Conan's grammatical investigator

"Stopped?"

"What happened?"

Hondo Eisuke stood up from his seat and looked out the window curiously.

It was not a subway station outside the tempered glass, but it was pitch black, and the subway stopped in the dark tunnel between the stations.

Qin Zhibo looked at the alarm lights of the subway. The red light was not flashing, which meant that the subway was not malfunctioning, but it was simply stopped by human control.

"Wait a minute, I'll go ahead and have a look."

Qin Zhibo had already memorized the direction of the front of the train when the subway entered the station, and now he was heading in the direction of the front of the train.

When passing the two carriages in the middle, it seemed that those scattered New York citizens couldn't figure out the situation, and kept asking "what happened?".

Qin Zhibo came to the front cab, a small space of less than 3 square meters, separated from the passenger area by a door of mottled metal color.

The vertical glass on the door of the conductor's room reveals the situation behind the door. The subway driver is not there, and the driver's seat is also vacant.

The driver disappeared quite suddenly, because the subway stopped in a state of emergency braking.

Glancing at the complicated joystick and various buttons behind the door, Qin Zhibo felt a little regretful. Conan hadn't killed a subway driver yet, so he didn't know how to drive a subway.

……

Back in the original carriage, Qin Zhibo told Koizumi Hongzi and Hondo Eisuke about the current situation.

Now there are two ways to choose, one is to stay in the subway, the Metropolitan Transportation Department finds that the subway does not arrive on time, and will send people to search along the track line.

Or get out of the car to find the driver. In the current situation, the driver must have got off the car, because there are no occupations related to subway drivers in the rear compartments.

As for the impossibility of calling for help, here is the subway and there is no phone signal.

"Could the driver have gone to the toilet?"

"Why don't we go find it."

Neither Hondo Eisuke nor Koizumi Hongko wanted to wait, and neither did Qin Zhibo.

Although as long as you wait in the subway, you will be able to wait for rescue sooner or later, but this process must be quite long.

The current United States has not experienced the 911 incident, and its vigilance against terrorist attacks and hostage-taking incidents is not high, and it may not even be as high as Tokyo, Japan.

In addition, New York's subway lines are aging and are still using technology from a hundred years ago. It is not uncommon for a delay of more than ten minutes.

The subway has been busy all day, why not take a rest in the middle of the night?
And even if you can’t find the driver, you can still go to the inspection point every other section of the subway tunnel. There are wired telephones installed there to facilitate the subway maintenance workers to contact each other, and they can quickly notify the ground in case of emergency.

After making up their minds, the three of them got off the subway through the rear door of the subway.

Standing on the pitch-black track, one after another dark red lights stretched into the bottomless darkness.

Qin Zhibo took out the [Nuclear Energy Lighter] and lent the lighter to Hondo Eisuke, while he himself used the night vision device to observe the surroundings.

The three of them searched around, and Hongzi Koizumi saw a map on the wall next to the track, which marked the location of the inspection points on this line, and the nearest one was more than a mile away.

The subway station is 4 miles away, and the time it takes to walk there is enough time for the Transport Department to find out that the subway is out of service.

I searched around the subway twice, and saw that the subway driver had completely disappeared. If he was going to the toilet, he should have come back a long time ago.

So, the three decided to head towards that inspection point.

……

In the deep underground of New York, the three of them walked towards the inspection point a mile away, holding the only light source.

From Broadway to New York City Hall, that is, the subway line in Manhattan is the earliest line in New York, and it has a history of 102 years.

Due to its age, this subway line has also undertaken the construction of many other pipelines.

Water pipes that look like red thorns grow wildly on the wall, and the black rubber pipes are the wires that transmit electricity to the signal lights.

Occasionally, a drop of water leaked from the junction of the water pipes, forming small puddles on the uneven concrete floor.

Crack, crack, crack...

Three pairs of feet stepped on the puddle, making the only clear sound in the tunnel.

In the dark and oppressive environment, the three of them seldom spoke, and walked forward only by intuition.

The cold and damp air blows from the unknown front from time to time, giving people an uncomfortable feeling.

Suddenly, something incompatible with the gloomy tone here lay in a puddle on the road and entered Qin Zhibo's field of vision.

He stepped forward and saw that it was a blue and white work permit.

The photo on the work permit showed a man with stubble on his chin, named Paul, who worked as a subway driver.

This old work card was lying in a puddle, but it was not water-stained, and it obviously fell here recently.

Under normal circumstances, Qin Zhibo would cast the Finding Curse at this time.

But this time with Hongzi Koizumi, I obviously don't need to do this.

Koizumi Hongzi took the work photo, closed her eyes and meditated for two seconds, and then opened her eyes.

"People should be right up front."

"But be careful, there's something wrong with this place..."

Koizumi Hongzi issued a warning with a serious expression.

As a witch, her magical sixth sense is always accurate except when it is applied to Kaitou Kidd.

This made Qin Zhibo vigilant, as if there was really some danger lurking in the tunnel.

Hondo Eisuke also swallowed nervously, and followed at the end of the line.

……

After walking for a while, the narrow subway tunnel suddenly opened up.

The walls on both sides of the tunnel open to the sides, and here is a rather spacious shaft.

The tunnel of the subway passes through the shaft through the iron bridge and goes to the other side of the shaft.And more than ten meters below the shaft are the complex underground water pipes of New York City.

The air here is extremely humid, and there is also a faint smell of rust and rot.

"It should be right below here..."

As soon as Koizumi Hongzi finished speaking, a series of strange cries came from the open space under the shaft.

It was a noise like a meeting of moles, barking of large dogs, and even the mournful cry of a woman.

The chaotic voice made people unable to stop their curiosity when they walked to the iron bridge, and looked down.

Qin Zhibo stood on the edge of the iron bridge, looked down, and saw a group of sneaky figures gathered in the deepest place under the shaft through the gray-green night vision device, as if some kind of evil gathering was taking place.

Their misshapen, hunchbacked figures crawled and walked around, all surrounding a man who had slumped to the ground, panic-stricken.

The man's mouth was whimpering, and he continued to beg for mercy with a crying tone.

"Please..."

"Let me go...oh—my God!"

Suddenly, a stooped figure rushed towards him, knocking the man to the ground with one paw.

"Roar--!"

The figure turned upside down and barked like a wolfhound, and Qin Zhibo only vaguely saw some features on its face.

Seeing that it was a humanoid monster with protruding upper and lower jaws like a dog, Qin Zhibo immediately recognized what it was.

Ghoul!
Qin Zhibo's face trembled, he didn't expect to meet a ghoul in the underground of New York.

Generally speaking, ghouls live in cemeteries near human gathering places, and this group of ghouls lives directly under the most prosperous city in the world.

At this time, Koizumi Hongzi, who was lying on the edge of the iron bridge regardless of his image, also understood something, and murmured: "That... seems to be a ghoul?"

Eisuke Hondo, who was also lying next to him, was surprised, "A ghoul?"

Koizumi Hongzi explained: "It's a creature that feeds on rotting corpses. It looks like a dog, but it's about the size of a human being..."

"Dog? Human?" Hondo Eiyu stared blankly, as if thinking of something.

"But this kind of creature often lives in the cemetery, why does it appear here? And there are so many of them at once..."

Koizumi Hongko murmured about her incomprehension, while Hondo Eisuke was more concerned about the situation of the person below.

"Is there someone below? Is that the subway driver? Will something happen to him?"

"It's hopeless, he's dead."

Hondo Yingyou couldn't see the situation below clearly, Qin Zhibo used the vision of the night vision device to broadcast the current situation for the two of them.

The claw of the ghoul just now was directly on the driver's neck.

Blood spurted out under the effect of blood pressure, and several ghouls around quickly crawled to the left and right, greedily licking the man's blood like puppies.

"Let's go, before they find us."

Qin Zhibo didn't want to stay longer either, if these ghouls found out, he might have to give them extra meals.

"Oh……"

Hondo Eisuke felt a little unwilling, but there was no better way, he could only get up from the ground.

But by coincidence, when he got up, he touched a stone on the edge of the iron bridge. The stone slid into the shaft and collided with the abandoned water supply pipe hanging in the air.

Dang-

A hollow metal thump echoed in the shaft, causing the feeding ghouls below to look up.

Qin Zhibo's heart immediately rang out, and he stretched out his hand to pull Hondo Eisuke and Koizumi Hongzi back from the edge.

At this moment, the three of them did not dare to move, they could only quietly hope that the ghouls below would not notice them.

Although these beast-like creatures have only a single combat power, they are a little stronger than an ordinary human with weapons, but they have huge advantages over humans in terms of physical strength and endurance.

Moreover, ghouls live in groups, and Qin Zhibo did not dare to underestimate the wisdom of their race after experiencing what happened in the dreamland.

Qin Zhibo tightly held the wrists of the two of them. The two of them also knew the urgency of the situation, so they held their breath and dared not move half a step.

Fortunately, the ghouls below didn't pay much attention to the "accidental" sound. After looking up for more than ten seconds, they continued to lower their heads to lick the lump of fresh flesh and blood.

"call--"

"Let's go first..."

Qin Zhibo stretched his head slightly and glanced down, confirming that the other party had let down his vigilance, he quietly directed the two of them to leave from here.

36 meter, go is the best plan.

As for the subway driver, Qin Zhibo estimated that the ghoul used the method of "hitting someone" to lure the driver to stop the subway, and abducted him when he got off to check.

Let's just say he wasn't lucky.

Just as Qin Zhibo was about to drag the two of them away, there was another abnormal noise from under the iron bridge.

The rustling sound aroused the vigilance of the three again, just because it was the sound of something crawling through the pipe!

The sound of a hard object hitting the pipe was fast, and the rapid sound moved quickly below, accompanied by the dull "bang" sound of jumping on the empty pipe.

Qin Zhibo was shocked, did he still find out?

But then, this worry was dispelled.

These voices are not directed at the self above, but go towards the deepest bottom.

Qin Zhibo stretched his head to look down, and found that in the dark green field of vision, several ghouls had actually clashed.

They stirred their wicked, slender bodies, bit each other with claws and teeth, and thrashed about in the watery clearing below.

Is it because of the uneven distribution of spoils?

Qin Zhibo was a little puzzled by this situation, but immediately discovered something.

The number of ghouls below is about double that of the ones seen just now.

Dozens of ghouls sputtered, bit and beat each other in the puddle, and roared with anger from time to time.

Qin Zhibo immediately made a new judgment on this situation.

It was just that another group of ghouls came from nowhere and started beating up with these existing ghouls.

Although Hongzi Koizumi next to him couldn't see the situation clearly, she suddenly thought of something with her amazing sixth sense and rich knowledge reserve.

"I remember! This should be two groups of ghouls from different factions fighting."

"There are also different factions among ghouls. According to different beliefs, they are divided into the traditional faction that eats scavengers, and the heretic faction that eats living people."

"These two factions often clash..."

When Koizumi Hongzi said this, Qin Zhibo also remembered that Matsumoto Ryohei said in the dreamland that the ghouls living in the dreamland are all believers in the traditional "king of ghouls" and only eat corpses.

And when I first came into contact with Ryohei Matsumoto and his Corpse Cult, they were also divided into Autobots and Decepticons. The Autobots eat corpses, and the Decepticons attack the living.

It seems that during the transformation of humans into ghouls, factions have emerged.

The battle between the two is like those wars that broke out because of faith in human history, such as Islam and Christ robbing the holy city of Jerusalem in history.

Looking at the ghouls fighting each other below, Qin Zhibo felt a little puzzled. Did these new ghouls come from the dreamland?
Suddenly, Qin Zhibo had a bold idea.

If there is also a passage to the dreamland in this place, is it possible to return to the exit of the dreamland behind Suzuki's villa in Japan through this passage?

In theory, as long as you choose a suitable burrow on the Tomb of Xin, it will appear at the corresponding exit.

Wouldn't it be possible to travel through time and space in this way?
I am so talented!
Qin Zhibo was overwhelmed by his imagination, but the battle below was not over yet.

The two groups of ghouls fought very hard, and some brutal bites even bit off the ghoul's ears.

At this time, a prompt pops up on the side of the system's field of vision.

[Achievement task in progress: watch a "dog fight"]