Chapter 8: Changing Your Subconscious Mind! (3/4)

Liu Mengchao...

L stood up, slid his hands into his pockets, and walked over to Liu Mengchao, staring closely at his face. "A psychology expert, a micro-expression lie detection expert."

"Mm."

"Then..."

L stood on his tips, hopped onto the sofa, and squatted down on it again, looking at Liu Mengchao as he spoke.

"Professor Liu, can you analyze Kira's psychology?"

"Psychology?"

Liu Mengchao glanced at L and smiled.

"Targeting only criminals indicates a strong sense of justice," Liu Mengchao said, pacing slowly. "When a fake L appeared on the television screen, the eagerness to eliminate the provoker shows a strong ego and a conceited nature."

Liu Mengchao bent down, picked up the milkshake on the table, and stirred it slowly.

"A strong ego and a conceited nature. Therefore, anything that fails to gain his approval will provoke even greater internal dissatisfaction. In other words, killing criminals expresses his discontent with the world, and his dissatisfaction that justice remains unserved."

"You mean to say?"

"He must have received a traditional values-based education, with a strong ego and a conceited personality. He hasn't had detailed exposure to society, which makes him unable to accept its dark side."

"So he shouldn't be very old." L picked up the dessert in front of him and took a bite. "And he is well-educated, a high-IQ criminal."

"Spot on." Liu Mengchao snapped his fingers. "A profession with a strong sense of justice should be the police force. Considering his young age, he should be..."

"A current police academy student, or a newly inducted young detective." L nodded, acknowledging Liu Mengchao's judgment, and then abruptly turned his head toward another person.

"Liu Ling... these are the comparative time tables of the prisoners' deaths."

Just as L finished speaking, dense rows of data instantly appeared on the large screen in the room.

"These are..."

Liu Ling frowned. Clearly, Liu Mengchao's previous remarks had not triggered elimination by the Main God for giving hints to L. This proved that data analysis and organization of that level were not considered by the Main God as deliberately revealing Yagami Light's identity.

"The time of death, calculated according to the chi-squared distribution..." Liu Ling muttered softly, her eyes filled with earnestness. "The resulting outcome... is a low-probability event."

"What low-probability event?" Liu Ling's words left Komuro Takashi, standing beside her, completely bewildered. He didn't understand the meaning of her words at all.

"The so-called low-probability event is a method of hypothesis testing used for making inferences after collecting existing data," Liu Ling said slowly, hugging the doll in her arms. "I integrated the students' class schedules into these death records and performed calculations using chi-squared tests and the chi-squared normal distribution. This is the result."

"What is the result?"

"What does this mean?"

"What Liu Ling means is..." L raised an index finger on each hand, pinching the edge of the table in front of him, which was densely covered with times of death. "There is a 1.91 percent probability that Kira's schedule for committing murders has no connection to a student's schedule."

"In other words," Liu Ling smiled, now finding that this L character really knew his stuff, "there is a 99.01 percent probability proving that this Kira is indeed a student."

Glug.

Komuro Takashi looked somewhat incredulously at Liu Ling, and then at L, who wore a matter-of-fact expression as if it were all expected.

"You took just one glance at all that data, and you were able to calculate it?!"

"It's instinct." The corners of Liu Ling's eyes curved upward. Clearly, she was extremely confident in this ability of hers.

"Considering that police academy students are likely to live in collective dormitories and would have very little spare time to commit crimes, we can eliminate this clue. Expanding outward based on the student clue," L spun around abruptly, bracing his hands on his knees, and stared at Liu Mengchao. "Professor Liu, what identities do you think fit the psychological profile you just proposed?"

"High school and university students, those with relatives working in the police force, or," Liu Mengchao sat down beside L, his fingers tapping rhythmically and unconsciously on the tabletop, "prospective examinees who are about to apply and have chosen the police as their career aspiration."

"Bingo!" L raised the hand holding his spoon high with excitement. "Please everyone go back and rest for now, and also..."

"From now on, let's try not to address each other by our real names, nor tell anyone else our names." Liu Mengchao smiled, speaking the very words L wanted to say.

"That's right, exactly like that. As expected of Dr. Liu. And Miss Liu, known as the human computer," a smile appeared on L's pale face. "I really never expected the FBI to send you to assist me. Now, my confidence in catching Kira has risen from twenty percent to fifty percent, I'd say."

"And the remaining fifty percent?"

"The remaining fifty percent lies in finding evidence on the suspect. Where there is crime, there will inevitably be traces left behind." L bounced on the sofa and turned around. "Please get a good rest tonight. We expect to begin our first stakeout and surveillance tomorrow night."

"Understood." Liu Mengchao nodded, and Joanna had already stepped forward, ready to lead the way for them.

"Oh right, L, from now on let's use nicknames to address one another." Seeing L nod, Liu Mengchao pointed at himself and said, "Professor."

L nodded, then finished off the milkshake in front of him, into which he had stirred several spoonfuls of sugar, in a single gulp.

"Doll." Liu Ling bowed, along with the doll cradled in her arms.

"Long Hair." Qi Xiaoxi didn't say much, the expression on her face remaining largely unchanged.

"Persian Cat." Misaki Mei's red and green eyes were filled with curiosity as she observed the clever minds in this samsara world.

Komuro Takashi took a deep breath to steady his emotions. "My name is Zombie."

"A good name." Uncharacteristically, L nodded and gave a thumbs-up.

"Just call me Crewcut from now on." Xu Longxiang pointed at his own head, and after seeing L nod in acknowledgment, he followed closely behind Liu Mengchao as the group walked out of L's room in single file.

"Should I really say, as expected of L?" As soon as they stepped outside, Xu Longxiang couldn't help but say. "Still, Liu... Professor, and Doll, the fact that you two could match him step-for-step is truly amazing."

Liu Mengchao smiled and didn't say much.

"No, his intelligence probably hasn't been fully unleashed yet," Liu Ling shook her head instead. "Only through mutual confrontation can two minds push past their limits. Yet in dealing with them, we must not harm him or Yagami Light; you could say this is entirely a battle of pure wits."

Footsteps suddenly came to a halt.

Liu Mengchao looked at Liu Ling in front of him, pondered quietly for a moment, and then smiled as he resumed leading the way at the front.

"Liu... Professor, do you have some kind of plan?" Komuro Takashi noticed Liu Mengchao's brief pause, immediately caught up, and asked while walking alongside him.

"Mm."

Pushing open the door to his room, Liu Mengchao sat down in the chair and looked at the dressing table mirror, as well as the reflections of his fellow samsara team members within it.

"I was just thinking about something. If writing a person's name in a notebook while looking at their face can cause someone else to die, there is one thing worth pondering."

"Is it about fake names?"

Mengchao raised his head. It was Qi Xiaoxi who had answered his question.

"Yes. If a person's alias is written into the notebook, they will not die. We can deduce that the name which causes someone's death must be the name they recognize within their own subconscious."

"So?"

Komuro Takashi wore a look of utter skepticism. Although he didn't know much about psychology, he still understood the most basic concepts. A person's subconscious was the hardest thing to change.

Liu Mengchao, however, stood up and ran his palm across the surface of the mirror before him.

"Spend one night changing the subconscious in my mind regarding my own name."

Astonishment!

Komuro Takashi stared at Liu Mengchao in disbelief as past scenes suddenly flashed through his mind: seeing right through Saya's lies, and the desperate screams of Itou Makoto before his death.

Could this Liu Mengchao really be capable of altering his own subconscious?!

"Alright, you can all leave now." Liu Mengchao offered no further explanation, simply staring expressionlessly at the people in the mirror as he spoke. "Come knock on my door again at this exact time tomorrow night."

Then... the grand show is about to begin, isn't it?

The first clash with Yagami Light.

For reasons unknown, a faint sense of anticipation suddenly stirred deep within Liu Mengchao's heart.