Chapter 207: Professional People Are Truly Professional

"Seriously, I'm a vet who studies human physiology—why am I being asked to investigate faith issues? That's not my specialty!"

The three-faced alien twisted its head, one face looking ahead while the other two examined relevant data.

Though it wasn't his specialty, he was still the nominal head of this institute; after sighing, he finally walked toward the neighboring office…

"Garo, you…"

"Ah, what? What's wrong?" The Giant He Xing individual sharply hid his handheld terminal in his sleeve upon hearing the voice, but the three-faced Giant He Xing's acute hearing still caught the faint sound drifting from his sleeve:

"You've got to adjust your breathing with Little Xiao Lingdang, huh… inhale… exhale… inhale… Did you follow along?"

"Cough, cough, I'm researching human…"

"I get it, I get it—it's not morning briefing time, you don't need to explain your project to me. I'm here because there's a new mission." The three-faced Giant He Xing skipped the small talk and cut straight to the point.

"The faith environment in He Zujie has changed significantly. You're in charge of human observation—any notable findings?"

"Changed? What kind of change?" The Giant He Xing named Garo turned off his handheld terminal, his expression turning serious.

The three-faced Giant He Xing immediately repeated the message passed down by their teacher; Garo's scaled face twisted into a thoughtful expression as he immediately activated his work device.

"Income ratios are normal, mental states show no issues, no large-scale violent incidents recently, and even with those assimilated troops causing trouble, if anything's changed, it should've become more chaotic!"

Garo pulled up his work log, compared the data from these past days, confirmed all metrics remained within normal parameters, and his expression grew increasingly strange.

"Your teacher also sensed something abnormal, which is why they ordered us to conduct a detailed investigation."

Hearing the three faces mention his teacher, Garo sighed faintly before saying:

"Do you think it's connected to the 'Ou Jinjin' we're currently studying?"

"Possible, but unlikely—I already had the operations team scour other cities for similar graffiti. If it appeared everywhere, we could confirm it, but until we find more, we can only speculate there are other factors." The three-faced Giant He Xing replied; Garo pondered and said:

"The most direct way to reduce stress would be psychiatric drug intervention, but to increase stress, even alcohol has been forcibly tied to high-pressure social environments, tobacco banned under the guise of environmental protection, and stimulants issued only by the military—though small-scale black-market sales exist, they're insufficient to affect the overall situation."

"Given the current state of He Zujie's locals, only a minority have the energy to visit brothels. If we rule out supernatural influences like deities, it must be short, fast, and easily accessible entertainment products. Check literature databases, novels, films, and games—focus especially on imported content. Also, assign quotas to those few publishing houses: produce more mono no aware literature. After all, this ethnic group loves it. Even if it won't change the big picture, at least we can regulate it for now."

The three-faced Giant He Xing recorded Garo's suggestions one by one, then said:

"I've noted your input. I'll send you the materials—review them urgently."

"Wait! Why is it my job to review?" Garo was left speechless by the three-faced alien, who replied matter-of-factly:

"You're the one with the deepest understanding of human culture. Who else should review it? Someone who can't even tell human genders apart? This mission is highly classified—I can't borrow staff from other teams. You're the only expert in our group. It has to be you."

"…" Garo fell silent, utterly at a loss for words.

He sighed, then nodded:

"Fine. But skip low-distribution projects. To trigger a change at this level, it must be something visible nationwide—find projects that can be distributed and screened across the entire country."

"Understood." The three-faced Giant He Xing immediately pulled out his terminal and began mobilizing resources, clearly expecting Garo to get to work right there.

Garo, feeling uneasy under the gaze, simply logged into his personal account and began searching human forums for popular works.

But after scanning repeatedly, he found nothing useful.

Due to censorship, the local population hadn't produced a single phenomenon-level work in a long time—not even one that briefly caused a stir.

He kept circling through major film review sites, game comment sections, and danmaku platforms; his brow tightened as he clearly sensed a subtle shift in community atmosphere—the once-constant hostile, insult-filled online environment had clearly changed, as if overnight, all the trolls had suddenly found their conscience.

It wasn't that they vanished entirely, but if you opened any troll's past posts, you'd notice a clear drop in the intensity of their language.

If anything, it felt like they'd switched from cursing in Chinese to cursing in English, then gradually shifted to cursing in Japanese.

"Any findings?" Noticing the shift in Garo's pheromones, the three-faced Giant He Xing immediately asked.

Garo nodded, then shook his head:

"According to online community feedback, netizens' mental states have indeed eased—but I can't find the cause. These communities aren't a single circle; I can't imagine how anything could influence everyone so uniformly. Hmm, 'everyone' is too absolute—but given this online environment, most internet users have likely been affected to some degree."

"Could it really be a deity? But the current devotional energy, though improved, is nowhere near sufficient to spawn one. And as for that faith seed… wasn't it already confirmed its radiation range is limited to Uota City?"

The three-faced Giant He Xing was equally confused; Garo merely shook his head:

"That's your concern—I only handle my own specialty. Seriously, I haven't even finished analyzing Little Xiao Lingdang's tissue sample from last night…"

Here, his voice suddenly stalled; an extraordinarily complex pheromone reaction startled the three-faced Giant He Xing, who nearly thought this creature was about to undergo his third metamorphosis.

"No! Impossible! Not this either…"

Muttering to himself, Garo suddenly pulled out his personal terminal, logged into his private account, and via a connection jump, accessed an unlaunched platform.

"Not eating crêpes? Is that you?" The three-faced Giant He Xing watched Garo's stiff, mechanical inputs, puzzled by the meaning of this username; Garo merely scratched his scales vigorously, his gaze constantly sweeping the fan leaderboard…

The three-faced Giant He Xing stood by silently. Though he'd noticed Garo was the #2 donor in this livestream, he didn't crack a joke as usual—because he, too, had sensed Garo's abnormal emotion.

"You mean… this livestream could be the source of He Zujie's reduced stress?"

"No!"

(End of Chapter)