Pokémon Detective Case Files

Chapter 293 The Flaw in the Puzzle

Chapter 295 The Flaw in the Puzzle

So, quite a lot happened back then, when we fought against Team Galactica two years ago. — Officer Jenny assessed the two versions of events presented by Professor Medan and Director Hayden, frowning as she fell into deep thought.

Leaving aside the intricate, subtle planning of the Red Sun, the League's preventative measures, and the covert activities of the detectives, from Officer Jenny's perspective as a League intelligence officer, the underground war that swept through Sinnoh could be roughly divided into the following stages: First, the evil organization, having already revealed its true colors, adopted a confrontational stance, directing its lower-ranking members to carry out sabotage operations, challenging the authority of the Sinnoh League, and officially announcing Team Galactic's existence to the world. Taking advantage of the League's unpreparedness, Team Galactic, in collusion with others, stole the Adamant Orb and the White Orb, which were stored at the League headquarters, amidst the chaos.

The struggle then entered a stalemate, during which the Sinnoh League, which began to fight back, frequently clashed with Team Galactic, who suffered repeated defeats.

However, the three most powerful members of the evil organization did not participate in any combat operations at this time, but instead led a small number of elite troops.

They split into three groups to blast and pump out the water from the lakes, find the caves underwater in Lake Heart, Lake Will, and Lake Wisdom, capture the legendary Pokémon that guard the three lakes of Sinnoh, and use them to forge the Red Chain.

This incident later angered believers in the divine, and indirectly affected Professor Medan's reputation in the future, causing this atheist to be harassed by followers who called themselves the Society of Arceus.

Then came the final stage. In the final moments before their destruction, Team Galactic's madness escalated. Red Sun ascended Mt. Coronet, activating the energy of the two orbs and summoning Dialga and Palkia, causing them to fight and weaken each other. Finally, he personally intervened, binding these two time-traveling Pokémon together with red chains, attempting to control them to destroy the world.

To create a new universe.

Well, based solely on the video footage the league obtained at the time, Medan's claim of a "howling monster" cannot be completely denied:

After all, those two had just emerged from the spacetime rift when they encountered their sworn enemies. They had just finished a fight when they were trapped by humans using mythological artifacts. It was indeed difficult to expect the two gods at that time to display the divinity commensurate with their powers.

At this stage, the commercial entities that the Galactic Clusters originally used to raise funds were no longer relevant. Crimson Sun didn't hesitate to abandon the Cosmic Energy Development Corporation and other industries, as if cutting off his own tail to survive. Even if it only served to mislead the public, it would still contribute to his plans.

It is likely that Hayden acquired the research legacy of the development team at this time.

At that time, Hayden had just finished sorting out the research legacy of the evil organization when he received a request for help from his old classmate. Over there, the online public opinion of "fighting blasphemers with superstition" had already fermented, and Medan was beginning to suffer the consequences of his past careless words. He had already considered giving up his research and moving overseas. As his sponsor, Hayden naturally wanted to help his old classmate find a solution.

By a stroke of luck, the renovation plan for the Mori Mansion was put on the agenda. Since the project was approved largely due to Hayden's personal interests, the person in charge could only be selected from among Hayden's trusted employees. Thus, the capable and hardworking Manager Aying stood out and took office with the construction team, becoming the person in charge of the Mori Mansion renovation project.

At the fastest speed and with high quality, Aying transformed the Forest Mansion into a landscape art hidden deep in the forest. She not only renovated the interior environment to its original appearance, but also added a basement floor to the mansion according to the employer's requirements.

After inspecting the mansion, Hayden, satisfied, gifted the building—which he had no land use rights to—to his old classmate, along with an assistant and a maid to further assist the elderly man's research. Meanwhile, Medan was also terrified by the threatening letter that had been broken into through the window.

They dared not dawdle any longer and immediately moved into Baidai Forest with their daughter, who was about to go to university.

At this point, all the people connected within the Forest Mansion were now linked together. During the time Officer Jenny and Cynthia hadn't set foot in the mansion, they each went about their own lives peacefully.

Until that bloody android head was placed on the shelf in the attic storage room.

Officer Jenny frowned, as if she had fallen into a deeper labyrinth of thought.

While the chain of events above can certainly be linked together, there seem to be a lot of coincidences involved.

It's like someone planted a sunflower garden, but as the sunflowers grew, they became more and more crowded until they completely exceeded the number planted. This usually means that there are imposter sunflower monsters disguised as sunflowers that have infiltrated the garden!

Meanwhile, as midnight approached, Cynthia, feeling responsible as the Sinnoh Champion, tried to pull her thoughts away from the alluring ancient text in her hands and focus her attention on analyzing the pointless intimidation case before her.

Unlike her detective brother, who excels at logical deduction, Zhu Lan prefers to rely on her intuition and experience when faced with difficult problems. After all, in a battle where victory is a fleeting opportunity, there is no room for the luxury of "thinking time."

He briefly recalled everything he had heard and seen since stepping into this forest mansion, then cleared his mind as if facing an oncoming enemy attack in a battle, and acted on his instincts in a split second.

A sudden intuition arose in Zhu Lan's mind. It was like the instinctive dodge of a punch to the side.

Now, that instinct stemming from her fighting talent tells Cynthia that the incident happening at the Forest Mansion is more likely, as Hayden said, related to the already destroyed Team Galactic, than the Arceus Society that Professor Medan mentioned.

No, she and Officer Jenny had already suspected the connection between the Forest Mansion and Team Galactic before even entering the mansion. Hayden was merely reiterating the information he already possessed; it wasn't really inspiration. The real clue lay in the fact that the events at the Forest Mansion in the first half of the story had nothing to do with the Arceus Society.

Such wishful thinking and intuition are of course unreliable, but Zhu Lan is not Hugo. She does not have the dignity of a detective, does not need to navigate the rules of reason, and does not need to make every word she says the correct answer.

If she guesses wrong this time, she'll guess again. Just like in a battle, she constantly dodges and parries, observing her opponent's attacks. As long as she isn't knocked down, she'll eventually seize the final opportunity for victory.

Judging from the current speculation alone, Zhu Lan's luck seems to be not bad.

Working backward from this intuitive conclusion, and re-examining Professor Medan's testimony, many of his statements suddenly become points of contention worthy of in-depth investigation, as glaring as a flaw exposed by an opponent in battle. According to Medan, due to the widespread dissemination of his past lecture videos, he was harassed by fanatical followers of the Arceus Society. Therefore, with Hayden's financial support, he moved into the Forest Mansion, where he finally lived a peaceful and secluded life. However, the followers there relentlessly pursued him and, two years later, launched another intimidation campaign against him.

This argument seems reasonable at first glance, but it is actually full of loopholes.

Meidan's speech video was fleeting on the internet, as evidenced by Officer Jenny's reaction upon hearing about it; nowadays, hardly anyone remembers it. If I hadn't been following news in the academic world of mythology, I wouldn't have remembered this old story either.

No matter how unpleasant Mei Dan's sarcastic and cynical speech was, it was still a public statement, and based on past impressions, it couldn't have been so offensive as to involve direct insults.

The most crucial point is that, regardless of the outcome of the debate at the time, people's understanding of the existence of deities has now shifted more towards the side that benefits religion. Professor Medan was a loser, and people tend to be more forgiving of losers.

With such a gradual reduction, would hatred really persist for two years?

If the hatred that Medan left in the hearts of his fanatical followers was so deep that they still pursued the intimidation two years later, then the anger should have been even stronger at the time. Why would those followers have given Medan two years to live in seclusion?

As Mei Dan said, tracing a family's new address after they moved is not a difficult task. If that's the case, why did the other party place the skull model now to intimidate people, and not two years ago? Two years ago...

These address information are probably easier to find, right?

And that note stuck behind the stone and thrown through the window—it was clearly a document meant to instill fear, yet it deliberately listed its affiliation at the end. Wasn't that a bit too blatant? The threatening letter was written in such a way that it could easily have been used as evidence to alert the police, but Meidan, who is usually short-tempered and prone to arguments, suddenly backed down, gave up on calling the police, and instead followed Hayden's advice to move the whole family. That also seems a bit odd.

Mythologists excel at tracing the causes of history from what has already become fact.

Intuition leads to speculation, which in turn leads to another. One point of doubt sparks yet another.

Zhu Lan raised her head abruptly, her gray eyes widening as she looked at the interior wall of the Mori Mansion, which she had been paying close attention to since entering. She then looked at the android head placed on the chair, her gaze sweeping over Hayden and Mei Dan before finally settling on the ancient document in her hand, which was covered by wooden boards on both sides and contained poems.

"Oh, so that's how it is!" The Sinnoh champion breathed a sigh of relief.

There's no need to care about reasoning, evidence, or logic; all you need to do is seize the flaw in the puzzle to deliver a fatal blow.