"That's it, can I keep going up?"
Jenkins asked as he put down the paper covered in mechanical structures.
The girl looked at the paper on the table, and stood still for a few seconds as if the machine was dead, before returning to her seat from the air and nodding:
"Since you have seen the wisdom, you can continue to move forward. You are a gifted person, and maybe, like me, you can be inspired by great wisdom and witness the crystallization of true wisdom."
"Great wisdom?"
Jenkins repeated.
"Yes, although you were born in such an ignorant organization as the Orthodox Church, your talent has not been diminished. Go on, I think, you are qualified to reach the attic on the top floor, I will bless you, may you be as eternal as a machine .”
Jenkins nodded and got up to go upstairs, but turned to the girl and said:
"I will set you free."
"I do not understand."
"You really don't understand now."
In this way, I came to the third floor of the apartment, and there were no disappearing companions here, only thick steam pipes spread all over the room.
The original purpose of the third floor is unknown, but now it is filled with white scorching steam, but these steam only linger on the third floor and have no effect on the downstairs.
"The first floor is the father of the family, the second floor is the daughter, so the third floor is..."
He looked up at the figure behind the white steam mist. Even though he was wearing a monocle, he couldn't see the whole picture hidden behind the steam.
He didn't speak, but observed the other party carefully. Not surprisingly, the original family of three had all died here, and the woman after the steam had probably turned into a desecrated corpse.
"My husband is a very good machine shop engineer."
Some indistinct sounds came to his ears, and Jenkins understood that the mystical characteristics of this layer had begun to appear.
"My daughter is a very gifted child."
The black shadow behind the white fog began to move, not approaching Jenkins, but circling around the wall.
"They would often talk about machinery, and I, an ordinary housewife who knew simple words, could never understand what they were talking about."
"It's okay if you don't understand, and I don't understand what every member of the family is saying."
He was referring to his cat, but the other party didn't stop because of this sentence:
"I would check the books I brought out from the study on the third floor when no one was looking. It was interesting, but I couldn't read it. Until one day, my husband came into contact with the great wise man, It also gave me the opportunity to inspire myself.”
The husband on the first floor is a ghost-like existence, and the daughter on the second floor retains the entity, but the phenomenon of mechanization is serious. According to Jenkins' observation, the housewife on the third floor seemed to have lost her shape and turned into a cloud of black mist, so he couldn't see her appearance through the steam.
"That great wisdom~"
The woman sighed, and the steam white mist on the entire third floor rose and fell with the sound. As the white mist rose, the criss-crossing steam pipes lying quietly in the room also became clear. The pipes are of different lengths and thicknesses and connect to each other, forming a beautiful picture on the floor.
"Stranger, since you can go up to the third floor, you must have been approved by my husband and daughter. Then, I also want to give you a test. Please answer my questions and prove your knowledge."
Jenkins nodded, indicating that she could begin.
"I gained wisdom, and because I saw more, I had more doubts. Steam machinery is almost omnipotent in this era, but people still haven't found a suitable long-distance communication method."
The corner of Jenkins' mouth moved, but he didn't speak.
"But I have an idea, maybe we can use steam pipes to transmit information. Assuming that there is no steam, it is the number 0, and there is steam, it is the number 1, then simple digital communication can be realized. If a specific combination of 0 and 1 is used to form a codebook , remote communication can be achieved. What do you think?"
"It's very inconvenient. The transmission process of steam is lossy. It is necessary to frequently set up relay stations to transmit the switch status of steam manually. Moreover, the transmission speed of steam is very slow. Even the newly invented near-vacuum doped special iron alloy Pipelines can’t transmit steam at high speed and low consumption, so although your idea is valuable, it’s not very feasible.”
Jenkins commented very seriously that he had a similar idea and considered whether to apply for a patent to make a fortune, but finally gave up for the reasons mentioned above.
"My problem is not the practicality, but the design of the codebook. Maybe you can give me advice on how to use steam to effectively transmit information other than numbers."
That black shadow has been floating in the steam mist, and the sound seems to be coming from all directions.
Jenkins put his hand in his pocket and touched the small bottle, and replied almost without thinking:
"It's not easy. Since you don't consider practicality at all, and only consider the issue of passwords, why don't you use more steam states to express the meaning of numbers? The two states of steam can be expressed, the pressure of steam can be expressed, and even The composition of steam can also be expressed. Putting so many states together is enough to correspond to all the letters one by one, then passing steam is equivalent to passing the state, and passing the state is equivalent to passing letters. This is not more than what you said 0 and 1 Are the numbers more efficient?"
Of course, the practicability is also lower, and it is almost impossible to realize it with the current level of steam technology.
In fact, it is probably a better answer to talk about the binary language at this time, and then explain the simple mechanical language. But Jenkins didn't know what was manipulating the mythos behind this, and he didn't want to tell this group of knowledge from another world.
"Are you satisfied with my answer?"
Seeing that the shadow didn't comment, Jenkins took the initiative to ask.
"You are indeed a very talented person, and you are qualified to continue on."
There was a sound from the ceiling, and then, the hinged trapdoor and stairs slowly fell from above to the floor of the third floor:
"Go ahead, you will face your due honor in the attic."
Jenkins shook his head:
"But before I move on, can I have a look at you? I have great admiration for progressive women like you who are thirsty for knowledge. Do I have the honor to meet you before I move on?"