Pokémon Detective Case Files.

“Nice to meet you, Miss Naz. It seems you recently disembarked from the Royal Union and, through the introduction of retired mathematics professor Fischer, came here to investigate the truth behind the King of Blueberries' wins and losses on the gambling ship—am I right?”

Is this some new kind of predictive ability?

Startled, Naz turned around instantly and looked suspiciously at Azure, who had followed her into the reception room.

“I didn’t inform the detective beforehand,” the assistant sighed, seemingly unsurprised. “Besides, you didn’t tell me any of this information, did you? What is the Royal Union? And what is its connection to Mr. Blueberry?”

Out of a strange sense of pride, Touko deliberately chose to communicate with N while Bilan was out. Therefore, she was unaware of the casino incident.

Let me explain!

Fortunately, my friend, junior colleague, and landlady didn't have to abide by the confidentiality rules of detective work, and proudly shared the information she possessed—

"The Royal United States is a casino located on the sea, where Mr. Blueberry nearly wiped out Team Plasma..."

From the moment Yueju built the casino to N winning the roulette game, Touko narrated the entire event with remarkable fluency, like a film director instructing a scene. Of course, he also added embellishments, including many plot points not mentioned in N's account, but which made the transitions and connections in the story more logical.

“Yes, these are things I witnessed firsthand on the Royal United Ship.” Naz nodded respectfully, thanking Douzi, who was drinking water as he spoke until his throat was dry.

"But what I'm more curious about is why you were able to tell my identity and purpose at a glance, Detective? Did Blueberry or Fischer inform you in advance?"

Detective Hugo shook his head: "No, Mr. Lanju must have a lot of cleanup work to do recently, and that old scholar Fischer isn't that considerate. I figured out your purpose through other means. As for your identity, Miss Naz is a well-known figure in Kanto and Unova. Even if I can't know you as well as Touko, I'm not so bad as not recognizing you to your face."

"Please explain in detail the purpose of your visit. How did you figure out that my visit is related to that professor?" The curator pressed on relentlessly. "I came to Feiyun City to clear up my doubts, and I don't want any questions to multiply before any doubts are answered."

"It seems Miss Naz is the type who, even when watching magic shows, will carefully study the techniques behind them," Hugo commented, stroking his chin.

"In a world where superpowers truly exist, magic is a form of deception disguised as magic. It can't be left unexposed."

Sabrina activated her superpowers, causing the business card she was still holding to spin and leap like a ballerina, and declared with unusual seriousness.

The detective nodded and then shook his head: "Tricks can't compare to real magic, but until their true nature is revealed, they are genuine miracles."

"Isn't it just another trick like predicting someone's mood by listening to their footsteps or analyzing their origin by observing their clothes?"

Azure, oblivious to the detective's rambling, interrupted his long-winded speech, suggesting that the hierarchical structure of this detective agency wasn't particularly strict.

“Miss Naz, are you wearing any special accessories that can only be purchased on that gambling ship? Or have you changed any habitual movements based on the advice of Blueberry or that professor? This detective especially likes to play tricks by spying on other people’s entire bodies.”

Upon hearing this, the owner looked herself up and down, then recalled the conversation on the gambling ship, and immediately shook her head in denial.

"No, none of that happened. The clothes I'm wearing are new clothes I bought in Raven City after disembarking, and the sunglasses are a style I brought from Kanto. They have nothing to do with the Royal Union. I won't change my habits based on other people's opinions."

"There's no need to examine the entire body; just look at the most conspicuous areas, and you'll understand." The detective, not wanting to continue the discussion, directly revealed the answer—

He pointed to the object swirling between Naz's fingers.

“By observing the business card Miss Naz was holding, I realized that it was Mr. Fischer who gave you my address in Flying Cloud City, and not long ago, I introduced this unemployed scholar to a well-paid job.”

"Hugo, did you already know about Mr. Blueberry's entire plan all along?" Touko was taken aback, his eyes widening as he stared at the detective.

If Hugo already knew the truth about the casino, or even that he himself was an accomplice in the plan, then wasn't she completely fooled by Hugo before? Those deductions weren't detective solutions; they were practically confessions of a criminal.

“No, no, the fewer people who know about a scam, the better.” Hugo gave a sarcastic smile. “No matter how confident that gambling king is, how could he possibly reveal his most precious casino tricks to an outsider like me? I just happened to learn that Yueju was building the Royal Union, so I recommended a talent to Mr. Yueju.”

Since mathematicians can use mathematical analysis to find loopholes in casinos and use foolproof probability algorithms to win every game,

Casinos could also do the opposite: hire more sophisticated mathematicians to preemptively patch the casino's vulnerabilities and find flaws in the seemingly foolproof game-playing algorithm.

Just like Ghost and Dragon type Pokémon, they can also counter each other within the same species.

“Fischer is the mathematician I know who is best at studying the quantitative laws of random phenomena. When I first came to United States, I had dealings with this retired CUHK mathematician while investigating a case of a missing college student—that’s when I gave Fischer my business card.”

“I see. Once you know about the connection between Fischer and me, you can confirm my purpose.” Naz understands Hugo’s reasoning, but she is not satisfied yet.

She then asked, "But how did you recognize that this originally belonged to Professor Fischer from such a small business card?"

“In cases I’ve handled outside of United States, there have been instances of tricks involving switching victims’ business cards to confuse the public. Although I successfully uncovered the perpetrator’s method back then, it wasted a lot of effort. So later, when printing business cards for my own firm, I wondered if I could leave some kind of mark on the cards to identify their origin.”

"You can't design different business cards for everyone, can you?" Bilan was a little dumbfounded. In her impression, detective business cards were like ready-made food samples in a supermarket; anyone you had ever interacted with would basically get one.

“A detective’s time is incredibly valuable; it can’t be wasted on such inefficient work.” Hugo said, opening his business card case and taking out a stack of business cards about five centimeters thick.

"In fact, you only need to memorize one index."

He gripped one end of the stack of business cards and flipped through them as quickly as if turning the pages of a book.

"What did you see?" Hugo asked with a smile.

The three girls saw the same thing—

In the lower right corner of the business card, where the detective's name is printed, the two characters "Hugo" moved slowly and leisurely, like a spiky insect crawling through the grass, changing the terrain strangely several times along the way.

“What does this mean?” Naz asked.

"It's the principle behind film projection," Toko commented with interest. "Persistence of vision stitches together consecutive scenes into a continuous animation."

Only Azure showed a look of sudden realization.

“I see!” she said. “The position of the name and the font of the name have been changed, so that a table can be built to record the intersection of the two indexes! It’s no wonder that the origin can be identified instantly!”

Hugo snapped his fingers crisply—

"That's right. The position of the name can be left or right to represent the initials of twenty-four different names; the different fonts represent different types of people. I have prepared twelve different fonts to cover common professions and specific groups of people in life. For example, the business card in Ms. Nazi's hand looks to me as 'F, scientist'."

It could be said that from the moment he designed this set of business cards, Hugo was hoping that some criminal who was at odds with him would try to frame him by discarding the detective's business card at the crime scene—if such a criminal appeared, Hugo could grasp enough key clues to lock down the suspect the moment he saw the business card.

"Ah, that really narrows it down to just a few people, it's quite interesting," the landlady, who aspires to be a director, said admiringly. "Make one for me sometime."

“These business cards are quite troublesome to manufacture,” the detective frowned, offering his advice. “And when distributing them, you have to strictly follow the classification rules, otherwise preparing them all would be pointless. I’m a little worried about whether you, Douzi, can remember the double index on the business cards.”

So Douzi decisively gave up: "Ah, that's really troublesome. Never mind then."

"But it's quite a coincidence. I remember during the incident at Qibao Museum, you enthusiastically handed out your business cards to all the researchers working there. If there had been a Mr. or Ms. F among them, you wouldn't have been able to guess the truth so cleverly today."

Azure picked up her teacup, took a sip, and said with a relaxed expression.

"No, this time it's not a coincidence."

The detective showed the business card in his hand again, and then asked Naz to show hers as well.

The difference is obvious when comparing the two.

The business cards initially distributed to mathematics professors were blank on the left side, without any indication of the detective agency's address. However, the detective's current business card openly displays "Feiyun City Center, Yuxi Residence," along with the street name and house number.

“When I met Fischl, I didn’t have a fixed office in the United States, so there was no address information on it. It wasn’t until I moved into the Feather Residence that I printed a batch of business cards with the detailed address. And in that year, the only F scholar I met was Fischl.”

The assistant suddenly recalled something from deep within her memory: "Oh dear, no wonder back then..."

"What?" Douzi looked curiously at Bilan, who seemed to want to say something but hesitated.

"It's not relevant to the current topic, but when I first moved into Yuxi Residence and was preparing to share the apartment, didn't Hugo say that he was particularly worried about having to reprint the business cards, changing 'Yuxi Residence' to 'Yuxi Residence First Floor'? It turns out that it was because printing these special business cards was very troublesome."

“Right…” Douzi pondered for a moment, then looked at the detective. “Speaking of which, Xiaolan and I should both have Hugo’s business card. Mine is a limited edition without an address. So what do the words on our business cards represent in terms of profession?”

The two girls had long since forgotten where they had left their business cards, so it was up to Hugo to answer the question himself.

Where has this conversation gone off to...? The detective started to get a headache, looking at Natsumi with an inquiring gaze, hoping that his client wouldn't get impatient with this endless chatter.

The superpowered girl didn't seem to care at all; instead, she looked the detective and his assistant up and down with amusement.

"Hugo, quickly tell me what our occupational classification is? I should be an artist, right? Azure is like a Pokémon trainer or something."

“No,” Hugo said reluctantly. “I don’t have a trainer category in my classification, after all, that’s too broad a requirement. As for you, Douzi, you should make a few movies that can be released first before calling yourself an artist.”

"So what are we in your eyes?"

Douzi waved his arms and shouted some embarrassing lines, but no one would find it strange in this context.

“They’re all unemployed,” Hugo confessed in despair. “The handwriting is a somewhat childish, rounded style.”

"So you're already doing something so rude the moment we meet?"

Azure let out a dry, cold laugh, its gaze as if it were staring at a real Wurmple—please don't discriminate against Bug-type Pokémon.

"Hmm, it seems I should reconsider raising the rent this month."

Douzi seized the opportunity to kick someone when they were down, completely forgetting that the rent for Yuxi Residence was not currently being managed by her, but by her mother.

"I'm just stating the objective facts... Don't project your disappointment in yourself onto those who brought this up."

Amidst the farce, Ms. Naz, the client, secretly covered her mouth and chuckled.

It's unclear what part of the conversation triggered the laughter of this superpowered gym owner.

Chapter 189 The Solution - This Miracle Was Easily Achieved

"Just as the detective deduced earlier, I did indeed meet that mathematics professor named Fischer once."

Despite the inexplicable turmoil, Ms. Naz remained calm and steered the conversation back to the main topic.

"On the Royal United, Yueju lost the roulette game and then disembarked without saying a word, which puzzled me greatly. At that time, the old man suggested that I visit this detective agency in Feiyun City. He believed that if it was Detective Hugo who introduced him to this consulting job, he would know the truth about the whole incident."

The actress patiently explained her visit to the Feather Residence. As expected of a current movie star, she spoke with elegance and composure, a far cry from the overly enthusiastic rookie director, Touko, and even more so from a certain superpowered individual she had frequently dealt with in the past.

As the detective silently rated his client, Naza continued speaking—

"After Miss Douzi's previous explanation, I already know why King Yueju deliberately lost the second round of the bet. It's amazing that you were able to get firsthand information about the bet so early, and even know more details than I, who was there firsthand... Could it be that you have sent an undercover agent within that cult organization?"

"Uh, no, it must have just been a coincidence that I knew..."

Bilan rubbed her forehead in exasperation and glanced at Douzi beside her, who looked embarrassed.

The younger man omitted the fact that N himself was the source of the intelligence in his description, but there were only a handful of people in the glass gambling room at the time who were present at the roulette game. With a little process of elimination, it would be easy to find out who the "undercover agent" who carelessly leaked the secret was.

However, for Naz, who is unaware of the green-haired youth's stance, this would probably be a profound and difficult puzzle.

"Fine, considering you explained the secret on the business card to me earlier, I'll let this go for now. But..."

The superpowered girl rested her index finger on her chin, recalling the excited smile on the other person's face before the gambling game began, a smile as sharp as a poisoned blade.

Then, Natsume uttered words that negated the detective's reasoning—

"To be honest, I don't think that guy Yueju would choose to lose out of cowardice just because of external pressure. As far as I know, he is a real gambler. When faced with a dilemma where the odds are even, he should not hesitate to gamble away a fortune. Running away with his tail between his legs is really not like Yueju."

"It's right that they don't look alike. On the Royal United, Blueberry wasn't a real gambler, but a masterful con artist."

Detective Hugo, however, disagreed and calmly offered a counterargument—

"From the moment Yueju began his partnership with the business alliance, he abandoned his identity as a gambler. Whether it was roulette, double dragon poker, or even all the gambling equipment in that transparent gambling room, there were corresponding cheating methods. All the ups and downs in the casino were actually under the control of that gambling king. Otherwise, he would never have been able to gain the trust of the capitalists he partnered with, let alone bring in an investment worth 10 billion alliance coins for the casino."

"Is everything under his control?"

Naza was taken aback; the detective's confident words reminded her of what Cranberry had told her—

"This match was so boring that the outcome was already decided before it even started; it wasn't even a decent gamble..."

What kind of foolproof cheating scheme allowed the King of Blueberries to confidently say such things?

"Mr. Hugo, putting aside the roulette game in the second round, how exactly did Blueberry manipulate the duel between Vio and the Double Dragon Poker?"

Finally, Naz asked the question that had been on her mind the most since the start of her trip.

While the roulette reversal was astonishing, on the surface it was simply a game of chance, a binary choice entirely based on luck. Even the green-haired youth who won looked utterly bewildered. In Sabrina's eyes, even without using her superpowers, she could tell that it was a result deliberately orchestrated by Lantana.

But the oppressive aura emanating from Vio the Sage, that legendary figure in the casino, was entirely different. This man was not only a master of mathematics but also intimately familiar with the many shady dealings within the casino, meticulously examining the layout of the transparent gaming room before the game even began.

How did Blueberry manage to cheat flawlessly under the watchful eyes of everyone?

"Any seemingly insurmountable problem can actually be broken down into many smaller problems and solved one by one. In the Double Dragon Poker game, the problem that Lanting faced was to make Vio, the sage of Team Plasma, lose all the funds that would shake the foundation of Team Plasma in one go."

As Hugo put the neatly rearranged business cards back into the business card box, he answered easily without hesitation.

"To solve this enormous problem, we need to overcome three relatively easy obstacles in turn—first, we must determine what method Vio used to win every game in the past."

"Is that important?" Naz asked, puzzled.

"If the opponent's mathematical theory of card counting is truly flawless, then there is no possibility of defeating Vio in the game, and it would be best to give up as soon as possible. If Vio's theory has flaws that he himself is aware of, then even if he can defeat this sage, he will not be able to win enough wealth to shake Group Plasma. If Vio simply won the past games by cheating, then he would never have accepted Blueberry's challenge—therefore, before all plans begin, Blueberry must get the answer to this question."

"Since the bet is valid, Vio's winning strategy shouldn't be any of the three methods, right?"

The assistant standing nearby said thoughtfully, "He was neither a cheater nor did he possess absolutely correct mathematical tools, yet he became a casino legend thanks to his almost flawless mathematical theory. However, his theory still harbors fatal flaws."

"Yes, through rumors, reasoning, or a gambler's intuition, Blueberry noticed this and tried to prove it with theory—which is why Fisher was able to find work on the gambling ship."

Hugo raised a finger mysteriously, reminding everyone: "Whether a scam succeeds or not depends not on how clever the con artist is, but on whether the victim is even likely to be deceived."

"So that's how it is. The whole scam was set up for Vio, the perfect victim."

Sabrina nodded with an expression that said, "Just as I expected." She had vaguely sensed the trap behind it as soon as she boarded the Royal United Ship.

“The second step to achieving our goal is to force Vio to place enough chips at the gambling table.” The detective raised his second finger.

"This is a task that requires both patience and acting skills. In every line of dialogue and every action, you must continuously and to the maximum extent provoke the other party's desire to gamble, while at the same time concealing the fact that you are in control of the game. You must pretend to be cold and make Vio think that your opponent is putting on a brave face, while also controlling your own sense of pressure so that Vio does not feel anything is wrong."

Like the pendulum in the hands of the Dream Eater, the Blueberry must subtly ignite the opponent's competitive spirit through unobtrusive movements and expressions. By the time Vio makes the decision to gamble everything, he is already deeply entrenched in the game, to the point that he unknowingly acts in accordance with his opponent's desires.