The Secret Code of Monsters.

Chapter 695 Ch.694 The Strange Man in the Room
The three men left the girls' dormitory and went to steal things from the tutor's apartment.

This was agreed upon long ago.

In the center of the diagonal is where students take classes.

It was almost midnight, but there were still scattered lights in the college.

After checking every student's room, the nuns went to sleep early to embrace the All-Father and her anti-lice powder to relieve itching. Only the tutor's apartment was still lit.

These learned gentlemen are indeed worthy of their high salaries.

Rose couldn't wait any longer, so she took Halida to spread out clothes and borrow money from various rooms. Roland walked along the flatter brick floor.

The rustling sound of the pen is better than conversation.

There were portraits of ladies hanging in the corridors—young ones, wearing crowns or holding scepters.

Some praise slogans.

There were also vessels of unknown purpose in the window. Roland knew about Libra, but it was more... complicated than the ordinary Libra?
There are lots of gears and metal parts.
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what is that?
Roland saw a strange ruler.

"Caliper."

"A more precise caliper."
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What about the other one?

"A stronger ring, I suppose, for use on trains."
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They study this all day?

"Anything that is beneficial to humanity should not be considered a 'small thing'."
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I didn't say 'little things'.
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I thought...

"You think it's more sophisticated? For example, a metal machine that takes up half the room and emits black smoke and whose purpose is unknown..."
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Lie.

Roland pouted.

Candlelight leaked out through the gap that was not tightly closed.

As I walked closer along the crack in the door, I first heard some slight murmurs - neurotic murmurs, repetitive and disorderly, making it difficult to understand.

The man had his back to the door, leaving behind a long shadow. In front of him sat a nearly three-foot-tall, copper-colored precision instrument: it was made up of countless gears nested on metal rods, like a loom made of another metal.

Just more expensive.
-
what is that.

"Why don't you go in and ask... him... wait——"

Roland opened the door.

Before taking a step, he would tap his fingers.

knock knock.

The man with his hands behind his back in a daze was startled and knocked over the teacup on the table. When he turned around, he still had a half-burned cigarette in his mouth.

His eye sockets were sunken, and his brow ridges and nose bridge formed a 'T' shape in the firelight.

Her hair was combed back.

The receding hairline revealed a large, bulging forehead: whether he was speaking or silent, the corners of his mouth drooped slightly, as if expressing some innate dissatisfaction.

The first thing Roland felt when he saw him was:

If this person is not a brilliant scholar, he must be a murderer who will become famous sooner or later.

He looked very serious, and used his serious appearance to hide his inner irritability.

Just like the half piece of fish on the table, its owner did not have the time to taste it carefully, but was reluctant to throw it away.

It's starting to stink.

"Oh, student. I know. There's another problem, isn't it? Why don't you go to bed, right now? It's late, be careful of those women with turbans whipping you... How did you get here? Why are you still wearing a veil... Can you see the road?"

He muttered a lot, like a constant pulling of the trigger, leaving the visitor no chance to interrupt.

It was also at this moment that Roland clearly saw the true appearance of the machine.

A beautiful, complex machine made entirely of metal, with a hand crank and lots of paper strips with holes punched in them, stacked together like noodles.

Two finger widths.

Apart from that, there was only a bed, a round table, a cigarette case and a comb.

There is an iron cage in the corner.

"Look what this is."

A hedgehog-like creature was dozing inside.

"...Okay, I know you might be curious. Girls always have endless curiosity - of course, academic curiosity is much better than spending money on those strips of cloth made of the same material. You guys don't come from wealthy families... Why don't you speak?"

Because you didn't give me a chance to speak.

Roland rolled his eyes behind his veil and pointed to his throat.

"Oh, poor child. You can't speak, can you? It doesn't affect your studies, as long as you have a smart brain. I don't think many people in school have this thing. I discovered it when I was fifteen, when I was still in Cambridge..."

"You should really experience how painful it is to have a... or several stupid teachers. I hope you will be lucky in your further studies... Actually, you don't need this, right?"

So eloquent.

Roland closed the door silently and stepped into the room.

He was quite curious about this machine.

Just like a train.

Is this another epoch-making invention?

"You're interested in this? Haha, I get it! You must have heard something, right? I'm not a weirdo, no, but...ah, I can't say no. Have you learned arithmetic? It's just a few small numbers dancing nimbly, giving birth to something bigger or smaller than the parents..."

"You see, this thing will come in handy later."

The weirdo didn't care about Roland's identity or name at all, and he didn't even bother to recall whether he had taught such a "masked person". Seeing "her" stop in front of the machine, he thought "she" was interested in this thing and began to chatter:
"…This is just a semi-finished product. Yes, a semi-finished product. Are you surprised? I was thinking, if different program formulas and data were input through the holes on the paper tape like a loom, and the gears were meshed, rotated, and translated, in addition to solving addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, square root, and comparison, and it was matched with a printer, a curve meter, and a bell as a reminder…"

“It’s easier to read on paper…”

Seeing Roland nod, he thought the other party understood, so he continued:

"…My idea is to use steam as power through pipes to drive gears and connecting rods. Look at this picture. It's an incomplete work of art, right? If it is realized, it is equivalent to having a memory that can store one thousand fifty-digit numbers…"

"Yes, I call it memory. The 'mill' of each computing unit is driven, starting the 'bucket' in the unit - a labor unit made of smaller and more precise gears, and the nails inside will tell them how to do what the user arranges..."

He danced and waved his hands in front of Roland like a conductor facing a magnificent piece of music.

"all."

His voice trembled slightly.

"All that's left is a whole central unit!"

"When the time comes, any data sheet, no matter how complex the variables, that requires dozens of sober, never-drinking people to calculate, only needs to make a hole tape, turn a switch, pull a metal rod..."

The weird madman spoke so much that his whole body became hot, his throat became hoarse, and beads of sweat even appeared on his forehead.

"Loop body, or setting some 'conditions', I think, that's no longer a problem..."
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wrench.

"Um?"
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The gap between me and this gentleman is just as described in Darwin's book.

"You're always so self-aware."
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Moreover, these gears seem to be made and polished by hand.

"Yes, it is very precise."
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If Rose came and stole a few every day...

"You will definitely go to hell, Roland."

(End of this chapter)