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

Chapter 759 Noah's Ark is the Sixth
Having left the alleyway where they had confronted Moriarty, which was filled with the lingering scent of conspiracy and violence, Shiraishi and Conan quietly returned to 221B Baker Street along the fog-shrouded streets of London.

The familiar lobby appeared exceptionally quiet under the dim light of the gas lamps, a stark contrast to the tense atmosphere that had just filled the club and alleyway.

The two tiptoed up to the second floor and entered the room belonging to "Sherlock Holmes".

The room remained unchanged, with chemical lab equipment, a violin, and scattered newspapers, all contributing to the atmosphere of the legendary detective's life.

Shiraishi E seemed completely unaffected by the intense conflict just now. He yawned, walked straight to the four-poster bed that looked fairly comfortable, and lay down quite casually.

The instant his body touched the bed, a semi-transparent system notification popped up abruptly yet logically in the center of his vision, clearly displaying the following text: [End the current timeline and rest until the next morning?]

"Hey, Conan," Shiraishi E said, turning her head to Conan, who was curiously looking around the room, "A rest option popped up. If we click confirm, we can 'whoosh' jump to tomorrow morning. That'll save us trouble."

"Wait! Don't rush!" Conan immediately raised his hand to stop him, his face showing a mixture of excitement and curiosity. "I was in such a hurry to get back that I didn't even have time to properly look through Holmes's study! This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity, let me take a look!"

Shiraishi E shrugged indifferently at the request and replied lazily, "Whatever, please."

Having received permission, Conan immediately pounced on the bookshelf that occupied an entire wall, like a small animal released into the wild.

His eyes gleamed with a thirst for knowledge, and his fingers carefully brushed over the books with leather or cardboard covers, pulling one out, quickly flipping through it, and then switching to another.

However, as Conan flipped through more and more books, the excitement and anticipation on his face were gradually replaced by a growing sense of confusion and speechlessness. He slowed down his page turning, and his brows furrowed slightly.

"What the heck..." he finally couldn't help but mutter under his breath, his tone carrying an indescribable sense of absurdity, "These books... the contents of these notes, why do they look more and more familiar?"

"Aren't these all the books and files in my study? My dad is really something... To build this virtual scene, he just copied and pasted the entire database from the study? That's so lazy!"

To confirm his hypothesis, he examined the book in his hands even more closely.

Suddenly, his gaze fell on a blank space on a page, where there was a line of slightly childish but all too familiar pencil writing.

He pointed to the line of text, and said to Shiraishi E with a mix of amusement and exasperation, "Look here! This even has the notes I jotted down when I was a kid reading, and my handwriting!! They even copied this exactly?!"

After confirming that the study, which symbolized the "pinnacle of detective wisdom," was actually a perfect replica of his own home study, the mysterious aura in Conan's heart vanished instantly.

The initial excitement of exploring legendary secrets was immediately replaced by a sense of boredom, like "strolling through one's own backyard."

He listlessly shoved the book back onto the shelf, walked to the relatively soft sofa on the side of the room, slumped down in dejection, and then simply lay down.

"Alright, alright, there's nothing more to see." He waved his hand, his tone tinged with self-deprecation. "Let's go to sleep. Let's skip tonight and head straight to tomorrow. We'll go to the opera house and meet that Jack the Ripper."

Seeing this, Shiraishi E smiled knowingly and didn't say anything more.

He raised his hand and, with his mind or simply by making a confirmation gesture, clicked the floating "Rest" button.

[System notification: Character has entered rest mode. Time is accelerating; estimated waiting time: 10 minutes.]

As the notification box appeared, the light in the room seemed to soften and solidify, enveloping the two in a tranquil atmosphere.

In the quiet room, time seemed to stretch out.

Shiraishi stared at the ten-minute countdown, clicked her tongue impatiently, and complained, "I mean, besides the two of us, there shouldn't be any other players in this game right now, right?"

"And we still have to wait ten minutes... Shouldn't the program just 'swish' and switch right back to dawn? What kind of formalism is this?"

Conan leaned back on the sofa, nodded upon hearing this, and thought it made a lot of sense. He speculated, "It's probably to increase the so-called 'immersion' and simulate the real sleep process."

"Immersion?" Shiraishi E seemed to have heard an interesting word, a playful smile curving her lips, her tone becoming somewhat elusive, "Speaking of immersion... I remember, in London of this era, on the streets at night, there seemed to be many 'fallen women' struggling to make a living, right? I wonder how realistically Noah's Ark has done this part of the details..."

Upon hearing this dangerous remark, Conan instantly sprang halfway up the sofa and hurriedly dissuaded him, "Hey! Why do you always have so many strange ideas?! Behave yourself! We're solving a case, not experiencing Victorian nightlife!!"

Seeing his nervous expression, Shiraishi E lazily smiled and said, "Relax, I was just saying it casually, look how flustered you are."

Conan was about to emphasize the safety issue a few more times when, in the next instant—

"Bang!!" A deafening gunshot rang out without warning!

The scorching bullet grazed Conan's temple, punching a charred hole in the back of the sofa behind him, sending stuffing flying everywhere.

"Ah!!" Conan was terrified by the sudden attack, tumbling off the sofa to the floor. His heart pounded, and he roared in shock and anger, "What are you doing?! Are you crazy?! You suddenly fired a gun! You almost hit me!!"

Shiraishi E ignored his questioning, her eyes sharp as an eagle's, her wrist moving swiftly as she repeatedly pulled the trigger at several seemingly empty, shadowy corners in the room!
"Bang! Bang! Bang!!"

The old-fashioned revolver spat out a dazzling flash of light, and the smell of gunpowder instantly filled the air.

Along with the gunshots, several suppressed and painful groans came from the shadows!

It was only then that Conan realized something was wrong. He scrambled to the wall and yanked on the gas light in the room.

pat!

The warm light dispelled the darkness and illuminated a horrifying scene in the study—the once tidy room was now filled with several men dressed in black, their faces covered, lying haphazardly.

Each of them had obvious bullet holes in their chest or forehead, and blood was gushing out; they were clearly dead beyond any doubt.

Conan suddenly turned his head and looked behind the sofa where he had just been lying. Sure enough, there was a black-clad man's corpse curled up, tightly gripping a gleaming dagger in his hand.

He then realized that Shiraishi E's seemingly frantic barrage of fire was not reckless at all, but rather a precise elimination of all the lurking assassins in the blink of an eye!

A wave of intense fear washed over him like ice water, making his voice tremble: "What...what exactly happened?!"

Shiraishi E blew away the faint wisp of smoke from the muzzle of the gun, a contemptuous sneer on her face: "What else could it be? Of course, it's the work of that old man Noah's Ark!"

"While we thought it was safe and let our guard down to 'rest,' they secretly spawned a bunch of monsters and attacked us... I knew it! It's just a map switch, why should we wait ten minutes! Something was definitely fishy!"

Conan finally understood this and couldn't help but curse Noah's Ark's cunning in his heart.

This artificial intelligence actually exploited the game mechanics and the player's psychological blind spots to set up such an insidious trap!

If it weren't for Shiraishi E's exceptional alertness and superb marksmanship, the two of them would probably have been "eliminated" in their sleep!
He stepped forward and carefully examined the bodies, searching them thoroughly. Then, he stood up and stated confidently, "There are no gang insignia or distinguishing features on them… meaning they aren't ordinary London gangsters. Most likely… they were sent by Moriarty!"

As he spoke, he slapped his forehead in frustration, his tone filled with self-reproach: "Oh, I was so careless!"

“Tonight, the two of us not only wrecked Colonel Moran’s place, but you also grabbed Moriarty by the collar in public and beat his servant. With his status and pride as the ‘Napoleon of the criminal world,’ how could he possibly swallow this insult?”

“He will definitely find a chance to get revenge on us!! And he doesn’t even plan to wait overnight, he’ll report it that very night.”

Shiraishi nodded, agreeing with the deduction, and analyzed, "Logically speaking, it makes perfect sense that Noah's Ark would arrange a plausible assassination after Moriarty's conflict with us. There's nothing wrong with that. The script is quite well-written."

Conan wholeheartedly agreed, exclaiming, "Yes... I never expected this artificial intelligence to be not only cunning, but also so adept at exploiting the plot and human nature! We almost let it succeed, and ended up getting caught off guard."

He turned to Shiraishi E and said sincerely, "We really owe you a lot this time, Shiraishi! Otherwise, we would have been eliminated."

Shiraishi E casually waved her hand, lay back down on the bed, and said in her previous lazy tone, "Hey, I already said I'd help you beat the game, so you can relax now!!"

Seeing his calm and composed demeanor, Conan's tense mood gradually subsided. He chuckled and lay back down on the sofa with a sense of relief.

After that thrilling moment, he deeply felt that having this guy by his side truly gave him a great sense of security.

Shiraishi E raised her hand again, pointed in the air, and pressed the "Rest" button.

This time, there was no long wait.

The sky outside the window changed almost instantly from inky black to pale white, then burst into the golden light of dawn. The sounds of carriage wheels, newsboys' cries, and faint human voices began to echo through the streets, and the whole of London came alive in the sunlight.

Shiraishi E looked at the scene with satisfaction and nodded: "That's more like it!!"

(End of this chapter)