Conan, I'm an actor

Vodka couldn't help but shiver as he suddenly remembered a legend within the organization about an arsonist.

“Investigate that guy we met at the restaurant the other day,” Gin suddenly said.

“But…” Vodka’s face showed difficulty.

The Shinkansen carries at least several hundred passengers, if not a thousand. Even if we narrow it down to a few carriages, it's still a considerable undertaking. Wasting resources on this kind of thing will likely cause quite a stir among the higher-ups.

"What, is there a problem?" Gin lit a cigarette and glanced at Vodka.

"no problem!"

At the same time, Xincheng, who was writing code in the hotel, suddenly groaned and fell off his chair.

His mind went blank, his vision blurred, and the system notification label acted like an eye patch, blocking his view. His blood seemed to freeze instantly, and all his strength was drained away in a flash.

Just then, Yue Shui, who was lying in bed reading a magazine, came up to him and anxiously asked what had happened, but Shinjo could no longer hear him.

"My bag, the first-aid kit, and then you get out." Shinjo's words sounded like they were being forced out, and after he finished speaking, it felt like all the air had been sucked out of his lungs.

Yue Shui immediately took Xin Cheng's briefcase, but when she opened it, she was stunned. Inside, there were only the two kinds of medicine that Xin Cheng usually took, and a huge black battery. There was nothing else.

"Where is the medicine?" Yue Shui was getting anxious. "Do you need me to call an ambulance...?"

"I told you to get out!" Xincheng's expression was now somewhat ferocious.

Yue Shui was also startled by Xin Cheng's current condition. She decided to go out for a few minutes and come back in later. If Xin Cheng's condition had not improved by then, she would take him to the hospital no matter what.

Chapter 7 Visiting the Mori Office

After the door closed, Xincheng opened the box directly, inside which was only an extremely heavy transformer.

He shakily plugged in the power, then took out two probes, one red and one black, and inserted them directly into a certain spot on his chest.

As the current entered his body, he felt his heart begin to regain its vitality. He turned to look at the transformer's screen, which displayed "Charging" and "8%".

“A week ago, the heart's battery was still at 67%.” Shinjo looked at the skin around the interface that was emitting a certain fragrance. “Could it be that the bomb decryption process consumed too much energy? That shouldn’t be the case. I used to defuse bombs before. Could it be broken… Never mind, let’s check the system’s settlement rewards first.”

[Custom script settlement complete]

Overall rating: C+ (258)

[Reward: Heart Battery Density Increased by 500%]

[Long-term script settlement completed]

【无间道+0.2%（63.9%），詹姆斯·莫里亚蒂+0（7.2%），亡牌飞行员+0.4%（25.3%），约翰·H·华生+2.7%（6.9%）】

[Long-run scenario—John H. Watson, 5% stage reward: Medical Assist Chip (for prosthetic eyes), Prosthetic Eye Extension Plugin.]

[Long-term scenario - Dead Pilot, 25% stage reward: Artificial Intelligence (AI), Vehicle Specialization Chip.]

Upon seeing the line about increased battery density, Xincheng's lips twitched slightly. Ah, the culprit had been found. His artificial heart would enter a power-saving mode when the battery was low, and the increased energy density caused the battery level to drop below the warning threshold, which was why he felt so uncomfortable.

After understanding the reason, he began to check the other rewards.

It's quite reasonable that John H. Watson, who was a military doctor before becoming Sherlock Holmes's assistant, would have a prosthetic eye for diagnosis and an expansion module to house it.

What Xincheng really cares about is the 25% stage reward in another scenario, which is second only to the 100% and 50% stage rewards.

After using the vehicle expertise chip, you will automatically acquire the driving skills for all vehicles, at a master level, which is relatively common. However, artificial intelligence (AI) is different; it's a product that transcends time. With this chip, any online resource will be no secret to it.

However, the conditions for accessing it are quite stringent, requiring a huge computer room and one or even several high-performance supercomputers.

Just then, there was a knock on the door, clearly indicating that Yue Shui outside was worried about his condition.

"Come in," Shinjo said weakly.

Upon entering and seeing that Shinjo was unharmed, Yue Shui breathed a sigh of relief. "Aren't you going to explain what happened today, that black box?"

"What if I say I don't intend to explain?" Shinjo looked at Yue Shui with a half-smile.

"Then wait until you're ready to explain before you tell me. Just pretend I didn't ask today." Yue Shui sat directly on the bed, holding a travel magazine in her hand. "Is there anywhere you want to go tomorrow? Or are you going straight back to Tokyo?"

"Let's go back to Tokyo," Shinjo sighed.

He wasn't really interested in playing with the AI ​​since it wasn't available.

For more than a month afterward, nothing happened, and Valentine's Day was just around the corner.

Looking at the calendar on the table, Shinjo stroked his chin. If he remembered correctly, on Valentine's Day, a hapless guy named Minagawa Katsuhiko would be killed by his stepmother.

However, that's a matter for Mihana University; I have no reason to get involved, nor is there any need for me to.

"Yoshimizu, do you have any joint activities with Beika University?" Shinjo asked, flipping through the newspaper on the table.

"Probably not. I don't know much about social events, and I don't have that much time to waste." Koshimizu Nanatsuki flipped through the documents in front of her. "Those guys looked pretty stupid, trying so hard to impress."

"You should start dating early..."

"You're just like my parents." Yue Shui closed the file, glanced at the clock on the wall, and said, "There's nothing much to do today, you can go home."

Xincheng shrugged, picked up his briefcase, and walked towards the door.

He happened to have other things to take care of today, and since Yue Shui was already kicking him out, he might as well be decisive. After leaving the detective agency, Shinjo sent a text message to Vermouth's number on his phone, telling her the delivery location, and then headed straight for a detective agency.

For the past two weeks, every few days he'd seen those three brats from the Junior Detective Club handing out flyers outside the Yue Shui Detective Agency. He knew without a doubt that this was the result of the great detective's deliberate manipulation; he figured the great detective was probably observing him from the shadows.

Unwilling to play games with Conan, Shinjo chose to carry a gift box to the door of the Mouri Detective Agency and lay his cards on the table.

"I told you you were coming, why did you bring a gift?" Kogoro Mouri said as he accepted the gift. "What exactly happened on the Shinkansen last time? I've been so busy dealing with this, I went to the Metropolitan Police Department four times, and even some big shots from the Public Security Bureau were there."

“Those guys are an extremely dangerous group. There are people in the Public Security Bureau investigating them, but there haven’t been any results yet. The person who made this bomb should be their leader operating in Japan. The fingerprints on the bomb are an important clue.”

"Such a great achievement, and you want me to take the lead? Aren't you afraid I'll embezzle your bonus?" Mao Li was stunned. He didn't expect the matter to involve so much, even the police. He should have known better than to get involved in this mess.

“Even if you gamble all your winnings on horse racing and lose it all, it doesn’t matter. I will ask Ms. Eri Kisaki to return the money.” Shinjo crossed his legs. “I happen to have a few assets that I need to transfer to a junior, and I need an excellent lawyer as an advisor.”

Kogoro Mouri rolled his eyes. "I don't get along with her. You've got the wrong idea."

"Yes, yes, we don't get along." Shinjo deliberately dragged out his words, and just as Mori was about to get angry, he turned the topic to Conan, who was standing to the side, "Little kid, have you guessed who I am? For the past two weeks, you've been hanging around my family's detective agency with that Junior Detective Club for days on end."

"You're an undercover agent!" Conan said, pointing at Shinjo.

"You brat, what nonsense are you spouting? And when did you learn to come here and disrupt other people's business?" Mori got angry the moment he heard the word "undercover agent." Just as he was about to use his righteous fist to punish Conan, he was stopped by Shinjo.

"Don't rush me, I didn't say he guessed right," Xincheng said with a smile. "Besides, it's not good to hit children, what if they become stupid from the beating?"

Conan and Kogoro Mouri wore expressions of disbelief; they clearly hadn't expected this outcome.

Chapter 8 Showdown in the Firm

Shinjo stretched his shoulders and looked at the two of them with a smile. "Don't be so surprised. I quit a year ago. Now I'm just a detective's assistant."

Conan's mouth gaped open. He felt his intelligence had been insulted. The other person had already given him the answer, yet he still guessed wrong.

"I've already told you the answer, and you still can't guess it? Little brother, with a brain like that, you might as well give up being a detective." Shinjo said, patting Conan on the shoulder.

Conan outwardly chuckled foolishly, but inwardly he was cursing. "How can you play games like this?" he thought. The questions on the train weren't questions, they were riddles. If this guy didn't know anything about that organization, he'd probably bite him to vent his frustration.

Just as Conan was trying to find out more about the two men in black, Kogoro Mouri spoke first.

"By the way, what about those two men in black? I asked Megure, and he said that the case seems to have been taken over by higher-ups, and all the documents and stuff have been taken away. He doesn't know anything about it." Kogoro Mouri stroked his mustache and said, "When I pressed him, he just used the confidentiality clause to brush me off."

"A very powerful criminal organization. I was sent in as an undercover agent for that organization back then." As Shinjo spoke, he glanced at Conan. "Who are those two guys? Didn't the little guy tell you?"

Kogoro Mouri stared at Conan, making Conan feel uneasy. He wanted to say something, but he really didn't know anything.

"The names of those two guys," Shinjo reminded her.

“Oh, that… I heard their names when I overheard their conversation,” Conan said. “One was called Vodka, and the other was called Gin; they seem to be just code names.”

"Gin and vodka, aren't those the names of alcoholic beverages?" Kogoro Mouri looked at Conan with some suspicion. "You said you overheard their conversation in the dining car. Are you sure these aren't the names of the drinks they ordered?"

"I'm sure," Conan said confidently.

“It is indeed a code name. The mid-level cadres of that organization all use the names of alcoholic beverages as their code names. The men are named after distilled spirits, while the women are more casual.” Shinjo picked up his coffee and took a sip. “The one named Gin is the big boss of this organization in Japan.”

"Now that we've found the person, why don't we just take them out?" Kogoro Mouri stroked his chin. "That shouldn't be too difficult."

Shinjo looked at Conan with a half-smile, seemingly waiting for Conan to say something.

Conan felt uneasy under their gazes once again, so he could only modify what he had seen in the amusement park before confessing, but he did not name the person he was trading with.

Kogoro Mouri was silent for a moment, rummaged through a pile of old newspapers for a while, then pulled out a newspaper, turned to a certain page, pointed to a photo and asked, "Is it him?"

Conan nodded. "It was him. They took a negative and exchanged it for a box of money with this guy, saying it was evidence of smuggling firearms."

When he heard the words "evidence of smuggled firearms," ​​Kogoro Mouri's face turned green.

This company is considered a large corporation in Japan. Their ability to smuggle firearms indicates they wield considerable influence in both the legal and illegal worlds. To put it bluntly, their former employer likely had undercover agents within their ranks. The fact that such powerful locals could be threatened and even obediently hand over money explains why Inspector Megure was so secretive about this organization.

"You're making me take the fall for something so dangerous?" Kogoro Mouri grabbed Shinjo's collar. "What if they find out and try to retaliate? Our whole family will be finished."

"No, don't worry. The police have been investigating this organization and have even planted several undercover agents. To protect witnesses, they won't let you publish it in the newspaper." Shinjo patted Kogoro's hand, signaling him to let go. "Even if you do publish it, the more high-profile you are, the safer you'll be. That organization doesn't want to be discovered either, so they operate very discreetly. If the media publishes your story, your reputation as a great detective will be established. If you die mysteriously, anyone with a brain will think it was those people on the Shinkansen who did it and will definitely ask the Metropolitan Police Department to apprehend the killer. In that case, it will be difficult for them to hide anymore."

Upon hearing Shinjo's description, Conan's lips twitched slightly. He was just about to say that he, a famous person, had been killed by the other side.

Then he remembered that there seemed to be no eyewitnesses when he "died." Moreover, according to Gin's description, the drug he took was specially formulated, and those who took it would not be detected as poisoned.

Such a elaborate murder does indeed fit the description of Shinjo.

"Alright, what brings you here today? Just say it." Kogoro wasn't in a good mood after learning about the Black Organization, and he plopped down in a chair. "I heard from Ito that you also run a detective agency in Tokyo. Don't expect me to introduce you to any clients; I'm barely making ends meet by living off the rent."

“You don’t need to worry about the client’s affairs. My agency has a famous high school detective, you know that Nanatsuki Koshimizu from the newspapers a couple of years ago? That’s her. She’s very famous, and many clients come specifically because of her reputation.” Shinjo changed the subject, seeing Kogoro becoming increasingly agitated. “The main reason I’m here today is to see this kid. I’m related to his parents…”

"Then hurry up and take this brat away, he's such a nuisance!" Kogoro Mouri stood up excitedly.

Conan's expression changed as well. He wanted to get some information out of Shinjo, but that didn't mean he wanted to be alone with Shinjo. Uncle Mori believed his former classmate, but Conan didn't, and he'd never heard of his parents having such a friend.

"Heh... You should keep this trouble for yourself." Shinjo turned to Conan. "Kid, don't bring your friends to spy on me next time. It's dangerous. You only managed to run into a fake like me. If you had run into the real deal, you and your friends wouldn't even know how you died."

Conan's face turned pale. Shinjo's reminder made him realize how impulsive his actions had been a few days ago.

"You're staying home these next few days, and you're not allowed to go anywhere." Kogoro understood what Shinjo meant. "I'll tell Ran to keep an eye on this brat and not let him run around."

Chapter 9 The Bomb of Unknown Origin

When leaving the Mouri Detective Agency, Shinjo gave Conan a business card from the Koshimizu Detective Agency. He hadn't expected Kogoro Mouri to ground him, and he wanted to give the kid a way to contact him.

Two hours ago, Shinjo left the Koshimizu Detective Agency fifteen minutes later

After confirming that Shinjo had left, Koshimizu Nanatsuki closed the case file in front of her and then hung a sign at the store entrance announcing that the store was closed.