Conan, I'm an actor

"Stop looking. If you want to see, I'll arrange for you to be a distant cousin of Haibara." Shinjo crossed his legs. "You'll have to get checked anyway, so it won't make a difference."

Is it really possible?

"Don't forget how you got your passport. These things are easy for Miss Karen." Shinjo rubbed his stiff neck. "But you'll have to ask her yourself. I'm not helping you."

"Why? Aren't you very familiar with her?" Conan was taken aback.

"Because someone called her an old woman a couple of days ago, she broke down that Miss Karen's defenses," Vermouth said with a smile. "That Miss Karen is too gentle. If it were me, I think you would be dead by now."

"Heh." Shinjo rolled his eyes. "If you can do it, you're welcome to give it a try."

Vermouth took a newspaper and placed it in front of New Town. Several news articles were circled in red, clearly indicating that these were the key points she wanted to make.

Xincheng took a look and found that they were all news about the accidental deaths of politicians, gang conflicts, and the decline in the level of public safety in several major North American cities such as New York.

It's obvious this was Gin's doing. I never expected half a arsenal could cause this level of chaos. It seems I underestimated him.

“In last night’s conflict, Gin’s men were surrounded and captured by armored forces. Those guys are serious.” Vermouth shook her head. “They used rocket launchers. They’ll probably lie low for a while afterward.”

Shinjo stroked his chin. "Using rocket launchers so quickly isn't a good sign. Aren't those FBI guys being a bit too sensitive? By the way, what's with the armored forces? Did they provoke the National Guard?"

"That's right, there's a conflict of interest." Vermouth stretched. "So, what do you plan to do?"

“Of course, the bigger the commotion, the better,” Shinjo said, squinting.

The bigger the commotion Gin makes, the better it is for him, since they are both remnants of the organization. If Gin's actions are too minor, then he will be in danger, because in some people's eyes, the consequences of provoking Gin are the same as those of provoking him.

With that in mind, he immediately called Commander Lei and asked her to prepare a shipment, which he then had Vodka take to North America. This time, aside from replenished ammunition, the entire loadout consisted of heavy infantry weaponry, clearly indicating he was planning a major operation.

Meanwhile, Vodka, who was in Tokyo and just getting by with his nine-to-five job, saw the list and immediately made a phone call to North America.

“Boss, that new city wants me to deliver goods,” Vodka said nervously. “I saw that a lot of the items on the list are heavy weapons.”

"Oh." Gin said calmly, "I thought he hadn't seen the news. Since he asked you to deliver it, just deliver it."

"Boss, how's the situation on your end?" Vodka asked nervously. "I saw on the news that things don't look good there. You've already been besieged several times."

Gin glanced at the people in front of him. They were all elites of his organization, and many of them were veterans who had retired from the battlefield.

But they had lost their former sharpness; their eyes were dim, and they were all wounded, some even lying on the ground groaning. If it weren't for the medical assistance provided by someone, half of them would probably be in the graveyard.

The direct confrontation two days ago could have been completely avoided, but he got annoyed by being chased and lost his temper, which eventually turned into a positional battle.

Although the other side suffered more casualties, they outnumbered the other side, so proportionally speaking, their losses were more severe.

It was from that moment that he realized the difference between himself and that guy, Cognac. In terms of logistics, they were simply not on the same level. Before, he could stand up to him because he had the organization's backing, but now that he had betrayed the organization, he could only be suppressed by him.

With that in mind, Gin opened a document, hesitated for a moment, and finally chose another document to send to Vodka.

"This is……"

“List.” Gin took a deep breath. “This is the list we’ve gathered. The people are already hidden. Let him take a look. If he thinks there are any we can use, I’ll help him collect personnel. The prerequisite is that he can provide enough equipment—the equipment I need.”

Vodka felt a headache coming on from Gin's tone. As a long-time follower of Gin, he knew that Gin was out of his mind and preparing for a showdown.

"Brother, that's someone else's territory, no matter what. They've been operating there for so long, and we, as newcomers..."

“The organization has been operating in North America for quite some time now. I’ll contact Vermouth and try to get her to support me.” Gin stubbed out his cigarette. “This time, I’m going to beat them until they feel the pinch.”

Vodka was also a bit of a headache looking at his ringing phone. He didn't doubt that Gin could make those competitors feel the pinch, but was it really appropriate to cooperate with Cognac and Vermouth?

Cognac was manageable; it was ultimately just a transaction. They gave up manpower, and the other side provided equipment, which was acceptable. But Vermouth's side was different. They didn't have anything Vermouth valued, and in some ways, they were even enemies of Vermouth.

It's too late to say anything now. Gin won't abandon this operation because of his suggestion. In the end, we can only take it one step at a time.

One week later, at the base on Jiuliang Island

"This is your base?" Vermouth stretched. "Building a bridge across the sea for a base, that's quite an investment."

Conan was somewhat surprised to see the tall building that had sprung up from the ground. He remembered that when he last came here, the island was still a wasteland. How could a tall building have suddenly been built?

"Are you sure you want to come in with me?" Shinjo looked at Vermouth beside him. "Once we cooperate, there's no turning back."

"It's not a pleasant feeling to have someone pressing down on you." Vermouth's lips curled into a smile. "I didn't have the chance before, but now that I do, I naturally have to think about how to get rid of the old guy."

“You’re lying. You’re probably just scared,” Shinjo suddenly said.

"What nonsense are you talking about?" Vermouth instantly became furious. "Who's scared? Explain yourself!"

Xincheng ignored her and instead stepped into the building's elevator, pressing the button for the 25th basement level.

Conan looked at the series of elevators leading to the lower levels above the main elevator, his expression somewhat surprised. He had been to this base on Kuraryo Island before, but he hadn't expected these people to dig the base so deep.

"What's with that expression? Didn't you come here before?" Xincheng made a few more moves on the computer control panel, and the next second, the walls around the elevator became transparent, allowing people inside the elevator to see the outside scenery.

Conan looked down and was immediately stunned. There was an enormous ship below.

"What's that? Weren't there only airplanes before?" Conan asked, pointing to the spaceship below. "Why is there such a large piece of equipment? Can it fly?"

"The Atlas just had its power module installed last week, and the weapons module is still being tested. It's 150 meters long, reaches Mach 2.5 inside the atmosphere, and can reach Mach 38 outside the atmosphere." Xincheng stretched. "It should have its test flight in a couple of days. Want to ride it?"

"You're saying this is a spaceship?" Vermouth looked at the massive warship below. "You actually managed to build something like this?"

She found herself unable to see through the guy in front of her. This spaceship would require a tremendous amount of effort to develop in any country, and once a certain achievement was made, he would try to show it off.

As a result, it was quietly produced by an unknown little workshop; who would believe it if word got out?

"It shouldn't be considered a spaceship, since it still uses the traditional flight mode, and at most it can only fly the Earth-Moon route. The technical demonstration of the jump mode used for interplanetary travel has not been completed, and there are many things that need to be improved." Shinjo pointed to an open cabin above and said, "That's the power reactor responsible for jumps. There was a problem with the experiment a couple of days ago, and one of them just burned down. They were still dismantling it this morning."

"Why would you make something like this?" Conan asked, somewhat puzzled.

“When we were being hunted by the organization before, we thought of using it to escape. Later, when the organization stopped hunting us, we thought of leaving ourselves a way out. As for now, there is a place on the far side of the moon that is suitable for building a base. This ship is an engineering and transport ship that will go to the lunar surface to build a base.” Xincheng said with a smile, “The one you saw last time was Unit 1. The extraatmospheric flight test has been completed. This ship can carry two Unit 2s.”

Why are you telling me this?

"I just want to borrow your luck and take you on the spaceship to see if we can stumble upon an alien murder case and have you help with the deduction."

Conan rolled his eyes at Shinjo's words and ignored him.

Soon, the three of them arrived at the medical department's premises, where Ai Haibara, the professor, and the Kudo couple had been waiting for a long time.

"Next is the injection. This time it's different from the usual oral medication; it's an injection, and the whole process will take 12 hours," Haibara said in a low voice. "It won't be as painful as taking the medicine, but it will take a long time."

"Was that medicine from before not working?" Conan shuddered as he thought of the pain he had felt before.

"The medicine is effective, but there is a certain chance of failure and a possibility of relapse."

"Then let's stick to the injection method."

After Shinjo brought the person there, he went to Karen's computer room. This morning, Karen told him that the document Daigo brought back had been successfully verified and that it was a time machine.

Moreover, during the time he was missing, Flying Swallow No. 1 did indeed travel to another dimension, and it was during that time that Unit 1 was damaged by the monster.

As for this information, it was given to him by a young man named Takayama Gamu, who also told him that they would meet again in the future.

Chapter 343 Antidote

"Meet him? What does he think he is? Does he think he's some important client?" Shinjo said, somewhat annoyed. "This guy is a monster magnet. I don't want to see him at all."

“If we’re talking about monster attractors, you and Daigo are probably just as good, right?” Karen said with some dissatisfaction. “I’ve reviewed the data from Unit 1. The spacetime fluctuations you generated when you rescued Daigo last time had the same waveform as the spacetime fluctuations generated by the spacetime machine.”

"That was an accident, and there's one thing you need to understand: I went to save him." Shinjo tapped the table. "At that time, Daigo had just been sent back, so spacetime fluctuations were normal!"

"Really? But the data I reviewed showed that the spacetime fluctuation waveform at that time was very stable, even more stable than the waveform generated by us using all the electricity from Jiuliangliang Island," Karen said sarcastically.

"That's not the point right now..." Daigo asked with some concern, "What if monsters appear in this world too?"

"What's the panic?" Karen's electronic avatar rolled its eyes in a remarkably human-like manner. "If the sky falls, the tall ones will hold it up. Don't even think about revealing our secrets. With no external enemies around, releasing these technologies will only cause a new round of internal strife!"

“I wholeheartedly agree with this.” It was rare for Shin-chan to agree with Karen.

Daigo coughed. "I wasn't thinking about that. What I meant was, isn't our current equipment a bit too rudimentary? Like Unit-1, the beam gun on it is practically ineffective against monsters."

Karen's eyes instantly locked onto New Town. This guy got his hands on the TPC database; if it contained even more advanced technology...

"Don't look at me, it's no use looking at me. All I brought with me was the technology of the diving base. The technology of the space exploration era was too complicated, so I didn't bring it. And apart from the continued development of the Max propulsion system, there hasn't been much progress in other areas." Shinjo shrugged. "We can't even handle the Max propulsion system now, so let's put weapons development on hold for now."

Karen nodded. "Now let's begin the most important topic: the use of the time machine. I'd like to launch a time exploration mission."

Shin-chan raised an eyebrow. Sure enough, Karen was still keeping an eye on this matter and brought up the issue whenever she had the chance.

Just as he was pondering how to refuse Karen, someone spoke first.

“Although I don’t know what Mr. Shinjo and Ms. Karen are talking about, there’s one thing I want to emphasize.” Sakata Yusuke coughed, “We are no match for those things right now. I’ve been outside the atmosphere and seen the wreckage of Unit 1. I don’t think we have any chance of winning against those monsters with our current equipment.”

Just then, the base door opened, and Curaçao walked in with Vermouth.

“I just received some news, and I think you should take a look.” Vermouth placed her phone in front of Shinjo. “You guys seem to have become famous.”

Shin-chan picked up the phone and saw the headline: NASA discovers UFO debris near low Earth orbit, accompanied by a photo of the debris from the Y-1 spacecraft.

Because space salvage is extremely difficult, the scholars could only study the photographs. Through the photographs, they determined that the object was created by intelligent life, causing severe damage, and that the cockpit had detached.

"Could we destroy Unit 1 before they recover the wreckage?" Shinjo asked Karen, "Without them noticing."

“So many satellites around the world are watching this wreckage, and countries are planning to use their resources to recover it. How much of a commotion do you think the sudden disappearance of the wreckage would cause?” Karen smiled. “Although I am secretive, if we really use big data to screen it, it’s not like we can’t find out.”

"Then what should we do? Are we just going to keep looking?" Xincheng frowned. "Many of the parts on Unit 1 are ordered from outside. If we check from there, it will be easier to expose us."

“The theoretical demonstration of the first-generation Max propulsion system has been completed, and the next step is naturally to test it in actual combat.” Karen shrugged. “The Atdis doesn’t have any paint scheme yet, so it’s a good time to test the Drak cannon in space.”

"You mean the Atlas should destroy the wreckage of Unit 1? Is that feasible?"

“Anyway, those guys are so obsessed with alien theories, let the aliens smash their hammers on their heads and see what happens.” Karen shrugged. “Maybe it can even produce a bunch of surrenderers. Besides, isn’t North America keeping a close eye on Gin right now? We can help him share some of the pressure.”

Shinjo's lips twitched slightly. So, your way of relieving Gin's pressure is to put pressure on the whole world, right?

However, he couldn't stop Karen either; this woman was probably thinking about how to travel through time to find her lover.

Next came the routine work report: the group finally turned a profit last month, thanks entirely to the shutdown of the Carlo plant.

Karen brought up the matter again, saying that conducting experiments on Earth left too many traces, making them too conspicuous and easily detectable, and also too dangerous. She worried about monsters emerging from the time-space wormhole. She argued that it would be better to locate the time travel experiment on the far side of the moon, and that the construction of the Carol base must be restarted, among other things.

However, Karen's suggestion was unanimously rejected by the others, who argued that the group was currently short of funds. They had used excessive force previously, and now major banks were investigating the outflow of funds. If they continued to steal funds from illicit accounts as before, they would inevitably be caught sooner or later.

The meeting lasted two hours, with Vermouth listening in the entire time, finally gaining a new understanding of the base. The failure of the last ocean buoy project was likely this guy's doing.

Shinjo returned to the medical observation room. Conan had transformed back into Shinichi Kudo, lying on the bed with a ventilator on, his face contorted in pain. Two tubes were attached to him, one going in and one going out, with blood flowing through them, suggesting a blood transfusion.

"How is the situation?" Shinjo asked as he walked over to Ai.

"The situation has stabilized, and the danger period has passed." Ai Haibara looked at the data on the computer. "The composition of the blood is now decreasing. Once the composition drops to zero, it will be considered detoxified."

“How is this different from before?” Shinjo stared at the data on the screen. “He has now returned to adulthood, but there are still APTX-4869 components in his blood.”

“In the past, we only eliminated some of the mutated cells. Over time, the mutated cells would multiply back on their own.” Haibara crossed her legs. “This time, we’re doing a thorough cleaning, getting everything cleaned up.”