course is an extra-simple transmission course~”

Chen Tong raised his fist and wanted to smash it onto the speaker but was held by the wrist by Vincent.

Vincent: “The school rules said, do not damage public property.”

Chen Tong: “Didn’t you violate school rules when you were in school?”

Vincent: “No.”

“Forget it,” Chen Tong said despondently, “Other people’s territory, I’d better be obedient. Let’s go, enter the classroom.”

The broadcast said they were to enter Classroom 1 now. Where was Classroom 1? The group looked around and saw the train stopped on a hollowed-out corridor. On the left side of the corridor, several ten-meter-high brass beast-head gates were arranged in sequence. On the lion-head gate closest to them, a character “I” was carved in script. On the gates slightly further away, “II” and “III” were carved respectively. It seemed the closest one was undoubtedly Classroom 1.

There was no handle on the door, nor any door-opening device. But when they stood on the metal floor at the doorway, their weight made that piece of floor sink a bit. Immediately, a mechanical click sounded, and the sound of gears meshing rang out as the gate opened.

The space inside the door was huge, also an environment where old silver and brass intertwined. Sheet metal of different colors was spliced in geometric shapes and then fixed to the walls with rivets. Some places were rusty, and in the ancient mystery, it also revealed the coldness unique to machinery. Mountains of parts were piled in the classroom, and there were also a dozen metal large workbenches in the center. Tools and a drawing manual were placed on each workbench. These seemed to be their “desks.”

However, in this so-called “Classroom 1,” there was no podium, nor the existence of anything suspected to be a teacher.

Yu Feichen let Anfield lean against the workbench and flipped through the drawings himself.

The female painter Ke An, who had just recovered, murmured: “Dilapidated yet precise, huge yet limited, everything is in the style of the steam era… so, transmission course?”

“Transmission, it’s just mechanical transmission!” Xue Xin said: “You just mentioned the steam era, and we happened to have a similar class this semester. In the steam era, electricity hadn’t been put into large-scale use yet. The power for industry was provided by steam engines. Steam pushes pistons, and the pistons are connected to gears, chains, torques, and such. When the piston moves, this series of machinery moves. This process is transmission.”

He was full of confidence as he explained the class. Ke An nodded thoughtfully: “It seems the content of this class is to teach us the so-called principle of ’transmission.’ How do we attend class? Wait for the teacher?”

Chen Tong said: “Wait for the school bell. There’s a clock over there.”

In the very front of the classroom, a mechanical watch indeed hung, but there was only one pointer. At this time, the pointer was about to point to the very top, the usual twelve o’clock position.

Sure enough, when the pointer pointed straight to the top, the broadcast spoke.

“Dear new students, the trial course—Transmission Course—officially begins~

Course goal: According to the design drawings, skillfully manufacture a simple end device for a transmission machine. Everyone needs to make one~

Class end time: The next time the hour hand is perpendicular to the ground~

The teaching is finished. New students, please complete your learning tasks seriously~”

Everyone: “???”

Chen Tong uttered foul language again: “Is this f*cking teaching finished??? I want to report this school!”

The word “report” slightly touched Yu Feichen’s nerves. He instinctively arranged the next step for his teammates: “Look at the drawings.”

“Damn it, do you think I haven’t fixed a light bulb—” Chen Tong flipped open the drawing manual, which was half a finger thick, flipped to a random page, was stunned for a moment, and blurted out: “This complex?”

He scratched his head, thought seriously for a while, and said: “Does it mean each of us has to choose a piece of machinery from these drawings and then use the parts over there to make it?”

“No.” Yu Feichen finished reading the last page, closed the entire manual, flicked it toward him, and said: “This is the drawing for one piece of machinery.”

Angry muttering rang out: “Mutter-mutter—###@@@!”

—It was worth celebrating that this brother had finally been able to understand a bit of human speech by now.