Conan: Begins to collaborate with Miss Bayonetta and become famous

Darkness was the only background color, with only the pale, distorted light cast by distant, extremely spaced emergency lights barely outlining the endless contours of this abandoned underground tunnel.

The air was thick and cold, filled with the stench of rust, engine oil, and stagnant water.

The liquor surged wildly in the chaotic darkness, my lungs roared like two broken bellows, each breath causing excruciating pain in my ribs, and the taste of blood churned in my throat.

But his steps did not falter in the slightest; he was so fast that he almost defied gravity. His ears filtered out all other noises, leaving only his thunderous heartbeat and that one guiding light—ahead, in the direction where Old Hei was.

Suddenly, at the end of the darkness ahead, two dim yellow lights suddenly lit up and quickly magnified!

Then came a deep, approaching, and overwhelming roar of steel!

A subway engineering or maintenance vehicle, its headlights blazing, roared out from around the corner of the tunnel like a silent steel behemoth, speeding straight toward the liquor store!

The headlights instantly swallowed his figure in blinding white light, and the enormous wind pressure and the screeching sound of the friction between the rails were deafening!

An ordinary person would be terrified at this moment, and would either stop abruptly or dodge away.

But not for baijiu (Chinese liquor).

His pupils contracted sharply to pinpoints under the intense light, but his face showed no fear or hesitation.

He didn't even slow down or look to the left or right for any narrow maintenance recesses to avoid.

Just as the steel front of the vehicle was less than twenty meters away from him, and the shadow of death had completely loomed over him—

“Rumble——!!!”

The train hurtled past him with destructive force!

The strong wind slammed against him like a solid wall, almost blowing him away!

His hair and clothes danced wildly in the raging airflow, and he could even feel the coldness of the car's metal shell and the scorching heat generated by the high-speed friction with the air on his cheeks!

A fraction of a second, the gap between life and death.

The train passed completely, roaring and flashing lights as it sped away, leaving behind deeper darkness and deafening echoes.

The pace of the liquor didn't falter even slightly because of the perilous situation on the brink of life and death.

He merely adjusted his center of gravity, which had been shifted by the airflow, and his gaze became even sharper and more frantic than before.

It was as if the train that had just crushed him into mincemeat was merely an insignificant headwind.

He didn't look behind him, nor at the tunnel walls on either side, which were briefly illuminated by the car headlights and then plunged back into darkness.

His gaze, like a laser beam, was fixed on the depths of the tunnel ahead, now swallowed by darkness once more. There lay the person he sought, and the things he had to stop.

Accelerate! Keep accelerating! As if trying to transform all the adrenaline from that brush with death into the power to reach the finish line!

Meanwhile, in the secluded space above the abandoned riverside pumping station, the atmosphere was one of deathly stillness and heaviness.

Old Hei leaned against the cold brick wall, the makeshift bandages on his body now soaked through with blood again.

His face was deathly pale, and his breathing was shallow and labored, each breath accompanied by a hissing sound of damaged lungs.

But those eyes were unusually clear, even carrying an almost indifferent calm, as they gazed at the thing in the center of the room.

It was a hexagonal prism-shaped metal device, about the size of a small off-road vehicle.

The outer casing is a matte dark gray, and the surface is covered with thick pipes and complex interfaces.

At this moment, at the center of its top, a fist-sized red indicator light is flashing steadily, regularly, and with a heart-pounding frequency.

Each flash was accompanied by an extremely deep "hum" that seemed to come from the depths of the earth, causing the entire device to vibrate slightly.

The red light illuminated the dusty, cobweb-covered ground and also the old man's pale face.

A giant bomb.

Or rather, some kind of explosive device with unknown power but absolutely lethal.

The "gift" left by Rum.

Old Black's gaze slowly moved and landed on several items scattered on the ground next to the bomb base: a set of precision miniature screwdrivers, a multi-functional circuit tester with a digital display, several rolls of insulating tape of different colors, and even a small bottle that looked like a coolant or a precision cleaning agent.

Old Hei's lips twitched very slightly, whether it was mockery or something else, it was hard to tell.

He didn't immediately touch the tools. Instead, he used all his strength to slowly, inch by inch, move his heavily injured body toward the huge device that was constantly flashing a deathly red light.

Every movement aggravated the wounds all over his body, bringing excruciating, tearing pain, and cold sweat instantly soaked through his remaining clothes.

But his eyes were firm and he did not retreat at all.

Finally, he climbed to the bomb.

Leaning against the cold metal shell, he breathed heavily, pausing for a few seconds. Then, he reached out a trembling but steady hand and gently stroked the bomb's cold, smooth surface with its finely textured casting.

It felt solid to the touch, as if I were stroking the scales of a sleeping behemoth.

He was sensing, assessing, using his rich experience and knowledge to understand the structure of this deadly creation.

Just as Old Black began his initial inspection of the bomb, deep inside the pump station building, outside the only heavy metal fire door leading to this hidden space.

Rum was standing there.

He had just escaped from a fight with Baijiu and Lao Hei, and he was injured, his suit was tattered, his cheeks were bruised, and his broken wrist was simply tied up with torn strips of cloth, hanging down at his side.

But his eyes were unusually calm, even possessing an almost sacred determination and resolve.

It was as if his earlier embarrassment and failure could not shake his deeper, more secretive goal.

He glanced at the tightly closed metal door, then listened intently to the faint sounds coming from inside—Old Black's movements and breathing, and that maddeningly steady "buzz...buzz..." sound.

Then, without any hesitation, he reached out his good hand and grasped the heavy manual rotary valves on both sides of the fire door.

He took a deep breath, tensed all his muscles, and began to spin forcefully!

"Creak—squeak—!"

A harsh, metallic screeching sound echoed through the narrow passage! The heavy door began to slowly close inward!

Inside the door, Old Black, who was trying to probe a certain interface with a tester, suddenly stopped!

He looked up and gazed in the direction the sound came from—the door.

The red light flickered on his face.

"Clang!!!"

A loud bang that was extremely dull!

The two metal doors closed completely and tightly, slamming together!

The enormous sound even shook the dust off the ceiling.

Immediately afterwards, a clearer sound came from outside the door: the metal chain vibrating, passing through the door ring, and then being firmly locked shut with a heavy lock!

The pattering rain was clear and distinct, each step revealing absolute determination and ruthless calculation.

as predicted.

Rum not only closed the door, but also used pre-prepared heavy iron chains and giant locks, probably of the size of a ship or warehouse, to completely lock the door from the outside!

This room, which contained a bomb and a seriously injured old man, was transformed into an absolute steel coffin!

Inside the door, Old Hei listened quietly.

There were no screams of terror, no desperate pounding.

He even slowly put down the testing device in his hand.

The expression on his face appeared somewhat blurry under the red light.

Only those eyes remained terrifyingly calm.

He slowly turned around, no longer facing the bomb, but towards the heavy iron door that was already locked.

It was as if you could see the figure of that person outside the door through the steel.

Outside the door, Rum finished doing all this and gently patted non-existent dust off his hands.

The resolute expression on his face remained unchanged, as if he had simply completed a necessary task.

He faced the cold iron gate and spoke slowly in a calm, eerily steady tone—not loud, but loud enough for the person inside to hear clearly:

“Tell Baijiu,” his voice echoed in the empty corridor, “I will… wait for him forever.”

After saying that, he seemed to remember something and took out a small, silver-gray metal USB flash drive from the inside pocket of his tattered suit.

This was the very thing he had taken from the necklace around Old Black's neck during the chaos. The USB drive gleamed coldly in the dim light.

He silently put the USB drive back into his pocket and placed it close to his body, as if it were something more important than his own life.

Then, he took one last look at the locked iron gate, his eyes filled with a complex and unfathomable expression, before finally fading into an unfathomable darkness.

He turned around, no longer lingering, and with unhurried steps, calmly departed along the dark passage he had come from.

The footsteps gradually faded and eventually disappeared completely.

All that remained was the space inside the door, shrouded in a deathly red light, the heavily wounded Old Black, the constantly buzzing giant bomb, the scattered bomb disposal tools, and the curse-like phrase, "Wait forever."

Inside the door, a deathly silence returned, broken only by the rhythmic "buzzing" of the bomb indicator lights, like the heartbeat of death itself.

Old Black blinked, his long eyelashes casting shadows in the red light.

He took a slow, deep breath, despite the sharp pain in his chest.

Then, he exhaled a long, silent breath.