Conan Rick's Investigator

Thinking back on the bad luck Yoko Okino has been encountering recently, there is indeed something wrong.

While walking on a busy street, her hat was suddenly blown away by a strong wind. Passersby recognized Miss Yoko and rushed up to ask for her autograph. She was almost injured in the jostle.

On the way home, a flowerpot accidentally fell from the apartment building and almost hit Miss Yoko.

During the recording of the program "Good Morning 4 O'Clock: Yoko Okino's -Minute Cooking Time", he accidentally cut his hand while cutting vegetables.

When I went to the shrine to pray and rang the bell, the bell and the hemp rope fell directly from above.

I was rear-ended while riding in a car.

I fell down the stairs when I went out in the morning.

The wooden board above my head fell down when I went to the toilet.

If we add to this the murder that happened today, it would be another bad luck.

And all this happened after that man died!

Thinking of this, Yamagishi Ei quickly confessed everything.

"In fact, just two weeks ago, Ms. Yoko's ex-boyfriend from high school committed suicide in Ms. Yoko's home."

"He disguised the suicide scene as a homicide in order to frame Yoko, but fortunately Detective Maori solved the case."

"Could it be that he was the one who cursed Miss Yoko?"

When Qin Zhibo heard this, he realized that what he and Koizumi Hongzi had guessed was correct.

Qin Zhibo could guess the motive without Yamagishi Ei's detailed explanation.

It must be that this ex-boyfriend saw that Yoko Okino was a popular female artist, beautiful and rich, so he pursued her and wanted to get back together. After being rejected, he turned his love into hate.

In this case……

Qin Zhibo was organizing his thoughts when Yamagishi Rong suddenly kowtowed to him repeatedly, begging him as he kowtowed, "Please save Miss Yoko!"

"Ms. Yoko works very hard. I don't want to see her acting career ruined by that person!"

“Please! Please!”

Seeing that Yamagishi Ei was kneeling on the ground and begging sincerely, Qin Zhibo certainly would not be so unkind.

"Saving people is no problem, but it's also quite difficult for me, so..."

Qin Zhibo had an embarrassed expression on his face, and Yamagishi Rong, as a professional agent with a long history in the social world, immediately understood.

"I know! I know!"

"We will definitely not let you down in terms of reward. As long as you can help Ms. Yoko escape from her misfortune, we are willing to pay any amount!"

The goal was achieved, and Qin Zhibo explained the next steps to Yamagishi Ei.

"Tomorrow I need to go to the place where Yoko Okino's ex-boyfriend committed suicide."

"no problem!"

……

The next day, Qin Zhibo and Koizumi Hongzi met Yamagishi Ei as scheduled in front of a high-end apartment building in the city of Beihua.

"Excuse me, this person..."

Although Yamagishi Ei had seen the red-haired lady following Qin Zhibo yesterday, he even had the idea of getting her into the entertainment industry.

But today we are discussing serious matters, and it would be inappropriate to bring in irrelevant people.

“She’s my assistant.”

"Oh……"

Qin Zhibo explained casually, and Yamagishi Rong didn't ask any more questions. He took the two of them into the apartment building.

Koizumi Hongzi, who was walking behind, hurriedly leaned over to Qin Zhibo's ear and asked, "When did I become your assistant? You are more like my assistant."

"Don't you want to be in the spotlight? Then this is the only way I can introduce you."

The arrogant Koizumi Akako had no choice but to accept this.

In the elevator, Yamagishi Ei briefly introduced the suicide case of Yoko Okino's ex-boyfriend.

The ex-boyfriend's name is Akiyoshi Fujie, and he was Yoko Okino's high school boyfriend.

Later, after Yamagishi Ei's active persuasion and promise of a breakup fee, Fujie Akiyoshi took the initiative to break up with Okino Yoko.

But just a while ago, this Akiyoshi Fujie suddenly wanted to reconcile with Yoko Okino.

It turned out that at that time, an actress named Yuko Ikezawa was dissatisfied with Yoko Okino for taking her position as the heroine of the TV series. She stole the spare key of Yoko's house and broke into Yoko's house to cause trouble.

Fujie Akiyoshi, who wanted to go to the house to reconcile, happened to meet Ikezawa Yuko who came in to make trouble. He mistook Ikezawa Yuko's back for Okino Yoko and wanted to go forward to talk to her but was met with fierce resistance.

This eventually led to Fujie Akiyoshi feeling resentful and he thought of committing suicide to put the blame on others.

"These were the deductions made by Detective Maori at the time..."

"Oh, here we are. Right here."

The elevator stopped on the 25th floor. Yamagishi Ei led the two of them through a long corridor, took out a key and opened a door.

"This is Miss Yoko's original residence."

"Because the police said they might need to come here later to collect evidence, the living room where Fujie Akiyoshi committed suicide has been left untouched."

On the floor, the white lines of the corpse's marks carved out a sturdy human silhouette, with a standing chair next to it.

"At that time, Fujie Akiyoshi used ice to fix the sharp knife, then jumped from this chair onto the sharp knife and committed suicide..."

Yamagishi continued to describe Fujie Akiyoshi's suicide method, while Qin Zhiboyang pretended to think, then turned and leaned over to Koizumi Hongzi and whispered, "Did you figure out anything?"

"Hmm..." Koizumi Hongzi pondered, "Even if it's not magic, there should be a ritual array for curses here."

"But it's very clean here, I can't tell where the ritual formation is."

Koizumi Hongzi was in a stalemate, while Qin Zhibo searched the room based on his experience.

When looking up at the ceiling, Qin Zhibo found that the living room lights in this high-end apartment building were a little strange.

Next to the normal fluorescent tube, there is a thinner and shorter tube.

"Excuse me, what kind of lamp is that?"

Yamagishi Rong looked in the direction of Qin Zhibo's finger and explained, "That's the standard ultraviolet germicidal lamp for this building."

"Where is this light switch?"

"Um - please wait a moment, this light switch is controlled by a separate remote control, I need to find it first."

Soon, Yamagishi Ei found the remote control in the cabinet at the entrance and handed it to Qin Zhibo.

When the switch is pressed, the UV lamp starts working after a buzzing sound.

The not very dazzling purple light instantly filled the entire living room, making the atmosphere of the entire space weird.

However, what really makes people feel weird is not the ultraviolet rays, but a ritual formation that is revealed under the ultraviolet rays.

It is composed of several irregular circles, pentagrams and other patterns, as well as some strange words. Under ultraviolet light, they appear to be a faint fluorescent color.

And in the very center of the entire ritual formation is the fixed line of traces of Fujie Akiyoshi's body.

Chapter 144 Searching for the "Snow Girl"

"what!"

"This, this is!"

Seeing the strange pattern emitting a faint fluorescent light on the ground, Yamagishi Ei was so scared that he stepped back repeatedly, until he leaned against the wall and barely managed to stand.

Something completely unexpected appeared before his eyes, and it was naturally difficult for an ordinary person like Yamagishi Ei to accept it.

Koizumi Hongzi, who had long guessed that there must be something mysterious here, also widened her eyes in surprise and looked at the ritual formation under her feet in disbelief.

The entire ritual array on the floor is painted with fluorescent paint and will only appear under ultraviolet light.

The police apparently did not find this ritual formation during their previous investigation of the scene.

Qin Zhibo put the magic extractor on his hand and tried to touch the ritual array on it, but he could not extract any magic from it.

Koizumi Hongzi lowered her head and carefully studied the contents of the ritual array. Then she turned and asked, "Did that man hold onto Okino Yoko's clone when he died?"

"Clone?" Yamagishi Ei didn't understand what he meant.

In the world of magicians, a clone refers to a person's personal belongings or body tissues.

However, when Koizumi Akako used such professional terms to a complete layman, it seemed that the witch lady with only 45 willpower was quite frightened and her intelligence was somewhat reduced.

So Qin Zhibo changed his approach and asked, "Was Fujie Akiyoshi holding onto something when he died?"

"Something..." Yamagishi Eiji pondered for a moment, then suddenly realized, "He did grab something! He grabbed Miss Yoko's hair!"

That's right.

Fujie Akiyoshi was the one who cursed Okino Yoko!

Judging from the fact that Fujie Akiyoshi performed the ritual array while committing suicide to put the blame on Okino Yoko, he himself must not be sure that this self-sacrificial curse ritual could be effective.

So he chose to use two methods at the same time.

The place of suicide was also the location of the curse ceremony. Holding Yoko Okino's hair in his hand was to determine the target of the curse and to divert the suspicion of murder to Yoko Okino.

He's quite the planner...

Next, Qin Zhibo found a reason to send Yamagishi Ei away so that he could have a more relaxed discussion with Koizumi Akako.

"Can this death curse be lifted?"

Koizumi Hongzi's answer was very straightforward: "No."

"Although I don't know how he learned about this curse ritual, this death curse is exactly the double curse I suspected earlier. Once the person who is doubly cursed has paid the price with their life, the curse will not stop, and no outside force can interfere with its progress."

However, Koizumi Akako also gave other solutions.

"If I use curse magic of the same level, I might be able to cancel out the original curse effect."

"Fight fire with fire?"

"That's pretty much it..." Koizumi Hongzi nodded, then added, "However, to counteract this life-sacrificing curse, the curse magic required must be quite advanced."

"It is necessary to brew a potion on a full moon night with the help of the rising magical power, and then give the potion to the cursed person."

"The full moon night is this weekend, but I'm still missing an ingredient to make the potion."

"What material?" Qin Zhibo asked.

"The snow water from the Snow Girl."

Koizumi Akako said this seriously.

At the same time, the system triggered a prompt

[Learn the existence of mysterious creatures and trigger the main quest]

[Main Mission: Go to the target location and discover the target creature]

[Task requirements: 72 hours limit]

[Quest Reward: 3000 General Skill Proficiency, 400 Weird Mythology Knowledge Skill Proficiency]

[Mission countdown begins]

【71:59:59】

"what happened to you?"

Koizumi Hongzi leaned in front of the stunned Qin Zhibo and asked doubtfully, "Are you too surprised to learn about the existence of the Snow Girl?"

"No, how could it be?"

Qin Zhibo certainly wouldn't be surprised.

Since even "Mist Tengu" exists, the existence of "Snow Woman" is not surprising.

only……

"By the way, Hongzi." Qin Zhibo suddenly changed the subject and asked, "Have you heard of MI-GO?"