Chapter 85: The Peak
"Why are you here too?" Conan asked Yuya with his eyes downcast.
Yuya rubbed Conan's head and said, "I encountered a case on the way back. I just solved it and heard that something happened here, so I came to take a look."
Conan slapped his childhood friend's hand away and told him the information he had already obtained.
"Teacher Niina..." Yuya frowned, "I watched an episode of Samonji on TV today."
He remembered this incident: the author of Samonji, Niina Rentaro, was dying, and as a "play" before his death, he left a puzzle in his latest work, hoping that a detective could crack the code and find him.
Unfortunately, the code was cracked too late, and by the time people arrived, Niina Rentaro had already passed away.
Yuya couldn't help but glance at Arata Kaori.
Ran Mouri frowned slightly as she looked at Yuya and Conan who were talking secretly.
"What, we can't conduct an open search?!" Kogoro Mouri's voice shouted.
Inspector Megure stated that since Shinmei Rentaro sent the manuscripts on time for every issue and no obvious problems were found, there were insufficient conditions to apply for an open search.
Kogoro Mouri continued to explain to Inspector Megure, telling him about the suspicious points that had been discovered so far.
Conan pulled on Yuya's trouser leg and asked, "What do you think?"
Yuya replied: "How? Stand and watch."
Conan rolled his eyes: "Hey, hey, hey..."
"Just kidding." Youya smiled.
Time is running out, so let’s solve the mystery quickly and let the father and daughter see each other for the last time.
But You couldn't remember what the code meant after it was deciphered. But it didn't matter, he could just decipher the code on the spot.
Yuya got the manuscript of the novel from the editor and quickly read it, and soon found something unusual.
First of all, there is the opening line at the beginning of the work that completely subverts the character's setting, that is, the words that provoke detectives across the country.
Under the influence of Conan, Yuu also liked the Samonji series of works in the past. When his reasoning ability had not yet been upgraded to its current strength, it was also a fun thing to interpret the clues and infer the truth. He often competed with Kudo Shinichi in this way, and of course he won more than he lost.
He also knew something about Shinmei Rentaro and knew that he was a very gentle person. Such provocative words were completely inconsistent with his personality.
Secondly, there is the newly named character who appears at the beginning of the novel; however, this is the Sawamonji series, and as a restarted work, it should first have a few glorious scenes of the protagonist to respond to the fans' expectations over the years, rather than having a new character appear so abruptly.
This shows that this newly named character in the novel is a very key figure, and the key to deciphering the code lies in him.
Yuya began to observe the information about this character in the work.
So far, seven chapters of the novel have been published, and this new character has appeared four times, and has played an important role in Samonji's reasoning process.
In other words, the message that Mr. Niname wants to convey is hidden in the lines when this character appears!
At this moment, the editor came over and asked, "Inspector, can we have the new manuscript that Mr. Niname just sent over for typesetting?"
Typesetting? Yuya's expression changed. The name of this work is called 1/2 Peak.
If that's the case...Yuya directly took out the scene where the newly named character just appeared and took a quick look at it.
"Police department!" Yuya shouted.
Inspector Megure, who was talking to the editor, was startled and turned around quickly: "Brother Kamiya, what's wrong?"
Yuya raised the manuscript in his hand and said, "I have solved the code of the first part."
"What? A secret code?" Inspector Megure was surprised and hurried over, and others also gathered around.
Conan also looked at Yuya in surprise. So soon? Did he just arrive?
Yuya spread two manuscripts on the table. One contained the provocative words at the beginning of the novel, and the second contained the scene where the new character appeared.
"First of all, everyone who knows Mr. Niname knows that he is a gentle person. So this seemingly provocative opening that doesn't fit his personality is a hint that he hopes someone can decipher the code hidden in his work... a petition."
"Petition?" Everyone looked at each other in confusion.
Conan frowned. He felt that he had grasped something, and quickly leaned over the table to read it.
Ran Mao Li stood behind Conan and watched him studying seriously. A familiar figure flashed through her mind.
"Mr. Editor, Mr. Niname has said that we should strictly follow his requirements for typesetting, right?" Youya suddenly asked.
The editor nodded quickly.
"Okay, then the next step is the initial code. The key to unlocking the code is the title of this work - the apex of 1/2."
"Why did Mr. Niname emphasize following his layout? That's because he hid the code in the lines of Niname's character's appearance. If the order of the layout is wrong, then it will be impossible to decipher the code."
"And the 1/2 vertex means the first word of every two lines. You can see that these words are actually only half. In other words, the words of every two lines can form a new word."
"If we combine them according to this rule..."
"The first line's strength plus the second line's eyes make up help; the second and third lines' ten and the fourth line's number 1 make up the hiragana け; the next is the English letter C and the kanji 一, making up the hiragana て; the number 1 and the katakana ノ make up the katakana レ; and finally there's a single く, which together make up..."
Conan suddenly slammed the table and shouted before Yuya: "助けてくレ, help! Teacher Niname is in danger!"
"What!" Everyone was shocked, especially Arata Niname, whose face had turned extremely pale.
While Mao Lilan was surprised, her eyes became even deeper. She had been paying attention to Conan just now. He was not listening to Yuya's reasoning at all, but was interpreting it on his own.
"So, as expected, Teacher Niname was kidnapped?" Kogoro Mouri was shocked.
Youye paused and said, "It's still unclear right now, but at least this is the information we deciphered from the code."
"Okay, now that we know the rules of the code..." Kogoro Mouri became excited and immediately took the other manuscripts with lines printed on them and started reading them. After a while, he raised his head blankly.
"That's not right. The other lines are all confusing when interpreted using this rule. I can't understand anything at all."
Conan also frowned. He also interpreted it in the same way, but the result was the same as that of Maori Kogoro. He could not see any useful information. Even if he rearranged the combined words and read them in jumps, it was the same.
Youya spread his hands and said, "Sorry, this is all I can figure out so far. Let's think of the rest together."
If you don't find the rules for deciphering the code first, you can't decipher it. This is also true for Yuya, who possesses master-level reasoning abilities.
Reasoning, in logic, refers to one of the basic forms of thinking. It is the process of deriving new conclusions from one or several known premises. If the premises are unknown, no conclusion can be reached.