Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

That's how HR is, isn't it? They lure people in and get them on board first.

"An unlicensed doctor?" This was clearly beyond Cheng Shi's knowledge.

"Yes, our organization is currently expanding and we're short of doctors. I can recommend you, but I hope you can keep your mouth shut and not spread the word about killing someone." Especially don't let my older brother know that I've slacked off on the task I assigned to you.

Cheng Shi stared at Chu Ming: "How are you going to help me?"

"Two choices. If you still want your public identity, I can help you destroy the evidence. Without evidence, even if we suspect you, we can't arrest you. The second is to give up your public identity, fake your death, and I'll find someone to take you away."

"Secondly, since my father's revenge has been taken, let Asagi's identity be buried with the fire..."

Chu Ming nodded, stuffed the sheet music back into the cabinet, and wiped away his traces: "I'll take care of it. You can continue with your own plan."

New employee acquired! My boss will definitely praise me. They lost Akemi Miyano, and now they have Narumi Asai!

Sigrún has taught at the Iceland University of the Arts as a part-time lecturer since and was Dean of the Department of Fine Art from -. In – she held a research position at Reykjavík Art Museum focusing on the role of women in Icelandic art. She studied fine art at the Icelandic College of Arts and Crafts and at Pratt Institute, New York, and holds BA and MA degrees in art history and philosophy from the University of Iceland. Sigrún lives and works in Iceland.

In the piano room, Mr. Murasawa, who had been attacked, was lying on the floor. Conan was pressing the keys under the piano, and Chu Ming curiously went over to ask him something.

"what are you doing?"

"I just saw a man in black groping around down there, looking for something—ah, I've got it."

Conan pushed open a hidden door, reached in and touched it; it was empty.

--This is?

He noticed some white powder on the ground. He dipped his hand in some powder and brought it to his nose, just about to smell it, when Chu Ming slapped his hand away in fright.

Conan's eyes were full of questions.

"Are you crazy? This is clearly drugs, why are you smelling it right under your nose? What are you trying to do?"

Conan's eyes widened, and he rubbed the powder between his fingers. Sure enough!

"I know why that secretary came to spy yesterday, and even made up a curse to keep people away. She was probably afraid of being discovered."

"I'll go see if the police have found the sheet music!" Conan remembered something and dashed out.

After Conan finally figured out that Narumi was a cross-dresser, he took the sheet music that the old policeman had finally found. Then he remembered that when they were catching up on sleep together that morning, Narumi almost slept in the same bed as Ran because there weren't enough blankets. Luckily, Chu Ming didn't want to sleep with her, so they were spared from being squeezed together.

Thinking of this, Conan's fist hardened. Damn it, you're even worse than me pretending to be a child! I also want to be close to my Ran!

Chapter 23 Death Brand Drink Stand

Overjoyed at finally finding the culprit, Conan rushed into the broadcasting room, knocked out Kogoro Mouri with a syringe, and began talking eloquently over the loudspeaker. Meanwhile, the police on the first floor were so engrossed in listening that they didn't notice Chu Ming and Narumi exchanging a glance. Chu Ming subtly shifted his body to shield Narumi from the public's glare, and Narumi took the opportunity to run out.

When the police, after hearing the explanation, remembered they wanted to see the prisoner cry, kneel, and repent, they looked at the scene and thought, "Huh? Where is he?"

Chu Ming rolled his eyes inwardly. He wondered what the police in the Detective Conan world were thinking. They were only interested in listening to the detective's rambling. What if not all the murderers were cooperating and listening to the detective's story?

Chu Ming's ears twitched slightly. Along with the sound of the wind came Beethoven's symphony, Moonlight Sonata.

This was the secret code that Chu Ming and Cheng Shi had agreed upon.

Chu Ming immediately feigned anxiety: "Where's Dr. Asai? Why is he gone?"

The surrounding police looked around. When they arrived at the piano room, it was already engulfed in flames, with thick smoke rising into the air. In the flickering firelight, Narumi calmly played a piece on the piano.

"Squeak—" Conan rushed in hurriedly, "Don't do this! Look, the sheet music your father left behind tells you to live well! Take a look!"

Narumi looked at Conan's young yet determined face and gave a wry smile: "It's too late, little detective..."

Perhaps the fire stirred up Narumi's memories, or perhaps it was a way of saying goodbye to the past, but Narumi gradually revealed his past to Conan.

The fire grew bigger and bigger, and the visibility inside the house became lower and lower. As Chengshi spoke, he began to cough.

Conan anxiously tugged at his clothes: "Get out of here quickly! There's still time!"

The tears welled up in Narumi's eyes, and she was preparing to send Conan out.

Chu Ming ran in, holding a wet towel. Cheng Shi exchanged a glance with him, shoved Conan into his arms, and forcefully pushed the two of them out.

Chu Ming took the opportunity to apply the 'Son of the Fire God' buff he had exchanged to Narumi. Conan struggled to go down and pull Narumi away, but the fire was too big and bricks and tiles kept falling. Luckily, Chu Ming was agile and was not hit by them.

A huge piece of wood, wreathed in flames, hurtled down. Chu Ming, clutching Conan, rolled away to dodge, but his hand landed on the scorching charcoal.

"Hiss—" Chu Ming gritted his teeth. Damn it! What a huge loss!

"Brother Chu Ming!"

"Alright, Conan, I'll take you out first!" Chu Ming used some force to control Conan, ignoring his shouts, and dodged the falling debris all the way to the door. He then threw Conan to Ran and turned to continue walking into the fire.

"Brother Chu Ming, come back quickly!"

"Brother Chu Ming!"

"Kid!! Don't go in!"

…………

Ignoring the shouts behind him, he still had to send Chengshi out.

As planned, he had Chengshi dive into the sea through the back window. Chu Ming had already arranged for backup members to meet him. He reluctantly redeemed a custom-made skeleton from the system store and placed it near the piano. This was a body made from Chengshi's DNA, which the system had scanned beforehand, so no matter how the police investigated, they wouldn't find anything unusual.

The only downside is the price; all the points I got from the three corpses were used up this time.

With everything arranged, the small green dot marking Chengshi on the minimap was also picked up and taken away. Seeing that the fire was already raging, Chu Ming knew that if he didn't get out soon, he would probably be doomed.

Outside, Conan and the others anxiously watched the room gradually being engulfed by flames, constantly peering out.

With a "bang," the second-floor window shattered, and Chu Ming flew off the second floor, landing on the ground. He was still a little wet, with some scratches on his handsome face, covered in soot, and several burns on his arms, from which blood slowly seeped out, making him look extremely disheveled.

Chu Ming gasped for breath, his eyes filled with guilt and regret: "I couldn't save Dr. Asai—I'm sorry, I..."

"What nonsense are you talking about! It's already amazing that you managed to stay safe and sound!" Inspector Megure quickly comforted him, after all, the fire was so intense that it was already quite an achievement to have escaped unharmed.

"but--"

"Alright, Brother Chuming, hurry up and treat your injuries." Xiaolan walked over with a first-aid kit.

"Oh my god—" Conan exclaimed. "Brother Chu Ming, your hand!"

The palm that had just been pressed against the charcoal was a bloody mess, the skin and flesh rolled around, the charred flesh and seeping blood mixed together, looking particularly gruesome against the backdrop of fair and slender fingers.

"Thank you, Brother Chu Ming. If it weren't for saving me, you wouldn't have—" Conan's eyes showed some guilt. If it weren't for saving him, Chu Ming wouldn't have been so badly injured.

Chu Ming used his good hand to pat Conan's head, stopping him from continuing.

"When I was injured last time, wasn't Conan the first one to come and help me? See, we're even now."

So, little detective, remember to call me next time you have a case! I'm already in debt because of the distillery's recruitment efforts.

---------------------------

Chu Ming held up his hand, which was wrapped up like a pumpkin, and was rather speechless.

"Hey, Lan, is it really necessary to go to such lengths?"

Xiao Lan complained, "Brother Chu Ming, you should be more careful. You're injured, yet you still run inside."

"What does it matter? I'm just taking a look—"

As the fire subsided and was extinguished, the police found Cheng Shi's 'body' at the scene. To prevent the system from embezzling his large sums of money and neglecting its duties, and to be able to patch up any loopholes, Chu Ming also went inside.

—Although he was immediately dragged out by Inspector Megure and Kogoro Mouri and handed over to Ran for custody.

However, the police have confirmed that the body is Cheng Shi, and the case was ultimately closed as a suicide.

On the ferry back to Tokyo, Chu Ming, wearing sunglasses, lay leisurely on the deck, basking in the sun. His bandaged hand rested comfortably by his side as he tilted his head and sipped the orange juice Conan held to his lips. "Tsk tsk," he thought, "orange juice served by the Grim Reaper himself tastes especially sweet."

Conan chuckled and switched his aching left hand to his right, continuing to hold it up. Damn it, give me back the emotion I felt earlier!

Chapter 24 Code Name: Granbury

Having been back in Tokyo for some time, after recruiting Narumi into the organization's hospital, Gin, as usual, still arranged for someone to investigate his background.

Gin had called Chu Ming to the base a few days ago, but Chu Ming kept making excuses and delaying him. Finally, Gin, unable to bear it any longer, cornered him at his doorstep.

Chu Ming leaned against the wall somewhat guiltily, secretly hiding his hand behind his back. Because he had been hanging around Conan every day lately, using his injured hand as an excuse to squeeze money out of him, he hadn't been able to use his points to heal his wound, and now it wasn't convenient to do so in front of Gin.

However, it couldn't be hidden forever. Gin frowned and pulled away the hand that was being tucked behind his waist.

—Look at a hand wrapped up like a rice dumpling.

Gin's aura suddenly surged forth, his murderous intent spreading out without restraint.

"What happened? Who did this? Are you an idiot? You can't even get injured on a small mission?"

Chu Ming looked at his hand, which was being held by Gin, with tears welling up in his eyes, and pitifully spoke.

"Brother, would you believe me if I said this injury is fake?"

Believe me, I'll secretly fix it right now. Anyway, I've earned quite a few points from teasing Conan recently, enough to heal my hand.

"Heh." Gin gave Chu Ming only a cold laugh.

"Vodka, go check on the Moonshadow Island mission." Gin dragged Chu Ming downstairs and shoved him into the car, then spoke to Vodka in the driver's seat.

--------

It was the same room, the same monitor, the same shadow.

Gin stood respectfully to the side, but the murderous intent in his eyes was like a knife piercing Chu Ming.

As soon as Karasuma Renya connected to the surveillance camera, he saw Chu Ming's mummy-like hand and Gin's chilling killing intent. Having already learned the details from the undercover agent on the police side, he spoke up.

"Chu Ming, you did a great job on this mission. The police have a positive impression of you, which will make it easier for you to get intelligence in the future. However, if you want to improve your relationship with the police, you must prioritize your own safety. Do you understand?"