This is not an easy thing to do, but it is also something that must be done.
When Conan walked on the streets of Beika Town, he didn't know if it was an illusion, but he always felt that the expressions of the pedestrians on the road seemed a little strange, a little gloomy, and a little violent. When he glanced at them inadvertently, it seemed as if there was a shadow lingering over them.
Perhaps because he once had Moriarty, the criminal king, as a substitute, Conan became extremely sensitive to criminal elements. In Conan's opinion, some of the passers-by seemed to be criminal suspects.
Conan did not act rashly, and he had no way to move, because he sensed that there were too many suspects. In just a moment, Conan felt that there were at least forty or fifty people who might be suspects. And it was not just pedestrians. In many buildings and dark corners in Beika Town, there was a faint smell of crime.
This made Conan doubt his own perception. If what he perceived was true, then the entire Beika Town was now a den of crime!
When Conan passed by a tall building, he couldn't help but stop and look up at the building for a few times, because in his perception, the crime atmosphere in this building was unusually high.
This time, Conan's perception was obviously correct, because the vague criminal aura actually turned from virtual to real and transformed into curling dark mist.
129. The First Case of the New World of Detective Conan (The Tragic Death of the Black-Hearted President)
The black fog rolled violently around the tall building, vaguely turning into the shape of a skull, howling towards the sky, and then turning into the shape of a knife, making people feel cold.
Conan thought to himself that something was wrong. Although he didn't understand what was going on, driven by his innate sense of justice, he couldn't sit idly by and watch the crime happen, and subconsciously wanted to rush up the tall building.
But the little short legs couldn't help but froze after running a few steps.
Because not far away, with a few whooshing sounds, a large group of people teleported over, then gathered at the entrance of the tall building, transformed into a crowd of onlookers, looked up at the floor surrounded by black fog, and began to comment:
"Wow, such a strong criminal atmosphere. There must be a serious case in this office building. No wonder my Stand led me to teleport here!"
"The crime fog has appeared, and it's so dark. It must be a homicide. Even the dead skeleton has appeared. If it's a shocking murder, there must be at least several victims. This time the editor won't complain that my report is not explosive enough..."
"The crime fog is mainly lingering on the thirteenth floor. That should be the crime scene. The crime fog is vaguely shaped like a knife. The murder weapon must be a knife. However, for a case of this scale, the value of this building will probably depreciate quite a bit..."
"I don't know what the murderer's stand ability and killing method are, but to be able to create such a large-scale crime fog, it must have taken a lot of thought to come up with a perfect method of committing the crime. I wonder if the police will publish the method. I really want to learn it carefully..."
Conan was silent, feeling very complicated. He didn't expect that in the sixth changing world line, even passers-by could skip frames and move, and observe the case by looking at the qi!
The onlookers surrounded the entrance. Conan wanted to squeeze in, but was stopped by a passerby, who then taught Conan earnestly:
"Little boy, you are still too young. For a murder of this magnitude, even if you are just watching, something bad could happen. Even if you want to watch the excitement, you should start with the ordinary cases first..."
What can Conan say? He can't possibly reveal his true identity and tell passers-by that the shocking murder case in the Beika Town Amusement Park that shocked the world was planned by him personally. In terms of his experience in committing crimes and seeking death, he is surely many levels higher than you onlookers.
So, Conan finally suppressed his inner sense of justice temporarily and decided to observe the situation first.
These onlookers were quite talkative. Conan stood behind the crowd and listened, and he managed to gather a lot of information about the new world line.
In this era of stand-ins where everyone has a stand-in, many social features are indeed very different from before. First, it is difficult to conceal crime as before. The bigger the crime, the more likely it is to trigger some strange phenomena. Just like at this moment, this may be a murder case with several lives or more, and the strange phenomena that arise can be seen from several streets away.
Conan can understand this. When the winery came to kill him, the strange phenomenon in the world was truly visible from a hundred miles away. It is not a problem for this setting to continue in the new world line.
Second, criminal behavior is difficult to conceal, but that does not mean that criminals cannot succeed, or cannot escape after succeeding.
The more sophisticated and secretive the criminal methods and plans are, the more likely they are to trigger a special phenomenon called the fog of crime. This fog of crime is like a barrier that has the strange power to turn everything upside down and conceal the truth. The criminals are in it and are also blessed by it.
Once ordinary people get deep into it, their minds will become confused and it is very dangerous. At the very least, they will misjudge the truth, and at worst, their lives will be in danger. Only those with excellent minds and clear wisdom can walk in the crime fog barrier, unravel the mystery, find out the truth, and pull out the criminals.
The third is the frame-skipping movement of passers-by. Although they have stand-ins, they cannot use such a skill whenever they want. Only at specific times and events, when their stand-ins are pulled, can they perform this teleportation skill. In other words, it cannot be said to be a performance, because they are forcibly moved by their stand-ins.
Conan was more confused about the third point. Some of these passers-by were reporters, some were real estate agents, some were mystery enthusiasts who wanted to learn the criminals' methods of committing crimes (!?), and some were just people who liked to watch the fun. There were so many of them, and they really had nothing in common. Conan couldn't understand why their stand-ins were attracted and then moved here.
It can't be a criminal incident that needs some onlookers, so they came!
Obviously, the rules for the forced teleportation of the Stand did not seem so ridiculous, and Conan soon found the common ground through the chatter of these people. These passers-by who teleported here were more or less related to this building, and many of them had even been to this building.
Based on his past reasoning experience, Conan instantly understood that most of these people were probably related to the case in some way, so they were moved here!
However, thinking of this, Conan couldn't help scratching his head, because he remembered that when he solved cases in the past, it seemed that the people who appeared around him were basically related to the case, but the appearance of those related people would be much more natural, not like now, where they were forced to teleport!
But no matter what, Conan's professionalism is still playing a role. Just by listening to the few words of these people involved, he can still vaguely infer some outlines of the case.
He is probably a black-hearted president who opened a black-hearted company with a few black-hearted executives. He did a lot of shit, such as forcing employees to work overtime and workplace bullying, which led to the death of employees in the company, and committed contract fraud, which led to the bankruptcy of the cooperative company, etc. Anyway, he is the kind of person that everyone hates.
The thirteenth floor is where the shady company is located, and now the mystery of crime has appeared on a large scale. It is estimated that the shady president and the shady executives should be finished. As for the suspects, there are not many, but not few either. At least there are passers-by watching at the scene, and because of the connection, they are more or less suspects.
For some reason, Conan felt that this victim template seemed quite familiar. It seemed that in the cases he had handled before, there seemed to be quite a few victims like presidents.
But no matter what, although Conan suppressed his curiosity, after listening for a while, he still subconsciously started thinking about the case with all his strength, and then he walked towards the crime scene unknowingly. But before Conan got close, he was grabbed by the collar from behind and lifted up!
"Kid, don't get close to the crime scene shrouded in criminal fog. It's very dangerous!"
Conan's body suddenly stiffened, because he was familiar with this voice. He turned his head slightly and found that it was Kogoro Mouri who had teleported in at some point.
Conan subconsciously looked around and found that Mao Li Ran was not there, and he immediately breathed a sigh of relief.
However, Kogoro Mori's sudden appearance still scared him, but he quickly reacted.
Times have changed!
Just like now, Kogoro Mouri appeared for a short while, and then with a few whooshes, a police car teleported out of thin air, and Inspector Megure and others got out of the car.
When Inspector Megure and others appeared, the surrounding onlookers exclaimed:
"I didn't expect that the famous brother, Officer Megure, would come in person. This is going to be a good show to watch!"
"Even the expiator Detective Maori is here. This murder case is really worth watching!"
Conan discovered that compared to before, Inspector Megure seemed to be more famous now. As soon as he appeared, the onlookers around him couldn't help but cheering, as if Inspector Megure was some big star. Even the confused Mouri Kogoro seemed to be much more popular than before. At least his name could be called out correctly by passers-by.
Inspector Megure seemed relatively calm about the situation, but Maori Kogoro was a little too proud of himself. After putting Conan aside, he put his hands on his hips and laughed:
"The great detective Maori Kogoro is here. Don't worry, this mysterious crime will soon be solved."
But Inspector Megure was not as fond of showing off as Maori Kogoro. He looked at the building surrounded by strange visions, took a deep breath, and said:
"This kind of strange phenomenon must be an extremely difficult case. According to the usual practice, we should first control these onlookers and then ask them. Brother Maoli, come with me and take a look at the scene."
Conan was a little surprised. He didn't expect that the first thing Inspector Megure did when he arrived was to control the onlookers without even entering the crime scene.
What’s outrageous is that the onlookers seemed to be accustomed to it and quickly cooperated.
Since Conan was also watching, he was naturally included in the crowd. However, he was lucky. A female police officer came to him and found that Conan was a child. Fearing that he would be scared, she began to explain gently.
It turns out that since the world entered the era of the big substitute a month ago, things like crime and solving cases have also undergone tremendous changes.
Leaving aside the crime, let's just talk about solving the case. The authorities have discovered that the onlookers who are forcibly teleported to the crime scene are more or less related to the murderer or the victim, or are people who know some clues related to the case. It is even possible that the murderer is hiding among them. Based on this, the process of solving the case will naturally change.
Conan had no clues to the case, nor did he know the victim or the murderer. He couldn't even reveal much of his own basic information, so when faced with the policewoman's questions, he could only smile bitterly in his heart and make up a lie.
The information heard from the onlookers before came in handy at this moment and was able to fool the policewoman. Or, as a child, Conan was ruled out as a suspect from the beginning. When the policewoman heard that the information he said was similar to that of other people, she did not ask any more questions.
At this time, Inspector Megure and Kogoro Mouri had already gone up. Although Conan was itching to go up because of the burning detective soul, he couldn't follow them to join in the fun. He could only squat outside the building and watch. Then, perhaps it was a coincidence, or perhaps it was inevitable, suddenly, the crime fog lingering around the high-rise building suddenly spread out, even engulfing the onlookers like them.
The dark fog of crime rolled in, and Conan felt dizzy. Then he came to his senses and found himself on the thirteenth floor of the building. Not only him, but all the onlookers, including many police officers, appeared here.
Although Conan didn't know the reason, he was secretly excited. He didn't expect that he could participate in the case of the New World Line in this way. But except for him, the onlookers all had ugly expressions.
"Oh no, the fog of crime has expanded, and the level of murder has risen further. Even us bystanders are in danger."
"I didn't expect that even Brother Hero and the Sin Washer were manipulated by the criminal. That's too bad."
Before Conan had time to ask more, he heard a loud bang. He turned around and couldn't help but gasp.
Dense silk threads were stuck to the wall, crisscrossing and weaving into a web. Then, a giant spider as tall as two people, with arms and legs as sharp blades, was running and jumping on the silk web.
Inspector Megure put one hand in his pocket and held his hat with the other, posing a rather seductive posture. Behind him, a humanoid substitute made of multifaceted crystals emerged and punched the Blade Spider repeatedly:
"Ola Ola Ola... Criminal, if you don't reveal your true identity, surrender!"
The huge black spider also kept swinging its sharp blade tentacles, forming a continuous slashing attack, countering the continuous heavy punches:
"Useless, useless, useless... You idiots, as long as you can't see through my criminal scheme, I am invincible in this criminal fog barrier!"
But at this moment, Inspector Megure shouted:
"Brother Maori, you haven't found any clues yet? Hurry up, the criminal's substitute is getting stronger and stronger!"
"Brother Megure, hold on for a while, I'll be fine soon."
Far away on the other side, Kogoro Mori was struggling to navigate the spider-web-filled office, looking for something.
The blade spider naturally would not sit idly by, and suddenly jumped and pounced towards Mouri Kogoro. Mouri Kogoro was startled and a stand appeared behind him, but the stand's appearance was very strange. It was a man with hands and feet, muscular... as tall as a wine bottle!
As soon as this wine bottle substitute appeared, it took unsteady steps that seemed to be neither falling nor staggering, and then started to perform drunken boxing. Its posture was very standard and its power was quite impressive. The blade spider that swooped over was actually repelled by it. However, after the victory, this wine bottle substitute did not pursue the victory. Instead, it staggered, held on to the wall, and suddenly spit out "rainbow". Finally, it leaned against the wall and slowly fell down!
Seeing this, Officer Megure's eyes were about to burst, and he shouted: "Brother Maori, your stand is so drunk. Did you drink with your stand again yesterday and got drunk? Please, when I examined your stand before, I found that your stand's endurance has fallen to E- due to long-term alcoholism. You still dare to let your stand drink, be careful that your stand will die suddenly!"
Maori Kogoro looked embarrassed, and could only respond: "Don't worry, brother, when I get back I will let my stand-in stop drinking and let him exercise well..."
Seeing this scene, Edogawa Conan found himself in a very complicated mood. The "solving of the case" after the world line changed was obviously more dynamic and more intense than he expected. As for this guy Mouri Kogoro, although the world line has changed, he has not changed, and is still so unreasonable and unreliable.
130. Conan solving a case
Conan is no stranger to Mouri Kogoro, after all, he is the father of his childhood sweetheart Mouri Ran. And based on the hidden feelings in his heart, Conan also spent a little effort to get to know Mouri Kogoro.
Kogoro Mori claims to be a descendant of the Warring States daimyo Mori Motonari. Whether this is true or not is unknown, but his family is relatively well-off. He attended Teitan Elementary School and Teitan High School. He and his future wife Eri Kisaki were childhood sweethearts and classmates for many years. He finally entered Beikacho University and then transferred to the Metropolitan Police Academy. After graduation, he worked in the Arson Investigation Group of the Metropolitan Police Department's First Investigation Division, and was later transferred to the Arson Investigation Group of the First Investigation Division of the Criminal Department of the Metropolitan Police Department. He happened to be an old subordinate of Inspector Megure.
His resume is a standard non-professional one, that is, a policeman who passed the local civil service exam. When Conan was still Kudo Shinichi, he once asked Inspector Megure about it and found out that according to Inspector Megure, Kogoro Mouri had a very good professional reputation and was extremely capable, and could be described as a tough guy among the police.
Whenever he talked about it, Inspector Megure couldn't help but sigh, saying that if Kogoro Mori had not resigned due to certain things, Kogoro Mori today might be able to be on the same level as him, that is, become a police inspector.
But Conan has always had some doubts about this, the reason is very simple. After resigning from his position as a criminal policeman, Kogoro Mouri, who switched to a private detective, is a sloppy and confused private detective who lives a life of drunkenness and dreams every day and has terrible professional skills. He does not look like a so-called tough guy at all.
However, even though his detective agency had been doing poorly for the past ten years, Kogoro Mori was still able to spend his days drunk and gambling on horses. From this point of view, Kogoro Mori's claim that he was a descendant of the Warring States daimyo Mori Motonari was not necessarily an exaggeration. At least his family background was really solid.
But let's put these aside for now. Although Conan is not familiar with the case-solving process of the New World Line, he can see the situation clearly. Inspector Megure has to hold back the criminal's substitute and cannot get away for the time being, and Kogoro Mouri is as lame as ever, making the situation relatively troublesome.
Fortunately, as the crime fog expanded, many police officers on standby were also involved. They naturally would not let Inspector Megure fight alone, and they also summoned substitutes and joined the battle. It didn't take long before they were beaten out one by one. Finally, Inspector Megure shouted:
"This criminal's stand-in has been enhanced by the crime fog, and its destructive power has been upgraded to C+ or even B-. I am the only one who can hold him back. You all should quickly look for clues, deduce the truth as soon as possible, find out the real culprit, and then dissolve the crime fog and weaken the criminal's stand-in..."
Conan's curiosity suddenly increased. He really wanted to know how the attributes of the Stand were classified after the new world line, and what happened to those values.
As a detective, this knowledge is absolutely indispensable, but he also knows that now is not the time to chat.
Although the other police officers were knocked away, they struggled to get up and tried to look for clues. Even the onlookers seemed to know how serious it was and some of them could not sit still. Among the onlookers, a mystery enthusiast who wanted to learn criminal methods (!?) shouted:
"If the criminal gets stronger, we will probably all become victims of this shocking murder. So we can't just sit there and do nothing. Let the murderer see the character of us Beika Town people. Let's all work together and help find clues."
After saying that, the mystery enthusiast who wanted to learn criminal methods (!?) rushed out first, and then the onlookers behind him followed suit.
At this moment, Conan felt something was wrong!
Among the people present, there was one person who seemed to be a little bit abnormal.
Conan subconsciously looked around, trying to find the source of the weird feeling. He glanced at it inadvertently and felt a chill in his heart.
Because he saw a familiar, haunting... dark human silhouette!
But when Conan turned around, the black guy who looked like Moriarty had disappeared.
Conan did not doubt whether what he saw was just an illusion, but just muttered in his heart:
"It's Moriarty. No, compared to Moriarty, who is absolutely evil, the little black guy just now is much weaker. However, their essence is somewhat similar. What's going on?"
There are more and more unsolved mysteries, but this makes Conan's detective soul burn.
Then he followed the crowd and took action.
Although he doesn't have a stand-in, Conan is still somewhat confident in his own brains and vision if he's just looking for clues.
But at this moment, the pitch-black spider suddenly screamed sharply:
"Don't even think about finding the truth. Then, in this Blade Lair, you will completely become food for my evolution and sublimation..."
The giant black spider waved its tentacles, and in an instant, the thirteen-story crime fog that was vaguely floating in the air moved with it, spreading out like ripples. Then, Conan felt the world spinning around him, and when he came to his senses again, he found that the surrounding scenery had changed.
In the dim light, disordered corridors intertwined to form a strange maze. Office doors with house numbers turned into question marks were scattered in the corridors. A dangerous atmosphere filled the air. There was no one around Conan except himself.
"Hey, isn't it a bit outrageous that the criminals in the sixth world line have such a strong stand ability that they can even change space? This is much stronger than the stand ability in the fifth world line!"
Conan couldn't help but complain, but he felt helpless because he was now at the level of the fourth world line, not to mention the average level of the sixth world line!
As a disabled mortal two versions behind, facing the sixth world line era of superhuman substitutes, it is impossible not to feel helpless.
However, the magic dice was thrown by himself, and the sixth world line was born in response to his own desire. So, no matter how difficult the reality is, Conan can only grit his teeth and deal with it. After all, even if Conan regrets it and wants to start over, he doesn't know where the magic dice has gone.
The only thing Conan could be thankful for was that in the fifth world line, he was a man who had become the criminal king Moriarty. Even though the time was not very long, there were still some magical things that survived the changes of the world line and remained in this child's body.
One is the keen perception of criminal atmosphere, and the second is the perception of danger, or in other words, the perception of murderous intent!
Some of the office doors inlaid in the disordered corridors exuded more or less murderous intent and were obviously traps. In order to verify whether his perception was correct, Conan plucked up the courage to open the door with the least murderous intent.
Sure enough, a lot of spider silk suddenly shot out from behind the door. If Conan had not been prepared and jumped away as soon as the door opened, he would probably have been covered in spider silk.
Conan checked and found that the spider silk was not ordinary. It was inlaid with some blades. If it was wrapped in it, it would be cut and bleed when struggling. Then Conan showed a thoughtful expression:
"A net and a knife? These overly obvious features, are they related to the murderer's method of killing?"
Keeping his guess in mind, Conan continued to run in the chaotic corridors, constantly opening the doors of those non-dangerous offices, looking for possible clues. However, many times, behind the office door, there was just another chaotic corridor and countless doors.
Conan didn't know how big the maze space constructed by the criminal's stand ability was, he just kept running without stopping.
