Mystic Overlord: Reading Gives Strength
Chapter 148 - 147: The Secret Letter

Chapter 148: Chapter 147: The Secret Letter

A note?

Could it be another one of those "cute" girls, leaving behind a message for a date?

He had managed to slip the note into his own pocket without anyone noticing.

The person behind it must also be quite impressive.

Those involved in the mysterious side really do put unexpected efforts in unexpected places...

Thinking this, Ronald casually opened the note and glanced at it.

It wasn’t that he was planning to go on a date; he just casually took a look.

After all, there were no magical fluctuations on the note; it wasn’t a sneaky attack powered by mystical forces.

His action now

was like when someone receives a flyer on the street—most people would glance at it somewhat.

However, this casual glance made Ronald freeze in place.

[687--C2--76--88--1--217--166--174]

[14--166--Ronald--46--88--3--217--94--134——155]

[12--94--229--66--241--166--97]

[84--174--146--22--217--21--94--61]

"What is this?"

Ronald was instantly stunned.

Among the four lines of text, his name appeared mixed in, without any superfluous information.

Some kind of spell, or code, or perhaps a local custom?

If this were just a note for a date, Ronald would have glanced at it and then thrown it into the trash, never giving it any further attention.

But a note like a coded message laid out before him...

Simply put,

the flames of curiosity began to burn fiercely in his mind.

He was completely unconcerned!

Holding this thin note, Ronald didn’t take his eyes off it for even a second, and he started pacing in circles around his room.

He was confident he could break this coded message!

For an adult who received modern education, decoding such things was practically a basic skill!

"Numbers..."

"My name..."

"There are four lines of content..."

Generally speaking, without a codebook and with only one coded message, without a calculator of Laplace’s demon caliber, it would be nearly impossible.

But since the other party had slipped the note quietly into his pocket, it meant they intended to tell him something.

Since the purpose was to convey information,

then this code must have a possible solution for him.

Only before getting the information itself, he would need to break through the challenge set by the other party.

It was like needing to pass a medical exam before joining the military; those who didn’t qualify wouldn’t have the chance.

So...

How to break the code?

Ronald’s brain was running at high speed.

Looking at the structure of the note, the focus could first be placed on two areas.

One was the beginning of the note, where the number [687] appeared just once as a significantly large three-digit number, followed by a lone combination of a letter and the number 2, [C2].

——[687--C2]

Then the second point was his own name.

As the only clear noun appearing in the entire text, this content could also be key to the decryption.

——[166--Ronald--46]

"..."

"No, it’s probably not my name..."

"The real key lies in 687 and C2."

In just two or three breaths, Ronald had already eliminated the numbers near his own name.

In fact, he had taken history as an elective in college.

Based on the experiences of legendary figures from World War II, he had already structured the most basic logic.

According to normal thinking, the code sent to him must be breakable, hence there must be a corresponding codebook.

The name Ronald wouldn’t be found in the codebook, that’s why it had to be clearly written out.

Thus, he began focusing on [687--C2], the first number being large and appearing only once.

[687]...

It is likely the page number of a book!

As for [C2]...

"Right!"

Ronald immediately realized what [C2] most likely represented.

——Typesetting.

This world’s books, in their content-heavy volumes, adopted a two-column format, splitting a single page down the middle, each side containing a column of text.

Under the premise that [687] was designated as a page number.

This [C2] likely refers to the second column of page 687!

Now, with that thought, the following numbers became much simpler.

Each number corresponded to a word’s code, and all one needed was to find it in a cipher book.

Thinking this, Ronald slowly turned his head toward his bookshelf.

During his time living in Bolunwei, he had acquired many books for personal enjoyment, and his bookshelf was nearly filled to the brim; he even crammed some important newspapers into the gaps between the books.

Which book could it be...?

First, legendary stories or biographical novels could be ruled out.

These types of books, due to different publishers, had great variations in content even on the same page number.

Next, newspapers and magazines could also be excluded.

After all, these items in themselves did not reach the page number of 687.

Lastly, geographic magazines and food guides could also be disregarded.

These types of books typically have straightforward and professional vocabulary, lacking the rich vocabulary needed to construct the message encoded in the cipher.

So, the conclusion arrived.

This cipher book.

Was a uniformly published, thick-paged, and content-rich book.

Soon, Ronald’s gaze locked onto the "Bolunwei Chronicles—37" on the shelf.

This annual, published this year, was absolutely consistent in content.

In terms of thickness and vocabulary richness, it perfectly met the cipher book’s requirements!

"..."

"It’s you."

Ronald walked over, pulled out the annual, and directly flipped to page 687.

On the second vertical column at the edge of the annual, he pressed his finger against the slightly rough paper and began to pick out words according to their sequence numbers.

"This is—our—invitation—to—you."

"Dear—Mr.—Ronald—we—know—you—are—the—’Book Controller’."

"And—a—complete—genius—at—decrypting—successfully."

"A—kind—reminder—for—you—the warden—is—a—traitor."

As the decryption ended, Ronald was struck as if by lightning.

He stood there stupefied for a long while, his mouth eventually curling into a bitter smile.

"..."

"I’d really wish it were an invitation to a young girl’s secret meeting."

What was this?

The decrypted sentences were quite fluent, and each piece of information was explosively significant.

His identity as the ’Book Controller,’ was already exposed to an unknown entity...

No, considering the opposing party’s operational speed and methods.

Ronald was more inclined to believe that it was an organization.

Even if he were to find the ’certain young girl’ who stuffed the note to him today.

With their capabilities, it was likely that the outcome would still yield nothing.

And then there was the warden.

With no redundant vocabulary used, the opposing party directly pointed out that the warden was Bolunwei’s Magician conspirator within.

——The warden is a traitor.

Ronald’s exposure of emotional capabilities in his magic...

The investigator’s actions and the magic systems used...

Even to the extent of the Magicians daring to confront the Investigation Bureau only to scurry away disgracefully in the end...

If all this traced back to the warden.

With his dual access to communicate with the Investigation Bureau and the inmates, along with his strength as the ’Book Controller’.

Everything made sense.

Not to mention tonight, the warden was also attending the banquet accompanied by the girls from Black Mountain.

Thump——

Sitting back down on the chair, Ronald felt somewhat conflicted.

Decrypting the cipher message was quite simple.

But he always felt that something was a bit off?

According to the usual scenario, wasn’t he doing things a bit too excessively?

Waiting for ten days or half a month to find the key to decrypt the message, wasn’t that what normally should have happened?

A seemingly commonplace banquet ended up involving so many complex issues.

How could he possibly sleep peacefully tonight!

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