manynovel Chapter 292 Resolution – Zhulan's Turn
Chapter 292 Resolution – Zhulan's Turn
"Professor Meidan, 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 compiled?"
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 play all nine billion names of the gods. Of course, such a high-frequency approach certainly carries many risks—data information might occasionally have subtle encoding errors, causing the text to not 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 along—
"Yes. And such an attempt can most likely only be repeated once. No matter how humble a god is, he cannot show the same answer twice to the same person."
"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 reduce all possible risks, I slowed down the display speed of each group of names to a level that was barely recognizable to the naked eye, and the list of names was changed from a dense array that covered the entire screen to a more eye-catching and clear, loosely distributed one... More importantly, I set 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,” Mei Dan said proudly, interrupting.
"As the computer monitor slowly refreshed at four times per second, displaying the list that included the true names of the gods, I, Medan, the one who was trying to summon the gods to question their existence, had to be present in person to supervise the entire experiment—this was the principle I 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.
Sure enough...
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 Forest 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 Mei Dan, Hayden was an investor who had shown her great kindness and support. Even disregarding that, the professor and Director Hayden were not only old classmates but also close friends. Furthermore, given the professor's eagerness to share the experimental progress in the main room, Mei Dan, knowing in advance of Hayden's visit, would have undoubtedly waited 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 array of phonetic scripts, a large majority are meaningless combinations of letters, but similarly, the true names of all people in this world, all self-aware life forms, are also contained within those nine billion lists…
What Mei Dan wanted to find was 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 at a time, we have now tried..."
The old man lightly hooked his finger in the air in front of him, solving a mathematical equation.
"We've tried about 3.4 billion names. It will 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 got 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—
"Did you sit in front of that monitor like a monk meditating against a wall for almost two years, and even plan to continue doing so 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 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 process to the end, and this high-ranking existence of God can be completely denied by mankind—whenever I think of this, I can't help but feel happy. Compared with this kind of 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 what was happening, and then changed her mind again—
"No, it should be the other way around. It's precisely because that location is easily visible from the room's lounge area that you installed the computer monitor there on the opposite side."
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 the 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."
This is why the desk lamp in the basement room shows signs of long-term use, which must be indirect traces left by Professor Mei Dan as she diligently wrote in the dimly lit basement...
"The only downside 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, it's far from being reading—which 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 pointless 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 place where immense life force and supernatural energy converge, making it a site of urban legend – 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 to pursue self-satisfaction. But from her point of view as a mythologist, this rational to the point of madness, this atheist, had somehow managed to gather all the necessary conditions for completing 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 atop Mount Tenguan. However, the latter ritual possesses a binding force that transcends time and space, while the possibility of Medan successfully invoking a deity is extremely slim.
However, there are always exceptions.
Will the legendary Pokémon that the world reveres as a belief, the one that created the world and all things, commonly known as "Arceus," appear here in person at some point in the future, when computers have exhausted the possibilities of words, when His true name is fully revealed?
……
"No, there are still a few doubts."
Before that ultimate answer arrived, Zhu Lan forcibly pulled herself back to reality and asked earnestly—
“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?”