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

Tohru Tono, however, disagreed. Sonoko may not have a childhood friend, but she still has a chance to experience romance. Makoto Kyogoku is about to make his appearance, isn't he?

"Buzz"

As he walked, Toru Tohno's large cell phone in his pocket suddenly vibrated. He glanced at Conan, then deliberately took out his phone where Conan couldn't see him to peek at the message on the screen, and then raised an eyebrow.

He then said goodbye to Xiaolan and Yuanzi, saying that he had some things to take care of and would not be leaving with them, before turning around and getting into his Wuling van.

He restored the high-tech interior, which had been deliberately concealed for carrying passengers, to its original state. After checking the trunk and finding no children, he started the car based on the location information on his phone.

......

The message was sent by Maya Tachibana; it contained only a few words, but it immediately made Tohru Tono realize the seriousness of the situation.

Gin is blocking my way.

As expected, the Black Organization has targeted him; the little assassin has stumbled into a high-level game.

Toru Tono drove while pondering a solution.

Being approached by the Black Organization was somewhat expected, but I didn't expect it to happen so quickly... As expected of the hard-working leader of the distillery, he really acted swiftly and decisively.

Fortunately, just in case, he had given Tachibana Maya enough equipment to save her life, and he had also added locators to all his inventions. Otherwise, if Tachibana Maya were being chased and couldn't send him her location information, he wouldn't know where to find her.

......

Toru Tono stopped the car and found that the location showed he was in a shopping mall.

clever.

Although it was already evening and there weren't many people in the mall, it was still a good hiding place. Such public places could effectively limit the black-clad organization members who wanted to hide themselves.

Well, that only applies when Gin isn't serious.

The fate of Tokyo Tower is still fresh in our minds.

Tohno Toru got out of the car and went into the mall, where he found Tachibana Maya, who was still wearing a black cloak, in the women's restroom on the third floor.

Hmm... Luckily, no one was inside.

Toru Tono went out nonchalantly and took a "No Entry for Cleanliness" sign from the side and placed it at the door.

"Boss, you've finally arrived." Maya Tachibana, who was hiding in the cubicle, breathed a sigh of relief when she saw Toru Tono come in.

God knows how terrified she was when she saw that the trading partner was Gin.

As a former peripheral member of the organization, she had naturally heard of Gin's reputation. It was said that countless undercover agents and traitors had died at his hands, and his name alone could stop even the most naive undercover agents from crying.

Although I know I'm not an undercover agent and probably won't be easily executed... the peripheral members don't really have any human rights anyway, so I'm quite scared.

And now that I've essentially left the organization, it seems I'm a traitor? If Gin discovers my true colors, I'll probably suffer a terrible fate...

"You've already escaped, haven't you?" Tohno Toru looked at her and she didn't seem to be in any danger.

He looked downstairs and saw that there was indeed a Porsche 356A parked at the back entrance of the mall, but if she took off her black trench coat and followed the flow of people out, Gin would not be able to find her, right?

“They have a cat hostage.” Tachibana Maya cautiously pointed out the window, and to Tohru Tono, she angrily denounced Gin for his lack of martial ethics. “When I saw that the trading partners were Gin and Vodka, I was already controlling Kuro to turn around and run away... But they were obviously prepared. I don’t know where a henchman came from and grabbed the cat.”

"Then I had no choice but to put on your cape and mask, and try to use my flying ability to snatch the cat back... But the enemy's firepower was too strong, and I never had a chance to get close. They even chased me all the way to this shopping mall."

Tohno Toru understood a little; Kuro was probably the name Tachibana Maya gave to the mechanical cat... a bit hasty.

Furthermore, Tohru Tono didn't quite understand the second half of what he said: "So just give them the mechanical cat, and you can just leave, right?"

Maya Tachibana was shocked to hear this: "How could you do this? No, no..." A cat lover would never abandon her master!

When Tohno Toru heard what she said, he thought she was reluctant to part with the goods and inventions, and he was very pleased. He didn't expect that his employee was so considerate of his boss.

But in reality, those inventions are just expensive to sell; there are practically no costs involved... all the revenue comes from patent fees.

Tohru Tohru coughed, thinking it was a good thing that an employee had this kind of idea, and that her enthusiasm shouldn't be discouraged.

Although the simplest and most efficient way is to just let the cat explode... that cat could be sold for hundreds of thousands of yen, and I'm actually a little reluctant to part with it.

Since that's the case, the only option is to take the item back from Gin... It's quite difficult and risky, but it's not entirely impossible.

Tohru Tohru thought for a moment, then directly opened the system shop and redeemed a suit.

[Self-healing bulletproof suit: Embedded with 5000 hexagonal honeycomb protective units, it can convert the kinetic energy generated by a bullet impact into heat energy and release it within 0.5 seconds. It also features a built-in nano-repair swarm that secretes a pearl-like repair fluid to fill bullet holes after consuming metal. In the event of severe damage, it will automatically draw on the user's blood to accelerate regeneration.]

It's time to show off your skills to your new employees!

You mere gin? Let's see how many rounds I can fight you!

"Give me the equipment." Tohru beckoned, taking the cloak and other gear first, preparing to put them on along with the suit.

Although you can simply take another one out of the system space, it would be very troublesome to explain why such a large cloak would suddenly appear out of nowhere.

"Oh, oh." Tachibana Maya took off her cloak and then removed the mask from her face and handed it to him.

"Watch me do it."

Tohru Tono put on his cloak, pulled open the window beside him, and jumped straight out of the building.

?

Maya Tachibana was stunned when her equipment was taken away.

How can I tell what you're doing?

......

Gin and Vodka waited silently downstairs in the mall, holding the cat.

Suddenly a cold wind blew by, and Vodka shrank his neck: "Brother, will that person really come down to look for this cat?"

Vodka's hands were a bit cold, so he petted the cat in his hand while talking. He found that the cat didn't bare its teeth and felt pretty good, so he petted it again.

Gin glanced at him sideways, thinking this subordinate was hopeless: "That's a mechanical cat."

"?" Vodka was surprised. "It doesn't feel real to me." He then stroked it again and felt that the cat's fur was incredibly smooth, its body was warm, and it would wiggle a few times from time to time... It didn't feel fake at all.

Gin didn't want to talk, so he grabbed the cat's head and used his fingers to pry open the cat's pupils.

Vodka followed Gin's movements and studied the cat for a while, noticing that there seemed to be something in the cat's pupils, which was flashing red.

"Big brother, there's a camera in the cat's eyes!" Vodka was startled, then realized what Gin had just said, "It really is a mechanical cat."

Gin released his grip, then pulled out a cigarette from his pocket and lit it; the red spots were faintly visible in the dim light.

“That ‘Starlight’ clearly recognized us and ran away in fear at first, but then came back to try to take the cat away—clearly, even for that ‘Starlight’, this level of lifelike cat was an invention that was hard to give up.”

"If there's a first time, there will be a second; he will definitely try again to reclaim his invention."

“He knew of the organization’s existence, but he clearly didn’t have a deeper understanding of it—his rapidly accumulated fame made him a little arrogant, and he even had the idea of ​​testing us.”

"ridiculous."

Gin, with a cigarette dangling from his lips, analyzed the thought process of his "prey."

The moment Gin feels most pleased is when he has a clear understanding of his target's psychology and watches his "prey" walk step by step into the web he has woven.

The pleasure derived from playing with prey can alleviate the boredom of a heavy workload.

Gin turned his head and caught a glimpse of a fleeting black shadow out of the corner of his eye.

He flashed his signature sneer, then gestured for Vodka to get into the car.

"Brother, where are we going?" Vodka got into the car in a daze. Weren't we going to wait?

"Close the net."

Chapter 32 Watch my moves!

Gin and Vodka followed the dark figure to the second floor of an abandoned construction site.

"Did they deliberately lead us here? Heh, interesting." Gin, with a cigarette between his teeth, slowly moved his hand to the grip of the Beretta M92F in his arms.

Was it overconfidence, or was it a trap?

Gin glanced around discreetly, but didn't sense any danger.

Assassins like him, who spend years navigating the treacherous waters of swords, possess a mysterious "sixth sense." Whenever they arrive at a new location, they can easily assess the level of danger posed to them by relying on this premonition of peril.

This extrasensory perception sounds incredible, but it actually exists. Many martial arts masters or assassins have claimed to have this ability—like the dragon in Carl Sagan's garage, it cannot be proven or disproven.

Gin didn't sense any danger, so he simply opened the car door and got out.

That's the confidence of a top assassin!

......

Tohno Toru, hidden in the shadows of the roof beam, watched Gin's movements.

He didn't actually set up any ambush, after all, he didn't have the manpower to do so, and he didn't think he could take down Gin so easily.

As a codenamed member of the Black Organization, he's climbed the ranks of the operations team over so long. Putting everything else aside, his experience is incredibly seasoned; this kind of person is extremely difficult to kill.

He watched Vodka get out of the car with Gin, still holding a cat in his arms, and realized that directly attacking Gin might not be the best approach; this guy, however, seemed like a good starting point...

......

Without further hesitation, Toru Tohno decided not to say anything unnecessary or reveal his identity. Taking advantage of the fact that the two had just gotten off the car and were unsteady on their feet, he directly took out the plasma gun from his system space and fired a shot at Gin.

"call out"

A barely audible whooshing sound echoed between the empty buildings, but Gin immediately caught that faint sound for a moment.

In a flash, he also drew his Beretta from his arms and, anticipating the trajectory of the "bullet," fired in the direction the sound came from.

The 9mm bullet spun as it flew out of the muzzle at high speed, colliding precisely with an object flashing with electricity in the air.

Contrary to Gin's expectations, the enemy's "bullets" did not collide with and destroy his bullets as he had anticipated. Instead, they only deviated slightly from their trajectory before continuing to strike him directly in that direction.

Fortunately, the trajectory of the bullet did deviate slightly, and with his agile movements, Gin barely managed to dodge the incoming plasma bullet at the last moment.

The plasma bomb tilted and merged into the ground, forming a black hole about one centimeter in diameter before disappearing.

"Big brother!" Vodka hadn't seen what had just happened, but he had noticed Gin's strange dodging movement and quickly ran over to help him up.

But just then, another faint gunshot rang out, and three plasma bullets flew out instantly, blocking Vodka and Gin's dodge route at an extremely tricky angle.

"Get out of the way!" Gin's pupils contracted as he looked at the "bullet" flashing with electricity in the air.

He himself had a way to evade plasma bomb attacks using the vehicle as cover, but if he managed to evade, Vodka probably wouldn't be so lucky.

While vodka isn't irreplaceable, he's still a very useful assistant at this stage... Without him, it wouldn't be so easy to find a loyal straight man, or rather, a helper skilled in hacking.