Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

Because Aoyagi Binguang picked so quickly, Rabbit didn't see clearly what he bought until he put the book down and checked out.

"Detective Kyoko" Volume 1 and 2, "Valentine", "And Then There Were None", "Murder on the Orient Express", "Malice"...

...Wait, "Malice"?

When Rabbit saw the last work and the author's name, his eyes froze.

He was not very interested in detective novels, but he knew the name of this author and even read this book on the recommendation of others, although he returned it halfway through.

I didn’t expect that in the Conan world, there are not only works by the deceased old-time mystery masters (Conan Doyle, Agatha Christie, etc.), but also works published by modern writers in reality?

And if he remembered correctly, the first publication of "Malice" seemed to be several years later than the serialization of Conan?

When the rabbit saw the book he had read in real life appear in front of him, he suddenly felt his neck go numb, and he seemed to hear the sound of something twisting and breaking.

He quietly went to see Aoyagi Binguang's reaction and found that the latter was extremely calm and did not feel anything strange about the books in his hands.

……

Because they got clues that there were other players - or two of them - they didn't stay outside for long. After leaving the bookstore, they hurried back to the tower.

As soon as he entered the room, Qing Liu Bingguang threw all the other things into the living room, took out only the two books and the newly bought laptop, and looked at the rabbit that had turned back into human form: "I'll use your computer first. If there is any problem, I can replace it in time."

The rabbit had no objection, after all, the money was paid by the other party.

The two of them entered the small bedroom one after the other. They planned to use it as a study.

Aoyagi Binguang noticed the upside-down mirror on the table. Without asking any questions, he took the mirror aside, quickly turned on the computer and connected to the network.

[Actually, I’m more curious about the policeman. Judging from his occupation, he should be on the red side. It’s a pity that the girl didn’t say her specific last name at that time…]

Rabbit felt a little regretful. Even if she just said that she saw him in the news, it would make it easier for them to investigate at this time.

"It's okay, let's look at another one first."

The last name is "Hojo", the given name is "Iris", the work is "Detective Kyoko"... Once a few keywords are entered, relevant information will pop up quickly.

The first thing that came out was a synopsis of the novel.

[As an orphan, high school girl detective Kyoko has solved many difficult cases and is known as the beacon of the Japanese police. One day, while dating her childhood sweetheart, she witnessed a mysterious transaction and was killed.

Fortunately, she survived and was sent to the hospital by her childhood sweetheart who came to worry about her. However, she lost all her memories due to a severe head injury. She cut her long hair, put on glasses, moved into her childhood sweetheart's house, and went from the front stage to the backstage, becoming the brain trust behind her boyfriend's case, and embarked on a long journey to find her memory.

Although he has lost his memory, his mind is still smart. It is a dream journey where reasoning and love coexist! 】

[This... is really Conan's introduction...]

The black mist on the rabbit's neck floated loosely: [Except for the different identities of the protagonists, and the fact that this protagonist has lost his memory, unlike Conan whose body has shrunk... the rest is similar. ]

He was basically certain that this Hojo Toika was one of the players.

The rabbit turned his eyes and looked at the photo of the author next to it.

She was a young girl with beautiful looks and fair skin. She was wearing a complicated and fancy black dress, her long hair was tied up, and she had a heart-shaped collar around her neck.

She held a drink in one hand and a small bag on her arm, and blew a cute kiss to the camera.

Because she has light makeup on her face, I can’t tell her age for now... Judging from the conversation between those girls just now, they should be high school students?

She was very beautiful, and Rabbit couldn't help but look at her a few more times; Aoyagi Binkou had no reaction to this beauty, and simply scrolled down the webpage to see the background and publication of this work.

——In the autumn two years ago, Hojo Toika, who was about to enter high school, wrote the first case of "Detective Kyoko", the Hoshikage Island incident that Kyoko encountered before she lost her memory, and wanted to submit it for the Dengeki Novel Award held by Dengeki Bunko that year.

Unfortunately, the first draft had too many pages, exceeding the maximum number of pages stipulated, and as a mystery novel, it could not be cut at will to avoid missing evidence or causing logical disorder. So she gave up submitting the manuscript, asked her father to set up a personal website, and started online serialization under the pen name "Ba Si Lu Ren".

passerby.

The rabbit had a sense of expectation.

The system said that passers-by have the highest degree of freedom among the three camps. Come to think of it, the black camp is a criminal and needs to be humble and not be too ostentatious. The red camp... thinking of the crime rate in Beihua, detectives and police are often overloaded with work, so where do they find the time to serialize light novels.

Only passers-by have the spare time and energy.

Looking at the girl in the photo, Rabbit felt excited and complicated.

He remembered that when he read novels in the past, there was a genre called plagiarism, in which the time travelers would publish famous poems, novels, comics, and games created by others that they had read in advance in order to receive praise or make a fortune.

It's quite refreshing to watch without brains and morals. Now I really meet such people, and they publish the magic modified version of Conan in Conan. I always feel a little bit...

Aoyagi Binguang looked at the screen and said, "She modified the original work and posted it online or even in print. It seems that she is a very high-profile person. The policeman who was suspected to be a player must have come to her because of this..."

He paused, then continued to scroll down to read the introduction of the novel.

"...Not only that, other players will find out she is a player once they see this, and they may go looking for her. She may have clues about other players."

【Can we find her home address? 】

Rabbit typed quickly: [We can contact her to find the remaining players, so that our game will be much more convenient! ]

Currently, there are only two people on the black side, him and Aoyagi Binguang, and the remaining five are either red or passers-by. He originally thought that he would have to slowly search for a needle in a haystack, but he didn't expect to find a clue so quickly.

Neither of them likes the game and wants it to end quickly. Other players may have the same idea, so they can unite - there is a saying that goes, there is strength in numbers!!

Seeing his words, Aoyagi Binguang turned around and looked at him.

Rabbit noticed his expression, his eyes, which could only be described as cold.

Like a basin of ice water poured over his head, the rabbit's excited heart trembled violently, and he gradually calmed down.

[…Is there any problem? ]

Chapter 20: Conan in the Conan World

After seeing that the rabbit had a simple character and a simple origin, Aoyagi Akimichi adopted a gentle approach.

- Try to be gentle and considerate, and get along with him without the cruelty of an organization member, so as to slowly gain his trust and dependence.

Seeing the black mist on the other person's neck shrink, he immediately realized that it was his expression that scared him.

Aoyagi Binkou did not immediately return to his previous friendly and polite appearance, but frowned first, making a buffer in his expression and attitude. Switching too quickly would easily arouse suspicion.

"...We should be more cautious. It's dangerous to just show up at someone's door without knowing what kind of person they are."

He slowed down his tone and spoke slowly.

And like he just said, this is a relatively high-profile person.

He had come into contact with many such people in the past.

Most of these people are extroverted and cheerful, and like to attract other people's attention. Because of their enthusiastic personality, they can make some friends; but at the same time, they tend to be confident to the point of being arrogant, like to show off, act arbitrarily, and sometimes disregard the wishes of others.

Thinking about what those girls said, especially the content of the quarrel that one of them heard, he felt that this light novel writer would not be as easy to get along with as Rabbit. On the contrary, she would be the type of person he least wanted to associate with.

Another important point is skills.

He didn't know what her skills were yet.

Rabbit has the ability to read memories, so do other players have similar or even more terrifying abilities? This passerby player is not his teammate or ally, and is not immune to skill effects. Her skills can be used on him.

Although you can query other people's skills in the system, each person only has three query opportunities, which means you can't check whenever you want.

"She has a social media account. We can see what she posts and learn about her daily life and her works..." Aoyagi Binguang looked at the two books next to the computer. "Do you want to take a look first to see how it is different from the original? After all, I haven't read the comics. I only heard part of it from you."

Without hesitation, Rabbit picked up the first volume of "Detective Kyoko" next to him and began to flip through the pages while standing beside him. He flipped through the pages very quickly, reading in a skipping manner.

[The first case she serialized and published online was the Hoshigaki Island incident... This should correspond to the Moonlight Sonata murder case on Tsukikage Island in Conan.]

Qing Liu Bingguang knew about this case. Last night, he heard Rabbit talk about the murderer and how many people died. This was a serial murder case. Rabbit didn't remember the specific methods of each case and the identity of each victim.

"This was originally the case Conan encountered after he became smaller, and she specially adapted it and arranged it as the first one. Is this case very special?" he asked.

[Yes, this case is very important in the original work. The murderer is a beautiful pseudo-doctor. After being exposed by Conan, she committed suicide in front of him. From then on, Conan's reasoning method changed. He rarely pushed the criminals to the end of the road. ]

[It's a pity for this doctor. He is not a bad person by nature. His parents and sister were killed by those people, and he killed them to avenge the extermination of his family...]

Qing Liu Bingguang felt nothing in his heart. He had seen too many cases in the organization where if you kill my whole family, I will wipe out your entire family tomorrow.

The rabbit quickly turned to the end, stopped at the page with illustrations, and slowed down his reading speed.

【no the same!】

He wrote this suddenly.

"What?" Qingliu Binguang looked at him in confusion.

Rabbit held the book in one hand, pointed at a paragraph, and quickly wrote on the system pop-up window with the other hand:

[The original ending of the Tsukikage Island case was that the doctor committed suicide in the fire and threw Conan out of the room before he died! But in her version, Kyoko also deduced the murderer and the method of the case, but fabricated an external murderer and let the doctor go! ! ]

Aoyagi Akina just looked at the passage he was pointing at.

——The police and justice did not redress your injustice, so you lived with hatred for so many years. Now you just killed the crime that was not judged at that time, which I think is a legitimate behavior.

——Holmes would do the same. Go now, and your life will be free from now on.

[Conan's work is different from Sherlock Holmes! Conan has never done this. I remember that in the original work, he only let go of the murderer who was forgiven by the victim himself, and one Vermouth, but that was because Xiaolan fainted due to illness and was rushed to the hospital! No matter how pitiful the other criminals were, and no matter how understandable the reasons for killing were to outsiders, he did not let them go! ]

[Life is above all else. No matter what the reason, killing is a crime and must be punished by law. This is the value of Conan's work! She is just...]

Next to this passage is an illustration in which the female detective, still with long hair, watches the doctor board the ship and escape the punishment of the law.

“…Since she changed the ending, it proves that she doesn’t agree with the protagonist or the ideas expressed in the original work.” Aoyagi Akimitsu said, “Or, in other words, she thinks her own values ​​are correct.”

The rabbit is holding a book, leaning forward slightly. If he had a head, he would probably be looking down in deep thought.

Qing Liu Bingguang temporarily closed the introduction page and browsed other news. He soon found a clue -

"There will be a book signing event in Beika-cho the day after tomorrow afternoon. We can go and see it as fans."

The rabbit nodded heavily.

……

Night falls again.

On this night, Aoyagi Akimitsu finally returned to his previous life.

Delicious food cooked by myself, a bathtub full of hot water, loose and comfortable pajamas...except for the rings on the hands and electronic anklets on the feet, everything seems to have returned to normal.

Rabbit stayed in another bedroom. Aoyagi Binguang didn't know what he was doing. Before he knew the specific power of the black fog, he didn't risk installing a pinhole camera in his room.

He sat at his desk in his pajamas, using his computer protected by multiple layers of security software to continue browsing the website that serialized "Detective Kyoko".