The Phantom Thief of Heart! But Conan.

"It's not that hard to find..."

Conan, who was yawning, just walked downstairs when he heard Kogoro Mouri, who was standing in the office, waving his hands, putting the phone receiver back, and standing with his hands on his hips, looking smug.

Conan was speechless about his behavior and could only exchange glances with Ran Mouri.

The atmosphere of last night's "family gathering" was quite warm, or rather, Kogoro Mouri and Eri Kisaki did not have any more quarrels in front of the children.

Perhaps it was because of the previous case, or perhaps it was just the right atmosphere. After Karasawa used the excuse of getting dessert and left the table with Mouri Ran and Conan, the atmosphere between the two of them seemed quite ambiguous from a distance.

So it was no surprise that when he was working the next day, Kogoro Mouri seemed particularly high-spirited.

"He's getting too proud of himself." Mao Lilan commented, shook her head, and picked up the teapot to boil water.

No matter who among the three clients will be the final winner, someone has to come to the office to continue the client's discussion that was not completed yesterday, and tea for the guests has to be prepared.

"Have you found Mr. Itakura, uncle?" Conan sat on the sofa with his breakfast sandwich, "Quite efficient..."

It’s not surprising that Kogoro Mouri was able to quickly find someone that several programmers couldn’t find.

As a private detective, Kogoro Mouri has always done a good job in his job. In other words, when he was a criminal policeman, he was used to this kind of investigative work, which is why he later decided to switch to being a private detective.

On the contrary, solving murders is the area he is not so good at, and it was Conan's arrival that empowered him.

"Of course, I'm the famous detective Maori Kogoro." Maori Kogoro pointed at himself with his thumb and said in a very complacent tone, "It's just a small mission."

"Oh? How did you find it? Did you find the clue from that video?" Conan asked casually, trying to coax him. "All three of them sent the video, right?"

"That's about right. Itakura Taku didn't hide the fact that he's currently in charge of other projects, but to appease each contact, he placed the corresponding chessboard in the video." Pointing to his phone, Maori Kogoro's face was beaming as he spoke, "So all he has to do is call the front desk of each hotel, yell at them that the phone in their room is broken, and then explain that he's the guest who asked them for three types of chess..."

"The other party will repeat the room information so that you can confirm it?"

"Yeah, and it can also explain why you would use a cell phone to make a call."

"Are you so sure that all his chess pieces are borrowed?"

"I sent a special email to the three of them to confirm that when Itakura Taku left the studio, he didn't take anything with him except his computer..."

Conan listened to his not very rigorous logical chain of reasoning, nodded, and didn't ask any more questions.

The chess pieces may not be rented by the hotel, and Taku Itakura may not stay in the guest room obediently.

But the disappearance of the engineer they are looking for is likely related to the organization.

If the other party is under the organization's surveillance, or has been in contact with the organization from time to time since he came into contact with Tequila two years ago, then it is completely reasonable for Itakura Taku to become as neurotic as a paranoid patient, not allowing anyone to find him during work, and even cutting off all contact, becoming more and more nervous.

Under such circumstances, when the other party needs props such as chess pieces that are similar to amusement facilities, asking the hotel front desk for them becomes a much more convenient and safer option than purchasing them by yourself.

So even if Kogoro Mori's reasoning is not rigorous, in this special situation, it turns out to be a blessing in disguise.

"What about the client? Did they reach a conclusion in the debate?" Conan asked.

"Judging from their tone, not only has the debate failed to produce any conclusion, but the conflict may have even become more complicated." Maori Kogoro curled his lips, "None of them have good intentions."

Although the contents they commissioned to develop did not completely overlap, Kogoro Maori guessed that the three of them must have discovered some attractive advantages from Taku Itakura's demo, which made them so anxious that they suddenly needed to find such an expensive detective like him to find someone.

In other words, the interests involved in the competition in this commission are much greater than what the three of them described.

"Although I don't understand artificial intelligence, it is a very important development direction, right? Just look at the one who developed the holographic game..." Recalling that not-so-pleasant and thrilling experience, Kogoro Mouri couldn't help shaking his head.

The rise of Sindora Corporation is based on their development of Noah's Ark.

Later game content, Noah's Ark itself, and the evidence brought by Conan all proved that the real developer was the deceased Hiroki Sawada. As the game got out of control, the super AI Noah's Ark was out of the control of Sindorah Corporation.

In other words, with the collapse of Sindora, a new vacancy has emerged in this market.

If you seize this opportunity, you will have the opportunity to reach a level similar to that of Sindora.

——Although it is not so direct, this clear signal has already appeared in the eyes of all technology companies.

Conan, who meets Noah's Ark himself every week and continues to play the game developed by Noah's Ark, took the hot tea handed to him by Mao Lilan and took a sip, not daring to speak.

"To be honest, I think it would be best to leave the result of this commission to Mr. Ryusuke Soma." Putting the teapot on the coffee table, Ran Mouri sighed.

Kogoro Mouri looked at his daughter strangely, not understanding where her emotion came from.

"Of the three of them, Mr. Soma Ryusuke doesn't talk much, but judging by his appearance, he seems to have the best relationship with Mr. Itakura Taku. When they mentioned Mr. Itakura's repeated project delays and his increasing seclusion due to health problems, he was the only one who showed a lot of subconscious body language."

It's not just his physical reactions. Compared to the other two clients who are relatively active, Soma Ryusuke speaks even less.

But that feeling of being emotionless did not mean he had no emotion about the matter, but rather a subtle feeling of trying to hide his connection with Itakura Taku.

Although it was just a subconscious intuitive judgment, Mao Lilan still felt that this person's purpose of entering this office might be different from that of the other two people.

Mao Lilan recalled what she had learned and analyzed it carefully and methodically. Finally, she said, "Then I think this commission may mean more to him than just a simple business transaction. Therefore, handing him the results of the investigation may be more meaningful than simply satisfying the needs of a certain company."

Kogoro Mouri's eyebrows were raised so high that they were about to fly into his hairline.

Even though we know that Mao Lilan has been studying a lot of psychology content seriously because of her work as a psychological counselor, her analysis is still very surprising.

"Can you see this tendency?"

"No, maybe I'm misinterpreting it. But anyway, if a business commission is delayed, the feeling of delaying it by a close friend and delaying it by a stranger is very different, right?"

Mao Lilan pressed her index finger against her cheek, expressing uncertainty.

"Good friends..." Conan repeated the sentence and frowned instinctively.

Among those three people, is there anyone who has a close relationship with Itakura Taku?

----

"You really have a long criminal record."

At this time, Tang Ze, who had rushed into the morning and appeared in the room of the New Mika Hotel again, was flipping through the things on the table and sighing.

Sitting in front of the computer, not daring to look back, Itakura Taku watched the terrifying young killer pick up the things on the table one by one and look through the reflection of the screen. His brows twitched, but he didn't dare to say a word.

He started keeping a diary five years ago, and it wasn't without reason.

His studio was invaded by a cooperative company. In order to get the film source in advance, the other party used some dishonorable means, which almost caused Itakura Taku to suffer irreparable injuries.

Since then, he has had an obsessive-compulsive disorder that is almost like a paranoid delusion.

This includes, but is not limited to, keeping a diary, leaving a statement not to commit suicide, fixing everything in the studio in a certain place and not moving it even a centimeter, etc., all so that one can react in time if someone snoops on their space again.

This symptom worsened when he came into contact with the man who called himself Tequila two years ago, and when he was targeted by this gang again in recent months.

There's nothing more terrifying than telling a person with paranoia that your worst fears are coming true.

For Itakura Taku, a sense of order in space is very important. He doesn't like anyone touching his things, let alone looking through them casually like this.

At the same time, he thought sadly in his heart that this group of people might have realized his purpose and his intention to escape, so they used this method to mess up his room, making it impossible for him to detect whether outsiders had entered, and further destroying his will...

Tang Ze, who had just been flipping through the chess manual for a long time, put down what he was holding and felt a little emotional.

Tang Ze still felt a little sympathetic towards Ryusuke Soma, the would-be murderer who actually attacked Taku Itakura.

Although it is a tradition for Japanese technology companies to stick to their old ways, and some companies still use XP, the purpose of a company's existence is commercial after all, and it is for profit, so they still know that they need to change the direction of research and development and create some new content to cater to the new market.

The reason why Ryusuke Soma is still stubbornly promoting the shogi project is because of the promise that Taku Itakura made to him twenty years ago.

The two met because of their hobby and were pleasantly surprised to find that they had the same ambition, so they promised to create a shogi game that could defeat famous generals.

Ryusuke Soma was very interested in this and began to collect information continuously, including game videos and chess records of famous players, and even asked the players themselves for help, hoping to respond to some endgames.

He regarded it as an ideal that he needed to work hard for next, but for the talented and unconventional thinker Taku Itakura, it was just a hobby, a less prominent one among his many development goals.

So Ryusuke Soma fell into an endless cycle of waiting.

If they ask, it means they are working on it. If they ask, it means there are new technical problems that need to be solved. If they ask, it means they are not feeling well recently and cannot handle the high-intensity development tasks...

He went on like this day after day, and actually wasted twenty years.

"You can't blame anyone else for getting killed, you bastard." Putting the thick stack of chess records back on the table, Tang Ze turned around, looked at the back of Itakura Taku's head, and said lightly, "You can force someone who has high hopes for you to kill you, you are really not a good person."

Itakura Taku's will to resist the organization is still very tenacious and strong, but other than that, he is not a good person.

"If you hadn't gotten our data and let us 'overcome' the biggest technical difficulties for you, you'd never have seen the end of the pie you painted for him in your lifetime, right?"

This was not a deliberate belittling by Tang Ze, but he simply did not think Itakura Taku had such technical ability.

Judging from his original promise to Ryusuke Soma, it is not difficult to see that Taku Itakura's development direction has always been artificial intelligence.

Even after he turned to the CG field, he was often responsible for the CG rendering of special effects movies, including some 3D modeling and other content. In other words, it was not a simple art content, but closer to an effects simulation.

It still cannot escape the field of algorithms, but the development content has shifted from game content to physics engines and the like.

Compared to Soma Ryusuke, who lacks sufficient knowledge in this field, he is good at this aspect and naturally understands what his lofty ambitions at the time represented.

To explain it with a breakthrough that Tang Ze had seen in his previous life, it was almost like preparing to develop an AI like Alpha Go that could defeat top human chess players.

It sounds simple and easy, but if you really invest in development in this field, it will be like a dead horse trying to climb a mountain.

"I didn't lie to him..." Itakura Taku's face twitched, but he couldn't help but retort, "I have indeed made many technological breakthroughs in this area. As long as there is sufficient data support and I continue to improve my understanding and calculations, I want to develop a perfect shogi game..."

Before he could finish his words, Tang Ze kicked the chair he was sitting on mercilessly.

Itakura Taku immediately fell silent again and shut his mouth.

"You're in this industry yourself, and you know better than anyone the financial, energy, and computing power required to develop AI at this level. You knew this, yet you didn't warn your collaborator about the risks. You just watched him throw himself into it without hesitation. You simply wanted to exploit his ideals and provide you with nourishment, didn't you?"

Until he found Itakura Taku and knocked on his door, Soma Ryusuke had never felt any negative emotions.

He even came happily to report the good news, bringing the materials he had collected again, saying that he had obtained first-hand information that was difficult to obtain, and hoped that it would assist in the subsequent development progress.

As a result, he was easily angered by a few words from the pigeon and felt murderous. It must be said that Tang Ze still admired his ability to anger people.