Ke Xue: Xiaolan delivers goods to your door at the beginning

As for Tomoko Suzuki and Shizuka Ikenami, they were chatting enthusiastically. The two were friends and had brought their children to play.

Yes. In their eyes, both Lin Xiao and Hattori Heiji are children. However, the former is a lifelong bed partner, while the latter is just a child.

Meanwhile, the police were extremely busy.

"Brother Takagi, immediately notify everyone to seal off all entrances and exits!"

"Yes!"

"Then, Sato, go to the monitoring room and retrieve the entire surveillance footage from before and after the incident!"

"Yes!"

At the entrance of the venue, Inspector Megure methodically issued instructions to his subordinates.

Just as he finished issuing the instructions and was about to turn and leave, a familiar child's voice suddenly came from behind him.

461. Jack the Ripper

"Inspector Megure, what are you doing here?"

Before he was seen, his voice arrived; Inspector Megure recognized Conan's voice in an instant.

"Conan? Just you alone... uh?"

However, to Inspector Megure's surprise, when he turned around, he saw not only the familiar Conan, but also Heiji Hattori and Lin Xiaofeng.

"Huh? Brother Lin? And I remember this one, Chief Hattori..."

As fellow members of the police force, Inspector Megure naturally recognized the son of the Osaka Police Department Chief.

Heiji Hattori didn't care about any of that at all, grinning and saying, "Oh... just call me Hattori or Heiji, it doesn't matter."

"Oh oh."

Inspector "293" breathed a slight sigh of relief and nodded. He was under immense pressure. From the moment he received the emergency call and arrived here, he had tried his best to avoid unnecessary contact with people. He knew that all the guests who could come here today were either rich or powerful, and they were not people that a small police inspector like him could afford to offend. If he didn't handle things well, he would lose his job.

Fortunately, the son of the Osaka branch manager seems quite easy to talk to, and is also said to be a high school detective.

"So what exactly happened?" Lin Xiaofeng glanced in the direction where Takagi and Sato had left.

"Yes... something happened."

Inspector Megure hesitated for a moment, not making his point too clear.

"If you want to know, come with me."

The four of them then left the venue, passed through the outer hall, and entered the staff passage.

The staff passageway lacks opulent marble tiles and dazzling golden crystal chandeliers; instead, it is filled with pale, eye-straining lighting and exposed pipes protruding from the walls.

Even the ground is made of cement; there aren't even any floor tiles.

"Why did you come to such a remote place?" Hattori Heiji asked curiously.

"Yes, this is it."

Inspector Megure took the lead and walked ahead; apart from their footsteps, there was no other sound in the corridor.

Without turning his head, he continued, "We only arrived after receiving a call from the staff. The deceased's name was Kenmura Nakaaki..."

"Jiancun?"

Conan seemed to react to the name.

Lin Xiaofeng glanced sideways and lowered his gaze: "You know him?"

"I wouldn't call it knowing each other, but my dad used to mention him a lot." Conan frowned. "I remember he was one of my dad's close friends from college. Although they went their separate ways after graduation—my dad became a novelist, and Mr. Kenmura went into computer programming—they've always kept in touch. I never expected..."

"arrive."

Just as Conan finished explaining the deceased's background, Inspector Megure stopped in his tracks.

What appeared before the four of them was an office with a bunker-like style, not only because of its location, but also because its entrance was a blast-proof door like those on submarines, which required turning a dial to open.

It looks so appealing that it can help you concentrate on your work.

However, the door has now been opened, and police forensic personnel are coming in and out.

Lin Xiaofeng craned his neck and glanced inside. The office did indeed have the style of a hardcore tech geek. Servers with twinkling lights were placed against both walls, while a computer desk with a triple-screen setup was located in the center in front.

"Police department!"

Almost at the same time the four arrived, two forensic officers carrying a stretcher containing the body bag of the deceased came out of the office. They quickly greeted Inspector Megure upon seeing him.

"It's alright, you guys do your thing."

Inspector Megure brushed past them, and Lin Xiaofeng, Hattori Heiji, and Conan followed closely behind.

Upon entering the office, Lin Xiaofeng was surprised to find that the entire crime scene was surprisingly clean.

Aside from some bloodstains on and under the computer chair in front of the desk, the only other traces of blood were on the keyboard.

"It seems the crime scene was right here at this computer desk," Hattori Heiji said.

"Yes, and judging from the traces at the scene, the deceased did not fight with the murderer." Lin Xiaofeng glanced at the intact coffee cup on the computer desk.

"But the location of this office is way too remote. It's completely out of the camera's reach. Why would they set up an office in such a place..."

"Actually, it was the director who requested it."

Lin Si Ba Si

A slightly timid voice came from the side.

He was a man wearing round glasses and a suit that was different from those worn by the police forensic personnel. Judging from how he addressed the deceased, they seemed to be colleagues or subordinates.

"Director Jiancun said he couldn't concentrate in crowded places, so he moved his office here."

"Oh?"

Lin Xiaofeng raised an eyebrow.

"That means the murderer knew the victim's office was here, such as a colleague or someone else."

"Uh, maybe..."

The bespectacled man looked somewhat bewildered.

At that moment, another forensic officer suddenly turned around from beside the computer: "Inspector! We just discovered that all the data on the computer's hard drive has been destroyed!"

"Could it be a corporate spy?" Inspector Megure immediately guessed.

"That's probably impossible, after all, the game console has already been made." Lin Xiaofeng dismissed his guess.

He then looked at the keyboard on the computer desk, where only three keys were stained with blood, as if the deceased had pressed them with all his might before dying.

"And the bloodstained letters on this keyboard are also strange, they are J, T, R... Hmm?"

JTR is actually an abbreviation; the full name should be JackTheRpp.

That is to say—Jack the Ripper.

462. A Virtual Reality Game Journey with Three Famous Detectives

After investigating the crime scene, the three detectives returned to the magnificent lobby of the venue.

Heiji Hattori stood with one hand in his pocket and a furrowed brow, clearly still thinking about the crime scene from earlier.

Lin Xiaofeng remained expressionless and silent. To be honest, he wasn't particularly concerned about the death of that Kenjiro Nakaaki. He was only there to keep Mrs. Suzuki company.

Hattori Heiji clicked his tongue softly: "So we're just going to go back and play that virtual reality game?"

“Yes, we’ll go back now, and it’s our only option.” Conan quickened his pace and nodded as he walked ahead.

"As the main developer of 'Cocoon', Mr. Kenmura was very aware that one of the games being tested this time was a script with a storyline written by my father, set in London a hundred years ago."

“London a hundred years ago, and it was London…” Hattori Heiji hissed, “Isn’t that the era depicted in the Sherlock Holmes stories?”

"That's right, and there's another very important character in the novel, Jack the Ripper."

"It corresponds to the three letters JTR that Mr. Kenmura pressed on the keyboard with his blood before he died."

"And this is the only clue we currently have that has 17."

"I see……"

As the three returned to the venue after passing through the lobby, the demo session had just begun.

A quick glance revealed a large group of children of all ages, from six or seven to twelve or thirteen, wearing badges indicating they were eligible to try out the game.

"They're all kids. Won't it seem weird if we go over like this?" Hattori Heiji was a little embarrassed.

"What does it matter? We're all under twenty anyway." Conan seemed quite indifferent.

Hattori Heiji glared at him: "You probably don't care, you're just an elementary school student."

"Just tell me if you're going to play or not."

"Play...play!"

So the three of them, with Conan at the head and Lin Xiaofeng at the tail, lined up at the very end of the line, while a certain Osaka black chicken hid between the two.

Before long, all fifty qualified players had completed their checks and went up to the stage to sit in the giant dome-shaped game pods. The staff members on the side immediately came over to help them put on the necessary equipment, and then the protective shield above them was lowered.

The experience is similar to riding a roller coaster in an amusement park.

"The trial is about to begin, five, four, three, two, one..."

Lin Xiaofeng sat in the game pod covered by dark glass, quietly listening to the countdown announced by the sweet-voiced female host outside. As if successfully hypnotized, he slowly closed his eyes.

Of course, this is only how it appears to outsiders; the whole process seems both calm and peaceful.

In Lin Xiaofeng's first-person perspective, the moment the countdown ended, it was as if he had been hit in the face with a flashbang. Accompanied by a burst of intense white light and a strange sense of dizziness, he was in a daze for a while before his consciousness returned and he found himself in a pure white circular square.

This is clearly not a scene that would appear in reality, because apart from the white square, all other areas are absolutely dark. Five stone-paved paths are evenly distributed around the square, each leading to one of the five stone gates.

The design is somewhat similar to the portals in God of War 4.

"Wow~ We actually got into the game!"

Just as Lin Xiaofeng finished surveying the surroundings, a white light descended behind him, and Hattori Heiji's figure gradually became clear, accompanied by his familiar Osaka accent.

Also appearing were Conan, and more white light fell from the sky above the circular plaza, with small figures clearly emerging in the pillars of light.

They were all children who had qualified for the test.

"I actually managed to connect online."

Lin Xiaofeng tried moving his body, and it felt no different from reality.

"Yes!"

Hattori Heiji seemed unusually excited, patted Lin Xiaofeng on the shoulder hard, and said with a grin, "Then please take care of me in the dungeon later, buddy!"

Lin Xiaofeng felt the pain in his shoulder, just like in the real world: "This game is too high-tech."

Lin Xiaofeng felt that the value of the "cocoon" was comparable to that of APTX4869.

……

Meanwhile, in the actual venue control room, Thomas Sindora, standing in what resembled a movie theater projection room, looked down at the venue below through the window.

Around him were a dozen technicians, each sitting in front of a control panel, busy making final preparations for the demo.

"All units, to your positions, begin loading copies!"

"Yes!"

Almost simultaneously, the five technicians sitting in front of the control panel pressed the download button in unison.

But—there was no response.

Press again.

Still no response.

"President Sindora..."

"what happened!"

"The console seems to be... malfunctioning! The copy cannot be loaded!"

"what?!"

An expression of disbelief appeared on the face of the CEO of a world-leading technology company.

This is the most crucial moment of the entire demo expo. Whether the research results of so many years will be groundbreaking or laughable depends on this one moment. And yet, they say the dungeon cannot be loaded.