Phantom Thief of Heart!but conan

Chapter 849 Barriers of the World

After the thunder exploded, the sound of dripping rain came from outside the window. Tiny raindrops fell and hit the stone ground, creating a mist.

It's raining.

Glancing at the time, Tang Ze looked at the paintings and clock in the restaurant with subtle eyes, and then turned his attention again to the people at the table with different expressions.

Mamiya Mitsuru tightly grasped the knife and fork in his hands, and Mamiya Takato's face was a little pale. It was obvious that both of them understood what he was talking about and were frightened by the strange and bizarre legend.

On the contrary, Mamiya Masuyo was still sitting there calmly as if she was a mountain. Seeing that the two of them were silent, she snorted at Tang Ze, "What nonsense are you talking about? Are you dissatisfied with our poor hospitality that you are mocking us with words like curse?"

"You are not talking nonsense, old lady. This incident really happened. It seems that your son and grandson have heard about it. However, what brother Tang Ze said is a little different from the version I have heard." Conan glanced at Joker and felt that he had guessed some of his intentions. He told Joker what he had just mentioned. "Forty years ago, a tragedy occurred in a castle in a deep mountain. The owner of the castle was also a very wealthy tycoon. After his death, his family held a memorial service for him in the castle to express their grief."

"I have heard about this incident, but I am not very clear about the specific details." Mamiya Takato touched the back of his neck and whispered, "There are actually many versions about what happened. In addition to the version just told by this friend, there are also claims that the banquet was actually a secret auction of Karasuma Renya's collection during his lifetime, and the celebrities who came to participate were all killed after the auction... I don't know if this is true or not, but a murder did happen, it is true."

"...The rich man's name is Karasuma Renya." Mamiya Mitsuru, who was sitting on the left, seemed to have finally come to his senses. He coughed twice and put down the knife and fork in his hand. "My wife told me about this. She said that if my father-in-law had not flatly refused to attend the banquet, he might have died forty years ago."

Having said that, he glanced at Mamiya Masuyo who was sitting there in a daze with a strange expression.

Since even the son-in-law of the eldest daughter of the Mamiya family had heard of this, there was no reason for Mamiya Masuyo, as the wife of the person involved, not to know about it.

Her expression was dull for a moment, her eyes rolled, and she forced herself to turn the wheelchair: "I don't know what nonsense you are talking about. I'm full, I'm going back to my room first, and when my daughter comes back, tell her to come to my room immediately. She was so late for my birthday, it's really outrageous..."

Her voice became smaller and smaller as she moved away. Tang Ze watched her push slightly faster than before and smiled secretly.

He can barely still remember his Alzheimer's character.

I'm afraid that this crazy woman who used all means to pursue wealth and glory should have understood what she had to say about Mamiya Masuyo in recent years, but she probably used this method to avoid things that she herself couldn't figure out no matter what.

No wonder he created a character with Alzheimer's disease for himself. If he didn't do it this way, it would be too easy to be exposed.

"I'm sorry, my mother-in-law's mental condition has been getting worse in recent years." Mamiya smiled apologetically at the guests who were rudely abandoned by Mamiya Masuyo, "She can't even remember the condition of my father-in-law."

"Grandpa is a historian who loves to study castles, but in terms of wealth, he is not particularly wealthy. His main asset is this castle itself." Mamiya Takato explained, "So if the invitation from the Karasuma family is really for an auction, he definitely won't be interested. After all, even if he goes, our family won't spend that much money on collections."

"Is that so? What a pity! I thought that since it's a big family like yours, I would definitely be able to hear more inside stories." Tang Ze nodded and made a somewhat regretful expression.

"...So, you suddenly came to this castle just to investigate the rumors about the Karasuma family?" After dinner, Conan, who followed Tang Ze closely, suddenly asked, "What's the secret behind that so-called dinner party?"

Haibara Ai, who was following him, turned her head and glanced at him, then turned her head and looked at Tang Ze who was smiling. She remembered the tactic of waiting for the rabbit mentioned by the other party, and it took a little effort to control the twitching of the corners of her mouth.

She felt that Conan had once again found a connection between non-existent things without authorization.

"There must be something fishy going on." Tang Ze shrugged, and did not deny Conan's logic. He followed his understanding and said, "There are many different opinions about what happened at the dinner that day. Some people say that it was a curse on the castle, and everything that happened that night reflected the prophecy left by the circulating puzzle. Others believe that the Karasuma family was using the lives of the visitors to try to solve the puzzle of the castle, and finally killed all the insiders to silence them..."

"Oh, so you heard that the old master of the Mamiya family had received an invitation, so you came to investigate the situation." Conan's face was full of sudden enlightenment.

Tang Ze curled the corners of his mouth and did not refute, but his eyes crossed the corridor and turned to the now empty hallway.

There, the old master of the Mamiya family was sitting there with a serious face, staring straight at the person who walked in from the gate.

This was indeed a factor in why he came to investigate the castle, but it was still a bit unexpected that the old head of the Mamiya family had also received an invitation.

Moreover, if this is true, then the refusal of the head of the Jianmiya family back then is a bit intriguing.

Logically, Karasuma Renya didn't invite any celebrities or politicians back then. He wanted to find out the secret treasure of the Mansion of Dusk, so he invited a group of historians, architects and other professionals to study the mystery of this castle.

According to the love of the head of the Mamiya family for the castle and its related culture, it is not difficult to see from the fact that he insisted on living in this castle for his entire life. If there really was an opportunity to show his strengths and study and understand another castle with a long history, he would have no reason to refuse. Why he did not attend is also a mystery that needs to be figured out...

"You should have read some literature on cognitive studies. Then tell me, what special significance does a special environment like a private castle in the suburbs have at the cognitive level?" Without answering Conan's inference, Tang Ze asked back.

Conan's expression was stunned for a moment, and he turned his head to look at Huibara Ai who was quiet with her hands in her coat pockets.

Speaking of cognitive psychology, the real experts are here. Joker suddenly asked himself what he was doing?
Haibara Ai looked as if she had nothing to do with the matter, and had no intention of helping. Conan could only ponder for a moment, barely searching his mind for relevant knowledge, and tentatively said: "Well, maybe it's the so-called 'closed cognitive environment may form clustered cognitive characteristics'? To be honest, I don't really understand its specific meaning..."

In order to find out what happened to Tang Ze's parents and to understand the organization's research progress in this area, he did read a lot of papers and books at Huibara's request, but the theoretical part of those contents was obscure and difficult to understand, the argumentation part was fanciful, and the examples were written like some strange stories. It was really difficult for him to really regard those things as serious subjects.

If he had not known in advance that such nonsense content had real meaning and had even been used by the organization in some aspects, he would have thrown these words into the category of "fabricated folk scientists" in his memory.

How should I put it? It is not without reason that Tang Ze's parents' research society has fallen to the point where it cannot get any financial support at all and has been absorbed by the research institute of the organization...

"You have a good memory..." Tang Ze gave him a meaningful look, "With neither understanding nor belief, you still have such a good memory. You are indeed a detective with a good memory."

"Well..." Conan scratched his face awkwardly, "It's my, uh, lack of understanding..."

"Okay, I know that's not what you mean. It's just that it's hard for you to accept it for now." Tang Ze reached out and patted his shoulder. "Having a questioning spirit and refusing to follow blindly are also very important scientific qualities."

After looking at Huibara Ai, who took two steps back warily, indicating that she would not act easily, Tang Ze shrugged.

"Hearing is not as good as seeing. I think it's better for you to come and see it for yourself. At 12 o'clock midnight, if you can get up, come to the lobby and meet us." He waved his hand and turned to walk towards the fine and dense rain. "Understanding and observing the laws of the objective world, summarizing the laws, and using the laws, isn't this another kind of materialism? Don't resist it, detective."

Conan blinked, still not quite understanding what he meant. Haibara Ai, who was standing next to him, sighed first.

Sometimes I envy Kudo, this lucky guy. She insists on continuing her life as a researcher and will not easily enter that world.

Once you have entered the cognitive world, unless you lose your memory or undergo brainwashing to erase this part of your knowledge, this cognition will actually affect the real world and cannot be reversed.

"The meaning of that theory is actually very simple." Haibara Ai said in a soft voice, "In an environment that is physically closed and difficult to communicate with the outside world, the overall cognitive level and public opinion atmosphere must be different from those of mainstream society. You have been to the American Island, you know. In a normal environment, those things would simply not be possible." She was referring to the fact that Shimabukuro Kimie relied on becoming the island's totem "Witch" and used her personal willpower to sink the entire island directly.

It should be said that this is the true face of the power that the organization desires and covets.

"Hmm, so the castle is also in such an environment?" Thinking of the residents on the American island who were gradually going crazy as the rain got heavier, Conan couldn't help but frown, "But this kind of private family territory is unlikely to produce any spiritual totems..."

"There may be another form of expression, but I believe that Joker will not do anything without a purpose." Huihara Ai shrugged and patted Conan's other shoulder. "This world is more fragile than many people think, but it is also stronger than some people imagine. I leave it to you, great detective, keep up the good work."

----

"As you have all discovered, the cognitive space here is indeed very special."

As soon as she stepped on the pedal of the RV, Haibara Ai heard Tang Ze's opening remarks and stopped walking inside.

"Should I step aside?" She pointed to the egg still wrapped in bubble wrap on the soft cushion. "I'm here to check the monitoring data."

In fact, according to Tang Ze, as long as Jinpei Matsuda returns successfully, Kenji Hagiwara will be the easiest one to deal with.

Unlike Jinpei Matsuda, who had a police career for several years after his death, there was a period of time that others did not know about, which forced them to collect a lot of additional information from the First Investigation Division and his father. The life trajectory of Kenji Hagiwara from birth to death was highly overlapping with that of Jinpei Matsuda.

As childhood friends who can talk about anything and even have similar educational and work experiences, collecting Hagiwara Kenji's identity information is not a problem at all as long as Matsuda Jinpei is there.

According to Tang Ze, his main difficulty was that he had been dead for too long. To this world, he had become a shadow that could not be any fainter. If it were not for his relatives still being alive, he might not even have the basis for resurrection. Naturally, the energy required was much greater than that of the previous two people.

She monitored more frequently than before, just to compare the differences in data from several times, so since the eggs were brought here together, she slipped out to take a look along the way.

"No need to avoid it. Special situations also require some expert opinions." Tang Ze waved his hand, and the RV door automatically closed behind Huiyuan Ai. "It just so happens that I also want to ask you about this matter."

Haibara Ai pulled off the hood of her raincoat and walked over, and saw two lines of text written on the display hanging on the wall.

[Twilight Annex], and [The Time to Cross the Barrier].

Tang Ze drew a circle in the air, and the text on the screen was quickly circled by Noah with a round brushstroke.

"There is an insurmountable barrier between the cognitive world and the real world. Except for Noah, we cannot cross this barrier and enter the cognitive world without external help. This is also the fundamental reason why the organization has always believed in the existence of the cognitive world, but its tentacles have never touched the true appearance of cognitive science."

As he said this, he cast an inquiring look at Haibara Ai.

The only one among them who could truly verify whether this statement was correct was her, who had worked on the front line of organizational research.

Feeling that this conversation was of great significance, Huibara Ai pondered for a moment before speaking carefully: "That's about what I meant. From a very early time, about half of the researchers in the organization firmly believed that my uncle's research was not an abstract metaphor, but a real situation. They believed that the 'world' composed of cognition exists, but they have not yet found a way to enter it. What's more..."

She quickly glanced at Tang Ze and confirmed that he looked very calm and did not seem to be upset by the words before continuing.

"What's worse, some people in the organization believe that the reason why the research encountered a bottleneck is not because the theory is wrong, but because Uncle Tang Ze concealed part of the research content, causing them to miss the most critical step and unable to take that step at all."

As a researcher working in the organization, she had no right to access core matters other than research, and she did not know how widely these remarks spread in the organization. However, she believed that the death of her uncle and aunt was closely related to this speculation.

They had reached the limit of their patience. In order to squeeze out this key information, they would rather kill the goose that lays the golden eggs than get all the research. This led to a thorough encirclement and suppression of the Tang Ze family.

Tang Ze blinked and did not respond to this, continuing the discussion at the beginning: "Such a conclusion means that the organization has tried to enter the cognitive world more than once, and these attempts must have ended in failure. But they must have found some circumstantial evidence that proves the existence of the cognitive world in the process, which is why they are so determined that they are almost crazy."

His eyes swept over several people in the group one by one, and finally landed on Shimabukuro Kimie.

Shimabukuro Junhui tilted her head in confusion, thinking about it. After thinking for a while, she realized what Tang Ze was hinting at: "Do you think that what happened to me was similar?"

"Strictly speaking, the organization's research direction is not wrong. Since my 'accident', they have actually been close to the truth more than once, but they were all covered up because of our intervention and did not attract their attention." Tang Ze pointed at Shimabukuro Kimie, and then pointed at Noah, whose head appeared on the display screen, "We may have actually tried to contact the cognitive world without navigating the other world."

After being in this world for so long, just as Leon told him at the beginning, this is not a world where the real world and the cognitive world are strictly separated and do not interfere with each other. This is a world where fusion has occurred for unknown reasons and the boundary between cognition and reality is very blurred.

It’s just that the “Holy Grail” of this world, or something similar, like the accomplice ending of the original work, is actively constraining the boundaries of the cognitive world and preventing the two from completely merging.

The specific manifestation of this ambiguity is that there are more ways to enter that world than just the other-world navigation.

Just look at the members of his team!
Noah's Ark is actually the organization's version of the navigation system for the other world. However, his "holographic virtual game database" is actually his palace disguised as a game. His ability to create his own world is part of his identity as the master of the palace, which caused misunderstandings to the organization, causing them to lose sight of the main point and focus on making some weird brainwashing machine.

If he had not been taken away by Tang Ze and had not succeeded in self-destruction, or if the real genius Sawada Hiroki had not died one day earlier and fell into the hands of the organization, they would sooner or later discover the clues of this game and might have crossed that line.

Asai Narimi, on the surface, is just a powerful mask user, but the most special thing about him is that the barrier created by the environment of Moon Shadow Island is weak, which allows him to grow to the point of occupying public halls without relying on any external force. If he goes further, he may find the real gap between the two worlds.

The one who went one step further than him was Shimabukuro Kimie. If there hadn't been any interference from the Phantom Thieves, would she have completely collapsed and shown a form similar to that of a false god, completely invading the real world? Tang Ze didn't want to assume, but don't forget that this island had entered the organization's vision.

They were not going in the wrong direction, they just came at the wrong time.

Perhaps Tang Ze Ikawa discovered this abnormality a few years ago and carefully hid it so that it did not attract the attention of the organization.

From this, Tang Ze made a bold hypothesis.

What if, he meant what if, in cities and other places where human civilization progresses faster, the world follows the operating logic of P5, and in closed environments like isolated islands, conservative villages, and places where knowledge cannot flow with the outside world, the rules will also operate according to the logic of P4?

Is it really possible to kick someone into a TV set by just finding the right way to enter?

"I have some bold guesses. I think this castle is a good place to test it." Tang Ze pointed casually at the stone fortress with shutters standing in the rain. "Maybe some of the answers we need are in it."

(End of this chapter)