Century Mile is the third district investigated in Criminal Case: Mysteries of the Past.
A portion of Concordia characterized by its advanced technological wonders and imposing architectural monuments like the Crystal Palace or a replica of the Eiffel Tower, Century Mile is a district primarily inhabited by inventors, scientists, and people in favor of progress all around, who each year gather to compete in a contest to determine who's the very best among them.
Century Mile primarily focuses on the World Exhibition, the aforementioned contest where each participant is required to exhibit their latest technological, mechanical, or scientific invention and where the winner receives the honor of having said invention mass produced by the government of Concordia. Unfortunately, this year's World Exhibition seems to have attracted lots of trouble for everyone involved, such as the anti-progress Luddites opposing it and even a mysterious saboteur tampering with the exhibitions for their own agenda.
- Breaking the Glass Ceiling: An architect is crushed by a falling glass pane in an unfinished crystal building.
- Checkmate: A young chess master is shot in the heart with a bishop chess piece inside of a movie set.
- Out of Steam: An inventor crashes onto the ground after getting shot while flying with a Steampack.
- Monkey Business: A scientist is forced to ingest a poisonous jellyfish while a giant ape goes on a rampage.
- Electrical Hazard: A Luddite is electrocuted to death with an electrical weapon inside of an Inventor's Hall.
- The Higher You Rise: An inventor is pushed off to her death from a tower on the night of an award ceremony.
Tropes:
- Arc Villain: Although Eleanor Halsted is exposed by the end of Century Mile as the saboteur that has been tampering with the World Exhibition's inventions, it turns out that she was only doing it because Stanley Spark was paying her to do so, intending to win the contest with foul play and therefore making him the true main antagonist of the district.
- Breather Episode: In contrast to the previous two districts that involved either a fire almost destroying the entire city and immigrants being sold as slaves or parties being specifically designed to cause murder and the main instigator becoming a Karma Houdini, Century Mile instead just focuses on the World Exhibition contest that, while being target of sabotage and slander, still evokes a much lighter plot than the aforementioned districts and their heavy stakes. In addition, not only the Arc Villain of Century Mile doesn't purposefully causes deaths for his own agenda or amusement, but he also receives a lethal yet still well-deserved comeuppance at the end of it, while his dragon is also put behind bars too, giving the storyline a satisfactory conclusion after the Downer Ending that was Elysium Fields.
- A Day in the Limelight: Charlie gets a fair amount of focus in Century Mile, as he's competing in the World Exhibition too and therefore gets more involved in the plot than the previous two districts. Dick also gets a tiny bit of spotlight due to being Charlie's partner in the contest, although it isn't as prominent.
- Evil Luddite: Although they don't play a huge part on the plot, the Luddites, a group of anti-progress people protesting against the World Exhibition, also receive some focus during the district, being one of the many factions antagonizing the contest for their own agenda.
- Science Fair: The World Exhibition is basically an aged-up version of this, as many inventors and scientist prepare to showcase their creations to the public.
- Recurring Character: The main recurring characters of Century Mile are Stanley Spark, Chief Inspector Eleanor Halsted, Celine Georges, Greta Gundwood, Commissioner Talmadge Baldwin, Mayor Cornelius Castletown, Katherine Woolf, and Leopold Rochester.
- Sabotage to Discredit: One of the main focus of Century Mile is identifying a mysterious saboteur that has been tampering with the World Exhibition's inventions in order to help Stanley Spark's Exo-Suit win the contest.
- Tomorrowland: Century Mile serves as a 19th century version of this, boasting technological and architectural wonders not seen in any other part of Concordia due to the many inventors, scientists, and architects living in the district.
