Watching the anime from Madoka Magica and writing the rules

"And if you don't have gold, there's another possibility to conduct an experiment."

Just as Zhixing was about to continue explaining, he heard Conan's voice coming from the badge:

"After changing history, is it possible to return to the original history?"

"Well, there is such a possibility. This is also one of the prices I have to pay for the experiment to change my fate."

Zhixing said very seriously that even though this was just made up, it could give Conan a concept of reincarnation, and would also make it easier for him to understand when he asked the magical girl for the solution in the future.

"I have a friend, oh, not me, it's a female friend."

"Her experiment of going back in time is also to change history."

"But what's different from me is that I chose to use each case as a starting point to verify the consequences of changing history."

"And she, as the control group, seemed very miserable."

After accidentally revealing Conan's existence, Dr. Agasa stopped talking and nodded. He felt that most of the ideas were indeed in line with scientific experiments and could be understood, so he couldn't help but ask curiously:

"What kind of experiment did the other person in the control group do?"

Zhi Xing glanced at Professor Agasa, then glanced at Conan's badge who was not present, and said with a smile that Conan could not see:

"She chose the time when she lost her friend, starting from the time they first met and ending when her friend died, and the cycle continued endlessly."

"I'm trying to save my friends, with the premise of returning to the same time every time."

"Oh, I think I got two answers. Can you help me analyze which one is true?"

Zhi Xing looked at the badge and raised his hands again and said:

"My right hand represents the progress I learned from her: I can no longer interact with my friends normally, and we've become estranged. But my desire to save my friends remains, so I will continue to work hard and won't give up easily."

"My left hand represents the history I learned from the staff: Throughout her known growth trajectory, no one, no matter what means, knew or discovered her friend. However, since they initially affirmed her choice, it means that the Future Agency had already verified the authenticity of the intelligence and collected data before allowing her to undergo the experiment."

"So that staff member told me that her friend, perhaps due to this constant rewinding of time, had simply disappeared from this world due to some time paradox."

"What do you think of it?"

Chapter 179: No. 1's Death

There was silence for a while on the other end of the badge, as if thinking about something.

Zhi Xing was not in a hurry, but instead fixed his gaze on Dr. Agasa, then raised his hands and gestured:

"What would you choose, Doctor?"

"Choose...what?"

Zhixing blinked, recalled his question, and then nodded:

"I need to determine which statement is true. After all, this is related to the crisis that may arise for me."

Zhi Xing raised his right hand and repeated:

"If what the girl represented by my right hand said is true, then she has actually changed history. It's just that the final crisis has never been resolved."

"But if it was the staff member represented by the left hand, then it means that history has long been changed. However, she was still able to go to the moment she wanted to go to, and she did not meet the same self."

Zhi Xing said this, looked at his left hand, and said casually:

"I still remember her friend, so I don't really believe what the staff member said."

"But I don't think my judgment is necessarily correct, so I thought of looking for a retired professional detective to help me sort out whether I have missed anything."

After Zhixing finished explaining her motives, she began to wait, waiting for Conan to take the initiative to ask the girl about her more specific experiences so that Conan could have a preliminary understanding.

But Zhixing never expected that what he got was not Conan's usual inquiry about details, or rather, the questions he asked were not what Zhixing wanted.

"Mr. Kamijou Touma, if I'm guessing correctly, you probably heard the staff's story first, and then heard the girl's story."

Zhixing's eyes were full of confusion. He swallowed hard before asking:

"How do you know this? Can you deduce this?"

Although he agreed with Conan's idea, Zhixing began to question it in his heart.

Is my character design really that fake? Any protagonist in any world would be able to tell I'm a time traveler?

"This kind of thing is very simple."

Conan's confident words came from the badge held by Dr. Agasa:

"Kamijo Touma-san, since you heard two different things and clearly didn't believe the staff's statement, yet you still chose to tell it, it means that you believe this statement is credible."

"And this credibility isn't because it comes from the staff, because you told Xiaolan before that your information has actually been screened."

"With such serious consequences, it's impossible that they came to persuade you to give up the experiment after you heard the girl's story. Otherwise, with your casual way of addressing them, you wouldn't have used "staff" to refer to an acquaintance who was willing to warn you."

"Since you're not familiar with the other person, it's even less likely that he would say something like this to you who's conducting the same experiment as you."

"Unless, when they were talking to you, they had no idea that you would participate in the experiment."

Zhixing listened to Conan's reasoning in a daze, and a strong sense of déjà vu emerged in his heart.

Seeing that Zhixing had no intention of talking, Dr. Agasa couldn't help but ask:

"Shinichi, then according to what you said, wouldn't this be the last warning given by the staff before the experiment?"

"My experiments often encounter unexpected situations. I've asked others to collaborate with me on experiments, but I always confirm with them the possibility of failure."

Conan was not annoyed by this, but patiently explained to Dr. Agasa:

"As you said, if this is truly the final warning for the experiment, then both you and the other party would be very careful about this conclusion, right? In that case, just because you know their friends, would you think they're lying?"

Dr. Agasa thought for a moment, shook his head and said:

"No, if it was truly dangerous, I would definitely emphasize it again and again. It definitely wouldn't just be the final confirmation."

"Yes, so since it wasn't after the fact, and since he didn't come here specifically to say it after the girl and Kamijou Touma-san finished recounting their experiences, then there is only one possibility."

Zhixing listened silently to Conan gradually deducing the truth with his tacit consent, and he became more and more familiar with this process.

"If my guess is correct, Kamijou Touma-san didn't go to the Future Institute to participate in the experiment."

"According to the staff, everyone else has lost their memories of her friend due to the girl's experiments. Therefore, in order to verify whether this friend really existed, an investigation must be conducted."

"The person we finally found was Kamijou Touma-san, who wasn't a magician, but had some experience with the girl's friends."

"After learning that Kamijou Touma-san still remembered the girl's friend, the staff explained to you and invited you to enter the Future Agency to confirm with the girl."

Kamijou Touma-san finally accepted the invitation and heard the girl's version of events during their interactions.

"I'm afraid that girl is the first choice for the experiment, and Kamijou Touma-san probably has a good relationship with her. So, in order to verify other possibilities of her experiment, he took the initiative to apply for the experiment, right?"

"You're experimenting on other people's lives because you want to save them? Is that your motive?"

Zhixing suddenly laughed, because after Conan gave the final answer, Zhixing finally realized where his sense of déjà vu came from.

"Hahaha, you're indeed a famous detective. Your conclusion is absolutely correct."

"That's right, it wasn't me who started the time cycle in the first place, but that magical girl."

"I just felt that her friend hadn't disappeared, so I followed her to the magical battlefield."

"Then I discovered what kind of irreversible and desperate situation that magical girl was facing."

"With my ability, I can't help at all."

Zhixing's smile gradually faded, and his expression gradually became gloomy.

"The only method I can think of is to start from an earlier source."

"But this is impossible. Magic has existed since humans established civilization."

Zhi Xing stared at his own hands, at the witch's magic that occasionally passed over his body, and said with mixed feelings:

"Since we can't change the cause of the other person's death, let's try to see if we can change the result without changing the cause."

"But like I said, my fighting ability is negligible, and with my not-so-smart brain, I can't think of any way to save them."

“So I came to this era.”

"We have arrived at the era of Sherlock Holmes, which is known as the Heisei era."

"I'm here, by your side."

Zhi Xing looked at the Junior Detective League badge used for communication, and the silhouette of a detective holding a hat on it, and said earnestly:

"So, grow up quickly. I need your help. I need the help of an Edogawa Conan who is better than you are now."

"They say that a helping hand in times of need is a bond of friendship that is stronger than anything else. But now that you know my purpose, I'm afraid you won't feel any more in danger. After all, since I need your help, I will at least ensure your safety and won't abandon your trust."

"So, I'm sorry, Detective. Although I need your help, I can't stand on your side."

"I will continue to stick to my own plan. Based on the money provided by the deceased, I will sell the corresponding murder information to conduct experiments."

"Of course, you can also choose to prevent a murder from happening in advance if you know it's going to happen."

"I won't stop you, nor will I provide you with excessive help. After all, this is also part of the experiment."

"Of course, I guess you're still in the same mindset as Kudo Shinichi right now. It's just a murder, and it's not something that's difficult for you to accept."

"After you go through the Moon Shadow Island incident and begin to care about the value of human life, you will have a different reaction to my choice."

Zhixing shook his head and described his understanding of Conan.

In fact, Conan did take the paper line's statement as a challenge, a detective challenge to find the criminal before the murder happened, until

"Mr. Kamijou, if I heard correctly, were you talking about the Moon Shadow Island incident?"

"Well, what's the matter? Do you want to go over there and stop it now? This can also be used as an experiment..."

Before Zhixing could finish his words, Conan interrupted him:

"I'm on Moonshadow Island now."

""

The atmosphere in the hall suddenly became quiet.

After a while, Zhi Xing confirmed with his eyelids twitching:

"Doesn't your badge only work within a certain range? I remember that technology wasn't very advanced back then, and there were many areas with no phone signal. That means the communication coverage wasn't that wide, right?"

After saying this, Dr. Agasa said proudly:

"Shinichi knew you would come to see me one day, so he made me a communicator with a wider range. Not to mention going to Tsukikage Island, even if you go abroad, we can still contact you!"

"satellite telephone?"

"Yeah, sort of. A satellite phone. Sounds pretty good."

Zhixing looked at the doctor's enhanced communicator, which had not yet been named, and felt speechless.

First, there was Hiroki, the genius boy who created AI across eras in the later movie, and then there was the independent scientist in front of him who invented this cross-era invention.

If it weren't for the fact that the future mechanism was made up by Zhixing himself, Zhixing would probably start to suspect that they were traveling from the future.

"As expected of the genius Dr. Agasa, he can easily create epoch-making inventions. I just wonder if I will be so lucky as to get a tool developed by Dr. Agasa himself?"

Dr. Agasa stood with his hands on his hips, and with the recognition of the future people, he seemed to have gained a sense of accomplishment that was no less than authoritative certification.

"Let me do you a favor. What kind of props do you want?"

Zhixing reached out and touched his glasses, then thought of something and gave up on modifying the glasses. He then made his own request:

"I don't know any magic myself. I just have a curse attached to me."

"But besides the curse, I also have a blessing, a blessing that allows me to communicate with people from different countries and different times."

Zhi Xing looked at Professor Agasa, who was stunned because of the magic he didn't understand at all, and continued in a moderate tone:

"But my ability to bless is limited. I can only hear the other party's active communication, and text is of no help at all."

"Now, all I can do is try to use voice tools to recognize the text and then translate the speech."

“This is really inconvenient, and it will make public what was originally written for me.”

"So, I want a headset that can be charged by solar energy, scan text, and then read it to me."

Dr. Agasa breathed a sigh of relief. Although it was still a little difficult, at least it wouldn't involve magic he wasn't familiar with. So he patted his chest and said:

"Leave it to me, I will definitely make an invention that meets your requirements!"

Zhixing nodded, then asked Dr. Agasa, who was not related to him:

"So, how much do I have to pay?"