Chapter 1851: Chapter 1851

"Does this mean I can proceed to the next floor?"

Jenkins asked, setting down the paper covered in mechanical diagrams. The rıghtful source is novel✶fire.net

The girl stared at the paper on the table, frozen for a few seconds as if she had malfunctioned, before floating back down to her seat and nodding.

"Since you have perceived wisdom, you may continue upward. You are a talented person. Perhaps, like me, you can be enlightened by the Great Wisdom and witness the true fruits of its genius."

"Yes. Although you come from a benighted organization like the Orthodox Church, your talent has not been diminished. Continue on. I believe you are worthy of reaching the attic at the very top. I will bless you. May you be as eternal as the machine."

Jenkins nodded and stood, ready to head upstairs, but then he turned back to the girl.

"I will set you free."

"You wouldn't understand, not as you are now."

And so he arrived on the third floor of the apartment. His missing companions were nowhere to be found here either; only thick, heavy steam pipes crisscrossing the room—above, below, and on all sides.

The original purpose of the third floor was impossible to tell. It was now filled with scorching white steam, but the vapor remained confined to this level, having no effect on the floor below.

"The first floor was the father, the second was the daughter, so the third floor must be..."

He looked up at the figure behind the white veil of steam. Even with his monocle, he still couldn't make out its full form hidden in the vapor.

He didn't speak, observing the figure carefully instead. As expected, all three members of the original family had died here. The woman behind the steam had likely also been transformed into some desecrated corpse.

"My husband was a brilliant engineer at a machinery factory."

A somewhat muffled voice reached his ears, and Jenkins understood that the characteristics of this floor's arcane lock were beginning to manifest.

"My daughter was an exceptionally talented child."

The dark shadow behind the white mist began to move, not toward Jenkins, but circling along the walls.

"They would often talk about mechanical things, but I, an ordinary housewife who could only recognize simple words, never understood what they were saying."

"It's alright if you didn't understand. I can't figure out what every member of my own household is saying either."

He was referring to his cat, but his words didn't make the figure pause.

"When no one was paying attention, I would come up to the third floor to look at the books I'd brought from the study. They were fascinating, but I couldn't understand them. Then one day, my husband came into contact with that great and wise being, and that gave me the chance to enlighten myself."

The husband on the first floor was a being like a malevolent spirit. The daughter on the second floor had retained her physical form but was severely mechanized. Based on Jenkins's observations, the housewife on the third floor seemed to have lost her form entirely, becoming a cloud of black mist. That must be why he couldn't see her shape through the steam.

"That great wisdom..."

The woman sighed, and the entire cloud of white steam on the third floor rose and fell with her voice. As the mist billowed, the crisscrossing steam pipes lying quietly in the room became clearer. The pipes, varying in length and thickness, connected with one another, forming an aesthetically pleasing pattern on the floor.

"Stranger, since you were able to come to the third floor, you must have earned the approval of my husband and daughter. So, I would also like to give you a test. Please answer my question and prove your knowledge."

Jenkins nodded, signaling for her to begin.

"I have gained wisdom, but in seeing more, I have also developed more questions. Steam machinery is almost omnipotent in this era, and yet people still haven't found a suitable method for long-distance communication."

The corner of Jenkins's mouth twitched, but he said nothing.

"But I had an idea. Perhaps steam pipes could be used to transmit information. If we assume 'no steam' represents the digit 0 and 'steam' represents the digit 1, we could achieve simple numerical communication. And if we used specific combinations of 0s and 1s to create a cipher, we could achieve long-distance communication. What do you think?"

"It would be very inconvenient. Steam loses pressure as it travels, which would require frequent relay stations to manually pass on the on-off state of the steam. Furthermore, steam transmission is very slow. Even with the latest near-vacuum pipes made from special iron alloys, you couldn't achieve high-speed, low-loss steam transfer. So, while your idea has merit, it's not very feasible."

Jenkins critiqued earnestly. He had entertained a similar idea himself and even considered patenting it to make some money, but ultimately abandoned it for the very reasons he'd just mentioned.

"My question isn't about practicality, but about the design of the cipher. Perhaps you could advise me on how to effectively transmit information other than just numbers using steam."

The wisp of black shadow continued to drift within the misty steam, its voice seeming to come from all directions.

Jenkins put his hand in his pocket, touching the small vial inside, and answered almost without thinking.

"That's simple enough. If you're not concerned with practicality and only with the cipher, why not use more states of steam to convey meaning? The on-off state can be one variable, but so can steam pressure, and even steam composition. With so many variables, you could create enough combinations to correspond to every letter of the alphabet. Transmitting steam would be transmitting a state, and transmitting a state would be transmitting a letter. Wouldn't that be more efficient than your system of 0s and 1s?"

Of course, the practicality was even lower. With the current level of steam technology, it would be nearly impossible to implement.

In truth, a better answer would have been to explain binary and simple machine language. But Jenkins didn't know what was manipulating this arcane lock from behind the scenes, and he didn't want to reveal knowledge from another world to these beings.

"Are you satisfied with my answer?"

When the black shadow offered no comment, Jenkins prompted it.

"You are indeed a very talented person. You are worthy to continue."

A sound came from the ceiling. A trapdoor connected by hinges, with a staircase attached, slowly descended from above and settled onto the third-floor landing.

"Proceed. In the attic, you will face the honor you deserve."

Jenkins shook his head.

"But before I go on, may I see you? I have great admiration for a progressive woman like you, one who thirsts for knowledge. Before I proceed, would I have the honor of seeing what you look like?"