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

Chapter 731 Being Targeted by Death (2 Updates)
Without delay, Shiraishi E and Conan exchanged a knowing glance, then immediately got up and left the comfortable first-class cabin, heading towards the economy class cabin where the commotion was coming from.

However, as soon as they stepped into the economy class aisle, a pretty but serious-looking flight attendant stopped them.

"Sir, young man, the plane is about to take off. Please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts as soon as possible," the flight attendant reminded them in a professional and unquestionable tone.

Shiraishi E reacted quickly, immediately putting on an apologetic smile. At the same time, she casually placed her hand on Conan's head and explained, "I'm so sorry, this kid is too naughty. He ran out without me noticing. I'll take him back to sit down right away."

As he spoke, he subtly gave Conan a wink.

Conan immediately understood and switched into "Movie King Mode"!
He abruptly broke free from Shiraishi E's hand and darted out of the aisle like a startled rabbit, shouting in his childish voice as he ran, even switching to English: "Wow! This plane is so huge! It's my first time on a plane! I wanna see everything!"

He nimbly weaved between the seats, deliberately knocking over a few magazines, drawing the attention of the surrounding passengers.

"Hey! Little one, come back! Don't run around!" Seeing this, the flight attendant hurriedly stepped forward to try to catch the "naughty kid".

Shiraishi E immediately seized the opportunity to feign anxiety and helplessness, shouting to the flight attendant, "Please help me catch him! I was just a moment ago..."

The flight attendant nodded and quickly followed.

But Conan, with his small and agile body, darted and weaved among the limited number of flight attendants like an eel, sometimes squeezing through the gaps between seats, sometimes circling around the pillars, making it difficult for the flight attendants to catch him.

Left with no other option, the flight attendant had to use her walkie-talkie to call for help from her colleagues.

"There is a young passenger here who needs help. Please have two colleagues come and help stabilize the situation."

Soon, two other flight attendants arrived after hearing the news, and the three of them formed a circle around Conan, barely managing to restrict his movement.

While pretending to struggle, Conan glanced at Shiraishi E out of the corner of his eye, silently thinking: Shiraishi, I've bought you time, hurry up!
Just as Conan successfully attracted the attention of all the flight attendants, Shiraishi E quickly took action.

His sharp gaze swept across the overhead luggage racks, under the seats, and over the bags and expressions of every passenger, as if scanning their luggage.

He walked quickly, but observed very carefully, not missing any suspicious trace.

When he reached the middle of the economy class section, he suddenly stopped.

An indescribable, icy sensation crept up my spine.

His intuition was screaming an alarm!
He subtly fixed his gaze on a middle-aged man sitting by the window.

The man was wearing an ordinary gray jacket and a baseball cap. He had no distinctive features and was the type of person you would easily lose in a crowd.

He was looking down at a magazine, his posture even appearing somewhat languid, completely unrelated to the word "dangerous".

Relying solely on intuition won't convince everyone... Shiraishi E thought to herself: But thankfully, I never need to explain anything!
A simple and brutal plan instantly took shape in his mind—to frame someone and alert the enemy!

He put on an innocent smile again and naturally walked to the aisle next to the middle-aged man.

The middle-aged man seemed to sense someone's presence, looked up, and calmly asked in slightly accented English, "Excuse me? Is there something I can help you with?"

"It's nothing serious," Shiraishi E said with an unchanged smile. Before he finished speaking, his right hand moved with a speed that was almost imperceptible to the naked eye, as if by magic, using the convenience of the system space to instantly conjure a cold pistol and shove it into the other person's hand at an extremely concealed angle!

Immediately afterward, Shiraishi E jumped back two steps like a startled rabbit, her face instantly filled with terror and disbelief. Pointing at the middle-aged man, she exclaimed in a voice loud enough for half the cabin to hear, "Oh my God! A gun! Why do you have a gun?!"

This earth-shattering shout was like a boulder thrown into a calm lake!
In an instant, all the eyes of the surrounding passengers and the flight attendants who had just subdued Conan were focused on him!

The middle-aged man was completely stunned. He stared at the black pistol in his hand, his face changing drastically. He jumped to his feet, frantically trying to explain, "No! This isn't mine, it's his—"

But Shiraishi E didn't give him any chance to explain!

The moment the other man stood up, he delivered a precise side kick, as fast as lightning, sending the pistol flying from the man's hand with a "smack"!
The pistol flew in an arc and fell into the passageway not far away.

Before the other party could react, Shiraishi E lunged forward and delivered a heavy straight punch to the other party's jaw!

The middle-aged man groaned, his head snapped back, and his vision went black. Shiraishi E showed no mercy, immediately delivering a swift knee strike to the man's soft abdomen.

"Ugh!" The middle-aged man curled up in pain, and Shiraishi E took the opportunity to chop him on the back of the neck with a hand chop.

The entire sequence of movements was fluid and happened in the blink of an eye. The middle-aged man didn't even have time to put up an effective resistance before he collapsed to the ground, unconscious.

The entire economy class was silent; everyone was stunned by the sudden and violent subjugation.

Shiraishi E then walked over as if nothing had happened, picked up the pistol from the ground, skillfully ejected the magazine, and then pulled the slide with a "click" to eject the bright yellow bullet from the chamber.

He handed the empty gun, magazine, and bullets to the flight attendant who had just run over, her face pale.

"The danger is over," he said calmly.

The flight attendants and chief purser then came to their senses. Looking at the unconscious man on the ground and the weapon handed to them by Shiraishi E, they were filled with gratitude while still feeling lingering fear.

"Sir! Thank you so much! Your heroic actions protected the safety of all the passengers!" the flight attendant said repeatedly.

“It was no trouble at all.” Shiraishi waved her hand, then changed the subject, pointing to the overhead luggage rack above the unconscious man’s head, her tone becoming serious, “However, I suggest we check this gentleman’s luggage immediately. Since he was able to illegally bring weapons onto the plane, it’s hard to say whether there might be other…more dangerous items, such as explosives, in his luggage.”

The flight attendant's face paled as she realized the seriousness of the situation and immediately nodded, "You're right! We must check!"

“I’ll help,” Shiraishi E volunteered, revealing an impeccable identity: “I’m a detective, and I have some experience in identifying dangerous goods and explosives. If anything seems amiss, I can spot it in advance and prevent any accidents.”

Given his detective status, his demonstrated skills, and his contribution in "discovering" the gun, the flight attendant simply couldn't refuse this professional offer. "Okay...okay! Thank you for your help!" The flight attendant immediately signaled to the other flight attendants to calm the passengers, while she, along with a flight attendant and with the assistance of Shiraishi E, carefully removed the middle-aged man's suitcase from the overhead compartment.

Shiraishi took the suitcase off the luggage rack and laid it flat on the open ground in the middle of the aisle.

He took a deep breath and slowly lifted the lid of the box.

What comes into view are a few neatly folded ordinary clothes, a toiletry bag, and some miscellaneous personal items, which look no different from the luggage of any ordinary passenger.

"It seems we were overthinking it?" The flight attendant breathed a slight sigh of relief, her tone tinged with a hint of relief.

However, Conan, who had been staring intently at the suitcase, frowned.

His meticulous logical mind and keen observation immediately caught the discrepancy—there was an extremely subtle difference between the depth inside the suitcase and its external dimensions, and the lining fabric had an unnatural tightness at one edge.

"No, Shiraishi-nii!" Conan exclaimed in his childish but determined voice, pointing precisely to the side of the box with his little hand: "There's a hidden compartment inside!"

Shiraishi E's eyes sharpened, and she immediately began to carefully explore the location Conan pointed to.

Sure enough, beneath the soft lining, one could feel an area of ​​material that was noticeably harder and isolated from the surrounding area. He looked up at the flight attendant and said, "Please give me a pair of scissors, sharp ones."

The flight attendant didn't dare to delay and quickly found a pair of scissors for opening packages.

The entire economy class was completely silent. All the passengers held their breath, their eyes fixed on the small pair of scissors.

A tense atmosphere, almost frozen in place, filled the air.

Shiraishi E took the scissors with extreme care, as if performing a precise surgical operation.

He carefully used the tip of his knife to pry open the seams of the lining, and then cut along the edge, bit by bit.

As the lining was lifted, a thin, cleverly concealed interlayer was revealed to everyone.

When the contents of the interlayer were fully revealed, a collective gasp of astonishment rippled through the surrounding area!
Several flattened, clay-like orange-yellow lumps were tightly packed in the interlayer, next to a sophisticated electronic detonation device and a timer flashing a faint red light—clearly military-grade C4 plastic explosives!

"A bomb?!"

"It's plastic explosives! My God!"

"This guy... does he want us all to die with him?!"

"God! We just narrowly escaped death!!"

Panic spread among the passengers like a plague, with screams, cries, and prayers rising and falling. The college student's "crazy talk" from before now sounded like a terrifying prophecy!

The flight attendant's face turned deathly pale, and cold sweat poured down her back. She tried to remain calm, but her voice trembled noticeably: "I...I'll immediately notify the captain and contact ground personnel for remote guidance from bomb disposal experts! We must..."

“Don’t panic, it’s very simple.” Shiraishi interrupted her, saying, “I understand this structure. Once the detonator is removed, it’s just an expensive piece of ‘playdough’.”

Ignoring the flight attendant's advice, he bent down and took out a small pair of pliers from the first-aid kit.

His movements involved grasping the thin wire connecting the detonator with his hand, gently twisting and pulling, and then completely removing the small cylindrical detonator from block C4.

Shiraishi placed the removed detonator and detonator aside, picked up the now harmless C4, showed it to everyone, and calmly announced, "Alright, the crisis is over. This thing is now safer than a brick."

"call--"

"saved!!"

"Very good!!"

The immense psychological gap caused the entire cabin to erupt in a wave of relief and cheers, with many people slumping in their seats as if exhausted, and others excitedly embracing each other.

The flight attendant clutched her chest, let out a long sigh of relief, and looked at Shiraishi E with boundless gratitude and awe. She immediately reported the earth-shattering situation to the captain via internal phone.

Conan then approached Shiraishi E, tilting his head up, his eyes behind his glasses filled with lingering fear and shock. He lowered his voice and said, "There really was a bomb! What a coincidence."

Shiraishi E's face showed no sign of relief. His brows were furrowed, and he lowered his voice to an unprecedentedly solemn tone, saying, "I'm worried about... more than one danger."

Conan asked, puzzled, "What do you mean? Wasn't the bomb already defused?"

Shiraishi E said slowly, "I'm wondering if... we've been targeted by 'Death'."

"Huh?" Conan almost burst out laughing upon hearing this, finding the idea too absurd. "Hey, are you kidding me? This doesn't sound like something you would say. When did you start getting into this kind of metaphysics? Can't we be a little more materialistic?"

Shiraishi E rolled her eyes at Conan, inwardly cursing:

materialism?

Trying to explain materialism to someone like you who kicks a football into a satellite and can fly to the heavens and dive into the earth?
If you really want to talk about materialism, first explain to me what's going on with your football that defies the laws of physics and your incredible physique that makes you immortal even after taking shrinking drugs!

And this broken system of mine that can conjure pistols out of thin air—how can any materialist explanation make sense of it?!

He was too lazy to argue with this "famous detective" who was in the heart of magical realism yet talked about materialism. He simply patted Conan on the shoulder meaningfully and left with a remark:
"Anyway, be careful. I have a feeling this... isn't over yet."

(End of this chapter)