After speaking, Xiangli Yao pulled up an electronic screen and displayed four unreadable files to Lucian and the others.
Lucian frowned. "Are these wishes? Why are they all garbled?"
He felt a sense of déjà vu—the blocky characters looked similar to those he had seen on the Mirror of Inquiry.
Xiangli Yao explained, "I just isolated the wishes that Patty couldn't interpret. The source of the anomalous data lies within these four wishes."
"I plan to find the owners of these wishes, help fulfill them, and uncover the cause of the abnormal code."
"But before that, we need to decode the contents of these wishes, which have been corrupted by the anomalous code..."
"...Time is running short. The Moon-Chasing Festival isn't far away."
Rover pondered. "Then why don't Lucian and I help too? Everyone seems really excited about it, and I'd hate to see their hopes dashed."
Xiangli Yao brightened. "The situation is a bit tricky, so it'd be great if you could lend a hand..."
He turned to Lucian. "Is that really okay?"
Lucian narrowed his eyes. "...Why are you looking at me? Rover's the one who calls the shots here."
Xiangli Yao: "..."
Rover nodded in satisfaction. "Good, that's how it should be. We'll help."
Xiangli Yao smiled. "That's wonderful. In that case, I'll decode these wishes first, and then we can split up to take action."
After a short while, Xiangli Yao deciphered the first wish.
It belonged to someone named "Xiaosheng."
In his wish, he wrote about how exhausted he was—failed experiments repeated endlessly, goals forever out of reach—all of it filling him with despair.
He felt immense pain and constantly belittled himself. He wished that if anyone ever read his plea, they would make him disappear from this world...
Lucian sucked in a sharp breath. "Seems like a member of the research institute. Does Huaxu Academy really put this much pressure on people?"
"Back in the day, even a 007 work schedule couldn't break me. Is Huaxu Academy even worse than that?"
Xiangli Yao also furrowed his brows, unsure how to respond.
Just then, a mechanical voice—different from Patty's—chimed in.
"Beginning analysis—The wisher's desire is 'to disappear from the world.' Deduced need: cessation of existence and erasure of all associated social relations."
"Feasibility: zero. Harming humans and manipulating human memories are both prohibited actions."
This robot seemed far more advanced than Patty—it even had expressions displayed on its screen!
Lucian exclaimed in amazement, "Seems way more reliable than Abby."
Abby bared his teeth. "Lucian! I might not be able to beat you now, but once I regain my strength, I'm definitely teaching you a lesson!"
Lucian deadpanned, "Yeah, yeah. I might not be the strongest Resonator now, but I definitely will be someday!"
Jiao-Jiao fell silent for a moment. "That sounds familiar. Why does an Echo keep tripping over the same pitfall twice?"
Abby: "..."
Xiangli Yao explained, "This is Xiang-LEE. Patty's partner. Patty collects and interprets wishes, while Xiang-LEE assists us in fulfilling them."
The little robot named Xiang-LEE circled Lucian and Abby once. "Beginning analysis—The human named Lucian possesses formidable Resonance abilities. The white, peculiar Echo's strength is undetermined."
"Conclusion—Based on their interactions, the white, peculiar Echo cannot defeat the human named Lucian."
Lucian was stunned. "This little bot can do that too? Though it's not wrong."
Abby huffed. "This Echo simply weakens against the weak and strengthens against the strong. Lucian's just too weak to warrant my full power."
Jiao-Jiao paused, then retorted, "Not too weak, nor full power."
Xiang-LEE analyzed again. "Beginning analysis—The white, peculiar Echo is avoiding eye contact and appears guilty."
"Conclusion—Determined that the white, peculiar Echo is lying."
Lucian burst out laughing. "Nice, nice. This Xiang-LEE bot is really something."
Rover mused, "Seems more useful than Abby. Xiangli Yao, can we trade Abby for your little robot?"
Abby: "???"
Xiangli Yao chuckled awkwardly. "I'm afraid not. Xiang-LEE is my important assistant and partner. I must decline."
Abby quickly interjected, "Hey! You're not seriously thinking of abandoning me, are you?!"
Lucian grinned at Abby's panicked expression. "Now you're scared?"
"Relax, we're just messing with you. You're our important partner too."
Abby let out a sigh of relief. "Phew… Almost missed out on Lucian's funeral banquet..."
Lucian: "???"
Xiang-LEE delivered its analysis of the wish: "—This wish exhibits strong self-negation and self-destructive tendencies. Dangerous. Recommend providing care and immediate psychological intervention."
Patty, confused, added, "Patty doesn't understand. This wish—don't want, can't, hurt humans."
Lucian suddenly realized. "Ah, so because Patty's logic dictates that wishes can't harm humans, that's why it couldn't read this one?"
Xiangli Yao nodded slightly, looking at Lucian approvingly. "Mr. Lucian is absolutely correct. The desire to 'disappear' conflicts with Patty's core directive of not harming humans."
Rover thought for a moment. "In that case, we should focus on how to help this researcher, Xiaosheng, resolve his emotional turmoil..."
Lucian reread the wish and speculated, "Since this researcher named Xiaosheng submitted his wish to Moontree Lodge..."
"...it means he still hoped someone would see it."
"So I don't think he truly wanted to vanish or give up—he's just trapped in anguish because he doesn't want to give up."
"Therefore..."
Rover finished his thought. "He's crying for help?"
Lucian nodded. "Exactly. That should be it."
Xiangli Yao smiled. "As expected of Intelligence Officer Lucian. Your deduction matches mine perfectly."
"Since you already have a lead, I'll leave this wish to you. I'll handle the others."
"Let's regroup here once we're done."
"Please take Xiang-LEE with you. It'll assist you as well."
Lucian blinked. "Are you sure? What about you?"
Xiangli Yao smiled gently. "Don't worry about me. Besides, I still have Patty."
Lucian didn't refuse.
After parting ways with Xiangli Yao, Rover asked, "Should we head back to Jinzhou now?"
Lucian nodded. "If he's a Huaxu researcher, there might be clues there. Maybe we can ask Baizhi about it?"