Detective Conan: The System Takes Me to Zero's World

In the basement of Karasuma Group's headquarters, Gin pressed his palm on the identification panel, and the cold touch climbed up through his fingers.

The red light flashed rapidly on the panel, and the sound prompt of three failed recognitions was like a blunt object hitting the skull.

"The authority is locked." He muttered to himself, his fingertips running over the wear marks on the edge of the panel - this door was open to him last week, and Karasuma Renya even allowed him to stay in the monitoring room outside the clean room for ten minutes.

"Master Gin?" A researcher in a white coat came from the end of the corridor, holding a folder. The hem of his coat was stained with a suspicious light brown stain. When he saw Gin, he paused. "Why are you here? The cleanroom area has been temporarily upgraded today! The permissions have been changed."

Gin's eyes swept over the badge on the man's chest. The "β" mark at the end of the number indicated that he was a peripheral personnel responsible for basic experiments. "Whose order?"

The chill in his voice made the researchers subconsciously clench their folders.

"It's... that master himself issued the order, saying that the ES Amber has entered its final calibration phase and that unauthorized personnel are prohibited from approaching." The researcher's throat rolled. "Even Master Rum's authority has been temporarily restricted."

Gin's fingertips whitened at the edge of the holster.

Rum's authority was restricted? This was even more unusual than the door being locked. Karasuma Renya had always let Rum take charge of the security of the research area, but this time he sidelined him without even asking. It was clear that he was deliberately hiding something.

The ceiling light in the corridor suddenly flickered twice, and the sound of high heels hitting the ground came from the shadows.

Vermouth walked out from the corner wearing a black velvet long dress, the hem of the skirt making a slight sound as it swept across the ground. She held a slender ladies' cigarette between her fingertips, and the smoke swirled around the crimson eyeshadow at the corners of her eyes.

"Looks like I'm not the only one who's been blocked outside." She chuckled, her eyes darting around the red light on the alloy door. "That gentleman's temper is really getting weirder and weirder. Last week he even asked me to go to the purification room to collect samples."

The researcher was visibly relieved when he saw Vermouth, as if he had found a savior. "Lord Vermouth, do you have a temporary pass? The monitoring room just said that you requested access."

Vermouth flicked the ash from her cigarette, sparks arcing across the dim corridor. "My passcode is also invalid."

She leaned closer to Gin and said in a voice only the two of them could hear, "Interesting, isn't it? Even the record of the ventilation fan starting up was deleted. It's like someone is covering up something."

Gin recalled the 17-minute abnormal startup record in Nagano Prefecture, and his brows furrowed even tighter. "Is vodka in there?"

"Who knows." Vermouth's nails scratched lightly on the door. "But I saw Vodka follow the people from Zone β into the corridor yesterday. He had a silver anemone brooch on the left chest of his lab coat - you know, he never wears such fancy things."

Silver anemone brooch.

Gin's fingertips tightened suddenly. It was a cheap thing they had bought at a souvenir shop in Hokkaido during their first mission ten years ago. Vodka had said at the time, "It's like you, big brother. It looks cold, but it actually has a long flowering period."

"That gentleman has recently been fond of adorning his 'collections' with strange ornaments." Vermouth suddenly raised her voice, as if speaking to the researchers, but also as if deliberately speaking to Gin. "The last time I saw the experimental subject in cabin three, he had a broken pocket watch hanging around his neck. It's said to be an important 'emotional anchor'."

The researcher's face turned pale instantly: "Lord Vermouth! You can't say these things-"

"What are you afraid of?" Vermouth turned and leaned against the wall, the light from her cigarette illuminating the amusement in her eyes. "We can't get in anyway. But then again, the people in Area β got new access cards today. The card holders are dark blue, the same color as Vodka's favorite tie."

Gin's gaze suddenly fell on the water dispenser at the end of the corridor. Standing there was a man in a white coat, his card holder indeed a dark blue. He was looking down at his phone, texting. When the screen lit up, he could vaguely see the words "Vodka calibration completed, ready to be transferred to..."

"I'm going to the monitoring room." Gin suddenly turned around, and the wind caused by his footsteps lifted the hem of Vermouth's skirt.

Vermouth watched his back disappear around the corner, the cigarette at her fingertips burning to the end.

She glanced at the still-trembling researchers and chuckled, "Tell your team leader I suspect there's a problem with the cleanroom's temperature sensor. When I took samples last week, I seemed to see a layer of frost on the outside of the chamber."

The researchers ran away as if they had been pardoned, but Vermouth stared at the crack in the alloy door in a trance. She knew better than anyone that there was no silver anemone brooch in the purification room. It was a lie she had deliberately made up - but the shock and anger that suddenly ignited in Gin's eyes could not lie. He cared about vodka far more deeply than he admitted.

The sound of the monitoring room door being pushed open came from deep in the corridor. Vermouth pressed the cigarette butt into the trash can, and a cold arc appeared at the corner of her lips.

"Don't be impatient, Gin. I'll show you a little bit of the truth so you'll want to know the rest. As for the vodka..." She touched the slightly raised hard object under the skin at the back of her neck, where a second transmitter was hidden, more concealed than the one given to Kudo Yuki.

She also wanted to know that Karasuma Renya was about to go to visit the fine wine.

At this moment in the monitoring room, Gin was putting the muzzle of the gun against the temple of the person on duty.

The surveillance video on the screen has been snowing since yesterday afternoon, and only the temperature curve of the purification room continues to drop, like a death line that keeps falling towards the freezing point.

"Who approved the transfer of the vodka?" There was no emotion in his voice, but the barrel of the gun left a red mark on the other person's forehead.

The officer on duty chattered his teeth. "It's... it's a direct order from that master. It uses the highest encryption channel. Not even Master Rum has the right to view it..."

Gin suddenly remembered how Vodka always said, "Brother, you're too respectful to that master." Back then, he'd thought he was ridiculously stupid, but now he realized he was the biggest fool. He'd noticed that Karasuma Renya was looking at Vodka like he was examining a collection, but he'd ignored the phrase "they're all tools of the organization."

The emergency lights in the corridor suddenly came on, and the red light distorted the shadow of the monitoring room.

Gin's phone vibrated in his pocket. It was a message from Vermouth:

Rum's car just entered the headquarters parking lot. It seems that someone has reported the happenings here.

He put away his gun, took a last look at the descending curve on the screen, turned and walked out of the monitoring room.

The corridor was empty, with only a slight hum coming from the ventilation ducts, which sounded very much like the grinding of Vodka's teeth when he was nervous.

Gin stopped at the end of the corridor. On the fire hydrant box there, someone had pinned a withered silver lotus flower, the edges of the petals scorched black, as if burned by fire. A cold smile—

It’s just a good show.

Vermouth watched Gin's figure completely disappear around the corner of the corridor. The smell of cigarettes lingering on her fingertips mixed with the scent of disinfectant in the corridor reminded her of the smell of formalin she smelled in the organization's laboratory twenty years ago - just as cold, and just as full of countless shameful secrets.

She slowly walked towards the fire hydrant box at the end of the corridor, her eyes fixed on the charred silver anemone. Her fingertips gently brushed over the curled petals, and the touch was very similar to the fragments of the fire-scorched photograph she had found in New York Harbor that year.

"What a clumsy provocation." She chuckled softly, but bent down to pick the flower.

The brooch is fake, but the flower is real. Someone is deliberately magnifying Gin's weakness, and this person is definitely not Karasuma Renya - that adult has always disdained to use such tender and affectionate means, he prefers to smash the chess pieces directly.

The humming sound of the ventilation duct suddenly changed, as if something heavy was being dragged inside.

Vermouth dodged sideways into the shadows, watching as the inspection port at the bottom of the pipe was quietly pried open. A thin black shadow fell out, his white coat stained with the same light brown stain as the researcher just now.

He was the intern from Area β, the one who followed Vodka into the cleanroom six days ago.

The intern obviously didn't expect that there was someone here. He was so scared that he almost screamed. Vermouth stopped him with her eyes.

Half a silver chain was exposed in the pocket of the boy's lab coat, and the pendant was a broken pocket watch - exactly the same as the "collection decoration" she had just made up.

"The calibration target for ES Dark Amber is a living being, right?" Vermouth's voice was as soft as a sigh, but her fingertips pinched the back of the boy's neck. "Is Vodka's vital signs data jumping on the display screen in cabin three now?"

The boy's pupils suddenly contracted, like a cat whose tail was stepped on: "Why are you..."

"How do I know?" Vermouth licked the lipstick on the corner of her lips. "Because when I was taking samples five days ago, I saw half a bloody silver anemone brooch on the condenser tube in the purification room. It was much older than Gin's, and it looked like it was torn off right after it was put on."

She deliberately emphasized the word "bloody" and watched the boy's face turn from pale to blue.

In fact, there was nothing on the condenser, but the newcomers in the β zone were best at scaring themselves, especially after coming into contact with experimental records that they shouldn't have read.

"That gentleman said... calibration requires an 'emotional anchor' to stabilize the fluctuations." The boy's voice was trembling. "Mr. Vodka's anchor is a silver lotus, Cabin Three's is a pocket watch, and there's another one..."

"The other one is about the snow in Hokkaido ten years ago, right?" Vermouth continued, the crimson at the corners of her eyes gleaming coldly in the shadows. "After all, the prototype of 'Amber' you're using was extracted from the samples left over from that mission."

The boy collapsed completely to the ground. Vermouth released his hand and watched him take out an access card in a dark blue card holder from his pocket - it was indeed the same color as Vodka's tie.

"If you want to stay alive, go replace the filters in the ventilation ducts." She kicked a toolbox over. "There was phosphorus powder mixed into yesterday's condensate sample. If we don't deal with it, all the smoke detectors in the building will go off. When Rum shows up, do you think he'll interrogate you first, or tear down this door first?"

As the boy scrambled into the inspection hatch, Vermouth's phone vibrated. It was a location from Kudo Yuki, located in the forest outside the headquarters.

She trimmed her sideburns in front of the alloy door, the red light on the mirror reflecting the smile in her eyes. The more violently Gin made noises in the monitoring room, the more likely Rum's attention would be drawn there. What she was looking for was probably hidden in those deliberately forgotten old files.

The emergency lights in the corridor began to flicker again. This time, in the shadows, besides the echo of high heels, there were also the sounds of smaller footsteps. Vermouth turned and walked towards the stairwell. As her skirt swept across the floor, the sound of the wind was mixed with a whisper:

"The game has begun, my good 'colleagues'."

The voice-activated lights in the stairwell lit up with her footsteps, a pale glow falling on the hem of Vermouth's velvet skirt like a layer of curdled milk. She descended, holding onto the rusty handrail. The sound of her high heels hitting the concrete floor was amplified, drowning out the faint sound of her stalking from behind.

When she reached the third-floor landing, she suddenly stopped. The footsteps behind her also paused, revealing half a pair of black leather shoes from the shadows—they belonged to Rum's men, their trouser legs still stained with the unique smell of disinfectant from the research area.

"How long have you been following me?" Vermouth didn't turn around, her fingertips rubbing the scratches on the handrail. The scar was left when Chianti was testing a gun three years ago. At that time, Rum laughed and said, "There should be bullets embedded in every crack of this building."

The stalker's breathing became noticeably irregular. "Lord Rum asked me... to ask you to go to the monitoring room. He said there's some trouble with Lord Gin."

"Trouble?" She chuckled and turned around, the crimson at the corners of her eyes flickering like a ball of fire in the dim light. "Did he smash the surveillance hard drive, or beat the officer on duty's brains out?"

The stalker's Adam's apple rolled: "All...all."

Vermouth raised an eyebrow and deliberately slowed down her pace as she walked back, wrapping the other person in the scent of perfume as she passed by him: "Tell Rum for me that I'm looking for something that can calm Gin down - like Vodka's pocket watch, or the bottle of aged whiskey he hid in Hokkaido."

She watched the stalker's pupils shrink suddenly, knowing that this sentence had hit the mark.

What Rum feared most was Gin's reckless ruthlessness, especially when it involved Vodka. During the Hokkaido mission ten years ago, Gin almost blew up half of the port in order to save Vodka who was trapped in the warehouse. In the end, it was Rum who personally brought a helicopter to the scene to calm the situation.

The stalker's face instantly turned as pale as wet paper, and Vermouth had already walked away in her high heels.

She heard a hurried report behind her, probably conveying the news that "Gin's weakness has been found" to Rum - just right, the more chaos the better.

The wind in the woods carried the cool fragrance of pine needles. When Vermouth pushed aside the last drooping branch, the moonlight was falling on the butterfly mask on Kudo Yuki's face.

“You’re quite good at picking places.” Vermouth leaned against a pine tree, her velvet skirt sweeping across the moss at the roots. “Another three hundred meters in, and you’ll reach the organization’s infrared warning line.”

Kudo Yuki didn't say anything, just turned to the side.

Amuro Toru leaned against the tree trunk. When he heard footsteps, he raised his eyes and his gaze first fell on Vermouth's face: "Seven minutes later than the agreed time."

Vermouth glanced at the time on her watch chain: "After dealing with a follower, the people of Rum are getting more and more sensitive."

To be continued...