Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

Chu Ming shook his head: "No way, Detective, how can you change the question without permission? You don't want it to be one of the options!"

Conan suddenly raised his head, staring at Chu Ming's face. He thought of what Ran had told him before, and a rare coldness appeared in his eyes: "At worst, we'll fight to the death. If you really let the bomb explode, then we'll die together—Hattori!"

As he spoke, his hands were also busy. With a snap, he opened the cover of the anesthesia watch and fired it directly at Chu Ming.

Hattori had already seen Conan's hand gesture behind him when Conan looked up, so when Conan called him, he started moving as well.

He bent down, picked up a stick from the ground, and charged forward with Conan, raising his hand to stab diagonally.

Although Hattori's swordsmanship was impressive, it was still somewhat insufficient against someone like Chu Ming who had fought in real combat. He calmly dodged Conan's tranquilizer dart by tilting his head, nimbly dodging Hattori's swinging wooden stick, and seized the opportunity to grab Hattori's wrist, using the technique that Gin had taught him to skillfully pinch Hattori's nerve endings.

With a 'clang'.

The wooden stick fell to the ground, and Chu Ming let go and kicked it, sending Hattori flying towards Conan. Hattori lost his balance and fell to the ground, bumping into Conan as well, and the two rolled around in a heap.

Chu Ming did not continue the pursuit, but instead drew his gun and pointed it at the two men.

Hattori and Conan froze, the dark muzzle of a gun pointed at their vital organs, sending chills down their spines.

"Don't move, or I might accidentally set it on fire and cause a disaster~" Chu Ming smiled, his gentle face making him look incredibly kind, but his words were chillingly cold.

“Your gun doesn’t have a silencer. If you fire, it will immediately attract attention downstairs. I noticed it when I came up. The Red Fort Restaurant is having a celebration party downstairs because it had over 100,000 customers today, and the police are currently gathered at Fantasyland across the street. You won’t be able to leave if you fire.” Conan calmed himself and tried to negotiate with Chu Ming. “Glenbury, you—”

"Guess what I've been doing all this time?" Chu Ming interrupted Conan with a slight smile. "I just went to that venue and left a small gift."

"What do you mean?" Conan was stunned. "You planted a bomb in the venue downstairs too? Are you crazy? The venue is full of innocent civilians!"

"Pretty much~ After all, it's incredible that such a big restaurant wasn't blown up."

This is a theatrical version, and it was even funded and built by the Suzuki family...

Since that's the case, let him fill in the gaps in this thrilling high-rise escape!

"And—" Chu Ming looked at Conan with a sneer, continuing to cultivate his image as a madman, "Why do you think I care about the lives of those ants? I'd love to see this building stained red with blood; that's what makes the real 'Red' Castle Restaurant!"

Conan's face paled. His impression of Gran Birch was still from when she saved him at the Izu Hotel, so he always thought Gran Birch was similar to Vermouth, with a morally ambiguous personality.

But now Chu Ming's performance has overturned all of Conan's guesses, and he realizes that he was wrong.

He should have realized it sooner; what good people could possibly be in that organization who could hold such a high position!

"Tch, being a famous detective is so boring. I even changed the question for you, and you still don't want to choose it?" Chu Ming's eyes revealed obvious disappointment. "How boring. In that case, you can all go to the underworld to reunite."

Even Vermouth was starting to panic. She moved swiftly, smiling as she approached Chu Ming, and pleaded softly for him, "Wait, we can't kill him now. What if we need materials for future experiments? Keeping him alive might be useful later—"

"It doesn't matter if one more comes along, there's still Sherry, isn't there?" Chu Ming said nonchalantly, his finger slowly moving to the trigger.

Vermouth slowly reached into her pocket, as if she wanted to do something.

Suddenly, a thought flashed through her mind: "Granbury, I know you want to see him make a decision because you're bored. How about we play something more interesting?"

Chu Ming pulled the trigger mainly to scare them. Even if Vermouth hadn't said anything, he would have found an excuse to stop. Now that there was a way out, he quickly climbed down the ladder.

He raised an eyebrow, looking quite interested: "What's interesting?"

Vermouth's mind raced: "How about we make a bet? This Shinichi Kudo said he can save everyone, so you set a challenge for him and see if he can win both sides in a dilemma. During this time, neither of us can interfere or help. How about that?"

"Oh? That's certainly interesting. Okay, I'll bet." Chu Ming flicked his wrist slightly, the gun twirling between his fingertips before he retracted it into his palm. "I bet he can't do it."

Vermouth looked at Conan with a hint of worry. She had done her best to help Conan, and now it was up to him whether it would work: "I bet he can do it."

Chapter 520 [The titles are all in the shape of love for you all]

"I planted several bombs in the main venue of the Red Fort restaurant downstairs, and I also implemented some coordinated measures. Once the main venue of the Red Fort restaurant downstairs explodes, the elevators in the entire building will explode. And then, every once in a while, the floors below will explode in sequence."

Chu Ming shook the black jamming device in his hand, took out a microchip the size of an ant from it, casually stuffed it into a capsule, suddenly stepped forward, pinched Conan's cheek, stuffed the capsule into Conan's mouth, and then squeezed his chin to pour some water down his throat.

After confirming that Conan had uncontrollably swallowed it, Chu Ming revealed a contemptuous smile: "And this is the bomb jammer. As long as this jammer is within range, no bomb will receive the explosion signal—whether it's the bomb in the restaurant or the bomb on your girlfriend."

"In two minutes, I will rewrite the jamming device's program to disable the GPS tracking system on your girlfriend's wristband. You must personally escort your girlfriend and her group back to the amusement park within these twenty minutes to prevent them from being blown up like fireworks; however, once you leave this building, the bomb inside will explode, and everyone else left in the building will be killed!"

"Is it better to protect the lives of those you care about and get them safely to the amusement park, or to stay inside and watch your loved one explode into fireworks, but at the cost of saving the lives of the vast majority of innocent people?"

"Of course, you can also try to remove the bracelets I've reinforced from all six people's wrists within twenty minutes. Maybe you can do it~"

After explaining the rules, Chu Ming pointed to his eyes: "I'll be keeping a close eye on you, detective. I hope your performance won't disappoint me."

He then turned to Vermouth, a half-smile playing on his lips: "Although I suggested you come with me, it seems you'd rather stay with them?"

“How could that be?” Vermouth chuckled, glancing at Conan with a complicated look. “But I have some things to attend to. Granburg, you can go now. Don’t worry, I won’t break your rules.”

"What's the matter? Are you looking to help?"

“Of course not, it’s a secret.” Vermouth pressed her finger to her red lips. “A secret makes a—”

"Alright, alright, I understand. You can handle it yourself." Chu Ming was speechless. He ignored Vermouth and left. Anyway, nothing would happen. His robot was there to back him up.

And in just that short time, Conan had already given him a lot of points.

Watching Chu Ming leave, Conan's face turned extremely ugly. He tried to reach into his throat to see if he could vomit up the capsule that Chu Ming had forced him to swallow, but after trying for a long time, it was no use.

As time ticked by, Vermouth, watching his futile efforts, stopped him with a grave expression: "Stop trying to remove them. Let's go, let's take Ran and the others back to the amusement park first, and then have the person who just defused the bomb help them remove the bracelets—"

"No, I can't leave!" Conan's eyes were filled with pain, yet his face remained serious. "I can't leave here. The Red Fort Restaurant had over 100,000 customers today, and at least half of them are still stuck inside. If I leave, these tens of thousands of Japanese people will—"

"What time is it and you still have the mind to care about others? What about Xiaolan??" Vermouth was furious. She stepped forward and tried to use force. Anyway, he was just a human shield. Even if she knocked him out, she could still carry him by her side.

Conan took two steps back, his brows furrowed deeply: "—Even if we were to leave, now wouldn't be the time..."

"Then when, when the bracelet on Xiaolan's wrist explodes!" Vermouth's expression changed, and her anger surged to unprecedented heights.

Conan knew he couldn't delay any longer. He looked at Hattori and Kid behind him with a serious expression: "Listen to me, we only have twenty minutes. I can't leave here for now... Hattori, you need to quickly notify Inspector Megure and the others to come over and evacuate the crowd as quickly as possible, especially those above the fifteenth floor. I heard from Granburg that even if the bomb explodes, it will explode from top to bottom, and there will be some time in between."

"Okay." Hattori made a quick decision, turned around and took the elevator down. Kazuha was also among the group. He was also anxious, but his sense of justice drove him to do what he had to do first.

"Kidd, take this gentleman downstairs to find Xiaolan and the others later. We'll need this gentleman to help them remove the bracelets. Remove as many as you can, and bring them this way as you go..."

"What about the ones that couldn't be dismantled in time..." Kidd was also a bit stumped; he couldn't very well be left with this choice...

Vermouth seized the opportunity: "Give it to Xiaolan first—"

"No—" Conan's fingertips trembled. "You dismantle it for others first, leave Ran for last... I'll stay with her, I'll think of a way..."

Conan's last few words were almost a whisper; he was in pain too, but there was nothing he could do, he had no choice. If there was truly no other way, he chose to stay by Ran's side...

"Then I'll go..." Kid couldn't bear to see Conan make such a painful choice, but he thought that with the puppet given by the Demon King as a backup, nothing too serious should go wrong, and at least Ran's life could be saved.

However, he couldn't go into details about this with Conan. As long as no one was hurt, that was all that mattered. So he stopped talking to Conan, turned around and went downstairs. When he left, he didn't forget to drag the robot that had been standing there like a wooden statue away with him.

"How dare you—!" Vermouth's eyes widened in fury as she reached out and grabbed Conan. She couldn't accept that her angel had been harmed in the slightest, nor could she bear the thought of her light disappearing from the world.

“Listen to me, I’ll stay here. This jammer can block signals from downstairs, so the building height is roughly its jamming range. The main venue in the restaurant is on the 15th floor, and we’re on the top floor now, so I’ve estimated that the jamming radius of this jammer should be about 10 meters.”

Conan gestured with his hand, pointing to the living room where his client had met him before, and continued, "On the rooftop balcony, there's a section extending outwards. A little further outwards lies the Fantasy Park area. I'm trying to see if I can find a way to place their location within the park's boundaries without going downstairs..."

Vermouth calmed down a bit and gave Conan a deep look: "If you and Ran die, I will definitely send Sherry down to join you."

"Don't worry, I'll do my best to keep us all alive." Conan forced an awkward smile.

"So what do you need me to do now?" Vermouth didn't continue the topic.

“That’s all. You’d better leave quickly, otherwise Granburch will find out and you’ll have a hard time explaining yourself. Wait—” Conan shook his head, thought for a moment, and suddenly added, pointing to the secret room they came out of, “Why don’t you take that Ito Suehiko down with you…?”

Belmode: "..."

Watching Vermouth carry the corpse-like Suehiro Ito away in the elevator, he turned and ran towards the house where his client had met them.

I don't know if twenty minutes will be enough...

Xiaolan, believe me! I will definitely get you away safely!

Chapter 521 [Today, it's still the shape of love for you all]

Chu Ming luxuriously held a watermelon, propped his legs up, and lay on the car eating it while feeling the surging points from Conan, and watching the surveillance in the corner of the system panel like a spectator.

Ah, life is so wonderful~

However, Conan ultimately chose to put Ran last to defuse the bomb, and he knew it.

Tsk, although if Xiaolan were to choose for herself, she would almost certainly make the same choice, but for her boyfriend to say it out loud...

He knows that Conan loves Ran very much. When Ran is in danger, he will risk his own life to save her. When Conan is in danger, Ran also seems to have a romantic connection with him and will risk her own life to save him as well. It can be said that they are going to great lengths together.

But when faced with such a matter of principle...

Sigh, as expected, he doesn't have that kind of sentiment. But Conan dared to put Ran last, so he must have some confidence, right?

Otherwise, would he have the guts?

Chu Ming did indeed plant a bomb in the building, but it wasn't a bomb that would detonate without being shielded. Instead, it was controlled by a robot that Kidd brought to the scene.

At this moment, the robot was standing next to Xiaolan and the others, bending over to remove the new bracelet that Ayumi was wearing.

Despite their fear, the children didn't cry or fight; they all agreed that Ayumi would be the first to dismantle it.

Inspector Megure also rushed to the scene and began to evacuate the crowd. The building was funded by the Suzuki family. Sonoko made the final decision and ordered all passenger elevators, sightseeing elevators, and even freight elevators to be used to evacuate the crowd. However, there were simply too many people, and it would be impossible to evacuate them all in a short time.

In the living room on the 15th floor, only Ran and the others remained. Watching the boy in front of her, who looked younger than her, earnestly removing Ayumi's bracelet, Ran pursed her lips: "So there's really something wrong with our bracelets? But these are the bracelets we replaced, and Inspector Megure replaced them specifically for us."

"According to the bomber, the new bracelet was custom-made by him. He probably tampered with it the moment you switched bracelets..." Kidd scratched his head. Luckily, he had contacted the Demon King beforehand, otherwise, what would have happened?

Yuan Tai tentatively tugged at it, but the bracelet that had previously fallen off Chu Ming's hand like a toy was now as if it were welded to his hand. No matter how much he tore at it, the bracelet remained firmly bound to his hand.

"Hey, what happened? That weird auntie just pulled it off easily..." Genta scratched his head, looking certain. "It was definitely her! I knew she wasn't a good person! She even scared Haibara before!"

“Ms. Miyano doesn’t seem like that kind of person,” Ran said with a hint of helplessness. “She even helped us take off our bracelets, didn’t she?”

"Ran, you're just too trusting. Who knows what she's up to by getting close to you?" Sonoko held Ran's hand tightly, refusing to let go no matter how much Kaito tried to persuade her, insisting on watching Ran's bracelet come off before leaving with her. "And Kudo, why would he dump his client on you..."