The establishment of the Time Travelers Alliance began in the first year of Conan

Chapter 214 Hidden Clues: What exactly happened?! (Warning: Don't cheat by manipulating time!) Requesting monthly votes!
(Based on reader feedback, this chapter provides too much explanation and is an explanation of the subplot from chapters 207 to 215. It can be skipped and will not affect the main plot. The author will further reduce the amount of direct explanation in future chapters.)
I wonder if anyone has a question, which is—

What exactly was the alliance doing on the morning of the third day, and even after the funeral home case ended?

Isn't that strange?

The League has so many members, and although members of "Science Frontier" are easily reset by Conan, they can still receive the League's orders when they are far away from him.

So how could there be no one left after just saving a small town like Beika?
After all, the CYZ effect still leaves a full 9 strings!

Whether it's used to disrupt the story timeline by influencing Gin and Vodka, or to mislead GSSRA away from the Star Viewing Tower...

In fact, the storm had already stopped with Conan's announcement of the "real culprit".

Does this mean that members of the magical timeline are not able to act?

Why not try to break through the "historical inertia" and directly find Ai Haibara, instead of directly guiding Conan back to the plan of "camping in the western suburbs of Beika Town"?
From midnight to noon on the third day, the league could be described as having "done absolutely nothing".

He tried to contact Professor Agasa in his dreams, tried to have Kaito Kuroba infiltrate the Star Viewing Tower to make some arrangements, and tried to have Akako Koizumi use Red Magic to try and find Ai Haibara...

None of these behaviors were observed.

It was as if the alliance had suddenly disappeared, leaving the incident to unfold naturally.

This was mainly because after the funeral home case concluded, the alliance discovered a huge problem.

The alliance has found the reason why the dual timelines can suddenly create a "non-ritual, non-cyclical case".

Then they immediately discovered that a huge problem had come knocking.

To understand how the alliance discovered this problem, we must start with the "funeral home incident" that should never have happened.

……

"We must admit that things really started to get complicated with that funeral home case that shouldn't have existed."

—Detective Conan: The 001 World History Archives (Part 3)

"Excuse me! I have something very important to report to the director!"

Rei Utsunomiya had never been so anxious. She was running down the corridor of H-14, eager to report her recent discovery to Shi Nianci, the director of Conan's Psychological Analysis Institute.

As an insignificant junior researcher in the institute, the TDD module she possessed was only the most basic version:
No teleportation function, no time acceleration function...

Even the simplest deduction interface is incomplete.

Aside from the most basic function of maintaining her own timeline to ensure she isn't swallowed up by the Alliance's "loop," she lacks most of the other functions.

But it is precisely this "restraint" that is grandly referred to as "efficiency optimization" in the alliance's research system.

The redundancy of the CYZ effect in the alliance, or more precisely, the redundancy of the CYZ effect in some departments of the alliance's research layer, was saved little by little in this way.

Apart from core units like the Time Series Department and the Time Research Department, which receive heavily allocated resources, other "peripheral institutions" such as the Institute of Psychoanalysis must conserve "salaries" or "resources" if they want to continue their projects.

Within the alliance, this is not about money. Anything that can be called a "resource" is scarce, such as the resource entity that exists over time—the CYZ effect.

"Basic CYZ supply is free."

This is the alliance's commitment to all its members.

However, if you need a more advanced TDD module, more stable time-dimensional permissions, or additional spatiotemporal dimensions to accommodate dangerous experiments, then you must apply for one.

The need for an application implies a shift in resources, a strategic choice, or a systemic trade-off.

Oh, and there's one more thing to avoid being rejected by the ethics committee.

Rei Utsunomiya will always remember the apologetic look on her supervisor's face.

"The institute's 'resources' are 3% less this month than last month, but we must maintain the main storyline of [Shinichi Kudo's] psychological modeling, so..."

"Why does it have to be me?!" She was both angry and resentful at that moment.

Rei Utsunomiya had no idea why this had happened to her; she knew it was tantamount to being "expelled" from the research institute.

"I don't believe the institute can't even produce that much effect! Is it... is it because—"

Finally, her voice trailed off.

"Is it because I was born in the base...?"

The supervisor remained silent for a long time, and that silence itself was the answer.

Because that is indeed the case. If Rei Utsunomiya leaves the research institute, then the CYZ effect she uses will not be used within the institute's budget.

Babies born within the Alliance's "loop" are like children born in space or on a space station—

They will be more sensitive to the "three-choice logic" than those who come into the League [loop] from reality.

Furthermore, because Lin Sheng's CYZ effect has completely permeated the cycle, they are more likely to perceive subtle changes in the CYZ effect.

This all sounds like a good thing, but the key issue is that their timelines are unstable.

Their timeline is like a grain of sand floating on the boundary; it could disintegrate at the slightest breeze.

"They were like fish that had come ashore."

After the first batch of babies were born in the Alliance [Cycle], the medical department of the Time Balance Center, together with the CYZ Effect Research Institute, quickly reached a conclusion.

"The traces of their timeline belonging to the Conan universe have decreased by an order of magnitude compared to those who have broken away from the dual timelines, while their timeline structure remains unchanged. This means that the part of the 'three-choice' in the [loop] will actively replace this part."

"But this is obviously not normal, which means that their probability is too small. Our suggestion is to use the CYZ effect as an additional impetus to continue their timeline developing normally."

A decrease of one order of magnitude means that, compared to typical alliance members, Rei Utsunomiya's TDD CYZ effect consumption is typically ten times that of an average researcher.

Those institutions with abundant resources may see her as a treasure, marveling at her extraordinary ability to perceive CYZ fluctuations, and they may even welcome researchers who are more sensitive to timelines.

However, the Conan Psychoanalysis Institute is different; its resources have been slowly dwindling.

With the further development of timeline simulation technology in the Timeline Reconstruction Design Bureau and the Timing Department;

With each enhancement of the time display device in the Time Research Department;

As the Narrative Studies Department begins to utilize the RCM simulation experimental chamber, it attempts to explore the logic of Detective Conan more deeply…

The rapid advancements in timeline simulation, time display technology, and narrative logic analysis methods have caused this once-glorious department to gradually fall silent in the tide of the times.

In fact, if it weren't for the "copyright fee" the research institute paid for the initial psychological model of [Shinichi Kudo], and the additional analysis assignment they received for the Ekoda High School incident—

The research institute has long been struggling to make ends meet.

After all, with so many research institutes and related departments in the Faculty of Psychology, why would they specifically choose your department, which is responsible for the psychological analysis of Shinichi Kudo?
Moreover, aside from the initial mental model, facts have already proven that a deep psychological analysis of Conan Edogawa is impossible.

Otherwise, the alliance wouldn't need to develop a ton of contingency plans and prepare from thousands of simulations each time.

"Just from the perspective that the world actually revolves around [Shinichi Kudo], any psychological fluctuations that penetrate his subconscious fundamentally negate this point."

Departments such as the Narrative Studies Department and the Detective Conan Logic Department, which attempt to study "Detective Conan," have already made attempts—

After all, if Conan's most fundamental psychological mechanism could be accurately grasped, then the "promotion plan" that was proposed a long time ago would not have been easily abandoned.

“Each person has a different weight. Just like up until now, we can usually only rely on those characters with abnormal RSI values ​​to influence [Conan Edogawa].

Therefore, in response to Rei Utsunomiya's questioning, the director of the research institute even came out to provide an explanation.

"After all... after all, I really had no other choice. I'm so sorry, Miya Rei."

Shi Nianci pulled up several ongoing projects from the research institute through TDD. Those projects looked exceptionally shabby on the light screen.

In particular, the project called "Analysis of Conan Edogawa's Subconscious Psychological Model" has not only failed to increase its progress bar, but is also slowly regressing.

Shi Nianci shook her head slightly at Utsunomiya Rei.

Her voice was gentle and calm, yet it carried a heartbreaking weariness.

"In reality, the research institute will probably be unable to survive for long. It seems that this path is difficult to take at present."

"Even if the Research Department is willing to share [Shinichi Kudo]'s data at a very low price... it's a bottomless pit, Miya Rei."

"But... but my regional analysis method has already been able to match Conan's subconscious motives with the RSI background index fluctuations in the first pointer case, hasn't it?"

"Yes, that's probably because the management has already approved my funding request for the last cycle..."

"Give up that idea, Miya Rei."

Shi Nianci paused for a moment, then materialized a letter of recommendation and placed it in Utsunomiya Rei's hand.

“I’ve thought about this for a long time. Don’t waste your talent. You’re more suited to the Narrative Studies Department than we are. Their resources, structure, perspective… are far superior to ours.”

After a moment of silence, she added softly:
"Don't waste your talent on the psychological analysis of a 'child'."

Of course, in hindsight, if this child hadn't insisted on staying to prove himself to the director and to show that the institute's efforts weren't in vain—

The league may not be able to react until it suffers a very serious loss.

After the "Miyano Akemi's body theft case" was over, Conan's Psychological Analysis Institute naturally received the full video recording and related report from the Investigation Department, just like usual.

This data, which should have been routinely archived, was seen by most researchers as nothing more than a routine backup.

But Rei Utsunomiya, the child who insisted on staying, once again activated her "regional analysis" model.

She then imported all the RSI fluctuation data, eye trajectory, speech delay, micro-expression recognition, and other variables of Conan before and after the investigation into her model, which she modified for the third time that day.

The result was surprisingly—

Not right.

"strangeness……"

At that moment, when faced with Conan's emotional curve, Rei Utsunomiya frowned and repeatedly retrieved data for comparison.

She found Conan's "concealment" and the "conflict" and "doubt" he displayed very strange.

Logically speaking, these emotions shouldn't occur.

"Is it a suspicion about 'Vermouth's' identity?"

"Or is it... a distrust of GSSRA influenced by the [story timeline]?"

She attempted to contact the research department to cross-verify the timeline of the "body being stolen," and after further simulating the data in the alliance's contingency plan regarding "Miyano Akemi's body having been stolen," she discovered an even more terrifying problem in the interaction results.

The displayed mental model is even stranger.

"Fear? Horror? Disbelief? Self-denial?"

Why does this feeling of self-denial arise here?

The data calculated by the model clearly marks that key node.

Kogoro Mouri said in his deduction:
"You deliberately altered the timestamp of the surveillance footage to create a false impression..."

"But in reality, it's probably true... the body was stolen twice..."

Following those two sentences, Conan exhibited an extremely unusual "self-doubt." But shouldn't Kogoro Mouri's deductions be Conan's own deductions?!

This undoubtedly presents a huge problem.

If even the "detective" himself doesn't trust his own reasoning, then how did the "Miyano Akemi corpse theft case" end?
(Here, "closed" refers specifically to the police closing the case, not the "case" itself ending.)
"In other words, the rejected reasoning is not a conclusion about this case..."

After repeatedly confirming that there were no problems with her model, Rei Utsunomiya believed that this was an extremely important breakthrough.

Self-doubt should never happen to Conan!
It should absolutely not happen during the "reasoning process"!

After eliminating irrelevant factors, she astutely discovered that these emotions were related to the "second theft," the "time stamp," and even more so to the reactions of others after the reset.

This feeling of "self-denial" is not directed at the case itself.

Rei Utsunomiya eliminated all external interference items in the model one by one, and then kept only Conan's RSI fluctuations, the crime scene, and the TDD reconstruction index, and used the "regional analysis" technique to locate key emotional nodes.

Finally, she saw a number:
"Is there a 69% similarity between this mental model and the one used by Shinichi Kudo on the day he shrunk?"

That day, the terrifying thought that surfaced in Conan's mind—

"If what happened at the funeral home was actually a play staged for me, no, a play staged for Hattori Heiji..."

What kind of judgment led Conan to reject the first thought and choose the second thought as the truth?
No matter how unwilling Rei Utsunomiya was to believe it, the truth was already laid bare before her.

"[Conan Edogawa] may have begun to doubt the continuity of the entire world!"

—This is clearly not a general conclusion, is it?
And if she hadn't made this effort to explore this issue this time—

All league records show that:

"The cosmic RSI background index has not shifted."

"Shinichi Kudo has no mental problems."

"Shinichi Kudo's consciousness is stable."

But this isn't "stability," it's "suppression," and if we wait for it to explode...

Upon receiving Utsunomiya Rei's analysis report, Shi Nianci immediately submitted it to the "Emergency Situation" section of the executive level report.

The alliance reacted extremely quickly, around the time Conan and Heiji were walking towards the parking lot in the backyard of the funeral home.

Three seconds into reality, the second dream meeting began.

This is the first time Ms. Rei Utsunomiya has attended a meeting involving executive decisions.

She could see several directors of major research institutes, their expressions serious, projecting the verification results from various aspects onto the center of that dream conference.

"The conclusion is very likely true." The minister of the Time Sequence Department said in a solemn voice.

Bai Zichen also understood why the dual timelines were able to launch a counterattack beyond the plan:
"This conclusion perfectly explains why, during the period of weakness in the dual timelines, they were still able to dominate a so-called 'case,' and more importantly, it explains why the 'case' did not stop after the funeral home incident ended."

"It can also explain a series of abnormal RSI background values, as well as the phenomenon that it is still slowly rising."

The first point to emphasize here is:

If anyone remembers the original plan of the CYZ Alliance, the "Miyano Akemi corpse theft case" and the "Hoshimi Tower case" are theoretically untenable.

"Case" refers specifically to a special time-space structure in which Conan participates/leads/initiates.

In the original Alliance plan, Conan Edogawa was not supposed to come into contact with these things.

From Conan's perspective, he will go camping under Professor Agasa's guidance, and then he will follow the Alliance's predicted trajectory to the Star Tower to solve the mystery of the pointer.

"Perhaps he will hear about this later from Heiji Hattori or Kogoro Mouri's boasting, but he himself will not be a firsthand witness to this time structure problem."

"However, the dual timelines disrupted the chronological order, which caused our plan to deviate, resulting in the emergence of the original non-ritual, non-cyclical case structure."

Bai Zichen projected the dual timeline structure from that time.

"From what we can see now, it was around that time that Conan Edogawa began to have doubts about the timeline. To be precise, at that time, his suspect was Vermouth."

"Even before the league actually takes action to rewind 'Vermouth', this suspicion won't involve [Shinichi Kudo]'s suspicions about the timeline."

But at that time, both the League and the story timeline were trying to gain an advantage by resetting "Vermouth".

"Therefore, this suspicion of Vermouth clearly involves a very crucial matter—"

"Based on Rei Utsunomiya's findings, at that time, Shinichi Kudo's 'detective' mindset had already begun to explore Vermouth's anomalies."

After all, the abruptness of Vermouth's transformation before and after the reset was quite obvious.

"This is probably why the dual timelines were able to successfully develop this unusual case structure."

"But the problem is not over yet. If that were all, it would be clear that the Black Organization or the frontier of science could be alternative targets of suspicion, which would not lead to that kind of 'self-denial' feeling."

"But our 'skip-the-needle' plan triggered a chain reaction, connecting two historical inertias, and spanning a real cycle in time..."

"The real Shinichi Kudo obviously wouldn't overlook this point, and after obtaining the two pointers, the subconscious fluctuations of that pale sun were clearly able to be partially transmitted to Conan himself in reality."

"Thus, the large-scale reset of the two timelines in the funeral home occurred. That incident was undoubtedly the result of Shinichi Kudo's attempt to explore Vermouth's identity and all these anomalies."

This fact even made Bai Zichen wipe the sweat from his forehead—

"And the large-scale reset that took place in the funeral home exacerbated this, which was the third reset."

"We can't let Conan Edogawa realize this problem anymore."

“He has only subconsciously discovered the problem, and his common sense will deny the possibility until a truly definitive clue emerges.”

"But this is already a very dangerous sign."

……

After realizing the seriousness of the problem, the league's first attempt was to salvage the situation.

The first method the executives came up with was to get Conan back on the camping trail.

As long as Conan refocuses his attention on the "pointers," as long as the third ritual case is restarted, and once Conan obtains the third pointer, the path to the end will be completely set.

The radiance of that pale sun will be largely focused on shaping that new timeline—

In short, even if Conan realizes something, it will be at least after the third pointer.

In order to end this non-ritual, non-cyclical case immediately, the Alliance tried to use the remaining CYZ effect to force [Eternal First Strike] to use a carpet search approach to find "Ai Haibara".

But that's where the problem lies.

Just as it was said at the time, even Lin Sheng couldn't see, or rather, couldn't see, any trace of Ai Haibara.

This is because—

"The timeline of the story is absolutely insane!"

Bai Zichen stared at the curve and repeated what he had just said:
"How could it possibly incorporate the historical inertia of 'Rendezvous with the Black Organization' here!"

This is also why the [real timeline] was peaceful at that time – it joined forces with the Alliance.

Or rather, they had no choice but to join forces.

While the alliance's seemingly disjointed actions at least maintained a logical continuity, the timeline of the story is downright blatant misrepresentation.

Keep in mind that at that time, Gin and Vodka were still waiting in the alley for Vermouth to evacuate.

More importantly, Conan has not yet discovered that Lao Bai Gan (a type of Chinese liquor) can make those who have shrunk due to taking APTX-4869 grow back to their original size.

Conan and Ai Haibara haven't even met yet!

This third "skipping the clock" operation, triggered by the [story timeline], resulted in extremely tragic consequences.

First, Conan's memories have been made real.

For example, Conan's inner thoughts while in the car—

"Conan never even knew he could do something like this..."

His recollections and reflections on the next day while in the car, and his exploration of the "truth," are directly recorded on the [story timeline].

In reality, the car is moving towards the firm; in my mind (reversing the timeline), it is also moving forward.

The 3rd string in the remaining 9-string CYZ effect is used here.

Although Lin Sheng's intervention greatly reduced the consumption of the CYZ effect, he still used the third string.

Even the [real-world timeline] helped clean up the mess, calming down the aftershocks of the climate generator and some of the fluctuations caused by the actions of the Alliance task force in advance.

And soon——

Lin Sheng received a faint fluctuation from the [Real Timeline], and the meaning contained in that fluctuation made him immediately use all the remaining CYZ effect redundancy.

Time was so tight that he couldn't even allow the executives to discuss it slowly, even in his dreams. Lin Sheng directly used the One String CYZ effect to let the future tell him the answer.

This time he had to take command personally. Fortunately, although the real timeline would still be extremely wary of him, it would tacitly allow him to make some minor modifications to reality before things really came to a head.

"We must get Conan to the prelude to the Pointer case! The [real-world timeline] will cooperate with us!"

"In this plan, GSSRA will be a partner of the alliance. We must complete the naming of the third pointer and even the process of transforming Conan into [Shinichi Kudo] here before the 'Star Tower Case' is over!"

"We must complete the logical premises that were ignored in the [story timeline], and at the very end, immediately focus [Shinichi Kudo's] attention on the pointer!"

You wouldn't want to know how terrible the consequences could be if a timeline went "crazy!"

This is why Hattori Heiji's plans were interrupted, and why he even sensed a possible "war" brewing.

The "plan" that the [real-world timeline] had just subtly revealed to Lin Sheng regarding the [story timeline] was:
It discovered the flaws in this non-ritual, non-cyclical case and was already planning, or even attempting, to arbitrarily piece together those uncertain future "historical inertia" to the end of this "case".

In other words, the story timeline is trying to extend the arrival of the third ritual case indefinitely, and it will try to add historical inertia to this case one after another.

—In this way, the case will never end.

This is why the [real-world timeline] is in such a hurry; this "case" is something that it and the storyline work together to maintain!
If this abnormal loop continues, the storyline's actions will involve constantly adding its own parts to it.

Then your control will gradually shrink, and you may even eventually be swallowed up by the story timeline!

Lin Sheng's voice rang in the ears of everyone on the executive level:

"This mission, no matter how many sacrifices we have to make, we must complete it!"

The alliance cannot afford the cost of a scenario that ultimately evolves into multiple timeline reversals or even complete temporal conflicts, and the [real timeline] cannot afford it either.

Just like Lin Sheng's sigh in the second pointer case—

Don't cheat by manipulating time!
Shinichi Kudo is watching you.

That pale sun has been staring at you.

(End of this chapter)