When the plot-skips players into the game world
Chapter 1115 - 444: If Not, Just Count Prime Numbers

Chapter 1115: Chapter 444: If Not, Just Count Prime Numbers

Aiwass had initially felt quite socially dead.

However, when the thought "quite tasteful, huh" involuntarily popped into Sine’s mind, everyone couldn’t help but cast complicated glances at this stern and proud Old Mage.

This old man seemed utterly arrogant, barely looking down his nose at anyone besides Aiwass, Bard, and a few others. Naturally, people avoided the chief mage of some Mage Tower—no one would willingly approach someone who clearly held them in disdain, only to get insulted.

And yet, now...

Compared to this, even "Amber Master liking shiny things" seemed so normal.

In that instant, Aiwass thought the Old Mage looked as though he had turned red-hot.

[So red, like a boiled shrimp...]

That thought occurred to Aiwass’s mind, and he immediately struggled to direct his attention elsewhere:

[Why did they walk into the sphere of influence? Was it to save me?]

"Y-Yes!"

Little Cat chimed in promptly, "Because Mr. Sine said there were many traps here... we still need professionals to disarm traps or fix issues. It’s our responsibility; we can’t just hide in the back..."

[Ugh, but I still don’t want to come... This old man is so scary...]

Little Cat’s inner thoughts floated to the surface.

Unfiltered inner monologues are always more straightforward than polished speech.

After all, they’re just thoughts that bubble up from one’s mind.

[2, 3, 5, 7, 11, 13, 17, 19...]

At that moment, however, Sine seemed entirely unresponsive to anything else.

The space echoed with a relentless, cold counting voice.

Sine quickly counted prime numbers in his head, reaching 149 in the blink of an eye. His counting drowned out any other sound in the area.

[Well, that’s one way to deal with it,] Aiwass thought.

When people hear one thing, their minds unconsciously wander to related topics. For instance, before Little Cat mentioned "that matter," Aiwass hadn’t even considered it at all.

Initially, his thoughts revolved around things like, "This equipment isn’t very practical," "Its stats are lacking," and "Aleister might finally survive after this."

[Alright, let’s dismantle the machine first.]

Beneath the cold and endless stream of primes bombarding his mind, Aiwass made up his mind to act swiftly.

He signaled the Flame Butterfly, now back in travel-ready mode, to perch on his shoulder. Then, he followed Sine further in.

The Old Mage scowled as he pressed his hand against a palmprint-like interface. In a special sequence, he injected twenty-eight units of four-colored mana. Suddenly, a hidden door sprung out from the nearby wall.

"A password...?"

Aiwass was a bit surprised. "Where did you find this password?"

While maintaining his mental counting of prime numbers, Sine unconsciously responded aloud, "Didn’t find it. Cracked it while waiting for your return."

[Impressive skills,] thought Aiwass in amazement.

Aiwass had been gone for less than five minutes—yet in such a short time, the door’s password had already been deciphered.

[This foot-obsessed old man might be more capable than I thought.]

That thought surfaced, but it was immediately obscured by the noise of prime-number counting. Who knows if others heard it or not.

However, the space beyond the door was not the repository for the mind-reading device—it was filled with a cache of bizarre mechanisms.

The place resembled a machine room, with twelve or thirteen orderly, densely packed rows of cylindrical black metal apparatuses. Each row contained twenty or thirty of these, each about a meter in diameter. Only three or four had their metal shells open, revealing their innards—a glowing spiral device that resembled the T-virus tubes from Resident Evil, except the spiral was more compact.

They emitted a brilliant white light, their casings resembling glass in texture. Within, the liquid spirals were rapidly rotating, glowing white.

[So high-tech,] Aiwass mused. "It’s like some kind of power plant..."

"Power plant?"

Little Cat was puzzled as to why Aiwass would use such a metaphor. She had seen power plants before, yet they bore no resemblance to this...

"This should be some sort of energy room," Amber Master explained.

Sine concurred directly: "Because the room’s logic is identical to a Mage Tower’s. I’ve visited many Mage Towers—energy room entrances are always on the first floor, right in the center, for ease of maintenance."

Unconsciously, he stopped counting primes, his mind instead snapping into focused calculation:

[According to the circuits... this shouldn’t be here... it should be over there...]

Sine seemed to have discovered something and abruptly moved forward.

He placed his hand on one of the glowing tubes. As Water Attribute mana surged into it, the high-speed spiral inside abruptly froze and stopped spinning. The surroundings remained unchanged.

"Dismantle this one," Sine casually instructed, tapping Little Cat on the back while pointing to a tube.

[Huh?]

"H-How do I dismantle it... Just pull it off?"

"It shouldn’t be too sturdy; it’s designed with emergency maintenance in mind, in case the authorization mechanism jams. You can just pull it off," Sine replied. "That’s why I brought you along."

"Huh? R-Really? I thought I was here to disarm traps..."

With a mix of reluctance and diligence, Little Cat approached the tube, nervously gripping its metallic shell.

"Well, that too," Sine nodded. "The mind-reading devices here are insidious—fewer of them in operation would be better. The boss is here to teleport His Holiness the Pope back, I’m here to open doors, and besides disarming traps, you’re also here for manual labor—not much trouble, anyway."

[Adorable, like she’s afraid of getting electrocuted by a breaker box...] Aiwass thought, before reassuring her, "Relax. With me here, you won’t die."

"O-Okay!"

With that encouragement, Little Cat mustered her courage.

She grabbed hold of the tube’s gap and gave it a hard yank—

Once, twice, until it finally came loose. She was briefly unsteady, but since she had excellent control over her body, she managed to stand firm without toppling over.

Sine stepped forward and once again froze and stopped the apparatus. Yet still, it wasn’t the right one.

"Try this one," he directed again, pointing to another tube for the reluctant worker to pry open. On the fourth attempt, they all paused.

Because at that moment, the incessant mental noise that had echoed in all their minds finally vanished!

"T-Thank goodness..."

Little Cat immediately exhaled in relief, pulled up her hood, and scuttled away quickly.

Amber Master moved closer and asked, "Where is it?"

"Fourth floor," Sine replied succinctly. "Its influence range should cover four floors up and down. That means there’s one of these devices every seven floors..."

As he spoke, he reactivated the previously deactivated mechanisms by reinjecting mana into them.

Yet the odd shared mind-reading phenomenon did not reappear!

The Old Mage finally breathed a sigh of relief.

His expression wavered as he tried to maintain his composure: "This really is outdated technology. I doubt modern people would easily accept an experience where their total privacy is laid bare... It’s an inevitable consequence of civilization shifts. With the spread of writing and language, and the rise of states and private ownership, maintaining a certain social distance became essential for everyone’s peace of mind..."

He seemed to be making an effort to salvage his dignity.

"True," concluded Amber Master simply.

Sine, now regaining his usual composure, continued with a calmer tone: "But we can’t ignore its inherent value. Language unification and barrier elimination have played a vital role in the evolution of civilizations. Extracting its core technology might allow it to serve as a kind of portable translator; and if the mind-reading function is further enhanced, it could even be used as an interrogation tool... it might even achieve true mind reading someday.

"I’ve also considered another approach—if we can transmute heart-voices from words and sounds into visuals, we might accomplish things like observing the Dream Realm from the Material Realm. Directly viewing ascension rituals from the outside would be a breakthrough in understanding their rules; ascent candidates themselves forget much about the process, but external observers wouldn’t—so, we definitely need this device."

"True," Amber Master nodded again.

Suddenly, Sine’s attention was caught by something else: "Wait, is that...?"

He was staring at the gemstone in Cardinal Galatea’s arms.

Since Cardinal Galatea neither spoke nor had audible inner thoughts—and quietly stayed behind Aiwass—she had been mostly ignored.

But now as Sine turned his head, he immediately caught sight of the blue gemstone she was carrying.

His eyes widened at once.