Investigation and Inference

After returning to his own office, Vanason felt uneasy as he looked at the box of materials he had brought back.

It was mainly Jeffrey's strange behavior and haggard mental state that left Vanason puzzled.

He opened the box, took out a copy of an investigation record, and carefully read its contents.

"Uh... this really is... there's no discernible order to it, but there doesn't seem to be anything wrong with the literal content alone."

After reading for a while, Vanason put the copy back and closed the box again. The materials inside were all jumbled and disorganized.

They left him completely bewildered. It was like a diary with all the dates recorded out of order.

Aside from Jeffrey himself, who knew the order in which the documents had been recorded, anyone else would have to spend considerable effort sorting them out again.

For the entire morning, Vanason remained preoccupied, until noon, when his teaching assistant brought him lunch and informed him about the students' absence from class that morning.

"The students were very concerned about your health. They thought you might have gotten into an accident on your way to school."

The teaching assistant opened the aluminum lunchbox and handed him utensils.

But although Vanason looked healthy enough, his face still bore a troubled expression.

"I thought the students would complain to the president's office. Kids these days are really considerate." Vanason smiled.

Even though the teaching assistant had specially brought him lunch from the cafeteria, Vanason had no appetite at all.

"I have another class this afternoon. After it ends... around three o'clock, I won't be coming back here.

"I'll be heading out instead," he told the teaching assistant.

"Also, help me take this box to the classroom where I'll be teaching this afternoon. I'll bring it with me when I leave after class.

"This box is rather heavy."

The teaching assistant said, "Where are you taking it? I'll see you there."

"No need. The place I'm going isn't far, just Lubo Lane outside the school."

That afternoon, as the sun slanted westward, Professor Vanason appeared once more before Gallo's workstation at Moonlight Cafe, his steps heavy.

"One coffee, with sugar!" Professor Vanason told the cafe server.

He set the heavy suitcase beside the table and took several deep breaths until his breathing steadied again.

He vaguely regretted not having asked his young, strong teaching assistant to carry the box over for him.

Gallo had just finished a consultation with a university student and was taking a break.

When he saw the travel-style leather suitcase Vanason had brought, he directly asked, "Professor Vanason, are you going on a trip?"

"No, I came specifically to find you, uh... to purchase your paid knowledge service."

After the cafe server brought Vanason's coffee, he took a light sip.

Then he continued, "Gallo, it seems you've already become well-known on Lubo Lane."

Gallo smiled. He had indeed received quite a few clients today, and he currently had a full thirty-one Copper Nil and four Fenso in his pocket.

That was nearly as much as his mother Aisha used to earn in a week at the factory.

But Gallo could foresee that he would become increasingly busy in the coming days, and the money he earned would also keep increasing.

Gallo asked Vanason, "What do you need me to do, Professor? Find a book for you, or analyze the contents of one?"

Vanason looked at the cardboard sign standing beside Gallo. After a moment of silence, he pointed at the third item on it.

Complex requests negotiable.

"I need that!"

Gallo cleared his throat. So far, no client had made a complex request of him.

The reason he had added that third line to the cardboard sign had simply been to deal with special situations he had not anticipated.

But now, a History Department professor from Imperial Industrial University was becoming the first client for the third type of consultation, which surprised Gallo.

"This box contains the investigation materials Professor Jeffrey brought back from the Southern Continent."

"The professor who wrote a book with you?" Gallo asked.

"Yes." Vanason's expression was far more solemn than it had been that morning.

"Professor Vanason, is something troubling you?" Gallo was a little surprised. Vanason's grave expression seemed unnatural at this moment.

Vanason lowered his voice and went straight to the point. "Although Jeffrey returned from the Southern Continent, something is very wrong with him. He's utterly haggard, and... I don't understand why he isn't even willing to spare a little time to rest.

"It's as if he's desperate to verify something, then immediately throws himself back into work.

"I've conducted investigations in the Southern Continent before as well, but whenever I returned to Tin City from those regions, whose civilization is as backward as a primitive society, I would definitely rest properly at home for a while.

"The remaining work was never so urgent that it could not wait."

Vanason took a deep breath and continued, "Most of the materials in this box were obtained from him, but even if I did no additional work,

"simply reading through everything here would probably take more than half a month of time and effort every day."

He opened the box and took out some record books, copied manuscripts, and rubbing documents.

"I hope you can use your ability to help me analyze these materials.

"I need to know exactly what they record that could turn an experienced archaeologist into that."

Vanason's tone was more urgent than ever before. "As for payment, I definitely won't shortchange you."

Gallo looked at the unordered record sheets and blurred rubbing patterns before him. The work Professor Vanason had proposed indeed qualified as a complex request.

He nodded. "I understand. Under normal circumstances, I only charge one Copper Nil to analyze a book.

"But there are too many materials here, and they're out of order, so the fee will be higher."

He looked at Vanason and offered what he considered a reasonable price. "Ten Copper Nil, and I'll handle it."

"I'd be willing to pay even one Nalang."

Gallo's original smile became somewhat bitter. He should have let the other party name the price first.

He felt as though he had lost a huge sum of money.

After adjusting his emotions, Gallo took a deep breath and entered that highly efficient information-processing state again.

Gallo first quickly flipped through the investigation records and copied notes.

Unlike ordinary books, these materials were filled with fragmented sentences, hasty shorthand symbols, and large sections that had been crossed out and rewritten.

He ignored the precise chronological order and instead relied solely on Memory to record their contents, planning to reorganize and file them away in his mind afterward.

This was indeed difficult. It was not merely recording, but identifying and logically reconstructing a tangled mess.

After Gallo had finished reading all the investigation records, copied manuscripts, and scattered paper documents in the box,

he picked up the rubbings of inscriptions and murals.

The contents of these rubbings were all sorts of symbols Gallo could not understand. Some resembled writing. Gallo scratched his head; he could only rely on Memory to record the pictographs within them.

He recorded the various details from each rubbing.

At the same time, he discovered that his Memory was extremely vague when it came to content he could not understand. It seemed the system's enhancement to Memory only applied to things he could quickly remember after understanding them.

If he wanted to record the complete contents of these rubbings, he would probably need to add another attribute point to Memory.

With that in mind, Gallo merely gave the contents of the rubbings a quick look before placing them back in the box.

He closed his eyes, deliberately ignored the incompletely recorded rubbing contents in his mind, and focused instead on organizing the copied notes and complicated documentary materials.

After roughly four or five minutes, Gallo finally raised his head and looked at Professor Vanason. "The region Professor Jeffrey investigated this time was the former administrative center of the Askia Dynasty?"

"Yes!" Professor Vanason's eyes lit up. It seemed Gallo had already completed the work, and he was desperate to learn from him what had caused his good colleague and friend Professor Jeffrey's abnormal state.

"Professor," Gallo continued, "I think Professor Jeffrey is currently under enormous psychological pressure. The evidence he discovered is forcing him to believe a mad fact."

"The fall of the Askia Dynasty may have been connected to some indescribable, terrifying supernatural phenomenon."