Chapter 1763: Chapter 1761: Investigation (Rolling Around Out of Boredom)

"So, what you mean is, the other side used this weird audio, inserted their own brainwave signal into it, then used the resonance between identical brainwave signals to set up a local network? That’s a pretty interesting trick."

Fang Zheng looked at the Little Angel on the screen while reaching out to scratch the chin of the kitten in his arms, and Nymph also nodded.

"Yes, Master, it’s actually not that complicated when you put it that way."

"Hmm... so you can deal with this problem, right?"

Fang Zheng didn’t think too much about it. Although in theory a Deity should be all‑knowing and all‑powerful, in reality that’s just a pseudo‑proposition.

What counts as all‑knowing and all‑powerful depends on whose point of view you’re talking about, and how you define it.

If it were ancient times, the questions people mostly asked were things like "How long can I live?", "Can I find my destined partner?", "How many more centuries can My Great Qing last?" and so on. Those kinds of questions Fang Zheng could answer just by relying on Ratziel.

Of course, people who actually thought might wonder why there is sunrise and sunset, what exactly the Sun, Moon and stars are. Questions that, to people back then, were basically probing the Truth of the world’s mysteries—nowadays you can grab any random astronomy buff and they’ll reel off one, two, three, four, five answers for you.

If a history and astronomy nerd Time Traveled to the past, even if he did nothing else, pretending to be some all‑knowing and all‑powerful con‑Deity would be pretty easy. This isn’t a matter of ability, it’s purely the higher civilization crushing the lower one in all directions. It’s stuff even modern elementary school kids know, of course it’s no big deal.

But once you go higher than that, it’s a different story.

Like, the problems a physicist wants to solve, or the problems a mathematician wants to solve—those Fang Zheng can’t answer. He’s a Magical Girl and the God of Games. In terms of science, Fang Zheng’s knowledge is still at the learning stage, and honestly he’s not that interested in physics or math and the like. Only when it touches his old professional field is he somewhat familiar; the rest, to Fang Zheng... he’s just not interested.

He usually leaves that kind of problem to the Little Angel. Same now.

Inside Heavenly Dao Palace, Nymph is in charge of scientific research and education, Tilia handles internal affairs and diplomacy, and Black Katie manages military strategy. In fact, under the Little Angel’s tutoring, there are a lot of girls in Heavenly Dao Palace whose physics, chemistry, and math are already better than Fang Zheng’s.

Fang Zheng doesn’t mind this at all; in fact, he’s quite pleased. After all, a Deity isn’t alone—there have to be Believers in the Divine Domain too.

Which raises the question: do you want illiterates as your Believers, or people with knowledge and culture?

The latter might even improve the Divine Domain system. The former... what can they do?

Waste food?

If they’re illiterate, even farming might be a problem.

Forget it, that’s not important.

"No problem, please give me a little time. I’ll recompile this code segment and reverse it."

Saying this, the Little Angel tapped on the keyboard and fell silent for ten seconds.

"Okay, Master, please receive it."

That was faster than opening a bank card at a service window.

"Got it, my Little Angel is still the most reliable."

Hearing Fang Zheng’s praise, a faint blush appeared on Nymph’s fair little face, and she smiled shyly.

"Is there anything else you need, Master?"

"Hmm........."

Staring at the program the Little Angel had Teleportation‑sent back, Fang Zheng frowned and thought for a moment, then suddenly remembered something.

"Hey, Nymph."

"Yes."

"I remember there’s some kind of theory that says humans only use ten percent of their brain, and the rest is unused?"

"That’s just an Uwasa, Master." 𝚏𝕣𝕖𝚎𝚠𝚎𝚋𝚗𝐨𝐯𝕖𝕝.𝕔𝐨𝕞

Nymph mercilessly shot down Fang Zheng’s words.

"According to Evolutionary rules, any unused part would’ve been discarded long ago in the long process of Evolution."

"That’s true, but look at the appendix... forget it, I don’t exactly want my brain to be on the same level as an appendix."

At this point, Fang Zheng shrugged.

"So, regarding brain development, do you have any good suggestions?"

"Of course. If you permit it, Master, I suggest using the Ascension Project as a reference."

"Ascension Project? What’s that?"

"It’s a project the Star Alliance uses to train Espers. It’s somewhat similar to the ability development in this world."

"Star Alliance Espers... oh, you mean the ones from the Mass Effect World. But don’t they need to be contaminated by Element Zero?"

Hearing this, Fang Zheng finally understood what the Little Angel was talking about. There are Espers in the Mass Effect World as well, but their way of using abilities is different from this world’s, so Fang Zheng hadn’t linked the two at first.

"Element Zero contamination is the result of humans artificially using Element Zero to forcibly modify their brains. From a certain angle, it’s no different from Academy City’s Special Ability development."

Just that the method is a bit more high‑end.

After all, this world doesn’t have anything like Element Zero.

"Alright, compile the data and send it over for me to look at later."

Fang Zheng nodded and then gave the order, and once the Little Angel received it, she immediately got to work. Fang Zheng picked up his phone and sent a text message.

"Dong dong."

Just then, there was a knock on the door, and a moment later, Rem’s voice came through.

"Master Fang Zheng, do you have a moment?"

"Rem? Come in."

"Sorry to disturb you."

Hearing Fang Zheng’s voice, Rem pushed the door open and walked into the room. Seeing her come in, a faint smile appeared on Fang Zheng’s face, and he reached out his hand.

"Come here."

"Okay, Master Fang Zheng......"

Seeing Fang Zheng’s gesture, Rem hurried over at a half-run and stopped in front of Fang Zheng. Then she curled up, like a cat, and burrowed into Fang Zheng’s arms, closing her eyes. Fang Zheng also reached out and gently stroked Rem’s forehead. Very soon, Rem, her eyes half-closed, let out a low moan, just like a kitten getting its chin scratched......

However, it didn’t take long......

"I heard you’ve already cracked the secret of the Fantasy Manipulator?!"

Kuroko Shirai burst in headfirst, but when she saw the scene in front of her, she froze for a moment, then her face flushed bright red.

"Y-You two are......"

"Do you not even knock before you come in?"

Holding Rem in his arms, Fang Zheng stared at Kuroko Shirai, while Kuroko, her face red, glanced at Rem, then at Fang Zheng.

"N-No, um......what are you two doing?"

"Heh, why don’t you guess?"

Fang Zheng grinned at Kuroko Shirai, and at the same time reached out to gently stroke Rem’s back. Very soon, Rem let out a soft "mm," narrowed her eyes, and leaned into Fang Zheng’s chest.

"Th-Then......maybe I should just go back out......"

Seeing this, Kuroko Shirai was completely dumbfounded and at a loss for words. Fang Zheng only shrugged, then picked up a USB stick and tossed it to her.

"Here."

"What’s this?"

"An audio file. Once you play it, it can neutralize the effects of ’Fantasy Manipulator’. For now you’d better hurry up and focus on investigating and arresting people. That’s the main thing, isn’t it?"

"Ah, mm......right......"

Kuroko was clearly a bit stunned; she accepted the USB stick on reflex and nodded. But a moment later, Kuroko Shirai remembered something.

"What about the Guard Officers’ side......"

"Forget about that bunch of idiots. This case is handed over to your 117th branch. The Guard Officers will just cooperate with you on handling it."

Still stroking Rem’s hair, Fang Zheng spoke. He didn’t have the slightest expectation for the Guard Officers’ professional standards. In Fang Zheng’s view, the Guard Officers in this Academy City really weren’t much better than a bunch of useless scrubs. It was better to let Discipline Committee Members like Kuroko Shirai do the tracking; chances were they’d do a better job.

"Right, found any leads lately?"

"Ah, yes."

Hearing Fang Zheng’s question, Kuroko Shirai finally pulled her gaze away from the two of them, and reported a bit awkwardly.

"Following your suggestion, Mr. Fang Zheng, we’ve been rounding up the people selling Fantasy Manipulator. So far we’ve arrested several sellers, but it looks like there’s still someone above them......"

"Has Hatsuharu turned up anything online?"

"So far, nothing particularly useful."

At this point, Kuroko Shirai seemed to recall something and added a line.

"Oh right, that Martial Investigator is also helping us investigate this case."

"Martial Investigator?"

"Yes......"

Just thinking of that Martial Investigator gave Kuroko Shirai a headache. To be honest, she didn’t really like that girl. She was way too arrogant and self-centered. But since the other party was offering to help in good faith, Kuroko couldn’t exactly turn her down. Still......what kind of person just whips out a gun at the drop of a hat to scare people?

This is Academy City, you know!

"Got it. Then keep investigating. Contact me if anything comes up."

"Okay, th-then I’ll get going. Sorry for disturbing you two."

As she spoke, Kuroko Shirai hurried out and closed the door behind her. Only when the door shut did Kuroko lean against the panel and let out a sigh of relief.

"That scared me half to death... but what on earth was that all about......"

Muttering to herself, Kuroko frowned in confusion. She could tell that Rem and Fang Zheng were very close, but it didn’t really feel like they were a couple......and realistically speaking, that shouldn’t be the case either. Yet what she’d just seen also didn’t look like anything you’d call......normal......

Ugh, forget it, forget it, why am I even thinking about this.

Kuroko slapped her cheeks hard a couple of times, then looked down at the USB stick in her hand.

The Fantasy Manipulator incident was a big deal. Lately they’d been hunting for the people selling Fantasy Manipulator, and now that they had this data, they should be able to handle it much better.

Anyway, better just focus on doing what I’m supposed to do first.