Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

"Mr. Takeda, could you please drive faster—hiss—"

Hattori jumped up and shouted at Takeda Yuzo in front of him, but Takeda Yuzo slammed on the brakes, and Hattori's head hit the rear window of the driver's seat. He sat down, feeling dizzy.

"Uncle, why did you suddenly stop the car?"

"Excuse me, young man, someone suddenly stopped the car ahead..."

Chu Ming turned his head to look ahead and saw Robert Taylor standing by the roadside waving with a big smile.

Once he climbed into the back of the train, Hattori and Conan surrounded him from both sides and began questioning him like they were taking a census.

When they learned that he had been rescued by Misa Takeda during a mudslide three years ago and had returned to propose to her, the group exchanged glances, unsure how to explain it to him.

"Oh, Robert, you're too late. Misa... she's already hanged herself in the warehouse..." Takeda Yuzo's indistinct voice carried on the wind from the driver's cab to the back of the truck.

"W-What! I..."

Chu Ming looked at Robert's shocked and sad face, his expression distorted from exerting too much force. He stopped paying attention to what they were talking about, yawned, and huddled in the corner, closing his eyes to take a nap. He planned to sleep for a while now and then solve the case after absorbing the magnetic field that night.

Anyway, Bourbon's side will have to wait three days. In these three days, Chu Ming plans to hang around Conan and Hattori and see if he can get a few more clouts.

When they arrived at the Takeda residence, Takeda Shinichi was sitting in the main hall. Upon seeing them, he quickly came forward to greet them, saying that dinner was ready and they were just waiting for Kogoro Mori to arrive so they could sit down together.

Kogoro Mouri was delighted by this subtle flattery and gave Hattori another smug look.

Hattori looked away speechlessly at Kogoro Mouri, whose eyes were full of smugness.

"Are these five all your children? I remember you said you would bring two people with you, this..." Takeda Shinichi was about to take people to the restaurant when he was surprised to find that Kogoro Mouri, who had originally said he would only bring two people, had brought a whole bunch of people. Was he here to freeload?

Chu Ming looked at Takeda Shinichi, whose eyes showed some pain. Drug trafficking is such a lucrative business; it's just a matter of having a couple more pairs of chopsticks. How could he be so stingy? And his eyesight is terrible too. No wonder he got stabbed.

Kogoro Mouri scratched his head somewhat sheepishly: "That's a long story—"

Robert, who had been squeezed to the back by the crowd, finally had a chance to show himself. He spoke weakly, "Mr. Shinichi, it's been a long time."

“It’s Robert. Long time no see. Make yourself at home. You used to be best friends with Sae and Emi. Oh, look, they’re here.”

Rob turned around, about to squat down to greet them, but the twins' faces turned icy: "Murderer!"

Conan and Hattori's eyes sharpened instantly, their gazes fixed on Robert like searchlights.

Target locked.

Chapter 208 Are these two pigs?

Kogoro Mouri and Shinichi Takeda drank together at the table, and the two got completely drunk.

"Mr. Mori, I'll leave the investigation to you tomorrow. I still have some final touches to finish on the puppet difference, so I'll head over there now."

Shinichi Takeda staggered to his feet and walked toward the warehouse.

Conan winked at Hattori, only to see Hattori happily eating the fish he had snatched from Kazuha's bowl, completely oblivious to Conan's eyes twitching as he blinked.

Conan turned around speechlessly and looked at Chu Ming again, intending to find outside help again, but Chu Ming was eating without looking up.

Are these two pigs?

Conan looked at the two who were engrossed in eating, and then at everyone else who was at the table. Thinking that Shinichi Takeda should be safe, he gave up the idea of ​​asking the two to come and be Shinichi Takeda's bodyguards.

"I'd like to borrow your car for a bit. I haven't been home for three years, and I'm planning to visit Misa at her grave and talk to her. The night is lovely tonight, the moonlight is bright, and the scenery along the way should be quite beautiful."

Kazuha and Ran were somewhat tempted and expressed their desire to go as well.

Conan, however, because of his earlier suspicions about Robert, took the earring phone off his side and handed it to Ran: "Ran-neechan, please wear this."

Kazuha chuckled and joked, "Ran, you should take her with you. Although I'm not close to Conan, I always have a feeling he'll get jealous of you."

As expected, only a jealous king can understand another jealous king. Is this the unspoken understanding between jealous kings? Even if they are not familiar with each other, they can see through each other's true nature.

Hattori also gave Conan a teasing look and winked at him.

Chu Ming watched the two exchanging glances and couldn't help but sigh. It seemed that all of Hattori's emotional intelligence had been transferred to Conan. He was very perceptive of other people's feelings. If he had put that kind of attention into himself, things wouldn't have turned out that even after Shinichi Kudo confessed to Ran, his relationship with Kazuha was still ambiguous.

"Then we'll be going now!" Kazuha, sitting on the truck, leaned out halfway and waved goodbye to Hattori.

Hattori casually gave an "oh," while Chu Ming waved goodbye to the others earnestly.

He had just caught a glimpse of a fresh magnetic field. It seemed that Robert had already dealt with Shinichi Takeda and was about to send his disposable tool to prison. He should say a proper goodbye to him.

The members of the Takeda family gradually dispersed. Hattori and Conan pulled Chu Ming along, and the three of them sat cross-legged next to the drunken Kogoro Mouri, exchanging clues with each other.

"That person is acting very strangely."

"Yes, and he's also a strong suspect."

Chu Ming looked at the two people speaking in riddles and said speechlessly, "Is his name too hot to pronounce? Neither of you mentioned his name... You're talking about Robert, right? Since you think he's a suspect, why didn't you stop Xiao Lan and the others from going out with him?"

"He hasn't made a move yet, he'll definitely be back."

Hattori confirmed Conan's words, adding, "Besides, Kazuha and Ran are both quite strong fighters, and it seems that Rob can't beat the two of them."

Goodness, you've calculated everything perfectly for me.

"Big brother—big brother—" Yuzo Takeda's shouts suddenly came from outside the door.

Chu Ming opened the door and looked outside. Takeda Yuzo was shouting for people all over the room.

"What's wrong, Yongsan?" The door to the room next door was also opened.

"I can't find my older brother anywhere. I don't know where he went."

Conan and Hattori exchanged a glance, their unease growing: "What about the warehouse? Have you looked at it?"

"Huh? I don't see anyone."

"What about the second floor?" Chu Ming pointed to the second-floor window. "I saw it was closed before, but now it's open. Does that mean the head of the Takeda family is there?"

"How could that be? Three people hanged themselves there. Everyone should avoid that place. They shouldn't go near it..."

Conan remembered the people who had been 'committed suicide' in the warehouse before, and couldn't help but clench his fists before rushing towards the warehouse.

Chu Ming and Hattori followed closely behind, rushing up to the second floor. Hattori turned the lock and found that the door was locked from the inside. Just as he was about to ask the Takeda family for tools, Chu Ming pulled him away.

"I come."

He raised his leg, spun around, and delivered a flying kick that slammed into the door. The entire wall shook violently, and the wooden door shattered with a loud crash, leaving a large hole.

Chu Ming, who thought he could kick the door open, withdrew his foot somewhat embarrassedly, forgetting that the warehouse was quite old and a bit rotten, and couldn't withstand being kicked.

However, since the lock had already been broken, the door was naturally pushed open, and the group was shocked by what they saw inside the room.

In the dark warehouse, only a few rays of moonlight shone through the narrow vents. In the dim light, one could see Shinichi Takeda hanging from the rafters, his body wrapped in silvery fishing line.

Chu Ming couldn't help but mutter, "So this is the puppet that was killed by the spider—"

Hattori was the first to regain his senses. He stepped forward and touched Shinichi Takeda's neck, then immediately stopped the Takeda family members who were about to approach: "No, you can't go in yet! Call the police, he's already dead."

Chu Ming waved his phone to indicate that he had already called the police, then slowly walked over to Conan and began to examine the scene with him.

Chapter 209 The Ginseng Wine is Old, Chu Ming Should Stand.

"Why are you stopping us? Why are those two allowed to look around?" Takeda Ryuji said indignantly. "You're just a student, what are you pretending to be a detective for? Go and invite Mr. Mori downstairs."

"My name is Hattori Heiji, and I'm also a detective. I came here because I received a murder threat..."

Ryuji Takeda's expression softened considerably; he had also heard of Hattori's reputation.

"What about the two of them..."

Ryuji Takeda pointed to the two people who were circling the corpse.

Hattori chuckled awkwardly, covering for Conan and Chu Ming: "Those two are my assistants, my assistants!"

"An assistant? Is it that common these days? Even such a young child can be an assistant..." Takeda Ryuji muttered under his breath.

"Brother Chu Ming, how do you think the murderer escaped? That air vent wasn't big enough for him to climb out, and the door was locked..." Conan asked Chu Ming in a low voice as they followed the Takeda family into the room.

Having just examined the scene, Conan and Hattori already had someone they suspected, but they lacked evidence. So they wanted to ask Chu Ming, who always took an unconventional approach, if he could offer a new direction.

However, when he asked the question, he received no response. Conan looked up in confusion and saw Chu Ming following behind them with a frown and a thoughtful expression.

"Brother Chu Ming, Brother Chu Ming?"

"Huh?" Chu Ming looked up as if waking from a dream, staring at Conan's questioning eyes. "What's wrong?"

Conan repeated the question helplessly. Chu Ming thought for a moment and said, "Maybe the murderer didn't even enter the room. He might have set up a mechanism, such as attracting Mr. Takeda's attention downstairs, leading him to the window, and then using some kind of mechanism to strangle him... That way, even without entering the room, he could still kill Mr. Takeda."

Seeing that Conan and Hattori were deep in thought, Chu Ming patted Conan's head and said, "There's a problem with an order from one of my companies in Tokyo. I need to go back and deal with it. I'll head straight back to Tokyo in a bit. Good luck to you two."

Conan and Hattori were both enlightened by Chu Ming's suggestion. After saying goodbye to Chu Ming, they hurriedly went into their room to ponder the case.

After leaving the vicinity of the Takeda family, Chu Ming took out the large box that Negishi Wada had given him during the previous transaction from his backpack. After seeing Robert kill someone, Chu Ming took back the money he had traded with him, and also took the cash from a previous transaction from Negishi Wada's safe, since a thief never leaves empty-handed.

The reason he rushed back to Tokyo was because the FBI's whereabouts, which Gin had been searching for, had finally been located. Shuichi Akai had previously worked in the organization and was familiar with many of the faces, while Vermouth, who was an expert in disguise, had fought him many times.

Out of caution, Gin decided to suspend Chu Ming's current mission and sent Vodka to pick him up and bring him back to Tokyo, hoping that Chu Ming would cooperate with him and Vermouth to find out the FBI's movements.

"So this time, I'll be going on this mission in my own form?" Chu Ming asked, sitting in Vodka's car, talking on the phone with Gin.

"What are you thinking?" Gin countered, throwing the question back at him. "The Boss intends to use your public identity as a dagger inserted into the Metropolitan Police Department, and if necessary, it can be used against official forces such as the FBI and CIA. The higher your reputation outside, the deeper this dagger can penetrate. Logically, you shouldn't be placed in front of Shuichi Akai so early, after all, his keenness is not to be underestimated. Once he discovers it, you will have to abandon your public identity and exist only as Granburg of the organization, and you will have to rely on disguises to get around."

It was probably rare for Gin to spout such a long and profound philosophy to Chu Ming in one go. After a moment, he continued, "The boss originally planned to let you gain enough fame in society before you met with Shuichi Akai. That way, even if he had some suspicions about you, he wouldn't take any big action, just like how he kept tracking Vermouth but couldn't openly take action against her celebrity status. Now, tell me your thoughts."

Hearing such a long string of words, Chu Ming couldn't help but smile: "Boss cares so much about me~ I~ don't~ deserve~ this~~"

"..." Gin remained silent, watching Chu Ming perform a one-man show.

Gin didn't respond, only Vodka, who was driving, shuddered with disgust, and Chu Ming curled his lip in boredom.