Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

With the intention of sharing his joy, Chu Ming carried some decorations, planning to give small gifts to everyone he met during this period.

"Wow, everyone's here! Come on, don't be shy, pick whatever you like!"

Pushing open the conference room door, Chu Ming saw Gin and Rum sitting upright inside, along with Vodka standing in the corner. He enthusiastically dumped all the gold from his bag onto the table, making the entire conference room gleam with gold under the lights.

Vodka stared in disbelief at the table full of gold: "Granbury, did you rob a gold shop?"

"Can't you speak properly? What do you mean by 'robbery'? Do I need to rob you? I'm not the same person I was a couple of days ago. I'm a billionaire now. Please show me some respect from now on." Chu Ming raised his chin, his face full of arrogance.

Vodka was completely bewildered. When had he ever disrespected Granburg? Would he dare to?

Rum chuckled and picked up a gold raven: "This raven looks familiar, quite similar to the boss's family crest, doesn't it, boss?"

However, he never received a reply from the boss, and couldn't help but look up at the screen in front of him.

"...It does look very similar." Karasuma Renya carefully examined the table full of gold. To be precise, he felt that everything looked familiar. Had Granburg robbed him?

Gin also picked up a beautifully carved gold book, which had a raven mark in the corner.

"Hehehe." Chu Ming chuckled foolishly, "Speaking of which, I should thank the boss. I went to the Twilight Villa, you know..."

Karasuma Renya finally realized something was wrong. Weren't these all the decorations from his room? How did they all turn gold? Did Chu Ming paint them?

No, with Rum's discerning eye, there's no way he wouldn't be able to tell the difference between gold plating and real gold...

"...Look!!" Chu Ming recounted the whole story to the group, even showing them the photo he'd taken back then—the one where the outer shell had been removed, revealing the golden villa. "Hahaha, I declare myself the richest person here now!!!"

Karasuma Renya remained silent in front of the screen. After a long while, he smiled and shook his head. It was just a house built of gold. This amount of money was nothing to him now. He hadn't expected it to make Granburg so happy.

Forty years ago, the laboratory's research on rejuvenation and immortality was at a bottleneck. He had invested almost all of his funds into it, but still saw no hope. He was already tormented by illness, and nothing could alleviate his fear of impending death. So when he heard that his mother had left a treasure in his house, he went to great lengths to find people to search for it, hoping that the treasure he found could help him fill the void in his life. He didn't waste the people who couldn't find any clues; he put them all in the laboratory to test drugs for him.

As for now, forty years have passed, and the Miyano couple's experiment is about half successful. Although he has not been taken away by death, he has become like this, barely clinging to life. Money is just a number to him. What he hopes to see more is a breakthrough in the experiment, which will allow him to truly get rid of his illness and completely escape the threat of death.

When Karasuma Renya came to her senses, she overheard Chu Ming asking Rum curiously, "By the way, I heard a rumor at the Twilight Villa today: what exactly happened at the memorial service there forty years ago? Why did those political and business luminaries turn on each other? Were those two men in black sent by the BOSS?"

"A memorial service?" Rum paused for a moment, then subconsciously glanced at the silhouette of a black raven on the screen beside him.

"Vodka, you go out first." Gin ordered in a deep voice to leave first. What happened next, whether the BOSS or Rum said it or not, was not something Vodka could listen to.

"It's nothing much. It's just a bunch of petty thieves who thought I was really dead and wanted to steal my wealth at the memorial service. Although those things were things I didn't need when I left in a hurry, they're not things that just anyone can take." The BOSS's mechanical voice was full of murderous intent, and his words were filled with a heavy killing intent, completely different from when he was gossiping with Chu Ming earlier.

"Those...those two men in black are—"

Rum chimed in, "It was me and Lafitte. The boss sent us to retrieve what belonged to him. Lafitte happened to have some intoxicating poison, so we added it to the marijuana and had those guys smoke it."

Is there still something to do with Lafitte?

That's true. Gin mentioned before that Laffitte is quite old, but it turns out he's in the same age group as Rum...

Chu Ming was actually quite curious about why Lafitte and Vermouth had maintained their youth. Could it be that they were used as test subjects for the BOSS?

Chu Ming didn't ask about the drug for the time being, but he had a vague guess about it.

The boss is now constantly using mechanical voices and raven silhouettes. Is it to maintain his mystery, or is it that he simply can't show himself...?

Chapter 282 Both rain and dew are touched

After finishing their casual conversation, Rum invited Chu Ming to sit down and discuss matters together.

"What were you guys talking about just now?" Chu Ming asked, extremely curious. "Any fun activities you'd like to do?"

"Nothing much going on, just talking about how Shuichi Akai isn't dead yet." Rum glanced meaningfully at Gin.

"Hmph, he won't be able to keep this up for long." Gin remained calm in the face of Rum's provocation, coldly uttering harsh words.

"Should we surround him again? When? I want to participate!" Chu Ming recalled the magnetic fields he encountered when he broke through the encirclement last time, and he instantly became excited.

“There’s something more important than the FBI right now: we must catch Sherry, or at least bring back the documents she took with her…”

……

After explaining what needed to be said, Karasuma Renya ended the call.

Rum then sidled up to Chu Ming like a good buddy: "Granbury, you see, such a big house on the mountain, what if someone secretly breaks in and takes some of it? Our intelligence team is a bit short on funds lately... cough, it's better to give it to me than to someone else... um, how about you...?"

???

"You can scheme against me, but you can't scheme against my money," Chu Ming refused outright.

“Hey, what are you saying? How about I announce you as the successor to the intelligence group right now? The intelligence group will be yours from now on, so it’s only right to spend some money on your own intelligence group…” Rum was full of implications.

Chu Ming kicked away the pie in his sky: "No, I'm not interested in the intelligence team, I prefer the action team~"

"No way..." Rum was eyeing the villa that was made entirely of gold. "Look, with so much gold, don't you have a market for it? I can help you sell it, but I'll charge you a 10% commission."

"I'm not selling. I want to live in this beautiful house myself. I'm a delicate flower, and I want to live in a golden palace. Besides, this house was a gift from the BOSS, so I'm not going to sell it." Chu Ming directly rejected Rum's request. What a joke! A tenth of several hundred billion is worth tens of billions. Rum is quite the smooth operator when it comes to getting something for nothing.

"What? That villa was actually a gift from the BOSS???"

Rum admitted he was jealous. He had worked hard for the BOSS for so many years, why didn't the BOSS give him a golden house?

“Yeah, ever since I joined the organization, I’ve been the BOSS’s favorite. There are so many fine wines in this organization, but the BOSS only favors me. I often advise the BOSS to share his favors more evenly, but he just won’t listen. He only favors me!” Chu Ming raised his chin and shook his head to provoke Rum.

Rum: “…”

Gin: "..."

Although the call was disconnected, the BOSS was still watching the monitor: "..."

I'm afraid the air will suddenly become quiet.

In the end, Gin's mental fortitude was superior. He pretended not to hear Chu Ming's strange tone: "Granbury, keep a close eye on the FBI lately. This group of FBI agents entering the country is very likely here for Sherry. Back then, that woman Miyano Akemi sent a text message to overseas, which she definitely sent to Akai Shuichi. She probably wanted Akai Shuichi to pick her and her sister up and leave the country."

"On the surface, the FBI only has Judy, and isn't she being watched by my sister? Do I really need to go?" Chu Ming wanted to slack off; he wanted to go to his own private quarters and laze around for a few days, lying there until the world seemed to end.

“Vermouth has other tasks too, so you can help her distract that FBI agent.” Gin lit a cigarette, took a puff, and then, seeing Chu Ming staring intently at him, turned his head and blew the smoke towards Rum.

Rum: ? ? ?

*****************************

"Ran's luck is as good as ever." Chu Ming rested his chin on his hand, sitting in Kogoro Mouri's car, marveling at Ran's incredible luck. "I always feel like with Ran around, you guys don't have to pay for meals, it's all thanks to the restaurant vouchers Ran draws."

As Kogoro Mouri drove, he couldn't help but complain, "Ran doesn't always have this kind of good luck. Today is an exception. It's all that damned Kid's fault. I hope I don't catch him. He made me spend the whole day in the gas station toilet wearing only thin clothes!! I've suffered so much, what's wrong with going to get something good to eat?"

"That's great, that's great. I haven't had Chinese food in ages." Chu Ming wiped away non-existent drool. It was time to take a trip to China; he wanted to eat Chinese food.

When they arrived at the restaurant in Chinatown, Xiaolan took out the invitation voucher from her pocket, only to be told that the voucher could only be used on weekends.

"Ugh, I completely missed that line of fine print." Ran Mouri held the coupon, looking utterly dejected. "I should have looked more carefully. What are we going to do now?"

Chu Ming, being wealthy and generous, said, "Since you're already here, why don't you sit down and eat? It's on me, consider it a token of appreciation for the care you've given me these past few days."

Kogoro Mouri was secretly delighted. What a great thing!

Just as they were about to readily agree, a group of people at a table in the distance suddenly called out to Xiaolan and her friends, "If you don't mind, why don't you join us? Of course, this meal is on us."

Kogoro Mouri remained wary of the invitation and did not readily agree, after all, there is no such thing as a free lunch.

"Of course, we also have a favor to ask. How old is this young lady? We have a script here and would like her to play the lead role," Kawabata Shiro said bluntly.

"The female lead? Me?" Ran Mouri waved her hands repeatedly, "I can't do it."

Chu Ming encouraged her: "Why not? Wasn't your princess performance at the school anniversary celebration spot great? You can give it a try. By the way, when you become famous, you must get me a lot of autographs!"

"Brother Chu Ming has an idol?" Conan asked curiously. "Whose autograph do you want?"

"Any popular idol will do! If there's one I don't like, I can just sell them off!"

If all else fails, you can give it to vodka; that nerdy guy would definitely love it.

Chapter 283 Are you Mr. Chu Ming?

Seeing that someone was helping to persuade him, Shiro Kawabata quickly pressed his advantage: "Yes, yes, miss, once this movie starts showing, you'll immediately be among the stars. Then you can be friends with all the artists and actors, including professional baseball players, race car drivers, soccer players, and so on..."

Hearing this clearly empty promise, Chu Ming couldn't help but roll his eyes. It's not that easy; the entertainment industry isn't that simple.

Well, Ran is different. If she really wants to enter the entertainment industry, her two actress mothers, Yukiko and Vermouth, will definitely help protect her. Plus, she has a rich best friend to help her. Maybe her path will be smooth sailing.

Upon hearing this, Kogoro Mouri and Conan's eyes lit up, and they quickly went over to persuade him.

"Sister Xiaolan, why don't you give it a try?"

"Exactly! You have to try things to know!"

At this moment, Ito Kiyun, who had been silent all along, suddenly spoke up: "But if you're going to act, you'd better be mentally prepared."

The original author, Kyōgo Kitaura, chimed in with a grumble: "That's true. There's a producer who, just to make money, would rather disregard the original work and insist on including a few intimate scenes..."

? ? ? ?

? ? ? ?

These words really stirred up Conan's jealousy. Conan quickly said that whether someone is a celebrity or not is not important at all, and maybe we should just let it go.

Kogoro Mouri nodded repeatedly in agreement.

Just then, Isokai Shizo suddenly exclaimed, "Fine, if you can't even accept this, you shouldn't act anymore. Otherwise, you might end up losing your life."

Looking at Iso no Uezo, who suddenly brought up this topic and spoiled the mood, Chu Ming felt a little confused. How did the topic abruptly turn to this?

However, since you brought up the topic, you are most likely the murderer.

"Hey, Isoue, don't scare the little girl, okay? I have high hopes for her."

Xiaolan was quite embarrassed and waved her hands repeatedly: "No, no, I'm not as good as you say..."

As a result, he accidentally spilled all the soup on the table onto his legs, and the bowl fell to the ground. Kawabata Shiro quickly picked up the tablecloth to wipe it up and comforted Ran, who kept apologizing, telling her to go ahead and order.