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

The voice behind Kudo Yuki's ear carried Amuro Toru's deliberately soft breathing, as if reminding her to calm down. Beneath the butterfly mask, the corners of her lips pursed into a cold line: "Broken glass pierced my foot. Looking back will only make it hurt more."

Karasuma Renya placed the syringe on the metal table. "You are quite honest. But honest people tend to live longer."

Kudo Yuki raised her eyes and met Karasuma Renya's gaze. "The longer you live, the more you'll see good shows. For example, between rum and gin, who will be the first to overturn the chessboard?"

Karasuma Renya took out a bronze chess piece from the drawer of the laboratory table. The chess piece was engraved with the pattern of a crow spreading its wings, and there were dark red marks on the edges of the wings.

"Look at this pawn," he said, moving it across the board with his fingertips. "It's most courageous when it pushes forward, but once it crosses the river, there's no turning back."

Kudo Yuki's eyes fell on the chess piece.

Amuro Toru's whisper came through the speaker: "He is alluding to Vodka, and is also testing whether you will be a 'pawn crossing the river'."

Shushu gnashed his teeth into her hair, muttering, "This old man's words are full of thorns! When the mission is over, I'm going to bite his chess pieces into pieces!"

"The old man's chess pieces should naturally be manipulated by the old man himself." The perfume bottle at Kudo Yuki's fingertips turned half a circle, and the camera accurately captured the chess pieces.

Karasuma Renya pressed the chess piece on the back of Vodka's hand, and the cold metal made the other party tremble violently.

"Gin's been checking up on us lately, even daring to intercept Rum's encrypted instructions to Cohen. Tell me, should I reward him with a 'rook' or just turn him into a 'sacrificed pawn'?"

Kudo Yuki's heart sank. "Gin intercepted the order to investigate Rum's plot to assassinate Wakasa Rumi, and Karasuma Renya's words were clearly an attempt to instigate me to reveal the information to Rum."

"Gin's personality doesn't allow him to be a 'car'." She avoided the core issue and glanced at the laboratory window. "He's too much like a lone wolf. He will bite if he leaves the pack."

"Bite?" Karasuma Renya picked up the chess piece and threw it onto the board. "Then we have to grind off his teeth."

He turned and pressed a key on the wall. A communicator popped up, its location displayed on the screen. "Tell me, if he saw Vodka become the perfect test subject for ES Amber, would he go crazy?"

Amuro Toru warned: "We can't let Gin see this! If he loses control, our plan will be completely messed up!"

Kudo Yuki immediately stepped forward, blocking the communicator screen with her body. "Gin's gone crazy, who's going to keep an eye on Rum? Doesn't the old man want them to fight even harder? If one wolf's claws are cut off, the other one-eyed dragon will only become more arrogant."

Karasuma Renya stared at her butterfly mask for three seconds, then put away the communicator: "You're right, a good show is more interesting if you watch it slowly."

He stuffed the pawn into Kudo Yuki's hand and said, "This is for you. It's a reminder for you—don't be a pawn that crosses the river."

The coolness of the chess piece passed through her fingertips, but hot sweat broke out on Kudo Yuki's clenched palms.

This is a warning and also a temptation.

Karasuma Renya has never truly trusted anyone, including her "savior".

Kudo Yuki tightened her grip on the bronze chess piece slightly, and the cold metal made her palm numb.

Shushu screamed in response, "I got it! I've found a way to deal with this old man!"

Amuro Toru's voice immediately came from the microphone: "Don't mess around!"

But Shushu had already slid down her collar and into her sleeves, his chubby little paws rapidly clicking on the micro-control panel: "This Shushu's plan is successful!"

Its round eyes flashed with cunning. "Hasn't there ever been a chance to submit Yingchuan Luo's resume? Now's the perfect time—the Karasuma Group's R&D department just posted a job posting for a research assistant yesterday. I'll submit it directly through the internal system!"

Kudo Yuki's heart skipped a beat.

The only thing missing from Zhu Fujingguang's resume is an opportunity to enter the core R&D area of ​​the Karasuma Group.

"How did you get into the internal system?" Kudo Yuki asked telepathically, but the perfume bottle at her fingertips did not stop, and the camera was facing the cover of the experimental log revealed when Karasuma Renya turned around.

"I just hacked the ventilation duct on the third floor." Shushu's voice was full of pride. "That firewall is as strong as paper! I even marked Yingchuan's resume as 'urgent recommendation', and the sender filled in... Vermouth's female secretary!"

Amuro Toru, who was speaking through the speaker, gasped: "That's a risky move! If it gets discovered..."

"I can't find out!" Shushu patted his chest. "I used the secretary's temporary permissions. She swiped her card when she showed us around the building just now, and the permissions haven't expired yet! By the time they find out, Yingchuan will have already passed the interview!"

At this moment, Karasuma Renya suddenly turned around, holding a printed list in his hand: "Look at these names, they are the next batch of adaptors of 'ES Dark Amber'. Do you think they will like the feeling of becoming puppets?"

Kudo Yuki's pupils suddenly contracted.

Toru Amuro held his breath instantly through the transmitter.

"The old man's goal is indeed ambitious." Kudo Yuki forced herself to remain calm, her eyes fixed on the corner of the list where the words "Adaptation Success Rate 92%" were printed. "I'm afraid it won't be that easy to achieve."

"That's why we need the final version of 'ES Amber'." Karasuma Renya tossed the list back onto the lab table. "Once Kagekawa Raku... oh, that's the new research assistant from the R&D department, he'll be able to speed up debugging."

Kudo Yuki and Amuro Toru on the other end of the voice transmitter were both stunned.

Shushu was jumping excitedly on her sleeve. "It worked! He really saw my resume! I told you this trick works!"

Karasuma Renya didn't notice her strangeness and continued to talk to himself, "That young man has a good resume, especially a talent for brain wave adaptation algorithms. Let him help debug the equipment and find some loopholes in the 'ES Dark Amber'. What do you think about having him start analyzing Vodka's brain wave data?"

Kudo Yuki's heart was beating fast, but she remained expressionless: "The old man has a keen eye for talent. But the newbie should start with the basic data first, so as not to mess up the important experiment." She deliberately spoke in simple terms, in fact, to buy time for Yingchuan Luo to get familiar with the environment.

Karasuma Renya raised an eyebrow: "You are speaking for him. Why, do you know him?"

"I don't know him." A hint of coldness appeared at the corner of Kudo Yuki's lips beneath her butterfly mask. "I just don't want to see the old man's plan ruined by an impulsive newcomer."

The lab's communicator rang.

The guard's voice was hesitant. "Boss, the R&D department received an urgent resume recommendation. The applicant is Yingchuan Luo. The background check is fine. Would you like to arrange an interview?"

Karasuma Renya glanced at Kudo Yuki and said slowly, "Tell him to come over another day. It's a good opportunity to have the fine wine help me check it."

Kudo Yuki slowly loosened her grip on the bronze chess piece, a thin layer of sweat forming on the cold metal. She knew it was Kagekawa Raku's turn to make the next move.

And the mouse hiding in her sleeve was making a victory gesture with his chubby little paws, with a cunning light in his round eyes.

Shushu proudly wagged his tail at his sleeve, his round eyes rolling around. He caught sight of the data chips piled up in the corner of the lab table, and his chubby paws started to itch, wanting to do something.

It took advantage of the moment when Karasuma Renya turned around to debug the instrument, quietly slipped out from Kudo Yuki's sleeve, crawled along the metal table leg to the scrap pile, picked up a chip with "ES Dark Amber First Generation Debugging Record" written on it, and ran towards the ventilation vent.

"Where are you going?" Kudo Yuki whispered telepathically, and the perfume bottle at her fingertips subconsciously shifted towards the waste pile.

"Send a gift to Yingchuan Luo!" Shushu's voice was mixed with the crisp sound of the fat little claws scratching metal. "This old man has hidden the data of the first generation, which is perfect for Zhufu Jingguang to study!"

Amuro Toru's voice came through the microphone, with a hint of helplessness: "Let it go. There might be a vulnerability recorded in the first-generation chip."

The rat quickly got into the ventilation duct, and its fat body was as flexible as a ball of fur.

Kudo Yuki was sweating profusely when Karasuma Renya suddenly turned around, holding a yellowed document in his hand. "Jia Niang, do you think someone secretly backed up that encrypted file that was burned back then?"

Kudo Yuki's heart tightened, but she kept smiling.

The butterfly mask covered half of his face, revealing only a cold curve at the corner of his lips. "You're joking, old man. That fire melted even the safe into molten iron, unless someone can grow memory vines in the fire."

What she said was half true.

Karasuma Renya stared at her mask for a long moment and scoffed, "True. After all, you're the only one in the entire organization who could take something from Rum."

These words were like a needle, accurately piercing Kudo Yuki's nerves.

There was a slight "clicking" sound coming from the ventilation duct.

Shushu came in from behind Kudo Yuki's collar, holding the chip in his mouth. He stuffed the chip into her palm, his chubby paw still covered in dust. "Got it! This old man's ventilation duct is messier than a rat hole!"

Kudo Yuki hid the chip in the compartment of the base of the perfume bottle, where were also the photos of chess pieces and fragments of the experimental log that she had taken previously.

"If the old man is worried, why not investigate the person who destroyed the scene? After all, no matter how big the fire is, it can't burn away the greed in people's hearts."

Karasuma Renya curled his lips and tossed the yellowed document back into the drawer. "I've checked, and they all became early test subjects for 'ES Dark Amber.' As for you, when Rum asked Cohen to assassinate Wakasa Rumi last time, you specifically mentioned it to Rum. Aren't you afraid that if Gin finds out, both sides will resent you?"

"Holding a grudge is better than internal strife." Kudo Yuki lightly tapped the perfume bottle nozzle with her fingertips, and a wisp of light smoke quietly filled the air. "If Gin goes crazy, he'll destroy the laboratory. If Rum's one eye sets his sights on the old man's chessboard, this game will be impossible to play."

Amuro Toru chuckled through the speaker: "You speak so conscientiously that someone who doesn't know you would think you're really thinking about the organization."

Shu Shu whined into his sleeve, "If it weren't for Zhu Fu Jingguang's safety, I would have pulled this old man's beard out long ago!"

Kudo Yuki ignored the mutterings of the man and the mouse, and his eyes fell on the monitoring screen of the experimental table - in the picture, Vodka was fixed in the experimental chamber by a restraint belt, and the ripples of the brain wave detector fluctuated.

Kudo Yuki's gaze shifted from the surveillance screen to Karasuma Renya's wrinkled face, and she said nonchalantly, "Old man, do you think Rum has been too idle lately?"

Karasuma Renya raised an eyebrow, motioning for her to continue.

"Cohen's assassination attempt was ruined by Gin. Given Rum's personality, how could he possibly swallow this?" Kudo Yuki gently swung the perfume bottle between her fingers. "Come to think of it, when I came in just now, I heard people whispering in the hallway—something about a box of APTX4869 being missing from the lab."

A stern look flashed in Karasuma Renya's cloudy eyes: "One missing?"

"My subordinates said they found it during the inventory. Maybe they remembered it wrongly. After all, all the APTX4869 boxes look the same. Maybe it was mixed in with other experimental samples."

Kudo Yuki deliberately spoke vaguely, but out of the corner of her eye she noticed that Karasuma Renya's hand on the edge of the table suddenly tightened, which was his habit before he got angry.

"Mistaken?" Karasuma Renye sneered, "The one in charge of the medicine box is Rum's man. Do you think his men would make such a mistake?"

"Rum's men?" Kudo Yuki feigned surprise, then lowered her eyelashes. "That's strange. After all, Gin just intercepted his encrypted instructions a while ago. Losing the medicine box at this critical moment... If anyone tells others about it, it seems like someone deliberately framed him."

Amuro Toru laughed softly through the speaker: "The fire has been lit."

Shushu wagged his tail on his sleeve. "Add some more wood! Let them burn even brighter!"

Kudo Yuki didn't respond, instead looking at the struggling Vodka on the surveillance screen. "Speaking of which, Gin has been particularly concerned about what's going on in the lab lately. He even walked around the medicine storeroom on the third floor twice yesterday. With his personality, if he knew APTX4869 was missing, he'd probably interrogate every one of Rum's people one by one."

"He dares?" Uramaru Renya's voice sank.

"What's there to be afraid of?" Kudo Yuki chuckled. "He even dared to intercept Rum's orders, so what else does he lack? Besides..."

Her eyes swept across the communicator on the lab table. "If he knew that there was Rum's fingerprint on the lost medicine box, do you think he would just barge into Rum's office?"

Karasuma Renya's pupils suddenly contracted.

Kudo Yuki knew that what he feared most was the infighting among his subordinates getting out of control. But the more he feared it, the more he had to poke at it—only by making the three parties suspicious of each other could she hide behind the chessboard and quietly pass on all the clues.

Karasuma Renya's knuckles made a soft sound on the edge of the table, his cloudy eyes filled with calculation. "Rum's fingerprint? Fine wine is well-informed."

Kudo Yuki's fingers spun the perfume bottle even more slowly, her eyes beneath the butterfly mask as cold as ice. "Aren't the lab surveillance cameras always on? If you don't believe me, just check the records. Maybe... you can even see what Gin was holding in his hand as he was circling the medicine storehouse last night."

She deliberately mixed the traces of gin and rum together, like sprinkling sand on a chessboard, making the originally clear chess pieces stained with confusing dust.

Amuro Toru chuckled through the speaker: "It will be hard for them not to bite now."

Rat gnashed his teeth on his sleeves: "It's best if both sides get hurt! Then I can go steal their coffee cans!"

Karasuma Renya suddenly stood up, the hem of his lab coat brushing against the metal table, bringing a gust of cold air. "Do you think it was Rum who wanted to steal APTX4869, or was it Gin who was trying to frame him?"

"That's something they'll have to ask themselves." Kudo Yuki tilted her head slightly. "But the way I see it, Rum has lost face, so he's going to have to find a reason to piss off Gin. Gin already dislikes him, and the missing medicine box is a perfect excuse to expose his past."

To be continued...