Conan Rick's Investigator

If that's the case, then I, Conan, have to take care of it...

Conan tugged at the corner of Dr. Agasa's clothes as he was about to explain. Dr. Agasa bent down, and Conan whispered in Dr. Agasa's ear: "This family may have been hijacked by robbers, hurry up..."

Conan's words came to an abrupt end because three people walked out from the shadow of the castle, shocking Conan into silence.

Qin Zhibo and Matsumoto Ryohei!

There is also a middle-aged man I don’t know!

Were you also kidnapped by robbers?

The thought flashed through Conan's mind for a moment, as the more rational part of his brain told him that it was all a misunderstanding.

But why is this person winking at us?

Mamiya Mitsuru stepped forward and asked, "Who are these people..."

Before Dr. Agasa could answer, Qin Zhibo beside him said, "These people are all my acquaintances. The middle-aged man in the lead is called Dr. Agasa."

Dr. Agasa quickly took over the conversation and said that he brought his children for team building, but forgot to bring a tent, so he hoped to stay in the castle tonight.

Qin Zhibo was ecstatic: "Great! Thanks for the absent tent!"

After understanding the whole story, Mamiya Mitsuru nodded and said, "Since you are Mr. Qin's friend, please come in."

"It just so happens that this castle hasn't been this lively for a long time..."

"If possible, could Mr. Matsumoto personally cook dinner for me tonight? I haven't tasted Mr. Matsumoto's cooking for a long time..."

"Of course." Matsumoto Ryohei declined disrespectfully.

Conan, who was standing next to Dr. Agasa, also had a surprised smile on his face.

I didn’t expect to be able to eat Mr. Matsumoto’s cooking today!

What an unexpected gain!

At this moment, Huiyuan Ai, who was standing with her hands behind her back, said coldly: "If nothing unexpected happens, there will be another accident this time..."

Conan, who can never discover that he has the physique of the god of death: What does this sentence mean? Is it a new tongue twister?

"It's indeed a bit unexpected. Don't you think Mr. Matsumoto is not a good person?" Conan comforted the woman who escaped from the Black Organization and who always had a melancholy face.

"This time you can try Mr. Matsumoto's cooking skills. He is absolutely amazing at cooking."

Ai Haibara was unmoved by this.

"Even if I have to eat the compressed food I brought from camping, or go on an empty stomach to lose weight, I will never eat the food that man cooks."

……

Next, Matsumoto Ryohei went to the kitchen to prepare dinner, while Mamiya Mitsuru took Qin Zhibo, and also took Professor Agasa and a group of children to visit around the castle.

When they arrived at the chessboard lawn, a group of really naughty kids immediately rushed forward and used their clothes to wipe the chess pieces.

Mamiya Mitsuru ignored the child's mischief and explained, "This place was specially arranged by my father-in-law to be preserved. It may be the key to solving the mystery of the treasure..."

Mamiya Mitsuru deliberately spoke loudly so that Dr. Agasa beside him could hear him.

In fact, the reason why Dr. Agasa was allowed to live in was that he was an acquaintance of Qin Zhibo, and it was difficult to refuse for the sake of face.

On the other hand, Dr. Agasa is a doctor, and judging from his hairstyle, he is extremely smart. If we use Dr. Agasa's wisdom to solve the mystery here, we don't have to pay any fees to Qin Zhibo.

And just as Mamiya Mitsuru guessed, when Conan, who was standing next to him, heard this, he immediately showed a smile on his face like a detective who encountered a mystery.

"Uncle, is there a room that overlooks this lawn?"

"Yes, here..."

Mamiya Mitsuru pointed out the ancient castle behind Conan, and Conan ran directly into the castle in a hurry. The naughty kids outside the castle and Professor Agasa had to follow him.

Only Qin Zhibo was still standing there silently.

【Survey√】

The chessboard is arranged horizontally from 1 to 8 and vertically from A to H. The white pieces form the English word "Egg head" and the black pieces form a counterclockwise arrow.

The arrangement of the chess pieces on the chessboard lawn presents a code, so the investigation results only provide the corresponding interpretation of the code.

Egg head……

In English, this is a word that has a mocking meaning for intellectuals. The literal translation is egg head, but the real meaning is intellectual, nerd.

bookworm……

Qin Zhibo thought for a moment and asked, "Excuse me, is there still a study in this castle?"

Mamiya Mitsuru nodded and replied, "The study is on the third floor of the castle, and it has been preserved in its original state."

"Please take me there..."

……

The second floor of the castle at the same time.

All the members of the Junior Detective League were leaning on the window frame, overlooking the magnificent chessboard lawn. Only Conan was carefully recording the arrangement of the chess pieces on the board.

Judging from the number of chess pieces, the number of black pieces is far greater than the number of white pieces, so the chess game situation should not be the key to decryption.

The key should be the arrangement of the chess pieces. The placement of these chess pieces should have some special meaning...

At this moment, the naughty kid in the next room was making a fuss, causing Kojima Motota to almost fall out of the window.

Conan could only put aside his reasoning for the time being and ran to the next room to show concern for the two naughty children in a parent's tone.

It was at this moment that Conan discovered through the positions of the windows in the two rooms that there might be other spaces between the walls between the rooms.

Conan knocked on the wall, and when an empty echo came from his knocks, a confident smile appeared on his face.

I see……

When Genta and Mitsuhiko looked back, Conan had already happily turned on offline mode.

……

At the same time, Qin Zhibo came to the study in the castle under the guidance of Mamiya Mitsuru.

"This study was previously used by my father-in-law, and later became the study of my wife's ex-husband, Mr. Sadaki."

"They were both historians..."

"According to Uchiko, the two of them, along with Mr. Matsumoto's father, are all historians. The three of them are very close and often study history here day and night, which often makes her jealous."

"It's a pity that I know nothing about history, so I rarely come to this study..."

Mamiya Mitsuru stood aside and introduced Qin Zhibo, while Qin Zhibo was searching for clues to the treasure and his eyes fell on a glowing investigation point.

Chapter 267: Mamiya Family Research Manuscript

Qin Zhibo walked over to the ebony box emitting an investigation point glow, pointed at it, and asked, "Excuse me, what's inside this box? Can I open it?"

Mamiya Mitsuru was stunned for a moment, then nodded: "Of course, it is possible... but there is no treasure inside. There are only some manuscripts left by my father-in-law and Mr. Zhen Zhao."

"I've also searched this room. There shouldn't be any treasure hidden in it..."

Mamiya Mitsuru's tone was uncertain, because he didn't dare to search the study room carefully.

Although he is now the nominal boss of the castle, his father-in-law's wife, the old lady, is still alive. She is the most senior head of the Mamiya family.

The old lady did not have a good impression of him as her second son-in-law, and when he was about to search the castle last time, she stopped him sternly and angrily accused him of being a "bandit who wanted to rob treasures."

So from then on, Mamiya Mitsuru could only search for the treasure in the castle carefully so as not to anger his old mother-in-law who was sometimes lucid and sometimes confused.

"How about this, Mr. Mamiya..." Qin Zhibo suggested, "I'll search here first, and you can use this time to draft a commission contract."

"Oh, that's fine too..."

In this way, Qin Zhibo moved Mamiya Mitsuru to the desk beside him, opened the box and took out the manuscript inside.

There were many manuscripts, but two of them were the most substantial and attracted Qin Zhibo's attention.

The first manuscript was titled "A True Account of the Antarctic Expedition of 1930: A Detailed Account of the Mountains of Madness"

The second manuscript is titled "A collective outbreak of inexplicable madness among artists at home and abroad in 1980 - A research report on related dreams and illusions."

Both manuscripts had investigation points on them, attracting Qin Zhibo to conduct an in-depth investigation.

Qin Zhibo first began to investigate the first old investigation report.

【Survey√】

Mr. Mamiya's manuscript: Recording Mr. Mamiya's Antarctic expedition in August 1930

[Reading this manuscript will result in a loss of 2-10 Willpower points, and proficiency in Weird Mythology knowledge and skills + loss of Willpower points × 100]

【Language communication, can read】

【Do you want to read? 】

The survey was in the form of a book survey, which saved Qin Zhibo from having to read the entire manuscript word for word.

【Read√】

The moment reading started, Qin Zhibo immediately entered a wonderful mode.

In front of him, countless stars slid across his field of vision like silver rays, and Qin Zhibo felt as if his body's cognition had fallen into an unprecedented state of nothingness.

When Qin Zhibo's thoughts returned to the ground, he found that he had "traveled" into the body of the person who wrote the manuscript.

This method is somewhat like "taking over another's body".

The only difference from "taking over another's body" is that Qin Zhibo cannot control the body he occupies, but feels everything from the perspective of the person involved and can understand what the person is thinking.

The person involved was none other than Mr. Mamiya, who wrote this manuscript.

In 1930, Mr. Mamiya was still a young man of 26 years old and was studying abroad.

The university he went to for further studies was Miskatonic University in the United States, where he majored in mechanical engineering.

Qin Zhibo: Oh! My alma mater!

In August of that year, Miskatonic University's school newspaper and the Arkham Advertiser simultaneously published information that the Miskatonic Expedition was recruiting Antarctic explorers.

[Since Norwegian Roald Amundsen became the first human to set foot on Antarctica in 1911, conquering Antarctica has become one of the goals that countries compete with each other.]

As a descendant of Amaterasu, I believe it is my duty to strive for this honor for my country.

So, driven by a sense of mission, Mr. Mamiya submitted his resume to the expedition team and was incredibly successfully selected.

I thought this adventure would change my life, but I never imagined it would be in this way...

The goal of the Miskatonic expedition is to collect as many fossils as possible and to obtain soil samples from beneath the Antarctic ice sheet through drilling.

The expedition was led by four professors: Professor of Geology William Dale, Professor of Biology Lake, Professor of Engineering Frank H. Papote, and Professor of Physics Atwood.

There are also sixteen assistants...

[Among the sixteen assistants, seven are graduate students, including me, and the rest are experienced machinists.]

Next, Qin Zhibo experiences the scenery along the way from Boston to Antarctica on two wooden ships from the perspective of Mr. Mamiya.

Dolphins, seagulls, penguins, seals, and so on...

With the help of two local captains and the USS Arkham and Miskatonic, we landed on Ross Island in Antarctica on November 11.

I was so excited that day that I even made some small mistakes and was criticized by Professor Dale because I became the first Japanese to set foot on the frozen soil of Antarctica!

On November 11st, we organized our aircraft formation and continued to advance southward, establishing a new southern base at 21°S, 86.7°E.

On December 12, Professor Papote led two graduate students to successfully reach the summit of Mount Nansen. It was a pity that as a member of the base staff, I was unable to enjoy this honor.

On January 1th of the following year, the four professors led their team on a further southward flight. I wasn't selected and became the unlucky one left behind at the southern base. However, it now seems like a lucky selection...

After flying 500 miles, we re-established our secondary camp and began conducting geological surveys, though unfortunately I wasn't very good at them at the time.

After completing the exploration, Professor Lake insisted that the fossil samples he had collected were at least 5 to 10 billion years old, and even had a heated argument with Professor Dale.

[Finally, Professor Lake decided to lead the expedition team to further explore the unknown world. That was the beginning of the nightmare...]

[Thankfully, I was not selected for this expedition, which is why I can still write this down as a free man.]

On January 1, Professor Lake led the expedition team to continue flying south. Within two hours, we received their first telegram message, saying that they were drilling three hundred miles away from us.

Nine hours later, Professor Lake's expedition team concluded their exploration and took off again in the biting cold wind. Professor Dale firmly opposed Professor Lake's risky behavior.