Terra Calendar, October 9th, the 282nd day of the year.
Alexander, wearing his Superpower Hat, stood outside Namakor's house.
He concentrated on his eyes, and the objects before him gradually became transparent.
Through the wall, he could see the interior of Namakor's house.
No one, at least through his X-ray vision, he saw no one.
But there were too many ways to deceive the human eye; what he saw wasn't entirely reliable.
Alexander closed his eyes, rubbed his temples, and eased the slight fatigue that had begun to set in.
X-raying the entire house was quite draining for him.
Among his three superpowers, he was least proficient at X-ray vision.
"Did you find anything?" Reyna asked, standing beside Alexander.
"On the second floor, there's a safe in the study on the left."
Alexander opened his eyes and said to Reyna:
"That should be the navigation archives we're looking for."
With that, Alexander took out the Any Ring from his pocket and placed it on the wall, and a tunnel leading into Namakor's house appeared.
"Where do you get all these strange things?" Reyna asked, looking at the Any Ring with some surprise.
Alexander glanced at her, a smile on his lips, and said, "Didn't you claim to be blessed by the Emperor?"
"I don't claim to be, I am!" Reyna glared at Alexander, her tone firm.
"Then what a coincidence, I'm blessed by the omnissiah," Alexander joked.
"Liar, you have so much flesh on you, you clearly aren't from the Adeptus Mechanicus," Reyna retorted.
The two entered Namakor's house through the tunnel created by the Any Ring.
Through the dim light from outside the window, they could vaguely make out the house shrouded in darkness.
This was a two-story Upper hive standard apartment; downstairs was the living room, and upstairs were two bedrooms.
Namakor had converted one of the bedrooms into a study, and what Alexander and Reyna were looking for was inside.
The living room downstairs was quite ordinary, neatly organized, and Alexander didn't notice anything unusual at first glance.
Only on the left, against the wall, were several small tables, with neatly arranged paper and pens on them.
Alexander walked over to the small tables and opened the notebooks on them.
The notebooks were filled with dense mathematical formulas.
But unlike the formulas in Namakor's own notebook, these were relatively simpler.
The most difficult only reached definite integrals, which are relatively simple topics in college calculus.
Alexander, as an expired college student, could still barely understand them.
"This is where Mrs. Namakor teaches math to the neighborhood children." Reyna peered over, looking at the notebooks on the table, a hint of nostalgia on her face.
Ah, the neighborhood children…
During the two days Alexander and Reyna had been tracking Namakor, they had also seen the children who came to study.
The oldest was only eleven or twelve, and they were already learning advanced calculus?
Was Mrs. Namakor's teaching level a bit too good?
Alexander flipped through the other notebooks on the tables.
While their level wasn't as outrageous, they generally far surpassed what children of their age should be learning.
Moreover, was it necessary for children of Upper hive residents in the hive city to learn such deep subjects?
Alexander frowned, as if he had noticed something.
He opened all these notebooks and searched between the pages.
387, 420, 489
Alexander saw this string of numbers in several notebooks.
Different children, with different handwriting, had recorded this string of numbers in different places.
Alexander vaguely felt his brain becoming more active, as if he was sensing the pattern in this string of numbers.
"Alexander?" Reyna patted Alexander's shoulder, interrupting his thoughts.
"Did you find anything?" Reyna asked.
Alexander glanced at the numbers in the notebook and shook his head.
He only had a vague feeling.
Alexander and Reyna walked up the stairs to the second floor, carefully looking around to confirm no one was present before entering the study.
The study was a bit more cluttered than the outside, with papers scattered on the floor and table, covered in complex mathematical formulas.
And on the desk, there was a small safe.
This safe wasn't large, smaller than the Any Ring.
Alexander couldn't use the Any Ring to retrieve the contents from it.
But fortunately, this safe was a fairly common type and not difficult to open.
Alexander looked at Reyna.
Reyna stepped forward and gently extended a finger towards the safe.
The air around them suddenly grew colder.
This was a reaction that occurred when a psyker channeled psychic energy.
Reyna took a deep breath, softly exhaled a word, using her voice to help channel her psychic power:
"Thunder!"
Crackle!
A bolt of lightning shot out, melting the safe's metal casing and revealing the navigation logbook inside.
Alexander watched Reyna's actions and recalled the methods used on the Black Ships to suppress psykers.
Suppressing most untrained psykers was very simple; one only needed to put a gag on them, to shut their mouths.
Because the vast majority of untrained psyker needed sound to help them channel their psychic energy.
Reyna was clearly one of them.
Alexander mused that if his cooperation with Reyna fell apart and they fought, he could try simply gagging her.
Reyna didn't know what Alexander was contemplating; she was just happily flipping through the notebook in her hands.
"It's navigation records from over ten thousand years ago! This is it!"
Reyna, with delight, tucked the notebook into her pocket.
"It actually went this smoothly," Alexander frowned.
It was too smooth, so smooth that it made Alexander feel increasingly strange.
"You really are… cautious, aren't you?" Reyna couldn't help but shake her head and say.
"Haven't we already confirmed it? Mrs. Namakor's only problem is that she prays to the Emperor a bit too little."
With that, Reyna and a frowning Alexander exited Mrs. Namakor's study.
"Although it's little, Mrs. Namakor still goes to the church to pray devoutly every few days."
"If she were truly corrupted, why would she go to church and pray to the Emperor in front of an Imperial Cult Priest?"
Listening to Reyna's words, Alexander nodded slightly.
Indeed.
Wait… goes to church to pray every few days.
Alexander froze for a moment.
Augustus's file said Namakor last prayed seven days ago.
Now two more days had passed.
Namakor last went to church to pray nine days ago.
In four years, Namakor had prayed a total of one hundred and fifty-three times.
Today was the 282nd day of this year, plus the previous three years…
That is to say, Namakor had prayed a total of 153 times in the past 1377 days, once every nine days.
Alexander stood rooted to the spot, feeling his brain working faster and faster.
The number nine became increasingly clear in his mind.
Six thousand five hundred and sixty-one blood coins, 6561 is nine to the power of four. This was Namakor's donation to the church, a string of numbers representing Tzeentch.
That is to say, within that church of the Emperor, a small part belonged to Tzeentch!
Alexander suddenly understood.
She went to pray every nine days, not to the Emperor.
She was praying to Tzeentch, to the Lord of Change!
387, 420, 489
Alexander recalled that string of numbers, and joy appeared in his eyes.
Excellent! He was starting to understand everything!
It was so simple. This nine-digit string was nine to the power of nine, the number that most strongly represented the Lord of Change!
Praise the Lord of Change!