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

Chapter 243 The Universe Remains Silent

The night of the third day came unusually slowly, literally slowly.

Dusk lingered, stubbornly struggling to keep the sun from shifting its direction, and even as Conan slept soundly in the car, it barely managed to rise back into the sky.

But dusk failed. No matter how much it delayed, the orange-yellow sky and clouds above the office gradually turned into a sad, dim yellow.

They spread through the clouds like a thin mist, like a tide, crossing the high-rises and streets of Beika Town, passing through the entire city, the entire planet.

This sorrowful color spread all the way to the harbor docks and even above the hidden safe house.

At the Beika Town cargo port, the massive salvage ships cruised back and forth on the deep, dark sea like a pod of whales. The smaller salvage boats around them looked like seagulls floating beside whales.

Murphy was standing by the control panel of one of the main salvage vessels. He was starting to hate the job, especially when he began to think about how dangerous it was.

"Most importantly...it's disgusting."

He turned to look at Booker beside him, who was skillfully operating the cantilever to retract the boat, preparing to bring the contents of the nets back to the small boat.

"Do you remember how many bodies we recovered today?"

"To be precise, they were the carcasses of seagulls or other seabirds."

Booker added in a flat tone, "You know, chemical spills, pollution spread, abnormal ocean currents... and so on."

"That's how it is, it's always the same."

Murphy began to put on heavy rubber gloves and then pulled the gas mask onto his face—his cheeks already bore several deep marks from the pressure.

"In the end, we'll handle it; as for the money, there's only a little bit."

As they spoke, the metal "claws" at the end of the cantilever firmly gripped the loops of the nets, and the nets with tags attached broke through the water—the tags bearing the names of the divers.

"Wow--"

Large swaths of seawater were lifted up by the nets that broke through the surface of the sea, and then flowed down from the nets.

The dripping seawater wasn't black at all; it was transparent and clear.

“I’ll go to the back of the ship to sort things out. I’ll do it this time, you do it next time.” Murphy emphasized the rotation order, and looking at the screen in front of him, he gave a coordinate, “Booker, the salvage team’s next location has been sent over.”

“Understood,” he said with a wicked grin. “I will never let you fall in the cabin.”

He was referring to Murphy's previous partner.

He was as unlucky as Murphy's Law describes, falling over due to the ship's rocking and getting stuck on the cantilever, sliding down the lowered steel cable... like a piece of lamb in a hot pot.

Surprisingly, he persevered until the next diver, who was about to attach the net to the "claws," swam over, and apart from losing an arm, he was unharmed.

"Yes, if I were pulled down too, I would hold on."

Murphy's muffled voice came from under his mask, and then, as if he didn't care at all, he turned and walked towards the rear cabin.

As he has always emphasized, this job is dangerous.

Apart from the divers who could move freely among the steel wreckage like scavengers, everyone else, like him or his previous partner, was merely someone who lingered on the edge of the shadows.

During the day and a half of the salvage operation, Murphy had seen or heard many strange things.

Now, looking at the hold, which was covered with a shallow layer of seawater, Murphy couldn't help but mutter something.

“I bet this ocean has been angry all along… clearly, it has no good intentions toward us.”

Next, he began to remove the seabird carcasses that had gotten mixed into the net, while also checking their mouths and pressing their abdomens to see if they had swallowed anything of value.

The rule was added temporarily after an inspector found a shell casing in the beak of a pelican.

Of course, most people will only do the first two things listed in that temporary manual.

Just like Murphy is doing now, he pried open the seabird's beak with a look of disgust, and then pressed hard on its abdomen—as if he were performing CPR on it.

Then--

Then a miracle happened.

"My God!"

Murphy gasped sharply, his voice trembling slightly, as he stared blankly at the small creature in his hand, its feathers shriveled up from the seawater.

Its yellowish-brown iris brightened within seconds, the deathly darkness in its pupils disappeared, and it was filled with life again.

Even Murphy was caught off guard when the seabird, which should have been "dead," suddenly shook its body and winked at the person holding it.

Then, in response to Murphy's scream, it also "screamed," flapping its wings and screeching, its wings suddenly opening wide, its real feathers scraping against Murphy's mask.

It's all true; the seabird is alive.

—This is that pale sun that has lost its memory, the last effort made by the Conan universe.

Beneath that band of clouds that stretches across the entire hemisphere, at this moment when the boundaries of "time" have already loosened.

As long as you take some kind of "life-saving" action, make some kind of "life-saving" attempt, as long as that life hasn't been officially declared dead, or been forgotten for too long...

It will come back, it will come back.

—Just like this seabird right now.

After all, it's just a "miracle" that conforms to "human" understanding.

After all, maybe the "death" never happened, and it was just a prolonged "coma"?

after all--

Conan has never "witnessed" anything that is happening now.

……

But Yusaku Kudo obviously didn't come back to life because of this.

"Yes, we will freeze Mr. Yusaku's body immediately."

This is the second thing GSSRA did after confirming Yusaku Kudo's death.

No one suggested trying to resuscitate him. It was obviously pointless—his heart had stopped beating, his pupils were dilated, and his body temperature was rapidly dropping; by all standards, he was "dead."

In fact, if it weren't for the strong demands from Heiji Hattori and the Asia-Pacific Command, GSSRA wouldn't have even considered handing over the body.

However, now, medical staff carefully cleaned the body lying in the pool of blood, and after simple disinfection, placed it into a heavy freezer container.

It was an insulated tank containing a high concentration of liquid nitrogen, with warning strips and the red code name GSSRA printed on its white coating.

This cryogenic chamber, like a sleeping coffin, will soon be sent back to Tokyo.

This is exactly what happened.

On the third night, the somewhat bulky device was quickly delivered to the airport.

As night fell, the indicator lights on both sides of the airport runway flashed. The transport plane carrying the "canisters" gradually rose into the clouds with the roar of its engines.

Amidst the turbulence of the airflow, the liquid nitrogen oscillated back and forth in the tank, which was about one meter wide and two meters high, washing against the tank walls.

The inside of the jar was pitch black, and no one could see what was inside.

But you can't go back to the previous page in a book.

Clearly, Shinichi Kudo was not satisfied with his "achievements".

Or, if that orange-yellow band of light once symbolized His mercy and compassion.

Then that darkness, as still as death and as deep as the abyss of the universe, was the manifestation of His anger—an anger that could not be vented.

The entire universe is now silent.

The department under the External Liaison Department, which is specifically responsible for contacting extraterrestrial civilizations and sending self-rescue broadcasts, has not received any response since this morning.

The death of Yusaku Kudo caused a huge uproar throughout the universe; to be precise, it caused widespread extinction.

In fact, if it weren't for the old days when the alliance could still be considered relaxed and the CYZ effect was still relatively abundant, the Department of External Relations would have proposed some plans such as the "Foreign Civilization Assistance and Shelter Program" in order to observe diversity and try some experimental research...

There are probably only humans left in the universe.

Now, thanks to those plans, they are still here—

They have simply become civilizations or beings that have been "preserved" or "frozen" in some miniature dimensions.

In reality, there are probably only two bubbles left in the Conan universe.

These are secretions that a dozen or so departments in the research and exploration layer strongly requested to be preserved so that they could be made into that "unique drink".

Besides--

The entire Detective Conan universe has become a wasteland of life.

After all, no matter what, the death of an absolutely important "detective" inevitably causes damage to the Conan universe itself.

Moreover, the deceased was not just a detective, but also Shinichi Kudo's father.

Just like that new timeline, which "shattered" many historical inertias, it still moves forward.

The extinction of civilizations on a cosmic scale is merely an aftershock of this "anger".

But clearly, there's nothing left to help smooth over these minor aftershocks.

Whether it's the universe or the alliance, there are more crucial things to do now.

It's more accurate to say that this whole thing started the moment Yusaku Kudo died.

Of course, this doesn't include the part about Karasuma Renya being "happy"—he's actually quite pleased that his plan has finally succeeded.

He is now almost the only one who is happy about this result.

With Yusaku Kudo's death, the official establishment of GSSRA has undoubtedly become a distant prospect.

For Karasuma Renya, this was a huge strategic victory.

"Now I can finally reclaim the advantage that belongs to me!"

Karasuma Renya tried his best to pull himself out of that dazed state. He was not very clear-headed now—about those who wanted to escape him, those who wanted to join him, those who made him bigger and smaller, those who appeared, and those who disappeared with wails.

Karasuma Renya had no idea how these things had happened; only one thought occupied his mind—

"My plan has finally succeeded!"

Even the part of him that was afraid has diminished somewhat.

He knows a lot about the alliance, the technology they use, and what they can do.

For example, changing the form of matter, creating pocket dimensions, and so on...

This is also why he was determined to try to stop the formation of GSSRA; Karasuma Renya couldn't let everything be exposed to Shinichi Kudo.

He cannot tolerate the emergence of a real "extraterrestrial civilization," whether it takes over his dominance or turns the world into a detective game set in a "science fiction background."

After all, if the Alliance goes all out, the Black Organization is definitely no match for them. Besides having alien technology, they also have the CYZ effect—that's too unfair.

Although sometimes his several "selves" would buzz around his ears like flies.

Those shadows would mock him with excited, sarcastic tones, or cry out in a voice mingled with fear and despair that he was no longer himself.

"Haha! You've been fooled! I've been fooled! You're finished!"

"This isn't my thought, whose thought is it? Whose idea is it?!"

But for the current "story timeline," and for Karasuma Renya at this moment, the most important thing is—

The alliance's power has finally been contained.

For those who remain on Earth, the alliance members and task force personnel, their next resupply will not arrive until after the successful launch of the "Science Frontier" satellite.

After all, the alliance has never been recognized by Shinichi Kudo.

Moreover, the moon is now theoretically the Alliance's "private territory".

Don't forget that the [real-world timeline] "severed" it before, and Lin Sheng and Conan managed to preserve this "connection," or rather, "sever" it.

Just as revealed in the book that Lin Sheng left in his office, specifically written for Shigenobu Hitomi:
—The Alliance can leave this world at any time "in the Moon Ark".

However, precisely because of this strategic advantage, they also had to accept some expected troubles that came with it.

Although the Earth is still about 380,000 kilometers away from the Moon, in terms of "structural distance," the "distance" between the Moon and the Earth is now infinitely far.

To be more precise, the moon that people see when they look up now is not the same moon as before.

The moon we see now is the moon of the "new timeline," not the one in the "Star Viewing Tower Case."

This does sound contradictory and hard to explain, but that's the truth.

As we saw at the harbor before, the Alliance can now only rely on the task forces that were already "stranded" on Earth to carry out their operations.

These are the teams that appeared in the "Hoshimi Tower Case" at the time.

However, communication is not a concern. Thanks to the CYZ effect's ability to ignore timelines, the Alliance can still contact them. But supplies are more troublesome, especially replenishing them through the CYZ effect.

"Given such a great 'distance,' we'll probably need to focus nine-tenths of our efforts on overcoming the influence of [Conan Edogawa's] RSI value."

After all, Conan's RSI value is currently 333. What kind of number is that?

On the RSI detector, that huge fluctuation field is like an infinitely high mountain, or a heavy "hat" that cannot be removed, placed on the head of the earth.

Considering that there are only about 400 strings of effect redundancy available each day, it would be too wasteful to directly use the CYZ effect to "skip" Conan's obstacle and transmit it to the TDD of those members.

Moreover, the derivative effects of the excessively high RSI value, and even the derivative effects of those derivative effects and the aftershocks of those aftershocks, have all dealt a devastating blow to Beika Town.

This is one of the reasons why nobody cares about the "background" of the universe.

The panoramic monitoring system, in addition to providing assistance to the port, also plays a crucial role in coordinating traffic conditions throughout Beika Town during this period.

Just as borrowing the Alliance's setup in GSSRA made Iwata Tatsuya and his team's operations easier, the entire Beika Town Metropolitan Police Department was mobilized the moment the Beika Hotel incident ended.

They must do their utmost to prevent any "extreme events" from happening to Conan Edogawa.

even--

On the way back, Kogoro Mouri dared not easily wake Conan.

The car that was traveling from Beika Town Cargo Transport Port to the office did not encounter another car along the way.
On the streets of the office, Kogoro Mouri watched as the car drove into the center of Beika Town. He didn't see a single person on any of the streets along the way.
Even more so, Heiji Hattori subconsciously concealed and covered up the lavish meal that Ran Mouri insisted on making during the phone call…

There are many, many more details.

Whether it's the League, the universe itself, or those around Conan—

Everything became done with extreme caution, for fear of letting a detective realize the truth and reigniting his anger.

……

Meanwhile, at the Lunar Alliance headquarters, in the executive hall.

"We will soon have the scientific frontier launch a rocket to the moon from the launch site and push the news to him."

Within the alliance, the logistics and support staff, who rarely "show their faces," belong to the secret support section of the [Resource Coordination Department]. The projection of the person in charge now appears in front of the councilors.

His proposed method was to have the Earth side take the initiative to communicate with the Moon side.

"The U.S. side will claim that this is a satellite for lunar exploration, and we will put some pre-prepared TDD and some resources, including APTX-4869, into its return orbit capsule."

"Regarding the technical origin tracing, we have already coordinated with the operational level, and we can attribute the results to GSSRA's previous technical analysis of the 'Explorer' cruise ship wreckage."

"At the same time, this can also grant some of the personnel lurking within GSSRA greater authority to act or access information."

An executive member stared at the simulated orbital diagram of the satellite, then turned to look at the person in charge.

"What about the moon landing program?"

The lunar landing program mentioned by this congressman refers to the "reinforcements" sent by the Alliance to Earth—personnel reinforcements, legitimate reinforcements.

Even without relying on national power, it would not be difficult to quietly send a satellite to the moon using the capabilities of "scientific frontiers".

These things can be accomplished entirely with current technology; there is no need to design technology that is ahead of its time.

But a manned lunar landing is different.

"It's difficult for us to ensure the secrecy surrounding this matter."

The head of the covert operations department stated that this was not very feasible.

"It is almost impossible to achieve a manned lunar landing 'undetected' with current conventional technology. We must rely on national-level power for cover."

"This is also why we entrusted the lunar satellite program to some national powers," the person in charge added, "because it is actually the first phase of the program."

"We have already worked with the Reality Intervention Department to try to get the United States to restart its manned lunar landing program, but at present, it is difficult to see results immediately."

"At this stage, we only have two groups of Time Weavers responsible for disguise and concealment dispatched to advance this plan."

There were still too few Alliance members on Earth in the "Star Tower Case"—after all, in the end, the Alliance had to urgently "evacuate" a group of people due to the inadequacy of the CYZ effect.

This has resulted in the Alliance currently having fewer than four hundred task forces on Earth.

This seems like a lot, but when placed on a global scale, it seems like very little.

In addition, due to the CYZ effect load problem caused by Conan Edogawa's "abnormal" state, all teams are currently adopting a "rotation system" to reduce consumption.

“We are also trying to contact Evans’ side to push them to launch the Moonshadow Island acquisition plan, and the coordination and cover-up work related to GSSRA has also consumed a lot of resources.”

Although the "three-choice logic" has been barely stabilized, and a loop has already occurred—

Even so, Conan Edogawa's power is still too great.

The spillover effects continue to keep the crematorium in Beika Town operating beyond its capacity.

"Furthermore, GSSRA will soon notice the unusual activity on Tsukikage Island. We will now focus more of our efforts on Tsukikage Island and on securing control of the Beika Town Crematorium."

Beika Town is becoming a place of despair, a city of crime, a capital of evil.

"Based on our settings for the consciousness interference device on the submarine and related plans, GSSRA will soon believe that the entire town of Beika has been subjected to corresponding interference actions."

This is exactly the kind of judgment path the league hopes to see.

Under the alliance's continued "hints" and manipulation, a new round of "Beihua Town Action Guide" will soon be "compiled" and "released" by GSSRA.

—In the form of unspoken rules that everyone knows.

"We need to ensure that the unusual effects Conan caused in Beika Town don't spread before he goes to Moonshadow Island. Therefore, besides attributing it to extraterrestrial interference from the Black Organization..."

The projection map showed one temporary checkpoint after another under construction.

The alliance is about to push GSSRA to impose a de facto 'lockdown' on the entire town of Beika.

All individuals attempting to leave the city, whether civilians, military personnel, government officials, or newly arrived tourists or residents, must undergo an extremely complex and rigorous approval process and security screening procedures.

In other words, it's almost impossible to leave.

……

39 Beikacho 5-chome, Tokyo, Mouri Detective Agency.

The lights in the office were already off.

But under Kogoro Mouri's urging, Conan went to bed early today—because he has to go to school tomorrow.

In short, regardless of whether it's based on the "fate trajectory" that Lin Sheng and [Shinichi Kudo] set for that child at the end.

It still depends on Conan Edogawa's own inclinations.

This detective's body has shrunk, but his mind remains the same;

This poor, righteous, and sorrowful detective;

This detective, subconsciously aware of what had happened.

Now, he needs to take a short rest.

(End of this chapter)