Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Kogoro Mouri smiled broadly and saluted, saying, "It's me, Inspector Megure. I've cordoned off the scene, and absolutely no one has touched the body!"

"Really? Who are those two people jumping around next to the corpse?" Inspector Megure smirked.

"Hmm?" Kogoro Mouri turned around and found that Chu Ming and Conan were already looking at the corpse from all angles. Conan even tried to reach out and touch the long sword on Boss Manaka's neck.

"You two brats!" Kogoro Mouri raised his fist angrily. Thanks to Gin's professional training in taking beatings, Chu Ming nimbly dodged backward. Conan, however, was not so good at it, and with a "bang," a big bump appeared on his head.

The two were ushered aside by the dutiful former police officer, Mouri. Chu Ming mischievously poked Conan's bump on the head, causing the little detective to wince in pain and glare at him angrily.

Inspector Megure ignored the group of regulars at murder scenes and turned to ask, "Has anyone seen anyone suspicious?"

"No, I've checked with everyone, no one saw it."

Chu Ming stood obediently to the side and actively reported: "Officer, there's a camera over there. I wonder if it has captured any clues?"

Kogoro Mouri was overjoyed: "Oh dear, this prisoner is really stupid. He never expected there would be a camera here that could capture his criminal acts so clearly!"

A group of people stood in front of the monitor, and Conan squeezed in with difficulty, peeking out on tiptoe.

"Got it! Got it! Look, it's the real boss!"

In the scene, Boss Manaka stands in front of his armor, glancing at his watch from time to time, as if waiting for someone.

Everyone stared intently at the screen, waiting to see where the culprit had appeared from. Suddenly, the armor behind Boss Manaka moved! It raised its longsword and slashed fiercely at him, wounding Boss Manaka's back, blood spurting out. Then, the armored figure charged forward, pinning Boss Manaka to the wall.

Ran was so frightened that she hid behind Kogoro Mouri, covering her face: "The armor... the armor moved!"

Conan's eyes widened: "This composition—it's that painting!"

"But this murderer is very bold. What if he's wearing armor and someone discovers it? Wouldn't that cause panic?"

Xiaolan suddenly realized, "So the murderer put up a 'No Entry' sign on the way to this room!"

Kogoro Mouri added, "Yes, it should be around four o'clock. The sign disappeared after five o'clock."

Inspector Megure's face was serious: "It seems the murder occurred around 4:30." He looked closely at the screen. "After putting up the notice, the perpetrator put on armor, sneaked into the room, and murdered Mr. Manaka, who had been invited by the company."

"Then it seems the culprit is someone who knows a lot about the inside of the art museum," Kogoro Mouri said, punching his own palm in realization.

"Huh? That's weird. Look, what's Mr. Manaka doing?" Conan called out in a drawn-out voice.

"Look, when the prisoner was about to chop him down, it looked like he was writing something!"

Inspector Megure quickly approached and closely examined the monitor. On the screen, Boss Manaka looked horrified, picked up a pen and paper from the table as if writing something, then threw the pen down, glared angrily at the armor, and was ultimately killed.

"That note—quick, check if the note in the victim's hand is still there!" Inspector Megure shouted to the officers who were cleaning up the body.

After the officer handed over the note, everyone crowded close to Inspector Megure's hand: "This is—Keita!!"

Standing at the back, Keita, covered in sweat, widened his eyes: "Why...why did you suddenly call my name?"

Inspector Megure held up a note: "Where were you around 4:30 this afternoon? Did you put on the armor and kill Mr. Manaka?!"

"At the time, I was alone in the office doing what the curator had assigned me."

"So that means you don't have an alibi?!"

"But, but I had no motive to kill him! I'm innocent!" Guitian was covered in sweat and took a few steps back in fright.

Another employee, Iijima, stepped forward and righteously accused Keita: "It's no use hiding it, Mr. Keita! You secretly took the artworks here to sell, and Boss Manaka is demanding huge compensation from you, isn't he?"

Guitian kept wiping the sweat from his brow, weakly explaining, "This has absolutely nothing to do with the murder! I didn't kill him!"

……

Chu Ming stopped listening to their back-and-forth exchange; his attention was completely drawn to Conan.

Conan was crawling on the ground, searching for something inch by inch, his rear end sticking out. He was moving from one end to the other, shaking his head constantly, doing the work of a police dog.

"Inspector Megure! I found the pen! It fell right here!" Conan shouted back to Inspector Megure.

Chu Ming put on the gloves he had shamelessly gotten from the evidence collector, picked up the pen and examined it carefully: "Can you tell whose pen this is?"

Director Ochiai leaned closer and said, "This is a souvenir from the 50th anniversary of the Mihana Museum. Everyone involved will receive one."

Chu Ming twisted the pen: "Something's not right. Why is the pen nib folded up? The victim is about to be killed, how could he have the leisure to fold up the pen?"

Conan squatted thoughtfully to one side. Chu Ming originally wanted to continue to remind him, but when he thought of how Conan had jumped around like a flea in front of Director Ochiai in order to catch the culprit in this case, he silently withdrew his hand that was about to point to the traces on the note, and instead took out his phone to leave a precious video of Conan.

Sure enough, after Conan ran around trying to identify the culprit, he snatched the notebook from Ran's hand, tilted his head back, closed his eyes, and shouted, "Oh no, I can't hold it in anymore! Where's the toilet? Where? Where?" He jumped around in front of Director Ochiai while shouting.

Presumably captivated by Conan's adorable antics, Director Ochiai didn't think much of it and pulled out a pen to draw him a route map.

While recording, Chu Ming remarked: "Tsk tsk, using appearance to deceive poor old people, Shinichi Kudo is such a scoundrel."

Chapter 11 Why not disguise yourself as vodka?

Director Ochiai stood frozen in place. Conan, no longer pretending to be young, pushed up his glasses that had slipped off his nose and began to talk at him, frantically spouting his reasoning. He used the cutest tone to say the things that terrified Director Ochiai the most, and frantically hinted at Kogoro Mouri.

"So that's how it is! Using a videotape without sound and a pen that can't write, the culprit wanted to mislead us into a reasoning completely different from the truth! This is the trap he set! But none of this can escape the eyes of Kogoro Mouri!! Ahahahahaha..." Kogoro Mouri was like an old signal receiver, the signal spinning in front of him for a long time before he slowly received the message.

"—So, Director Ochiai, do you have an alibi for the period between 4:30 and 5:00?"

"curator……"

Director Ochiai lowered his head and said softly, "At that time, I was waiting to meet someone, a demon whose soul had already fallen. I felt he was beyond redemption. I hid inside the armor, and I think I don't need to say more about what happened next..."

"But why, Director? You already know that Mr. Manaka did not violate the contract. Although I am sorry for this, he bought the art museum and is free to do whatever he wants afterward."

“I know, I know! But he’s so selfish! I wanted to talk to him again! But he insisted on destroying this sacred museum! He even mocked me, saying that even if he threw these artworks away, he wouldn’t let me get away with it! I will not allow it! I will get rid of this devil! He can’t take away the artworks that are like my children from me, and he will also punish Keita who sells artworks at will!” Director Ochiai’s inner demons were too deep, and he seemed to have gone a little crazy.

Kogoro Mouri sighed deeply: "Director, life isn't a work of art. It's different from a painting. The moment you killed Boss Manaka, you yourself were also subjected to divine retribution..."

"No, it's the same. Although the demon was killed by the righteous knight, the knight was also baptized by evil blood, which means he himself was also corrupted by the demon. No matter what, I've become a murderer, and now I'm the embodiment of the demon. Those pieces of evidence are indelible stains of evil blood, and no matter how you try to cover them up, they can't escape the eyes of justice—kid, you don't need to go to the toilet anymore." Under the blood-red twilight, Director Ochiai stood in front of Boss Manaka's corpse and let out a desolate laugh.

It began with art, and it ended with art? The dragon-slaying boy has become the dragon himself. Watching Director Ochiai being taken away by the police, Chu Ming felt a pang of emotion.

Ran was clearly a little down, and Conan pretended to be nice to cheer her up. Chu Ming walked over, and Ran smiled and said, "Brother Chu Ming, we're going to Saitama Prefecture in a couple of days to see the World's Greatest Night Festival. Do you want to come along?"

Conan stared at Chu Ming with a death stare. What was going on? He'd been trying to amuse Ran for so long without getting a smile, but Ran immediately asked this guy out as soon as he arrived? Could it be—!

"Sister Ran~ Brother Chu Ming might have to go to class~ Let's go instead~" Conan grabbed Ran's clothes and squeezed between the two of them, forming a defensive line with his body.

Smelling the strong smell of vinegar in the air, Chu Ming chuckled playfully, "Sorry, Xiao Lan, my boss at my part-time job is taking me on a business trip, so it might be—".

Before Chu Ming could finish speaking, Conan immediately looked up and said, "That's great—no, that's a shame. Brother Chu Ming, you have to work hard!"

"—But the place I'm going on a business trip is Saitama Prefecture, so maybe we'll run into each other there~" Chu Ming mischievously said the second half of the sentence, and the little detective's face immediately fell.

Ran patted Conan's head: "Stop fooling around, Conan. If you don't behave, I won't take you."

"Damn it, Ran, that idiot!" Conan shouted in his heart.

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

After saying goodbye to Mori and the others, Chu Ming opened the shop. The emotional points he had collected, plus the points gained from the magnetic field, totaled 3882. His combat experience bar had also increased significantly due to the improved physical attributes from absorbing the magnetic field. However, Gin probably didn't take him on missions because of his fighting prowess; it was more likely because of his ability to detect clues. To avoid falling behind in later missions, he spent 2000 points to upgrade his Insight skill.

"Ding—Upgrade successful. Insight skill level +2, current level 70."

His insight has reached a new level, and the improvement is significant. Now, when Chu Ming walks down the street, he can find clues about any passerby he looks at, which is somewhat similar to Sherlock Holmes' basic deductive method. Through observation, he captures clues, discovers useful information, and then deduces the result.

—It's a bit taxing on the eyes and brain. Chu Ming blinked his sore eyes and turned back to boost his memory as well. Although his memory was pretty good, wouldn't a memory palace similar to Sherlock Holmes's be really cool?

"Hey, that guy..." Chu Ming watched as a young man carrying a golf bag hurriedly crossed the road. His steps were rapid and slightly unsteady, and there were tiny black marks on his fingers—black powder! His face was pale, but his eyes held a hint of murderous intent. His fingers gripped the strap of the golf bag tightly, his knuckles prominent and veins bulging, indicating that he was not at peace. Was he planning to kill someone? It seemed like he had already made up his mind. Interesting.

Chu Ming quietly placed a mark on him, a skill he had recently discovered. When he was bound to the system, it said it would adjust the functions according to his preferred game mode. He had been exploring the game he played before his transmigration, and had recently acquired the map marking and character mark locking functions. As long as a mark was placed, his location could be viewed on the map at any time within a month, and if the marked person appeared nearby, it would be highlighted above his head as a notification.

Moreover, Chu Ming discovered a super useful new skill – character customization.

This is a common feature in games, but while character customization used to cost money, now it costs points. To save a face, points are deducted based on the degree of adjustment to the facial features. Unlike Ke Xue's disguise technique, which allows for alterations to male or female, or changes in size, you can only modify your existing face. However, it's still quite useful for Chu Ming.

For example, when I go to the Shinkansen with my older brother tomorrow for the transaction, I can disguise myself as vodka. After all, if I run into Conan and he sees me hanging out with Gin, he probably won't include me in his group anymore. That would mean losing a big source of my magnetic field fragments, which is not a good idea.

Let him direct his hatred towards Gin and Vodka; having too many debts is never a bad thing.

Chapter 12 Will Vodka be angry?

As usual, Gin, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, declined Vodka's offer of company and waited for Chu Ming to arrive in the Porsche.

The passenger door opened, and Gin frowned as he looked at Vodka, who was about to sit down. He quickly pulled out his gun, pointed it at Vodka, and said in a low voice, "I think I said you didn't need to come along, you—"

Before he could finish speaking, he flashed a smile completely out of character, looking at the "vodka" in front of him, making him appear exceptionally shifty-eyed: "Big brother, it's me! Pretty good disguise, right? Doesn't it look incredibly convincing?"

The hand holding the gun trembled slightly.

Gin gripped the gun tightly, using all his willpower to keep from pulling the trigger, his voice almost squeezed out through clenched teeth: "What the hell is this pose?"

"Vodka"—that is, Chu Ming in disguise—swayed his head and said rather smugly, "I'm a college student with impeccable credentials, you know. What if I'm caught doing something wrong by someone I know? This trick is called deceiving the heavens and crossing the sea to pass for the real thing!"

Gin wished he could shove the gun into Chu Ming's brain and drain the water inside. He ignored Chu Ming and turned to start the car.

"Wow, what have I done to deserve this? I'm so touched that my brother is driving for me!" Chu Ming read the words aloud in an aria.

Seeing that Gin ignored him, Chu Ming persisted: "Big brother, isn't the seat I'm sitting in Vodka's? If he knew I was sitting in the passenger seat and had Big brother driving for me, wouldn't Vodka be angry? But I—"

Gin, who had reached his limit, spoke with a chilling tone: "If you don't shut up, we'll get off the bus and have a duel right now."

The chattering stopped abruptly. Chu Ming made a zipping motion with his hand and sat obediently without moving.

Sigh, my brother will never know how much effort I put into making him happy first thing in the morning; all he knows is how to yell at me TT.

Gin parked the car in the Shinkansen parking lot and gestured for Chu Ming to take the briefcase from the back seat: "Handle it carefully, don't accidentally blow yourself up."

Chu Ming carefully picked up the box with two fingers. Seeing Gin's death ray sweeping towards him, he quickly grabbed the box, put on the simple and honest expression that Vodka often used, and straightened his expression: "Big brother, let's go. But will this thing go through security?"

Gin looked at his familiar subordinate with a disgusted expression and looked away: "The organization will take care of everything. Just go in."

Sure enough, following Gin, they walked in without any hindrance, heading to their seats.