Ch45 - “Xiao Jinyu, logic skills are intelligent.”

Haidu, Logic Research Institute.

Unlike their User Committee and Extermination Team, their headquarters were built straight on the cliffs by the sea. 

Directly under the three story villa that was Haidu’s Logic Research Institute, the wind blew fiercely and a five-meter wave hit the steep cliff wall, splashing out into snow white foam. The sound of the waves were endless, but no one noticed that the cliff was actually hollow.

The hollowed out cliff was supported by seventy two steel frames and hundreds of high power lights hung from the stone ceiling, illuminating the logic research institute that was hidden under.

In the laboratory surrounded by soil, researchers in white coats ran around.

“No special logic factor reactions were found on Holy Sacrifice’s body.” 

“Yesterday, Zhongdu sent all the task files related to Pope’s Crown’s death to us. We didn’t find any abnormalities.”

“The Howard’s ancestral home, Astor Church, Zhongdu’s Fumin Community… We didn’t find any items suspected to be polluters there.”

“What we can confirm at the moment is that Holy Sacrifice chose to make her ‘cause’ more complex when she became a level four user. No one has ever tried doing that before. Past users had all made their ‘cause’ more simple, making it easier for them to use their logic skills. And when they change the ‘cause’ of their logic skills, the old ‘cause’ cannot be used anymore.”

“But after making her ‘cause’ more complex, Holy Sacrifice could not only use her new, more complex ‘cause’, she could also use her old ‘cause’ as well!”

“In other words, Holy Sacrifice’s logic skill evolved into two types. The first type only needs fresh blood, not necessarily virgin blood, to create a field of suppression. The second requires virgin blood, and when enough is sacrificed, all logic skills in the field will become invalid and even until now…” He looked at the file in his hand: “Seven days later, the two suppression fields around the Howard’s ancestral home and Contamination Area 81 in Zhongdu are still preventing any logic factors from entering.”

“So that leaves the last question—

“How did she use ‘Pope’s Crown’s’ logic skill?”

“Did you use torture yet?” 

The huge laboratory was suddenly silent.

Everyone looked at the speaking man.

The man pushed up his silver-framed glasses, looking down at the files.

A researcher replied: “Yes. But she’s a level five user, so her physical qualities have long passed those of a human. Tests of Huo Lanxu’s brain under torture showed that her cerebral cortex didn’t fluctuate at all and she felt little to no pain.” 

“After we injected her with neural drugs, Huo Lanxu’s pituitary gland reacted significantly. However, this was still within her tolerance zone.”

The man in the glasses thought for a moment before looking at his subordinates: “There is a level four user in Zhongdu whose user ID is ‘Dreamer’.”

“Dreamer already came.” A cold voice suddenly sounded from the door of the laboratory.

The man raised his head. 

Luo Sheng crossed her arms, expression indifferent as she stood outside the door: “Open the door.”

Immediately, a researcher ran over and opened the door.

Luo Sheng walked into the laboratory.

“I already had Wang Tao find Dreamer and invite her to hypnotize Huo Lanxu. Dreamer’s logic skill lets her completely hypnotize the victim’s five senses and completely change what the brain perceives. As soon as she enters her logic skill, she should immediately accept the ‘Dream World’ she created for them. However, even in the ‘Dream World’, Hou Lanxu didn’t reveal a single hint as to how she was able to receive and use Pope’s Crown’s logic skill. 

The man in the glasses slightly nodded: “Then there is only one method left. Send her to the Trial Court.”

Luo Sheng raised an eyebrow. She knew what this man was talking about was not simply just sending her to be tried by the high-level users in China, but…

“Xu Siqing, the Trial Court has not deprived a user of their logic skill for over a year.”

Xu Siqing looked at her: “This is the only method.” After a few seconds, he asked: “Or in other words, do you have any other methods?” 

Luo Sheng didn’t respond and only stared at the other person.

We’re sorry for MTLers or people who like using reading mode, but our translations keep getting stolen by aggregators so we’re going to bring back the copy protection. If you need to MTL please retype the gibberish parts.

“Before the nine major cities in China have completely removed all traces of the logic skill left in them by Su Jiuzhou, it is not recommended that we open the Trial Court and deprive users of their logic skills, except when necessary.” Her voice was calm, as if she was just stating a fact.

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Luo Sheng looked at him coldly.

Xu Siqing smiled and explained: “Level six user Spear of Judgement can remove all flaws from a user’s logic skill, forcibly deprive a user of their logic skill and seal it in an item to create a man-made polluter with a certain survival period. But now, Huo Lanxu didn’t seal Pope’s Crown’s logic skill in an item. Luo Sheng, she is simply just using the logic skill. In such a situation…

“Do you believe that we shouldn’t investigate it clearly?”

Under the cold lights, the entire laboratory was silent. 

After a while.

“Captain Luo, shouldn’t you be serving your sentence underground if I remember correctly?”

“…” Luo Sheng narrowed her eyes in warning.

Doctor Xu slightly smiled. 

A clean-shaven young man appeared before the weak researchers could ‘send’ Captain Luo back to her room. Xu Qi strode over: “Captain!”

Luo Sheng nodded and followed her vice captain out. But when they got on the elevator, the button they pressed was obviously not the detention room above the laboratory, but the underground prison on the thirtieth basement floor.

In the narrow corridor, Luo Sheng’s low voice rang: “By the way, what’s the status of Piggy Shampoo’s request for treating his father’s illness?”

Xu Qi: “Oh, it’s going well. There were many doctors from around the country who came. We don’t know which one is Piggy Shampoo’s father, but at the moment, 80% of the patients in the hospital should be able to recover from their illnesses. For the other 20%, we won’t be able to cure them with our current technology. We’ll just have to hope his father is in that 80%.” 

“Ok.”

“Captain, should I investigate who Piggy Shampoo is?”

“No need. The one who’s sick doesn’t have to be his father, it could be his uncle, his grandpa, it could even be his mom, grandma… He definitely obscured his information. Moreover, level five user Piggy Shampoo has always abided by the law and has never caused a single incident.”

Xu Qi immediately understood and stopped talking. 

For some reason unknown to him, he suddenly thought of a name.

Xiao Jinyu.

Majority of high level users had weird personalities.

For example, his captain who never liked talking. Luo Sheng has a withdrawn personality and even after getting married for so long, she had never had a heartfelt conversation with her lover even until they were separated by life and death. 

Another example would be Zhao Hen. Xu Qi met him long ago from a task. Back then, Zhao Hen wasn’t as fit as he is now and didn’t like dancing. As long as someone mentioned samba dancing in front of him, he would explode in anger on the spot. But when Xu Qi went to Zhongdu last week, he found that Zhao Hen seemed to dance better than before, just like a professional samba dancer, and…

He even seemed like he was pretty absorbed in the dance?

Xu Qi rubbed his chin.

His impression of Xiao Jinyu was pretty deep and from a certain standpoint, he felt that Xiao Jinyu and Piggy Shampoo were similar. 

One, for the sake of his family, forcibly used his logic skill almost causing him permanent eye damage, yet still lost his loved one in the end.

Another, also for the sake of his family, took on the dangerous task of hunting a level five user, even risking his identity being exposed, just so his father could recover.

Xu Qi couldn’t help but think: Xiao Jinyu’s mother had passed already, I hope that Piggy Shampoo’s ‘father’ can be cured.

“Ding Dong—” 

The elevator doors closed behind the two.

…

At the same time, Kangxin Middle School, Zhongdu.

Xiao Jinyu didn’t know that Xu Qi would associate him with a level five user. 

Night fell.

After quickly talking to 004, Xiao Jinyu put his phone back into his pocket, then looked up.

In the dark, the old orphanage’s fifth floor stood like a dark monster, gazing at the small human beings walking towards it. If you looked closely, you would find that in front of the large building, there was also a dark shadow pacing back and forth, stretching its neck to look in the direction of the school’s gates.

After Xiao Jinyu jumped the wall to chase the mysterious user, Teacher Zhong almost dialed the police. But he remembered what the principal had instructed him— 

[The person who will be coming today to investigate the death of Teacher Lin is from a special department of the country. Whatever the other party asks you, all you need to do is truthfully answer and don’t delay the other party in handling the case. But don’t meddle in this case either.]

The user committee never purposefully concealed the existence of logic skills from the public. Just like how after Xiao Jinyu was involved in the White Garden Incident, at the time he was tested to not have a logic skill but Qi Simin still told him the reason for the incident and explained to him what a logic skill was.

Unless it’s a large-scale incident like with Holy Sacrifice that would cause mass panic and terror from the masses, which in that case, the officials will specifically conceal it to prevent malicious people from learning about logic skills and deliberately gaining one to commit crimes with.

Zhong Xiao could always be depended on with different tasks and has always been valued by the principal. Before he was sent to receive Xiao Jinyu, the principal patted him on the shoulder and warned him in a serious voice: knowing a lot is very meaningless, very meaningless. 

Not every person was curious, and Zhong Xiao was one of those people. He just wanted to become a teacher, be promoted to a director in a few years, and then work in the Education Bureau, steadily living out this life.

So he chose to wait downstairs.

If Mr. Xiao does not return in half an hour, he’ll call the old principal and ask him what he should do.

Thankfully, Xiao Jinyu returned in ten minutes. 

Hearing the footsteps behind him, Zhong Xiao’s heart skipped a beat, and upon seeing that it was Xiao Jinyu, he hurriedly said: “You finally came back, Mr. Xiao. Were there any problems?”

Xiao Jinyu slightly shook his head: “No.”

He was thinking about how he was going to explain how he had jumped down from the third floor uninjured when he saw Zhong Xiao sigh and not ask any more questions. Instead, he said: “It’s good that there were no problems. Mr. Xiao, you’ve already seen Teacher Lin’s office, dorm, and classroom. Are there any other things I can help you with?”

Xiao Jinyu paused slightly. He calmly examined the young teacher in front of him. Soon, he said: “There actually is something you can help me with.” 

Zhong XIao had only asked out of politeness and didn’t expect that Xiao Jinyu would really have something he needed. He nodded and asked: “What is it?”

Three minutes later, Zhong Xiao walked towards the school’s gates in befuddlement. Behind him, Xiao Jinyu didn’t leave with him, but instead stood where he was, watching him walk out.

He waited until he had walked to the gate before he said to his phone: “Mr. Xiao, is this alright?”

Xiao Jinyu held his phone and thought for a second before saying: “Teacher Zhong, can I trouble you to walk a little further out?” 

“Alright.”

Following Xiao Jinyu’s request, Zhong Xiao didn’t question anything and continued to walk towards the plaza across the school’s gate. After he entered the plaza, Xiao Jinyu didn’t ask for him to stop, so he continued on until Xiao Jinyu suddenly said: “It’s fine now, Teacher Zhong, you can come back now.”

Zhong Xiao scratched his head: “Ok.”

The evening breeze grazed across the scattered hair atop his forehead. Xiao Jinyu hung up the phone and looked at the message sent by the man. 

[It’s still in the school.]

[It has nothing to do with this teacher.]

Xiao Jinyu squinted his eyes.

At this point, Xiao Jinyu and Su Jiuzhou were certain that Kangxin Middle School only contained Xiao Jinyu himself. As a control variable, if the mysterious logic skill was acting on Zhong Xiao or related to Zhong Xiao, then as long as he walked out of the school, then the scope of the logic skill will also change with him. 

But Zhong Xiao left and the logic skill was still there.

A logic skill that wasn’t attached to a human and also existed independently.

Xiao Jinyu’s expression deepened, then made a call.

“Colonel Su.” 

“Yes.”

“There is something I still haven’t been able to understand and wanted to ask you about. At the same time,it can count as this task’s solution.”

At the other side of the call, Colonel Su stood ten meters outside of the school’s walls, his eyebrows raised. Not waiting for Xiao Jinyu to continue speaking, he immediately returned it with a question: “Are you sure that you didn’t see any traces of logic factors?”

Xiao Jinyu immediately stopped: “I can confirm that there are no logic factors.” 

Pondering for a moment, Su Jiuzhou spoke in a deep voice: “Then I will now answer your question—

“According to Haidu’s Logic Research Institute’s research, out of control logic skills wander and travel in the air in a bizarre way. As you already know, as soon as logic skills go out of control, they will immediately contaminate people and then make the contaminated people, which are polluters, kill other humans so that it can get its ‘nutrition’ from killing people in order to continue surviving.

“You can understand an out of control logic skill as a self-aware parasite. But it’s invincible and only you are able to see its logic factors. No one else can see it.”

“Up until now, the majority of people believed that as long as the logic skill left its user’s body, it would immediately start contaminating people to absorb nutrients. But four years ago, a researcher at Haidu’s Logic Research Institute discovered that out of control logic skills were very, very smart. 

“Polluters would only think about killing people, they are a corpse that only knows how to kill. But out of control logic skills aren’t so stupid that they only know how to kill humans.

“They will hide.

“Every out of control logic skill will have its own ‘survival period’. When it first becomes an out of control logic skill, it will have a ‘survival period’. Within this ‘survival period’, it can choose to not ‘eat’ and instead float in the air and hide itself until it finds a target, some can even use its skills and create the effect. Only when the ‘survival period’ is up will it go mad and lose its mind, only knowing to create more polluters and instruct them to kill people to replenish itself.

“Out of control logic skills will survive by themselves. They cannot be controlled by anyone and will only think for themselves. 

“The stronger the logic skill, the longer the out of control logic skill’s survival period is. The longest known survival period of any out of control logic skills after it was found and locked up in the breath of life was twenty three days before it went completely mad. Before they lose their mind, humans who enter the logic skill they created are normal during the survival period. However, when the logic skill enters the ‘pollution period’, they will also become strong polluters and start killing people.

“So…

“Anyone who enters an out of control logic skill is considered contaminated.

“Polluters must be killed.” 

On the phone was the cold and decisive voice of the man.

Xiao Jinyu stood where he was.

Before today, no one had ever told him in such detail about what out of control logic skills were.

Or, this was information that even ordinary users wouldn’t know about in their whole life. 

The cold wind blew in through the thin openings in his scarf. The powerful physique of a level three user had long made Xiao Jinyu not afraid of the cold, but for some reason, a chill still climbed up his back.

Soon after.

Su Jiuzhou’s voice was low, like a sigh.

“Xiao Jinyu, logic skills are intelligent.”