Anime, but the Phantom Thieves of Heart

But soon the panic on his face was replaced by ecstasy, because he found that the electric current disappeared quickly. Just when he tried to flap his wings with ecstasy on his face to return to a safe position, a pair of empty eye sockets burning with soul flames appeared in front of him.

The azure soul fire seemed to freeze his soul, and then——

"boom!!"

With a crisp sound, the 'male incubus' felt a sudden pain in his head, and then he lost consciousness.

On the other side, Lan Ke watched the Skeleton Warrior's Shield Attack succeed and also quickened his pace.

He lifted the steel water pipe high up, and then without hesitation, he swung it at the opponent's "goat horns" that had been showing off their might.

“Bang~!!!”

With a crisp sound, the 'goat horn' trembled violently, and the 'male nightmare' instantly widened his eyes, followed by an indescribable sharp cry.

Even though reality is not a game, Lan Ke seemed to see golden numbers rising from the 'male nightmare' in front of him!

Finally, its body trembled continuously and then instantly turned into countless black muds and exploded again.

When the black mud dissipated, the 'male nightmare' had completely disappeared.

Instead, 'Ito Makoto' was lying on the ground with his hands covering his crotch, curled up like a cooked shrimp.

At this time, 'Ito Makoto' kept making meaningless noises, but Lan Ke had no sympathy at all.

The 'shadow' will not hide his emotions, which means that what the other person said before is his true inner thoughts, so he does not deserve sympathy at all.

Indeed, delusion does not mean that it will be put into action, but the opponent's "shadow" has already taken shape, and if it continues to grow, it will inevitably become a "palace", which means that the opponent has begun to stride forward towards the craziest future, that is, the "good ship ending".

From a certain perspective, it is actually a good thing. After all, even if it is a little painful now, at least his life is saved.

So Lan Ke didn't say anything and directly put the steel water pipe in his hand into the other person's face.

"Tell me, what's going on? Why do you want to make every woman in the world OO?"

Looking at the steel water pipe pressing against his face, Ito Makoto couldn't help but shudder twice.

It was obvious that even though he was in a 'possessed' state, the blow from the stick still left him with extremely deep mental trauma.

Makoto Ito, who had completely lost his previous arrogance, immediately told all his experiences like pouring beans.

But as the other party continued to talk, Lan Ke's brows furrowed deeper and deeper.

Originally, he thought that 'Cheng' was just following his predetermined fate, but according to what he said, it seemed that there was a real 'mastermind' hidden behind this.

What made him even more incredible was that even the case that Kudo Shinichi was trying to investigate seemed to be related to this 'mastermind'.

Lan Ke felt as if a huge net was slowly spreading out from the darkness...

Chapter 23: The Mastermind Appears

According to Ito Makoto, his change of mind was mainly due to his 'father'.

After school yesterday, just as Lan Ke had imagined, he and Saionji Sekai waited for Katsura Kotonoha to finish her kendo club training, and then he went home together with Kiyoura Setsuna and the other four who had also finished their club activities.

After separating from Katsura Kotonoha who got off the station early in the subway, he separated from Kiyoura Setsuna, and finally separated from Saionji Sekai near his home. However, when he was about to go home, he was blocked by a man.

"Are you Ito Makoto?"

"When that man in the flowered shirt and sunglasses stopped me, I thought he was a thug, so I ignored him at first and planned to take a detour. But he said he was my father. He said he didn't know my mother was pregnant when she left him, and he only found out about it recently. He even took out a photo of him and my mother when they were young..."

Makoto Ito kept talking about his experience last night, but considering that he looked like a lobster curled up, it was hard to tell what he was thinking.

However, Lan Ke did not interrupt the other party, because as Ito Makoto continued to talk, Lan Ke realized that the "father" he was talking about might be the key factor in his change.

"The man said he wanted to make it up to me, so he took me to a restaurant in Ginza for dinner..."

Before Ito Makoto could continue, Lan Ke interrupted him.

"Wait!! He said he was your father, and you believed him?"

Lan Ke's impression of Makoto is only from the anime plot, and he has never even played the game, so naturally he doesn't know who his father is. But the problem is, if a stranger suddenly appears in front of you and says "I am your father", a normal person's first reaction would be to punch the other person, right?

In this regard, the shadow of Makoto Ito in front of him is outspoken.

"I saw him driving a sports car and he looked like a rich man. I thought there was no need for him to lie to an ordinary person like me. If he really is my father, then there's no need for me to work hard for the rest of my life..."

Looking at the self-righteous Makoto Ito, Lan Ke didn't know how to complain for a moment, so he just pointed at him with the steel pipe.

"go on!"

Although 'Ito Makoto (Shadow)' was full of MMP, he still chose to follow his heart when faced with the thick and hard steel pipe.

"While we were having dinner at the restaurant, the man told me that he was sure I was his son because I had the same special ability as him..."

At this point, a strange red aura appeared on the opponent's body again. Unfortunately, the 'demon' that possessed him before had been 'purified' by Lan Ke, and now he was just an ordinary shadow.

Ito Makoto reacted quickly, looked at Lan Ke with some fear, and continued speaking.

"He said that male descendants of our family are naturally popular with the opposite sex..."

"You believe this nonsense? I said I have a hypnosis app, do you believe it?"

"Of course I didn't believe it!! But later, seeing that I didn't believe it, the man went out of his way to prove it to me..."

Faced with Lan Ke's teasing, 'Ito Makoto' seemed very excited.

"Then he asked me to pick a woman on the street and he would approach her. Then I pointed at someone at random, and that man actually approached her, and..."

"and?"

"And the two of them did it right in the alley next to the street..."

At this moment, 'Ito Makoto' had an excited look on his face. It was obvious that the scene he witnessed last night had greatly stimulated him.

As a teenager with no ambition and still in adolescence, what he cares about most is naturally the lower three ways. When he thinks that he may have the same ability as the other party, he finds it difficult to control himself.

But before he could get any more excited, Lan Ke sneered in disdain.

"Do you think the real world is a pornographic book? It's just that the woman saw that the man you mentioned was rich and fell in love with him? Or maybe he directly bribed the woman with money. You don't really believe that this kind of ability exists in this world, do you?"

Faced with Lan Ke's sarcasm, the 'Ito Makoto' in front of him did not seem to give up completely.

Obviously, in his opinion, even if the other party did not have special abilities, if he was really his father, then as long as he could inherit the other party's inheritance, wouldn't he be able to use "money" to win the heart of the opposite sex?

As for the saying that money can’t buy sincerity?

He just wants the other person's body, not sincerity.

As if seeing through the other party's thoughts, Lan Ke attacked him again without hesitation.

"Given the lifestyle you described, how many children do you think that man will have? What right do you have to compete with others for the inheritance? Do you deserve it?"

"Besides, are you really sure that you are his offspring? As for saying that there is nothing about you that would interest him, but—is that really the case?"

Following Lan Ke's question, 'Ito Makoto' was stunned for a moment, then his face changed drastically. At this time, he stopped covering the front and started covering the back.

Lan Ke's expression suddenly fell, he didn't know how to complain about the other person's thoughts.

"Is that all you can think about? I'm talking about organs! Organs!! Do you know how profitable the illegal trade in human organs is? Have you heard about the debt collection gangs in Japan? That man might be one of them!"

As Lan Ke finished speaking, the other party stopped covering his back and instead showed an extremely terrified expression. It seemed that he had watched a lot of Yakuza-related movies and TV shows.

If the previous "purification" of the possessed "demon" also eliminated the other party's twisted desires, then Lan Ke's words just now completely dispelled the other party's lucky mentality.

Looking at 'Ito Makoto' who was slowly disappearing while muttering to himself 'I never want to get something for nothing again', Lan Ke couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.

Although no 'preview letter' was released, as the target of Ito Makoto's first 'change of heart', it also represented his first 'Phantom Thief Action', and the successful completion of it was a good start.

But then his expression turned serious again.

What he said to Ito Makoto before was naturally not a lie. Because he was planning to change his career, he had some understanding of the treatment methods of psychologists. He naturally also knew about the most mysterious or most concerning "hypnosis".

The so-called "hypnosis" is not as exaggerated as described in some strange little books. It is more of a psychological suggestion, and it is even more impossible to completely turn a person into a puppet.

But the premise is——————normally speaking.

Lan Ke glanced at the 'electric ring' he was wearing.

Although it can only be used to light cigarettes in the 'material world', it does have an impact on the 'material world'.

In the original work, Futaba's mother never reached the "cognitive world", but she researched "cognitive science". In this world where the "cognitive world" has begun to influence the "material world", who knows how much influence the "cognitive world" has on the "material world"?

In other words, what Ito Makoto said is possible!

However, he naturally couldn't tell the other party such words. Instead, he chose to conceal the matter in order to help the other party abandon those unnecessary delusions and return to normal as soon as possible.

Just as Lan Ke was daydreaming, he suddenly felt his feet shake, and then his expression suddenly changed.

It turned out that he didn't know when the ground around him had begun to crack. He quickly took out the "Other World Navigation" and followed the road back to the "Cognitive Space".

Before he had left for long, he discovered that the vortex he had just left began to shrink until it completely collapsed...

"Pfft~"

Suddenly, a shiny object emerged from the collapsing smoke in front of him. Lan Ke instinctively reached out to catch it, and the light slowly dissipated.

"Wow~~"

A large amount of gold coins slipped from his fingers.

'! ! ! '

Lan Ke opened his 'backpack' almost instinctively, and the gold coins that had been scattered in the air all disappeared, and instead, the displayed 'number of gold coins' continued to increase.

As the gold coins were put into the backpack, Lan Ke finally saw what was left.

A card and a pair of... panties?

Chapter 24 Now——————Do you regret it?

"Skill Card: Eternal Sleep" "Ancient Panties"

Lan Ke is very familiar with both things. The former can grant skills to a "personality mask" that will not be rejected, and the latter is similar to something like "unidentified equipment", but the latter can be washed in a washing machine in the game. Is it also possible in this world now?

Lan Ke, who was not very clear about it, simply packed up everything and found the entrance near the "platform" as quickly as possible.

As expected, his assistant was lying there as usual, but what was different from usual was that today he was flipping through something seriously. Before Lan Ke could see what he was reading, he took out the "Complete Book of Masks" at an incredible speed and pressed the book underneath.

Even with Lan Ke's now enhanced eyesight, he couldn't see clearly.

However... seeing that the other party was determined not to let him know, he could probably guess what it was.

While secretly feeling lucky that he had bought a comic magazine in the subway station today, he pretended to know nothing and urged the other party to go back to the Velvet.

Tina, who was carrying the "Complete Book of Masks" as a small schoolbag on her back, looked at Lan Ke strangely. For a moment, she was not sure whether Lan Ke had seen clearly what she had done, but the last weight on her inner scale finally fell on "Lan Ke saw nothing" out of luck.

"Come with me~!"

Looking at Tina with her head held high and her tail raised, Lan Ke pretended to know nothing and secretly laughed in his heart.

However, in order to prevent himself from revealing his flaws, Lan Ke did not waste any words after returning to the "Velvet" and directly stated his biggest doubts at the moment.

"How much do the 'cognitive world' and the 'material world' overlap? Are there other people in the 'material world' who possess similar abilities to me?"

Obviously, Lan Ke was still doubting whether the "father" mentioned by Ito Makoto also had a "personality mask" like him, or even went further and had his own "velvet room".

What surprised him was that Tina was extremely decisive about this matter.

"impossible!"

"Why are you so sure, Tina?"

Faced with his assistant's decisive attitude, Lan Ke once again raised his doubts.

Although the other party has been silently assisting him since they met, and he can also feel the other party's kindness towards him, Lan Ke always feels that the other party seems to be hiding something from him. This time he suddenly showed such a strong attitude, and also hoped to obtain more information.

Faced with Lan Ke's questioning, Tina fell silent, and the entire wheelhouse fell into dead silence.

It was a long while before Tina spoke again.

"I don't have direct evidence, but I have indirect evidence..."

As Tina spoke, she took Lan Ke to the window and gestured for Lan Ke to look up.

Countless twinkling stars hung above the Milky Way, like a gorgeous ribbon. Lan Ke, who had not looked up at the night sky for many years, was unconsciously attracted by the beautiful scenery before him.

But he soon reacted.

"Although the starry sky is very beautiful, does it have anything to do with the question I just asked?"

"Of course, Captain, what do you think these stars are?"

"The light visible from Earth... at least it's a star, right?"