Detective Conan: Birth of the Demon Child

Officer Takagi, who was in charge of gathering intelligence, quickly relayed the information he had gathered to Inspector Megure.

"I see. In that case, he must have made quite a few enemies here."

Inspector Megure nodded and asked, "Has anyone had any conflict with the deceased recently?"

"If we have to say who had a conflict with the deceased, there are actually a few..."

Officer Takagi stopped mid-sentence and looked somewhat helplessly at Suzuki Seimei and his group, who were standing not far away.

Inspector Megure followed Inspector Takagi's gaze and couldn't help but remark, "It's you guys again?"

"Inspector Megure, we meet again."

Ran Mouri smiled somewhat embarrassedly, and then told Inspector Megure everything that had just happened.

"So, the deceased died during the game after taking your place."

After listening to Ran Mouri's account, Inspector Megure nodded first, then asked Inspector Takagi, "Takagi, during the game, did anyone approach the deceased?"

"According to several guests near the deceased, no one approached the deceased during the game, and the deceased did not eat anything, so we can rule out the possibility of suicide."

Inspector Megure walked over to the blond thug and said with some doubt, "But speaking of which, why is he dressed like that? It's like he's in a science fiction movie!"

Upon hearing this, the arcade staff explained, "Because this is a virtual reality game machine, as long as the player participates in the battle, when the game character being attacked is hit, the player will also feel the damage to the same part of the body, so it feels very realistic to play."

"Can players also be hit?"

Inspector Megure's expression immediately turned serious, and he blurted out, "Could it be that his real cause of death was actually the extremely severe trauma he suffered?"

"Such a situation is absolutely impossible!"

Upon hearing this, Suzuki Haruaki hurriedly explained, "This kind of game console simulates the pain a player feels when attacked through slight electrical stimulation and vibration."

That's equivalent to getting a shock to your finger from a lighter's stun gun, or the slight pain from a phone vibrating.

This level of pain wouldn't cause any real harm to the human body, let alone kill a person.

Inspector Megure asked with some curiosity, "Seimei, how do you know these things?"

With a serious expression, Suzuki Haruaki said, "Because this game was developed by Mantian Company, and as the current chairman of Mantian Company, I can guarantee that this game will absolutely not cause any harm to the players' bodies."

Chapter 293 The Surveillance Camera Finally Makes its Appearance (Second Update, Please Vote)

(￣ ー￣)

Upon hearing Suzuki Harumi's words, Inspector Megure's lips twitched slightly. He finally understood why Suzuki Harumi was in such a hurry to come out and explain.

If others mistakenly believe that this game console poses a safety hazard, or even leads to the death of a player, it would definitely deal a major blow to the reputation of Mantang Company.

"I can attest to that; that level of trauma is not enough to kill a person."

As soon as Suzuki Haruaki finished speaking, a man in a blue suit walked out from the crowd.

Upon seeing the newcomer, Inspector Megure asked with some confusion, "And who are you?"

"My name is Shimizu Takaho, and I was the player who fought against this guy before he kicked the bucket."

While chewing gum, Shimizu Takaho said slowly, "I don't want to be treated as a murderer because of this."

And honestly, the one who got beaten up the most was me.

"Xiaolan, is that really true?"

In response to Inspector Megure's question, Ran Mouri nodded slightly and said, "Yes, I remember that when they were dueling just now, it did give the impression that it was one-sided."

"So, the cause of his death is still a mystery?"

After staring at the blond thug's corpse for a while, Conan suddenly spoke up: "Inspector Megure, I think this older brother must have died from poisoning!"

"Conan, why would you say that?"

Conan pointed at the blond thug's neck and said in an innocent tone, "Because this older brother looks like he suffocated to death, but there are no ligature marks on his neck, so don't you think he might have been poisoned?"

"Poisoning? It's not impossible."

Inspector Megure stroked his chin, pondered for a moment, and said, "Then let's send the victim's body for forensic autopsy to determine the cause of death first!"

"Yes!"

Seeing this, Judy, who was standing to the side, smiled thoughtfully and stared at Conan, secretly sizing him up.

Judy infiltrated Teitan High School as an English teacher because she learned that Vermouth had entered the school as Dr. Araide.

Based on Judy's understanding of Vermouth, she is a very purposeful person and it's impossible for her to have infiltrated Teitan High School without a reason.

Therefore, there must be something at Teitan High School that Vermouth is interested in.

According to Jodie's observations, Vermouth usually hangs out with Ran Mouri and Sonoko, and her target is likely one of them.

At first, Judy thought that Sonoko was more likely Vermouth's target.

After all, Sonoko is the second daughter of the Suzuki Group, and her value to them far exceeds that of Ran Mouri.

However, as Judy investigates further, she discovers that Vermouth's true target might be Ran Mouri.

Based on the information gathered by the FBI, Ran Mouri and Kogoro Mouri are not problematic; they have not had much contact with the Black Organization.

Conan, who suddenly appeared not long ago and is now staying at the Mouri Detective Agency, seems more suspicious.

Although Kudo Yu had asked his friends to help him disguise his identity in order to protect Conan, this level of disguise could only fool ordinary police officers at best, and it would be impossible to fool the FBI.

Now that she has seen Conan in person and witnessed his extraordinary observational skills, Jodie is increasingly suspicious of his identity.

"Brother Takagi, now we need to figure out a way to screen out the possible suspects."

Inspector Megure looked around at the thirty-odd guests present and couldn't help but feel a headache coming on.

Selecting a suspect who meets the criteria from so many customers is no easy task.

Conan, unaware that he was being watched, began to get increasingly audacious, saying in his childish voice, "Inspector Megure, I know there were a few people who were quite close to that dead older brother!"

"Really? Who were the people closest to the deceased at the time?"

Conan said, "Besides that shop assistant, there's the guy who fought the dead earlier, and then there are the six of us. That makes a total of eight people."

"Inspector Megure, aren't there security cameras here?"

Seeing Conan's feigned innocence, Suzuki Seimei shook his head helplessly and pointed to the store's surveillance camera, saying, "If you want to see who has been in contact with the deceased, why don't you just watch the surveillance footage?"

Although surveillance cameras are not yet widespread, they are definitely installed in special places like game centers.

Following the direction Suzuki Seimei pointed, Inspector Megure and his team also saw the surveillance camera hidden in the corner.

"In that case, let's have the eight people who were closest to the deceased come with us to take a look at the surveillance footage here!"

After Inspector Megure finished speaking, he instructed the shop's staff to lead them to the monitoring room.

When Sonoko saw the surveillance footage of the blond thug trying to take Ran Mouri's seat, she couldn't help but shout angrily, "It's right here! That guy said this was his exclusive throne and kicked us out!"

Inspector Megure nodded, pressed the pause button on the surveillance video, and pointed to the waiter at the feet of the blond thug, saying, "Mr. Izushima, what were you doing at the time?"

"I happened to be there at that time to collect game tokens from the arcade machines."

"Oh, I see."

Upon hearing this, Inspector Megure immediately pressed the play button and soon saw Shimizu Takaho walking up to the blond thug, seemingly talking to him about something.

"Mr. Zhishui, what did you say to the deceased at the time?"

Shimizu Takaho shrugged and said, "It's nothing! I just wanted to find out his battle strategy before the duel!"

Upon hearing this explanation, Inspector Megure did not suspect anything and continued to review the remaining surveillance footage.

However, Inspector Megure did not find any more useful clues in the subsequent surveillance footage.

Although the arcade machine that Suzuki Haruaki and the others were playing was very close to the deceased's arcade machine, they did not approach the deceased again after the game started.

"Dong dong!"

Just as the case reached a stalemate, a knock on the door suddenly sounded, and a middle-aged policeman pushed open the door and walked in. He saluted Inspector Megure and said, "Chief, the prosecution has indeed found toxic substances in the deceased's blood."

"What? What kind of poison is it?"

The middle-aged policeman said, "This poison is called tetrodotoxin. The injection site was on the inside of the right upper arm, and the needle pierced the victim's artery."

Chapter 294 Stubborn to the end (Third update, please vote)

"Tetrodotoxin?"

"Tetrodotoxin, commonly known as TTX, can be fatal with just 0.5 to 1 milligram. It is a highly potent poison that can kill with only one-five-hundredth of a dose of potassium cyanide."

Ai Haibara parted her lips slightly and said, "This toxin is usually found in the body of pufferfish. The symptoms of poisoning caused by ingestion are relatively slow to develop, and timely medical attention can usually save the patient."

However, if injected directly into a blood vessel, the nerves will become paralyzed within a short time, leading to death.

(⊙_⊙)?

Watching Ai Haibara speak so eloquently, Inspector Megure and the others couldn't help but look somewhat bewildered.

Do kids these days know so much?

Faced with the surprised and astonished looks of everyone, Ai Haibara realized that she might have gone a bit too far. She put on a cute smile and tried to get away with it by saying, "I saw these on a food program. The host emphasized the dangers of pufferfish poisoning."

They've found him dead!

Upon hearing this explanation, Inspector Megure and the others immediately looked enlightened.

There are so many TV programs in island nations that it wouldn't be too strange if Ai Haibara saw an introduction to tetrodotoxin on TV.

After all, Conan often learns a lot of strange knowledge from TV programs, and Inspector Megure and the others are already used to it.

Suzuki Haruaki suddenly said, "If that's the case, isn't it already quite obvious who the murderer is?"

"what?!"

Upon hearing this, Officer Takagi asked incredulously, "Seimei, do you already know who the murderer is?"

Haruaki Suzuki analyzed in a serious tone: "Didn't that policeman just say that the deceased was stabbed on the inside of his right upper arm?"

Moreover, tetrodotoxin is injected directly into the deceased's arteries, so the poisoning process takes only a few seconds at most.