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

Half an hour later, the sound of sirens broke the silence around the apartment. Officer Megure and four other police officers walked quickly into Room 102 and frowned as soon as they entered the door.

The room was filled with the residual warmth of coffee and a dull atmosphere. The body hanging on the balcony was particularly eye-catching, and the scattered objects around formed a strange contrast with the neatly arranged audio cables.

"The deceased is Shukawa Sadago, 32 years old, a game writer by profession." Inspector Megure flipped through the information in his hand while quickly walking to the balcony, his eyes sweeping over the grooves on Zhou Chuan's neck and the marks on his ankles.

"The preliminary diagnosis of the cause of death is asphyxiation due to compression of the neck, accompanied by impaired blood flow to the brain. Considering the extent of rigor mortis and the state of livor mortis, the estimated time of death is between one and a half and two hours ago."

After explaining the basic facts of the case, Inspector Megure turned to the people at the crime scene on the platform and said in a serious tone: "Conan, Ms. Kudo, and Mr. Anton, the first discoverers of the body, please tell us in detail the specific circumstances of the discovery of the body."

He turned to his subordinates and ordered in a deep voice: "Chiba, Sato, Shiratori, the follow-up investigation and inquiries here are left to you."

Seeing the three of them respond in unison.

Inspector Megure added, "Takagi and I are going to deal with a murder case in another apartment right away. Please keep me informed if there are any developments here."

Conan looked up at Inspector Megure's hurriedly departing back. His gaze behind the lenses swept across the messy corners of the room, and his little hand unconsciously touched his chin.

The direction of the strangulation groove on the neck always made him feel that it was different from ordinary hanging.

Officer Shiratori looked down at Conan, his tone tinged with joking, "You really are a kid who always runs into murders. If the Metropolitan Police Department gave you the 'Case Radar Award', I'm afraid no one would object."

Conan scratched his head quickly, an innocent smile on his face, and dragged out his voice: "It's just a coincidence, accidental, all accidental! Maybe I'm just unlucky, always appearing when I shouldn't appear~"

As he spoke, he quietly took a half step back, fearing that Officer Shiratori would continue asking questions and accidentally expose his "special physique".

"Puchi--" Kudo Yuki couldn't hold it in and raised her hand to cover her mouth, her shoulders still shaking slightly.

She looked at Conan, who was trying hard to hide his feelings, and then glanced at Officer Shiratori's understanding expression. She smiled and said, "Officer Shiratori, please stop teasing him. Conan is a very attentive kid. He can always notice small things that others overlook, no matter where he is. Maybe he has a 'detective physique'."

Officer Shiratori raised an eyebrow and followed up on what Kudo Yuki said, jokingly saying, "'Detective physique'? That needs to be well protected. Who knows, the Metropolitan Police Department might need help from this little detective in the future."

Conan's cheeks flushed slightly, and he quickly waved his hands, his voice a little aggrieved: "Sister Xue is joking with me! I was just taking a look, I don't have any detective physique at all."

He also subconsciously moved to the side, as if trying to avoid this "sweet siege".

Seeing this, Kudo Yuki suppressed her laughter and took a half step forward. She bent down slightly and approached Conan, and grumbled in a voice that only the two of them could hear: "Little detective, are you still being stubborn? The way you stared at the speaker just now, your eyes were as bright as a radar accurately locking onto a target. You were more serious than Officer Sato."

She reached out and gently ruffled Conan's hair, her tone smiling, "But don't be so conspicuous next time, or Officer Shiratori might use you as a 'case radar' and keep an eye on you."

Conan's hair was a bit messy from being rubbed, and he raised his hand to rub it twice. The tips of his ears turned red, but he still refuted quietly: "I just... I thought the scene was a bit strange! The strangulation marks on the neck don't look like a normal hanging at all."

When talking about the case, his eyes unconsciously became serious, and then he realized that he was speaking too bluntly, so he quickly lowered his voice and added, "I, I just guessed!"

Kudo Yuki looked at his little appearance that changed instantly, and couldn't help but curl the corners of her mouth. When she stood up, she blinked at Conan and mouthed "I understand".

Conan tilted his head awkwardly, the red on the tips of his ears still not fading, his fingers unconsciously picking at the hem of his coat, like a kitten caught hiding snacks.

He pursed his lips, then secretly glanced up at Officer Shiratori, who was talking to a forensic officer not far away. After making sure that the other party wasn't paying attention, he breathed a sigh of relief, shook his head slightly, and muttered in a helpless and dependent tone, "Sis, can't you just pretend you didn't see it? You always ruin my plans."

Shushu, who was watching from the side, sighed: "It's over, the poor kid got pitted by the snow."

Conan looked at the sly smile that could not be hidden in Kudo Yuki's eyes, and it was as if a switch was pressed. The aggrieved expression on his face just now froze in an instant, and the hand that was pulling his hair stopped in mid-air.

He looked up at Kudo Yuki, his pupils slightly contracted. The childish innocence in his eyes was no longer there, leaving only the sharpness and understanding that belonged to Kudo Shinichi.

"You..." Conan subconsciously lowered his voice. Before he could finish his words, Kudo Yuki bent over and moved closer, answering in a voice that only the two of them could hear, with a smile at the end of her voice: "Did you find out? I thought I could pretend for a while longer. It's a good opportunity to send a new status to Sister Yukiko, as a 'return gift' for your teasing me last time.

Conan's expression instantly became complicated, filled with shock, anger, and helplessness. He lowered his voice and said, "Sis, I just played a prank on a whim last time, and you still hold a grudge against me!"

He even reached out to grab Kudo Yuki's phone, "Delete it quickly! Don't send it!"

Shushu jumped onto Kudo Yuki's shoulder and yelled at the top of his lungs, "Xiaoxue, hide it quickly! Don't let Conan get it! You must send it out! Yukiko will definitely flood her phone screen with it!"

The police and forensic personnel around were busy with their own affairs and no one noticed this "talkative" rat.

Behind the bar of Poirot Café, Toru Amuro heard all of this through the microphone.

"You're still holding a grudge, Xiaoxue." He chuckled softly and placed the cleaned glass upside down on the cup rack. In the shadow of the "winery", such a sense of ease was rare.

Conan paused, reaching for the phone, but his eyes instantly shifted from annoyance at being tricked to detective vigilance. He subconsciously tilted his head, as if to confirm the source of the voice, then lowered his voice, so that only Kudo Yuki could hear, and asked, "Sister, is Mr. Amuro's speaker...on?"

Kudo Yuki quickly tapped twice on her phone screen and smiled as she mouthed a response: "I left it on purpose. He's used to hearing us bickering."

The rat on her shoulder also reacted. Its chubby little claws scratched her collar and whispered, "It's over, it's over. Amuro Toru is also laughing at the joke! Conan is even more embarrassed now!"

Conan's cheeks suddenly grew hotter, and he clenched his fists in anger, saying, "It's all your fault! Even Mr. Amuro knows you've bullied me!"

While complaining, his eyes unconsciously glanced towards the door, and he was already thinking: "Since Mr. Amuro can hear the noise here through the microphone, he must have heard me say, 'The marks from strangulation don't look like ordinary hanging.'"

Officer Chiba's voice interrupted the interaction between the few people: "Speaking of which, this is already the second case today."

Miwako Sato immediately walked over to Conan and Yuki Kudo, and took the opportunity to divert Conan's attention: "Conan, can you tell Officer Shiratori and Officer Chiba again what happened when the body was found?"

Conan loosened his clenched fists, instantly suppressing his slight grievance, and put on an obedient look as he replied, "Yeah."

Then he turned to Wu Jingyou and Atobe Michiya behind him and confirmed, "We want to enter this room because the two neighbors are complaining, right?"

"Yes," Wu Jing spoke first. "My room is on the right side of this room. I was livestreaming 'Monster Hunter' at the time. I finally made it through the game with one life when a loud noise suddenly came from next door, interrupting the livestream."

Atobe Michiya added, "My room is on the left. I was live streaming my 2-hour challenge to clear 'Moe Moe Memories'. When the loud noise came from this room, I couldn't continue the broadcast."

As they spoke, they looked at the landlord behind them.

"I wanted to ask the landlord to remind the owner to keep the noise down."

"The police said, 'Let's wait until the incident on the second floor is resolved.'"

"I finally waited for the incident to end, and the landlord came to open the door. I was just about to say hello to him, but I didn't expect——"

"There was a safety chain hanging on the door!" Atobe Michiya lowered his head and looked at Conan, "Then this kid took a look through the crack in the door and said he saw someone hanging in the room."

Officer Chiba immediately lowered his head and asked Conan: "Is that so?"

"Yeah." Conan nodded. "I saw a pair of dangling feet from under the clothes hanging on the beam."

He looked at Cameron and then at Wakita Kanenori. "Then Mr. Anton and Mr. Wakita worked together to break the safety chain. When we entered the room, we saw Mr. Zhou Chuan hanging there."

Officer Shiratori folded his arms and approached the body for a closer inspection. "So that's what it is. There are no scratches on the deceased's neck from struggling, which means there are no Yoshikawa lines. There's also a safety chain hanging on the entrance door..."

"The front door key is also placed safely on the kitchen table." Officer Chiba added immediately.

Officer Shiratori turned to look at Wu Jingyou and Atobe Michiya and further confirmed: "When did the speakers start making loud noises?"

"About an hour and a half ago."

"From my calculations, it was about two hours ago."

The two people's answers differed slightly. Officer Shiratori stroked his chin and thought, "In that case, perhaps the deceased turned up the speakers so loud that no one could hear his groans when he hanged himself. In this case, the possibility of suicide is very high."

"It must have been suicide!" Wu Jingyou and Atobe Michiya immediately echoed, "And there's even a suicide note."

"Suicide note?" Officer Shiratori looked puzzled.

Upon seeing this, Sato Miwako immediately handed a note in a transparent bag to everyone. It read:

It’s no use anymore…it’s all over.

"Yes, that's it." They said in unison.

"However, there are strange indentations on the front and back of the words on this piece of paper." Sato Miwako continued to explain, "When I first arrived at the scene, Conan reminded me that 'maybe it was written with an erasable pen and the unused words were erased'.

They even asked me to put the paper in the freezer, and then the full text appeared: "I've been playing for three days, and this game is completely broken? This manufacturer is finished." These are all the words actually written on the paper!

"Why can it appear when it is placed in the refrigerator?" Officer Chiba was full of curiosity.

"Because the ink of an erasable pen fades due to heat friction, it will reappear when it cools down." Officer Shiratori finished his explanation and deduced based on Conan and Sato Miwako's findings, "In other words, someone used this piece of paper to process the original content about the game into a suicide note. Adding the security chain of the door, this is a completely impossible crime."

"In other words, it's a locked-room murder case." Kudo Yuki took over the conversation, and the nature of the case instantly changed from "suicide" to "homicide."

Sato Miwako immediately turned around and whispered to Wu Jingyou and Atobe Michiya, "First, please tell us your alibis for the crime—after all, you both knew the victim."

Seeing this, Wu Jingyou immediately wanted to shift the focus and said quickly, "Since, since we're investigating this... shouldn't we also ask Mr. Anton? He had an argument with Mr. Zhou Chuan before."

"Didn't I tell you it was just a little misunderstanding..." Cameron hurriedly defended himself, but before he could finish his words, he was interrupted by the smiling Officer Chiba: "Well, no matter what, we still have to go through the process."

Upon hearing this, Cameron immediately suggested, "In that case, can you let me make a phone call first?"

"That won't do!" Officer Shiratori immediately refused. "What if you collude with the person you're speaking to and forge an alibi?"

Cameron was stunned for a moment, his hand holding the phone stopped in mid-air, and he replied with a little embarrassment: "That's right..."

Kensuke Wakita, who was standing at the door, said nothing from beginning to end, but his eyes were fixed on Cameron, as if he was carefully observing his every move in order to formulate a subsequent arrest plan based on it.

Kudo Yuki walked quickly to the door, her eyes falling on the silent and observing Wakita Kensuke, and asked softly, "Mr. Wakita, you've been observing the case for so long, have you found any clues worth noting?"

Wakita Kanenori slowly withdrew his gaze from Cameron and turned to Kudo Yuki, a meaningful smile curling his lips. "Well, the clues aren't exactly clear, but there are some 'unnatural' things that can't be hidden."

He raised his hand and pointed at Cameron's hand holding the phone. "When Mr. Anton was denied a call, he unconsciously clenched his hand around the phone. Was he simply nervous about being suspected, or was he afraid that the call wouldn't go through and that something hidden inside the phone wouldn't be 'processed in time'?"

Wakita Kanenori glanced in the direction of Wu Jingyou again.

"And that gentleman who was eager to change the subject. When he mentioned the argument between Mr. Anton and the victim, his eyes drifted toward the door twice, as if he was checking to see if someone hadn't arrived, or as if he was afraid someone might have overheard him."

Wakita Kanenori withdrew his gaze and turned back to Kudo Yuki, his tone firm, "These may just be small, scattered actions now, but if we connect them with the main thread of 'alibi', we might be able to find the clue. After all, the more someone wants to hide, the more likely they are to reveal their true intentions in the details."

To be continued...