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Nanana’s Buried Treasure Volume 3 Chapter 5.3

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“TRANSLATOR:Foxsunes/EDITOR TheNix”

The part timer took the key near the place where it was inserted before and then…..

  ｢Woah! What the hell is this!?｣

The moment he took the key near the vending machine, a keyhole opened up. I observed it carefully and saw the metal reacting like water, I saw ripples forming and the keyhole appearing. 

  ｢Eh, what’s this? This is amazing!｣

Witnessing my reaction, members of the adventure club came towards the black vending machine. Part timer-kun repeated the same thing and they were as surprised as I was. 

  ｢How does this even work?｣

Ibara-senpai borrowed the key from him and looked at it carefully. 

  ｢I see, this is something called magnetic memory alloy.｣

  ｢What’s that?｣

｢It’s a metal that changes its shape into already programmed shape when it receives a specific magnetic pulse. I assume that the key is emitting weak electromagnetic waves. Similar metals were created a while ago but the mad scientist of Nanae Island was the first one to succeed in changing the shape of the metal into multiple patterns depending on the electromagnetic wave it receives. ｣

  ｢Ahh, you are talking about Futaba Saito. It’s pretty amazing that latest technology like that is being used to make keyholes like this.｣

Ibara-senpai was impressed by it.

  ｢I see, so if there isn’t a specific magnetic wave then the keyhole wouldn’t be formed and if there is’t a keyhole than nobody is going to open it up. If there isn’t a keyhole then I won’t be able to pick the lock, this is pretty troublesome.  No, wait. If I could get the keys than I can easily open it up, so it isn’t that troublesome…..｣

  ｢Hm, what’s up Yama-kun? Why are you muttering like that?｣

  ｢N..no. It’s nothing!｣

I was caught off guard but I tried to act normal without making anyone suspicious. It was quite dangerous for my inner thoughts to come out of my mouth. 

  ｢Hmm, I see. So this key is an amazing thing. I didn’t know about it at all.｣

Seems like the part timer-kun didn’t know about the key either, he stared at the key curiously after it was returned to him. Seems like he’s only thinking of it as an interesting gimmick. Well, normally you wouldn’t care if the key you are using at work is of an old style or is made with the latest technology. Like Ibara-senpai said before, it is amazing but I can’t wrap my head around why such technology was used for something like this? It makes no sense. 

  ｢Speaking of the vending machine, part timer-dono what’s this number on the machine mean?｣

Tensai started her interrogation. Good question Tensai! I was busy thinking about the key and forgot about the numbers. 

  ｢Number? Oh you mean this hidden number behind the painting? I don’t think it has any specific meaning.｣

  ｢What about the route you take to refill the machines? Are the numbers related to that?｣

Tensai’s question surprised all of us, we hadn’t thought of it that way. 

  ｢No, not really.｣

  ｢If you don’t mind, can you show how you refill?｣

  ｢Yeah, I don’t mind that.｣

Part timer-kun pointed at the dots on the pamflet one after another. 

  ｢It’s quite a peculiar course.｣

  ｢It’s like that due to service entrances and staff elevator.We work behind the scene so we are told as inconspicuous as possible. ｣

Part timer-kun pointed at the cart filled with fruits. True, if something like this was moving around in the mall then it would gather a lot of attention. 

  ｢About the route you take, has it been decided by your employer?｣

  ｢No, we are free to pick course but this route is the most efficient one so all of my colleagues take this course.｣

That’s interesting.

  ｢Can I ask for something too?｣

  ｢What is it Part timer-dono?｣

  ｢If it’s possible, can I get her email address?｣

The person he pointed at was D’arc. 

  ｢Y..you mean me?｣

  ｢I’m Yokota Hiroshi, a second year student from fourth senior high. If it’s possible can we start from being pals!｣

He bowed down respectfully and D’arc was all confused, moving his hands not knowing what to do. D’arc looked at Tensai. 

  ｢D’arc, give it to him.It’s give and take.｣

Upon hearing his master’s order, he took out his cell phone unwillingly. 

  ｢He, here you go.｣

  ｢Thank you very much! I’ll mail you for sure!｣

Yokota-kun smiled pleasantly and went away pulling the cart. He looked more energetic than before. 

  ｢…..It’s pitiful.｣

As I saw him going away happily and felt it from the bottom of my heart. 

  ｢But then, it’s also fun to watch.｣

And I was made to think again that Tensai is a demon after witnessing her grin at the same thing that made me sad, Yokota-kun’s fate. 

We returned to the table from before and Tensai noted down the information provided by Yokota-kun. 

  ｢If we arrange the numbers according to the route Yokota-kun takes than they turn out to be like this.｣

Twenty three, sixteen, six, root, one, seventy eight, zero point four, thirty seven, seventy six and two. 

…..Hm? So what about it? I don’t get it. 

  ｢Tensai-kun can you tell us about what Yokota-kun told us, again?｣

President Yuiga asked. 

  ｢Sure.｣

Tensai pointed at the pamflet with a pen. 

  ｢It starts from the service entrance in the back of building number three. The fruit are loaded on the cart here and then taken to the staff elevator. Two black vending machines in the third floor of building number three are refilled, number twenty three first followed by sixteen. Then the same elevator is used to get to the first floor where number six is refilled. After that, the cart is taken to the next building which is building number two. There are four vending machines on the first floor there. They are filled in the order of root, one, seventy eight and zero point four. After that the two vending machines in building number one’s first floor are filled. Thirty seven is filled first and then seventy six. After that the cart is then taken to the second floor of building number one via staff elevator and then to the second floor of building number two where the vending machine with the number two is refilled. After that the cart is taken to the service entrance of building number three and that’s it…Seems like the vending machines aren’t spread out evenly. ｣

Come to think of it, as Tensaid said, the black vending machines aren’t placed evenly in this huge mall. 

  ｢In that case there must be a hint in each building’s respective floor.｣

  ｢In that case, we can form five numbers which are 2316, 6, √1780.4, 3776 and 2.｣

Everyone looked at five numbers that Tensai wrote on paper. 

Let’s start with the first number, 2316. 

  ｢If we were to think normally this number must be pointing at some location……｣

  ｢Isn’t it something like third floor of building number two? Isshin-sama?｣

It was pretty simple but at the same time it seemed right, President Yuiga smiled at Ibara-senpai’s idea.

  ｢I see.｣

  ｢So, what’s that 16 after that, Ibara?｣

  ｢How the hell am I supposed to know that.｣

Tsurezure-senpai got glared at by Ibara-senpai. His treatment is opposite to that of President Yuiga. 

  ｢Did shops have numbers?… Oh all of them have numbers for the sake of convenience.｣

Below the floor map in the pamflet, there is a list of shops and the numbers are written right next to them. 

  ｢Sooo, it’s shop number sixteen in floor number three of building number thwo. It’s this shop right here.｣

I pointed at the corner of the floor map. 

  ｢Now, regarding the rest of the numbers….it seems like we can’t use the rest of them like this. Let’s go to shop number sixteen for now.｣

Everyone nodded at President Yuiga’s words. 

*****

The shop that we were looking for, shop number sixteen on the second floor of the third building was a big shop that sells sports products. There was a different space for products of each sport and sports products were showcased properly on shelves. 

  ｢So, we need to find something related to the numbers here.｣

Everyone looked at the paper again. 

  ｢The next number is 6, what is it if…..we think of it from perspective of sports?｣

  ｢Isn’t it about the number of players, Isshin? Six players so…..maybe volleyball?｣

I see, volleyball does indeed have six players. 

  ｢So, sport with six players. There might be other games that can have six players, can you think of any others?｣

Everyone looked at each other but couldn’t come up with anything. We looked around the sports corners in the shop but we couldn’t find any game with six players except for volleyball.

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