Conan: I've been linked to the tech tree system.

Chapter 21 The Daily Routine of Checking the Water Meter

Tohru Tono invited the group into the house and served them a few cups of tea.

He breathed a sigh of relief after learning the purpose of everyone's visit.

It's fine as long as it's not a theatrical version.

Sonoko and Ran came over because Sonoko's older sister, Ayako Suzuki, is holding a class reunion at her villa next week, and Sonoko specifically came to invite him to attend.

The Detective Boys and Professor Agasa seemed to have invited him to go treasure hunting...? The two groups bumped into each other outside his house.

"Would it be a bother if I went to Sonoko's class reunion?" Toru Tono asked doubtfully.

"No, no, no, don't bother me." Sonoko put down her tea set and waved her hand vigorously. "So you're saying you agreed?"

"...Conan will be there too, right?" He turned his gaze to Conan.

"Ah, Ran-neechan said she would take me there, since I'm all alone at home now." Conan scratched his head.

This was his first time visiting Toru Tohno's house, and he was surprised by how luxurious the interior was...

Conan sniffed, wondering why there was a strange fragrance in the air.

He turned his head in confusion and saw Xiaolan's long legs.

Then, her face flushed red, she turned her head back.

......

"Oh... then I have no problem." Tohno Toru nodded, as long as he could get involved in the case.

He turned around and suddenly noticed that the coffee cup that had been used to serve Tachibana Maya on the table had been taken away, and there were still lipstick marks on the cup.

Tohru Tono walked over and put it in the sink without making a sound.

He glanced at Conan again and found that the boy was drinking tea with a flushed face, seemingly unaware of anything amiss.

Was the tea you brewed yourself really that hot? Why is your face all red from drinking it?

Tohru Tono was somewhat puzzled.

......

After seeing Ran off to school and Sonoko off, who was inexplicably excited, Toru Tono asked the members of the Detective Boys, who were jumping around and throwing sofa cushions at each other, "Don't you guys have to go to school?"

"Because today is Children's Day, didn't you know?" Conan answered the question for them.

"Oh, I see..." Tohno Toru had long forgotten about this kind of thing; after all, no one was there to celebrate any holidays with him when he was a child.

He had thought that Children's Day in Japan was on June 1st, since it's not June 1st.

"Brother Tou, are you going treasure hunting with us?" Ayumi ran over, her eyes filled with anticipation.

"Ah, I'll pass. I have some things to take care of today." Tohno Toru hesitated for a moment, but still declined.

In his memory, the team-building activities that Professor Agasa took the Detective Boys out to do in the early days were basically at a kindergarten level of difficulty, so there shouldn't be any danger.

Based on his understanding of the tasks issued by the system, tasks with little difficulty would at most give him 100 detective points.

Although it wasn't a small amount, the thought of a female assassin waiting for him upstairs... made him decide against it.

......

Dr. Agasa was also a little disappointed when he heard that Toru Tohno had refused.

Tohru Tohno has been living next door to him for some time now, and after spending so many days together, Professor Agasa has come to really like his new neighbor.

At first, he thought that Tohno Toru's claim of knowing a little about invention was just the level of a normal college graduate. However, after a few occasional research and discussions, he discovered that Tohno Toru's theoretical attainments in the entire field of science were quite high.

Aside from the energy field, which he seems to lack expertise in, he's on par with Dr. Agasa in other areas. He even possesses a strong foresight regarding the development of cutting-edge science, often offering insights into technologies like nanotechnology that Dr. Agasa has never even heard of.

Professor Agasa also asked Toru Tohno where he learned all this, and Toru Tohno replied that it was in a game where people worked 996 hours a day, had to pay off loans for life as soon as they started working, and could only eat seafood that had been exposed to nuclear radiation.

Professor Agasa thinks there's no such game in the world; it doesn't sound fun at all.

Tohru Tono probably meant self-taught.

Genius...

Dr. Agasa believes that geniuses in one field must have traded something from another area for their talent.

Look at him, he doesn't have a girlfriend yet either.

Toru Tohno is the same; he spends every day in the lab just like him. He's so young and doesn't have a life of his own... How pitiful.

Dr. Agasa thinks this is not good; young people should have more energy.

So, to prevent Tohno from following in his footsteps, Professor Agasa would often intentionally or unintentionally invite him out to play, but Tohno would always refuse with various excuses.

This time it didn't work either.

Dr. Agasa sighed and took the children out.

Tohru accepted Sonoko and Ran's invitation... Is it really true that it's more comfortable to go out with people your own age?

Dr. Agasa nodded to himself.

Introducing him to a girlfriend seems like a one-time solution?

......

The living room had just quieted down when the sound of footsteps echoed on the stairs.

"Oh, you have quite a few friends, don't you?" Tachibana Maya leaned against the stair railing and teased Tohru Tono.

Tohru Tono ignored her.

He picked up the teacups from the coffee table and threw them into the sink before saying, "Let's go."

"Huh, where are we going?"

“You have to do some work to freeload at my place.” Tohru Tohru waved his lit-up phone screen. “There’s someone brainless who’s planning to skip out on the bill—I’ll show you the process.”

......

Kaori Nakahara quietly closed the door to the rented room and returned to her bedroom.

She deliberately spent the whole day shopping in the mall outside, and only dared to return to her rented room after confirming that no one was following her.

"People on the dark web aren't very wary either." She took a small black metal box out of her bag and breathed a sigh of relief.

The thought that in just a few days, that despicable fat professor would become her victim made Kaori Nakahara stomp her foot with a hint of excitement.

How dare they publish the paper that she had painstakingly written over the past six years as their own research results... Kaori Nakahara's eyes flashed with hatred, "I will make him die in the most painful way."

After that, she would move to another city to avoid the police and also evade dark web sellers who might come after her to collect debts.

Kaori Nakahara looked at the small metal box and realized that all the shipping information she had filled in was fabricated. When she went to pick up the package, she deliberately wore loose clothes and a mask to cover her physical features, so it was impossible for anyone to trace her.

She opened the box, inside was a small device that looked like a transmitter, and a small instruction manual.

Kaori Nakahara carefully read the instructions, then picked up the fruit knife on the table and gently cut a wound on the tip of her little finger.

Thick blood gushed out immediately.

She smeared the blood onto the strap of her shoulder with her little finger, then took out the transmitter-like device and pressed the switch.

Under her gaze, the red bloodstains faded at a visible speed, eventually leaving nothing behind.

perfect.

She then tested the device's other footprint removal function, which also worked perfectly.

"With this, it shouldn't be difficult to fool those police officers." Kaori Nakahara had already figured out how to clear her name.

There were no footprints at the scene, no bloodstains on her body—meaning there was no evidence, so even the detectives probably couldn't do anything about her.

“That guy called ‘Starlight’ is really something,” Kaori Nakahara thought of the device’s seller.

It is said that because he always marked the shipping location with a blue six-pointed star, the mysterious seller, whose true face had never been seen and whose pseudonym had never been told to anyone, was called "Starlight" by people in the underworld.

As a highly educated person capable of writing serious academic papers, Kaori Nakahara understands the value of such practical inventions, and she has even considered paying for scientific research.

However, the customized version she bought, which had an extra bloodstain removal function compared to the normal product, was too expensive for an ordinary medical student like her to afford.

That's why he had this crooked idea: he gave false identity information in an attempt to skip out on the bill.

Anyway, she's going to disappear from this city soon...

Kaori Nakahara walked to the balcony and drew the curtains, but it seemed she saw a dark figure outside the window.

She rubbed her eyes, and the dark shadow disappeared again.

Is it an illusion?

Chapter 22 Open the door, check the water meter!

Kaori Nakahara drew back the curtains, only to see the dim streetlights casting crooked shadows of trees onto the glass.

"The shadow of the beech tree?" Kaori Nakahara felt that she was being a little neurotic due to stress.

To relax her tense nerves, she turned on the television, which she hadn't watched in a long time.

But when she sat on the sofa and picked up the remote to change TV channels, she found that the channel switching button was unresponsive no matter how she pressed it, and the previously smooth TV picture began to crackle and sputter with static.

"...Was it like this before?" Nakahara Kaori shrank her neck, sensing that the atmosphere was a bit strange.

The unusual atmosphere in the dead of night unconsciously brought to mind some urban legends that she would normally scoff at.

Kaori Nakahara stood up and turned off the television.

She carefully checked each room, searching everywhere she could see, behind the curtains, under the bed, but found nothing unusual.

Then he strolled over to the security door at the entrance.

She took a deep breath, pressed her eyes close to the peephole on the door, and looked outside.

The hallway was completely empty.

Kaori Nakahara breathed a sigh of relief; it seemed that what she had just experienced was indeed her imagination.

She turned around.

A distorted human figure emerged from the ceiling, hanging upside down. Its limbs, formed from black mist, stretched out like spider legs, and its bloodshot pupils stared straight at her.