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

Chapter 223 The Star Viewing Tower Case Never Existed

In this Conan universe that has been put on hold, a pale sun silently floats in the center of the universe.

Its heatless radiance instantly sealed the entire universe in an instant.

The pale light slowly seeped in through a barely perceptible crack at the edge of the [cycle], and just like that moment that had been fixed, it entered the boundary of the [cycle] through a crack that Lin Sheng had deliberately left open.

Right at the center of the loop, within the nested, folded spaces, a flat area, as smooth as a mirror, coalesces and takes shape.

Lin Sheng's office has long since disappeared.

Now, there is no ground, no sky, only endless reflections and mapping, and only a truly pure and tiny [cycle] structure.

Within that extremely small loop, Shinichi Kudo's figure appeared opposite Lin Sheng.

He was wearing that familiar high school uniform, his figure both clear and unreal, like a reflection pulled from memory.

Now, the two divine beings have ample time to discuss what they should do next to salvage this mess.

To be honest, Lin Sheng's expression was somewhat complicated, even strange.

This was probably the first time he had met Shinichi Kudo face to face. Lin Sheng's voice rippled gently in the air, carrying a hint of self-mockery.

"To be honest, I never expected that I would meet you for the first time under these circumstances..."

This is especially true for Conan.

"Yes, the core of the universe."

Shinichi Kudo responded in a low voice, his tone devoid of pride or joy.

What is it like to suddenly discover that you are a "god" or "the core of the universe"?
Shinichi Kudo had never thought about this before.

After all, this is just too illogical. How could a detective be the force that drives the universe?

Even not long ago—

He had a vague feeling that what was happening around him might be part of a drama being performed for him, but he didn't dare to think that way.

He even vaguely sensed that there might be something wrong with the timing—

During the funeral home case, Conan had actually already vaguely sensed this from the deduction that "Akami Miyano's body was stolen twice".

But he told himself it was just an illusion, and he needed more evidence. He never jumps to conclusions.

But now, all the evidence is laid out before us.

Lin Sheng then saw the high school student in front of him with a worried expression, and then he began to sigh repeatedly.

He sighed softly, his tone tinged with pity.

"So you really were... just a high school student."

Without a doubt, the person standing in front of him now is Shinichi Kudo himself.

Lin Sheng meant that he was an "ordinary person," not a god who actively created puzzles and wanted to play a detective game.

Shinichi Kudo is a high school student who loves mystery, is full of a sense of justice, and has a strong sense of responsibility. He is an ordinary human being who can frown, doubt, reminisce, and feel lost.

Although it is obvious that an "ordinary person" could not possibly make such a mess of the universe.

"Shinichi is a good boy."

Lin Sheng remembered what Dr. Agasa had once said, and now he finally believed it.

This is definitely a major advantage, and perhaps even the only opportunity for the alliance to finally communicate.

It's important to know that the Alliance's biggest initial concern was that Shinichi Kudo was a god who simply wanted to play a "detective game" based on his own preferences.

At the same time, there are also obstacles from the dual timelines, as well as Conan's own RSI anomaly, which prevent Lin Sheng or the Alliance from directly telling him the truth.

Therefore, after confirming this.

Lin Sheng's first thought was to have Shinichi Kudo directly put everything back on track.

"Since you have already 'deduced' the alliance's design and intentions from the alliance's actions, history, and even the information on my side."

Lin Sheng paused, then waved his hand, unfolding a complex, densely packed data chart and blueprint between them—

That's the league's vision for a new timeline.

"This is the blueprint we originally designed, the way the universe should be."

"A world without out-of-control situations, without RSI spikes, and without being 'vicious' by the 'cases'—a utopian universe belonging to all humanity, and even all life."

Lin Sheng tentatively asked, "Could you just change it back to the 'right track' we're hoping for?"

"I believe it suits your taste, and if you have any objections, we can discuss it further—"

But to his surprise, Shinichi Kudo remained silent and then gently shook his head.

"I can't do that right now."

Shinichi Kudo glanced at the scene outside the loop in the Conan universe, and his expression became extremely complicated.

A pale sun hangs in the distant and empty sky—a completely different situation now that the cosmic RSI background value is close to four digits.

After all, an RSI background value of around 100 back then already reduced the murder rate of all civilizations in the universe to one-third.

Seeing the puzzled look in Lin Sheng's eyes, Shinichi Kudo shrunk his body, transforming into the familiar appearance of Conan Edogawa.

He coughed a few times, a hint of embarrassment flashing across his face, as if he were preparing his words.

Then--

"Well, it's probably because... maybe... perhaps... it's because this isn't a normal state."

Lin Sheng noticed that Conan used almost every word in every language that expressed "uncertainty" and doubt as a prefix and modifier.

Lin Sheng was taken aback, but Conan immediately added a sentence, his tone suddenly becoming decisive and clear.

"After all, how could Detective Conan be a 'god'!"

"I must have been unconscious! This must be a dream!"

Lin Sheng blinked.

He then readily and readily transformed the background of this "office" into a fairytale-style forest—

Candy houses, cloud mountains, and dancing animals have replaced the stark, cyclical structure of the past.

All the edges were ethereal and soft, as blurred as paint that hadn't dried on a canvas.

Clearly, this is no longer "realistic".

Then he concealed his presence and created a high-intensity CYZ effect around Conan, isolating a space.

However, that space was immediately filled with "reasoning".

Fortunately, in this dream within a dream, enveloped in "unreality," the conversation was finally able to continue.

Conan immediately pretended that nothing had just happened, and his voice became low:
“If I were to take the initiative now, or as you would put it—if I were to actively ‘break the barrier,’ the situation would be even worse.”

"Based on my deduced limits, the RSI value of the Conan universe will not exceed 333."

He paused slightly and glanced at Lin Sheng.

"But now, you and I both know that it goes far beyond that."

Conan looked down at his surroundings, his expression growing increasingly serious.

This isolated space has begun to attempt to weave "puzzles" for Him from scratch and "deduce" the truth.

“If it weren’t for this cycle, which is actually the timeline of the ‘Maple Leaf Gold Coin Case,’ I wouldn’t have been able to get in at all.”

From the moment he realized the situation was bad, Conan had been trying to restrain himself.

“I made myself weaker and closer to the ‘setting’. Otherwise, if I had faced all of this in Shinichi’s state, the RSI value might have already gone out of control.”

After explaining this, Conan looked at Lin Sheng: "How much do you know about this Conan universe?"

Lin Sheng was silent for a moment, "Not many, but obviously this isn't a normal Conan universe, right?"

"Ah."

Conan nodded and explained:
"This is a 'shell universe' in which RSI can exceed a 'set threshold'."

“Normally, this is not possible.”

Lin Sheng recalled the challenge letter that the universe sent to the Alliance.

"What does this 'Shell Universe' refer to? And that challenge—if I'm a transmigrator, and this mechanism already existed, then it's actually targeting—"

"I don't know, don't ask me."

Conan shrugged, making a troubled expression.

"I can't deduce what the so-called CYZ effect you mentioned is."

"Moreover, I can no longer reason about the purpose, mechanism, existence of the universe, or any questions about you."

"Otherwise, my RSI value will continue to rise."

"If the universe were to actually use this to put everything back on track... I don't think you would want to see that happen."

"Your RSI value can still rise?!"

Lin Sheng's pupils contracted slightly, his heart churning with turmoil because of Conan's words.

After glancing at the current situation outside the [Loop], Lin Sheng immediately looked away.

Well, the current situation in the universe is somewhat... complicated.

An irrational number has already been murdered because of its "rudeness," leaving behind incomplete equations and formulas.

The concept of "speed of light" is fleeing in panic because something is "jealous" of its speed, or other human emotions;
Murder is wreaking havoc, and it holds countless amounts of cyanide in its hands...

And so on, and so forth.

"Yes, it can actually rise." Conan's voice was somewhat bitter.

"So I planned to 'break the premise' one last time, but... actually I've already broken the premise."

"After all, neither Shinichi Kudo nor Conan should know these things."

"Once I get out of here, the universe's purpose will be achieved. According to the Alliance, the timeline will be rearranged according to the [historical inertia]."

Conan slowly raised his head, his eyes reflecting the pale sun rising on the edge of the loop, burning almost endlessly, trying to push the concept of "reasoning" one step further.

"Because only that [story timeline] best fits the 'reasoning inertia', or perhaps it's for some other reason."

"In short, I did not continue to reason further."

Conan said the sentence almost word by word.

After saying this, his face turned pale, his forehead was covered in cold sweat, his body trembled slightly, and he even started to gasp for breath.

He was forcibly suppressing himself.

After all, the more the power of that pale sun rose almost without limit, the stronger His instinct for reasoning became.

A voice whispered in his ear, tempting him to continue explaining, to continue reasoning, to continue pursuing the truth.

"I can't continue explaining and reasoning because—"

Conan abruptly stopped, biting his lower lip tightly, forcefully cutting off the "truth" he himself didn't know he was about to blurt out. He raised his head, his gaze refocusing on Lin Sheng—

Conan looked at the "time traveler" who had given him the "honor" of accessing the "truth," and his tone regained some of its composure.

"Let's talk about how to get everything back on track."

"First, we still need to rely on the 'ritual' that the universe provided with my power. That 'ritual' is something that should not exist in the first place, as well as that new timeline."

"After I go out, I will try to 'deduce' the ending of that new timeline."

Lin Sheng immediately understood what Conan was trying to say—

He must fight against himself.

He wants to use "reasoning" to pursue an end that is deliberately created but will never have an answer.

The entire Conan universe, after the "Conan Year One," actually only lasted for half a year. The dual timelines are the diffraction paths that constantly cycle, probe, and revert during those six months.

What the "ritual" provides is an ending that does not exist.

When Conan chooses to do this, his "persona" contradicts what the universe wants to do.

Yes, Lin Sheng sees it very clearly: even now, [Shinichi Kudo] is still carefully keeping himself bound by his persona.

Alternatively, the character design of [Conan Edogawa] still firmly binds him to it.

Even though he had used the CYZ effect to create numerous barriers and forcibly separated a space—a space that could absolutely be considered separate from the Conan universe—

The Narrative Studies Department guys were right; the character design issue is much more complex than imagined.

It not only transcends the timeline, but can even exist independently of the Conan universe.

A few seconds of silence fell between them.

"What are you going to do?"

Lin Sheng didn't ask Conan why, nor did he ask Conan to explain.

For two beings existing across timelines who can "calculate everything" in some sense, sometimes silence and avoidance already say a lot.

“We need to rewrite the Star Tower case so that the result of my pointer name being changed.”

Conan's mind was filled with images of Ran Mouri, Professor Agasa, Ai Haibara, Heiji Hattori... the shadows of everyone appeared.

He paused, his eyes slightly upturned, a smile tinged with both pity and irony:

"In this way, the premise for Conan Edogawa to obtain the truth no longer exists in these two timelines."

Lin Sheng frowned: "Then how are you going to get to Moonshadow Island? You even said you plan to rewrite all the history from before."

Conan's expression darkened slightly, and after a brief silence, he finally nodded.

“You’re right.” Conan rejected his simplistic assumption.

“The established ritual cases cannot be changed; we cannot set this precedent.”

“But the problem is—” Conan continued, somewhat helplessly, “if we don’t rewrite it, ‘I’ will likely rediscover these oddities and realize the truth again.”

Conan took a deep breath and then laid out the prerequisites for what they were going to do.

"In other words, the Hoshimi Tower case can neither exist nor disappear."

"It must be a prerequisite for the ritual Moonshadow Island case, otherwise the logic and reasoning process of this ritual would be incomplete."

Then, Conan turned his gaze to Lin Sheng, a mischievous and malicious smile on his face.

"In that case—we'll need your help."

"Dear Mr. ZC-01, I need your help as a safety device."

When Lin Sheng heard the words "safety device," a bad premonition welled up inside him, and his eyelids twitched—

not……

Then he saw Conan nod.

“I will hide the actual history that happened in that new timeline, and then you will be responsible for using the CYZ effect to make it constant in the non-existent past.”

"At the same time, you also need to anchor yourself at that moment and be responsible for picking, or rather, blocking every possible divergence and clue that might trigger memories of the 'Hoshimi Tower Case'."

"This way, I can avoid recalling these things from the outset."

Lin Sheng fell silent.

Ha, so he's going to "go to jail" again!
—It is also an unprecedented, multi-threaded, 24/7 monitored "prison".

Lin Sheng completely understood what Conan's wicked smile meant.

He shook his head and smiled helplessly, knowing that this time it would obviously be an extremely daunting workload.

Because I must stop every possibility that the universe and the dual timelines cannot discover!
"What will be the success rate of the ritual after I leave?"

This time, unlike the previous times when he "went to jail," it's clear that after staying in the "Star Tower Case," Lin Sheng can no longer provide any help to the Alliance.

Conan's eyes were sharp and steady; it was as if he had anticipated that Lin Sheng would ask this question.

"That's what I wanted to say too. There's also an advantage to doing this."

A flash of white light appeared on Conan's glasses—

"You need to secretly use the CYZ effect to 'infiltrate' that new timeline, that line that is gradually solidifying because of my reasoning."

"You need to tamper with the source, to quietly take action at the point where the 'reasoning' has not yet taken shape."

"Moreover, precisely because my power will dominate that timeline, the universe and the dual timelines will only mistakenly believe that all changes are my fault."

A clear look of anger appeared on Conan's face.

“I will personally drive the development of the new timeline, so that the dual timelines can no longer threaten you with everyone’s timelines.”

The "dual timeline" will be significantly weakened in the upcoming "Ritual Case".

They used to arbitrarily reset the past, and would casually claim that they had destroyed everyone, the alliance, and Lin Sheng...

—It's time to end this.

"Although this would increase the strength of the historical inertia, I will try to avoid your CYZ effect."

"And since you are at the very source, you can use redundancy to quietly solidify those outcomes that are beneficial to the alliance."

"If so," Lin Sheng added.

I will do my best to give you a chance.

Conan flashed that confident smile he had after solving a case, "After all, subconsciously, I'm on the side of the League right now."

Nevertheless, Lin Sheng was still somewhat worried about the alliance.

"But this also means that the Alliance will have to face GSSRA alone, because it has already appeared in the previous Ritual Cycle."

"And then there's the distillery, which, in the current timeline, is under the identity of Karasuma Renya, and it also has the backing of an extraterrestrial civilization..."

"After I disappeared, the CYZ effect that the alliance could use was very limited, and it could not even be replenished."

Conan sighed and rubbed his forehead; he knew this would happen.

"I have a way to solve the technical issues, and the league will not fall into a disadvantage."

"But the alliance can only be limited to the technical frameworks that appeared in the previous [cycle], but I think that's enough."

"Lin Sheng, it's impossible for the Alliance to directly use the hyperspace technology in the game."

Conan pointed to the ceiling, reminding Lin Sheng not to be blinded by this seemingly wonderful future—

"Look outside. The key question is how much energy you and I will have left after we've cleaned up this mess, and neither of us can be sure of that."

"However, I believe the league will succeed."

"yes……"

Lin Sheng looked out the window, his gaze falling on the now still solar system.

He knew that if he didn't solve this problem, once time started flowing again, disaster would strike like a torrent.

He finally sighed.

"Okay, at least the dual timelines will be the same from now on, they won't be able to reset anyone."

He turned to look at Conan, his eyes becoming serious.

"Tell me—what outcome do we want to lead the 'Star Tower Case' to before the universe stops its mechanisms?"

Lin Sheng's words silenced Conan.

It took him a long time to loosen his clenched fist, and his voice was trembling.

“I’ve calculated it, at least…”

"At the very least, Ran Mouri shouldn't know that I am Shinichi Kudo."

After a long while, a sigh echoed from the void.

"Is that so... I see..."

Finally, the two divinities begin to shape new history, attempting to circumvent the defensive mechanisms operating within the Shell Universe itself.

Lin Sheng then "grasped" the intersection of the three timelines at the moment of the "Star Tower Case" and turned it into a "chain" that wrapped around himself.

"Drink——!"

In the void, the figure began to try to shoulder the entire universe.

At that moment, Lin Sheng pushed his CYZ effect to its limit.

Its intensity was so high that even Conan could see the core of the pale sun beginning to faintly turn golden.

The new timeline, which has not yet been released, is beginning to show signs of the CYZ effect.

Immediately afterwards, the unusual effects of [Shinichi Kudo] began to unfold in ways that the Conan universe would rather not have seen—

The pale sun began to "reason" about the new timeline, its endless radiance coalescing in its calculations, gradually making the originally illusory timeline real and solidified.

Meanwhile, the loop that Lin Sheng preserved was precisely embedded into the new timeline by Conan.

It is no longer just a loop of records, but becomes the "opening" of a new timeline.

The [loop] mechanism will cause the next [ritual case] to begin immediately.

This step is to prevent the universe from immediately rejecting his and Lin Sheng's actions, and to prevent the universe from using the timeline reversal to reenact the past [historical inertia].

As a result, the force of the universe's initial expansion began to weaken rapidly, and the universe's RSI value began to fall.

Lin Sheng and Conan then joined forces, using an instant, or perhaps an eternity, to accomplish this task.

Upon "slowly" realizing this, the Conan universe immediately halted its mechanisms—

When the cosmic RSI background value dropped to 103.

The Moon Shadow Island case is about to begin.

(End of this chapter)