Sorcery Called Science

Li Wei finally saw signs of civilization—if this heap of junk could even be called civilization.

After passing through an abandoned tunnel choked with mutant fungi, the view ahead suddenly opened up.

This was a settlement located in a gigantic subterranean cavern.

Hundreds of rusted shipping containers were stacked like building blocks, hanging from massive load-bearing pillars.

Flickering neon tubes formed crude advertisements, and harsh heavy metal music mixed with the shouts of a market, echoing within the enclosed space.

The air was thick with the stench of roasted rat meat, cheap tobacco, and some kind of hallucinogenic gas.

Filthy and squalid though it was, to Li Wei at this moment, this place was paradise.

Because there was "order" here, even if it was an order built by gangs.

The entrance to the settlement was a checkpoint welded from armor plating, mounted with two heavy machine guns.

A few mohawked, heavily tattooed gang members were leaning against sandbags smoking.

Li Wei straightened his tattered clothes, trying his best to conceal the laser pistol at his waist.

He needed to get inside, find a doctor to treat his leg wound, and find a place to sleep.

He took a deep breath and walked over.

Halt. Before he even got close, a brutish guard raised the automatic rifle in his hand.

The guard didn't aim the muzzle at Li Wei's head, but instead took an involuntary step back with a distorted expression.

"Bad luck..." The guard spat. "What's that smell on you? Why does it feel like standing next to you makes me want to throw up the booze I drank last night?"

This was the passive skill of the Pariah: a built-in "repulsive" aura.

"I'm just passing through," Li Wei raised his hands to show he meant no harm. "I want to go in for supplies."

"Get lost." The guard unceremoniously racked the bolt, his eyes filled with inexplicable irritability. "You make me sick. Don't make me blow a hole in your head."

Several surrounding guards also closed in, wearing unfriendly expressions.

That unprovoked hostility fermented in the air.

Li Wei's heart sank.

He knew that if he pushed this any further, these people would really open fire—not for robbery, purely to make this "disgusting feeling" go away.

Just as Li Wei prepared to turn and leave to seek another way out—

"Damn it! It stopped again! Do you worthless trash even appease the Machine Spirit or not?!"

An angry roar came from inside the gate.

Followed by the sound of metal clanging and a commotion in the crowd.

Li Wei stopped in his tracks and looked through the wire mesh.

In the plaza behind the settlement gate, a large crowd was gathered.

At the center of the crowd was a huge, smoking machine.

It was an atmospheric circulation pump. In the underhive, this thing was life.

If it stopped, this area would soon be filled with toxic gas.

At this moment, the machine was making a sound like an asthma attack, its massive fan blades spinning as slow as a snail.

A fellow in an oil-stained red robe—judging by the looks of it, a low-level mechanic unqualified to study on Mars—was kneeling before the machine.

He waved a smoking censer in his hand, chanting under his breath, and rhythmically tapped the machine's casing with a small hammer.

"Great Omnissiah... please calm your wrath... your servant offers you holy oil..." The mechanic chanted while pouring a bottle of thick, black liquid over the sparking bearings.

Sizzle!

The black smoke billowed thicker, and the machine let out a dying groan before the fan stopped spinning entirely.

"It's over! The circulation pump is dead!"

"We're going to suffocate!"

"Kill this quack!" The surrounding residents began to panic, and some even drew knives.

The mechanic trembled all over, only chanting louder and kowtowing desperately.

Li Wei, standing outside the gate, watched in utter astonishment.

Although he didn't understand high-tech, as a modern person who had at least studied junior high school physics, he could see where the problem lay.

That wasn't any "Machine Spirit's wrath."

The belt was loose, and foreign objects were jammed in the bearing.

The so-called "holy oil" the mechanic poured in was too high in viscosity; not only did it fail to lubricate, but it completely choked the cooling vents.

Are these people idiots? Li Wei couldn't help muttering under his breath.

Yet he immediately realized this was an opportunity.

The only opportunity for him to get inside.

"Let me try!" Li Wei suddenly shouted, his voice sounding abrupt in the noisy doorway.

The guard was stunned, looking at him with the eyes of a lunatic. "You? You can appease the Machine Spirit?"

"I don't chant." Li Wei pointed at the smoking machine, his gaze firm. "But I can make it spin."

The guards looked at each other.

Normally, they would have beaten this annoying fellow to death by now.

But right now, if that machine really couldn't be fixed, everyone was finished.

"Let him in!" The mechanic—or rather, the red-robed charlatan—screamed like he was grasping a straw. "Let him try! If he can't fix it, it proves he blasphemed the Machine Spirit! Sacrifice him!"

The iron gate cracked open.

Li Wei limped inside.

The surrounding crowd automatically parted a path—partly out of anticipation, and partly because they didn't want to get close to Li Wei, this "jinx."

Li Wei walked up to the giant circulation pump.

Heat washed over him, mixed with the scorched stench of cheap lubricant.

The red-robed mechanic glared fiercely at him. "Mortal, do you know which prayer corresponds to the cooling system? Do you know the sequence of anointing?"

"Shut up," Li Wei said coldly.

He ignored the mechanic's rage and didn't drop to his knees to pray.

He walked straight around to the side of the machine.

Under everyone's horrified gaze, Li Wei did something extremely "blasphemous"—he reached out and directly ripped off the purity seals hanging over the cooling vents.

"These scraps of paper are blocking the intake, idiots."

"Blasphemy! That is sacred..." the mechanic screamed.

Li Wei ignored him. He picked up an iron rod from nearby, jammed it straight into a gap in the machine's casing, and pried viciously against the visibly warped tensioner pulley.

Creak!

A crisp sound of metal snapping back into place.

Immediately after, Li Wei stripped off his tattered jacket, wrapped it around his hands, plunged them into the scalding bearing housing, and pulled out a massive clump of rat carcass residue congealed with grease.

When he finished all this, he walked over to the control panel.

It was covered entirely in complex Gothic buttons.

Li Wei couldn't read them.

But he knew the ultimate repair method for all electronic equipment.

He raised his foot and kicked hard against the transformer box, which looked like the main power supply.

Physical reboot.

"Move, you pile of scrap metal!" Li Wei cursed.

The entire place fell dead silent.

Hundreds of eyes stared fixedly at the machine, and at the madman who had just "assaulted" the Machine Spirit.

The red-robed mechanic was already slumped on the ground, awaiting the machine's explosion or divine retribution.

One second.

Two seconds.

Hum----

A low roar sounded.

The huge fan blades shuddered, then began to rotate slowly.

The speed increased faster and faster, finally turning into a steady and powerful roar.

Fresh air gushed forth once again.

The machine was fixed.

No prayers, no incense, no holy oil.

Only clearing away trash, resetting parts, and a kick.

The crowd remained dead silent.

The way they looked at Li Wei had changed.

It was no longer just disgust, but a deep-seated fear.

In their worldview, only Archmagos or sorcerers wielding dark power could command the Machine Spirit so roughly.

In their eyes, Li Wei's actions just now weren't repairs; they were enslaving the Machine Spirit.

"It... it's spinning?" The red-robed mechanic crawled over in disbelief, checking the instrument panel. "Impossible... without an appeasement ritual... this violates dogma..."

Li Wei discarded his dirty jacket and wiped the grease from his face.

He turned around and looked at the guard leader who had blocked him earlier.

"Fixed." Li Wei pointed to his thigh. "Now, can you let me in to find a doctor? Or do you want to shut this thing back down?"

The guard leader swallowed hard, his gun-gripping palm slick with sweat.

He still found Li Wei disgusting and annoying.

Yet now, that annoyance was laced with a trace of awe.

"...Let him in." The guard leader waved a hand, his voice dry. "Don't mess with him. This guy's got wicked mojo on him."

Li Wei sneered, dragging his injured leg as he walked into the neon-lit underground city amidst gazes that avoided him like a plague god.