Conan: I've been linked to the tech tree system.

But most people probably come with high hopes only to leave disappointed, right? After all, apart from the island's reputation for having an immortal "longevity woman," there's really nothing about this island that seems to have anything to do with immortality.

The seafood was quite good, very tasty.

Tohru Tono recalled the seafood he had eaten at the funeral.

However, compared to Hawaii, America's backyard, the small islands are far less attractive to the wealthy people of the island nation.

After flipping through it again, apart from the names of some well-known politicians, there weren't any interesting names. Tohno Toru tossed it to Conan, who had been staring at him expectantly for a long time.

After receiving the document, Conan frantically searched through it, but he didn't recognize Shiho Miyano or have any recollection of the name "Akami Miyano," so he couldn't discern anything from it.

"what!!!"

As the group flipped through the roster, a familiar scream suddenly echoed down the corridor.

It belonged to Ran and Kazuha. Considering that Shiho Miyano had also gone out, Toru Tono took a long-awaited step out of the room.

Then I saw Shiho Miyano with her arms crossed, coldly looking out at the dense forest outside the corridor.

Ran and Kazuha stood in front of her, their faces filled with terror.

When he came out first, Shiho Miyano seemed to smile.

"What happened?" Hattori Heiji put down the roster he was holding and ran out.

"There was a woman wearing glasses in the woods who kept staring at us!"

"Ok?"

"Could it be Saori!" Conan exclaimed in surprise as he rushed out, but there was no trace of her in the woods.

Hattori Heiji was about to go over and check the situation when he suddenly noticed that the glass next to the door handle had shattered, leaving a large hole.

"How did the glass in the glass door get broken?" he wondered.

"Where's Junhui?!" Conan suddenly realized his blind spot.

The four of them should have gone out together, so why is only Shimabukuro Kimie missing?

"She said she wanted to go look for it at the newly built warehouse," Shiho Miyano answered the question, while giving Toru Tono a wink.

He probably understood what he meant: he was saying that his fighting ability was too poor and he didn't dare to team up with the murderer.

This is Toru Tono's own understanding.

Where is that warehouse located?

"She said it's right behind that shrine..." Xiaolan pointed into the distance and suddenly noticed that the sky there seemed to have turned completely red.

"Look! Why is it so bright over there?"

"Could it be?!" Conan rushed out of the room.

"Wait for me!" Hattori Heiji chased after him.

Tohru Tohru followed in their footsteps, but when he turned on the infrared locator, he discovered that there were still biological signals in the warehouse that was burning fiercely.

?

Tohno Toru didn't believe it was Kadokawa Saori, who was presumably dead for many days. So what was it...?

He gradually slowed his pace, letting Hattori Heiji and Conan disappear from his sight.

He frowned, thought for a moment, and then disappeared into the woods.

......

As Shimabukuro Kimie looked at the raging fire before her, she felt the scorching heat, enough to melt everything, gently caressing her cheeks. Never before had she felt the world so peaceful.

The burning warehouse resembled a dying behemoth, its wooden frame groaning in the intense heat.

At the crumbling corner of the staircase, Kimie Shimabukuro knelt on the charred tatami mat, flames already licking her snow-white shrine maiden robes.

The groans of her childhood friends, Saori Kadokawa, Toshimi Ebihara, and Naoko Kuroe, before their deaths, lingered in her mind.

At the same time, the voice of her mother before she died also lingered in her mind.

In the fire, the mother who could still say, "Junhui, Mom loves this island so much, so please don't let the old woman die like this," was this what she felt before she died?

she thought.

She had already made a plan to take revenge on those who set fire to her mother's house to verify the so-called "immortality," and had prepared a flawless escape method... But after actually carrying it out, all that was left was endless emptiness.

Even though they are just a few scumbags, their hands are truly stained with blood, aren't they?

After killing Saori, he hired a detective, perhaps subconsciously to stop himself from doing so?

Unfortunately, in the end, no one could stop themselves... Perhaps only by dying here could they obtain the forgiveness of the gods?

The air she inhaled through her nose gradually became thinner, and the thick black smoke blurred her consciousness.

In a daze, I suddenly saw a tall, slender figure walking towards me like a sun god, stepping on the blazing fire lotus in the fire.

The red light illuminated his face; was it the detective he had hired?

Shimabukuro Kimie gave a self-deprecating laugh; it seemed to be a hallucination before his death.

Even a detective recommended by others, who is so skilled, couldn't save himself, right?

The illusion reached out its hand, and she gently brushed it away.

Unexpectedly, amidst the flames that could burn everything, the hand felt icy cold.

"Hey, are you really going to give up on yourself for a few scumbags?"

Tohru Tono began to speak.

Shimabukuro Kimie's pupils gradually dilated. That hand seemed to possess magical power. After touching it, it was as if she had sunk into an ice cave. The intense heat disappeared, and her consciousness suddenly became clear.

"you......"

She couldn't speak.

Tohno glanced at the flames that had spread to his casual T-shirt and shrugged.

"Let's hurry up and leave, lest our clothes burn out and people say I took advantage of you."

Fire-resistant liquid cannot be used to cover clothing; he made it himself using fire-resistant materials stored in his space.

While the battle-damaged black suit might appeal to some people's tastes, Tohru Tono still prefers the shrine maiden outfit.

Shimabukuro Kimie knelt on the ground, making no move.

Tohru Tono could see the struggle in her heart. However, a person with such a strong will who could devise a plan to kill her friend for revenge and escape punishment must have an incredibly strong heart. She just needed a reason to live.

So he spoke softly: "You scum aren't worth your self-destruction. Come with me, I really need your help."

Tohru Tohru wasn't lying to her, because he heard the system notification again when he entered the house.

[Candidates suitable for inclusion in research have been detected. Please select them yourself.]

Tohno Toru was somewhat surprised, considering that another thing at the scene that could be called an "object" was the corpse of Kadokawa Saori, who had been dead for several days.

Who would have thought that Shimabukuro Kimie would have the potential to be a researcher? And she even has self-destructive tendencies... No wonder the system sent her a mission to save her.

That makes sense, considering he's a college graduate; he probably studied a highly specialized biology-related major.

Even setting aside the fact that being recognized by the system means having a stable income, in this day and age, just having a university degree is enough to qualify someone to be Shiho Miyano's assistant.

Chapter 170 Mermaid Kiss

Standing in the center of the scorching fire, I could hear the cracking sound of wooden beams breaking.

Shimabukuro Kimie's pupils flickered in the firelight, and the hem of her shrine maiden outfit was charred and curled.

She hesitated for a long time, but finally stood up, holding Tohno Toru's outstretched hand.

Although she didn't know why this was happening, the cold touch of her hands miraculously calmed her down.

Thinking of her mother's dying wish, she could only silently apologize.

She had planned to abandon the identity of "Shimabukuro Kimie" after the murder and live on as a long-lived old woman, fulfilling her mother's last wish.

But on that day, at the funeral, she clearly heard an older man who had watched her grow up say, after drinking, that he had mentioned "Junhui's mother who was burned to death three years ago."

And no one raised any questions.

From that moment on, she finally understood that the old people on the island all knew that her mother was the "longevity woman".

It was around that time that she began to question her mother's last wishes.

Do those islanders who know this but pretend to know nothing and enjoy the benefits their family has brought to the island for generations really deserve her doing this?

Shimabukuro Kimie didn't understand, so after escaping as planned, placing Kadokawa Saori's body in the warehouse, and setting it ablaze as he had done three years ago, he suddenly decided not to leave.

It's like suddenly wanting to live.

......

Rushing out of the back door of the fire, Toru Tono took deep breaths of the moist, fresh air on the small island outside.

Although the fire retardant had been applied, preventing the flames from causing harm and granting carbon dioxide resistance, the person still nearly suffocated due to the extremely low oxygen levels at the fire scene.

The same was true for Shimabukuro Kimie next to her. The shrine maiden looked even worse, panting heavily. Her originally black suit was now tattered, revealing glimpses of her cleavage.

She had already expended a lot of energy, and it was only through sheer willpower that she managed to push through until now.

Catching his breath, Tohru released Shimabukuro Kimie's hand.

The intense heat that swept back once again enveloped her.

"What... is this?"

Shimabukuro Kimie hadn't caught her breath yet and was having difficulty speaking, but she still asked questions that were hard to understand.

Why can't Tohru feel the heat of the flames when he touches her?

"Well, I'm barely an inventor; I just applied fire-retardant materials."

Tohru Tono waved his hand dismissively.

When faced with a problem, they pass the buck to Ke Xue.

[Ding, mission complete, 500 Detective Points awarded]

The system notification sounded at that moment, indicating that the reward had been perfectly credited to your account.