In the Marvel Universe: I can summon items from all dimensions.

Chapter 68 The Grim Reaper Elementary School Student Makes a Grand Appearance!

Then, Mason looked down at his right wrist.

In addition to the stack memory that was drawn earlier, there was also a watch there—a watch face with only one hand, and it always pointed in the same direction.

If I'm not mistaken, the direction the clock hands are pointing should be my "mission objective".

It's convenient in every sense of the word.

The saying goes that a client who understands people can make the whole project atmosphere more relaxed, and Mason feels that this is probably the case he is currently facing.

After quickly flipping through the notebook, which was more like background information than a diary, Mason felt that he had roughly grasped the situation.

In the context of a role-playing game, the reason Mei is here is that he was sent by the Black Organization to Beika City to assassinate a programmer who might cause the organization's secrets to be leaked—the unlucky guy lying on the ground with his head blown off. Right now, he is reporting the results of his mission to his superiors and waiting for feedback.

I was thrown into a similar environment last time—can't we come up with something more original?

And surprisingly, he was sent to the headquarters of the Grim Reaper Elementary School Student right at the start of the game.

Having exhausted his energy for rants, Mason felt a sudden emptiness. He immediately lit a cigarette that wasn't actually there, took a deep breath, and slowly exhaled.

He was trying to act profound, but a few seconds later, a new message popped up in the chat history box.

[Vermouth: Mission target confirmed dead, Konek, you can retreat now]

That's right. Just like Shuke and Beta—oh no, I mean Chianti and Cohen—always followed Gin around, his boss as "Konek" was Vermouth, and he basically took over all the tasks from her.

[Konek: Is there any next step in the organization's plans?]

[Vermouth: If so, you will be notified. In the meantime, just stay in Beika City and be on standby.]

[Konek: Understood, but there's one more thing—what should be done with the target's body?]

[Vermouth: Just blow up the whole house and make it look like a gas explosion]

Mason: ?

He hissed, and after confirming that he hadn't misread it, his previously depleted吐槽 (tu cao, a form of online commentary/criticism) energy surged back up.

Is this the invincible (questionable) Black Organization in the Detective Conan universe? They're either strafing Tokyo Tower with armed helicopters or carrying out large-scale poisoning in the city. Even when they're on an assassination mission, they just blow up the entire building. Can't you guys have even a little bit of self-awareness as a shady, evil organization? If you're so powerful, why don't you just go to the Middle East and harass the American army? Why bother with these pointless covert operations?

[Konek: Understanding]

[Vermouth: Treat the next period of time as a vacation, I'll contact you again]

After sending a message, her profile picture immediately turned gray, indicating that she had gone offline.

Mason sighed, stood up, put the diary and pistol into his briefcase, and then took out several plastic bombs the size of air conditioner remote controls. After setting a countdown, he placed them in various rooms of the house. That's right, members of the Black Organization really do carry a pack of bombs with them when they go out on missions, enough to blow up an entire apartment building. Although it's quite explosive (physically), compared to Mr. Gin's even more explosive actions, this is just a trivial matter.

Fortunately, this unfortunate programmer seems to be quite wealthy, living in a detached house, so blowing up this house won't harm anyone else.

However, it's hard to say what will happen to the windows of the surrounding neighbors.

Don't ask, the answer is a gas explosion.

After setting the bomb, Mason checked the situation outside the door, then climbed out through a side window where no one could see him. After avoiding street surveillance, he blended into the city of Beika like an ordinary citizen.

It's four o'clock in the afternoon, and there are many pedestrians walking on the street. It's very easy to blend in.

Incidentally, compared to the English skills he acquired after merging with Cecilia's memories, Japanese was something Mei already knew. Although he hadn't passed the N1 exam or anything like that, he was a well-known member of a translation team when he was in college, and the game company he later worked for had also collaborated with many Japanese companies, so he was quite at home in the world of Detective Conan.

A few minutes later, a huge explosion echoed through several blocks. In the direction of the detached house, a plume of black smoke was rising. Presumably, all the evidence related to him as a winery employee was destroyed in the violent explosion.

—As for whether the police will detect traces of the bomb explosion—he can only say don't ask. If you ask, it's a gas explosion, and it has absolutely nothing to do with him, Mei. He has never practiced professional skills in covering up crime scenes. It's good enough that he was able to use Cecilia's memory fragments to put the bomb in place. What more could he ask for?

But what happened next completely surprised him.

Logically speaking, if an explosion occurs very close to you, it should be a terrifying thing. A normal person should immediately scream and run away with their head in their hands, or even cause panic.

But the people around them merely glanced up, showing neither commotion nor panic.

Instead, they showed an expression of "Ah, here we go again," and then went about their own business.

Mason: "?"

What—what happened?

Is this the mental fortitude of the Beika citizens after being tormented by the Grim Reaper Elementary School student for over twenty years?

You guys are even more awesome than the New Yorkers in Marvel movies! At least they'd be scared when they see a terrorist attack!

Am I in the wrong timeline? Isn't this the set of Detective Conan, or Mr. Hanzawa's film studio next door?

Mason's lips twitched a few times, then he casually glanced around the street and spotted a ramen restaurant with a very nice interior.

Since things have come to this, let's eat first.

The good news is that Konek has a bank card with a balance of over six million yen. Even in the Tokyo metropolitan area, this amount of money is enough for Mason to live comfortably for a while. Perhaps this is the benefit of being actively recruited by a local bigwig, who has even taken care of his finances, saving him a lot of trouble.

Mason then went into the ramen shop, ordered, asked the owner for a private room, sat down, took out his laptop from his briefcase, pulled up news websites and satellite maps, and began the same intelligence gathering work he had done in the hospital.

First, we need to check the timeline to see if the story has just begun, is in the middle, or has already ended.

After searching through news websites, he found a large-scale poisoning incident in the city a month ago. It seems that the Black Organization and the FBI had just clashed, and the time period when Shuichi Akai faked his death under Conan's arrangement was considered the middle of the story.

Then they looked for key addresses like the Mori Detective Agency, Teitan Elementary School, and 21 Beikacho 2nd Street—which were quickly confirmed.

As for the direction the watch is pointing—the situation is still unclear, and it would be unwise to rush headlong towards the final boss. It's better to develop our resources first and then figure out how to investigate this matter.

After some investigation, Mason's ramen and dishes were all served. The exquisite presentation made his mouth water, so he immediately picked up his chopsticks and prepared to start eating.

Well, as you all probably know, what kind of unexpected things happen when you're happily planning something in the Detective Conan crew?

Just as Mason brought a piece of char siu to his mouth, about to take a bite, a piercing female scream suddenly came from downstairs. Without even thinking, something life-threatening must have happened.

Mason: "————"

Are you deliberately picking a fight?

I regret it, I regret it so much.

He knew perfectly well that murders were commonplace in the world of Conan, yet he still insisted on taking a chance and eating in public—

I should have found an internet cafe or hotel to stay in and ordered takeout.

—But then again, people might still die in those places. Maybe this is the beauty of Beika City, a place where outstanding people and beautiful scenery exist. If you stay in this place, you might sleep under a bridge and wake up to find a corpse next to you the next day.

If you want to compete with the Mikado people in this area, you might have to go to the DC universe and invite some fellow Gotham folks.

Mason sighed, stuffed the whole piece of char siu into his mouth, chewed it a couple of times, swallowed it, and then got up and walked out of the private room.

Although there's no conflict between being dead and eating, his mental state isn't so abnormal that he can treat screams as a side dish. If you encounter something like this, it's best to go out and take a look first.

Mason poked his head out from under the curtain.

For him, the terror of Mika City was mainly psychological. After all, the criminals here usually killed people with knives or poison, and the murder weapons were basically common things in life, at most a pistol. With his current abilities, being stabbed a dozen or twenty times was no different from being splashed with water, so there was nothing to be afraid of.

—Unless it's a theatrical version.

By the way, cyanide and similar substances are probably commonplace in this world, something you can buy a pack of just by going downstairs to the supermarket. Otherwise, there's no way to explain where so many civilian killers get their hands on these poisons.

Incidentally, Konecke's diary mentions a website that sells murder tools, supposedly ranging from sharp weapons to poisons to bombs. Heaven knows how it operates; perhaps in a world ravaged by death, one can live but not be without life.

After letting his mind wander aimlessly for a while, Mason looked down the stairs towards the first floor where the scream had just come from.

Let me see what's going on.

In the world of Detective Conan, it's probably the kind of thing where a group of people are eating when someone suddenly collapses from poisoning. After some investigation, three suspects are identified, and the police or Kogoro Mouri eliminates one wrong answer. Finally, Conan steps in and uses drugs (referring to tranquilizer darts) and violence (referring to soccer) to force (referring to verbal attacks) the real culprit to reveal their true colors—anyway, the plot is pretty much the same for over a thousand episodes of the TV series.

But what Mason saw next was somewhat unexpected.

Downstairs in the public dining area, a fierce-looking middle-aged man was holding a girl who looked to be only in elementary school age in one hand, while wildly waving a sharp knife in the other. The diners were all intimidated by the weapon and dared not approach, only shrinking back in fear to watch the middle-aged man's actions.

"Don't come any closer! If anyone dares to make a move, I'll stab this kid right through the heart!"

The middle-aged man roared furiously. From Mason's position, he couldn't see the details of the man's expression clearly, but he could feel the strange frenzy emanating from him.

Does the killer simply reveal their identity without needing to deduce anything?

This kind of operation is quite rare in the Conan series.

And—doesn't that little girl being carried by one hand look familiar?

Mason blinked and, after scanning the ground floor again, discovered another startling fact: among the onlookers were four children, three boys and one girl.

One was dark-skinned and chubby, another had freckles on his face, one wore glasses and a bow tie, and the last girl had a brown bob haircut.

In this Beika City, nine out of ten places where gongs are struck, you'll see these kids—they are the Detective Boys, a trio of gods and villains: Conan Edogawa, Ai Haibara, Genta Kojima, Mitsuhiko Tsuburaya, and Ayumi Yoshida, who is being held hostage by thugs.

You guys really do seem to bring trouble wherever you go!

Judging from the situation, it seems the members of the Junior Detective League stopped at a roadside ramen shop after school for a bite to eat, only to get caught up in a murder case. Ayumi Yoshida, nicknamed the "Millennial Hostage," was captured on the spot—this kind of cliché plot has been seen countless times in anime, I never thought I'd see it in person one day—

Mason scratched his head and decided to continue being a bystander. After all, the Grim Reaper elementary school student was probably so familiar with the job of saving Private Ayumi that it had become muscle memory for him, so it shouldn't be his turn to step in.

Moreover, judging from past performance, he seems to be a loyal and devoted servant of the brewery. If he were to show up in front of Ai Haibara, who has the superpower "Breakfast Radar", who knows what kind of misunderstanding might arise.

I'm going to stay anonymous. Do whatever you want.

Thinking of this, he withdrew his foot from the stairs, intending to find a more comfortable angle to watch the show. But at that moment, the ridiculous scene from a horror movie where someone is being chased by a monster and makes a sound when they step on a tree branch actually happened to Mason.

This ramen shop is probably quite old. Although the wooden staircase is still sturdy, its structure is somewhat loose, which caused the staircase to make a long "creak" sound when Mason lifted his foot.

Under normal circumstances, this wouldn't be a problem, but the man with the knife was standing very close to the stairs, and this not-so-subtle movement immediately attracted his attention.

The man looked up and saw Mason, who was acting suspiciously and seemed to be planning something.

Thank goodness, he was just planning to cautiously step back and find a better angle to watch the show.

However, in the eyes of the highly stressed criminals, things were clearly not like that.

"You bastard! What do you think you're doing?!"

He immediately pointed the knife at Mason and roared, "Do you want me to stab this kid to death?!"

Mason: "————"

What did I do to deserve this? Seriously, did Wanda cast some kind of curse of bad luck on me using chaos magic?

But since things had come to this point, further explanation seemed pointless, so he could only grit his teeth and raise his hands in surrender.

"Although I don't know what happened—"

With the spirit of either doing nothing or going all the way, Mason tentatively said, "But using a child as a hostage is a bit disrespectful—if you don't mind, I can take her place."

Upon hearing this, the onlookers immediately stood in awe.

Even the middle-aged man was stunned for a moment, a look of bewilderment appearing on his face.

Mason took the opportunity to move forward a few steps.

"You probably don't have any grudges against her—besides, a child isn't a suitable hostage. If the police come, you won't even be able to use her as a shield, and a sniper will easily take you out. But my physique is similar to yours, so I'm obviously a more suitable candidate."

Mason continued to make things up while cautiously taking a few more steps forward.

This distance is good, it should be about right.

In that instant, Mason launched a sudden attack, leaping several meters across the distance to stand directly in front of the assailant and slamming his shoulder into him.

The middle-aged man, who clearly hadn't expected Mason to use such a tactic, was knocked off balance before he could react. Yoshida Ayumi, whom he was holding with one hand, also fell to the ground. — This kid was indeed a master hostage; as soon as she landed, she ran off quickly and escaped to Conan and the others in the blink of an eye.

That's what you call professional.

The middle-aged man, caught off guard, finally realized what was going on. Almost immediately, he stared intently at Mason with his bloodshot eyes.

"You dare ruin my plans—you bastard, die!"

He roared and thrust the knife at Mason with all his might.

Seeing this, Conan immediately activated the dial of his tranquilizer watch. However, there was a considerable distance between him and the middle-aged man, with a counter in between interfering with his view, making it difficult to hit him directly. Meanwhile, the latter only needed to rush over and stab Mason.

As expected, I still have to rely on myself.

Mason had a helpless thought flash through his mind—although being stabbed was nothing to him, doing it in the Conan world was a bit too shocking. He should cover it up a bit and use another method.

So, just as the knife was about to pierce Mason's chest, he anticipated the middle-aged man's swing and precisely grabbed his wrist—

Then, an uppercut!

A fist slammed into the middle-aged man's chin from below. This move, learned from Mystique, had an immediate effect. The middle-aged man was almost instantly dazed. After staggering back two steps, he fell backward. Mason, not wanting to escalate the situation, grabbed his collar to prevent him from hitting his head on the ground.

I got up, killed him with one punch, what's there to say?