Su Weiyu smoothly read Xia Shou the first passage she had just reviewed, then began translating what followed.
[I did it! I successfully summoned Idrisu.
My God! Gods really exist. This world isn't what I thought it was!
There's hope. Enya really can be saved now.
Idrisu never speaks, yet strangely enough, even without communicating through language, I can understand what Idrisu wants me to know. I cannot describe this sensation of communication in words. It is truly unique.
This form of communication is nothing as simple as a voice suddenly speaking in your head. It is more like a piece of unfamiliar information appearing in your mind out of nowhere.
Like a calculus equation suddenly popping into your head. Although you have never studied calculus, you instinctively know exactly how to solve it, and all you need to do is follow those steps.
This sensation only occurs when I am near Idrisu. Perhaps this is what a god's "language" is like. Now, to help Enya recover, I must gather the raw materials for her treatment. The materials themselves are not a problem. There is no shortage of them in this day and age. Instead, the people gathering them will need to be carefully screened. I must choose capable, reliable helpers. After all, this work requires considerable mental fortitude.
Also, I need to run this hospital properly. Otherwise, such a large private hospital never accepting outside patients would seem far too strange. People are always curious about strange things.
I might as well invite a few wealthy friends here to recuperate. With Idrisu on my side, I should be able to satisfy them. After all, no one would turn down the chance to restore their ailing body to health, or even fill it with youthful vitality.
I believe that even if they vaguely sense something, they will help me keep it secret for the sake of this great miracle. My friends are all prominent figures in business or politics, but this time, it is my turn to take center stage-a third-rate archaeologist...]
As Su Weiyu read aloud, Xia Shou gradually began to understand the origins of this closed domain.
However, that understanding brought new questions, even if they were somewhat trivial given their current situation.
Xia Shou raised a hand, signaling for Su Weiyu to stop reading, then asked, "There's something I don't understand. Why would this person write something like a diary? Normally, there wouldn't be any need, would there?
"None of what you just read really needed to be recorded. Keeping a diary amounted to leaving evidence behind. Even if he stored it carefully, a secretary or trusted assistant might see it, and then it would become evidence of his crimes.
"And you said his library contained many undeciphered languages. Even if he hadn't deciphered them all, he must have deciphered some. He could easily have used one of those languages to record his daily life. There was no need to use English."
Su Weiyu immediately replied, "I know the answer to that!
"Keeping diaries is a common practice in the occult, and there's a specific academic term for this phenomenon: the 'occult meme phenomenon.'
"Unlike my anti-meme constitution, knowledge of rituals that seek power from evil gods usually comes with a positive memetic effect.
"Once a ritual succeeds and a believer establishes a connection with an evil god, the god influences the believer's mind, making them want to spread this secret knowledge.
"But because this occult knowledge often conflicts with society's morals and ethics, reason makes those believers do everything they can to keep it secret.
"On the other hand, the evil god's influence constantly tempts them. Reason alone can't restrain their desire to spread those secrets.
"So eventually, they settle on a compromise: keeping diaries or research logs, recording every detail of their feelings and thoughts to alleviate the worse effects of those unknowable beings.
"In fact, the Containment Bureau's archives contain a great deal of material like this.
"In many cult cases, you'll find a very contradictory phenomenon: their most closely guarded doctrines are often recorded in English, the most widely used language. Some even record the same doctrine in multiple languages, rather than just English.
"That's actually their subconscious desire to spread the knowledge at work.
"In many cult cases, destroying those records would have meant destroying the evidence of their crimes. Yet in the end, they would rather be arrested than destroy it. Some even tried to divide that dangerous knowledge into incomplete fragments and secretly slip them into the ordinary world.
"Basically, those cultists and occultists are obsessive diarists. Their bases are often filled with piles upon piles of research notes and personal journals.
"They use writing to resist the influence of 'madness,' keeping themselves from descending into true insanity."
"So that's why!"
Su Weiyu's explanation was simple and easy to follow, and Xia Shou understood immediately.
Su Weiyu added, "Of course, it depends on the circumstances. The higher someone's anomaly level, the less likely they are to develop abnormal urges."
"Xia Shou, look. These are the hospital's patient records, and there's information about the raw materials too!" Wang Long held several sheets of paper out to Xia Shou.
"Just tell me what they say. I can't read English."
"This was a private sanatorium built in 2000, probably in the United States. The patients admitted here back then were all American political dignitaries and the super-rich, and almost all the wealthy patients were elderly.
"Several of them were very famous. Quite a few announced their retirement from politics, only to announce their return some time later, displaying remarkable reasoning abilities and everyday energy. It looks like they came here during that time.
"Also, this hospital's raw materials were people! Human organs were the raw materials they used for treatment!"
Xia Shou frowned and lowered his head in thought. "It definitely wasn't as simple as transplanting young organs. Otherwise, those people wouldn't have needed to come to this sanatorium.
"More importantly, the hospital's director clearly possessed supernatural powers. Most likely, he used ritual surgery to transfer the elderly tycoons' ailments onto those raw materials.
"But why did this hospital ultimately become a closed domain?
"If turning it into an anomalous domain was the director's handiwork, he might also have prepared a way to leave. After all, he did all this to treat Enya. She was probably his daughter... and very likely the ghost girl who guided us earlier."
After offering that bold conjecture, Xia Shou turned slightly toward Su Weiyu. "Keep going through that notebook. Pick out the important parts. We don't have much time."
"Okay!" Su Weiyu nodded firmly.
[...Enya's condition is improving rapidly, and I have gradually come to recognize a fact.
What Lian Kena inherited from Ya En's
mother was not an ordinary hereditary illness, but a supernatural disease that cannot be cured through ordinary physical means. Even Idrisu cannot cure it completely.
Fortunately, Idrisu's immense power is enough to halt this terrible disease's progression, provided there is a constant supply of healthy recipients for the disease.
Luckily, this rotten country has countless homeless people and undocumented immigrants. All I need to do is pull a few strings to meet Enya's treatment needs. Those officials and money-grubbers are all fawning over me like lapdogs now.
But I also have a bad feeling. Some dangerous organization seems to have its eye on me.
Fuck, I should have realized long ago that where there is light, there is darkness. I cannot possibly be the only person in the world who understands these occult arts. The fact that I haven't encountered anyone else like me only means I have yet to truly enter that circle.
It looks like I need to be more careful...]
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