Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Before Ireland could respond, Gin spoke up: "The BOSS did indeed issue a mission. The organization sent many junior members to infiltrate various government departments. This list was originally stored on the internal network, but now, one of them has copied the list of all NOC members to an SD card and taken it away without authorization. Regardless of whether he did it to protect himself, the organization will not tolerate this behavior."

Bourbon frowned: "Does killing a NOC require so many people? We even have to bring in people from the US? With so many of us, we can't even handle one low-ranking officer?"

“It’s not that simple.” Gin tapped the table, pulled out a stack of documents from the side, and gestured for Chu Ming to pass them down. “Look at the documents. Okakura Masaaki, that undercover agent, is already dead.”

Before Chu Ming could even open the file, he immediately realized what Gin meant: "The person is dead, but the SD card is missing?"

Gin nodded slightly: "Moreover, his death is not an ordinary murder case. A smeared mahjong tile was found next to his body. Before him, there had been similar serial murders. The police are currently working hard to solve this case. We must find the killer before the police and destroy that SD card."

Understanding the importance and urgency of the matter, Chu Ming nodded and volunteered: "Then I'll go. I still have some influence with the police, and I can get involved in this case by following Kogoro Mouri."

Gin glanced at Ireland, clicked on the projector opposite him, and opened a file on his computer at the same time: "Matsumoto Kiyonaga, the superintendent of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, I have captured him. Ireland, your size is similar to his. In the meantime, go over and observe his behavior carefully. Vermouth will help you disguise yourself as him and infiltrate the Metropolitan Police Department to pass on information to us."

“As for Granbury—” Gin glanced at Chu Ming, who was looking resentful after being ignored for volunteering, “you will still be in charge of the task I assigned you before. After all, it’s a big case, and that little rat who escaped death might quietly show up. At the same time, you can also follow behind Kogoro Mouri and assist Ireland at crucial moments.”

Chu Ming tilted his head and thought for a moment, then didn't refuse: "Okay, no problem."

Anyway, Ireland is quite powerful, and since he and Gin don't have any life-or-death feud this time, there probably won't be any incident of him flying a helicopter to straf the Tokyo Tower.

Chu Ming flipped through the documents in his hand, roughly noting down the details of the mission. After waiting for a while and seeing that Gin didn't speak, he looked up with some surprise: "That's it? So many people gathered together just to talk about this one thing? Why didn't you just send an email? I just left the base and they called me back, and it's all for this meeting that lasts less than ten minutes?"

Seeing Gin's displeasure, Vodka quickly tried to smooth things over, saying, "Brother, I was just thinking that since none of us have ever met Ireland before, this meeting would make it easier for everyone to get to know each other. Especially you, many of the organization's codename members are overseas, and you know almost everyone here in the country..."

Zundu and fake toot?

Chu Ming looked suspicious and clearly didn't believe it.

Ireland lowered his arms, which had been crossed, stood up, glanced at Gin, chuckled, and left the conference room. Vermouth followed him.

Chu Ming looked at Bourbon sitting in the conference room, noticing his skin had become noticeably darker from the sun, and teased, "Bourbon, you've had a tough time finding Shuichi Akai these past few days. Any results?"

Upon hearing Shuichi Akai's name, Bourbon's expression suddenly darkened: "He must not be dead. I searched along the mountain wall, looking for all possible places where he might have fallen, and finally found a small piece of clothing deep in the forest at the foot of Urawa Mountain, which looked very similar to the clothes Shuichi Akai had been wearing before."

I also found some dried blood on the tree trunk, which, after testing, was confirmed to be Shuichi Akai's. So I sent people to conduct a thorough search around the blood, and they found more than twenty other places stained with blood.

Because of the heavy rains in the mountains during that period, many traces were washed away, but I'm certain that Shuichi Akai didn't die; those bloodstains are evidence that he dragged his wounded body away.

Kiel disagreed: "Maybe his body was dragged away and eaten by wild animals, then it wouldn't be surprising to see his blood everywhere."

Bourbon looked like he didn't want to talk to her anymore and turned his head away. He had nothing to say to the person who was defending Shuichi Akai.

Seeing Bourbon's expression, Kiel narrowed her eyes silently and stopped talking. After assassinating Tumen Kanghui last time, she resigned from the TV station. For some reason, the tasks she had been organizing lately were numerous and tedious.

She later learned through secret inquiries that the tasks she was currently handling were all left behind by Bourbon after he abandoned his work to investigate Shuichi Akai's whereabouts.

Therefore, she had every reason to suspect that Bourbon was pretending to be looking for Shuichi Akai, but was actually using the pretense of investigating a dead man's whereabouts to slack off!

[I wasn't originally going to update today, but yesterday a lovely reader sent me a super update, and today another lovely reader sent me a really nice one. I feel like it would be a shame not to update, given all your gifts QAQ I'll try to write another chapter later. Thank you all for your love!]

Chapter 622 The Abacus Clinks

Bourbon had no idea where the faint hostility in Gil's eyes came from; he was now focused on finding Shuichi Akai.

These past few days, Vermouth has had some free time, and he's been asking her for advice on simple disguise methods. He plans to disguise himself as a disfigured version of Shuichi Akai and wander around outside to see if he can gather any other clues.

Seeing that Bourbon was completely ignoring her, Kir simply spoke up, since it was common for members of the organization to have bad relationships: "Bourbon, it's your business if you want to find Shuichi Akai, but can you finish the organization's mission first? All your missions have fallen on me lately, look at my dark circles, they're almost as dark as your skin."

Chu Ming was initially quite excited when he saw Kiel firing at Bourbon, but upon hearing her accusations, he silently withdrew his head.

He said he had been very free lately, and even though Bourbon wasn't around, he didn't have any tasks for him to do. It turned out that someone was carrying the burden for him.

Bourbon shrugged nonchalantly: "I only went to investigate after I had finished all my missions. Are you sure that was my mission?"

Kiel's face was cold, completely disbelieving, and his tone was unmistakably sarcastic: "If it wasn't your mission, whose was it? Many missions only have follow-ups left. The confirmation signatures before were all signed by Bourbon. Could it be that someone did a good deed and signed your name after completing the mission?"

“Those missions were originally done by me.” Bourbon was even more speechless upon hearing this. “But the missions weren’t mine.”

"..."

Seeing that their conversation was clearly heading in a direction he didn't want to hear, and fearing that he would be overwhelmed by the mission if he stayed any longer, Chu Ming stood up abruptly and shoved the documents in his hand into Gin's hand: "I'm leaving first. I'll also try to find a chance to infiltrate that group of police officers."

Gin didn't stop him. He had originally called Chu Ming over because he wanted him to meet Ireland. After all, Ireland was one of the top members of the American action group, and knowing him would be helpful for Chu Ming in taking over the organization later.

Gin couldn't understand what Chu Ming was thinking either. He was always shouting for the BOSS to step down or clamoring to launch a coup. In the end, he shouted slogans loudly but took little action. The BOSS had secretly told him to pay more attention to Chu Ming, but the person in question didn't seem to care at all.

Chu Ming, who had already run away, had no idea that Gin had received such a difficult task from the BOSS. He had originally planned to go to the hospital to find Conan.

However, when they arrived at the hospital, Ran said that Conan insisted on going back to the agency alone that night because she wanted to stay and take care of Kogoro Mouri. She had originally planned to ask Dr. Agasa to take care of Conan.

Upon hearing this, Chu Ming waved his hand, indicating that he would take good care of Conan and that she could rest assured in taking care of her father.

When Chu Ming arrived at the Mouri Detective Agency, the upper floor was pitch black. If it weren't for the focus list, he would have even doubted that Conan was there at all.

He slowly walked up the stairs. The stairwell was dark, and the motion-activated lights weren't very sensitive, so he deliberately made his footsteps heavier, the clattering sound carrying slowly upstairs.

Having finally reached the door, Chu Ming reached out and knocked, but before he could even speak, the door was suddenly opened a crack, and at the same time, a silver light shot towards his neck.

Chu Ming quickly dodged the silver light and looked at the source of the attack with a look of astonishment.

Conan stood there, stunned, holding his tranquilizer watch.

He realized he had attacked the wrong person, rubbed his hair in annoyance, opened the door to let Chu Ming in, and hurriedly apologized, "I'm so sorry, Brother Chu Ming, I just had a nightmare and I was so scared I was confused. I thought—"

"Nightmare? What nightmare?" Chu Ming was somewhat surprised. "You can actually be scared by nightmares? Didn't you say before that dreams and reality are opposites?"

"I dreamt that Gin discovered me. He knew I was Shinichi Kudo, and he came with vodka, captured me, and was even planning to kill Ran..." Conan wiped the cold sweat from his forehead, paused for a moment, "I just woke up in a fright, and then I heard footsteps outside the door, just like in my dream, followed by a knock on the door—"

Conan's Nightmare (Conan has a vodka filter; in his dream, vodka is almost as tall as Gin).

Chu Ming looked at Conan, who was startled and reacted, and chuckled. No wonder he had accumulated a lot of points as soon as he arrived at the door. He didn't know what was going on. It turned out that Conan was scaring himself.

"Looks like I scared you. Here's what I'll do: to make amends, I'll stay with you tonight so you won't overthink things." Chu Ming grabbed Conan and, ignoring his weak resistance, took him back to his house.

"Brother Chu Ming, you shouldn't have brought me here. What if that organization discovers my identity? Wouldn't that implicate you?" Conan, wearing a duck-patterned onesie that Chu Ming had specially bought for him, sat on the bed and tried to persuade Chu Ming, not caring how childish his outfit was.

"Too late." Chu Ming casually tossed a carton of milk to Conan and teased, "I was really afraid of getting involved. You shouldn't have dragged me into the bathroom in the first place. I ended up witnessing a spectacular transformation."

Conan knew he couldn't argue with Chu Ming, and he knew he couldn't persuade him at all, so he could only shut his mouth.

Seeing that he had finally quieted down, Chu Ming stuffed a stack of newspapers into his arms: "Here, there's a serial murder case recently. The killer will place a mahjong tile next to the body with a red circle, a code on the back, and vertical black lines... If you're bored, you can investigate some cases to change your mood."

"Maybe we should just give up—" Conan was unusually hesitant. He was really eager to solve the case, but it was obviously inappropriate for him to step forward at this time.

“You can investigate using Shinichi Kudo’s identity, and then tell Inspector Megure the truth. That way, even if that organization investigates, they’ll only find out that you’ve only contacted the police, and they might shift their attention away from this area,” Chu Ming coaxed Conan. “Besides, this case involves a wide range of people. I heard that the Metropolitan Police Department will invite all the police forces from the areas involved to gather in Tokyo. Uncle Mori might be invited too, so it won’t hurt for you to check in advance.”

Chu Ming's plan was meticulously executed, but Conan not only couldn't hear it, he even found Chu Ming's actions quite considerate.

[Chapter Two for Today~]

Chapter 623 Exposed?

Conan stayed with Chu Ming for a few days until Kogoro Mouri was discharged from the hospital and invited by the police to participate in the investigation of the mahjong tile serial murder case.

Although Conan had done some preliminary investigation, it was difficult for him to find any useful clues with his current network of connections. So he went to the Metropolitan Police Department with Kogoro Mouri. At the same time, Chu Ming was also able to go along because he delivered the promised bottle of good wine.

Unfortunately, although they could go along, Kogoro Mouri went inside to hold a meeting, leaving Conan and him to wait outside.

With lightning speed, Chu Ming removed Conan's glasses from his face and quickly disassembled the listening device on the temple, flicking it into Kogoro Mouri's pocket.

Conan, caught off guard by having his glasses pulled up, froze for two seconds, only to be caught in the act by Ran, who happened to turn around.

Ran stared blankly at Conan's face, then gently traced his eyebrows with her finger: "You—"

Conan panicked, hurriedly jumping up to snatch his glasses from Chu Ming's hand and putting them on. He then looked at Ran with a blank expression and asked, "What's wrong, Ran-neechan~"

Ran, noticing Conan's somewhat flustered expression, simply stared at him quietly and asked, "What are you afraid of?"

Conan's heart skipped a beat. He muttered a few words to himself about Chu Ming suddenly taking off his glasses, then looked up and continued to smile foolishly: "What's wrong? What's there to be afraid of? Ran-neechan, what's wrong?"

Xiaolan had just gone through a heartbreaking ordeal because her father had an accident and the person she loved was not by her side. She had just flipped through their childhood photo album when she saw the face in front of her that looked exactly like her beloved's when they were young. Coupled with the panic she felt when she took off her glasses and was seen by him, Xiaolan pinched her palm, and the doubts that had been erased in the past resurfaced in her mind.

However, she didn't say anything more. After all, Conan was obviously pretending to be stupid, and even if she asked, she probably wouldn't get any information out of him.

A possibility she had previously ruled out vaguely came to mind: she had initially thought that Shinichi and Conan were not the same person because they had appeared together.

but--

What if this is just a smokescreen that Shinichi deliberately released to mislead him?

Ran's imagination was already wild, and now it was running wild. However, she didn't show it. Since Shinichi didn't plan to tell her, she would secretly investigate and write things down little by little. When she had enough evidence, she would throw it in front of Conan, leaving him no room to deny it.

Thinking of this, Ran's smile became even brighter: "It's okay, I think you look a lot like Shinichi when you're a kid, especially when you're not wearing your glasses."

A bead of cold sweat seemed to trickle down Conan's forehead. He quickly chuckled awkwardly, "Haha, really? What a coincidence, hahaha..."

Chu Ming watched the interaction between the two, then glanced at Matsumoto Kiyonaga, who was staring at them from a distance, and a slight smile appeared on his lips.

Oh no, Conan, you're in trouble! Ireland heard that, and knowing his personality, he'll definitely investigate.

Conan felt he had escaped a disaster, and his eyes darted towards Chu Ming. It was all Chu Ming's fault; if he hadn't suddenly ripped off his glasses, Ran wouldn't have seen it all.

Chu Ming took out an earphone from Conan's pocket and put it in his ear, pretending not to have seen anything, which made Conan's gaze even more resentful.

Seeing that Chu Ming ignored him, Conan had no choice but to step forward himself, take out another earphone, and huddle together with Chu Ming to listen to what was happening in the conference room.

Meanwhile, the police officer in the mountain village was giving Kogoro Mouri hints about his promotion to inspector, and he also mentioned that every time he solved a case, it was like he had taken a nap and woke up confused to find the case solved.

Chu Ming glanced at Conan. Conan had heard these words and was quite speechless, probably still marveling at how such a rookie cop could get promoted, completely unaware that a crisis was gradually looming over him.

It's not just a crisis inside the conference room, but also a crisis outside.

After all—unbeknownst to him, Xiaolan was staring at him intently.

Chu Ming saw it, but had no intention of reminding him.

What's the point of reminding someone who hasn't learned their lesson after going through so much?

Listening to the police discussion inside, Chu Ming figured that since it was only the first day of the discussion, they wouldn't be able to reach any conclusions yet.