CHAPTER 334: CHAPTER 35: WHAT NUMBER IS THIS?

After entering the seventh train cabin, Su Xiao quietly moved to the entrance and locked the doors leading to the cabins in front and behind.

Franky was already in a deep sleep. To ensure he wouldn’t suddenly wake up, Su Xiao took out an injection and administered it to Franky’s back.

Franky, this modified human, was somewhat peculiar; his front side had been replaced by machinery, while his back remained a flesh and blood body.

Once certain Franky wouldn’t wake up anytime soon, Su Xiao untied the ropes and iron chains from Franky’s body.

He lightly tapped on Franky’s chest; it felt soft externally but hard internally, suggesting a considerable space inside.

Su Xiao was momentarily puzzled about how to open Franky’s chest. Did he have to resort to brute force dismantling?

Upon careful examination, Su Xiao found a switch on Franky’s side ribs.

With a gentle press, a click sounded, and Franky’s chest opened, revealing three bottles of cola.

Su Xiao didn’t touch the three bottles of cola but instead searched inside Franky’s chest cavity. After a long time, he found nothing suspicious.

Gulu, gulu.

The cola inside Franky’s chest started consuming rapidly, as if some emergency measure was activated.

In a short while, half a bottle of cola was depleted, and Franky’s body trembled a few times but didn’t get up.

Su Xiao continued his search, but besides some key organs, everything else in the chest cavity was replaced by machinery.

Unable to find what he was looking for inside the chest cavity, Su Xiao furrowed his brows. The opponent’s body was just this big; where could the item be hidden?

He placed his fingers on Franky’s arm and perceived, but still only sensed the steel structure, with nothing suspicious.

Su Xiao perceived each part—head, chest, arms, and legs—but found nothing.

This left Su Xiao confused. Could it be the item wasn’t inside Franky’s body? Unlikely, based on original intelligence, Franky carried it with him.

Su Xiao pondered; if he had to hide something in his body, where would he choose?

First, the item was neither too big nor too small, plus, given its long existence, it was prone to damage.

Considering its moderate size and fragility, hiding it in the arms or chest was ruled out.

Where is least likely to be injured in a fight? Su Xiao’s gaze shifted to Franky’s back.

He placed his fingers on Franky’s back and perceived inch by inch. Upon reaching Franky’s lower waist, his fingers paused.

"What’s this?"

Su Xiao searched around that area and soon discovered a piece of artificial skin disguised as real skin.

Lifting the artificial skin revealed a palm-sized combination lock.

The code consisted of three digits, with numbers ranging from 1 to 9, ’A(3,9)=9*8*7=504,’ providing 504 possible combinations. It couldn’t be unlocked by sheer luck, so Su Xiao began recalling some intelligence.

Fishman Tom’s birthday was March 16.

Iceberg’s birthday was January 3.

Franky’s birthday was March 9.

Given these three birthdays, Su Xiao first tried Fishman Tom’s birthday, 316. After entering the code, a red light appeared, displaying the number 4.

This lock could be attempted five times before potentially locking or self-destructing.

With Fishman Tom’s birthday wrong, Su Xiao pondered other possibilities.

If he guessed correctly, the code likely related to Fishman Tom, as his influence on Franky was too profound.

Thus, the code Franky set, particularly a three-digit one, was likely a birthday.

Su Xiao tried the second combination, 313, a mix of the birth months, led by Tom’s month.

The code was still wrong, with three chances remaining; Su Xiao tried 331 again, but it was still incorrect, leaving two chances.

The three combinations were all incorrect, with two tries left.

Su Xiao discarded the birth dates, considering the code might be linked to a day more significant than a birthday.

What is more significant than a birthday... a memorial day! Fishman Tom’s memorial day.

Su Xiao felt troubled; where could he find Tom’s memorial day? This was driving him crazy.

At this point, success had to be achieved somehow. He rapidly recalled everything about Fishman Tom.

First, Fishman Tom was convicted for assisting Roger in shipbuilding. After being sentenced, he helped the World Government build the Sea Train to avoid conviction, but the World Government broke its word and executed Tom under another pretext.

Tom was not executed on the spot but was severely shot before being transported to Enies Lobby for execution.

It was summer when Tom was executed, determined by the clothing of citizens and the CP Department, and it was late summer.

Having stayed in the City of Seven Seas for some time, Su Xiao had a hands-on experience of its temperature and climate.

With late summer as the timeline, Tom was sent to Enies Lobby for execution.

Tom wasn’t an extremely heinous criminal, merely an accomplice. However, his assistance in Roger’s shipbuilding was significant, and thus, Fishman Tom would be judged before execution.

Moreover, the execution time at Enies Lobby wouldn’t be randomly chosen, especially for a legendary shipwright like Tom. It also involved racial conflicts between Fishmen and Humans.

With numerous clues—late summer, Enies Lobby execution, the specific execution date, Tom’s body returned to Fishman Island for burial—

Su Xiao quickly deliberated before pressing 831 on the lock.

With a click, the lock opened, and Su Xiao retrieved an item from inside. After examining its attributes, he nodded in satisfaction, placed something within the lock, re-secured it, and re-tied Franky as he was originally.

Restoring the scene, Su Xiao climbed back onto the train cabin roof through a window as cold rain poured down.

Lying on the cabin, his upper body hanging, he reinstalled the glass window, wiping away any water streaks beforehand.

Having completed everything, Su Xiao walked lightly to the fourth cabin on the roof, flipped into the compartment he was in before, as heavy rain could erase any traces he left on the cabin roof.

After stripping off the wet clothes, Su Xiao dried himself thoroughly, tossing the wet clothes and towel into the sea, and changed into clothes similar to before.

Not only did he dry off the rainwater on himself, but he also wiped every trace of rain from the compartment, leaving no fingerprints or footprints.

After doing all this, Su Xiao reinstalled the compartment’s glass window, exhaling in relief.

Su Xiao suddenly noticed Bubu Wang looking at him.

"What, are you hungry?"

"Woof."

Bubu Wang wasn’t hungry; it was sighing at how complex the human world was.

"Not hungry?"

Su Xiao looked at Bubu Wang in surprise, having realized recently that Bubu Wang’s intelligence had considerably improved.

Initially, the heightened intelligence wasn’t evident, but as Bubu Wang’s experiences grew, it displayed wisdom distinctly different from wild beasts.

Although Bubu Wang couldn’t rival human intelligence, it was definitely not stupid, merely a bit silly.

"Bubu, how many is this?"

Su Xiao held up five fingers, but Bubu Wang lowered its head, seemingly unwilling to answer such a foolish question.

"Oh, not too smart then."

Bubu Wang rolled its eyes, feeling its intelligence had been insulted like never before.