Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Hattori nudged Conan with his elbow, gossiping: "Is that when you realized she wasn't just your childhood friend anymore?"

Chu Ming nudged him from the other side, saying, "You must have saved the galaxy in your past life, right?"

Conan's face flushed from the shoving between the two, and he quickly turned his head away, looking intently at Ran downstairs chatting with Sonoko, his eyes filled with love and sadness.

Seeing Conan staring blankly at Ran, Hattori stood by the window and waved to Kazuha with a bright smile.

He and Sonoko were the only two injured people here—well, no, Sonoko already has Makoto Kyogoku, so he was the only real single guy.

hateful! !

Chu Ming leaned against the railing, feeling indignant, when he suddenly felt a magnetic field surging towards him.

Huh? Where did that magnetic field come from? Was it that person walking alone just now?

Chu Ming stared at Saijo Taiga as she walked in and instantly recognized the culprit. He watched as the murderer nonchalantly returned and blended into the game, even playing a game with the geisha alongside Kogoro Mouri.

Time passed by, and at nine o'clock, everyone heard a short, subtle scream.

Compared to previous occasions, Chu Ming heard much more elegant and reserved screams this time.

Following her scream, Chu Ming and the others rushed to the warehouse downstairs and found Sakura Masazo lying in a pool of blood. The teahouse proprietress was huddled in a corner, her face full of fear, but she still tried her best to maintain her elegance.

Sakura Seizo's throat was slit cleanly and swiftly. His wallet lay on his body, but the bills inside remained untouched, clearly indicating that the killer wasn't motivated by money.

Kogoro Mouri cleared everyone out of the scene, telling them to wait in the room until the police arrived. He also handed Conan to Ran, signaling her to take him away and keep a close watch on Conan as he wandered around the crime scene. However, he didn't notice that Conan had secretly taken a set of keys from the deceased's side.

The police officer who came to the scene this time was the same Ayanokouji officer that Chu Ming and Hattori had met on the street before, the one with the squirrel. Chu Ming watched him prepare to enter the crime scene to investigate, but after looking for a long time without seeing his squirrel, he couldn't help but ask, "Officer, where's your little squirrel?"

Ayanokouji glanced at the man who was being particularly concerned about by his own little squirrel, and his expression softened slightly: "It's a murder scene, so we won't bring it out."

After saying that, he went back to work.

Hattori, however, was kicked out of the scene after the police arrived. He simply nudged Conan and asked, "Shall we go?"

Conan paused for a second: "Huh?"

Hattori, with a knowing look on his face, said, "Don't think I didn't see you secretly find something on Mr. Sakura's shirt. It's a key, isn't it? I've inquired. Mr. Sakura's shop is on Teramachi Road. Let's go, let's go, while the police are still investigating the scene, let's hurry over there."

Conan, being dragged outside by Hattori, couldn't help but ask, "Aren't you taking Chu Ming with you???"

Hattori gave a sly smile: "Let's not take him. He even stole our meat at lunch. Let's sneak over and not let him find out."

Conan tilted his head, but...

"It's so late, are you just going to walk all the way there?" Conan was clearly speechless. "It's such a long way! The only one with a car right now is Brother Chu Ming!"

"His keys are still in the car, let's just drive away!" Hattori had never driven a car before and was quite excited.

"Calm down, Hattori! You're the chief's son, you can't break the law!! Driving without a license is illegal!!" Conan dragged Hattori's hand as he tried to open the door, looking utterly devastated.

What should I do? Neither of my two friends is mentally sound, and I'm the only normal one among them. I'm under so much pressure.

Chapter 390 Vehicle Killer 2.0

In the end, Conan, dragging Hattori along like a big whiny guy, finally managed to find Chu Ming for help, hoping that Chu Ming would drive the two of them to Mr. Sakura's antique art shop.

"What are you going there for?" Chu Ming waved his hand. "Trespassing is illegal. Are you two detectives trying to break the law?"

Sending them there is not a problem, but the main issue is that all the antiques that Genji Hotaru stole back then were sold at Sakura Seizo's antique shop, and many of them are still unsold and stored in the warehouse behind his shop.

Even a small mosquito is still meat, and these antiques can fetch a good price. It was only after the car was vandalized that Chu Ming remembered these antiques and immediately ordered his men to move them. He specifically emphasized that they should not be moved in a messy manner, and that the warehouse should be emptied, but the store's furnishings should remain largely unchanged, since the police would definitely be inspecting the store later.

"We're trying to find out the truth! We didn't trespass, and I have the key!" Conan carefully shook the key in his hand.

Chu Ming joked with them to deliberately delay for a while before driving them there. As soon as they entered, they found that the book he had asked the organization members to take out and put in a more conspicuous place was now on the table, visible as soon as the door opened.

No, isn't this too obvious? Are you trying to fool children?

As soon as Conan entered, he found a copy of "Yoshitsune's Record" on the table. He went over and opened it, and saw a name written on the title page—Ise Saburo.

He didn't suspect that someone had deliberately placed it there; he assumed that Mr. Sakura had just looked at it before leaving, so he quickly called Chu Ming and Hattori over to take a look.

"Mr. Sakura is Ise Saburo, which means that the members of the Genji Hotaru who have died so far are—Surugawa Jiro, Ise Saburo, Bizen Heishiro, Kamei Rokuro, Washio Shichiro, and Kataoka Hachiro." Chu Ming counted the people who had been killed on his fingers, then suddenly realized, "Isn't there still five missing? Mouri Kogoro?"

Suddenly, I dreamt of my fourteenth goal.

"..." Conan looked at Chu Ming speechlessly, "Brother Chu Ming, have you caught your uncle's illness recently?"

"I just said it offhand. Wasn't the last incident with the crystal also based on the name?"

Chu Ming tried to argue, but seeing that Conan still wanted to say something, he urged them to hurry up and look for clues: "Hurry up and look, the police will probably be here soon. After all, this is not Osaka or Tokyo, and the police don't have anyone we know. It will be hard to explain later. Let's finish looking and leave as soon as possible."

After searching the front room, Conan opened the back door, squatted down by the warehouse, and looked at the dust on the ground, deep in thought: "There must have been a lot of things here before, but they were all moved away, and recently at that. Since Mr. Sakura is a member of the Genji Hotaru, then this antique museum of his must be used to sell the antiques they stole. It seems that they have conducted a large-scale transaction recently."

Conan spoke eloquently, and Chu Ming remained silent. After all, what Conan said was mostly correct, the only difference being that this was a costless transaction; the organization didn't pay, and Sakura Seizo didn't know anything about it.

After a while, Chu Ming saw that they had searched the area thoroughly, so he urged the two to leave quickly and wipe away any fingerprints or footprints so as not to interfere with the police's judgment and to prevent the three of them from being arrested.

The three of them cleaned up the scene methodically. Chu Ming had done this kind of thing a lot when he was still working on the periphery, so it was second nature to him. But looking at Conan and Hattori like this... they were way too skilled!

"Are you really just detectives? Or do you have some secret identity as a skilled assassin...? Your movements are quite proficient; how many crime scenes have you examined to hone your techniques..."

On the way back, Chu Ming held back for a long time, but he couldn't hold it in any longer and blurted out his doubts.

Hattori waved his hand: "What? I learned it from Uncle Otaki. Sometimes when they were exploring crime scenes, they needed to clean up their own traces. Over time, I naturally learned it by observing them."

Okay, that's a valid reason.

Chu Ming continued to ask Conan, "And what about you? Did you learn it from your dad?"

Conan nodded: "When my dad was writing detective novels, he took me to Hawaii to learn how to make them more realistic."

Okay, amazing Hawaii, that's an even better reason.

"And what about you?!" Conan and Hattori asked in unison.

"Me? I learned from my combat coach." Chu Ming skillfully fabricated a half-true, half-false excuse, feigning a sarcastic tone. "You all know I'm a rich kid. Back when my parents were still alive, they were afraid I'd get kidnapped, so they found me a combat coach. Even after they passed away, he didn't stop teaching me. My coach was an international mercenary who retired from the battlefield. He could teach me a little bit of everything, not just crime scene handling, but even how to dispose of a body back then..."

“No wonder Brother Chu Ming’s moves are sometimes deadly. If Brother Chu Ming hadn’t deliberately aimed slightly off-target when he beat people up, some people would probably have been killed in the first encounter.” Hattori pulled down his hat. “So the person who taught you was teaching you deadly moves.”

Hattori had practiced kendo, so he could tell whether a move was a killing blow or not. At first, he felt that Chu Ming's moves were a bit too murderous, but fortunately, Chu Ming seemed to know his limits and only knocked people unconscious when he beat them. In addition, he showed a lot of upright behavior, and Conan trusted him a lot, so he finally felt at ease and started associating with Chu Ming.

Chu Ming understood Hattori's misunderstanding of him, but he didn't explain. He never deliberately targeted anyone when he beat people up; the only reason no one had died so far was because of the Conan buff. In front of the main characters, it didn't matter how hard he hit them; at most, they would be knocked unconscious or foam at the mouth, but they wouldn't be killed.

Xiao Lan could bend a telephone pole with a single punch, and she could punch people more than a dozen times in a row without killing them. This is the power of the world's will to control things.

When they returned to the teahouse and heard Conan and Hattori's investigation results, Kogoro Mouri's lips twitched instantly.

"...Then the next one to be killed won't be me, the one who got missed in the middle!"

Chu Ming stared intently at Kogoro Mouri, who seemed to share the same view, but then, remembering his famous method of elimination, he silently looked away.

Forget it, I have the same thought process as Kogoro Mouri. I'm probably really being driven crazy by Gin's information lately.

——(*^▽^*)——

After everyone had finished sharing their opinions and chatting, it was already past nine o'clock.

Kogoro Mouri also rented a car, so they split up and went back to their respective hotels.

Just as Chu Ming was driving towards the hotel he had booked, he saw in his rearview mirror a motorcycle chasing closely behind him. The motorcycle was even using coins to wedge the handlebars to control its speed, leaving its hands free to draw its bow and nock an arrow.

Chu Ming quickly swerved to dodge the arrow, slammed on the brakes, and stopped at the side of the road. As usual, the masked killer couldn't slow down in time because of the stuck coin and could only whiz past their car. He couldn't help but reveal a mocking smile.

Hattori, sitting in the back, was very anxious, wishing he were driving: "Brother Chu Ming is gone! You have to hurry and chase after him!!!"

Chu Ming remained calm: "Don't rush. This murderer has come to you repeatedly, he must have something on his mind. If we just stay put, he will definitely come again. On the contrary, if we keep chasing him, we will easily fall into his trap."

Sure enough, before Chu Ming could drive away, the motorcycle that had just roared past came rushing back from the opposite direction. This time, the bow and arrow in his hand were not aimed at the person, but at the tires of the motorcycle.

What kind of unethical and violent killer is this?! Why does he like targeting his tires so much?!

Chu Ming seized the opportunity, dodged the arrows, and with a swift movement, used the rear of his motorcycle to knock the masked man off. As the masked man fell off the motorcycle, he pulled out his familiar knife again and severely damaged Chu Ming's tire before turning and running into the nearby woods.

Seeing that the murderer was about to leave, Hattori opened the car door and chased after him.

When Kazuha saw Hattori run away, she became worried and ran after him.

Things happened very quickly. In the blink of an eye, Chu Ming was left alone, staring silently at the empty car with its flat tires for a long time.

After a long while, Chu Ming finally found his voice: "Damn, another tire is broken?"

Have I been spending too much time with Kogoro Mouri lately? Not only are my deductions starting to resemble his, but I'm also about to inherit his title as a vehicle killer?

Chapter 391 My body is too weak

Chu Ming had no interest in chasing after anyone. He squatted down beside the punctured tire and fell into deep thought.

He has always wanted to ride on Conan's death god aura, but so far he has not succeeded. Now when he goes out alone, he still doesn't encounter any cases.

But now, it seems he's riding on Kogoro Mouri's vehicle killer aura?

Who would want that halo?!

The car that Kogoro Mouri damaged was a rental car, but all the cars he damaged were actually part of the organization's fleet, so it's practically his car!

How can this be??

Currently, almost all of Genji Hotaru's members have been killed, and he already knows who the murderer is during the day – it's Saijo Taiga.

That Saijo Taiga guy is no good, he's impossible to deal with. All he did was puncture his tire once and wreck his motorcycle once! Yet he still managed to mess with his poor tires twice!

Chu Ming got up, made another call to the person in charge of dispatching vehicles in Kyoto, then left the car on the side of the road and headed towards Hattori.

When Chu Ming arrived, he saw Hattori, with blood flowing from his brow, tear open his collar, revealing his collarbone and a large expanse of his chest, inviting Saijo Taiga to stab him in the heart.

???