Conan: Death is Watching Me

Chapter 266 Detective Level 5, Bomb Disposal Level 5
The next day.

Police searched almost every red-carriage tram and even every major baseball stadium in the city, but found only fake bombs to mislead people in the former and nothing at all in the latter.

Finally, the police concentrated all their forces on patrolling various stations, suspecting that the perpetrator might not have officially planted the bomb yet.

At that very moment, Teitan High School also began its intense exams.

Sonoko bit her pen, trying to solve the problems as if facing a formidable enemy under the watchful eye of the proctor.

Her forehead was still covered in sweat, but the week of tutoring had finally paid off; the calculus problem she was terrified of was actually similar to the one she had been reviewing.

"There's a show!"

In this way, mathematics doesn't seem so scary anymore, and we don't need to pray to God for protection like before.

The only annoying thing is that the sirens outside never stop, and there are even TV helicopters flying over the school.

Did something go wrong?
"Yuanzi," Xiaolan kept looking out the window, "has something happened outside?"

"It seems so, even the TV station has deployed helicopters." Sonoko felt a little itchy.

After deciding to become a high school detective, her gossip instincts grew even stronger, but not with the trivial matters of the past, but with all sorts of possible cases.

"Quiet!" The proctor walked by. "It's exam time now!"

……

"What? A bomb at the East Capital Tower?"

"Because of the minor explosion, the elevator has stopped working. They say a child is trapped inside!"

"This is a live broadcast from the Tokyo Tower. The little girl is still trapped in the elevator that suddenly stopped..."

"We just received news that a police officer who went into the elevator to rescue people has also been trapped inside due to the second explosion..."

"It has been confirmed that there was a large bomb on the elevator ceiling. The detonator was activated by the shockwave of the explosion. Police are currently evacuating the crowd..."

"The explosive ordnance disposal team can't get into the elevator, so now the only option is for the officers trapped inside to defuse the bomb?"

"The time for the explosion predicted by the perpetrators is only..."

Dongdu Tower.

The long-haired, bespectacled man stood in the crowd with a cold smile, listening in while simultaneously checking the live broadcast from the television station in front of him to get a sense of the situation.

This generation of police officers is terrible.

Three years ago, he could find the Ferris wheel where the first bomb was located directly, but this time he still needs to expose himself.

Otherwise, with the explosion time fast approaching, those idiots would still be waiting at the station.

Really boring.

I was originally planning to have some fun.

The middle-aged man with glasses licked his chapped lips, his deep-set eyes glaring menacingly.

Come on, the show is about to begin.

This time, will the police choose to sacrifice themselves, or will they sacrifice most people to save their own lives?

The thought of an arrogant policeman showing fear in the face of a bomb sent a shiver of pleasure through the middle-aged man with glasses.

So what if they're elite? Aren't their lives still being played by him?

"I am practically a god, the Grim Reaper!"

The middle-aged man with glasses grinned, his gaunt face resembling a skeletal evil spirit, and the ghostly light in his eyes constantly devoured his life force.

"That's right, a person can become a god as long as they abandon all conscience!"

"Takagi!"

A cry suddenly rang out from inside the blockade.

Beside the vehicles where the explosives disposal team was gathered, a policewoman gripped her phone tightly, while several experts remotely directing the bomb disposal were also covered in sweat.

The middle-aged man with glasses smiled even more broadly.

There were only 10 minutes left before the explosion.

coming.

[Brave police officer, I commend your courage... Three seconds before the bomb explodes, I will display a prompt indicating the location of another, much larger, celebratory firework display...]

"The explosion is about to happen!"

Reporters who had retreated outside the blockade line continued to report with passion.

"Mr. Thug! If you can watch TV right now, please turn off the timer! If you have any conscience at all..."

The bespectacled man glanced at the reporter who had spoken, and his expression turned cold.

conscience?

Seven years ago, another guy lost his life because of his ridiculous conscience.

Ignoring the reporters' repeated calls from afar, the bespectacled man turned his gaze away and got into the car parked next to him.

The bombing plot planned three years ago was thwarted by the police, but this time it won't be so easy.

Every day and night a voice whispered in his ear, telling him to kill these damned cops.

However, he felt that simply killing a few policemen would be beneath his talents.

Only by severely torturing and ravaging the police can the hatred in one's heart be extinguished.

This time, the police trapped in the trap will face an even more difficult choice.

If the bomb is not defused, the police will be held responsible for failing to protect the children in the elevator. If the bomb is defused, well, even more people will be killed, and the police themselves will be labeled as cowards.

"call!"

The bespectacled man closed his eyes and took a deep, blissful breath.

It was as if you could see the despair in the police officer's eyes inside the elevator.

He will reveal the inside story to the media afterward, and no matter what the police choose, they are completely finished.

Cool!
Not only that.

The bespectacled man sneered and drove away from the scene.

He had already satisfied his stunt of torturing the police. After this incident, he would launch the real bombing plan and officially begin hunting down the police.

Fireworks lit up the entire city of Tokyo in celebration.

The death of one or two police officers... there's no such thing as a free lunch.
There are 4 minutes left until the explosion.

Gao Mo emerged from the East Capital Iron Tower, his figure coming into the sight of Sato and the others.

"Matsuda!" Sato rushed anxiously to Gao Mo. "Is there really no other way? Takagi, he..."

“Once the mercury rod device is activated, even a slight vibration could detonate the bomb. No one can intervene; now it’s up to Takagi himself.”

Gao Mo scanned the surrounding crowd.

"Disarming the bomb wasn't difficult, since the bomb's structure was the same as the one recorded three years ago. Takagi successfully proceeded to the final step following the instructions, with only a few wires remaining. The problem was that once the wires were cut, the LCD panel would no longer display any information."

"how come?"

Sato's body went limp, his once dashing face became incredibly fragile, and tears welled up in his eyes.

"It really is a curse, even Takagi is affected..."

"Don't overthink it, Takagi won't die."

Gao Mo continued to survey his surroundings.

She frowned slightly after failing to find the middle-aged man with glasses.

He was originally going to play the role of the policeman trapped in the elevator, but Takagi suddenly had a meltdown and pushed him out at the last minute.

They said things like, "We can't let him die with us; we should give him a life."

It was made all the more tragic.

She just hung up the phone with Sato and left a message in tears, hoping that he would take good care of Sato in the future.

Well.

Even with his level 5 acting skills, he almost couldn't hold back.

He himself doesn't like acting in melodramatic roles.

"What?" Sato looked at Gao Mo blankly. "With a final 3-second warning, not only Takagi, but even the bomb disposal expert wouldn't survive. There simply wouldn't be enough time to defuse the bomb..."

"Don't worry, I'll make sure you get a complete Takagi back."

One minute before the explosion, the area around the Tokyo Tower had been cleared out, leaving only Takagi and a little girl in the elevator.

The girl's mother, who was breaking down in tears, was firmly blocked by the police officers outside the cordon.

Everyone watched the eerily calm East Tower with tense expressions. Even the TV reporters stopped talking, just holding their microphones and staring at the towering tower from afar.

"The SWAT team had also received orders to retreat, and the police and the little girl were ultimately unable to be rescued."

Is the East Tower about to become history?

“5、4、3、2、1……”

"Eh?"

"Strange?" One second, two seconds... the predicted explosion time passed, and the East Tower remained calm, with only the whooshing sound of the helicopters overhead.

Quiet murmurs began to circulate among the crowd on the outskirts.

"Did you make it?"

"The bomb must have been defused, right?"

Ordinary people were unaware of the bomb warning; after a brief moment of confusion, enthusiastic cheers erupted from the scene.

"It's alright!"

"Great! The police officer and the little girl are saved!"

Inside the East Tower.

Takagi stood there, dazed, above the elevator.

The timer had long since reached zero, yet the bomb remained completely unresponsive.

Upon closer inspection, he discovered that someone had stuck a piece of chewing gum inside the bomb, and thin plastic sheets or something similar had been inserted into the critical parts. Because it was so well hidden, he hadn't even noticed it while he was focused on the electrical wires.

Did the perpetrators not intend to detonate the bomb in the first place?
impossible.

Did someone defuse the bomb beforehand?

But who was it? And why would they need to defuse the bomb secretly?

"No explosion?"

Near Teitan High School.

The bespectacled man found a good spot on the overpass to observe. Listening to the sounds in his earpiece and the news reports on the radio and television, his brow furrowed slightly, followed by a cold laugh.

"Interesting. Looks like they chose to defuse the bomb to save their own lives. The police are nothing special after all; they're just afraid of dying..."

"What kind of critic are you here? You're clearly no good yourself, so what business is it of yours what the police do?"

Holding the mobile phone that received the remote detonation signal, Gao Mo walked step by step onto the overpass as the bespectacled man looked back in terror.

"In the end, it's just that you want to get revenge on the police."

"That is……"

The bespectacled man stared intently at the telephone in Gao Mo's hand; the signal receiver connected to it made his eyes twitch.

The elevators at the East Tower are still malfunctioning, so rescuing people will take a lot of time, let alone removing the bomb.

And to find himself so quickly, could it be...?

"The bomb in the school was defused beforehand?" The bespectacled man was shocked and furious. "Who are you? A policeman?! But how could you be here so quickly? There's absolutely no way you could have found this place without my clue!"

It's only been a short while since the East Tower incident; even if they read the instructions, it's impossible for them to come over immediately.

Unless they were already waiting for him here, or had been following him all along.

"Don't speak so absolutely."

Gao Mo's eyes gleamed as he scrutinized the somewhat disheveled-looking bomber in front of him.

It's hard to imagine that the mastermind behind this is such a thing, posing no different threat to him than an ordinary criminal—making it take him a lot of effort to pinpoint its location.

"Didn't you already hint at this in the announcement letter? The reason you mentioned Major League players at the beginning was so that the police could translate the content into English. High-quality brakes refer to pitchers with high ERAs."

The English word for overtime is EXTRA, and the defense is ERA. Remove the useless ERA from EXTRA, leaving XT. Write it directly and then reverse it, and it becomes the school symbol '文' on the map.
Just like three years ago when you hinted at the hospital in the code, this time it's the school… I have to say, the code looks like a child's doodle; no wonder the police couldn't figure it out.

The bespectacled man's eyes darkened further upon hearing this: "Are you kidding me? There are so many schools in Tokyo, why did you specifically choose this one?!"

“There are indeed many schools in Tokyo, but not many schools have baseball stadiums. Isn’t the reason you didn’t place fake bombs at major baseball stadiums in Tokyo because you were worried about the police expanding their investigation?”

Gao Mo heard the sound of police sirens approaching from afar.

"Moreover, compared to before, you deliberately postponed the explosion by one day, and the only places with a lot of people this weekend are high schools that are taking the national mock exams."

Unlike hospitals, it's usually very difficult to plant a bomb in a suitable place without attracting attention. You might even get caught by the students if you're not careful. Teitan High School, which recently hosted the Tokyo Table Tennis Tournament, is undoubtedly the perfect place to take advantage of the chaos.

Putting something in the sports storage room won't arouse suspicion.

And since there's a baseball field right here, the bomb you hid in the oil drums of the sports warehouse would be easy to find.

"you……"

The bespectacled man's eyes trembled, a chill ran down his spine, and his devilish face completely collapsed, making him look like a homeless man on his deathbed.

You've been completely seen through!

Are you kidding me? The one who's really being made a clown is himself?!

"do not move!"

Gao Mo suddenly had a police gun in his hand, the muzzle pointed directly at the bomber whose eyes were darting around, trying to escape.

"If you try to run away, I might just shoot you."

"Haha." The bespectacled man's breathing quickened, and he swallowed hard, staring intently into Gao Mo's eyes.

His indifferent gaze towards life didn't resemble that of a policeman at all; rather, it resembled that of a ruthless bandit or killer who had committed countless murders.

They really will shoot!
“Don’t do anything rash,” the bespectacled man said, his legs trembling as he slowly raised his hands. “I’m innocent. It’s all your fault, police. Seven years ago, you plotted to kill my partner, and all these years he’s been haunting me, demanding revenge, telling me to kill the police…”

Seeing that Gao Mo's expression remained unchanged, the bespectacled man panicked completely.

"It's true, it wasn't my fault! And...and the police can't just kill people randomly, can they? I'm willing to accept legal punishment!"

"Do you know the name of the policeman you killed?" Gao Mo suddenly asked.

"what?"

“They were friends in police academy, and they wanted to become police officers with a sense of justice. They could have protected more people, but they died tragically at the hands of trash like you.”

"No, no!" The bespectacled man's body went limp, and his scream attracted the attention of passersby.

A number of onlookers gradually gathered around the overpass, but they assumed it was a movie shoot and didn't pay much attention.

Only Sato kept a close eye on the two people on the overpass.

While filled with anger and pain towards the bomber, he also looked at Gao Mo blankly.

Officer Matsuda seemed to have a stronger desire to kill the bomber than she did.

"Matsuda! No!"

Seeing Gao Mo raise his gun, Sato suddenly woke up and cried out, hurriedly running up the overpass.

Don't ruin yourself because of this kind of person!

Gao Mo didn't pull the trigger. He frowned and looked back at Sato. The bespectacled man, whose heart was already in his throat, suddenly flipped over and jumped off the overpass when he noticed a truck passing by below.

Seemingly afraid that Gao Mo would shoot directly, the bespectacled man didn't dare to delay for a moment and immediately jumped off the truck, trying to run into the alley by the roadside.

"Ha ha!"

"boom--!"

Gao Mo remained motionless, calmly watching as the bespectacled man below was hit and thrown into the air by the car.

After several flips, the bespectacled man's head slammed hard against the curb, his expression still showing a mixture of joy and final shock, and blood quickly flowed out of his body.

Like his accomplice seven years ago, he was hit and killed by a car while on the run.

Gao Mo seemed to be deep in thought.

This person's original fate was not death, but he seems to be able to indirectly influence and change his fate.

"Matsuda..."

Sato, panting heavily, slumped against the railing, staring at the chaotic scene below, unable to react for a long time.

Sato's expression became even more complicated as he looked back at Gao Mo, who had calmly put away his pistol.

"Who exactly are you? You're definitely not just someone who shares the same surname as Matsuda Jinpei, right?"

"He felt very guilty."

The notes projected in front of Gao Mo's eyes flickered like a screen, as if he could see countless stars.

1, 2...100.
A total of 100 stars were added to the storage pool, and the originally highlighted name "Matsuda Jinpei" turned into specks of light and disappeared.

"Huh?" Sato was stunned, "Matsuda, what... what are you talking about?"

"Because of that last email, you're still stuck in the past, which wasn't his intention."

Gao Mo looked up at the sky.

"He just doesn't want you to forget him, he wants you to live in your memory, not trap you in the past, Officer Sato. Now you should move towards the future."

"Matsuda?"

Sato's eyes filled with tears, and the moment Gao Mo turned around, all he could see was Matsuda Jinpei.

Just like three years ago, still so cool and unrestrained, calm and collected, with a touch of gentleness amidst her arrogance and nonchalance.

"The rest is up to you, Officer Sato."

Gao Mo took off his suit jacket and left the scene through traffic before Sato recovered.

[Detective Level 5]

[Bomb Disposal Level 5]

(End of this chapter)