Conan Rick's Investigator

Wow.

Long——

Along with the sound of machinery running, it seemed that some machinery was running above my head.

Conan quickly climbed into the upward slide again, and the darkness above seemed to become deeper.

A new channel has been opened?

Chapter 931 Just Do It!

Seeing that a new passage seemed to have opened above, Conan decided to climb up.

This is a slope that slopes upwards, but the surface of the slope is not smooth.

If you are an adult, it is difficult to use limited friction to overcome the slope due to your weight, and you must use tools.

But Conan is a child, and as long as the friction remains basically unchanged, he can still climb the slope without the help of any tools.

He positioned himself at the foot of the rock face, crawling along the slope like a spider, trying to distribute his weight as much as possible.

After climbing up the slope for about ten meters, you will reach a vertical passage about two meters high.

Unless you are Spider-Man, there is no way to climb up this mountain.

There was no other way, so Conan used his two feet and one hand as a fulcrum, and with his free hand he operated the watch-shaped flashlight to shine upwards, trying to see what was above him.

Light spread across the darkness above, which seemed to be a stone enclosure.

The space above your head and the underground maze are connected by a trapdoor. If you step on it blindly, you will fall down.

Conan glanced at the open trapdoors on both sides again, and then he found that there was a glass bottle stuck on the top of one of the doors.

There is a black object in the glass bottle.

Conan crawled to the bottle, grabbed it, and stood on the slope with the help of the glass bottle that was stuck very firmly.

He unscrewed the stopper and found a conical black stone inside, which looked like it had been placed there intentionally.

"black crystal?"

The light was not very good, and Conan couldn't clearly tell what kind it was, but it was definitely a slightly cool stone.

He put the black crystal into his pocket, looked around again and found nothing else. As soon as he let go of the black crystal, he stepped on the slope and slid down it very quickly.

"Conan! How is it? Is there any treasure up there?"

The three little ones immediately surrounded him with anticipation, but Conan shook his head with certainty.

"This shouldn't be the place where the treasure is hidden. I only found this thing..."

Conan took the black crystal out of his pocket, looked at it carefully under the light of the flashlight, and found that this was not an ordinary crystal.

On the surface of the crystal, there is a small area of gloomy green.

But even so, this thing is not worth much, it is probably just artificial crystal.

"Oh, why is this happening?"

"Is it all in vain that I've spent so much time?"

When they heard that it was not treasure, Mitsuhiko and Genta immediately deflated like a ball.

Conan looked at the black crystal in his hand, frowned, and pondered the reason behind it.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up.

Maybe it’s not in vain…

"Mitsuihiko, do you remember the puzzle? Tell me again."

"Wait a minute, let me look..." Mitsuhiko took out a small notebook from his pocket and read: "When the horns on the bull's head disappear and the tail becomes the head, an angel will appear from the sky..."

"stop!"

Conan suddenly called a stop, an excited expression on his face.

"That's it, I understand!"

"I understand the puzzle..."

As one of the two brains of the Junior Detective League, Conan took Mitsuhiko's notebook and wrote a big "cow" on it with a pen.

"Actually, 'the horns on the ox's head disappear' refers to the Chinese character for 'ox'. If you remove the dot above, it becomes 'noon'."

"In the Chinese zodiac, 'Wu' represents the 'Noon Horse', symbolizing the south direction and the time of noon."

Conan took out the "treasure map" for comparison and said, "Judging from the direction of the route indicated on the treasure road, we should be south of the Angel's Pavilion now, and very likely under the Angel of the South."

"I guess the space above can be opened at 12 noon. Entering it and getting this black crystal is the first part of the puzzle..."

Qin Zhibo, who was standing on the other side of the rock wall, was listening to Conan's reasoning and knew that it was exactly right.

Although Conan didn't think of the connection between Chinese character decryption and the twelve zodiac signs at first, his ability to use the answer to reverse the question is still not bad.

If Conan can get the fake Panester fragment, he will be halfway to success.

The next step is to let Mr. Clock get the fragments at the right time without harming the Young Giveaway Group.

……

On the way back to the East Mansion, Conan passed by the human skeleton and examined it carefully again.

But the result was the same, nothing that could prove the identity was found.

Without any investigation results, we can only go back to the ground and wait for the police to come and slowly check the previous missing persons to find out the identity of the deceased.

As soon as the group came out of the fireplace, Ayumi came over and asked.

"Conan, what should we do next?"

Haibara Ai also asked with great trust: "Edogawa, have you solved the next riddle as well?"

"Yes."

Conan nodded seriously, but then changed the subject, "But there are still five hours left before the end of the time. Finding the treasure is impossible."

"Why?" the three little ones asked in unison.

Conan was about to explain to the few people when the door of the room suddenly opened and a figure stood at the door.

It's Mr. Clock.

The entire Young Detective Team trembled in fear, just like bad kids who had done something bad and were caught by adults.

"Everyone, why are you here?"

The man in the gray suit stood at the door. After he finished speaking, he slowly walked into the room. The dark surface of his sunglasses reflected everyone's faces.

The handsome face under the sunglasses was expressionless, but gave people a strange sense of fear.

"We're solving a puzzle. We just found it..."

Just as Genta was about to explain to Mr. Clock what they had just gained, Conan waved his hand and stopped Genta from speaking.

"We were looking for clues to the puzzle down there, but we found nothing."

Conan smiled innocently, and his skill in cosplaying as an elementary school student has reached perfection.

But Mr. Clock just stood there quietly, looking at everyone expressionlessly, and did not respond to Conan's words.

After a moment, he took half a step forward, and Conan subconsciously stretched out his hand to protect the three little ones behind him.

Mr. Clock looked at Conan's obvious defensive behavior and did not go any further. Instead, he slowly turned around and spoke to the few people with his head turned sideways.

"Lunch is ready, it's time to go back and eat..."

After saying that, Mr. Clock left from the door.

Seeing Mr. Clock leave, Conan put down his arms that were protecting the people behind him, but his eyes were still staring at Mr. Clock's departing back with a stern look.

When it comes to judging people, Conan has always thought he has a good eye.

For example, before and after a crime occurs, Conan can often identify the person who might be the murderer by observing a person's micro-expressions.

This is similar to a detective's intuition, and Conan's intuition is often more accurate.

But when facing this "Mr. Clock", there is not much Conan can see through.

This person uses many disguises, including the code name "Mr. Clock", sunglasses that he never takes off, and an expression that never has any clear meaning. He has a complete "poker face".

It is this inability to see through things that makes a detective like Conan, who is good at seeing through people's hearts, subconsciously be more cautious.

But from the perspective of evidence, he is currently unable to fully prove that Mr. Zhong is a bad guy.

At this time, Guangyan, who was standing behind, said, "Don't you think the clothes on Mr. Clock are very similar to those on the skeleton?"

"Now that you mention it, it seems so." Ayumi wasn't sure.

Conan recalled the clothes worn by the skeleton underground. It was a gray suit. Although it was very worn, it was indeed very similar to the clothes worn by Mr. Clock.

But what does this mean?

After thinking about it, Conan decided to go back to the North Hall to eat first and then think about the next countermeasures.

……

Back at the North House where they live, the Junior Detective Team starts to have lunch.

Although it was a bit unpleasant just now, Conan was not worried that Mr. Clock would tamper with the food.

Because no matter whether Zhong Shi is a good guy or a bad guy, for whatever reason, he and others need to solve the mystery first and find the treasure left by Yin Shichuan Gangsan.

In other words, as long as the puzzle remains unsolved, everyone is safe.

After lunch, Yuantai still didn't feel full.

Conan pretended to continue thinking about the puzzle with the Junior Detective League, but he no longer offered any constructive suggestions.

Because since lunch ended, Mr. Zhong has been sitting in the restaurant, watching everyone all the time.

He's not leaving.

Conan sensed the oppressive feeling coming from behind the sunglasses, but chose not to make it public and continued to discuss the mystery with the Junior Detective Team.

In fact, he had already thought of the answer to the puzzle.

The so-called "turning the tail into the head" means changing the "south" and "noon" in the first puzzle to "north" and "midnight".

At midnight, you can find the treasure left by Yin Shichuan Gangsan in the base of the Northern Angel.

But by that time, the 24 hours stipulated in the will had long passed.

Because of this, Conan's suspicion of Mr. Clock deepened a bit.

Because the time when Mr. Clock found them and entrusted them to help Yuriko Matsunaka solve the mystery was exactly after noon and before midnight.

This means that anyone who takes on the puzzle challenge will never be able to solve it within 24 hours and will always be one step closer.

The fact that Mr. Zhong was able to consider this means that he should have solved the first puzzle, but he couldn't think of the answer to the second puzzle.

So a time trap is set in this way, allowing others to solve the puzzle, but because there is not enough time to verify the second puzzle, they cannot get the treasure.

In this way, he can obtain the treasure himself.

Because he is one of the many heirs designated by Yin Shichuan Gangsan...

Conan looked at Mr. Clock sitting on the chair with caution, and he already had some idea of what he was thinking about this man.

But there is no need to say this now. Wait until the police arrive and the truth will be revealed.

But...why haven't the Gunma Prefecture police arrived after so long?

……

Time passed little by little, and night fell outside the window.

Qin Zhibo hid in a secluded spot in the Angel Pavilion, quietly looking up at the sky tonight.

As the sound of "thump thump" rang out in the four directions of the Angel Pavilion, four high-power searchlights began to work, and four beams of light began to sweep across the pavilion.

Qin Zhibo stared at the beam of light above his head. It seemed to be operating according to some set procedure, rather than just randomly "drawing" in the night sky.

This means that Qin Zhibo's hiding place will never be scanned by the searchlight.