Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Conan scratched his head: "I haven't figured this out either..."

Chu Ming glanced at the group of people who were deep in thought, and then thought about how he had only interviewed one person out of the huge stack of materials Rum had given him. No, he had to push them to make progress.

"Look, you guys!" Chu Ming turned the calculator on the table around and handed it to Conan. "291HEISEIE—does that refer to the Heisei Limited Express train at 1:00 AM on the 29th?"

"Huh?" Everyone gathered around. "Really! Quick, get ready and call the helicopter to make arrangements!"

Upon reaching the top floor of the Metropolitan Police Department, a helicopter was already waiting. Chu Ming saw Conan sneak into the helicopter while Inspector Megure and Uncle Mori were talking, and after thinking for a moment, he followed him.

—In the helicopter—

"When did you two catch up?!" Inspector Megure turned around and was startled to see two heads, one big and one small, popping out from the back seat.

Chu Ming pushed Conan forward, signaling him to take the lead.

"It's okay, it's okay, it'll be too late if we don't go now~~" Conan blinked and acted cute.

Having no other option, Inspector Megure grabbed two helmets from his side and put them on the two men's heads: "Then put these on!"

Conan pushed his oversized helmet up a bit: "Why do we need to wear a helmet when we're on a helicopter?"

Chu Ming gave him a long, quiet look: "So that I can still recognize you after you fall."

I'm also giving you a weapon; you can use it to kick the prisoners later.

Chapter 55: Did I get stood up?

Sure enough, when they discovered that the kidnappers were in a standoff with Officer Yamabe, the police sniper dared not fire for fear of injuring his own men. Conan then took off his helmet and kicked the kidnappers' glasses, shattering them.

That's too brutal! Chu Ming clicked his tongue in amazement.

The person had been rescued, so Chu Ming didn't linger. He excused himself, citing busy company affairs and his school thesis, and left.

After returning and continuing his interviews with researchers, Chu Ming found that most of them were fine. Indeed, very few people would send logistics or research personnel to infiltrate; most infiltrators were in the action team. Even though Gin killed the most infiltrators, he also had the most remaining infiltrators under his command. Why was that?

—It must be because Gin killed those he thought were spies |??ω?` ) In reality, he was attacking his own allies.

"Buzz-"

Hmm? The boss called him?

"Boss, is there any further instruction this late?"

"You rescued a prosecutor from the remnants of the Ghost Tiger Gang today?"

"Yes, boss. What's wrong? Shouldn't we have saved him? I'll go and save him tomorrow—"

"No, you did very well. That prosecutor is one of ours. The Ghost Tiger Gang was a gift we gave him for his promotion. Luckily, he didn't die today, otherwise the organization's previous investments would have been wasted. Gin said you wanted a safe house? Here's what we'll do: you can choose any three safe houses in any region of Japan as a reward."

Karasuma Renya was very satisfied with Chu Ming's performance. Chu Ming was a promising candidate for the next generation of cadres. He performed well in both the action group and the intelligence group missions, except for being a little unconventional. Otherwise, his performance was perfect.

"In addition, the researchers you interviewed today can all be given code names, and you can arrange the monitoring and testing of them later."

"Okay, by the way, boss, I went through the new recruits in the action team today. I checked everyone's files roughly. There's a mercenary I found in the German BND's internal database. He's probably an undercover agent sent by the BND. Should we hold off for now or—"

"Report this to Gin and let him handle it," the boss casually instructed before hanging up the phone.

Chu Ming sent Gin a text message explaining the situation. He guessed that Chu Ming had been busy again recently. Even Gin's favorite activity of killing undercover agents couldn't make him happy. He just replied "received" and then didn't follow up.

Chu Ming continued flipping through the action team he was to interview with tomorrow. Hmm, there's a young lady named Tachibana Maya.

Hmm, this name sounds familiar. Is it from which episode of Detective Conan, the victim or the culprit?

Let's start the interviews with her tomorrow.

"Ms. Ju, your interview will begin at 8:00 AM tomorrow at booth number 3 on the top floor of the Big Black Building. Please find out more details once you arrive at the designated location."

She replied shortly after.

"Excuse me, Mr. Interviewer, I have a side job tomorrow, so it might be a little late. Would 9:30 AM be okay? I'm at the Mihua Hotel right now, but you'd be willing to come over now for a close-up, in-depth interview."

Side jobs? Looks like he's an assassin.

But you want to negotiate terms before even joining the organization? Dream on.

"I've informed you. Whether you come or not is up to you."

"Hey, interviewer, don't be angry~ I'll be there on time tomorrow."

Chu Ming did not reply again. To maintain his prestige as an interviewer, he had to be like Gin, aloof and reserved at crucial moments.

------

The next day, Chu Ming pinched his face early and went to the cocktail bar to wait, while thinking about what kind of task he should give her to test her.

But by 8:30 no one had come in or replied to any messages. Chu Ming was so angry he laughed. With this attitude, he still wanted to join the organization? Just wait, I'll send a sniper to take you out. Does he really think the organization is some kind of charity?

After sending a message to Gin and Rum to let them know, Chu Ming decided to investigate what this Tachibana Maya was all about. What if she was an official mole sent to investigate the organization's interview location?

I changed my character's appearance and just stepped out of the building, near the Mihua Hotel, when I ran into the real person.

The one with the bandage on her head and a look of panic on her face—wasn't that the alluring and gloomy Tachibana Maya from the file? What, are they twins? Or are they acting?

Chu Ming noticed Kogoro Mouri, Conan, and Ran next to her. The four of them were pointing at the Beika Hotel building and talking about something, looking exhausted.

"What a coincidence, Uncle Mori! Are you here to stay the night? And who is this young lady?"

"Oh, it's Chu Ming. We met Miss Maya at the bridgehead up ahead. It seems she was in a car accident and fell down at the bridgehead. We deduced from her belongings that she was staying at a hotel, so we're planning to look for her hotel to see if we can find any other clues. Would you like to come along?"

"Oh, then I'll join too..." With this background information, Chu Ming finally remembered why Tachibana Maya sounded so familiar.

She's the assassin who almost strangled Kogoro Mouri in the anime.

She has the ability, but she's just incredibly unlucky. If she hadn't lost her memory and delivered all the information to Conan, she might have actually succeeded.

We definitely need to go and check it out. If she left behind any messages communicating with the organization, we need to destroy them immediately.

As soon as the group entered the Beika Hotel, the security guard at the entrance saw Tachibana Maya and immediately put on a smile: "Miss Tachibana, you're back?"

Having already asked at over a dozen hotels, Kogoro Mouri suddenly looked up: "You know this lady? She's staying here?"

"Yes, I think I checked in a couple of days ago. You can check with the front desk."

After asking at the front desk, the group quickly took the elevator to Tachibana Maya's room.

Upon entering, Chu Ming quickly scanned the room. Fortunately, since staff came to clean every day, she wasn't foolish enough to leave anything that might reveal her identity in the room.

Since it was a lady's room, Chu Ming grabbed Conan, who was about to cause a ruckus, and said to Ran, "Ran, these are Ms. Tachibana's personal belongings, so it's not convenient for any of us to take a look. Why don't you come and take a look?"

This excuse should be enough to stop a detective who gets carried away with his reasoning and doesn't care about anything else, so as to prevent Conan from actually finding something.

Sure enough, after searching all the items, they found nothing. After all, a hitman wouldn't just openly register his real information at a hotel.

Tachibana Maya ran out of the hotel due to a brief but intense headache, and Kogoro Mouri instinctively chased after her.

The moment they stepped out of the hotel, a car rammed into them, and Maya Tachibana's entire demeanor changed instantly.

She dodged the car with a simple side flip, her eyes filled with complex emotions. Chu Ming knew that she might be slowly regaining her memory.

She's quite skilled. If she regains her memory and remembers going for the interview, she could barely get into the organization and start as an outer member.

But if she still harbors thoughts of killing Kogoro Mouri, she might end up being killed and captured instead...

Chu Ming glanced at the several tall buildings not far away. Gin must have sent snipers along the way.

Chapter 56 The halo has weakened?

Conan had already used his short legs to chase after the car; it's unclear where his confidence came from.

After a long while, Conan returned dejectedly, having failed to catch the car. He approached Chu Ming and asked, "Brother Chu Ming, do you have something on your mind?"

"That car didn't hit Miss Tachibana; it went straight for Uncle Mori. Does Uncle Mori have any enemies lately?"

Conan's expression turned serious: "Yes, the murderer Yuta, who was sent to prison by Uncle, has escaped! It must be him! I saw him at the horse racing track just now. He must be trying to get revenge on Uncle! But something's strange—" Conan pondered for a while, "If he wasn't after Miss Tachibana, why would he run away after she was in a car accident? Don't most people wait for the police at the scene?"

Because her identity is unclear... Can this be told to Conan? Obviously not.

"If you were the one in a car accident and woke up in a pile of rubble with no memory of anything, would you sit there and wait?"

Conan put himself in Chu Ming's shoes and shuddered: "No, I'll search the area to see if there's any useful information..." Understanding Chu Ming's meaning, Conan shook his head, "In that case, let's search for Ms. Tachibana's memories while searching for Yuda!"

Conan turned his head. Hmm? Where's Tachibana Maya who was just standing to the side?

Conan looked at Chu Ming with a puzzled expression, while Chu Ming looked back at him with an innocent look.

"Uncle, Ran-neechan, where's Miss Tachibana? Why aren't they here?" Seeing that Chu Ming hadn't noticed either, Conan quickly asked the other two.

"Huh? Where is she? She was just here a moment ago. Go find her quickly. Miss Tachibana has no memory of her, and we don't know where she might have gone." Kogoro Mouri was a little anxious.

"Let's split up and look for them," Chu Ming suggested. He felt his phone vibrate in his pocket, wondering if it was a message from Tachibana Maya.

After parting ways with Conan and the others, Chu Ming took out his phone and, as expected, it was Tachibana Maya.

"I'm so sorry, examiner~ I was in a car accident and lost my memory. I just regained it~ I don't know if my interview can continue~"

“Normally, each person only has one chance. However, given your special circumstances, we examiners have decided to give you a new set of questions. If you complete them, you can become an outer member of our organization and later advance to a codename member. If you fail, you die. Now, your first mission: Go and kill your previous employer—Yuda.”

Maya Tachibana looked at the messages on her phone. She had originally accepted the mission to kill Kogoro Mouri, but due to a conflict with the organization's interview, she had to temporarily abandon the mission. However, she knew where Yuda was now.

She walked quickly to the right side of an abandoned building, where there was a small tavern called 'The Last Supper'. As soon as she entered, she found Yuda hiding to the side: "So you're willing to take this job from me again?"

Tachibana Maya smiled and slowly approached him: "Yeah—" Then she swiftly kicked Yuda in the temple.

Yuda groaned and fell to the ground. Tachibana Maya pulled out the necklace from her chest, revealing a gleaming silver wire.

She wrapped the wire around Yuta's neck and tightened it little by little until Yuta suffocated to death.

Skillfully erasing her own traces, Tachibana Maya took a picture of Yuda's death and sent it to Chu Ming before leisurely leaving the scene.