Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

When he arrived at Professor Hirota's building, Chu Ming looked around and saw the lights of Professor Agasa's Beetle in the distance. He breathed a sigh of relief, left the vodka in the car, and climbed up the side of the building, smashing the glass of the study to get inside.

Upon entering the room, Chu Ming ignored the person trapped under the bookshelf. After absorbing the magnetic field, Chu Ming put on gloves and began searching, collecting all the magnetic discs from the crime scene and taking them with him.

There was a knock at the door, and Chu Ming quickened his pace, preparing to return through the window.

"Who!!" Conan saw a man in black carrying several disks leave through the window near the door. By the moonlight shining through the window, he couldn't help but widen his eyes. It was the same person who saved him at the Izu Hotel last time!

—He really is a member of the Black Organization!

Chapter 51 I will find out the truth and clear Brother Chu Ming's name.

Chu Ming swiftly climbed down from the window and looked up to see Conan and Professor Agasa's heads appearing in front of the broken window.

Conan, holding a launcher, tried to use it to get on Chu Ming, but was stopped by Ai Haibara behind him: "Are you crazy? This is a member of the organization. If we're discovered, we'll all die!"

Conan, still unwilling to give up, peered out the window again, but the man in black was nowhere to be found.

Chu Ming saw the head at the window retract and emerge from the shadows. Just then, he saw Shirakura Yo—the real murderer of Hirota Masami—get out of the car. Only then did Chu Ming remember that he had taken the magnetic disk.

Chu Ming hid behind Bai Cangyang and strangled him until he was unconscious. He took the car keys from Bai Cangyang's body, but he didn't know which ones the organization wanted, so he simply took out all the magnetic keys and put them on his body. After thinking for a moment, he put the fallen Bai Cangyang into Vodka's car, ignoring Vodka's questioning look.

"Let's go, mission accomplished, back to base."

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At the base gate, Vodka stopped Chu Ming: "Big Brother is discussing things with Rum right now, and the boss is also there. Don't go in and disturb him."

"..." Chu Ming glanced at Vodka, "How do you know Big Brother hasn't finished discussing this yet? Don't you dare spread false rumors~ Keep an eye on this man."

Chu Ming planned to test the limits of the boss and Rum's tolerance for him. As a fellow codename member, Chu Ming felt that he was just a newly promoted core member, but the boss, Rum, and Gin all seemed to be somewhat indulgent towards him, which was not how they treated an ordinary, talented second-generation member.

Ignoring Vodka's attempts to stop him, and amidst a mixture of fear and admiration in his eyes, and disregarding the voices inside, Chu Ming reached out his hand—

Knocked on the door.

"Big brother, may I come in?"

The sounds in the room abruptly ceased. After a moment, as if signaled by the boss, Gin said in a deep voice, "Come in."

Inside the room, Gin sat in a chair, facing the screen in front of him. Wow, the distillery's high-level meeting was a video conference—the prestige of the place suddenly dropped.

With a 'whoosh,' Chu Ming dumped all the magnetic discs he had found from Hirota Masami and Shirakura Yo onto Gin's front, scattering them haphazardly across the entire table.

?

Gin gestured with his chin towards the pile of disks: "Didn't I tell you to bring back the one Sherry sent? There are so many."

"No, Hirota Masami was murdered. When I arrived, someone was visiting him. Seeing that his body was about to be discovered, I didn't have time to examine it closely, so I took all the floppy disks with me. As for this pile, it was taken by the murderer after killing Hirota Masami. I don't know why he was interested in this. I also brought the person back; he's right outside the door."

Gin nodded in satisfaction. Granburg was always meticulous in his work, taking everything into consideration.

“Granbury—”

Chu Ming looked up at the sound of the voice and saw Rum. His voice drifted through the dark screen, "You promised to come back to Tokyo to see me, have you forgotten?"

"No, I've been really busy lately~ I just had some free time now~"

"Oh? Busy solving a counterfeit money case?" Rum flipped through his subordinate Chu Ming's recent activities. "You've been making quite a splash in the newspapers lately—"

"I'm free right now! Which newcomer is Uncle Rum planning to interview?"

"Then why don't you come to my intelligence group for a detailed discussion? Here—"

Gin coughed loudly, interrupting Rum: "Another round of interviewing new people? Of the ten people you recruited last time, eight were undercover agents, two were police officers, one was an FBI agent, one was a CIA agent, and four were from gangs. Did you send out the recruitment notices at their hideouts?"

“Recruiting new people isn’t that easy. Think about the requirements you need for your action team members. They need to be skilled, intelligent, and available 24/7. I don’t think even the Vodka you recruited meets all those requirements.”

Seeing Gin get roasted, Chu Ming immediately belittled Vodka without hesitation: "How can that be the same? Vodka is the driver! All he needs to do is drive."

Gin and Rum were both momentarily speechless. The boss, who had been watching his two trusted confidants bicker, then spoke up: "So, for this recruitment, Granbury, you go. Rum, give him the information later. Gin, you tell him the requirements too. Granbury, if you discover a mole—"

"Kill without mercy." Chu Ming narrowed his eyes, his killing intent palpable. He knew what the boss wanted to hear.

“Our undercover agent in the Metropolitan Police Department sent word that Shigehiko Tobuchi is under investigation by the police for suspected bribery. He can’t be arrested. Many of the organization’s secret networks are spread through him. If he is caught by the police, the organization’s sphere of influence in Japan will shrink by 15%. In a month, the Beika Hotel will hold a memorial service for Director Sakamaki. We need to kill him there.” Rum told Chu Ming, who had just entered, about what they had just discussed.

Neither the boss nor Gin expressed any objection, tacitly acknowledging that Chu Ming was qualified to hear this.

Chu Ming's eyes flickered slightly: "Why wait a month to assassinate him?" Then he thought for a moment, "You suspect there's a mole within the organization?"

Gin leaned back in his chair slightly. It was indeed more comfortable talking to intelligent people; they understood his intentions with just a few words.

“That’s right. We will spread the word within the organization that those rats want to use this to weaken the organization’s strength. Little do they know, we are also planning to use this as bait to catch those despicable rats.”

Chu Ming nodded: "I understand. I will keep an eye out for anyone in the organization who is acting strangely lately."

Unfortunately, not only did he fail to catch the mouse, but Gin also smashed a bottle of old liquor.

After discussing the details, the boss hung up immediately. Rum said he would send Chu Ming details of the people he was interested in later, and then hung up as well.

Chu Ming lay on the table, listening to Gin talk about his few requirements for the team members.

Help, bro! Besides you and Shuichi Akai, who was an undercover agent before, there's no one else like you. After all, you're all bookworms who stay up all night.

"Buzz-"

Chu Ming pulled out his phone in surprise. Hiss, it was Conan calling. He wanted to quietly go out to answer the call, but after glancing at Vodka standing guard outside and remembering Conan's perfect pitch, Chu Ming chose to sit opposite Gin and answer the call directly. After all, the most dangerous place is the safest place.

"Brother Chu Ming, are you still at the company?"

Gin listened to the faint, childish voice coming from the other end of the line, and watched Chu Ming skillfully lie to the child. He chuckled silently, no longer caring. He pushed the computer to Chu Ming, indicating that he should log into his email. He was more concerned about what kind of people Rum had recruited this time.

While typing furiously on his computer, Chu Ming talked to Conan: "Yeah, I guess I'll have to work overtime today. How's it going? Did things go smoothly for you guys this time?"

"No, not at all—Brother Chu Ming, where is your company? Can I come to you?" Conan gripped the microphone nervously. He had just solved the case and knew that the murderer was Shirakura Yoshimi, but Shirakura Yoshimi had disappeared.

Conan recalled the man in black who jumped out of the window, and then thought of Chu Ming who left in a hurry. Conan, whose mother was a master of disguise, pursed his lips and couldn't help but wonder if Chu Ming was the man in black.

Ai Haibara cried because of her sister's situation and has fallen asleep. Conan was wandering alone on the street when he couldn't resist making a call from a public phone.

Since there are doubts, then investigate and do your best to clear Chu Ming's name.

Chapter 52 Rum, you're finished.

Chu Ming sat on the top floor of the software company, waiting for death to come knocking.

When he heard Conan ask where he was and say he wanted to visit him, he knew that Conan suspected him.

While jokingly asking him why he came to stall for time, he typed rapidly to ask if the Gin organization had any relatively clean companies that weren't afraid of being investigated.

Gin gave him a list of several nearby companies. After telling Conan about a computer software company that was neither too far nor too close, he rushed over and directly hacked into the network to modify the surveillance footage.

Just after the changes were made, Chu Ming saw a child on a skateboard crawl into the security booth on the surveillance camera. After gesturing around for a while, the child walked into the building.

Chu Ming's choice of this company was also well thought out. Tonight, the organization happens to have a hacker here maintaining the anti-theft system. Although the security guards didn't see the person, they knew someone was here to maintain it tonight, and they could fool Conan about the general details.

Conan pressed the elevator button with his skateboard in hand, his expression softening slightly. He had just asked the security guard, who said that a car had driven straight in at night. Although he hadn't seen who was in the car, he heard that the security and anti-theft system had malfunctioned, and a big shot had come to fix it personally. The person in question had been upstairs and hadn't left yet.

This roughly matches what Chu Ming said. Conan breathed a slight sigh of relief. Thank goodness—he knew his guess was somewhat far-fetched. If Chu Ming really was an accomplice of the man in black, he would probably have been arrested long ago, not to mention that Chu Ming was injured while saving him.

Upon entering the office, Conan strode straight to Chu Ming's side, placing his hands on the desk to examine Chu Ming's workspace. A jumble of complex code flashed across the screen. Looking around, he saw a half-finished coffee, already somewhat cold, indicating it wasn't freshly made. There was also a takeout order dated around 6 PM…

—All these details indicate that Chu Ming has indeed been working here until now.

"Brother Chu Ming has been busy until now."

Chu Ming glanced at the detective who, despite having put aside his suspicions, was still sneaking a peek at his desk out of professional habit: "Yeah, what's wrong with you guys tonight? Didn't you get the disk?"

Conan sighed: "When we got there, Professor Hirota had already been killed. A man in black was slipping out of the window. I saw his face; he was the one who saved me at the Izu Hotel last time, but I couldn't catch him."

"Did he kill Professor Hirota?"

"No, I've figured out the murder method. The culprit, Shirakura Yo, has already escaped, and the police will issue an arrest warrant for him. But all the disks are gone... Now the antidote is still a long way off."

"Don't worry, since the poison's developer is here, the antidote is only a matter of time."

Conan nodded, then became excited again: "Now that we've confirmed that person was a member of the Black Organization, he had a companion named Bourbon, who was a very dark-skinned and easily recognizable person!"

Chu Ming paused subtly, seemingly having tricked Bourbon. But it was alright, no big deal. It was just that Kogoro Mouri's top disciple had been caught, and the fact that Bourbon's part-time job would be discovered and he'd be followed by Conan was nothing serious.

Chu Ming suddenly asked Conan, "So you came over late at night because you suspect me?"

"Yeah, after all, the timing of your departure was a bit too convenient—hehe, Brother Chu Ming, what are you saying, hahaha..."

Chu Ming rolled his eyes at Conan, who was pretending to be clueless, and pressed Conan's head down hard: "Does shrinking size mean shrinking brain capacity? How could you come up with such a conjecture?"

"Hehe, that's what detectives do: make bold assumptions and carefully verify them—" Conan, feeling somewhat guilty, didn't break free from the hands that were rubbing his head.

"By the way, Brother Chu Ming, Ai Haibara's sister who was killed by those men in black was the bank robber from last time—Hirota Masami..."

Sensing that Conan's mood had suddenly dropped, Chu Ming offered a perfunctory consolation: "You can't save everyone, just do what you can."

The seasoned detective, having experienced death many times, quickly adjusted his mood and tried to make up for his mistake by inviting Chu Ming to play together.

"Brother Chu Ming, Yuan Tai and the others invited me to go fishing tomorrow. Do you want to come with me?"

Going out with Death = having a magnetic field = points = increased strength = defeating Gin.

So as long as you go out and play with Conan more often, one day you'll be able to use Gin to clean the training ground floor!

Chu Ming, who had already drawn up a series of equations in his mind, almost eagerly agreed to Conan's suggestion.

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At two o'clock in the morning, Chu Ming was awakened by a series of email notifications. He groggily opened his phone and saw that it was an interview list sent by Rum.

"..." Chu Ming replied with a string of ellipses.

A bunch of nocturnal creatures! Who are these people? He's still growing! How can he become a pillar of the organization without proper sleep?