Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

"Negishi Wada is a heavy drinker. I've already contacted him. We'll meet tonight at YTH Bar in Tottori Prefecture, in room 12 on the second floor. Bourbon, you can drink, right?"

As soon as he got off the plane, Chu Ming asked Amuro Tooru as he walked, knowing that he would never drink another drop of alcohol!

Amuro Tooru, disguised as a disheveled middle-aged man who clearly wasn't a respectable person, remained silent.

"Bourbon, say something!" Chu Ming turned his head. He also had a weak and frail face. Although he looked like a frail scholar, his eyes were affectionate and his face was as white as jade. In any case, he was many times more handsome than Amuro Tooru's face.

"Don't you think there's a big difference between our faces?" Amuro Tooru took out his phone and looked at his face using the reflector on the back.

"Really? They're about the same. Don't be so picky. I'm asking you something important. Do you even know how to drink?" Chu Ming waved his hand dismissively.

"...Yes, you can't, can you?"

Chu Ming waved his hand, trying to cover up the fact that he was a lightweight: "I'm a sniper. Drinking affects my shooting speed because alcohol numbs me, so I don't drink alcohol."

Bourbon's eyes flickered slightly. Were the organization's snipers really this disciplined?

Chu Ming continued, "I got some new truth serum from the experimental group. Porter improved the traditional truth serum. After taking it, it can act on receptors in the brain and spinal cord, weakening part of the brain's activity and making people involuntarily tell the truth. Porter said it's even better when taken while drunk. When you wake up, the user will only think they blacked out. When you're drinking with Gen'an later, put a drop of this in his drink, find out the truth, and then pretend it was an accident to kill him."

Amuro Tooru nodded and took the small bottle that Chu Ming handed him. The bottle contained a thin layer of transparent solution.

When we arrived at the second floor of the bar, Negishi was already waiting in a private room.

"Gentlemen, please come in, please come in."

Negishi and Kazuta did not suspect anything because of Chu Ming and Amuro Tooru's attire; on the contrary, it was precisely this attire that made Negishi trust them even more.

After all, how many people buying drugs haven't been exposed to them before? These two buyers were thin, sallow-faced, and had dry skin; they were clearly long-term addicts.

Having traded with Negishi and Wada for many years, he considered his eyes to be extremely sharp; he could tell at a glance whether someone was there to make a deal or a policeman trying to investigate.

This bar was his regular place for transactions; if anyone came to make a deal and had problems, he could stop them at the door.

"Mr. Negishi, let's be frank. How many of the latest Alpha 0127s can you provide?" Chu Ming asked as soon as he entered the room and sat down in a chair. Even his voice sounded weak, like that of a drug addict.

Negishi and Kazuda gave a lewd smile: "Mr. Egami, you're quite generous. We do have the latest models, but the price—"

"Ah, Mr. Negishi, as long as the quality can be guaranteed, money is not a problem."

Chu Ming waved to Amuro Tooru, who opened a box he had been carrying. Inside, stacks of banknotes were piled high, all bearing the image of Fukuzawa Yukichi.

Negishi and Wada seemed indifferent, but their burning gaze betrayed them: "Alright, I won't waste any more words. 700,000 per catty. We'll be transporting the goods using puppets to ensure safety."

Chu Ming gestured to Amuro Tooru to fill the glass, raised it to Negishi Wada and said, "Mr. Negishi, it's been a pleasure working with you. I'm allergic to alcohol, so I won't drink with you. But to avoid spoiling your fun, my brother is a heavy drinker, so he'll drink with you to your heart's content today!"

Amuro Tooru smiled and said, "Mr. Negishi, I salute you."

"Great!" Negishi and Wada had struck a big deal, downing their spiked sake in one gulp. "We'll deliver tomorrow—"

Before he could finish speaking, he seemed to suddenly go into a daze, swaying back and forth in his chair, his eyes losing all their luster.

"Mr. Negishi, Mr. Negishi?" Chu Ming called out tentatively in a low voice. To prevent him from faking unconsciousness, Chu Ming even quickly pricked his eyes with a needle. Negishi and Kazuta did not move until Chu Ming's hand was firmly in front of his eyeballs.

"The drug worked; that's about the only thing Potter's still somewhat useful for." Chu Ming muttered a couple of times, then looked up at Negishi and Kazuda. "What's your name?"

“Negishi Wada…” Negishi Wada murmured unconsciously.

"Where did you get your Alfa Romeo 0127 from?" Chu Ming asked in a deep voice.

"The goods were sourced from Tokyo..."

"Where in Tokyo? With whom did you make the transaction? What was the transaction process?"

"At the Mikasa Shrine, I don't know who I trade with. I usually put the money in the recess behind the Buddha statue in the side hall of the shrine, write down the amount to be traded on a piece of paper and put it there. I just pick up the goods from the Buddha statue three days later."

Mihana Shrine? Chu Ming frowned, noting down this clue. It seemed he would have to visit there sometime.

Chapter 206 Are you here on a date?

After sobering up, Negishi and Wada did not notice anything unusual. After agreeing on the quantity of the transaction and the address for mailing the puppets with the two men, they handed Chu Ming a bank card number and asked Chu Ming to transfer the balance to the card after receiving the goods.

Having learned the location of the transaction between Negishi and Kazuta, Chu Ming instructed Amuro Tooru to return to Tokyo and guard the Beika Shrine, while he would stay behind to deal with Negishi, Kazuta, and Takeda Shinichi, thus splitting up the operation to avoid missing any clues.

Chu Ming followed Negishi Kazuta to the Takeda residence. Negishi Kazuta had been staying there, waiting for this batch of goods to be sold before leaving.

Because the Takeda residence was in a remote location with no good spots for surveillance, Chu Ming quietly sneaked in, intending to scout the area and make his move at night. However, he inadvertently saw a foreigner at the entrance.

— Rob Taylor, the girl he liked asked him how he felt. Instead of speaking properly, he insisted on showing off by writing the English word "shine." As a result, Misa Takeda didn't understand it and thought he was telling her to die. Coupled with her already somewhat depressed state, this ultimately led to a tragic love story.

As a result, this guy thought the girl he liked had been murdered by someone else, and went on to kill Negishi Wada and Takeda Shinichi...

Brilliant! It saves him the trouble of doing anything. I'm so happy.

That night, Chu Ming, who was hiding outside the window, witnessed Rob Taylor suddenly strangle Negishi and Kazuta during their conversation, then faked it as suicide, erased his own traces, and left by climbing over the wall with his magnetic field.

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"This is so strange. I feel like we keep going in circles in the same place. There isn't a single car here, and your motorcycle is out of gas. We should have taken a taxi..."

"You're so long-winded! Who was it that insisted on jumping into my car, saying they knew this place like the back of their hand?!"

Hattori pushed his motorcycle, bickering with Kazuha as they walked through the forest. Kazuha glanced back casually and discovered two legs dangling from a tree ahead!

"Ah—Heiji!! Look over there!" she screamed in fright as she hid behind Hattori.

Hattori shielded Kazuha, casually tossed aside the motorcycle in his hand, and, ignoring Kazuha's pleas, stepped forward with a solemn expression, preparing to check if it was a corpse hanging from the tree.

The two of them pushed and shoved each other until they reached the tree. Just as Hattori was about to grab the dangling leg to look up, the leg suddenly moved and swiftly pulled back, revealing a face peering down from above.

Kazuha froze in fright, jumping onto Hattori and clinging to him tightly, refusing to let go: "Aaaaaah—"

Chu Ming looked at the two people huddled together under the tree and asked in confusion, "Are you two here on a date? There are other people here, be a little more reserved."

"What nonsense are you talking about! Who wants to go on a date with her? You—Chu Ming? It's you? What are you doing in the tree?" After recognizing Chu Ming's face, Hattori calmed his pounding heart, took Kazuha off his body, and said to Chu Ming in an annoyed tone.

"I'm lost. I'm going to go up to a higher place to see if I can find a way out." Chu Ming jumped down from the tree and patted the leaves off his body.

"...But when you sit in a tree, what else can you see besides leaves?"

"I can't see anything, so I'm getting ready to come down now—"

"..."

After learning that Chu Ming was also lost, Hattori warmly invited him to join the team exploring the route.

"You came here because you received a letter from your client... That's not why I came. When I was taking stock of my inherited estate, I found out I have a vacation villa here, so I came to check it out. But I got lost in the woods for ages..."

Actually, they specifically came here to ambush people, but they didn't manage to ambush Conan; instead, they ambush a little black chicken.

"So it seems we'll have to camp out in the wilderness tonight," Hattori said, pushing his motorcycle with a sigh. "I was hoping to get to the client's house sooner, maybe I could even get a free meal."

"Huh? Camping in the wilderness?? No way! We didn't bring a tent or blankets. If we just sleep on the ground, there are so many bugs in the woods... I don't want to!! Besides, the temperature difference between day and night is so big lately, we'll catch a cold!"

"What's the big deal? We can just put our clothes on the floor and sleep together, hugging each other." Hattori blurted out.

Upon hearing this, Kazuha's face flushed bright red: "Hug...hug each other...?"

Chu Ming felt he needed to re-evaluate this straight man; was he really that good at flirting?

The problem is, what should he do when they're embracing so sweetly? Should he keep watch over them?

"But don't even think about trying to hit on me!" Hattori added without thinking, seeing Kazuha's dazed expression.

Okay, it's still that straight-laced guy who teaches you a single-life tip every day.

Chu Ming stopped the two who wanted to continue their playful fight and pointed to the road ahead: "I heard a car starting up. Let's go check it out."

The three of them followed the path to the fork in the road and, sure enough, saw a car driving towards them in the distance. Hattori immediately waved frantically at the car.

After the car came to a stop, Chu Ming looked out the window at Conan, who was being held comfortably in Ran's arms and looking out at the outside, and a subtle smile appeared on his face.

Fate, amazing.

Chapter 207 Death's Tea Party

Sitting in the open back of the truck, Chu Ming leaned against the side, stretched, and loosened his muscles.

It's been too long since I've been busy. Doing missions is really tiring. If it weren't for the two magnetic fields, he would have left Bourbon here and gone to Tokyo himself.

"Did you come here on a request from the Takeda family, Uncle?" Hattori asked curiously.

Kogoro Mori's lips curled up in a smug smile: "We're different. I received a formal commission, personally delivered by Mr. Shinichi Takeda, the head of the Takeda family. Mr. Yuzo, the head of the family, personally picked us up, and there's even a commission fee of 500,000 yen~ And you, Mr. Hattori, who came from Osaka, ran out of gas on your motorcycle, and got lost?"

After saying that, he glanced sideways at Hattori.

Hattori Heiji gritted his teeth, unwilling to admit defeat, and took out a letter from his side: "I also received a letter of request. You can see for yourselves."

Chu Ming leaned closer to take a closer look, focusing on the last sentence, before turning to Hattori for analysis.

"...Otherwise, another living puppet will suffer at the hands of the spider. Hiss—I feel like this isn't a letter of authorization, but more like a threat..."

Conan, Kogoro Mouri, and Hattori huddled together, studying the letter like they were having a Death God tea party.

"If the puppet refers to the victim, then when we mention spiders, we all know about webs, and the word 'again' implies that someone else had already died before..."

Chu Ming pretended to analyze, then turned and knocked on the rear window of the driver's side: "Mr. Yongsan, has there been any news of anyone dying in the vicinity recently, suicide or homicide are both acceptable."

Yuzo Takeda, a cigarette dangling from his lips, spoke with slurred speech: "In recent years, a series of unfortunate events have befallen our family. First, my eldest brother's daughter, my niece, hanged herself. Then it was my sister-in-law. And yesterday, my eldest brother's good friend also hanged himself in the warehouse..."

The crowd's gazes turned serious. Their extensive experience in handling cases told them that this suicide attempt was highly questionable.

With so many Grim Reapers gathered here, it's incredibly disrespectful to have a group of three come together only to end in suicide.

"First it was the daughter of the head of the Takeda family, then his wife, and then his friend..." Hattori muttered to himself, stroking his chin.

"...Then next, wouldn't it be—" Conan squatted down next to Hattori, and the two exchanged a glance.

"Master Takeda!"