69novels Chapter 302 The Solution – Zhu Lan's Chapter
Chapter 302 The Solution – Zhu Lan's Chapter
Chapter 304 Resolution – Zhulan's Turn
"Professor Medan, are you aware of the implications of the experiment you are conducting?"
Just as Officer Jenny pulled Director Hayden aside to whisper in a corner of the meeting room, Champion Bamboo Orchid stood in front of Mei Dan, her expression more solemn than ever before, as if facing some kind of taboo.
"Is your computer program already running?"
"Of course it's already running. Otherwise, what have I been doing all this time in the Mori Mansion for the past year and a half since the alphabet was completed?"
Medan's sunken eyes shone brightly as he faced the most renowned mythologist in the Sinnoh region. His mind, which should have been drowsy in the dead of night, was more excited than ever before—
"Theoretically, if we fully utilize the highest refresh rate and maximum text utilization of electronic screens, it would only take a day and a night of processing time to display all nine billion names of God. Of course, such a high-frequency approach certainly carries many risks. Data information might occasionally contain subtle encoding errors, causing text to fail to display correctly; at high speeds, the monitor might also experience screen tearing in a certain frame, and that fatal real name might just happen to be embedded in it. In short, if after such a hasty all-night calculation, the creator god still hasn't personally issued a divine decree, I can't confidently guarantee that I've proven the non-existence of gods, can I?"
Faced with the enthusiastic and sincere old professor, the Sinnoh champion's initial assertiveness was completely ineffective, and he could only nod and follow up—"Yes. And this kind of attempt can most likely only be repeated once. No matter how humble a god is, he cannot show the same answer to the same person twice."
"That's right! So, in order to shut up those who might raise questions in the future, I adopted the safest calculation method."
The old man waved his arm downwards, as if directing a cluster of computers in the basement to form an array—
"To minimize any potential risks, I reduced the display speed of each group of names to a level that was barely discernible to the naked eye."
The list of names was also adjusted from a dense array covering the entire screen to a more prominent and clearly defined, loosely distributed layout. More importantly, I established a principle for this experiment.
"Principles?" The Sinnoh champion suddenly recalled a detail from when they entered the mansion. "Could it be that you must—"
"Yes," Medan interjected proudly, "when the computer monitor, refreshing at a slow rate of four times per second, displayed that list containing the true names of the gods..."
I, Medan, the one who attempts to summon the gods to question their existence, must be personally present and supervise the entire experiment—this is the principle I have set for myself.
In other words, although the experiment of listing the names of gods had already begun, it was temporarily suspended now that Medan had left the basement.
Just as I expected...
Zhu Lan shook her head helplessly, trying to shake off the inexplicable sense of frustration.
If Hugo were here, the detective would have realized the truth instantly—when he and Officer Jenny first visited the Mori Mansion, they were greeted by the maid Zina, not by Medan, the mansion's owner.
Professor Medan finally appeared behind them after the three of them had wandered around the Forest Mansion and arrived at the sewage pool where the stinking mud was kept.
At the time, Zhu Lan didn't find anything strange about it; she just thought that Mei Dan probably heard the noise somewhere on the first floor of the mansion and rushed over.
But at that time, the guests that Mori Mansion was scheduled to receive were not them, but Director Hayden.
For Meidan, Hayden was an investor who had shown her great kindness and support. Even disregarding that, the relationship between the professor and Director Hayden...
That meant they were both old classmates and close friends. Furthermore, given the professor's eagerness to share the experimental progress in the main room, if Meidan had known beforehand that Hayden was coming, she would definitely have been waiting in the mansion's lobby, ready to greet him at the first knock.
But the reality was quite the opposite. Professor Medan didn't even appear until the maid nervously descended from the second floor and hesitated for a long time before opening the door to greet the guest. Wouldn't such hospitality seem overly cold and distant?
The only explanation for this is that Professor Medan had more important things to do than leisurely entertain guests.
Until the guests he was entertaining entered the mansion, he was unwilling to waste a single second of the time that could have been used to advance the experiment. He remained in the dark basement, observing the constantly changing names on the computer screen.
What a desperate surveillance project this is!
Among the endless list of phonetic characters, most of them are meaningless combinations of letters. But similarly, the true names of all people in the world, all self-aware life forms, are also contained in those nine billion lists. What Meidan wants to find is that original name.
More than a year and a half has passed since Meidan created the new alphabet and wrote the name output program in the Forest Mansion.
As if sensing the dazed look on the Sinnoh champion's face, Meidan continued frankly—
"The experiment has been going on for a year and eight months. I spend ten hours a day in front of that monitor. Considering that the monitor refreshes every quarter second and displays forty names each time, we have now tried to solve mathematical equations by having the old man lightly hook his finger in the air in front of him."
"We've tried about 3.4 billion names, and it'll still take at least three more years to count all 9 billion names. I've been thinking about spending a few more hours in front of that screen every day, but Hayden always tells me not to worry about the time. I really don't know where he gets his money."
Why drag out a task that could be completed in one night into several years?
Is the old professor in front of us also subconsciously afraid of something?
Zhu Lan couldn't believe what the person in front of her was saying and couldn't help but question him—
"So, you've been sitting in front of that monitor like a monk meditating against a wall for almost two years, and you even plan to continue like this for another three years?"
It's hard to imagine that a rational believer in science like Medan would do such a thing; this behavior is even more meaningless than listing nine billion names of God.
However, it was this inexplicable meaninglessness that made Zhu Lan, as a mythologist, frantically sound the alarm bells.
That kind of obsessive behavior seemed to be manipulated by some kind of will.
"It was a bit uncomfortable at first, but I gradually got used to using my peripheral vision to observe the situation on the screen."
Professor Mei Dan was completely oblivious to Zhu Lan's wavering and continued speaking naturally.
"Hehe, maybe I already found that meaningful name at the very beginning. It's just that the guy known as 'God' by the world lacks the magnanimity and ability to support his omnipresence on this planet. Next, we just need to keep running this program to the end, and this high-ranking existence of God will be completely denied by humanity—whenever I think of this, I can't help but feel happy. Compared to this joy, what are a few tedious steps?"
"Besides, I don't need to read all the names on it; I'm just monitoring whether the list is refreshing smoothly. If I detect a malfunction, I can rewind the progress to a previous stage and recalculate—but such a malfunction hasn't occurred in the past year and a half. I don't need to stare at it every second; once I'm familiar with the pattern of the screen's movement, I can balance the frequency of inspection and relaxation. Even if I have to spare most of my attention to think about other tasks—such as the follow-up details of the android project—it's not a problem at all."
"That's why your room was set up in front of that huge monitor in that underground laboratory."
Zhu Lan suddenly realized, and then changed her mind again, "No, it should be the other way around. It was precisely because that location was easily visible from the room's rest area that you installed the computer monitor there."
Mei Dan nodded: "Yes, the monitor Hayden bought for me is wide enough that even when I'm resting on the bed in the small room, I can clearly see the forty names listed on it. Besides reviewing it, I also take notes on the desk next to me in research reports that weren't fully detailed in the previous android project. Sometimes I also write some notes, recording the side technologies that I didn't have time to develop when I was rushing to finish the project. Now, I'm even starting to think that this method actually improves my research efficiency."
That's why the lamp in the basement room has signs of long-term use, which must be indirect traces left by Professor Meidan working tirelessly in the dim basement. "The only pity is that I can't check the screen while reading the book," the professor continued.
"After all, whether it's literary works or academic materials, you can't help but immerse yourself in them when you're reading, but if you don't get into it that way,
It hardly qualifies as reading—this contradicts my purpose of monitoring the screen.
"I see. So when Miss Jenny and I checked the basement, we couldn't find any books in the small inner room. We were misled by Professor Medan and thought it was a scene of evidence destruction. It turns out they were on the bookshelves in the librarian's room from the very beginning."
"Don't worry about such trivial details, they're mostly just for some boring reasons anyway," Mei Dan waved her hand.
That was by no means a trivial reason. The mythologist thought, gripping the hard wooden cover of the ancient book in his hand.
The real devil is in the details.
Deep within the Hundred Generations Forest lies a vast wellspring of life and supernatural energy, which has become the subject of urban legends – the Forest Mansion.
Through rigorous exhaustive investigation, if Medan's theory is correct, the true name of God can almost certainly be obtained.
And Professor Medan, who embodies will, knowledge, and fervent emotions, and who stands by the side throughout the ritual.
The ritual altar, the offerings, and the person performing the ritual.
All the most crucial elements have been prepared.
From Medan's perspective, this was merely an experimental study initiated in pursuit of self-satisfaction. But from her perspective as a mythologist, this rational to the point of madness, this atheist, had somehow managed to gather all the necessary conditions for a séance in a completely counterintuitive way.
Considering the object of the invocation, this ritual is even slightly higher in status than the summoning ritual performed by Akari on the summit of Mount Tenguan.
However, the latter ritual has a binding force that transcends time and space, while the possibility of Medan successfully praying for a divine intervention is extremely slim.
However, there are always exceptions.
That legendary being, revered as a symbol of faith, the Pokémon that created the world and all things, commonly known as "Arceus"—will, at some point in the future, in the second when computers have exhausted the possibilities of language, have its true name completely revealed.
Will he personally appear here?
"No, there are still a few doubts."
Before that ultimate answer arrived, Zhu Lan forcibly pulled herself back to reality and earnestly asked—
"When Officer Jenny and I entered the mansion, Miss Zina followed us the whole time. She didn't use any communication devices like doorbells or telephones. You couldn't have received any notification while you were in the basement. How did you know we had arrived?"
"Also, since the desk lamp in the basement room is for writing, why couldn't we find any of the pens, paper, documents, notes, or other items that you use daily when we searched? Were they moved along the way?"
"In addition, when we investigated the computer monitor, we found that the machine was in a standby state that required a password to turn on."
In standby mode, power to all computer devices except the memory is cut off; only the memory relies on electricity to maintain the data within it—and there's something strange about that here too.
Faced with the Sinnoh champion's questioning, Medan pointed to the door of the Forest Mansion and said, "The reason I was able to sense your arrival was because I was in the basement at the time and heard a rumbling sound coming from above."
"Of course I had to go upstairs to check the situation. Then, I saw the two of you coming in through the main entrance."
For a moment, the sarcastic smile he had when they first met seemed to have returned to the corners of his mouth.
"Hmph—before meeting you, I made a special detour to see what was outside the gate, and it was quite a spectacular sight."
"I see, so it was the sound of trees falling to the ground that carried the sound into the underground space." Zhu Lan nodded. "The entrance to the basement is located in a blind spot of the main entrance. It seems you went around us back then."
"And those missing manuscripts and notes were moved by me while you were fighting Neil's assistant. Since they were all small items, I could have carried them all in one trip. After all, those materials were related to the android project, and I didn't want to cause trouble for my old classmate's plan because of my own reasons. In fact, I was the one who chickened out during that fight between Neil and you," the biology professor continued.
Upon suddenly hearing his name called, the assistant, who had been standing silently to the side, lowered his head in embarrassment.
"That guy is clearly quite talented in research, but he's always thinking about venturing into the combat arena. I thought I'd take this opportunity to give him a little warning, so before we officially met, I had him come here to stall for time. Knowing his personality, he'd definitely challenge you, Champion Bamboo Orchid, without hesitation after seeing the order, and that's exactly what I expected—but I didn't expect him to arrive so early, and with Vinnie."
Zhu Lan expressed her opinion tactfully: "To be praised as talented by Professor Mei Dan, it seems that Neil's research ability is much higher than his combat skills."
"Of course, not just anyone is qualified to be my assistant."
The old man ignored the implied meaning in the conversation and spoke arrogantly, which made his assistant Neil look at Medan with gratitude.
"Last one, is there a problem with the computer's lock screen?" Mei Dan frowned, puzzled by the third question.
"It's fine on a normal person's computer, but Professor Meidan, your monitor needs to be on for a long time to display the list, so it's impossible for it to be set to automatically go into standby mode after a certain period of inactivity. This means that Professor Meidan, you personally set the computer to standby mode."
"Of course I turned it off myself to save electricity. I don't think there's anything strange about that," the professor said dismissively.
"But Professor Medan, I can assure you. When Officer Jenny and I stepped into the basement, your computer clusters were absolutely powered on."
The Sinnoh champion closed his eyes, recalling once again the moment he stepped into the basement of the Forest Mansion.
Those were countless towering computer mainframes, and a tiny glow indicating that "the machine is running."
Like a fluorescent green starry sky.
"If you don't believe me, you can ask Ms. Officer Jenny. By the way, my Rotom phone also took pictures of the server room at the time—the indicator lights on those mainframes were undoubtedly lit. We could even hear the sound of the cooling fins churning the air. Do you have any clues about this?" Zhu Lan asked politely.
However, all that responded to him was Meidan's anxious mutterings, "...No way, a computer in standby mode would never have that kind of light on. It was completely dark when I left the basement. What's going on?"
After racking his brains for a while, the old man finally turned his pleading gaze to Zhu Lan again: "Champion Zhu Lan, is what you're saying true?"
The blond champion was about to nod.
Meanwhile, Officer Jenny and Hayden's meeting was nearing its end.
Neil and Venetian were exchanging glances discreetly.
Miss Zina, hugging the giant vine, had already dozed off.
Just then, suddenly—
"boom!"
Boom boom ...
A tremendous roar erupted from beneath everyone's feet.