The Rampaging Boiler
Albibak Peluah outskirts, behind the Rene River factory.
With Valerius's capital bombardment cutting off our factory's lifeline, we had no luxury to build a new ship from the keel up.
"Chop off all those damn masts! Clear the deck completely!"
Aila had scraped together a massive sum and bought up an entire dilapidated galleon from Peluah harbor, hauling it to the riverbank. Dozens of carpenters swarmed it with axes and saws, demolishing the once-ornate superstructures and masts.
"Damn it, no one said it'd be this brutal—how about some beer, boss?"
"Succeed, and I'll give you gallons of it. Enough to fill that monster ship!"
"You're one hell of a guy!!"
Gazing up at the skeletal, grotesque hull, Aila swallowed dryly. She'd just finished securing funds, her eyes hollow with exhaustion.
"You really think this sail-less barge can punch through Valerius's trade routes? And what's with those massive waterwheels on the sides?"
"Of course."
I wiped the grease from my hands on a rag and grinned. Ultimately, it needed to become a modern ship with a diesel engine—or at least an ironclad with a steel hull. But for now...
Attaching a steam engine to a galleon is enough.
We didn't have the funds for more. As money piled up over time, we could upgrade and evolve it then.
"A modern screw propeller shaft running underwater would be ideal, but that requires advanced shaft sealing to prevent leaks around the hull penetration. Way beyond this world's tech level right now."
"So that's why you slapped those ridiculously huge paddlewheels on the sides?"
"Spot on. Sidewheel steamer design. Steam from my pitch-black boiler slams the pistons, the crankshaft converts that linear motion to rotation, and spins the sidewheels. Classic, intuitive stuff."
"I... have no idea what that means."
"Hahaha, no worries. You'll get it the moment you see it in action."
"But no sails? No rowers? For real?"
We didn't need wind-catching sails or benches for oarsmen. The real monster heart powering this ship was being forged not out there, but raging fiercely inside my workshop behind me.
"Follow me. I'll show you the real heart we're transplanting into that empty shell."
I led Aila into the workshop. There, amid roaring crimson flames, dozens of dwarf blacksmiths and Peluah's finest artisans sweated rivers as they hammered out a colossal cylindrical boiler over ten meters long, now settled in place. Thick pistons and crankshafts intertwined like a giant's muscles in that bizarre iron behemoth. Aila gasped.
"Test it standalone before loading it on the ship. Light the firebox! Boil the water!"
WHOOSH!
At my signal, premium coal poured into the firebox, igniting in a ferocious blaze. Soon, the massive tank inside the boiler began to seethe. I climbed into the temporary control seat, eyes locked on the pressure gauge needle I'd precision-machined myself.
"Watch closely, Aila. When the boiling water's explosive force pushes the piston..."
Clank. Clank. Clatter-clatter!
Before I finished, the pressure gauge needle—supposed to rise gradually—went berserk, spiking straight to the redline.
"What...?"
Something was wrong. This exceeded my thermodynamics calculations as Kang Woojin—the coal's heat output and water vaporization rate by a mile. Explosive reaction.
Rumble-rumble!
The boiler barrel beneath my feet pulsed like a beast's heartbeat, shaking violently. The whole control seat quaked like an earthquake.
Calculations off! No—it's different!
Cold sweat drenched my spine. This wasn't Earth; physics didn't match perfectly.
Mana interference?
The only variable: ambient mana meddling. Coal mined in this fantasy world held anomalous heat, and the boiling river water's steam pressure bloated my modern formulas by dozens of times!
"Acting boss! The needle! It's past the red line!"
The dwarf foreman screamed in panic.
"This is insane!"
I lunged for the main valve, twisting desperately. Had to vent excess steam through the exhaust to drop the pressure.
But—
SCREEEEECH!
A chilling friction screech. The valve wouldn't budge. Overheated metal had warped and seized.
"It won't turn! Damn it, the valve's stuck!"
That instant—
CRACK-CRUNCH!
A horrifying rupture echoed like a glacier splitting, shaking the entire workshop.
"A-Acting boss! The boiler shell! The iron plates are tearing!"
Aila shrieked.
The sight before me was hellish. Two-inch wrought iron plates hammered by Peluah's top dwarf smiths. But medieval iron, impure without modern alloys, couldn't withstand the savage high-pressure steam. Weak plates ballooned like taffy, riveted seams popping with sharp pings!
HISSSSS!
Leather and animal-grease packing sealing the seams melted, spewing hundreds-of-degrees steam like razor blades.
"Evacuate! It's gonna blow! Get down!"
I bellowed, clinging to the control seat. Fail to kill the fire or vent, and this house-sized boiler would shred the workshop, Aila, and me into oblivion with thousands of iron shards.
"Turn, damn you!"
Burning agony seared my skin as I threw my weight on the valve. But the cursed metal didn't twitch.
Despair crashed in.
What's the point of right principles if the materials suck!
Mechanical engineering's pinnacle wasn't design—it was materials science. Metallurgy to forge pressure-proof steel. Alloy formulas tweaking carbon, molybdenum, chromium for ultra-high-strength. Heat-resistant gaskets for perfect high-temp seals!
I need to know. The ratios! The perfect steel alloy formula to break this limit!
Atop the swelling boiler, I shed bloody tears of desperation, craving Earth's modern knowledge. My mind whirled with steel, pressure, alloys.
Knowledge! Give me knowledge!
CRASH!
The central lid breached at last. Explosion's flash was about to engulf the seat—
VRRRR!
"Huh...?"
Inside my chest, the shirt-hidden relic—the Carnoble family pendant, machine-like heirloom—vibrated wildly, gears whirring.
Like a starving beast, it sucked in the boiler's massive thermal energy and overloaded steam pressure like a black hole.
Operating conditions fulfilled.
The familiar mechanical chime in my head. Dimensional threshold: immense physical energy on the pendant. And the user's explosive craving for another world's 'knowledge'.
That's it?
The conditions meshed perfectly. Blinding blue light erupted from the pendant's core like a sun.
"Elpansooo—!"
Aila's scream reaching for me faded into the distance. Explosion roar, acrid smoke, flesh-tearing heat—all vaporized into the blue vortex.
My consciousness plunged into endless abyss.
"Gasp!"
Air rushed in; my chest heaved. Like surfacing from deep water, lungs burning, I snapped my eyes open.
Thud!
Not hot iron plates, but cold, smooth linoleum cradled my tumbled body.
"Cough, hack! Haah, haah..."
Coughing violently, I scanned around. No fantasy outdoor workshop thick with molten metal and coal smoke. Harsh white fluorescent lights stabbed my eyes. Rows of standardized 3D printers and ultra-precise CNC lathes. Plastic, ozone, lubricant scents in sterilized air.
Korea University, Mechanical Engineering student workshop.
"I'm... back alive."
Staring at my trembling hands. No burns from the scorching valve—just clean college kid Kang Woojin's hands.
Legs buckling, I slumped, letting out a hollow laugh. That life-or-death crisis felt like a lie.
But the pendant's rule etched crystal-clear in my mind. Artifact opens dimensional gates when massive physical energy hits it, and the user intensely craves another world's 'knowledge' or 'existence'.
Why it triggered completing the pendant at Korea University: my immersion as Woojin craving perfect mech eng mastery meshed with its wound-spring power.
"Haha... crazy artifact."
Steadying my ragged breath, I staggered up. No clue how time flowed there while I was here. Maybe frozen—or the explosion's instant stretched eternal.
If the latter? My factory with Aila, all our work—obliterated without trace.
"No time."
I snatched Woojin's battered bag from the workshop corner and bolted out.
Late afternoon sun bathed Korea University's vast campus lazily, but my steps were a soldier charging battle.
Valerius's capital blitz, Peluah's arrogant trade blockade. Sole weapon to shatter those entrenched walls: a steel beast heart enduring infinite pressure without bursting.
I sprinted for the central library, grinding my teeth.
"Wait, Aila. I'll be right back."
Not with fantasy world's crude iron.
"I'll steal every perfect steel alloy formula from this modern knowledge vault!"
My second knowledge hunt began.