Conan: I'm Really Not the Manipulator

Kudo Shinichi suddenly turned around and looked in that direction.

In the darkness, a pair of snake eyes were staring at them quietly. Half of its body was illuminated by the light of the mobile phone. Kudo Shinichi saw that it was dark brown all over, with yellow-green horizontal stripes on its back.

"It's the yellow-green pit viper!" He recognized it at a glance.

"What...ah?" Hojo Shinji was confused, "Kudo, what are you talking about?"

"The name of this snake!"

Kudo Shinichi said quickly: "It is mainly distributed in the Kerama Islands, occasionally appearing in hilly or mountainous areas. It is the largest python in Asia and has a high venom output! Being bitten by it is very serious. Its venom can damage muscle tissue, and many victims will suffer permanent disabilities..."

"Don't talk so much about science in a place like this. Come up with a solution quickly!!"

Hojo Shinji screamed.

The yellow-green pit viper often invades areas where humans live, and for a long time in the past, hundreds of people were bitten by it every year.

Kudo Shinichi was thinking quickly about how to deal with the poisonous snake, but at this moment, the snake suddenly turned around and crawled over their heads.

The sound of snakes crawling was creepy in this space, and Hojo Shinji watched the snake crawl above him.

It suddenly lowered its head, hissing and sticking out its tongue, revealing its long and thin fangs. Something flowed out of its mouth and dripped into Hojo Shinji's open mouth.

Hojo Shinji's body stiffened, and after he came to his senses he retched. He bent down, scooped up the dirty water at his feet and put it into his mouth, trying desperately to rinse his mouth, and burst into tears.

"Hey, calm down!"

Kudo Shinichi hurriedly pulled him away: "Most snake venom is protein, and it has to enter the human blood to exert its toxic effect. As long as there is no wound in your mouth, you will not be poisoned! And what you touched was its blood, not poison!"

The snake seemed injured, with blood oozing from the corner of its mouth.

Kudo Shinichi once heard his father say that in order to train the soldiers' courage, some American special forces would make them drink cobra blood one by one during field training.

Hojo Shinji put down his hand, his face was covered with water marks, and he couldn't tell which were tears and which were dirty water underneath: "...Really?"

"real!"

Kudo Shinichi grabbed him and looked into his frightened eyes seriously: "If you are worried, go to the hospital for a check-up immediately after you get out. Medical technology is so advanced now, the mortality rate of venomous snakes has dropped a lot!"

"We can definitely get out - believe me, I will definitely get you out!"

He held his hand tightly, hoping to give him a little more courage in the darkness.

Hojo Shinji finally calmed down, and he stood up again with the help of Kudo Shinichi.

Together, they looked at the snake again.

The python did not leave, but remained quietly hovering above them while they talked, until they looked at it again, when it slowly retracted its head and continued to crawl forward.

"...This snake is so weird." Hojo Shinji wondered, "Why do I feel like it's deliberately guiding us to follow it?"

Kudo Shinichi discovered earlier that something was wrong with the snake.

Many venomous snakes will not bite easily, but their aggressiveness will increase when they feel threatened.

But the venomous snake itself was injured and had been lurking in the darkness until they arrived.

It suddenly accepted the light and did not actively attack those who were disturbing it. Instead, it acted as if it was a prank - yes, only a prank is the most appropriate description - and deliberately scared Hojo Shinji.

...Is this a trained snake?

This thought flashed through Kudo Shinichi's mind.

Hojo Shinji swallowed and looked at Kudo Shinichi carefully: "Should we follow?"

Kudo Shinichi looked forward, and because he was distracted by the sudden encounter with the poisonous snake, he realized that they had reached the end of the corridor.

If there is no road ahead, then we have no choice but to go back.

……

Kudo Shinichi and Hojo Shinji returned the same way.

Above them, a yellow-green lancehead viper crawled slowly along the cable, and at first glance it looked as if they were following the venomous snake.

As they passed the two awake rooms and walked in the opposite direction of their previous exploration, Kudo Shinichi checked the time on his cell phone.

It's 9:55 now.

The phone still has no signal, and the battery is still 51%. With the help of a flashlight, it can last about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, the water was already above the knees.

Kudo Shinichi felt heavy in his heart. He had spoken to Hojo Shinji with great confidence, but he was not really sure that he could escape.

Before being locked up in the cold storage yesterday, he sent an email for help in time and was quickly rescued, but now...

Kudo Shinichi glanced at Hojo Shinji, thinking that he would be angry - after all, it was he who chose the wrong direction, causing them to walk such a long distance in vain.

"Kudo! Look ahead!!"

Hojo Shinji's shout made Kudo Shinichi look forward.

He saw the sunlight.

The dazzling sunlight shone down from above and fell on a staircase.

Kudo Shinichi temporarily turned off the flashlight function on his mobile phone and walked to the stairs. There were two yellowed instruction maps on the wall next to them.

One of them was a diagram of the building's internal structure. The rooms they had just walked through could be matched one by one to the ones above, and the mark below was the second underground floor.

Next to it is a map.

Kudo Shinichi looked at the map carefully and found that it was near Okuho Town. There was a star drawn somewhere on it, which might be the specific location of this place.

However, he could not be sure that this map was correct. After all, he was underground and there were no landmark buildings around to help him make judgments.

On that star, there was a line of small words written.

——Ark Paradise.

ark……

Kudo Shinichi glanced to the side and saw the snake also crawling up.

The ark was about to be submerged, and there was a strange venomous snake guiding them...

Kudo Shinichi suddenly had a bad premonition and was about to stop Hojo Shinji to observe for a while, but when he turned around, he saw him running up the stairs.

"..."

He had no choice but to follow immediately.

Once upstairs, the sunlight became abundant and Kudo Shinichi noticed that the ceiling of the basement floor was very high, much higher than that of the second basement floor, and it was no longer made of wood, but tightly welded steel plates.

There are some small holes on the steel plate, which allow sunlight from outside to shine in but prevent people from passing through.

Kudo Shinichi took out his cell phone again to check, but there was still no signal.

There was also an instruction map on the wall not far away. Kudo Shinichi went over to take a look and found that it was a map of the internal structure of the first floor. Not far ahead was the exit.

Hojo Shinji ran forward, but soon he stopped.

"how come……"

Hearing his voice, Kudo Shinichi walked to his side, and when he saw him, he was stunned.

——A huge rock with iron chains wrapped around it blocked the exit.

Chapter 50 Method of Escape

Is this despair?

——After finally finding the exit, I discovered that the only exit was blocked.

Hojo Shinji collapsed to the ground.

With a numb expression, he stared at their escape route and the huge rock that could never be moved by the strength of two middle school students.

The snake had crawled down from the ceiling at some point, passed calmly by him, and entered the triangular gap between the stone and the wall next to it.

Kudo Shinichi watched the snake's tail disappear before his eyes, walked to the boulder and tried to push it a few times, but the stone did not move at all, so he bent down to check the gap.

Beyond the gap was a corridor with another staircase leading to the upper level, where more sunlight shone, forming a dazzling circle of light.

Shinichi Kudo noticed that there was a mirror next to the stairs, facing the top of the stairs, and something was reflected on the mirror.

He maintained the squatting posture, took out his mobile phone again, turned on the camera function, aimed the lens at that place and zoomed in continuously, and finally saw the picture above clearly.

——It is the blue sky and a forest.

It seems that this is indeed the exit...

Kudo Shinichi put away his cell phone which still had no signal and turned to the boulder beside him again. He found that next to the boulder, there were long and thin steel plates lying sideways.

He raised his hand and touched the iron chains on the stone. They were wrapped very tightly. He looked down along the chains.

Through the gap in the floor where the chain passed through, Kudo Shinichi saw a room on the second underground floor. He recognized it as the room with the winch.

It seems that the iron chains on the stone are those on the winch. The winch is usually used to drag or salvage heavy objects. Once it is started, its power is enough to pull the stone away.

However, if the stone really fell, it would hit the entrance to the winch room, and the operator would be completely trapped inside, unable to escape...

When Kudo Shinichi thought of this, he suddenly realized something.

His eyes were wide open, and he, who was wearing a short-sleeved shirt, felt as if a bucket of cold water had been poured on him in the middle of winter. He stood frozen in place, not moving at all.

"what to do……"

Behind him, Hojo Shinji covered his face and shouted in despair.

"How can we escape from here?!"

Hearing Hojo Shinji's voice, Kudo Shinichi turned his head stiffly.

It was not until this moment that he finally understood why the criminal who had only targeted him the previous two times wanted to involve another person this time.

Is there anything more despairing than finding a blocked exit?

——You can open the exit and allow others to survive, but the price is that you will block your own escape route.

Besides, it wasn't a quick death.

It is to stay alone in a small, dark environment, watching the water gradually flood over your body... After the rocks fall and block the door, there may be a lack of oxygen in the room, and you may suffocate to death before drowning.