Stay away from Conan

Chapter 18 Secret Code

Looking at the graffiti numbers on the cover, Gao Yuan fell into doubt.

"Miss Toyama, has this magazine ever had such a design on the cover before?"

"Huh? Let me take a look."

Hearing Gao Yuan's inquiry, He Ye was a little confused. He took the magazine back and looked at it. When he saw the graffiti on the cover, he thought about it carefully.

"It seems that no cover has ever had such a design before."

After listening to Kazuha's words, Hattori couldn't help but come closer. Looking at the graffiti composed of digital graffiti, he felt a little strange.

"This graffiti has no aesthetic value when placed here, and it also looks a bit abrupt."

Hattori murmured to himself, "And this picture... these strokes... look like numbers!"

Upon discovering this, Hattori became surprised.

"This can't be possible! What's the secret code?"

So Hattori began to look in detail at the seemingly random strokes filled in the graffiti, and quickly saw that these were indeed several numbers: 9, 53, 60, 75, 57, 22, 23, 99.

"These numbers..."

Although he saw the numbers, Hattori was also confused and couldn't really see what the numbers represented.

"Number? What number?"

Kazuha looked at the graffiti on it, and combined with the numbers Hattori mentioned, he quickly recognized the numbers hidden in the graffiti.

"It's indeed a number! But what does it mean?"

Kazuya asked in confusion.

"Such random numbers may have been randomly drawn by the person who drew this graffiti."

"Idiot, how can any fashion editor put such an irrelevant picture on this kind of fashion cover? This is too different from the style of the character on the cover!"

Hattori retorted.

"So no matter how you think about it, it feels very suspicious. This picture should not be put up by the editor without any meaning. It must have some special meaning. And Miss Toyama, you also said that this magazine has never put it on the cover before. With such a graffiti design, it seems strange that such graffiti is suddenly included in this issue.”

Gao Yuan said.

"Yes, this might be a prize-winning competition designed by this fashion magazine! I remember that this magazine had collaborated with 'Fusae' on a similar project before."

He Ye said, getting a little excited.

"This is different. In the previous project, the puzzle was clearly written in the content of the magazine, but this one..."

Hattori recalled the planning event he told Ye, and then he thought of something and started flipping through the entire magazine.

"If that's the case, will there be any hints in the magazine's content?"

But after flipping through the entire magazine twice, Hattori didn't see what he was looking for.

Somewhat unwillingly, Hattori put down the magazine and scratched his head, "In other words, if it is really a puzzle, then this graffiti is the whole mystery? But what is the meaning of this set of random numbers?"

Takato looked at the clueless Hattori and felt the same way.

"When it comes to digital passwords, it is more common to convert them into other contents. For example, if the numbers are within 26, they can be analogized to English letters in order. But several of these numbers obviously exceed this range."

Hattori muttered to himself.

"Or you can look for patterns in these numbers and convert them into numbers within 26."

Gao Yuan raised a possibility.

“But whether it’s a mistake or a proportional reduction, it’s obviously not feasible.”

Hattori denied.

"It may also be an algorithm that requires a secret key for encryption. For example, there is a very sudden number '9' in the single digit, while the others are all tens."

Gao Yuan looked at the numbers again and felt a little strange that there was only one single digit "9" among them.

"But even if '9' is regarded as a secret key, if you don't know the encryption algorithm it actually uses, there are still countless possibilities."

Hattori thought deeply for a moment, and then felt helpless.

"Damn it, there are no hints on this thing? It's completely impossible to figure it out without any hints at all!"

On the side, Kazuha looked at Hattori, Takato and helpless at the numbers on the graffiti but kept thinking about them. They didn't even eat much of the food on the table. Seeing how immersed they were, Kazuha couldn't help but feel have no choice.

Originally, I just came to this famous restaurant with Hattori to eat, but I didn't expect to encounter a live murder incident on TV. The show finally ended, and now I have become interested in magazine graffiti again.

A somewhat depressed Heye picked up the magazine and looked at this graffiti.

"Do you really think this monster-like graffiti is a code? Maybe it's just a special creative idea of ​​the editor."

"It just didn't look like it, so I thought it might be a secret code. As a layman, I feel that this graffiti is too inappropriate for this cover. How could an editor who majored in art design create such a thing?"

Listening to the conversation between Hattori and Kazuha, Gao Yuan seemed to have thought of something.

"Art? Monster?"

Just now, for the word monster, Kazuye did not use the transliteration of "Monster" in English, nor "kaibutsu" in Chinese characters for "monster", but "bakemono" - "化け物".

For Takato, whose native language is Chinese, when he thinks of "化け物", he naturally focuses on the Chinese characters "化" and "物". When faced with these two words, Gao Yuan first thought of "chemistry and physics".

When Gao Yuan thought about chemistry, he looked at these numbers and suddenly had an idea!

"You guys continue eating first, I'll go to the bookstore!"

Gao Yuan shouted excitedly and ran out of the store quickly.

Hattori looked at Takato's actions and knew that he had unlocked the code, then he lay down on the chair as if giving up and sighed.

"I lost to him again!"

After finding the nearest bookstore, Gao Yuan found a teaching aid with a periodic table of elements.

Element 9 is fluorine, element 53 is iodine, element 60 is neodymium, element 75 is rhenium, element 57 is lanthanum, element 22 is titanium, element 23 is vanadium, and element 99 is einsteinium.

Converting them all into element symbols is:

findrelatives – looking for relatives.

Although there are only two words, it is not easy to use element symbols to form an English sentence, and these two words have made the meaning very clear - someone is asking for help! And the person who sent this signal for help must be someone from the editorial department of the magazine!

Back at the hotel, Takato informed Hattori and Kazuha of the results. When Takato mentioned the periodic table of elements, Hattori understood, and then looked at Kazuha.

"He Ye, do you know where the editorial department of this magazine is?"

"Ah? This is a local fashion magazine in Osaka. The editorial office is in Osaka. It seems to be quite close to here. I was there during the last "Fusae" event!"

"Then without further ado, let's go and find out who requested this code to be printed on the cover of this magazine!"

Hattori was the first to say what Gao Yuan wanted to say, but Gao Yuan felt that something was wrong.