Survival Manual of the Science Fiction World

"When I saw the name 'London Wooden Bridge' on the map, I thought we were going to fall down it."

Conan's eyes narrowed into slits as he laughed: "If this were a movie, we would definitely fall off this kind of crappy bridge."

No sooner had he finished speaking than Chu Ming saw the ropes on the bridge snap and pieces of wood fall into the water and drift downstream—the bridge had collapsed.

What kind of crow's beak is this? Has it been blessed?

Or is this a prophecy of death, a prophecy that will come true?

Chapter 70: Why is it Christmas already?

Chu Ming spent some time climbing over the rocks from the other side of the canyon. While Conan and the others fell into the water and warmed themselves by the fire, he rushed to the cave, stuffed the large bag full of gems into his system backpack, restored the scene a little, and secretly went back first.

When the children returned, covered in dust and dirt, it was already late at night. The fish soup that Chu Ming had been cooking on the fire had been simmering for a while.

In fact, Chu Ming's previous cooking skills were only enough to barely cook a meal so that he wouldn't starve to death while traveling in the wild.

But I can't exactly cook this kind of food for the kids. They're already afraid of me, and if eating his food feels like poison, they'll be even less willing to take him out.

He happened to have a lot of points recently, so he spent 6000 points to upgrade his cooking skills from C- (lv5) to B- (lv35) [Ordinary Small Restaurant Chef]. At least when the children came back starving, they praised Chu Ming's cooking skills again and again, and unexpectedly became a little closer to him.

The children were exhausted after a long day of crossing bridges and climbing mountains. After eating, they fell into a deep sleep in their tents. Only Conan was wide awake. He came out with a yellowed piece of paper and a file folder in his hand.

Chu Ming was sitting outside playing on his phone when he heard a noise behind him: "Conan, why aren't you asleep so late?"

"Brother Chu Ming, look, this is what we found at the treasure location today."

Chu Ming took it: "A stack of manuscripts? Kudo Yusaku, wait, isn't this—"

"It's an old manuscript by my father. I don't know why it's here."

"Then you should go back and ask Professor Agasa, isn't this the treasure location he arranged?"

"Um, Brother Chu Ming..." Conan held the manuscript, hesitated, then turned to stare at Chu Ming with a complicated and conflicted expression.

Chu Ming blinked in confusion: "What's wrong? Why are you looking at me?"

"Brother Chu Ming, did you come into the mountains with us? And—" Conan sat on the ground, his arms wrapped around his knees.

Chu Ming quickly glanced at Conan's expression, accurately capturing the doubt in his eyes, but there was no deeper emotion; he probably just found something and was simply driven by curiosity.

He quickly went through the excuses he could come up with in his mind before speaking.

"Hey, you saw me follow them? I thought I was pretty discreet. How did you find me?"

That's really not right. Logically speaking, his tracking skills shouldn't be this bad. Although he didn't try to hide, Conan saw him so easily from that distance.

Conan pulled something from his pocket that looked extremely familiar to Chu Ming—

--telescope.

…Conan really does carry this thing with him everywhere…

"After all, it's a desolate mountain wilderness. Do you think I would feel comfortable letting you kids go into the mountains alone? Even if you're not really a child, you're still physically weak and vulnerable. If something happens, who can you save?"

Conan touched his nose somewhat sheepishly: "But later, you—"

“I saw that Yuan Tai had a snake crawl on his hand, which caused you all to fall down the slope. So while you were warming yourselves by the fire, I went ahead to scout ahead and treated any poisonous snakes or areas where you might get cut.”

Conan suddenly realized that he had been feeling something was off. They were supposed to be the only visitors during this period, so why did it feel like someone had come before them? It turned out that Brother Chu Ming had gone to scout ahead of them because he didn't trust them.

He thought that...

He then put his suspicions to rest, smiled at Chu Ming, and said, "Goodnight, Brother Chu Ming. You should get some sleep. I'm going to rest now."

After watching him enter the tent, Chu Ming turned on his phone and continued replying to Gin's messages.

"The treasure has been obtained and will be returned tomorrow. I will deal with that woman on the way back to Tokyo. — Granbury"

"Yes. Back to base after this is over. New mission ahead. —Gin"

Sigh, the weather has cooled down a bit lately, not as hot as it was a few days ago. The organization has also increased its tasks. Why does it feel like Gin isn't as busy lately? It's me who's been the one who's been busy.

“Yes, brother.” — Granbury

The next day, Chu Ming drove the children home, but along the way he noticed that the streets were decorated with red and green ornaments, reindeer, bells, Christmas trees... the whole street had a festive atmosphere.

What happened? I was perfectly fine when I left yesterday afternoon!! I wasn't cold at all while wearing short sleeves in the suburbs!

"Is it... going to be Christmas?" Chu Ming was somewhat shocked.

"Oh yeah, Brother Chu Ming, today is Christmas! Did you forget?" Conan looked up in surprise.

“But…” Chu Ming gestured with his eyes to their short-sleeved shirts, “…are we still wearing short sleeves in winter?”

Conan was even more puzzled: "Brother Chu Ming, what's wrong with you today? Didn't you sleep well last night? Yesterday was summer, of course we wore short sleeves. Today is Christmas, and we didn't bring any clothes with us. We'll change when we get home."

Fine, you're the center of the world, so you call the shots. Yesterday it was summer, today it's winter... No wonder it's the world of Detective Conan.

"Hey Chu Ming, Lan-jie and her best friend Sonoko are going to the after-party of that super popular rock band Rex on Sunday night. Do you want to come along, Chu Ming?"

Seeing that Chu Ming always seemed so enthusiastic about going out to play, and that Sonoko had taken Ran to listen to some rock music from that wooden village, Conan figured that since he wasn't feeling well, he could ask Chu Ming to stop him if anything 'unexpected' happened!

"A victory celebration party? Where is it?"

"It seems to be in a karaoke bar."

Chu Ming felt a magnetic field beckoning him again and readily accepted Conan's invitation.

——————————————————————————————————

Chu Ming, armed with a sniper rifle, was hiding on the roof of the Mika Building. He originally intended to sneak into Nanpu Yingzi's house directly according to the address given by Gin, and take her out under the cover of darkness. However, with his keen observation, he discovered that there were actually police officers lying in ambush around the area!

Bourbon should have known about the task Rum gave him. Could this be a trap he set?

To be on the safe side, Chu Ming didn't rush in to kill her directly. He hacked into the surveillance footage near Nanpu Yingzi's house and, based on her recent travel patterns, deduced that Sunday was the day she went shopping at the mall.

So he changed his character's appearance beforehand and hid on the roof of a building near the Mihua Shopping Mall, ready to shoot her in the head as soon as she appeared.

After waiting for a while, Nanpu Yingzi got out of the taxi, carefully observed her surroundings, and was just about to enter the mall.

A gunshot rang out, and blood splattered everywhere.

People on the street were so frightened that they shoved and pushed each other to escape into the building. Chu Ming hid in a corner, took off his black suit, stuffed the sniper rifle and clothes into his system backpack, changed his character creation, and walked out of the building empty-handed, brushing past several police officers.

Chapter 71 If you don't die, who will?

"Target eliminated. Police are lying in ambush nearby. Information leaked. There's an undercover agent. — Granbury"

After sending the message to Gin, Chu Ming stood at the mall entrance, leaning against the wall, waiting for Xiao Lan and the others to arrive.

"Ah! Xiaolan, when did you meet such a handsome guy?! How come I didn't know?! You didn't even tell me! Are you finally planning to dump that arrogant detective?"

The two tall and one short figures not far away were Ran, Sonoko, and Conan.

Xiaolan blushed slightly: "What are you talking about? Brother Chuming is a friend I've known before. Besides, what's with all this talk about getting rid of him? I have nothing to do with Shinichi."

Sonoko leaned closer with a hint of malice: "Oh? Is that so? It's nothing..."

"Alright, Sonoko, stop talking! Brother Chuming, let me introduce you. This is my good friend, Sonoko Suzuki, the second young lady of the Suzuki Group."

"Hello, Ms. Suzuki, I'm Fujino Chumei. It's nice to meet you."

Yuanzi stepped forward, grinning, and said, "Just call me Yuanzi. I'll call you Brother Chuming like Xiaolan does. Brother Chuming, you're so handsome! Do you have a girlfriend? If not, would you mind having one? If you do, would you mind changing to another one? If you don't want to change, would you mind having another one?"

"..."

"..."

All three were stunned by her words, and Conan was speechless.

Hey, what's wrong with Sonoko...?

Xiao Lan looked on with disbelief and reached out to tear Yuanzi off her clothes that were almost clinging to Chu Ming: "I'm sorry, Brother Chu Ming, Yuanzi can be a bit eccentric sometimes, please don't mind her."

"It's alright, it's alright, let's go inside."

Chu Ming rushed through the gate as if his pants were on fire. When he saw Sonoko, he thought of his boyfriend, Makoto Kyogoku, the humanoid mecha who could catch bullets with his bare hands and uproot Roman columns, and who was considered the ceiling of combat power in the world of Detective Conan.

Can't be bothered.

Sonoko glanced at Chu Ming's retreating figure again, then pulled Ran along and chased after him, keeping pace with him.

"Let me lead the way. This rock band is really hot right now, especially Tatsuya Kimura, who's become a huge star. They're having a celebration party after their concert today, and I got to celebrate with them thanks to my dad's connections~"

The group chatted as they entered the private room. A U-shaped sofa surrounded a coffee table, and some speakers for live music were placed opposite it.

There were already four people inside, sitting around the coffee table and pouring beer.

After a lively introduction, the band manager started encouraging Xiaolan and the others to sing, since how could they liven up the atmosphere at a karaoke bar without singing?

Xiaolan and Yuanzi confidently stepped forward and sang a duet. Yuanzi then ran to Chuming's side and handed him the microphone: "Brother Chuming, would you like to sing a song?"

Chu Ming smiled slightly: "I can't sing, but it's quite interesting to listen to you sing."

Seeing that Sonoko wanted to say something, Chu Ming looked around and pulled Conan, who was sitting to the side eating snacks, over to block her way.

"Why don't we have Conan sing a song? He was very familiar with sheet music when we were on Moonshadow Island, so he should have perfect pitch."

Conan, holding the pastries, looked completely bewildered. What was going on? Singing? Someone actually wanted to hear him sing?

Chu Ming knew Conan's singing was terrible when he watched the show, but he was still very curious. Besides, it only sounded so-so on TV. But since he had come to the Conan world, who wouldn't want to hear Conan sing a live version? He could even record it and laugh at Conan later.

Seeing that Conan was somewhat interested, Chu Ming took the microphone from Sonoko's hand and shoved it into Conan's hand.

"Here you go, don't be afraid. Children, be brave and don't be shy. Go ahead."

With a mix of coaxing, deception, and dragging, Chu Ming coaxed Conan onto the stage. He stared at Conan with eager anticipation, his eyes shining, and casually turned on the recording.