Beating Instances through Words Left by the Dead

The guy whose head was blown off by Wu Chang is certainly dead, but the guy knocked out by the Killing Intent Fluctuation still has a breath left in him.

Wu Chang first found Erin, asking her to heal the target’s whole body fractures, then he found Divine Tongue, who concocted a cup of all-natural Truth Serum.

The skill of Divine Tongue can even resist the overwhelming stench with the Power of Root, prying open the mouth of a Plane native is hardly challenging.

Soon, Wu Chang and the others knew that the two Black Robes appearing in the steam explosive production workshop, the one alive was named Lewis, the one with the explosive head was named Gneral, both were Quasi-Members of the Steam Council.

Besides this, both men had public identities.

Gneral was an industrialist, the Gneral Chemical Factory was his enterprise, while Lewis was a professor at Grimlan University.

Neither were early members of the Steam Council, both joined during its reconstruction after an earlier demolition by Raventon.

According to Lewis, the Steam Council’s management is very cautious, new members must go through a three-year assessment period to become true Steam Councilors and qualify for Extraordinary Transformation.

Within the organization, members communicate in one direction, members do not know each other, ensuring safety, even during gatherings, they wear Black Robes and masks the entire time.

He knew Gneral because they had completed a task together, thus becoming acquainted.

Just as Wu Chang speculated, the overwhelming stench this time was a sudden event, Lewis and Gneral learned of the plan last minute from their contact, a Steam Councilor named Xavier.

Not only this time, all previous actions, including gatherings, tasks, research needs, were conveyed by Xavier to them.

Wu Chang felt this name Xavier was somewhat familiar; if he remembered correctly, the Black Robe who wiped out the Philip Baron’s family was named Xavier.

From Philip Baron’s resentment, it could be seen Xavier and Philip were familiar with each other, unsurprisingly, Philip’s contact was Xavier.

Xavier, responsible for contacting multiple peripheral members, dispatching tasks, and finally even destroying evidence, seems rather busy.

Afterward, Wu Chang and the others asked Lewis some more questions, discovering Lewis was indeed a peripheral member, peripheral to the point of being like a temp worker.

They did not even know the real objectives of the Steam Council, nor knew the overwhelming stench they created was a major event affecting the entirety of Grimland.

Confirming no further value from Lewis, Wu Chang threw him to the Players as a hidden reward task, letting them try extracting more clues.

The night passed quickly.

The Steam Council did not immediately proceed with the next step after their big move, but temporarily lay low, continuing to prepare for the next action.

However, forces outside the Steam Council in Grimland mobilized due to their actions.

The first issue to address was those who died due to the overwhelming stench.

According to incomplete statistics, the death toll from the overwhelming stench last night exceeded fifty thousand.

The overwhelming stench was an indiscriminate attack, initially resulting from a man-made tragedy, but the issue is, the stench itself isn’t lethal; to physically healthy ordinary people, it only causes weakness, and they can recover quickly after it dissipates.

But for those already afflicted with serious or chronic diseases, the consequences of the stench are severe.

At worst, like Hansen from John Shipyard, the symptoms drastically increased, and recovery would take months; at worst, death ensues immediately.

The "coincidence" is, Grimland’s middle class and the wealthy were mostly healthy, sleeping off the stench and waking energetic, complaining about small factories and workers lacking public morals, overly polluting Hills River.

Those who died in the overwhelming stench were 99% lower-tier workers, homeless people, and orphans.

This reality incited significant dissatisfaction among the grassroots populace.

Especially the day after the stench occurred, Connor and Nestor returned to Bright Lamp Report and, using information from Wu Chang, wrote a piece revealing the stench’s source as actual pollution from chemical factories.

A large quantity of chemically-laden sewage was discharged directly into Hills River, causing water pollution that affected the entire city.

The news piece concludes, pointing out the current poor health and living conditions of workers stem from the greed of factory owners.

Workers must stand up and fight for their interests; they cannot continue being manipulated.

Otherwise, when the next overwhelming stench strikes, more will forever sleep in an unnamed night, never to wake.

During breakfast, Wu Chang and Raventon read the new issue of Bright Lamp Report, initially thinking the greatest reaction would come from workers, potentially sparking a fresh wave of strikes.

But by afternoon, they realized it was not workers truly wielding this report like a sword, but land nobles of the Upper House and Conservative Party.

A Conservative Party junior quoted Bright Lamp Report’s article in Hills Newspaper and Daily News, writing an essay.

He used the stench incident as a point of departure, alongside the prior Pine Tree Coal Mine explosion case and Sloan Textile Factory incident, to express a central thought: unchecked, reckless industry not only doesn’t bring a bright future, it is destroying Stilan.

Industrial progress should be a pathway for advancement, not a harbinger of calamity; rigorous control over industry is essential.

This includes industrial manufacturing, environmental pollution, and worker welfare and living conditions.

Industry must develop under strict supervision to benefit the Empire, effectively curbing factory owners’ greed.

For this, he urged the Stilan Government to set up a new department to oversee industrial regulation.

The best candidate for leading this department is the Conservative Faction, recently aligned to abolish the Corn Laws and whose interests diverge from the factory owners.