Conan: I'm a zaibatsu in Tokyo

"Are detectives in high demand now?"

Zheng Yi put down his phone, his brows furrowing slightly.

He had just received an urgent call from the head of his security company, who reported that more than fifteen contracted detectives had submitted their resignations in the past week.

The reasons vary, but they all point in the same direction.

They were poached by other large companies with salaries three to five times higher.

There must be a demon in the abnormal situation.

This trend came swiftly and strangely, with its origins traced back to Nagoya.

Zhengyi took a sip of the freshly squeezed orange juice in his glass.

His company, Justice Security, was clearly a pioneer in systematically employing detectives and combining their expertise with modern security technology.

Why is it that this time it wasn't him who led the trend, but rather those bandwagoners in Nagoya?

Moreover, what are they paying such high salaries for?
This is ruining the market!
Zheng Yi thought he had already offered a high enough salary. What were they expecting the detectives to do by offering such high salaries?
"A bunch of charlatans who deceive the world."

“Hongshu,” he said calmly to the air.

"Help me collect all publicly available news, corporate activities, and related social data from the Nagoya area over the past three months, conduct cross-analysis, and identify the most suspicious anomalies."

"Ok."

Almost the instant the words were spoken, the computer screen in front of Zheng Yi lit up.

Just seconds later, a set of statistics circled in red was locked in the center of the screen.

The number of accidental deaths in the Nagoya area.

The curve on the chart has been climbing at an unnaturally steep angle for the past few days.

Zheng Yi fell silent.

In one corner of the screen, Hiroki's virtual image floated silently, his overly realistic electronic eyes staring at Seiichi.

He seemed to want to say something, but ultimately remained silent.

Zheng Yi picked up the cup and took another sip of juice.

The accidental death rate in the Nagoya area, after being standardized by Hiroki's data.

Its growth rate has even surpassed that of Tokyo, which boasts the "Death God Elementary School Student" Conan Edogawa and the "Plague God" Kogoro Mouri.

It also surpasses Osaka, where the famous Kansai detective Heiji Hattori was active.

This is so unreasonable.

Conan did indeed go to Toyota City recently.

However, it is impossible for a mere few days to cause such a large-scale and significant statistical fluctuation.

something wrong.

There is definitely a problem.

“Hiroki,” Zheng Yi’s voice lowered.

"After cross-verification, were all of these people's deaths truly accidents?"

Although he was asking, he already knew the answer.

"After all, it's not as bizarre as the fact that you were shot eight times in the back, diagnosed with copper poisoning, and dismembered into eight pieces, which is considered suicide."

A slightly cold and sarcastic female voice came from the side.

Xiao Ai had quietly walked up to him without him noticing.

She was wearing loose loungewear, her arms crossed, and her short, brown hair was slightly curled up.

His gaze swept over the data on the screen, and a faint, ambiguous smile appeared on his lips.

He didn't even turn his head, but just flicked her forehead with his other hand.

“All you do is bring up old grievances, and you’ve even brought up the wrong ones,” Zheng Yi said.

"In the case of the man shot eight times in the back, didn't the police eventually find the real culprit? Didn't you see the news back then?"

Ai covered her forehead, which didn't hurt much, and glared at him resentfully.

What about the case where they were dismembered into eight pieces?

Zheng Yi reached out and pulled her to his side, ruffling her hair without a word, making her already messy hairstyle even worse.

"You've been following me for so long, don't you know I'm innocent?" he asked, his tone sounding quite innocent.

Ai shook her head vigorously, trying to break free from his clutches.

"I don't know," she said, her voice muffled.

Even Hiroki, who possessed supercomputing power and was practically inseparable from him, couldn't be certain of Zheng Yi's innocence. How could she, a mere former researcher of the organization, possibly know?

Hiroki's image flickered slightly, and the data stream accelerated past, but he remained silent, as if he had tacitly agreed with Ai's statement.

Zheng Yi pursed his lips and pushed Ai to the chair next to him.

"There's really nothing to say to people like you who don't trust me."

His attention returned to the screen.

Simply browsing these news reports, every accident is described in a plausible way: car accidents, drowning, falls, sudden illnesses... there is no trace of human error.

But Zheng Yi is too familiar with this pattern.

He used the same logic to suspect them now, just as those people had initially suspected him based on intuition.

His gaze casually swept over the news summaries.

Suddenly, he stopped moving.

"Damn it! That bastard! He dared to steal my idea!"

Zheng Yi slammed his hand on the solid wood desk with a loud thud, making the juice in his glass slosh around.

Ai curiously peeked over.

This manner of death?

Ai blinked.

A man in Nagoya died in the exact same way as in the script written by Shoichi.

She looked up and stared at Zheng Yi with a strange expression.

No wonder this guy reacted so strongly.

"Your scripts..." Ai hesitated for a moment before saying, "Don't you often claim that they are inspired by real-life cases?"

So, maybe that guy in Nagoya was just based on reality?

"Bullshit!" Zheng Yi rarely swore.

He draws his material from reality, but it's all adapted.

But what about that guy?
They simply copied his script verbatim, without any creativity whatsoever.

Pooh!
Zhengyi already knew why detectives were so popular.

But the detectives these guys hired were absolutely incompetent.

They can only clumsily imitate me.

snort!
Even if you guys can imitate the way those people die, can you imitate my Conan?
My essence is something you can never learn in your entire life.

Ai leaned on the chair, patted Shoichi's head, and stroked his fur.

She was looking at the news on her computer.

I feel like Japan is going to become a mess.

But she glanced at Zheng Yi and wondered if this bad trend could be considered to have been started by Zheng Yi.

Japan is too dangerous; it's no longer a place to stay.

Zheng Yi glanced at a few more news articles, then shut down his computer, quickly losing interest in the content.

Never mind, it has nothing to do with him.

Zheng Yi is a legitimate businessman; he would never resort to such despicable means to eliminate a competitor.

This trend also originated from the Nagoya area and has nothing to do with Shoichi.

"Beep, beep, beep~"

A phone call came through.

"Hey?"

"Ok?"

"I see."

Zheng Yi hung up the phone with a dark expression.

He never imagined these guys would be so audacious as to kill his employees in this way.

Reversing the Heavenly Gang.

Although there's no evidence, it was definitely those bastards who did it. (End of Chapter)