Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

"It means you can only choose one, and the other has to be given up—" Even though he usually makes logical deductions, Conan didn't know how to describe it now.

"You're such a child. You've been hesitating all this time just because of this?" Xiaolan laughed, clenching her fist and shaking it fiercely. "Of course, I'll choose to beat up the person who made me make a choice. This choice is obviously just a ploy to sow discord. Why bother with him? I didn't learn karate just for show!"

Seeing Ran's radiant smile, Conan's lips also curled up. Sure enough, Ran's choice was the same as his. His Ran was always so bright and sunny.

As Ai Haibara listened to Conan and Ran's conversation, her eyes flickered slightly, as if she understood something, but she was still a little confused.

When Conan arrived, he looked worried. It seems someone made him choose between love and friendship.

Who?

The people in the organization?

Conan has to choose between Ran and her?

But Vermouth has been here for so long, and she clearly didn't show any intention of capturing her.

Where did Conan get his information?

"I want to play with Miyano-neechan!" Just as she was thinking this, she heard Conan pretending to be a child again from afar.

Ai Haibara looked in the direction of the sound and saw Conan completely losing face. Under the stunned gazes of the Detective Boys, he was tightly gripping Vermouth's clothes, practically throwing a tantrum on the ground, wanting Vermouth to take him to ride the carousel.

Vermouth, meanwhile, was brazenly using her phone to document Conan's dark past.

No matter how Ran tried to coax her, it was no use. In the end, Vermouth put away the photos with satisfaction and said that since she was waiting anyway, she could go play with Conan.

Under the somewhat disdainful gazes of Genta and Mitsuhiko, Conan, with a blank expression, dragged Vermouth toward the carousel.

"Why does Conan always have to have his older sister with him? Your older sister Ran wants to play with you too. You're making her so sad!" Vermouth teased him.

"Vermouth." Conan stopped, his face serious, and cut to the chase, "You promised me you wouldn't attack Haibara for the time being, didn't you? Are you here again today because of an organization mission? Where did Haibara expose herself?"

“No, I was just following orders.” Vermouth stopped and stopped pretending. She shrugged. “I can’t tell you too much, but since you’re here, I’ll just abandon the mission. It’s not a mandatory mission anyway. After all, you know I can’t do anything in front of you and Angel.”

"That would be great." Conan hesitated for a moment, then looked a little timid. "Um, Vermouth, could you do me a favor?"

"?" Vermouth was a little puzzled and gave him a questioning look. It was rare for this kid to ask her for help.

"I originally wanted Kid to cooperate with me, but he said he had something to do on the way here and left immediately." Conan tugged at the corner of his clothes and spoke after a long while.

"Could you please help me by disguising yourself and accompanying me alone?"

Chapter 509 This won't do

Chu Ming watched Conan leave with Vermouth, wondering what he was up to.

He followed them quietly with great interest, hiding to the side to eavesdrop on Conan and Vermouth's whispered conversation.

When she heard Conan ask Vermouth to disguise herself as someone, she peeked out furtively and watched suspiciously.

"No, this won't do." Vermouth, upon understanding Conan's request to disguise himself as someone and what he would do, unusually decisively refused Conan's request.

Conan's disappointment was hard to hide. Vermouth sighed quietly, somewhat helplessly, "It's not that I don't want to help you, but disguising myself as Granbury really won't work. Not only will it be even worse if he finds out, but the idea itself is unlikely to succeed. He always does things alone and rarely asks outsiders for favors. Even if I disguise myself as him, I still won't be able to find out where Shimizu Reiko, whom you said he captured..."

Moreover, if she really disguised herself as Granburg, that little bastard would have another reason to use her identity to cause trouble next time. She didn't want to end up like Gin, with half-siblings or lovers, and she certainly didn't want to take the blame for that little bastard without her knowledge.

Look at Gin now, his hair looks much whiter, all because Gran Birch has been ruining his reputation in the organization.

"Judging from your tone, your status in that organization is not as high as his?" Conan's focus was a bit off. He keenly noticed the detail Vermouth mentioned, but he clearly remembered Ai Haibara saying that she had never heard of this codename before she defected from the organization. He tried to get information out of her, "Didn't you say that Granburg became a codenamed member after you?"

“Sherley told you? She and you are quite close, she tells you everything.” Vermouth said with a somewhat ambiguous tone. “That’s right, although Granburg became a codenamed member after me, he was already a member of the organization before, and he had more trust from Gin than I did.”

Conan pondered for a while, then suddenly his eyes lit up. He took out his phone, pointed to the photo of Reiko Shimizu, and handed it to Vermouth: "Can you disguise yourself as Reiko Shimizu? This client needs us to bring Reiko Shimizu to him before he'll deactivate the bomb in Ran's hands. But Reiko Shimizu was taken away by Granbury, and there's not enough time..."

"She can disguise herself, but I've never heard her voice before. She'll give herself away as soon as she speaks."

"It's okay, you just need to get there, and I'll take care of the rest!" Conan's eyes lit up, finally finding a solution. After all, Ito Suehiko's requirement was to bring Shimizu Reiko there in order to unlock the bracelet.

Chu Ming, who was listening to everything from the side, tilted his head and looked at Conan, who was suddenly doing something outrageous, and couldn't help but raise an eyebrow.

As expected of the protagonist, her mind works very quickly. And this time, the disguise didn't take too long, since Vermouth and Shimizu Reiko do look somewhat alike...

Tsk, then Kidd's sacrifice was for nothing?

That won't do. He's already redeemed the robot and used up all his points. Wouldn't that be a complete loss?

We have to trip up Conan a bit, otherwise he'll be at a disadvantage.

He slowly and silently retreated from the alley entrance, watching from afar as Conan dragged Vermouth, disguised as Shimizu Reiko, towards the building opposite the Fantasy Park. Halfway there, Vermouth, annoyed that Conan was running too slowly, casually picked him up and ran forward.

Chu Ming pondered for a while, then turned around and found a secluded place to disguise himself as Sherry. Fortunately, he had a lot of clothes in his system backpack. He had also provided Vermouth with the same outfit before, so he had the same style with him.

He cleared his throat, then ran towards Ran with a panicked look on his face: "Miss Ran, something terrible has happened! I was playing on the carousel with Conan when a woman ran up, grabbed Conan, and ran off! I chased after her, but my shoes are too uncomfortable to catch up with. What should we do? Should we call the police?"

Ran panicked a little too. She stood up abruptly and, suppressing her worry, comforted Chu Ming: "Miss Miyano, don't worry. Conan is very smart. He'll be fine. He'll definitely find a way to save himself. I'll go call the police now and search the area!"

"No!" Ai Haibara jolted, instinctively calling out to stop him. What a joke! Conan could be captured in front of Vermouth? That assassin Vermouth might as well commit seppuku!

There is a fraud in this matter!

Furthermore, Conan had previously told her that the client forbade them from calling the police. If the police were to enter the premises, and they mistakenly thought it was Conan and his friends who had called the police, they might detonate the bomb...

But she couldn't think of an excuse to stop it, and after racking her brains for a long time, she still couldn't come up with a reason.

"Ai, what's wrong?" Ran asked anxiously, but still patiently squatted down next to Ai Haibara and inquired, "What's wrong?"

Ai Haibara paused, her eyes darting around. Just then, her peripheral vision caught sight of two people having a close conversation not far away. On a sudden inspiration, she pointed over there and said, "What I mean is, we don't need to call the police. Look over there, aren't those Officer Sato and Officer Takagi? Let's ask them for help to look for him. What if it's someone Conan knows playing a prank on him? Wouldn't calling the police be a waste of their resources?"

Ran thought about it and realized it made sense, so she stopped dialing the police and instead waved frantically at the two people who were secretly on a date: "Officer Sato, Officer Takagi~"

Takagi had just escaped from Inspector Megure and Shiratori and was breathing a sigh of relief when he heard a familiar female voice calling his and Sato's names. He looked up, slightly distraught, and saw Sato enthusiastically pulling him toward Ran, feeling utterly helpless.

Why is it so hard to sneak out a date with Sato?

Feeling exhausted...

"Xiao Lan, you've come to the Fantasy Park too?" Sato greeted Xiao Lan and the other children warmly.

Ran said somewhat anxiously, "Officer Sato, Ms. Miyano said she saw Conan being carried away by a girl dressed similarly to her. I was thinking of calling the police, but I'm afraid it might be a misunderstanding. Officer Sato, could you please help me—"

Officer Sato's expression turned serious as he reassured Ran, "Don't worry, Takagi and I will help you find Conan."

Then he turned to Chu Ming and asked, "This must be Ms. Miyano. Could you please describe in detail what the girl you saw looks like?"

Chu Ming nodded and described Shimizu Reiko's appearance to Sato: "She was a girl with chestnut-colored wavy hair, about 1.6 meters tall, and quite pretty. I saw her carrying Conan and running towards that building, and after that, I don't know much."

Ai Haibara watched Chu Ming talking fluently to Officer Sato from behind with suspicion, feeling that something was not quite right.

Is this really Vermouth?

What exactly are she and Conan up to?

Conan couldn't possibly be unaware that calling the police would cause the client to detonate the bracelet, and Vermouth, who clearly cares about Ran, would never suggest calling the police, a choice that could endanger her life.

So, the person in front of you—

Not Vermouth?

Chu Ming sensed the growing suspicion in Ai Haibara's eyes and watched the points increase, so he guessed that Ai Haibara probably knew the truth, after all, she wasn't stupid.

With his back to the crowd, especially avoiding Sato's gaze, Chu Ming grinned menacingly at Ai Haibara, revealing Gin's signature smile, and made a menacing 'shh' gesture, which startled Ai Haibara so much that her eyes immediately lost their sparkle.

Chapter 510 Don't Go Out

After scaring Ai Haibara, Chu Ming mingled with Sato and his group and went to find the manager of the fantasy park to request to view the surveillance footage.

Under Chu Ming's subtle guidance, everyone successfully saw on the surveillance footage that Vermouth, disguised as Shimizu Reiko, was carrying Conan and hurriedly running towards the door.

"Found her, she's here!" Sato pointed to the person in the surveillance footage with a serious expression. "She took Conan out. Could you please switch to the camera at the entrance? The time is around 6:20 PM."

The person in charge of the monitoring area wiped his sweat. If the media found out about the amusement park a human trafficking incident, it would probably be unable to continue operating. He pressed a key on the keyboard and switched to the monitoring at the entrance of the Fantasy Park: "Got it, here it is, they went in the direction of the Red Castle Hotel!"

Xiaolan stood up: "Then let's go over there quickly!"

"Wait—" Ai Haibara cried out anxiously, quickly grabbing Ran's hand, "Don't go out—"

The Red Castle Hotel is directly opposite the Fantasyland. To get there, you have to swipe your ID card to exit. The bomb in Xiaolan's hand will explode immediately once it detects that she has left the park.

Ran reached out and patted Ai Haibara's head gently, saying, "Don't worry, Ai. You and the other children stay in the park and don't come out. Ms. Miyano, could you please keep an eye on the children for me?"

Chu Ming readily agreed: "Don't worry, I'll keep an eye on them."

His face was completely sincere, and only Ai Haibara saw the sinister intentions in his eyes. She wanted to stop him, but Chu Ming squatted down first and pressed her shoulder: "Your name is Ai, right? Ai, don't worry, let your Ran go find someone. Don't be afraid, I will be with you."

Seeing his gentle tone, Ran felt reassured and followed Sato and Takagi outside. Meanwhile, Ai Haibara, locked in by Chu Ming's murderous aura, was unable to utter a word.

Suddenly, Genta rushed up and pulled Ai Haibara away from Chu Ming's hands. The three children stood in front of her, and Genta said warily, "Auntie, you don't need to come with us. And don't try to comfort Haibara. Don't you see that the more you comfort her, the more scared she gets? We can go play by ourselves."

He had never seen Ai Haibara so flustered. Although she was a child, she had been by Conan's side and had participated in many cases, so she was much more perceptive than ordinary children. There must be something wrong with Ai Haibara acting so strangely. However, they were too simple-minded to think too much about it and just assumed that Ai Haibara didn't want to get too close to this strange aunt.

So, after simply separating the two and threatening Chu Ming fiercely not to follow, they escorted the still somewhat terrified Ai Haibara away.

Not far away, Ai Haibara stopped facing Chu Ming's murderous aura directly. Slightly regaining her senses, she thought for a moment and suddenly her legs went weak and she fell to the ground. Several children hurriedly helped her up, and Genta put her on his back and ran towards the infirmary. Ayumi and Mitsuhiko followed anxiously behind.

Ai Haibara lay on Genta's back, dutifully feigning illness, muttering repeatedly, "Ran-neechan..."

Mitsuhiko stopped and instructed Genta to take Ai Haibara to the infirmary, while he went to the radio station to find someone to bring Ran back.

“But Conan—” Ayumi was also a little worried, “Why don’t we take Ai to the infirmary ourselves? Let Ran go and save Conan…”

"We can contact Officer Sato and Officer Takagi regarding Conan." Mitsuhiko was actually a little hesitant, but Ai Haibara's unusually weak demeanor made them uneasy, and they still felt uneasy without an adult around. "Besides, Conan is so capable, he'll definitely be fine."

The children exchanged glances and finally gave in. Soon after, the broadcast station announced that Ran Mouri should go to the infirmary as soon as possible.

Ran had just arrived at the door and was about to swipe her card to leave with Officer Sato when the announcement stopped her. She looked at Officer Sato with some difficulty, and Sato reassured her, "Takagi and I can handle Conan here. You should go back and keep an eye on the children. You just said that Ms. Miyano is just Mr. Kudo's client. Nobody knows if she has ulterior motives. It's definitely not safe for just a few children."

Ran nodded, looking apologetic: "Then I'll have to trouble Officer Sato and Officer Takagi."