Chapter 2175 - 2173: Again? (Ben Orange Cat Was Too Heavy and Failed to Ascend)

Upon hearing Little Ai’s answer, Fang Zheng was already mentally prepared for someone to die.

Therefore, when they finished eating and returned to the company, and saw a figure fall from the sky and land on the ground before them, Fang Zheng appeared very calm, extremely calm.

Well, but the quartet of screams from Yoko Okino + Kimie Shima + Kousaka Natsumi + Ran was indeed headache-inducing.

Speaking of which, isn’t this the first time you all have seen a corpse? Especially you Ran, can you not scream so loudly?

When Fang Zheng returned to the company, he also learned the specifics.

The deceased were two people, one was the crew’s photographer, Mr. Ueyamada, and the other was a female star, Miss Mita Mari, who came to audition for the female lead. Ueyamada seemed to have chosen suicide due to life dissatisfaction and negative thoughts, while Mita Mari was killed in the restroom, seemingly for robbery and murder from the scene.

Of course, this was in Conan’s absence.

Since Conan is here, it definitely wasn’t just a simple accident.

Actually, according to Little Ai’s statement, there were suspects: Ueyamada’s girlfriend, Miss Nakahara, and Mita Mari’s husband, Mr. Yoshino. Because earlier, Little Ai and Conan saw infighting among Ueyamada’s circle, revealing that the photographer Ueyamada, despite having a girlfriend, had improper relations with many women. Not only that, he spent Miss Nakahara’s money unwisely.

As for Mita Mari... the reason is quite simple, it’s because she relies on being a popular star and doesn’t treat her husband as such, bossing him around at the set, giving off the feeling like he’s not her husband, but more like her slave.

Although both have motives for murder, they lack the time to commit the crime, as revealed by the autopsy results. The time of death for both doesn’t overlap. Ueyamada was killed before being thrown from the building to make it look like a suicide, no more than half an hour. Mita Mari’s body showed a time of death from half an hour earlier.

But during this time, both Miss Nakahara and Mr. Yoshino have clear alibis, and their circles don’t overlap, remaining unknown to each other. No matter how you look at it, it seems like two separate incidents.

However, Fang Zheng quickly realized that the killers were indeed these two, even without Conan’s deduction. He could guess their method — to put it simply, it’s an exchange killing!

Simply speaking, it’s Miss Nakahara killing Mita Mari, while Mr. Yoshino killed Ueyamada. This way, their motives for murder are uncertain, making it hard to catch them. Furthermore, as long as the two stagger their actions, the alibis can be flawlessly ensured.

For example, Miss Nakahara first kills Mita Mari while Mr. Yoshino was with friends during this time. This ensures Mr. Yoshino has an alibi.

Then Mr. Yoshino goes to kill Ueyamada while Miss Nakahara was with friends at this time, ensuring her alibi.

Oh, what are you all playing at here?

Next, Fang Zheng watched how Ran and Conan solved the case. That said, this was also his first time seeing Ran and Conan cooperate. Simply put, Ran essentially replaced her father, Kogoro Mouri’s work, but compared to Kogoro Mouri, Ran is more proactive. I should say it’s not for nothing she’s learned Karate, a childhood friend of Shinichi Kudou, who has seen countless dead bodies. Although she initially screamed loudly when she found the body, when she really calmed down to investigate the scene, she had a bit of her father’s demeanor.

The final deduction was also completed collaboratively by the two. After all, Shinichi Kudou cannot show up, and Kogoro Mouri is not around, thus forcing Ran Mouri to conduct the reasoning. Fang Zheng also saw both confirm Conan’s entire deduction first, then Ran would ask questions, and Conan would answer, ensuring everything was right before Ran stood up to accuse, and Conan would supplement through Ran’s "earring-style earpiece". If it was necessary to reconstruct the perpetrator’s method, Conan would then cooperate with Ran to act...

One has to say, a husband-and-wife duo really have chemistry.

Watching Ran point out the culprit at the scene and find evidence, Fang Zheng also silently nodded. Although on the surface, Ran just seemed to be playing the role of a "talking, cooperative" Kogoro Mouri, Fang Zheng could see that Ran had her own strengths and attentive places. For now, it’s fair to say... their collaboration was pretty good.

Looking at the reaction from the surrounding spectators, Ran, this "High School Detective," is starting to make a name for herself.

By the way, the reason this exchange killing managed to succeed is purely because these two murderers met online, shared their grievances which gradually brought them closer together. Although they only knew each other’s screen names, deciding to proceed with this "exchange killing" plan upon learning the people they despise would attend this film’s audition and screen testing.

In fact, it was only at this moment that they met for the first time. After confirming the plan, they communicated purely by text messages, deleting them after reading.

After hearing the deduction in front of him, Fang Zheng was utterly calm, haha, two folks chatting online, never met, thinking that empathizing with each other would lead to wanting to murder for the other, and even succeeding — is this scientific?

Forget it, this world doesn’t operate on science, Conanology will do.

In fact, this kind of exchange killing has certain feasibility, as if targeting someone familiar, especially someone they live with, it’s hard to ensure that one would act — although Conan World doesn’t have this problem; instead, most murders are committed by acquaintances.

But if it’s a stranger, it’s different. Assuming this stranger only knew negative intel about the target, they would not hesitate to act, for them, the stranger is merely a deserved target, not a familiar lover they interact with daily.

But if you think this means you can escape police pursuit, you’re dreaming.

The reason Fang Zheng let Conan and Ran reason out and identify the culprit on the spot was simply for convenience. In fact, even without Conan, solving this case wouldn’t be that difficult. After all, now their lack of connection is merely a conclusion from surface investigations by the police. But with an in-depth check on their phone communication records, noticing traces of extensive contact between them, then subsequent interrogations and searches would surely uncover clues, leading to the conclusion.

Just might waste some time, is all.

Anyhow, Fang Zheng’s use of the Grim Reaper’s Aura to "sanitize" the crew achieved its goal too. Only two died, which could be considered lucky. Fang Zheng initially thought, with Conan’s Grim Reaper’s Aura, maybe the building would explode or something... now it seems alright, good, still within an acceptable range.

After all, if the building exploded it would cost too much to rebuild.

Following this, Fang Zheng didn’t concern himself with the crew’s matters anymore. Since no more deaths would occur, just selecting candidates, filming, and waiting for screening suffices.

However, for Fang Zheng...

"Recently Gin and the others haven’t been causing trouble, it’s really boring..."

Flipping through the company’s recently signed contracts and agreements, Fang Zheng complained idly, while Little Ai looked at him speechlessly.

"You chased Gin for three blocks, even blew up his car, I think considering the organization’s nature, they probably won’t send anyone back to Tokyo anytime soon."

Speaking of which, Little Ai felt incredulous, because all along, her impression of the organization was that it was a kind of low-key, massive, and brutal frightening creature. And Gin, as one of the organization’s most capable operatives, left a deep impression on Little Ai, almost like the incarnation of a Grim Reaper, invoking fear.

But what surprised Little Ai was that the organization’s spokesperson, who seemed like the Grim Reaper incarnate, was chased by Fang Zheng alone for three blocks, desperately running around, and ultimately even had his car blown up by an RPG from Fang Zheng...

It’s like a student seeing a long-term classroom bully being chased by a transfer student in utter humiliation; it made even Little Ai feel that the organization wasn’t as terrifying as she thought.

"I’ll be more careful next time, should’ve known I should keep a lower profile..."

While speaking, Fang Zheng flipped through the proposal again, glanced at the printed document on top, and suddenly sprayed a mouthful of coffee.

"What the hell is this?"

"What’s wrong?"

Seeing Fang Zheng’s reaction, Little Ai curiously looked at him.

"Go get Akemi."

Fang Zheng waved, and Little Ai nodded, quickly walking out of the room. Soon after, Akemi hurriedly came in front of Fang Zheng.

"Mr. Fang Zheng, is something wrong?"

"About this."

Fang Zheng put the coffee-stained proposal on the table.

"What the hell is this?"

"What what?"

This time, Little Ai also curiously leaned in to look at the proposal.

"Joint venture with Sindora Company to develop a virtual game experience system?"

"Yes, this is a system referred to as ’Mayu,’ mainly letting players enter a capsule like a cocoon, under hypnosis, and converse with a sound recognition system while playing in a virtual world... I believe it aligns with the upcoming business development of our company, and considering Sindora Company is a well-known enterprise in America, it seems suitable for entering the market..."

This is even more outrageous than SAO; they only grilled the brain, while you’re going for a full roast lamb?

"Abandon this plan."

"Huh?"

"Why? I thought it was pretty good?"

Upon hearing Fang Zheng’s request, both Akemi and Little Ai were puzzled.

"Virtual reality technology is always risky when first developed, and this system makes me feel very uneasy..."

"But we’ve already signed the contract..."

"Cancel the contract and withdraw investment, stating that our Umbrella has concerns about the safety of Sindora Company’s virtual reality system and will cancel cooperation."

If Fang Zheng didn’t recognize the name Sindora Company, upon seeing that egg-like thing in the proposal, he immediately recalled... isn’t this just like that thing in the Conan movie ’Undead of Baker Street’?!

Good grief, after dealing with SAO once, now in the Conan world, to experience it again?

This time Fang Zheng wouldn’t repeat the same mistake as with SAO; he knew the program itself had a backdoor opened by someone, and the artificial AI inside was troublesome. If Umbrella got involved, its fate would be like the SAO production company in the Game World, unable to escape unscathed.

He’s not having any of that.

Although somewhat puzzled, Akemi nodded and went to handle it, knowing Fang Zheng’s insistence.

The news of Umbrella withdrawing investment wasn’t a huge development in the financial market but became major news because Umbrella’s reason for withdrawing was — they doubted the safety of Sindora Company’s new virtual game system!

This provided the media with plenty to chew on!

After all, since the emergence of virtual reality games, there’s been no shortage of debates surrounding it, yet ultimately, they’re just empty words, much like keyboard warriors, accomplishing little more than wasting time.

But Umbrella is different; they genuinely retracted their real money! Even choosing to cancel the contract rather than proceed!

This isn’t like typical empty words, because canceling a contract ultimately costs money.

Did Umbrella discover some internal secret of Sindora Company?

Does the virtual reality system truly have hidden issues?

If uncovered, it would be big news!