Unable to repay my student loans, I had no choice but to work part-time as a demon hunter.

The last problem Vera did was 72 ÷ 8, and she wrote a "9" in her answer that was so bold it seemed to penetrate the paper.

Gordon was speechless with excitement when he saw the answer.

educate!

The spark of human civilization...

He actually managed to set it on fire.

Gordon checked the answers and found that he had gotten 17 out of 20 questions right. The remaining 3 questions, although they ended up with different deaths, did not affect the overall outcome.

"Okay, you win. Have you ever thought about going to college?"

"I could kill everyone in the university."

"The admissions officers won't like this application," Gordon said.

"Then I won't go."

"What a pity. The school uniform might have suited you better." Gordon scribbled notes on the paper.

Appetite decreased, sense of disorientation gradually weakened, and mood improved.

Conclusion: The treatment is effective.

"Give it to me," Vera said. "I want to write."

"What?"

"Write down your problems." Vera picked up her pen and wrote about Gordon under her medical report.

I spent the whole day reading. I didn't drink water, only coffee. I didn't eat. I just smiled foolishly at the book, for reasons unknown.

  

"I just loved learning," Gordon said.

"All I see is you laughing at those words and examples," Vera said.

Gordon tried to take back the booklet, but Vera held it down with one hand.

"Miss Cartrett, here is your record," Gordon said.

"Now it's for two people, ours, for both of us," Vera said.

"I am not ill," Gordon said.

"Now you do," Vera said. "Your symptoms are a love of reading and not sleeping."

Gordon paused for a moment.

Yes.

Source material comes at a price, so why shouldn't he? The Unbroken String comes from a spider demon and doesn't care whether Gordon has a student ID or not.

think carefully.

Having refined his skills to the point of no return, Gordon seems to find it easier to trace the connections between things. One anomaly leads to another.

The Blackwater River connects the cultists, the Tidal Birth Ritual, Olivia, the woman living in Lumin, and the unborn Source. These things form an interconnected web in his mind, and as soon as one node reacts, he can't help but want to follow it.

So what if we eat a little later? What if we sleep a little less?

"Maybe a little," Gordon admitted. "I've been chasing answers to all sorts of questions lately."

"How much sleep have you had these past few days?" Vera completely took control, holding a booklet in her left hand and a pen in her right.

"I slept for seven hours at the professor's place and three hours at home," Gordon said. "There was a lot to do."

"Well, my hunger is a problem, but your not sleeping means you have too many things to do."

"Medical judgments must take individual differences into account," Gordon said, feigning seriousness. "You must respect modern medicine."

"Modern medicine seems to care a lot about my feet," Vera said.

"That's an inspection," Gordon said.

Vera stood up, her shadow falling over Gordon, and looked down to examine the bloodshot in his eyes. She touched his hair with her right hand.

"Go and rest," she said.

From that day on, Vera's Health Management Record not only documented a hunter's appetite and mood, but also a college student's interest in knowledge and how well she slept each day.

The two records are sometimes arranged vertically, and sometimes face to face. This is probably the first time that doctors and patients have been supervising each other.

Over the next two days, life became more structured.

Gordon and Vera got up almost at the same time. Vera went to prepare breakfast, while Gordon went to make coffee and read the newspaper before taking the earliest public tram to the university.

In the afternoon, when I don't have classes, I go back to No. 9 Knight Road to study, while also monitoring Vera's food intake to ensure that she is fed regularly, at the same time, and in the same amount.

Gordon is acutely aware of even the smallest food scrap that hides or a piece of beef that disappears when it shouldn't.

In this way, Vera gradually established a routine between meals.

This was also the first time Vera realized that impulses and needs could be separated. Just like how she sometimes rewarded herself, most of the time it was out of boredom, and only a few times it was out of necessity.

Gordon wrote in his journal:

"...Regular eating effectively controlled subjective hunger." He had just finished writing and was about to drink a cup of coffee when Vera's hand unexpectedly reached out and replaced the coffee with milk.

"It's already eight o'clock in the evening," Vera warned.

Gordon shrugged.

The clear private boundaries between them now seem somewhat questionable.

……

Meanwhile, in the Gallia region, Lumin.

At 17 Rue Saint-Michel, Eve Grant is reading a letter from across the river.

This is a woman with full lips, deep eyes, and a bewitching yet dangerous face.

She wore a long black dress with black stockings underneath, with no other color to be found. Her attire was extremely abstinent, yet it couldn't hide her breathtaking curves.

Because the sender's name was Winslow, she didn't throw the letter in the trash immediately. But Gordon Wick's name made her read the letter twice.

An ordinary college student described his discoveries in Lundnium in a letter.

He hid in the Blackwater Hermitage, describing rituals as repetitive acts. The fish king, the water monkey, the deep sea beneath Lundnium—these tales seem cheap, yet in Gordon's writing they take on a connected meaning.

Eve naturally understood what Gordon was trying to say.

I have a lead. Come to Lundnim, let's do something big.

Eve smiled and set the letter aside, then pulled out the second document, the ancient inscription that Gordon wanted her to translate.

Her gaze was focused on what Gao Deng was copying.

It accurately depicts the information described in the rubbing, a result of hand-drawing.

The seaweed-like twisted inscriptions, the symbols alluding to an embryo, the interconnected lines, and every tiny design detail...

What caught her attention was that Gordon had written a few lines of speculation, which, although incomplete, showed insightful observation.

Gordon knew nothing about inscriptions, but he could deduce from the graphic structure that it was not just the fantasy of esotericists, but also a sophisticated engineering structure.

A ritual that elevates one's life level, enabling biological evolution and birth.

Interesting.

Eve understood the meaning behind the ancient inscription, so she took out a piece of paper and began to draft a reply to Gordon.

Dear Mr. Vic...

Eve thought for a moment, crossed out "respected," and rewrote:

...Dear Mr. Vic.

……

On the morning of April 10, Vera brought two letters up from downstairs to Gordon.

"They're all for you," Vera said.

One of the letters was snow-white, with exquisite paper, and bore the emblem of the "Elizabeth Charitable Student Trust Fund".

[The student loan envelope. Do not open it! Do not open it! Do not open it!]

The other one was purple and had an alluring tuberose scent.

[A cute envelope. Open it quickly!]

One represents reality, the other represents hope.

Gordon took a deep breath and resolutely chose to be punched in the face by reality first.

He opened the letter about the student loan.

"Given your approved student loan...interest will accrue normally from the date of disbursement at the rate stipulated in the contract..."

Original gold: 100 gold pounds.

"New interest for this period: 2 gold pounds and 7 silver pounds."

Account maintenance fee: 3 silver pounds.

"Postage for notification: 5 copper cents"

"Total amount due: 102 gold pounds, 10 silver pounds, and 5 copper cents."

The letter concluded by wishing Gordon a happy Good Friday, hoping he would make good use of his knowledge and character at university, and reassuring him that he was currently in a grace period and did not need to repay immediately.

"This is the student loan." Vera finally saw what Gordon had been longing for.

"Hmm." Gordon sighed deeply.

"It secretly adds it up for you."

"It's not stealing, it's outright robbery," Gordon said. "It's calculated every month, and we're notified every quarter."

"It said I don't need to pay it back now," Vera said.

"Yes."

"Your debt will accrue interest."

"Yes."

"And the interest will also become new debt."

"Yes."

"What kind of elemental ability is this?"

"Whatever it is, the other party is definitely a top-tier ability user," Gordon said.

Vera returned to her room.

She found the money she had hidden under the wooden planks, inside the cupboard, and under the windowsill.

"Is this enough?" she asked.

"That's not enough, and that's our emergency fund." Gordon dissuaded them, saying Vera had about 25 gold pounds left. "Promise me, we'll use it when we're starving."

"Okay," Vera said, slightly disappointed.

Gordon did a mental calculation.

He also has nearly 60 gold pounds, a Grey who can shoot, an Unsullied embryo, and a map of underground hydrology left by Harold.

At the moment, what he cares about most is the embryo, and whether Eve can translate the things related to the birth ceremony for him.

Once Gordon obtains his second Source Ability, the situation will improve significantly; what are student loans compared to that?

Gordon took a deep breath and picked up the second letter.

It was a purple letter, clean and beautiful, with a thick contents. Gordon opened the seal, and eight pages of letter paper slid out one by one, with the texture of a work of art.

He carefully placed the letter aside and began to peruse it.

The other party used dark blue ink, and the handwriting was delicate. Just looking at these words, Gordon's mind started working, and he could hallucinate a well-educated and beautiful woman sitting at a table, writing these beautiful words with her pretty hands.

He glanced at the beginning and couldn't help but laugh.

"...Dear Mr. Vic: Please allow me to express my sincere gratitude. I have devoted myself to studying the ancient inscriptions you generously entrusted to me for appreciation; they provide pleasant evidence for some of my less popular judgments in recent years..."

"Is this to thank you?" Vera stood behind Gordon.

"Yeah yeah."

She said her judgment was unpopular.

"It means everyone else is an idiot," Gordon said.

“She could be more direct,” Vera said. “Let me write it… like, ‘Thank you, Gordon. Everyone else is an idiot, we're the two smartest people in the world.’”

"You're right," Gordon said. "Actually, I prefer this style of writing too. If there's a reply, I'll have you write it for me."

Vera nodded in satisfaction.

Gordon continued reading.

On one hand, Eve is very curious about the myth of the Fishing King. She has collected many clues. Some believe that the Fishing King is the monarch of the underwater court, while others say he is an ancient hero sleeping in the "Sea of ​​Sinking Stars." Still others say that the position of Fishing King is vacant, waiting for someone to inherit it. And all the information indicates that the Fishing King's power is closely related to "fertility."

On the other hand, Eve translated the inscriptions on the ancient rubbings, and in her view, the entire inscription discussed only one theme:

How should we artificially create a birth?

Gordon got serious.

This young lady was clearly very knowledgeable about esoteric Buddhist texts.

Winslow had a reason for not wanting the two of them to meet: if they were face-to-face, Gordon could talk to her for days.

"She's dangerous," Vera said.

How did you know?

"You're smiling very happily."

"It's gratifying to meet excellent colleagues," Gordon said dismissively.

At the end of the letter, Eve raised her only question.

She pointed out that the center of the rubbing depicts an embryo with some wrinkles, resembling a dried fruit, which is not surprising.

The strangest thing is that there is a set of inconspicuous symbols around the embryo pattern, which looks like an elongated and twisted eye, or two spiral curves chasing each other but never meeting.

Ancient rubbings are often depicted in a rough and hasty manner, and Gao Deng had previously regarded them as mere decorations.

After all, ancient texts often depicted water monsters, wind roses, and walking rabbits in the blank spaces.

Eve, however, believes that this set of symbols expresses an independent concept. It may involve meanings such as inheritance, transmission, bestowal, and shaping, or even be the key to the entire ritual.

She left Gordon with three questions.

"What exactly carries all the instructions needed for an embryo to develop into its full potential?"

What made us humans look the way we do now?

Why do children resemble their parents?

Finally, she also wrote:

"Mr. Vic, if you can uncover the secrets here, perhaps you will be able to understand the most important and easily overlooked part of this ritual."

Gordon seemed somewhat lost.

He looked at the small textures surrounding the "embryo" on the ancient rubbing.

[The symbols on the rubbing. Take a guess.]

Looking closely, he saw two long, intertwined lines with small dots in the middle, resembling tadpoles, but now, in his mind's eye, they looked like horizontal bars. Even though they were rough, distorted, and out of proportion, he gradually understood.

...In the world he came from, this thing had a more definite idea.

It appears in biology textbooks and in the logos of pharmaceutical companies.

Double helix.

Genetic information.

It can replicate and transmit... the code that guides the development of life.