Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Meeting the detective's subtly approving gaze, Chu Ming smiled slyly to himself. "There's something even more surprising for you. Move aside, I'm about to start showing off."

Just then, Inspector Megure arrived, looking at Kogoro Mouri, who was scratching his head and staring at him speechlessly: "What, it's you again!"

"Haha, Inspector Megure! Yes! It's me again, Detective Kogoro Mouri! I will definitely find the culprit!"

.........

After Inspector Megure's routine questioning, officers from the forensic department came to him to report the situation.

"Officer, the scene investigation is complete. The suspect used black powder. Scattered around the scene are fragments of long-drive golf club heads, and here, there's half a golf ball containing a fuse."

Kogoro Mouri stroked his chin, looking thoughtful: "The bomb was originally installed inside the golf ball, and then detonated by the impact of the club when it was struck."

Inspector Megure took the ball from the forensic officer, examined it carefully, and then turned to ask the golf course manager, "Mr. Katsuta, are the golf balls here marked with a red cross?"

"No, we all use a green line as a marker, look at the ball on the field."

"So it seems the red markings are for bombs. The question is, was this explosion targeted at an individual, or was it a random terrorist attack?"

Just then, Minami Satoshi suddenly stood up and wisely said, "I think this should be a case against Manager Tachibana personally, because of the three people present, whether it is me or the other two, we all have a motive to kill Manager Tachibana."

Chu Ming chuckled at his sudden outburst. "You think you've got it all figured out? How confident do you have to be to jump in like that? Are you really that sure your methods are foolproof? This isn't a game of Werewolf, why would someone reveal themselves to elevate their status?"

The other two were stunned by Minami Satoshi's speech and began to frantically reveal their own secrets, as well as the motives of others, and started accusing each other.

Suddenly, Kogoro Mouri raised his hand and said, "I understand, I get it, officer!"

Great, we can start eliminating the wrong answers now.

"The culprit must have mixed the ball with the other balls, so the most suspicious person is Okubo, who took the ball out of the ball dispenser—that's you!"

Yasui immediately jumped out: "It really was you! Minami Tomofumi and I didn't touch the manager's ball bucket at all today, only you! You..."

Kogoro Mouri interrupted him: "That's not necessarily true. Mr. Minami Satoshi is indeed innocent, but you are different. You just gave half of your ball to Manager Tachibana, so it's very possible that you also took the opportunity to pass the ball to the manager!"

Wow, they eliminated two in one go.

Kogoro Mouri spoke eloquently and confidently, stating his reasoning.

The police also found several red-marked golf balls in Mr. Yasui's bag and handed them to Inspector Megure. Kogoro Mouri's eyes lit up: "That's right, this is the most compelling evidence. What else do you have to say!"

Mr. Yasui looked bewildered: "No, officer, this isn't mine!"

Kogoro Mouri beamed with pride: "Hahaha, this case is far too easy. For a famous detective like me, it's as simple as eating breakfast!"

Conan frowned and gently tugged at Chu Ming's sleeve. Ever since Chu Ming called him a pervert for pulling on his pants last time, he now makes sure to check where the hem of Chu Ming's clothes is before he reaches out.

"Brother Chu Ming, don't you feel something's off? So far, Uncle's reasoning has been unusually sound this time, without any contradictions. But if Mr. Yasui is the murderer, why would he put the ball in his bag? That's too silly!"

Chu Ming whispered mysteriously in Conan's ear, "I already know who the murderer is."

Conan's eyes widened. What? Chu Ming had actually seen through it this time?!

"The culprit is Minami Satoshi." Meeting Conan's questioning gaze, Chu Ming continued, "I've discovered a pattern. Every time Uncle Mori transforms into Sleeping Kogoro, he always identifies a suspect who isn't the culprit to confuse the real killer. In this case, there are three suspects, and Uncle Mori has already identified two of them. According to Mori's law of elimination, the culprit must be Minami Satoshi!"

Conan stared blankly. "Huh? Is this how you judge the culprit?"

Chapter 33 World Famous Paintings

After explaining his method of argumentation to Conan, Chu Ming led him towards the edge of the court, talking as they walked.

"Now that we know Minami Satoshi is the culprit, what we need to do now is look for any details we might have missed before." Chu Ming said to Conan like he was educating a child, secretly pleased with himself. It felt so good to be teaching Conan a lesson.

Conan looked helpless as Chu Ming pulled him away.

"Found it, look!" Chu Ming nudged Conan, who seemed lost in thought.

Conan looked up and saw a blackened golf ball in Chu Ming's hand: "Huh, what's this—"

Chu Ming crouched down, holding the ball in his palm for Conan to see: "This must be a setup. Mr. Yasui isn't the culprit. This ball must have been shot by Manager Tachibana at the moment of the explosion, so what exploded wasn't the ball, but—"

"—A cue stick?" Conan suddenly realized.

The two looked back and saw that the police were already preparing to take Mr. Yasui back to the police station.

Oh no! Just as Conan was about to reach for his watch, Chu Ming called out to Inspector Megure, "Inspector Megure, wait a minute!"

"Hmm, Fujino-kun, what's wrong?"

Chu Ming looked at Kogoro Mouri: "Uncle Mouri, I know you're testing me, and I completely understand what you mean!"

"Huh?" Kogoro Mouri was completely baffled.

Chu Ming straightened up and said righteously, "Uncle Mori already reminded me who the culprit was. I had the correct answer, yet I only found a clue now. I'm so ashamed!"

Inspector Megure was even more confused: "Warn you? When? We didn't hear you."

"Uncle Mori just mentioned that Mr. Yasui and Mr. Okubo are suspects, and he also emphasized that Mr. Minami Tomofumi has no suspicion. He must be implying that Mr. Minami Tomofumi is the murderer!"

Nan Zhishi looked up in shock, about to make a fuss, but was silenced by Chu Ming's words.

"After learning about Uncle Mori's hint, I wondered, if this ball was used to frame Mr. Yasui, then what is the real murder weapon? So Conan and I went to the court to look for it, and sure enough, we found it."

Chu Ming gestured for Conan to hand the ball to Inspector Megure, treating Conan as an assistant.

"We found this ball near the perimeter net. Upon closer inspection, it was indeed covered in black powder. That's when I understood what Uncle Mori wanted me to realize. Manager Tachibana didn't hit a ball with a bomb; he hit a ball marked with green lines that belonged to the golf course. The explosion actually occurred at the tip of a long-distance club! At the moment of the explosion, when the smoke was thick and no one could see clearly, the culprit placed the shattered golf ball on the course. This way, we would be predisposed to believe that the ball caused the explosion."

Inspector Megure gasped in shock, turning to look at Kogoro Mouri, then at Chu Ming: "I see. I didn't even catch Kogoro's hint. How could you be so sure it was Mr. Minami Tomofumi based on that alone?"

"Mr. Yasui, today when Uncle Mori was practicing, Conan and I both heard you talking about the cost of repairing long-distance golf clubs."

"Yes, because there was a crack in the cue stick, Minami Tomofumi took it to be repaired—was that when!"

Chu Ming turned to look at Minami Tomoshi: "Mr. Minami, may I ask where you sent your golf club for repair? And when did you receive it?"

The golf course owner chimed in, "It was repaired here. We also repair golf clubs for our customers. I handed it over to him the night before last."

Chu Ming choked for a moment. The day before yesterday? Wasn't the last time he saw him more than half a month ago? Time really does reverse in the Detective Conan world, right? = =

However, no one noticed Chu Ming's pause, because Mr. Yasui suddenly pushed to the front and loudly accused Minami Tomofumi: "But didn't you just bring it over this morning saying the cue was fixed?!"

Nan Zhishi's face was gloomy, and he didn't speak, his sinister eyes staring at Chu Ming.

Chu Ming raised his head and said, "What are you looking at? I'm not afraid of you. I'm not even afraid of Gin's eyes, let alone yours."

“Mr. Nan, did you think I would have no clues if you didn’t speak? The injury on your hand gives me the answer. I’ve been thinking, you were standing right next to the crime scene, why are your injuries so minor? You wanted to get injured to escape suspicion. Look at Mr. Okubo, his whole body was affected by the explosion, while you only have minor injuries on the outside of your right hand and below your knee.”

"Can't I just be lucky?" Minami Satoshi finally retorted, his eyes filled with resentment.

"Hmph." Chu Ming mimicked Gin's cold laugh, "Trying to use a self-inflicted injury ruse, yet instinctively afraid of being seriously injured, didn't you subconsciously cover your eyes with your hands and hide behind a pillar a few seconds before the explosion?"

Everyone looked at Minami Satoshi, who lowered his head and remained silent for a long time: "To be honest, I have always resented the manager. He never valued my talents, and Section Chief Yasui is always just flattering the manager. So I plan to kill the manager and frame Yasui!"

Inspector Megure said with a serious expression, "Your plan could very well affect others. What if there are many people at the time, and many people get injured as a result?"

Minami Tomofumi turned his head away with a smug look on his face: "So what? What does it have to do with me? All I need to do is kill Manager Tachibana!"

Chu Ming genuinely didn't understand: "If he doesn't approve of you, won't you quit? He didn't steal your ideas. You can switch companies and make a name for yourself with your talent, then you can show off in front of him. Wouldn't that be more satisfying?"

Your company isn't a winery where leaving means certain death. But according to the laws of science, you might be the one who dies in the end—

Minami Tomofumi was stunned for a moment, probably not expecting that this could be done, and was taken away by the police with a blank look in his eyes.

Inspector Megure showered Kogoro Mouri with compliments, which Kogoro accepted with an arrogant smile.

Throughout the entire process, Conan kept staring at Chu Ming with a "-0-" expression. He knew that Kogoro Mouri had not been making any crazy hints to Chu Ming at all. All the doubts that the uncle had mentioned earlier were because he really thought so. It was truly a beautiful misunderstanding.

but……

Conan asked thoughtfully, "Mr. Nan, are all the things you say true?"

"Huh?" Chu Ming and Xiao Lan both looked at Conan with a puzzled expression.

Conan lowered his eyes: "Because I went to watch Manager Tachibana play basketball back then, and Mr. Minami warned me that it was dangerous there and I shouldn't go near it. I think he just didn't want me to get involved..."

Chu Ming stroked his chin: "This is probably the will of the world. Everyone's subconscious is to protect the protagonist—except for Gin. His will is too strong; even the will of the world can't do anything about him."

The more he thought about it, the more sense it made. Weren't all the people in the distillery protecting Conan later on? Vermouth, Curaçao, and even Ireland were protecting Conan before they died. Gin, fighting alone, was so pitiful. Chu Ming thought of that world-famous painting.

Undercover in the useless driver

Traitor Gin infiltrates

Undercover agent, undercover agent, undercover agent

Chapter 34 Did Shinichi Kudo cheat on his girlfriend?

After slacking off at home for several days, Chu Ming thought that Sherry would soon become Conan's classmate, but he never heard the trio who came to see Conan mention any new classmates.

Chu Ming couldn't press the matter further, so he could only visit the Mori Detective Agency from time to time, ostensibly to admire the Mori Detective's heroic figure.

Conan was quite helpless when he saw Chu Ming praising Kogoro Mouri's detective skills. However, he couldn't step in and say that he was the one who solved these cases, and that his uncle wasn't trying to confuse the criminals; he was genuinely confused...

As usual, Chu Ming visited that day. Ran was having a long phone conversation with Conan, or rather, Shinichi Kudo. As soon as Chu Ming entered the door, he heard a tremendous sneeze coming from the other end of the line.

"Xiao Lan, who are you talking to on the phone?" Chu Ming asked knowingly.

"It's Shinichi. He hasn't come back yet, saying he has a lot of cases to handle. Honestly, okay, hurry up and get better from your cold. I'm hanging up now." *Click*, Ran hung up the phone with a hint of resentment.

"Hello, hello—" Conan, hiding in the phone booth downstairs, was covered in soot. Damn it, that guy Chu Ming hung up on me as soon as he arrived. Am I not your only little cutie?!

He jumped up hurriedly, hung up the phone, and rushed to the office. Damn it, I have to keep an eye on things, lest Xiaolan get kidnapped!

Chu Ming was about to sit down and take a sip of tea when there was another knock on the door. He glanced at Xiao Lan, who was busy, and then stood up to open the door.

"Oh, is there a request, Dad! Wake up! Wake up!" Ran ran out of the kitchen and quickly shook Kogoro Mouri awake.

"Huh? What, a commission? Isn't that Chu Ming? What kind of commission could he possibly have..." Kogoro Mori said sleepily.