I'm in Conan, I'm not a gangster

Chapter 720 Organizing Funds (1st Update)
Like a whirlwind, Shiraishi E stormed into the lobby of the city's national bank. After several precise and deadly shots, the last few security guards who tried to resist fell into pools of blood. The bank's armed resistance was completely dismantled in a very short time.

The air was thick with the pungent smell of gunpowder and a faint stench of blood, mixed with the aura of extreme fear emanating from the crowd.

The hall was deathly silent, save for the occasional suppressed sobs and the heavy breathing of people in tension.

"Everyone! Hands behind your heads, assemble in the center of the hall! Quickly!" Shiraishi E's voice, coming through her mask, carried a deep yet undeniable authority.

The muzzle of his Uzi submachine gun moved slightly, pointing in whichever direction, causing the crowd there to flinch.

The hostages, still in shock, gathered like a flock of frightened sheep at his command, staggering and trembling, until they crouched down densely in the center of the smooth marble floor. No one dared to look directly at this menacing figure.

After taking control of the situation in the hall, Shiraishi E's sharp gaze immediately swept towards the entrance of the hall.

"You!" he shouted at Shinichi without turning his head, "Go and close all the doors, lock them!"

"Huh? Oh... okay!" Shinichi snapped out of his brief shock and realized that he was being given an order.

He dared not delay and immediately ran to the heavy revolving bronze door and the side door next to it, struggling to push them closed one by one. Following the simple instructions given by Shiraishi E earlier, he found the latch and electronic lock on the inside and, with a few clicks, temporarily isolated the bank from the outside world.

After completing the order, Shinichi leaned against the cold door, his palms sweating, his eyes scanning the crowd squatting on the ground warily, his heart pounding in his chest.

Meanwhile, Shiraishi E's attention had already shifted to the counter area.

Behind the thick bulletproof glass, a dozen bank employees stared out in terror, their faces pale.

"Open the door!" Shiraishi E tapped the bulletproof glass with the muzzle of her gun, producing a dull "thump-thump" sound; the command was concise and cold.

The employees behind the glass looked at each other, and one of them mustered his courage and shook his head, his lips trembling, clearly not daring or willing to open that barrier of life.

"Tsk." Shiraishi E clicked her tongue impatiently.

Without any hesitation, he suddenly raised his Uzi submachine gun and unleashed a furious barrage of fire at the glass counter!

“Da da da da da—!”

The deafening gunfire rang out again, spitting fire as bullets rained down on the sturdy bulletproof glass, leaving behind a dense web of white cracks, but the glass stubbornly remained unbroken.

The spent cartridges clattered to the ground, the gunfire ceased, and the glass, though cracked, remained standing.

Shiraishi E seemed to have anticipated this outcome.

His icy gaze swept quickly across the crouching crowd like a hawk's, and in almost no time, he precisely locked onto a figure wearing a bank uniform, also "trembling" and crouching on the ground—it was Vermouth, disguised as an employee.

He strode over, grabbed Vermouth's arm, and roughly pulled her out of the crowd.

"No...don't kill me! I'll cooperate! I'll cooperate with anything!" Vermouth's portrayal of a weak office worker was perfect, her voice trembling with sobs, her face filled with fear, and her body trembling "involuntarily."

Ignoring her pleas, Shiraishi E pressed the gun barrel against her lower back and shoved her toward the inconspicuous security door on the side of the counter.

"Open it!" His command was brief and forceful.

Vermouth "timidly" reached out and quickly entered a string of numbers on the keypad by the door. She even "accidentally" pressed a key once out of "fear," which made it seem even more real.

With a soft "beep", the security door lock opened.

Shiraishi E immediately pulled Vermouth into the work area behind the counter.

The remaining employees inside screamed in fright and huddled in a corner.

"Get out! Squat in the middle of the hall!" Shiraishi E shouted, pointing her gun at them.

The employees scrambled out of the security door and joined the group of hostages in the center of the hall.

Immediately afterwards, Shiraishi E's gaze fell on the middle-aged, overweight man wearing a manager's name tag who was trying to hide under the desk.

He grabbed him and pulled him close.

“You two,” he said, shifting the muzzle of his gun between the bank manager and Vermouth, “lead the way to the vault!”

Shinichi, standing at the entrance of the hall, witnessed everything.

He saw that Shiraishi E had broken through the counter and was moving deeper into the bank with the "hostages" in her arms. He immediately realized that the heavy responsibility of guarding these dozens of hostages now fell entirely on his shoulders.

He took a deep breath, trying to suppress his panic, and steeled himself, mimicking the robbers in movies. He deliberately raised his voice, brandishing his submachine gun, but his finger remained firmly on the safety, and growled at the crowd crouching on the ground:

"All of you... all of you, behave yourselves! Hands behind your heads, don't look around! Anyone... anyone who moves, don't blame me for being rude!"

His voice was slightly hoarse from nervousness, and there was even a slight, imperceptible tremor. The fierceness he was trying to project revealed a clumsy, insincere bravado.

He paced back and forth in small circles in front of the gate, his eyes scanning every crouching figure, trying his best to play the role of a robber.

------

Shiraishi Ei held a gun in one hand and shoved the bank manager with the other, while Vermouth followed beside her in "fear." The three of them quickly crossed the office area and moved towards the vault deep inside the bank.

Along the way, Shiraishi E spared no bullets, firing her gun as soon as she raised it, smashing the surveillance cameras in the corridors and corners into pieces, sparks flying everywhere, ensuring that their actions would not leave any clear video recordings.

The bank manager was ashen-faced, his shirt soaked with cold sweat. Under the cold, menacing gaze of Shiraishi E's gun, he trembled as he entered the password, swiped his access card, and unlocked the electronic access gates leading to the vault.

The heavy security doors slid open one by one, emitting a low hum, like the entrance to hell. Finally, they arrived at the largest vault door in the deepest part, its metal gleaming with a cold, metallic sheen.

The bank manager, his voice trembling, took a strangely shaped brass key from around his neck: "To open the vault, you need two keys...you have to insert them into both locks and turn them...and the other one is with the assistant manager, he...he's on leave today..."

Shiraishi E didn't bother listening to his nonsense, snatched the keys, and then slammed the gun butt hard into the back of the manager's neck.

Without uttering a sound, the other person collapsed to the ground and fainted.

Almost at the same moment the manager collapsed, Vermouth, who had just looked "terrified," instantly composed herself, her eyes becoming calm and sharp.

She deftly pulled another identical brass key from her uniform pocket, her movements so practiced it was as if she had rehearsed it countless times.

“Let’s begin,” she whispered.

The two walked to opposite sides of the vault door, inserted their keys into the locks at the same time, exchanged a glance, and simultaneously twisted the keys with perfect coordination.

"Click... Rumble—"

With the heavy creak of the turning mechanisms, the massive vault door, symbolizing the bank's highest level of security, slowly opened inward, revealing a vast, brightly lit space filled with cash and valuables.

Shiraishi glanced at the mountain of cash and jewelry in the vault, but her gaze fell on Vermouth with a hint of inquiry: "Where is what you want? You're not after these mundane things, are you?"

He didn't believe that Vermouth had gone to such lengths to make such a big scene just to rob people.

Vermouth smiled mysteriously and stepped into the vault: "Of course not."

She didn't linger for even a second in the main vault area piled high with cash, but instead headed straight for the rows of high-level private safes inside the vault that required higher access to open.

Her gaze swept quickly across the number on the safe door, and her steps finally stopped in front of the safe marked "72".

Then, under Shiraishi E's slightly surprised gaze, Vermouth took out two thin, seemingly ordinary hairpins from her hair bun, bent them into a specific shape, and then bent down to carefully insert the thin metal wire into the precise keyhole of the safe.

Her movements were gentle and steady, her ear pressed slightly against the door, listening carefully to the extremely subtle sounds of the lock mechanism inside.

In just over ten seconds, with a soft "click," the high-end safe, which theoretically required a special key and password to open, was easily pried open by her with such primitive tools!

"Wow, awesome..." Shiraishi E couldn't help but mutter in admiration.

This technique is much more elegant and discreet than simply blasting it open with explosives.

Vermouth straightened up, casually tossed the hair clip on the ground, and smiled easily: "Basic stuff, nothing special."

She pulled open the pried-open safe drawer. Inside, there were no glittering jewels or bundles of banknotes, only a lone black USB drive lying quietly on the velvet cushion.

Vermouth quickly took out the USB drive and put it in her inner pocket.

Having done all this, she immediately turned around, her tone urgent: "Alright, we've got the stuff, let's go! If we don't leave now, it might be too late!"

Before she finished speaking, she had already run out of the vault like a gust of wind, her movements so agile that she was completely different from the "delicate employee" she had just been.

Although Shiraishi E was full of curiosity, she reacted quickly and immediately followed behind, asking in a low voice as she ran, "What exactly is on that USB drive? Is it worth taking such a big risk?"

Vermouth didn't turn her head, but her voice clearly reached his ears: "The organization's financial flow data, including most of the secret accounts and money laundering paths."

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi E paused abruptly, a genuine shock flashing in her eyes, but she quickly followed suit.

He never expected that Vermouth's target was this!

If members of an organization are exposed, they can cut their losses and survive; if their stronghold is destroyed, they can start anew. But if the money that sustains the entire organization is thoroughly investigated or even taken away, it is tantamount to having their lifeline cut off!
This is absolutely one of the most devastating blows to an organization!

"What do you want to do?" he couldn't help but ask again, his voice filled with disbelief.

Vermouth glanced back at him as she ran, her smile tinged with coldness and determination: "I didn't plan to do anything, I just felt the time was right, it was about time to give that old employer who had exploited me for so long... a fatal blow."

As she spoke, she rushed out of the vault area and into the office area, saying rapidly to Shiraishi E, "Handsome, whether we can get out of here smoothly depends entirely on you!"

Shiraishi E raised an eyebrow, her steps unwavering: "You think so highly of me?"

“Of course I think highly of you!” Vermouth affirmed. “Your ‘performance’ last night was so outstanding. You single-handedly defeated almost all those troublesome guys entrenched in South Los Angeles… This kind of fighting ability is not something an ordinary person can possess.”

Upon hearing this, Shiraishi E grinned with a wild smile: "Is that so? Since you think so highly of me, then I'll give it a try!"

The two men moved like arrows, quickly passing through the office area and rushing into the bank lobby.

As she ran, Shiraishi shouted at Shinichi, who was still maintaining order in the hall, "Don't just stand there! The wind's getting strong, let's get out of here!"

Shinichi watched as the two of them ran out empty-handed, and heard Shiraishi E's shouts filled with coded language. He was completely bewildered—wasn't it supposed to be a robbery? Why were they running away without taking a single penny from the vault?

But the situation was urgent, and he didn't have time to think it over. He could only suppress his doubts and reply, "Coming!"

Without further ado about "guarding" the hostages, he turned and followed Shiraishi E and Vermouth, running wildly toward the bank's door that they had locked from the inside.

Shiraishi E fired her gun, shattering the glass. The three of them then rushed out the gate, quickly returned to their car, and drove away.

Inside the bank lobby, dozens of pairs of terrified and bewildered eyes looked at each other, none of them understanding what had happened in this baffling bank robbery.

(End of this chapter)