Conan: I've been linked to the tech tree system.

Chapter 164 So there were police too.

While the three of them were chatting about this and that, Kogoro Mouri had already walked to the side of the mourning hall.

Shimabukuro Kimie, a close friend of Ebihara Toshimi, just stood up from the kneeling cushion.

"So Mr. Mori, you've come too." Her tone was slightly surprised, but still very calm.

“Yes,” Kogoro Mori replied, hands in his pockets, then suddenly seemed to remember something and walked over to Kimie Shimabukuro, asking in a low voice, “That Mr. Kadonoshi, he didn’t go home last night, right?”

He was referring to Mongyō Muzō, who was kneeling on the spot at that moment, Mongyō Saori's alcoholic father.

After yesterday's discussion, Kogoro Mouri and the others unanimously agreed that he had serious problems and focused their investigation on him.

“Hmm.” Shimabukuro Kimie glanced at Kadokyo Muzo’s retreating figure. “I heard he spent the whole night drinking with travelers at a tavern last night.”

It's somewhat unbelievable that someone could drink all night and not be knocked out by a hangover, and could even sit comfortably on a mat and mourn.

No wonder he's an old drunkard.

"What? That guy actually drank all night."

Hattori Heiji was speechless.

Kogoro Mouri nodded and looked around.

"Huh? Isn't Naoko here? I remember her name was on the list."

Kogoro Mouri had previously checked the guest list for the funeral, and Naoko Kuroe's name was on it.

"Huh?" Kimie Shimabukuro said in a surprised tone, "You mean Naoko came too?"

Obviously, they were unaware of this matter.

"I think she must have gone to the restroom?"

Mao Lilan said.

"Then let's go take a look."

Kazuha took the initiative to walk out with Ran.

Tono watched them walk out through the paper door, silently counting in his mind.

3 ...

2 ...

1 ...

"what!!!"

The piercing scream echoed precisely at the right time throughout the entire Ebihara residence.

All I can say is that screams may be late, but they're never absent, okay?

-----------------

Since the police had not yet arrived, several detectives who heard the screams ran to the crime scene to evacuate the crowd and conduct a brief on-site investigation.

Tohru Tohno wasn't used to doing these things at first, and logically speaking, detectives shouldn't be doing this kind of work...

But in the world of science fiction, the police are utterly useless, and sometimes you have to take on everything yourself.

Tohru Tono casually grabbed a flashlight and shone it on Naoko Kuroe's body, which was entangled in the fishing net.

The woman's eyes were filled with terror, and she seemed to have died with her eyes wide open in disbelief.

Kogoro Mouri borrowed a camera from somewhere and took photos on site in a very professional manner.

I don't know if it was because I was a police officer and worked with forensic science.

"So it seems the time of death was no more than an hour ago."

He took photos and examined the body as he went. The body was still very fresh, and he could roughly determine the time of death.

“I think she was strangled to death before being tied to this fishing net,” Hattori Heiji mused beside him. “There are two kinds of shoes on the sand: slippers and children’s boots. Naoko is wearing slippers, so the boots must belong to the murderer.”

He made a simple deduction.

"He died such a tragic death," Kogoro Mouri sighed as he looked at the photo.

"Hey, hey," came the sound of Conan saying he'd found a clue.

"This mark should be from someone who stepped on a dugong's arrow, right?"

Because the deceased was near the beach, the traces left at the crime scene were very clear.

"Since it was stepped on by sandals, the arrow was most likely dropped to the ground during the fight and then accidentally stepped on by Naoko."

"I see. The murderer took the arrow later." Hattori Heiji also came over and shone his flashlight on the footprints and the mark of the dugong arrow.

"In other words, as long as we follow the tracks of the boots, we should be able to find where the murderer is hiding."

Kogoro Mouri is daydreaming again.

"makes sense."

Hattori and Kogoro followed the footprints...

As a result, we ended up at the beach.

"It just leads straight out to the sea." Kogoro Mouri scratched his head.

"There seems to be something shiny lying next to the footprints?" Hattori Heiji looked down and made a new discovery.

He crouched down and, by the moonlight, picked up the glittering object from the ground to examine it closely.

"This is... something like fish scales?!"

"Fish scales?"

Could she really be a mermaid?

Just as they were looking at each other on the shore, a man wearing a raincoat arrived with a team of uniformed police officers.

"Hey, what are you guys doing here?" the lead officer asked menacingly, flashlight in hand.

"Ah, we're investigating this case." Kogoro Mouri scratched the back of his head.

"This is the responsibility of the Fukui Prefecture police!"

The police officer's voice was loud, and he was very annoyed with the group of detectives.

"You guys have finally arrived," Hattori Heiji said helplessly.

If they don't come soon, all the residents on the island will die!

Chapter 165: Is the system AFK?

Police from Fukui Prefecture arrived at the scene and busied themselves taking photos and collecting evidence. Heiji Hattori simply walked back to Ran and Kazuha, who were standing far away in the crowd.

Despite knowing that both girls were afraid of legends about monsters, he still casually discussed the strange footprints next to the corpse with Mori and Conan.

"What? You're saying footprints disappear when they reach the beach?!"

Ran and Kazuha huddled together, their faces filled with terror, as if they had just thought of something.

“Yes, and there are fish scales next to it.” Hattori Heiji said, putting his hands in his pockets and trying to look cool.

"Huh?" Kazuha was so frightened that she hugged Ran tightly. "Could the culprit be a mermaid?"

“Fool, how could a mermaid wear thigh-high boots?” Hattori Heiji sweated. “I think the murderer must have walked along the coastline all the way here, and then went to the fishing net where he and Naoko had agreed to meet. After committing the crime, he walked back along the wave line.”

"If you are light enough, the rising tide will make it feel like you are walking out of the sea."

Hattori Heiji pondered.

If he were light enough, he probably wouldn't be that drunken old man...

He glanced at Men Xie Mouzang, who was drunkenly walking towards them, but this person was really strange.

"Speaking of which, did anyone see Miss Naoko come out of the room just now?"

Kogoro Mouri also turned to ask the guests who had all come out to watch the excitement.

As a result, the group looked at each other blankly, unable to provide any useful clues.

Only Kimie Shimabukuro stepped forward and shared what she had seen.

"No, she was already gone when I arrived."

"Mozo, did you see it? I remember you signed the register after Naoko."

For some reason, Rokuro called his friend's father, Mongyo Muzo, by his name. Perhaps it was because they were very close?

"No, there was no one in the room when I went there," Men Xiemou said, his words muffled and his face flushed.

"If that's the case, then Ms. Naoko went to that fishing net to wait for the murderer not long after she signed her name."

"Hey, isn't this murderer the same person who killed Sumi?"

Rokuro stepped forward and asked Kogoro.

"It's still uncertain... Tono, do you have any clues?" That was what Kogoro Mouri was going to say, but then he suddenly remembered that a detective who was usually quick to solve cases was unusually silent today.

"Hmm... I'm not sure either." Tohru Tohno shook his head dismissively.

He actually wanted to speed up the process of solving the case, but the problem was that the system hadn't issued any task prompts yet.

Normally, if a case is halfway through, the task would have already been assigned.

It’s weird.

If he remembered correctly, the murderer, Kimie Shimabukuro, actually only wanted to avenge his mother.

That's right, the "mermaid" who was burned to death in the warehouse many years ago was actually Kimie Shimabukuro disguised as the mother of the old woman.

Her mother made her last phone call from the fire, asking her to continue the tradition of the "mermaid," a symbol of the island and also a lucky tree.

The deceased Saori Kadokawa, Naoko Kuroe, and Tomi Ebihara were the murderers who, after getting drunk one day, set fire to the warehouse after the "Longevity Granny" entered, burning her mother to death, just to test whether the legend of the "mermaid" was true.

Tohru Tohru pondered carefully, trying to figure out why the system hadn't issued any tasks.

Previous missions were mostly simple tasks involving uncovering the culprit or resolving the current crisis through deduction... So what's special about this one?