Traveling back thirty years to Conan, intercepting Princess Eri

At the same time, in a sprawling estate on the outskirts of Osaka.

The main building of the manor is a three-story European-style mansion that is nearly a hundred years old, but it is very well maintained and looks solemn and mysterious under the moonlight.

The living room on the first floor of the mansion was brightly lit.

A middle-aged man in his fifties, wearing expensive silk pajamas, paced anxiously in a room covered with a Persian carpet.

He glanced occasionally at the antique clock on the wall, a genuine 18th-century French timepiece, the hands pointing to 2:20 a.m.

There was another person standing next to him, none other than Mr. Takahashi, a volunteer in the Terracotta Warriors exhibition area.

But at this moment, he was no longer the gentle and refined man he was in the museum; instead, he wore a face full of fawning.

"Boss, don't worry."

Mr. Takahashi looked at the anxious middle-aged man, deliberately lowering his voice to appear respectful and submissive.
“The people we hired this time are not comparable to those brainless right-wingers from before.”

"They are true professionals with an excellent reputation in the industry, and their task completion rate is 100%."

"Since they accepted this task, they certainly won't make any mistakes."

The middle-aged man stopped and turned around, his anxiety undiminished.
“But so much time has passed!” He pointed to the wall clock. “According to the plan, shouldn’t they have succeeded by now? Why haven’t they called me yet? Not even a word!”

“Something might have caused a delay,” Mr. Takahashi continued, but there was already a hint of uncertainty in his voice. “You know, the police aren’t pushovers either; there might be some complications. Just wait a little longer, and it will definitely…”

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted by a knock on the door.

The knocking was soft and rhythmic.

Thump, thump, thump, three times, unhurried and unhurried, but exceptionally clear in the quiet of the night.

The middle-aged man and Mr. Takahashi were both stunned. They looked at each other and saw tension and anticipation in each other's eyes.

"Boss, it must be them coming back!" Mr. Takahashi was overjoyed. The worry on his face vanished, replaced by excitement and pride. "I knew it! With their abilities, they definitely wouldn't fail. I'll go open the door right now!"

As he spoke, he strode towards the door, ready to welcome the triumphant "professionals."

The middle-aged man's face lit up at first, but his years of business experience and his naturally suspicious nature immediately put him on guard.

Just as Mr. Takahashi's hand was about to touch the doorknob, the middle-aged man suddenly remembered something and hurriedly whispered, "Wait, something's not right."

Mr. Takahashi's hand froze in mid-air as he turned his head in confusion: "What's wrong?"

The middle-aged man frowned and said in a low voice, "There are servants on night watch in the manor, and guards at the gate. If outsiders come to visit this late, the servants should inform me first and only let them in after obtaining my permission."

“But we received neither a call from the gatekeeper nor a servant came up to inform us.”

Mr. Takahashi's expression changed slightly, clearly realizing the problem as well.

But he quickly shook his head, trying to soothe the middle-aged man's doubts with a reasonable explanation:

"Boss, you're probably overthinking it. It's so late now, the servants on night watch must have fallen asleep or had to leave for something."

“Those people are professionals; it would be a piece of cake for them to sneak in without a few servants.”

Seeing that the middle-aged man was still hesitant, Mr. Takahashi added,

“Besides, we have at least twenty servants, gardeners, and security guards in this manor. What ordinary thieves or robbers would dare to break in? It must be someone we hired who didn’t want to attract too much attention after the theft, so they sneaked in.” These words seemed to convince the middle-aged man. He hesitated for a few seconds, but finally nodded.

At the boss's signal, Mr. Takahashi took a deep breath and reached out to open the heavy solid wood study door.

The door opened.

A young man, about twenty-five or twenty-six years old, stood outside the door. He was tall and slender, with a peculiar spider tattoo on his left eye. He was dressed in dark casual clothes and looked as ordinary as could be.

But Mr. Takahashi recognized the face; it belonged to the team leader they had hired, codenamed "Spider."

"Mr. Spider, how's it going?" Mr. Takahashi asked impatiently. "You must have already taken the Terracotta Army..."

He stopped halfway through his sentence.

Because he noticed something was wrong.

The spider was covered in blood. On its dark clothes, there were several darker spots, which were dark patches formed from blood soaking into the fabric.

Most importantly, although the spider wore a smile, that smile was devoid of any warmth; instead, it sent chills down one's spine.

That wasn't a relaxed smile after completing a task, nor an apologetic smile after failure; it was more like... a playful, cat-and-mouse game.

“Mr. Spider…” Mr. Takahashi’s voice trembled involuntarily.

Spider smiled slightly, a smile that looked eerily strange in the dim corridor light: "Sorry, the mission failed."

"what?"

Mr. Takahashi exclaimed in surprise, almost unable to believe his ears.

"Didn't you say that as long as you took action, you would definitely complete the mission 100%? We paid one billion yen! A whole one billion!"

The middle-aged man also overheard their conversation. His face turned deathly pale instantly. He strode to the door, his voice trembling with anger and fear.
"Failed? How dare you fail? I paid so much money and used so many connections, and you're telling me I failed?"

The spider's smile remained unchanged, as if discussing the weather: "Completing a mission 100% is not that easy. There are times when we can't complete a mission."

"But at this point, as long as the employer cancels the mission, it won't be considered a failure, right?"

The logic behind these words is bizarre, but the spider speaks them as if it were common practice in the industry.

The middle-aged man trembled with rage: "What did you say? I paid you a full billion yen, what right do you have to make me cancel the mission?"

"I'm telling you, if the mission fails, you must compensate me for my losses!"

"One billion yen, not a penny less! And you will all be responsible for the losses caused by the connections and favors I used!"

He became more and more agitated as he spoke, his voice echoing throughout the hall.

"Do you know how much risk I took for this operation? If things go wrong, I'll not only face criminal charges, but my reputation will be ruined! You..."

His words stopped abruptly.

Because the spider moved, and its movements were faster than anyone could imagine. (End of Chapter)