Chapter 2057: The Simplest Problem

Thud thud thud thud

Footsteps sounded chaotic.

Everyone walked out of the lab, and Zhang Tie behind Lin An was beaming, hopping about happily:

"Right!? I said it, that guy Chu An definitely isn't hopeless!"

"Captain Lin, I already said not to worry about him, damn it, when this kid fell earlier, I even yelled a couple of times!"

"Heh heh, let him lie around a few more days; when he wakes up next time, we'll see whose *chrysanthemum*!"

Gao Tian, Wen Ya:......

Walking in front, Lin An helplessly glanced back at the self-indulgent Zhang Tie.

Looking at the mottled rust-covered walls inside the Black Tower, Lin An simply asked Yun Tian:

"Yun Tian, are you saying Chu An had been experimenting downstairs before? Because drawing too much power caused him to have a dispute with Clein?"

"Yes, Lord Lin An."

Carefully staying by Lin An's side, Yun Tian answered quickly:

"I also heard from earlier people, uh, the natives here are the Pope and Lin Lan. Back then the dungeon's energy was already nearly exhausted, and the Pope had once sought out Chu An."

"Later, Lord Chu An still didn't stop his experiments, causing Lord Clein to suddenly storm into the lab one day with a grim expression, leading to a dispute."

"It's said that on that day, the Black Tower malfunctioned, the sky seemed about to collapse. Lord Clein rarely lost his temper, even fearfully charging into the sky, wanting to restart something."

"That day, many believers saw it, and from then on, Lord Clein rarely appeared in public, and he grew much more worn out."

Yun Tian's eyes showed reminiscence; he too had wondered what happened back then.

But Clein seemed to avoid this topic, even not wanting to mention it in front of Lin An.

"Black Tower shut down? Dungeon collapse?"

Lin An nodded thoughtfully, recalling the abnormality he had sensed from Clein.

He could feel that Clein certainly had something on his mind, or rather something he dared not say, weighing on his heart. When facing him, he also hesitated greatly.

"Is it related to my strength?"

"External crisis? Or is there some trouble?"

Suppressing the thought, Lin An didn't think further. If Clein wanted to speak, he would surely tell him. Compared to that, he was more interested in Chu An.

Especially after entering the Amoeba World this time, he clearly realized that the Amoeba 'mother body' on him was not right.

This is not Faith Power; this power is absolutely abnormal.

"That's it, though nothing much is left—just some experimental records and notes and such."

Under the Black Tower lay a somewhat cluttered lab; never seeing sunlight year-round, it felt rather gloomy.

Yun Tian respectfully whispered beside Lin An, indicating that Clein had tidied this place up, leaving only some original equipment and recorded data.

"Lord Lin An, if you want to find the Amoeba primordial liquid, you may need to seek Lord Clein."

"As for that, it's in his hands; what remains here are Lord Chu An's early records—I've looked through them before, and most are theoretical."

Yun Tian said this, feeling a bit embarrassed as he scratched his head.

Back then, because of Yun Lin, he had lingered here for a long time. He originally wanted to see what Chu An was researching, but limited education meant he couldn't understand much of it.

Lin An nodded, not waiting for Yun Tian to give him a general introduction; the next second, a white light flashed silently among the bookshelves.

The next second, over a thousand record manuals leapt into the air at once, as if countless hands were flipping through them simultaneously, each notebook flipping rapidly.

Rattle

The dense sound of flipping pages instantly stunned Gao Tian and the others.

Although Lin An's telekinetic trick isn't special, one must admit it's quite imposing.

Especially Gao Tian and Wen Ya instantly realized Lin An intended to read all the notes at once, no need to go through them one by one.

"Holy shit.. Captain Lin, can you keep up?"

"Lin bro definitely can, Zhang bro, you can too..."

The thick sound of pages turning in the basement sounded somewhat eerie; Gao Tian helplessly glanced at Xiong Hanzi, unable to complain.

Actually, reaching the Fourth Stage, reading several books at once isn't too hard; their memory and thinking have greatly strengthened. Of course, someone like Lin An being so exaggerated, using one mind for thousands, is still too abnormal.

Wen Ya raised a finger, shushing to signal Xiong Hanzi to be quiet; she could tell Lin An seemed to be looking for something.

As expected, after about ten seconds, the flipping sound suddenly stopped.

The next second, an opened manual flew straight to Lin An.

"Commutative Law and Infinity."

"Sphere Division Paradox Contemplation."

"Factor decomposition of faith, and another kind of thought."

Seeing Lin An seemingly found something useful, everyone looked toward the note stopped before him; on page twenty-six of the note, the small text of three line headings was circled in red.

Obviously, Chu An also valued this note, with doodles and scribbles all over, having erased much of the content.

But as soon as everyone saw the content, they were stunned.

Even Zhang Tie suddenly opened his mouth wide, giving Lin An a strange look:

"What the heck is this, Chu An's doing elementary school arithmetic problems!? No way, he can't even figure out these kinds of problems!?"

No one objected.

Lin An was equally astonished, looking at the mathematical formula above.

Only to see beneath the title were some arithmetic problems.

"Why does 2x3 equal 6?"

"Why does 3x2 also equal 6?"

"Why do 3+2 and 2+3, like multiplication, satisfy the commutative law? Why does swapping the numbers before the equals sign not change the result?"

Why, in an Abel group, do subtraction and division not satisfy the commutative law?

I think perhaps infinite truth is hidden behind this.

They stared at each other, puzzled.

Looking at the problem above, whether it was Gao Tian or Jiang Haochen, everyone was completely baffled. They didn't know what Chu An was troubled by then. How could there possibly be any truth behind a simple arithmetic problem?

After a long silence, Zhang Tie finally broke this eerie silence.

"Captain Lin, could Chu An have gone crazy?"

"What does this group mean? No, Colonel Chu, could you not understand this?"

Scratching his head, Zhang Tie made a puffing sound and produced three pieces of chocolate from his butt:

"I first take out three chocolates, then two; no matter whether I take three first or two first, the total is always five!"

"Six people standing sideways are two rows of three, standing vertically are three rows of two—I understood this in second grade!"

Lin An frowned, ignoring Zhang Tie's smugness, although he also didn't know why Chu An had so seriously written down these obvious problems.

But it didn't stop him from following the thought.

Suddenly, Gao Tian seemed to recall something, hesitantly pointing to the notebook:

"Captain Lin, this Abel group—my university professor seemed to have mentioned it, no, he seemed to have mentioned the commutative law."

"I'm not sure if what I'm thinking is the same as the problem Colonel Chu asked."

After a slight pause, seeing Lin An gesture for him to continue, Gao Tian's face showed recollection:

"It's like this: Chu An's question is likely asking why addition and multiplication satisfy the commutative law, while the commutative law itself is quite strange."

"My professor once gave an example, saying if we treat 2 as peeling an apple and 3 as eating the apple."

"Then, in terms of causality, the order of 2 and 3 cannot be swapped. It's like you cannot eat an apple and then peel it."

"The commutative law is actually quite strange; it doesn't exist in most formulas, and the ways of calculation that satisfy it are like miracles."

Gao Tian swallowed dryly, took a deep breath, and straightforwardly repeated his professor's words:

"My professor once said a sentence that left a deep impression on me."

"He said that in this world, many things are not self-evident, even obvious to the point of not needing thought, and those are the real problems we should think about."

"For example, universal gravitation—people have been aware of gravity for thousands or tens of thousands of years, but only in modern times did they understand its underlying meaning."

"My professor also said that if we bring the commutative law into subtraction and division, we would discover something terrifying..."

"Ter.. rifying?"