Part 68: Library 2
Snake was silent for a moment after they arrived, then finally crossed his arms and spoke.
and why I made sure Clover did as well. [Music: Riddle and Puzzle]
To be honest, the explanation is quite simple.
He didn't walk up and tell me, of course. He gave me a message engraved on a card.Snake reached into his sleeve and pulled out a small, stiff piece of paper.
So you had 2 cards.
Huh? What do you mean?
I thought that card just had some rules for the Nonary Game on it... Yes, it did. And those were the rules I read you. 
However...
There was something I didn't read.
And that was...?
Oh... Well, um...Snake nodded.
Well, what about Clover? Did she get a message from Zero too?
I don't believe she did.
Yeah, that does seem a little weird. To be on the safe side, however, I told her it was best not to tell anyone. Still...apparently she told you. That girl... What's wrong with her telling me?
Hmm... I mean, it looks like the whole "activate her detonator" thing was just a bluff.
Snake glanced down at Clover and Seven, examining one of the bookshelves.
That's very true. I've decided I can trust you. I've decided to tell you the truth.
I feel I can assume Santa doesn't have the time to observe us at the moment. And at any rate, even if he were, I very much doubt he would kill us. Why not?
Clover told me about the 4-leaf clover. About the words.
I'm sure of it.
No matter what the situation was...Snake paused, and cocked his head, as though he was listening to something very far away.
[Music: Silence]
His face looked dark, as though something was weighing on him.
Hey, uh...Snake...Junpei wasn't quite sure what to say.
Snake turned and looked at him.
Yeah. How much do you know?Junpei relayed to Snake everything Clover had told him.
[Music: Imaginary]
And finally.. He told him how a girl had died during the experiment...
He made as if to brush something from his face, and looked up at Junpei.
At any rate, I now know how much you've learned. All that remains for us to determine...
Yes. Can you tell me what happened?Snake nodded slowly.
The people who organized the initial 
There were 4 of them running the show...
[Nagisa Nijisaki], [Teruaki Kubota], [Kagechika Musashidou]
It was these 4 people who planned the initial experiment. Hmm... Let me simplify it for you. Hongou designed it, and Nijisaki put it all together. Kubota developed the technology required, and Musashidou provided the cash.
Of course, more than 4 people were required to conduct an experiment of this scale. To that end, they organized a top-secret team to assist them with their research.
Those 10 completed their team, and they were able to begin the project.
The purpose of the experiment was to research the prospect of controlling a human mind through sheer will.
... Why did the glycerin suddenly begin to crystallize? Why did the crystal structure of EDT undergo a sudden change? Why did the rats improve their puzzle-solving skills with each generation?
The more people who knew the answer to a question the more people there were who could answer correctly without having seen the problem before. Why? How? ... The answer is that the "shape" of the answer has been stored in a field invisible to the naked eye. And through that field the [resonant event] transmits information related to that answer.
But that's just a theory... Can't bring yourself to believe it? Not really... Let's say someone killed another person because the devil told them to do it. Whether the devil exists or not has no relevance to the murderer.
So what matters here is that Hongou believed in the morphogenetic field...Snake nodded.
But I still don't get it...
Right? That is what you were saying...? Yes. So how were they going to do that with a morphogenetic field? I'll keep it simple.
The chance of you knowing that answer, even if no one has told you, will go up. Let's have another example, shall we? Say 1,000,000 people were to do a hand-stand right now. Tomorrow, the chances of you doing a hand-stand would be higher, even if you had heard nothing of this hypothetical mass hand-standing.
All of the resonant events encoded in the fields are projected onto you. Of course, this assumes you believe in this theory. Do you follow so far? Yeah... But let's say, hypothetically...
What would happen?
other people would find themselves wanting to do hand-stands as well. Can you imagine what a person with powers like that would be able to do? C'mon, there's no way-- I'm not done. Imagine another scenario. Imagine another person...
What if there was someone who could grab the resonant event he created by doing that...
... A person who has the power to write to the field and someone who can read from the same. You could think of them as the Writer and 
What would the world be like if there were people with abilities like these?Junpei thought about it for a moment.
So the transmitter's resonant event can be transmitted through the field and sent to the receiver.
That's what you're saying, right? Yes. Close enough, at least. C'mon, that's just crazy--
...At least, that was how they thought. That was why they decided to do their experiment.
Snake suddenly looked very serious.
I think that Junpei's response here changes depending on whether or not you've seen the Sub Ending. Since we've seen it, he knows what it is.
Junpei nodded.
Yeah, that was an experiment in telepathy, right? They put a pair of subjects in separate rooms. Then they'd show one of them a picture, and ask the other one what they saw. Interesting. I'm impressed. Yes, that is exactly correct. So... Why'd you bring up the Ganzfeld experiment?
The hospital in a remote town was affiliated with Cradle Pharmaceutical.
Some of them, he found, had potential. He began to gather children that showed promise... Children that seemed as though they might be able to access the field. Of course, none of them volunteered.
His face barely moved as he spoke.
From the experiments he had conducted so far, Hongou had learned the following:
There are two things that can increase one's resonance with the fields. The first is epiphany. The other is danger.
Have you ever been faced with an especially difficult problem, and thought about it very long and very hard, until finally an answer suddenly appeared in your mind? It may seem obvious to say so, but that is what is meant by "epiphany".
The information obtained through that epiphany can be easily transmitted through the fields, where it can be easily interpreted.
Adding danger to that equation allows for even easier field access.
Hongou explained the situation to the children in Group Q:
Do you know why the astronauts of Apollo 13 were able to return to Earth safely?
It was because NASA had access to a replica of the Apollo 13 capsule.
All of the equipment, the instruments, everything. All of it identical.
Once they had found solutions, they reported their findings to the men aboard the actual capsule.
That was how they were able to return safely.
That is the simplest explanation I can manage.Snake sounded defeated.
His half-hearted attempt at derision served only to show how much the story had affected him.
Just as Junpei was about to speak--
[Music: Silence]
Get down here already!Seven's voice echoed up from below.
Snake took a deep breath and blinked rapidly, as if just waking up from a long nap.
Let's go, shall we? We don't have much time. We need to get out of here, and soon.Snake headed for the stairs, but Junpei put out an arm to stop him.
Hold it. There's one more thing I want to ask you. ...?
Why...? Well... I thought it was only 16... Oh... Yes, that was what they said on the news, wasn't it? Yes, I have no doubt that 18 children were abducted, and used in Hongou's experiment.
Well, yeah, but... Are you saying that the news got it wrong? Yes, I am. There were 2 more children.
I imagine no one filed a police report when they went missing. They were brother and sister, like Clover and I.
The sister's name was... Her name was...Snake couldn't seem to bring himself to continue.
It looked as if what he was about to say brought him great pain.
[Music: Trepidation]
Everything was...blank...
If she had, then...who was June?
No...no! That was impossible.
It couldn't be true...
Junpei shook his head, hard, and pulled himself back to reality.
Then Snake had noticed...
Junpei cleared his throat and tried to act calm.
Oh, no, it's nothing. I'm fine. Let's get back down there, all right?Snake raised an eyebrow, but said nothing. He headed down the stairs, Junpei bringing up the rear.
With every step he took, the cold, hard sound of feet against metal dug at his heart.
[Music: Octal Game]
Well, that was quite a lot of stuff all at once. Some of it we already knew, but a bit of it was new too.
Ah well, might as well finish up here now.
We know what we're looking for over here, at least, so it should be nice and easy to deal with.
But didn't it say "5" at the end of the shadow picture?" Yes... I think we need to find the 5th volume.
I guess we should press this button.
What was that sound!? It sounded like something really big was moving!
All right, let's go check it out!Now that we've pressed the button, we can finally see the exit. Might as well go and use it, right?
The door on the left doesn't give us anything interesting, sadly, so we're gonna try the right one instead.
NNNNNNNNAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAARGHHH! (Nothing. I might as well try to open a wall.) I know you're feeling kind of rushed...
It's not going to get you anywhere... ... There's only one thing we can do. Let's go.You'd think that we'd be done already, but it's locked. Figures.
That should mean that whatever this thing is, it's what we need to get out.
And there are 4 Roman numerals on the wall. It's gotta be a hint of some sort...
Do you think we just need to put in the numbers from the wall on the keyboard?
No, you can't.
You can't type in stuff like "3" or "4". Hmmm...Then that means...
It doesn't really matter what the password isn't, since that doesn't tell us what it is. Might as well just try and see if we can get it.
Yeah, but you can only enter letters...
Hmmm... Let's give it a shot!
Seven, you're a goddamn liar. I can see number keys clear as day! Sure, we can't use them, but they exist.
...Shame that I have no earthly idea what the passcode could be, though.
(What the hell is the point of these Roman-- What is Snake doing?) These Roman numerals... If you convert them to Arabic numerals...
True... But this keyboard only has letters, and we can only enter 4 letters.
Convert the numbers...to letters?Sadly, MNJM doesn't work. Well, that's gibberish so it'd be weirder if it did.
Hey, Junpei, I was thinking... Isn't this kinda like that other one? Other one what?
Hmm... nope. Not ringing any bells. I don't see how morse code's gonna help us here.
Don't you remember, Junpei? That thing in the captain's room. You put in letters for numbers, remember?
Do the opposite...?I'm out of ideas. Might as well just try 4 letter combinations until we luck out, I suppose. Start with AAAA...
(no, not really)
Junpei, you idiot! Idiot idiot idiot! H-Hey, calm down, Junpei! Just think about the numbers we've got, all right? Okay? You mean the "13", "14", "10", and "13"? Yeah. They're all under 16, right? Yeah...they are... So, how do you write "11" in hexadecimal, Junpei? Uh..."B", right? How about "12"? That'd be "C". And "15"? "F", of course. Then what are "10", "13", and "14"?
Good, because I do too.
It's pretty obvious that "DEAD" is going to be...
Correct, of course. It's really quite easy to figure this one out in no time, since it comes not long after the captain's quarters and all.
...Plus, 4 letter words that'd be relevant and fit the pattern given are very limited. The puzzles are kinda predictable in that sense.
It's unlocked now! Good job, Junpei!
Whoa there, don't get too excited... The password was "DEAD", remember?
So what? Geez. You're such an old lady. We can't be worrying about stuff like that. I mean come on... We got it to unlock, didn't we? Let's go! Hurry up! ...With that done, we CAN now leave. No reason to stick around any longer than necessary, so let's move on.
Snake concept art #3.