Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

His buff is absolutely guaranteed to catch someone empty-handed—it guarantees that he'll be overheard if he says something bad, how infuriating!

Gin was originally planning to go on his mission after Chu Ming left, but since he was pretty sure that the undercover agent was in the intelligence group again, he decided to go and report to the BOSS first.

Just as he was standing under the screen reporting to the BOSS, the BOSS chuckled and said that Granbury rarely asked him to come along, so he was invited to listen in. As a result, he unexpectedly overheard Chu Ming and the BOSS having a heartfelt conversation.

"..."

I just promised him I wouldn't tell the boss.

Also, this was all said by Lafitte, right? Heh, it seems these two haven't been doing enough tasks lately.

[Severe writer's block QAQ I struggled for ages and only managed to write a little over a thousand words. I'll leave it at that for now and work on it again _(:з」∠)_]

Chapter 309 Putting the cart before the horse

Chu Ming, seeing that the BOSS was clearly watching from the sidelines and enjoying the chaos, gritted his teeth and quickly tried to salvage the situation: "Big brother, although I promised you I wouldn't tell the BOSS about this, we can't ignore the problem. If you're sick, you need to get treatment. I know you won't listen to my advice, so I can only ask the BOSS for help. It's definitely not because I'm coveting your position."

“Although there’s nothing wrong with my body,” Gin straightened up and stared at Chu Ming on the screen. “However, since Granburch is so willing to share my burdens, I still have quite a few tasks to complete, and the follow-up—”

? ? ? ?

"No way!" Chu Ming reacted strongly. Gin had already given him more than a dozen missions, and with Gin's missions added on, he wouldn't have been able to earn any extra money in the meantime. Conan might even be a second-year student by now and he still wouldn't have finished all his missions.

He wanted to be the leader of the action team so that he wouldn't have to do missions himself, not so that he could help Gin do missions. He couldn't put the cart before the horse.

Seeing that both the BOSS and Gin were staring at him, Chu Ming tried hard to find an excuse: "Uh... it's like this, Lafitte recently said he's been really bored. He said that Big Brother hasn't given him any missions in a long time, and I think he'd be willing to take over the missions Big Brother has in his hands—I'm not saying this because I don't want to take them, but emmm... I just want to give Lafitte a chance to prove himself, after all, he's wanted to replace Big Brother for a long time..."

Anyway, Gin can't hit him because he's far away. Sorry, Laffitte, better to die than to die myself, you'll understand.

Finally, Chu Ming scrolled through his email inbox and found another long list of tasks. He muttered curses under his breath as he left the house.

Ugh, I'm never sharing gossip with the boss again! He's just there to watch the show! Tsk!

Fortunately, Lafitte received more tasks than him, which made him feel much more balanced.

**

"Conan went out to play with Shinichi?" Chu Ming went to the agency to find Conan, hoping to take him out to play. Maybe Conan's aura could directly kill the mission target and save him a lot of trouble. But he heard this unbelievable news from Ran. "How did they end up playing together?"

Shadow clone?

Ran sat on the sofa angrily: "Although the two of them have never met, I think they get along quite well in private. Conan usually says that Shinichi told him a lot of things, and Conan and Hattori are also on good terms."

That's pretty good. Two people who get really into cases naturally have a good relationship.

"Did Shinichi come to pick up Conan himself? Did you see Shinichi?" Chu Ming sensed something was wrong and continued to press for answers.

"No, we took Conan to the bathhouse, but after we came out, we couldn't find him. We asked the staff, and they said he slipped and fell while bathing and was taken away by a man. The staff said the man claimed to be Conan's friend and wanted to take him to the hospital."

"Then how did you know it was Shinichi who took it?" Chu Ming took a sip of coffee, found it a bit bitter, and put the cup down.

"Because Shinichi texted me saying they're together now." Ran clenched her fists tightly, her eyes slightly red. "That bastard! Why didn't he come to see me when he got back? He'd rather take Conan out to play than see me, and then he proposed! Shinichi is such a big idiot!"

Chu Ming looked at Xiao Lan, who was lost in sadness and anger, and silently went out first. He took out his phone and called Shinichi's phone, but no one answered until the call ended naturally.

This is forcing him to use his ultimate move.

Chu Ming returned to his car and began using his computer to check Conan's location. Conan had the same nano-locator as Shuichi Akai, which he had secretly placed inside Conan. He had placed this inside almost everyone around him, since they were all his tools and he couldn't leave them unmarked.

Watching the flashing dots on the screen, Chu Ming drove his car toward the designated location.

Upon arriving at the location, Chu Ming first surveyed the terrain. It was an abandoned warehouse on the outskirts of Tokyo. Due to its remote location, it was rarely used at present, and Conan's location was in the last warehouse.

Chu Ming crept close to the wall and, through the crack in the window, got a clear view of the warehouse.

Conan was fast asleep on the sofa, covered with a blanket, and judging from his exposed shoulders, he wasn't wearing anything...

Oh dear, poor thing~ It seems he was brought directly from the bathhouse and didn't even have time to put on his clothes.

Besides Conan, there are three other people in the warehouse: one is Mr. Kondo, whom Chu Ming had investigated before; another, judging from their conversation, is a burglar who specializes in breaking into houses and claims to be able to break all locks; and the third is an inconspicuous petty thug.

The three men's conversation was cryptic, implying that they were hired by someone to be there, and their employer was suspected to be the now-famous Mr. Kondo.

Chu Ming didn't listen any further. He was about to throw a smoke bomb and go in to rescue the people when he heard light footsteps coming from not far away.

—More people are coming, and there's more than one.

Chu Ming decisively retreated to the corner, and saw Ai Haibara sneakily following a woman toward them.

The woman was ruthless and didn't talk much. She had barely entered the warehouse when she shot and killed the thugs and thieves.

A wisp of magnetic field was drawn to Chu Ming's side; though it was small, it was better than nothing.

However, even though two people were killed, there was only a wisp of magnetic field, which suggests that someone was up to no good.

Chu Ming wasn't in a hurry to catch up with Conan anymore. Instead, he watched with interest as the thugs who were supposed to be killed in the warehouse stood up, dusting themselves off, and poured gasoline from the corner of the warehouse onto the corpses.

—It seems he's the mastermind behind this.

In order to kidnap Conan as soon as possible to complete his mission, Chu Ming decisively shot and killed the thug A-Chen who was about to set a fire, showing that he had no ability to compete with Kindo's murder cases.

Moreover, his goal is to assassinate the Prime Minister of Nepal and his family. However, the organization is currently cooperating with Prime Minister Babio of Nepal. Although the Prime Minister is unlikely to die with Conan around, this would solve the problem once and for all, saving Conan from having to think too much and wasting time going out with him on missions.

He's such a good person—

Chapter 310 How come Brother Chu Ming has it?

After dealing with the culprit, Chu Ming drove on to save Conan.

On the way, Chu Ming spotted a familiar Beetle. The door was broken, and the whole car was badly damaged. It was parked on the side of the winding mountain road.

Chu Ming stopped the car and looked down along the railing. He saw that the bushes and grass not far below the mountain had been trampled. He climbed over the railing, grabbed the trees, and jumped down the cliff.

Although Ai Haibara won't die here, seeing Professor Agasa's car wrecked on the roadside and then walking over to save Conan without doing anything is clearly out of character for him and could easily arouse Conan's suspicion. He still needs Conan to help him complete his mission later.

Following the trail, Chu Ming saw a familiar soccer ball skin appear in the distance, hidden by trees. Chu Ming quickly walked forward and, sure enough, saw Ai Haibara lying unconscious on the ground. It seemed that when she fell off the cliff, she had used the belt that could pop out a soccer ball to make herself an airbag.

Chu Ming picked her up and examined her briefly. He found only some abrasions on her exposed skin, but no broken bones. Following the path they had just come down, Chu Ming led Ai Haibara back the way they came.

As she climbed upwards, Ai Haibara suddenly regained consciousness and found herself being held. Her long-dormant "Blacksmith's radar" suddenly came back online. Her face was pale, and before she could even fully open her eyes, she gripped the anesthetic watch on her wrist, preparing to shoot upwards.

Chu Ming heard the sound of Ai Haibara waking up and was about to bend down and call her when he saw Ai Haibara with a pale face, her eyes closed and her hands trembling as she prepared to stab him in the back.

Chu Ming quickly hooked his leg around the tree and used one hand to grab Ai Haibara's hand that was reaching for her watch: "Ai, take it easy. We're climbing up the mountain. If you use that needle, we'll both fall to our deaths."

Hearing the familiar voice, Ai Haibara looked up and asked, "Brother Chu Ming?"

Chu Ming climbed over the fence along the tree to the car, put Ai Haibara down, and took out a first-aid kit from the car to treat her wounds.

"I was passing by when I saw the doctor's car wrecked here, and there were signs of broken branches on the trees over there, so I went down to see if anyone had fallen. But I only saw you down there. What happened to you? Where is the doctor?"

Ai Haibara tilted her head slightly, letting Chu Ming apply the medicine for her: "Edogawa was kidnapped. When the professor and I were chasing after the car that took him away, a big truck came from behind and crashed into the professor's car, causing it to overturn. I fell out of the car window. I guess the professor was kidnapped by them."

As she spoke, Ai Haibara handed Conan's tracking glasses to Chu Ming: "Conan has been stuck in this place, probably because he's trapped there."

Chu Ming took the glasses and put them on, but didn't use them. Instead, he secretly activated the system's tracking system and drove forward, successfully finding Conan's house. It was a detached villa with a thick, tall tree in front of the window.

The two sat in the tree canopy, hidden among the leaves, and through the gap in the curtains, they saw a man changing Conan's clothes and giving him a close hug, while another woman stood by, watching all this with a smile on her face.

"This family of three gives off a sense of déjà vu... Is Conan addicted to role-playing?" Chu Ming stroked his chin and turned to Ai Haibara to complain.

Ai Haibara stared blankly at the loving scene inside the window, then turned to look at the tree below: "Should we leave? Let's not disturb Edogawa's pursuit of family."

"Ai, sit here and don't fall."

After giving Ai Haibara some instructions, Chu Ming tossed a stone he had just picked up from under the tree and threw it forcefully at the window, leaving her speechless.

"Clang—" The French windows shattered in response.

The people inside looked in the direction of the stone and saw Chu Ming standing on a tall tree, waving at them.

Conan's feigned ignorance froze as he watched the woman reach into her arms. He turned pale with fright and was about to shout a warning to Chu Ming when he saw Chu Ming take out a palm-sized stick from his pocket and shoot it at the window frame not far away. A hook folded into a thin stick shape gradually opened, trailing a very tough, transparent filament.

This is a hook gun that the R&D department just developed. It is lightweight and portable. The hook and the wire are made of special materials. Although they are thin, they are very tough and not easily damaged. It was also the one that Chu Ming brought with him last time.

The grappling hook quickly snagged the window frame. Chu Ming pulled the rope and simultaneously activated the mechanism. The internal shaft rotated, and the fine wires quickly wound around. In the blink of an eye, Chu Ming had already descended from the tree into the room.

Seeing the woman's wide-eyed expression, Chu Ming slightly twitched his wrist and withdrew his hook claw. He spun around and kicked the woman's hand holding the gun, leaped up, caught the flying gun, stood up straight, and held the gun in one hand, standing tall.

"Let me think...you must be the genius con artist, Miss Nana, right? Don't move around too much, okay? I don't know how to use a gun, and it might go off accidentally." Chu Ming said with a smile, pulling Conan to his side and tilting his head to ask, "The police will be here soon, Conan, are you alright?"

Conan dropped the pretense and shook his head: "Brother Chu Ming, they wanted to assassinate the Prime Minister of Nepal who was visiting Japan. They were the ones who stole the bomb that was stolen earlier. I—"

Chu Ming nodded, interrupting him: "I know, Miss Nana, where is that old man you took away before?"

“An old man?” Miss Nana leaned against the wall, her red lips curving slightly. “You mean that bald old man? He was taken away by my companions. I’ll tell you if you let me go.”

Chu Ming rolled his eyes, lowered his hand that was holding the gun. Showing off for a while was enough; holding it up all the time was tiring. "I hope you're still this stubborn when we get to the police station. You've tied him up in the basement, haven't you?"

"Chu Ming, watch out!" Conan exclaimed. Seeing Em swinging a baseball bat at the back of Chu Ming's head, Conan panicked and kicked a small stool on the ground to try to stop Em from attacking. However, he forgot that he wasn't wearing magnetic shoes. Not only did he fail to kick the stool, but he also hit his toes, causing his face to contort in pain.

Having anticipated this, Chu Ming turned around and kicked Aim in the face, almost sending him flying out of the window.

Seeing Em's teeth practically flying out, Nana and Kondo swallowed hard and obediently stood against the wall. Nana even thoughtfully pointed out the way to the basement to Chu Ming.

He gestured for Conan to go down and rescue Professor Agasa, while Chu Ming stayed up to watch over the group and tell them not to wander off.

Ai Haibara was sitting on a branch of a large tree, embracing it in a daze. Her mind kept replaying the small stick that Chu Ming had just taken out. She had just noticed a faint mark on it—a mark unique to the organization's weapons research and development department.

Back when she was still Sherry, the organization gave her several small self-defense gadgets, all bearing this mark. At the time, Vodka proudly said that these were specially developed by the R&D department for codename members, and that peripheral members were not qualified to receive them.

Then—why does Brother Chu Ming have it?

Chapter 311 Do you have a code name now?

After Inspector Megure arrived and took the two away, Chu Ming went up the tree to bring Ai Haibara down, but Ai Haibara grabbed his hand.

Ai Haibara glanced at Conan, who was talking to Professor Agasa, and asked in a low, ambiguous voice, "...Brother Chu Ming, you...you are, are you..."