Chapter 45 Totem, Jay's Village Mission

"What?" Jiang Lai asked.

Young Zhenyi thought about it and said, "He said that useless people give useful people more living space, isn't that a good thing?"

Jiang Lai paused slightly at this remark, but he still had a gentle smile on his face and continued, "Then, how did Xiao Zhenyi answer?"

"I don't quite understand what Brother Xia Yu means." Zenin Shin'ei rubbed the edge of her sleeves. "I asked him, what is a useless person?"

"When I was at the Zen temple, they all said I was a useless guy. But my sister said I was her best and most wonderful sister. So am I a useless person?"

"Hmm... then how did Jie Jun answer you?"

"Getashi-nii didn't answer me," Zenin Shinji slightly raised her head, her dark green hair drooping diagonally behind her, "he just touched my head."

With such a response... Jiang Lai was silent for two seconds. After a few breaths, he smiled again, "No more?"

"That seems to be about it." Xiao Zhenyi tried hard to recall the past. It was difficult for a child to remember the past clearly. "He seemed to have said something before he left. I don't know if it was a reply - he told me not to be afraid."

Jiang Lai's mind was full of thoughts. He was trying to guess the meaning behind these words.

In the original work, Geto Suguru only targeted non-spellcasters and believed that the existence of ordinary people was meaningless.

However, due to the influence of the regulatory board, the question of "whether sorcerers should be divided into different levels" seems to be raised here.

But the last sentence "Don't be afraid" seems to reveal some protective meaning of Xia Yujie. He does not completely agree with the views of the regulatory commission.

However, even so, the current Geto Summer seems to be leaning towards a new path that is different from what he once insisted on.

The reason he embarked on that path was not only his own subjective factors, but also the push from the regulatory authorities behind the scenes.

After playing with Zenin Maki and Mayi for a while, Jiang Lai and Gojo Satoru got up and left - the two kids still had their own study tasks, and today was not a holiday.

On the way back to the dormitory, Jiang Lai asked casually, "Have you three rarely been together lately?"

"Yeah, there are so many missions. Why are there so many cursed spirits this summer?" Gojo Satoru immediately started complaining upon hearing this.

"Although they are all weaklings in my eyes, it is annoying to have too many of them. Especially when there are many intelligent cursed spirits, they want to take hostages, negotiate deals, etc., which causes a lot of trouble."

"I feel it. You've worked so hard." Jiang Lai nodded. "You've recovered better. Jiejun seems to be particularly tired recently."

"Jay... probably because, in addition to carrying out missions, he also has to deal with those senior executives." Gojo Satoru thought for a moment and said.

Dealing with the top brass? Jiang Lai raised his eyebrows slightly, and he said, "Does Jiejun still have contact with the top brass?"

"Aren't there supposed to be regular mission reports or something? Summary reports. I don't know why the top management has this process..." Gojo Satoru crossed his hands behind his head, "Anyway, I don't want to see those guys' faces at all. Jay took the initiative to suggest that he should go in the future, and he also took the sophomores and first years with him to report together."

Is he responsible for reporting all the missions? If so, in addition to the missions he is carrying out, Geto will also see more difficulties and casualties of sorcerers in carrying out their missions. Jiang Lai thought.

He tilted his head and said to Gojo Satoru in a gentle voice, "Look how hard he works, why don't you help him share the burden once or twice?"

"I've said it before. I said, 'I'll help you write the mission report', 'I'll go meet those old guys this time' and so on, but Jay refused." Gojo Satoru looked ahead, and his raised voice lowered slightly at this time, "Jay has something on his mind - but he won't say it."

Gojo Satoru sensed his friend's absence. Jiang Lai was slightly surprised, and then recalled that in the original manga, when he was in high school, Gojo Satoru once said to his junior Ichichi, "You are not suitable to be a sorcerer. Know yourself and take the ordinary certificate exam to be an assistant supervisor."

——This shows that although Gojo at this age is arrogant and casual, he also cares about the situations of the people around him, but the way he expresses it is not very nice.

"You'll let him go if Jiejun doesn't tell you?" Jiang Lai half-jokingly said, "I thought you would cry, make a scene, or even hang yourself."

"How could I be like this? I asked him two or three times, but he didn't tell me. He just said things like 'bitter summer' or 'maybe he ate too much cold noodles'. Why did I keep asking him?"

Gojo Satoru snorted and turned his face away. "If he doesn't want to tell me, then forget it. I don't care anyway!"

"..." Jiang Lai paused for two or three seconds, and said seriously, "Next time, I will recommend a book called "Communication Bible" to Jay, and a book called "One-trick guide to high emotional intelligence speech" to you."

Gojo Satoru Half Moon Eyes: "Hey, what do you mean?"

After two or three seconds of silence, the white-haired boy put down his hands behind his head and slowed down his pace.

"It's not like he didn't say anything... Jay once told me that no matter whether he had thought it through or not, he had to follow a path that had already been paved."

Paved road? Jiang Lai's warm brown eyes flickered: "How do you understand it?"

"I think Jie is under too much pressure. Maybe he doesn't want to be a sorcerer anymore. After all, being a sorcerer does require a lot of work." Gojo Satoru looked up at the sky through his sunglasses. "After this busy period is over, I will treat Jie to a few more meals to help him recuperate."

"And then you got fat and went back?" Jiang Lai still said with a smile.

"Of course! I will watch Jie while he eats, and stuff him with meat and sweets like crazy," Gojo Satoru raised his head slightly, showing his youthful vigor. He chuckled, "Let Jie stop eating cold noodles - summer will be over soon."

Jiang Lai frowned, but he didn't say anything more at this point.

After all, it seemed a little too late.

The sentence "Whether you have thought it through or not, you have to follow a path that has already been paved" may well be the operation that the regulator has been doing all along.

Whether actively or passively, up to now, Geto Suguru seems to have been pushed to the edge.

Jiang Lai put all the clues together and saw it very clearly.

According to Jin'er's previous statement that "there was a time when the game passed twice and nothing happened during the second One Hundred Demons Night Parade", as well as the speculation in the forum about Gojo Satoru's prophecy, this world should have the purpose of restarting for a second time.

In this way, perhaps the current round will be such an unstoppable trial and error period, until the boy learns to grow after the loss and recognizes the hidden enemy.

What I can do is to collect as many clues as possible during this period of time and prepare for the future.

Jiang Lai looked ahead and asked, "How is the pattern on Jiejun's forehead now?"

"I still don't know what that is." Gojo Satoru paused for half a second and kicked the stone under his feet. "I saw him unbandage it last month, and that thing was still growing. Now it looks a bit like... half a sun or something."

"Half a sun?"

"It's the unfinished half of the sun," Gojo Satoru gestured, "a more abstract totem pattern."

Sun Totem? Jiang Lai paused for two or three seconds again, and then said, "Really? This thing sounds a bit abstract."

"I even looked through the old books in the high school library, but I didn't find anything." Gojo Satoru groaned, "Maybe it's a product of some religion he believed in when he was a child... But Jay seems to have only come into contact with the Supervisory Commission, right? Could it be this?"

"It's hard to say." Jiang Lai replied.

Gojo Satoru raised his head and then looked away: "That makes sense. I'll pay more attention to this and see if I can find anything."

——

The next few days were a rare leisure time. Gojo Satoru and Geto Suguru had no missions.

After completing her medical training in anatomy, Ieiri Shoko agreed to have Gojo Satoru use a technique to completely destroy Yuikawa Kuritai's body.

Before the body was destroyed, Jiang Lai went to take another look at it.

The light brown-haired boy lying flat on his back didn't look much different from before, and nothing could be seen on his forehead.

But Jiang Lai knew that there was something there.

Just yesterday, the manga updated another chapter, which depicts the appearance of Yuukawa Kurita's forehead from the perspective of Geto Suguru - there is a complex sun totem pattern there.

Combined with the previous conversation with Gojo Satoru, Jiang Lai almost immediately thought of it - the black pattern on Geto's forehead continued to extend and grow half the size of the sun, and when it became the finished version, it would probably look like Yuukawa Kurita's forehead at this moment.

At that time, the great detective of the scientific world, Kudo Shinichi, also sent a simple analysis email.

Now, his classmates who follow comics are trying to make him an analyst every day, and they even encourage him to publish his reasoning works in magazines like Anime Express, so that he can earn some royalties (although Kudo is not short of money).

[#工藤新一#: The sun is usually the core of mythology, but this pattern is not about Japanese belief. If we only extract the main meaning, this totem probably symbolizes a kind of "core" and "universal illumination".]

Below, he attached two pictures, which are details of the sun totem magnified countless times.

——The brushstrokes that make up this pattern are not solid lines, but rather small, connected irises.

[#工藤新一#: This thing... seems to be related to the regulatory commission. There are many flower languages ​​of iris, but most of them do not fit.

After eliminating all the above, we can trace back to the earliest history - in ancient Egypt, irises and lotuses formed the "Tree of Life" pattern, so its most original meaning is "resurrection" and "life". I think this point should be useful.]

[#工藤新一#: I don’t know the exact situation on your side, I wish you all the best.]

Jiang Lai read the entire email, replied with a thank you, and then integrated all the information in his mind.

In this case, we can roughly infer the results:

This totem pattern is related to the Regulatory Commission and is a mark of more internal core members.

Marks of incomplete versions (such as Geto's) can be seen.

The mark of the complete version (such as Yuukawa Kuritai's) is not easy to find. It seems that it can only be seen by people within the regulatory committee (such as Kagome Ken) after a period of time after the original body has died.

Thinking about it this way, it corresponds to the point that "the core members of the regulatory committee are kept confidential" that I heard at the beginning. The core members who are fully marked will basically not be discovered by outsiders.

Judging from the fact that Yuukawa Kuritai is not afraid of death, if it has nothing to do with his technique, then it must be related to the situation within the regulatory agency - just like Kudo Shinichi's email analysis, "Resurrection and Life".

The totem pattern on the forehead of core members may be a collective contract constraint.

Combining the previous "feed" theory and the missing population in society, could it be that they are infinitely extended by using other people's lives? Jiang Lai boldly guessed. And the core members with complete marks can share this benefit.

Honestly... If I can't die, this enemy is too hard to defeat. I must find a way to destroy the root.

His thoughts became heavy and he couldn't help but turn his attention to Geto Xia.

When the building was abandoned before, Geto Suguru had no idea what this was and even asked himself to take a picture.

But now it seems that he probably already knows the meaning of this mark.

In addition to benefits, this label should also have constraints.

Therefore, Geto Xiayou cannot free himself, and after struggling mentally, he can only follow the "paved road" forward.

On the one hand, he took that path because of his own overlapping theories of the "right way". On the other hand, there were also some objective and unavoidable factors involved.

Jiang Lai kept thinking about it until Gojo Satoru finished dealing with the corpse in a dashing manner and strode back with a ruthless step.

He held Xia Yujie in one hand and called Jiang Lai and Jia Ru Xiaozi with the other, saying that they must go out for a good meal today.

Ieiri Naoko said, "Today? Aren't you going to be on a mission this afternoon? Isn't the time too tight?"

"Forget it, Satoru." Xia Yujie raised his hand and gently pushed Gojo Satoru, "Wait until the mission is over before you come back to eat."

Jiang Lai blinked and asked curiously, "What mission do you two need to do together?"

Arrange two special-grade sorcerers to go, what kind of curse spirit has such a grand arrangement! Jiang Lai said that the curse spirit can burn incense in advance.

However, Gojo Satoru shook his head: "No, Jie and I are not traveling together. It just so happens that we both received new mission arrangements and have to leave this afternoon."

"As for Satoru, it's a mission to Osaka." Xia Yujie said in a gentle voice, "My mission is a little closer, but the road is not easy to travel. The village where the mission is located is quite remote. After parking on the main road, you have to walk the second half of the journey."

A relatively remote village? Jiang Lai's heart paused for a moment, and almost instantly he thought of the last mission of Xia Yujie when he rebelled in the original work - a remote village.

In the original work, after Geto Suguru exorcised the cursed spirit, he saw two little girls (Mimiko and Nanako) who were beaten and abused by the villagers and locked in cages.

The ignorant villagers regarded the child with the talent of a sorcerer as the source of sin. When the villagers insulted the girl, the negative emotions they released continued to breed the curse spirit.

After seeing the fact that ordinary people continued to produce cursed spirits and the blood and corpses of sorcerers on this path, Geto Suguru's already shaky righteousness completely reversed and he decided to create a "world with only sorcerers".

"How can there be such a remote village?" Jiang Lai asked casually, "The cursed spirits are too good at hiding."

"Yeah, that's right." Xia Yujie rubbed his temples, "That cursed spirit caused many villagers to go missing and die mysteriously. My mission is to find it and exorcise it... The mission is not difficult, but the journey is hard."

Jiang Lai: It sounds really familiar. This must be the last mission of Xia Yujie in the original work!

Gojo Satoru released his friend's arm and yawned, "My mission there is also very long. But we can go to Osaka to have some fun. I'll bring you some local specialties."

"Okay." Xia Yujie agreed, "Waiting for your specialty."

"And we'll have dinner together after we get back!" Gojo Satoru emphasized again, "Glass and I will keep an eye on you, Jay. You've lost a lot of weight recently, so you need to eat a few steaks to make up for it. Don't put down your chopsticks after eating a few bites."

"Okay, okay, okay," Xia Yujie was amused, "I'll eat you up."

"Try to eat me out!" Gojo Satoru laughed, his eyebrows and eyes flying, "Where's Lai? Do you want to go to Osaka with me this time?"

Jiang Lai's brown eyes curved slightly, and he shook his head and replied: "Osaka is too far, I won't go with you this time, Wu."

He paused for two seconds, then continued, "I'm more interested in the countryside than in the city. I'll go on this mission with you, Jiejun...if you don't mind?"

Xia Yujie was slightly startled, somewhat surprised by Jiang Lai's choice, but he still nodded and said, "Of course I don't mind." He said in a gentle voice, "It's just right, I can have someone to chat with on the way."

"You two go play, leaving me alone—" Gojo Satoru dragged out the last syllable and deliberately raised his voice, "Why is this so!"

"It doesn't matter." Jiang Lai curled his lips and smiled, "We will be reunited in the end anyway."