Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Sensing his gaze, the three little ones huddled together like frightened birds, their earlier chatter gone.

Conan, whose head was throbbing from the noise, glanced at Chu Ming with envy. Chu Ming was much more authoritative; he could make them all obey with just a look. Heaven knows how annoying these kids were.

In reality, Chu Ming simply looked at him with an innocent expression.

Ayumi mustered her courage and leaned closer to Conan, whispering, "Conan, Ran said your illness is cured. Do you want to come to the library with us? You haven't been to school for several days, and you're the only one who hasn't handed in your book report yet!"

Upon hearing that it was about doing homework, Ran readily agreed and urged Conan to come along, since the doctor had said that his body was completely fine.

The thought of becoming a high school student and losing contact with these kids made Conan decide to agree to their request.

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Chu Ming returned home, lay on his bed, and let out a comfortable sigh.

The sunset painted half the sky crimson, and lying in bed like a salted fish at this near dusk was simply—

"Buzz-"

What could the organization possibly be doing so late? What are they doing? Are they trying to stop people from slacking off?

It can't be Qin Bar again. They're working themselves to the bone and won't let others rest; that's too much. I strongly condemn this kind of cutthroat competition.

I opened my phone, and surprisingly, there was no signature.

"Granbury, the intelligence department has discovered drug-related transactions at the Mihua Library. Is this a follow-up to the Moonshadow Island drug incident? I'll leave it to you to handle. You can hand the drug dealers over to the police, which will give you some reputation points."

There was no signature, and the message directly stated the sender's code name, along with the email address. Chu Ming immediately understood that this must have been sent by the boss.

Before Chu Ming could reply, the message was automatically deleted and disappeared. As expected of the boss, his secrecy is excellent.

Chu Ming had no choice but to get out of bed again. Luckily, he still had a novel he had borrowed from the library last time, which he could return while he was at home. He remembered that Conan was somewhere there, so he didn't want to arouse suspicion.

When I arrived at the library, I just saw Inspector Megure's car drive away.

As dusk was falling, Chu Ming was about to go in when the librarian stopped him: "Sir, our library is about to close. Please come back tomorrow to borrow books."

Chu Ming took out a novel from his coat pocket: "Then I won't borrow any books today. I'll just return this one and leave."

Director Tsugawa nodded, put down the suitcase he was carrying, took the books and returned them to Chu Ming. After watching Chu Ming walk out the door, he then carried the suitcase upstairs.

Chu Ming didn't go far after leaving the house; instead, he hid behind the bushes outside the door.

After a while, Director Tsugawa slowly walked out, humming a song as he carried his bag. But as soon as he reached the door, the lights upstairs suddenly turned on and off. His face darkened, and he hurriedly rushed back inside.

After Chu Ming waited for him to enter, he nimbly climbed up a large tree next to him and jumped from the trunk into the second-floor window.

(⊙o⊙)×4

The four people who were struggling to flip through the bookshelf looked at Chu Ming climbing in through the window, and then at the tree trunk at least two meters away from the window outside, and were all surprised.

"Brother Chu Ming?"

"Why aren't you going home so late? What are you doing upstairs? I saw your shadows reflected in the window downstairs and thought I was seeing things, but it really is you."

"Brother Chu Ming, look!" Conan handed the book, which he had already broken open, to Chu Ming. "Director Tsugawa is using books to traffic drugs!"

Chu Ming's gaze sharpened, his face turning solemn: "Are you sure it's him?"

“Yes, the four of us saw it with our own eyes, and he even told us that he killed the missing employee! The body is hidden in the library!” Ayumi added. Although she was a little afraid of Chu Ming, she felt safe with an adult—especially one with high combat skills—in this dark environment.

"When the lights came on upstairs just now, I saw Director Tsugawa turn back. I'll call Inspector Megure first, and then wait here for him to come back."

The children nodded obediently and nestled close to Chu Ming. While Chu Ming was on the phone, Conan figured out the details of the day. He originally wanted to go find Mr. Tamada's body on his own, but was forcibly suppressed by the other three.

As soon as Chu Ming hung up the phone, Yuan Tai hurriedly complained, his eyes sparkling as if waiting for Chu Ming's praise: "Just now, Conan tried to break away from the group and run away, but I stopped him!"

Chu Ming also gave him a compliment, and Conan watched their interaction speechlessly. He then told Chu Ming his reasoning: he suspected that Mr. Tamada was hidden in the elevator by Director Tsugawa.

Is Chapter 40 the end? ┐(?-｀)┌

Conan originally wanted to go upstairs to the control room to switch the elevator doors to manual mode, but Chu Ming directly dismantled it with force, prying open the elevator doors with both hands and pressing the elevator up button.

Sure enough, in the dim elevator light, a corpse with dilated, bloodshot pupils and bruised purple wounds on its throat slowly appeared before the group as the elevator ascended.

"Just as I expected!" Conan was somewhat excited, but as the elevator continued to ascend, Director Tsugawa's face came into view.

The children, already terrified by the corpse, shrank back behind Chu Ming when they saw the sudden appearance of the man, and even pulled Conan over with them.

Director Tsugawa raised the iron rod in his hand with a ferocious expression: "As expected, a bunch of little rats ran in. It's so late and you're still not home. Why don't I give you a ride?"

What kind of "rat" nonsense is this? Do you think you're Gin? Disgusting.

Chu Ming's face darkened, and he narrowed his eyes. He dodged the stick that whistled through the air and kicked Director Tsugawa into the elevator with a loud thud.

This kick left the already aging curator, Tsugawa, unable to get up for a long time.

However, Chu Ming didn't give him a chance to get up. He walked over in a few steps, pulled the curator up, and delivered a fatal chop to the ground.

After seeing Director Tsugawa unconscious, the children trembled as they approached. Chu Ming saw that the children looked genuinely frightened, but he still gave them a good talking-to: "Don't be afraid, it's alright now. But don't be so reckless next time. If something really happens, what can you kids do? Why don't you find an adult to help you?"—like me.

The children didn't understand Chu Ming's implied meaning. They obediently stood still and admitted their mistake. After Inspector Megure arrived, they were sent home.

Inspector Megure took away Mr. Tamada's body, solving a missing person case that had been troubling the Metropolitan Police Department for several days. In addition, he caught a major drug dealer, and Chu Ming suddenly became very important in Inspector Megure's mind.

Inspector Megure patted Chu Ming on the shoulder with great satisfaction: "After you graduate, the Metropolitan Police Department welcomes you to join them! You can even be an advisor."

Chu Ming wondered if he could be considered a powerful undercover agent for the organization if he joined the Metropolitan Police Department. Wouldn't that get him a raise?

After Chu Ming dropped Conan off at the Mouri Detective Agency, he was about to head back when Conan sneaked back downstairs and jumped onto Chu Ming's motorcycle: "Brother Chu Ming, can you give me a ride? I need to go find Dr. Agasa!"

That won't do. Ai Haibara is still with the professor. If he finds out, all the emotional points she used to scare him will be wasted.

"Why are you looking for the doctor so late? It seems like he's gone out and isn't home lately."

Conan thought to himself, since Chu Ming already knew his true identity, it didn't matter where he went: "Brother Chu Ming, can I come to your house? I need to transform, and it's inconvenient at Ran's place."

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"Does drinking alcohol make you an adult?"

"It's true! I'm about to get rid of the identity of Conan! Last time I only drank one glass of wine, this time if I drink the whole bottle, I'll definitely be fine!" Conan hugged the bottle and chugged down the wine.

...The End (not really)

After a while, Conan looked down at his own arms and legs, stared at Chu Ming for a long time, and said fiercely, "It must be because I didn't drink enough!" He then picked up the bottle and prepared to continue.

"You'll get alcohol poisoning if you drink any more!" Chu Ming snatched the bottle from Conan's hand, stopping him from drinking any more.

Alcohol clouded his judgment, and Conan collapsed onto the carpet, utterly dejected: "Why—"

"It's possible that the virus that caused your cold had a temporary reaction with some element in the alcohol. Now that you're no longer sick, it probably won't work anymore? Or maybe your body has developed antibodies."

Seeing the drunken Conan, Chu Ming resignedly pulled him up: "You can sleep here tonight. There are empty rooms downstairs. If Ran sees you like this, she'll probably beat you up."

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After settling Conan in, Chu Ming wrote up the detailed mission report and sent it to the boss. Thinking that he had nothing else to do and that he hadn't updated in a long time (he had promised to finish the story soon), he decided to do so.

Having not visited the dark web in a long time, Chu Ming casually browsed the comments as usual to see if anyone had come knocking on his door.

"Author, you're really brave. You dare to write the name Hideko Moroboshi and even pair her with Gin. When you're being pointed at by two sniper rifles one day, remember to finish the story first."

"I came because of your reputation, and I've already given you a gift. I hope you'll update soon!"

"I've been following this for so long, I wonder who Kurosawa will end up with~ Will it be Uozuka, whom I spend every day with, or Moroboshi, whom I hate because of love? Although I don't really like Uozuka, I hate Moroboshi even more~ After all, he's such a rude and heartless person~"

"I really like the names the author chose, especially Hideko Moroboshi. Author, please update soon! Did Moroboshi die in the end? That would be great!"

"What a strange name! Didn't I come here to see my brother's inner turmoil? Is the author implying something with this name? But indeed, only Yuzuka can stand by my brother's side!"

"Wakita should be changed to his superior, how could he be a butler? I think this setting is unreasonable. But thanks to Wakita's intelligence, otherwise—"

"Good article."

"Hahaha, I can't believe I only saw this great article today. I've followed it. Author, please update soon."

Chu Ming opened the document. The plot has now been updated to the point where Yoshiko Uozuka takes care of Kurosawa, who was injured during a mission. The sweetness between the two hurts Hideko Moroboshi. She spends a lot of money to hire an American assassin, James, to run over Uozuka with his car and then take advantage of Kurosawa's injury to kidnap him and play him in a dark room.

However, all of this was seen through by Kurosawa's butler, Akira Wakita, who then plotted against Hideko Moroboshi, causing her to have a car accident and leaving her unconscious in the hospital.

Kurosawa slammed his fist on the bed in frustration and said coldly, "It's getting cold; it's time to bankrupt the Moroboshi family!"

Akira Wakita shook his head: "This is too difficult. The Moroboshi family is controlled by high-ranking officials in the United States. It would be very difficult for us to accomplish this on our own."

Kurosawa's eyes flashed with a stormy light: "Then let's target only Hideko Moroboshi. Just being unconscious isn't enough. I want her dead!"

However, to everyone's surprise, when the assassin arrived at Hideko Moroboshi's hospital room, he found the bed empty.

Meanwhile, Hideko Moroboshi, holding a smuggled sniper rifle, aimed it at Kurosawa's heart.

"My dearest nemesis and lover! Since you do not belong to me, then do not expect to belong to anyone else!"

'Bang!' The gun rang out, and Moroboshi, stunned, took down the sniper scope.

Kurosawa held Yoshiko Uozuka, who was shielding him, his tiger-like eyes gradually reddening. This man, who had never shed a tear in his life, no matter how much suffering or injury he endured, now had tears welling in his eyes. Akira Wakita had led his men to pursue Moroboshi, but he had no mind to care; all his attention was focused on the person in his arms.

He knelt on the ground, holding the gradually cooling body in his arms, utterly distraught.

Without you, what meaning would my life, Kurosawa's life, have? But I will not die. I will strive to live, for you, for the life you saved, I will live longer than anyone else.

Years later, before a neatly cleaned tombstone, Kurosawa was no longer the young man he once was. Time had left its deep marks on him; several scars ran from the corner of his eye to his jawline. He smoked, his hand resting on the tombstone, a thousand thoughts swirling in his mind, but ultimately, they all boiled down to one sentence: Yoshiko, I miss you so much.

—The End—

After forcibly giving the story a tragic ending, Chu Ming nodded in satisfaction. Assassins are inherently lonely; otherwise, how could he have captured the brother's inner turmoil?

Chapter 41 So I was just a driver after all —