The Harut Heavy Industries' office building in Winter City has 15 floors. The dark exterior walls and red stripes give people an unusually solemn feeling. Outside the building, mercenaries patrol in war machines, and guards at the entrances and exits carefully check everyone's ID and belongings.

After the war broke out, the spies of the Golden Shield Empire were indeed very active in Winter Capital, causing those bigwigs to be somewhat paranoid and afraid of being assassinated accidentally.

Luke took a taxi to Harut Heavy Industries. After paying the fare, he walked calmly on the snow up the steps of the building. His ID and employment letter were fine, and he had no contraband on him. The guard saluted him respectfully and said, "Mr. Luke, welcome to Harut Heavy Industries! You can take the elevator to the 9th floor, where there will be someone to greet you. I wish you a happy work and life in Winter City!"

"Thank you..." Luke held the brim of his hat and nodded slightly in return, then strode into the lobby of the office building.

There is a vertical shaft leading up to the roof of the building. In the middle of the shaft stands a steam pipe that is so wide that two people can only hold it together. Each floor has a branch line connected to the main pipe. The entire steam transmission system not only heats the entire building, but also provides power for the stair defense system and laboratories located in various places.

Standing in the middle of the hall, Luke couldn't help but admire Art County Union's uniqueness in the field of steam. This large-scale and efficient use of steam is something that Raging Waves City can't do. If Dongdu is not an inland city and is located at a high latitude, Raging Waves City has no ability to compete with Dongdu in the industrial field.

The bad environment and climate are the inherent shortcomings of Art County Union. The control of heavy industrial capital has caused Art County Union to invest very little in the low-efficiency light industry. This has led to a huge gap in the living standards of the rich and the poor in Art County Union. Mina's family cannot afford gloves because gloves are very expensive here.

For various reasons, the Art County Alliance was determined to obtain the land in the south. The social contradictions were becoming increasingly difficult to resolve, and they could only use war to vent their internal pressure.

Luke quickly dismissed his divergent thoughts. He did not come to Dongdu to do social research. He had to report and go to work quickly!

I squeezed into a cage elevator with other white-collar workers, and when I reached the 9th floor, I saw the steam engineer's office area.

Luke showed his ID and employment letter at the front desk and met his supervisor. After a brief Q&A session, Luke successfully received his work permit at Harut Heavy Industries, a blue jacket, and a steam pipe inspection form.

The supervisor was a very serious middle-aged woman. After completing all the formalities, she said to Luke, "You came just in time! The war against the Golden Shield Empire has greatly increased the company's production orders, and the warships being built require a lot of steel.

In order to increase production, the steam pressure has been increased beyond the orange danger value. The frequency of steam pipeline failures has increased a lot, and many professional steam engineers are needed to inspect and repair the pipelines.

You don't have time to adapt to the new working environment. Everyone here has been assigned to inspect pipelines. Take the map given to you and walk through the lines that need to be inspected today. Don't miss any potential fault points. "

"Okay..." Luke recalled the name of his supervisor: "Mrs. Yolanda, I will go check the steam pipeline line now."

Yolanda is very satisfied with the new employee. Not all new employees are willing to go underground to check the steam lines on their first day of work.

She reminded Luke: "You are only responsible for checking for hidden dangers. Just fill out the form carefully and bring it back. Don't give a clear response to any questions raised by anyone, and don't make any suggestions for pipeline maintenance to the company's factories privately.

The one responsible for protecting you is Ruskin Norton's team from the company's security department. Norton is a very experienced team leader. If you encounter any trouble, let him handle it. You just need to do your part."

Luke patted the form book in his hand and said with a smile: "Don't worry, Mrs. Yolanda, I'm not a nosy person."

"Work hard and you will be paid very well."

"Goodbye, Mrs. Yolanda."

Luke left the steam engineer's office area and took the elevator underground. In the security area of ​​Harut Heavy Industries, he found the Norton team responsible for protecting him as he entered the underground steam city.

There are four people in Norton's team.

Captain Norton was an ordinary-looking middle-aged man, wearing a canvas jacket, a uniform of the security team, with holsters on both sides of his waist, and two long-barreled revolvers in the holsters. He wore a wide-brimmed hat on his head and a cigarette in his mouth, looking very much like a western cowboy.

Team member A Mao is a snowman with white hair all over his body. His body is like a strong polar bear standing up. Snowmen are the natives of the North, and their traces are all over the perennial ice and snow areas. As the Art County Union expanded its territory to the polar regions, the snowmen naturally became citizens of the Art County Union.

Snowmen have natural ice and snow skills. When encountering a steam leak, their ice and snow skills can quickly cool down the leak area, allowing maintenance personnel to safely perform emergency repairs on the pipeline.

At the same time, the snowman has great strength and endurance, and can carry more equipment and supplies for the team. When trapped underground due to an accident, the chance of survival will be much greater if there is a snowman in the team.

The snowman didn't know the universal language. After Luke introduced Amao, Norton said, "I can tell you what you want Amao to do. Don't get too close to him. He doesn't like strangers.

This is Harry, the team's vanguard, a very good thief. There are many dangers in the underground, and he can help us prevent most crises."

Luke extended his hand enthusiastically to the thief: "Hello, Harry, I'm Luke, the new steam engineer."

Harry was short and thin, and because of his job, his back was hunched forward. Facing Luke's outstretched hand, Harry was obviously stunned, and was happy at first, but then became inferior.

"Thank you for the respect you give me, but I am a despised thief and not worthy of shaking hands with a distinguished steam engineer like you."

Before Luke could say anything, his hand was held by a woman.

"You are an interesting person. Unlike other steam engineers, you look down on us hardworking laborers. My name is Rebecca, your last line of defense."

Rebecca has a strikingly fit body. Her muscles are not the kind you get from working out in the gym and adding protein powder, but the smooth lines of a long-distance runner. She tied her security uniform jacket around her waist and wore only a tight T-shirt. Over the T-shirt was a pair of shoulder straps, and behind the shoulder straps was a two-handed knife in a scabbard.

The blade is as wide as a palm and the blade reaches below the hip.

Luke noticed that Rebecca's hair was very long, dark red, tied into a ponytail, with the ends of her hair as long as the blade.

A very distinctive woman.

Luke shook hands with Rebecca. “Before coming to Winter City, I had heard about the dangers of the underground steam city. Criminals, gangs, pipeline accidents, underground creatures, and mysterious energy mutations can take people’s lives at any time.

My safety is in your hands.”

The captain put a bullet belt on his shoulder, checked the gun again, and said to Luke: "Let's go, Mr. Luke. I see your inspection route... It's not an easy road to walk. Let's set off as soon as possible and hope to get back before night falls.

Harry, go get the railcar ready."

"Yes, Captain." Harry pushed the door open and left.

A Mao howled and carried a large supply box on his back.

Rebecca made way for Luke and said, "Please, Mr. Luke! I will be by your side during this journey, and Captain Norton will keep an eye on our backs."

"Let's go."

Luke carried the briefcase he was issued and walked out of the room.

After walking through a long corridor and down a spiral staircase, a group of people arrived at the rail station built on the ground floor of the building.

Harry had been assigned a section of railcar.

After everyone entered the carriage and sat down, the rail car slid along the tracks deep underground.

There is a large cave underground in Dongdu. With the development of steam production and heat transport, as well as mining and metallurgy, this cave gradually formed a settlement for underground workers. Later, the settlement became a town, and with the entry of a gray industry, the underground of Dongdu became a unique underground city.

Companies, factories, gangs, and people with special reputations control different areas of the city. In various competitions and compromises, a set of order without explicit legal provisions is tacitly followed by everyone living here.

Not crossing the line is the most basic rule.

The rail car slides down from the top of the cave along the spiral rails. The entire cave is the same as the surface day and night. During the day, the cave will emit red light to provide lighting for the city; at night, the red light will disappear, and the fluorescent moss on the cave wall will form a strange scenery.

Looking down at the underground Steam City from above.

The company's controlled area was well-organized, mostly consisting of tall buildings. Most of the people inside were well-dressed, and there were armed mercenaries patrolling and guarding.

The factory area serving the company is of a slightly lower tone, with both luxurious buildings and simple factory buildings.

Other places were in chaos, with messy houses like a maze and explosions occurring from time to time.

When the rail car was about to land, Luke saw a place where flames suddenly shot up into the sky, and the strong explosion sounded particularly loud in the cave. The members of Norton's team just glanced at the explosion area and continued to chat as if nothing had happened.

The rail car stopped at the station in the Harut Heavy Industry controlled area, and Norton applied for an off-road vehicle with the order letter for pipeline maintenance. Then Norton asked Harry to drive the five people out of the underground steam city and drove to the edge of the cave.

Luke took out the map he had received, compared it with the map on his phone, and made a plan for his next move.

The underground steam city is only a part of the underground system of Dongdu. Most of the steam pipes are installed in intricate underground passages. In addition to the mines dug by mining and the terrain changes caused by various landslides, the pipes have been built and modified again and again.

In addition to the steam pipes built by the company, there are also many pipes built openly or secretly by private individuals underground.

The complexity of the pipelines here is no less than that of India's circuit system.

Another thing that most people don't know is that this place is connected to hell. As Winter City exploits underground thermal energy, the power from hell is gradually infiltrating. The most direct change is... the underground steam pipelines have become mysterious, and the early steam pipelines have been transformed into mysterious props.

However, most of the early steam pipes have been decommissioned. What Luke needs to do now is to find the steam pipes needed according to the guide, and then process them into auxiliary words and mysterious energy arrays suitable for the language of esoteric magic.

This was a very time consuming job and also required someone with access to the underground steam lines.

So Luke applied to become a steam engineer at Harut Heavy Industries.

This maintenance line...

By comparing it with the cell phone's mystic array diagram, Luke found an early pipeline needed for the mystic. One section of the pipeline was out of service because it was buried, while the other section continued to transport steam after repairs, and it was a line with a high incidence of failures.

Then Luke noticed where this section of steam pipe ended.

"Captain Norton..." Luke showed Norton the map. He pointed to a mining area and asked, "This is the B36 mine. Was there a pipeline burst accident a few days ago?"

Luke never thought that he and Mina had such a connection. On the first day he arrived in Winter City, he hired Mina as his maid; his first job was to inspect the steam lines in the B36 mine where Mina's father worked.

Norton glanced at the map, shrugged and said, "Due to the increased workload caused by the war, all factories are operating at overload, and there are more steam pipeline accidents.

I don’t know if there have been any accidents in the B36 mine recently, but some of the pipes here are indeed very old, and it is very normal for accidents to occur.

Sir, this is your first day in Dongdu. How do you know that there was a steam pipe burst accident in the B36 mine?"

Luke did not hide anything about this matter: "I met a girl at the train station. Her father worked in the B36 mine. He broke his leg in a steam pipe accident a few days ago.

Now their family has no source of income. I took pity on her and hired her as a servant while I lived in Dongdu... She was such a poor child."

Norton did not feel any sympathy for Luke's description. He warned Luke: "I believe Mrs. Yolanda has already warned you not to get involved in matters outside of your duties. The mine owners underground are not easy to mess with. Offending them will bring you a lot of trouble."

Rebecca, who was sitting next to Luke, also said, "Captain Norton is right. The factory owners and mine owners underground are the incarnation of vampires and demons. If you offend them, you may disappear inexplicably.

We can’t protect you.”

Luke laughed and said, "Don't worry, I won't cause any trouble for you."