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

"Well, given the letters you received that had lipstick prints on them and ended with 'xxxxx', I'll assume you're right for now."

Tohru Tono looked at Maya Tachibana with a helpless expression.

Maya Tachibana smiled and said, "So you mean that Miss Ichijo's acting was so natural that even you couldn't tell if she was acting?"

"No, quite the opposite."

"Ok?"

"I feel that all her expressions, movements, and tone of voice are fake."

"all?"

"all."

......

Misaki Ichijo got into her white Cadillac Escalade ESV limousine. The driver was already waiting in the car. As soon as she got in, the door was slowly closed, and the black windows blocked out the scorching sun and the curious stares of passersby walking along the street.

After getting in the car and telling the driver where she wanted to go, she took out her phone from her bag and answered a call.

"Hello?" The voice on the other end of the phone was pleasant, yet slightly husky.

"Hey, it's me." Misaki's voice was as clear as when she spoke to Tohru Tono, but unlike the gentle breeze of the past, her tone now sounded like the cold, solid ice in a lake during a bitter winter.

"I've met the people, and they're pretty much as I imagined."

"..." No sound came from the other end of the phone.

Misaki Ichijo seemed used to it and continued without pausing: "I'm going to Kanagawa to handle things now. When I get back, I'll proceed according to the previous plan."

“…Miss, forgive my bluntness,” the hoarse female voice said with doubt, “While I trust your intuition, your father hasn’t completely relinquished control yet…”

"Don't worry about what he means, I'm the president now."

"...Yes." The person on the other end of the phone didn't say anything more.

The call ended, and the phone screen emitted a pale blue light in the back seat, where sunlight rarely penetrated.

Misaki locked her phone screen as the car drove out of the city and onto the highway.

She rolled down the car window, rested her elbow on the corner of the window, and cupped her cheek with her right hand, watching the lush beech trees flash by outside.

A gentle midday breeze ruffled my hair, and sunlight caressed my cheeks.

Amidst the cicadas' chirping, her rosy lips parted slightly, and she murmured to herself as softly as a mosquito's buzz:

"Starlight...?"

......

......

Along the bustling street, Toru Tono walked across a narrow zebra crossing.

It's snowing lightly today, but the temperature is still pleasant, perfect for a solo walk.

As for why it snowed... who knows?

Passing by the coffee shop on the street corner, in front of which is the Beikacho shopping mall, the foot traffic is not large on weekdays. Even if you just happen to walk by, you can see many children chasing each other on the bright and shiny paving stones. Occasionally, they will slip because of the snow on their feet and fall to the ground without noticing.

The spacious area inside the shopping mall is a natural playground for children.

Walk straight ahead, passing under the balloon archway erected by an unknown brand, until you reach the end of the small commercial street.

The view suddenly widened, with Tokyo Tower seemingly merging with the skyline on the right, and Tohru Tono's destination—Beihana Library—on the left.

Chapter 61 Don't Take Off Your Disguise

After returning the several large books he had brought to the librarian, Toru Tono continued into the reading room, intending to borrow a few more useful books.

Thinking without learning is dangerous. To become a qualified inventor, even with shortcuts provided by the system, one still needs to put in extraordinary effort behind the scenes.

Inventions can be developed through systematic skills, but the ingenuity and vast knowledge required for designing and inventing cannot be achieved overnight.

So let's aim to become Doraemon, who can pull out the most suitable invention to solve any problem in any situation, this year!

If that's the case, it seems like we could start by making a bamboo dragonfly...

Lost in thought, Tohno Toru sorted out the books he had taken down and put them into his backpack.

At that moment, the cell phone in my pocket suddenly vibrated, emitting a continuous buzzing sound.

There were many people reading in the reading room, but apart from the occasional cawing of crows outside the window and the soft rustling of pages turning, it was completely quiet.

As a highly cultured young man, Toru Tono would naturally not make or receive phone calls in such an environment.

After leaving the reading room and entering the nearby restroom, I determined the direction of the vibration and, confirming it was coming from my right, answered the phone without hesitation.

"Hey?"

"Hello! Is this Tono?" came Conan Edogawa's childish voice from the other end of the phone.

"Oh, Conan, what's up?"

Conan called him by his name directly, without adding the suffix "brother".

Is this a confrontation with me? What happened?

"It's hard to explain over the phone... Anyway, this is Shinichi Kudo. Please come to the Beika Grand Hotel immediately! By the way, it's very dangerous here. If possible, you should also notify Inspector Megure and the others..."

"Oh dear, is it really okay to drag me into your dangerous situation like this?"

"...You guessed it! And what the heck is 'Eek eeek'?!" Conan spoke rapidly, as if the situation was extremely urgent. "Right now, the only person in Tokyo who knows my situation and can contact me is you!"

Tohru Tohno thought about the early plot of Conan and realized that there didn't seem to be any dangerous situations that could make Shinichi Kudo so anxious.

Ah, Beika Grand Hotel, could it be...? Toru Tono suddenly remembered a certain farcical incident.

"Okay, you wait for me there, we'll talk when we get there."

The phone went dead.

It seems to be that one... the Kudo family prank incident!

Tohru Tono put away his phone, walked out of the restroom, and recalled the cause of the incident.

Having learned from Professor Agasa that Shinichi Kudo had shrunk, the Kudo couple flew back from abroad, intending to bring Conan to live with them overseas.

What should have been a simple matter turned into something much more complicated for Yukiko Kudo, who was caught up in her dramatic role, and Yusaku Kudo, an ordinary novelist who worried that Conan might not realize the danger posed by the Black Organization. They both felt that things couldn't be that simple.

So the two hit it off immediately, and even dragged in Professor Agasa, pretending that the Black Organization had discovered his identity, to scare the children...

No wonder Conan came over to him with that helpless tone to reveal his identity... He probably tried to contact Professor Agasa first but couldn't reach him at all.

The only person you can rely on turns out to be a trading partner of the Black Organization. Who can stand that?

Tohno Toru carried his schoolbag to complete the book borrowing procedure before leisurely leaving the house.

Since it's a relatively safe situation, he might as well go and take a look... If it really is the Black Organization, then he won't get involved in this mess.

......

On the way to the Mihana Restaurant, he received another call from Conan, who told him to meet him directly in the hotel's underground parking lot.

Tohru Tono simply went home, put down his schoolbag, and drove his Wuling Guangming van over.

The roads were slippery due to the snow, and because we weren't well-prepared and hadn't bought special anti-skid tires, we drove very slowly.

Upon arriving at the parking lot, Toru Tono spotted Conan behind a pillar. Judging from his idle demeanor, he must have been waiting for him for quite some time.

"Hey, at this rate, I might have died two or three times already." Conan rolled his dead fish eyes when he saw him.

Tohru Tono was seeing Conan's expression without his usual pretense for the first time. It was quite different from when he was being cute, and it was rather novel.

Is this how you ask for favors?

"I'm sorry, please do your best to help me." Conan apologized quickly, probably having rehearsed it in his mind while he was bored.

"First of all, I want to make it clear that I have no interest in how you ended up like this—I have elderly parents and young children to support, so please, whatever happens in the future, please do not involve me."

"Hey, hey," Conan replied helplessly as he led the way.

What do you mean by having elderly parents and young children to care for, and that you're an orphan? Didn't you already tell Xiaolan and the others when you were chatting? Do you think you're a child with a bad memory?

"Is it really okay for a detective to have no curiosity at all?"

"So I'm just an inventor," Toru Tono reiterated his identity.

"An inventor who solves cases every day?"

"That's just a hobby."

To be honest, he has solved quite a few cases and accumulated a lot of detective points, but he is still far from leveling up.

This system is such a hassle.

Tohno Toru followed Conan, who had briefly recounted the entire incident, to a load-bearing pillar. Seeing that no one was around, Conan pointed to the number "30" printed on the parking space and said to Tohno Toru, "Look at the bottom right corner here, there's a '1' that was written on manually."

"Combined with the preceding numbers, it becomes '301,' which is clearly a hotel room number."

“Just now, a big guy carrying a black briefcase came over, saw the numbers on it, and left—I suspect he was the person those two were dealing with.”

Since Tohru Tohno wasn't interested in his affairs, Conan didn't tell him about the Black Organization. He simply described them as ordinary armed criminals and emphasized how dangerous they were.

He believed that with Toru Tohno's intelligence, he should be able to guess the general idea.

Tohru Tono, who knew even more about the matter than Conan, nodded: "Do you have any ideas?"

"I originally planned to call the hotel to have them deliver food to room 301, then secretly hide in the closet to eavesdrop on their transaction, and then call the police to arrest them all..."

Tohru Tohru glanced at him sideways. "Young man, you're really brave."

Ordering food yourself is one thing, but calling someone to order... do you think they're mermaids with only a seven-second memory?

Be thankful it was just a prank. If they had actually tracked down Gin, given his cautious nature, he would have already given you a beautiful, bloody hole in the top of your head.

"But now that you're here—could you just call Inspector Megure and have him dispatch the police immediately?"

"Inspector Megure won't believe a child's words, but if you say something, it should carry enough weight, right?"

"...Let's not even talk about whether you've made a mistake." Tohru Tohru first stated his main reason for refusing, and then made up some other things, "Just the fact that you sent the police out without any evidence is something that a commoner like me can't do."

“Wasting police resources without cause can result in detention.”

“That makes sense…” Conan automatically ignored the thought that “maybe there’s a mistake.”