Red Herring

"Is it a task for opening a shop?"

After reviewing the System Task, Fujino shrugged, stood up from the sofa, walked to the refrigerator in the room, took out a bottle of Green Tea, unscrewed the cap, and gulped down a few mouthfuls.

A chill spread through the Fujino was lost in thought.

Opening a shop was an idea he had had for a long time.

But after thinking about it, he gave up.

Having lived an ordinary life in his previous life, he knew exactly how difficult it was to open a shop.

His memories in this world also corroborate this.

As the eldest son of the Fujino Zaibatsu, he naturally had a deep understanding of market research.

In Japan, the cost of opening a shop is simply too high.

Even without considering rent, labor costs, and initial resources, it would require at least one million yen in start-up capital.

With a starting capital of one million, Fujino dared not gamble.

If you throw a million into the system, you'll at least get a few Enhancement Card as a safety net.

Investing in stocks may allow you to recover your principal and even make a small profit.

But if you go all in on the shop...

In the end, they'll likely lose so much that they won't even have any bitter tea seeds left.

Starting a business is even more unpredictable than playing the stock market.

However, these were all his previous thoughts.

Now that the system is backing him up, he can go all out and make a big splash.

Gathering his thoughts, a glint of light flashed in Fujino's eyes.

Immediately, he opened the system's career interface:

[President: Junior (0-100)]

Secondary profession skills:

Business acumen: Basic (increases the success rate of business decision-making by 10%)

End-of-month CEO: Junior (Increases affinity by 5%)

Domineering CEO: Beginner (Increases aura by 5%)

"With a 10% increase in the success rate of business decision-making, operating a store as required by the system should not be difficult."

Fujino glanced at the professional skill of business acumen, then turned his attention to the system's entrepreneurial mission. "Besides, there's a three million system reward to cover it. Even if I fail, I won't suffer any loss."

Of course, as long as it's not some weird or strange shop, the success rate shouldn't be 0%.

Even if the business ultimately fails, it won't be a loss.

With a guaranteed three million yen reward, at worst it's just a wasted effort in the end.

I weighed the pros and cons in my mind.

Fujino felt that this System Task was practically giving him free money.

Immediately, he accepted the System Task.

[System Task completed]

A system notification sounded in my ear.

Fujino put the Green Tea back in the refrigerator.

He slowly walked back to the sofa, sat down, turned on the TV, and began to struggle again with what kind of shop he should open. "Convenience Store, two-dollar store, clothing store, etc., are definitely not feasible. If they fail, disposing of the inventory will result in a significant loss..."

Combining her memories of her past life with those of this world, Fujino eliminated some options that were unsuitable for her current situation.

After thinking for a moment, he suddenly remembered the industry that best suited him—

The catering industry.

"If it's the food and beverage industry, it would definitely be my first choice for starting a business."

Fujino began to weigh the pros and cons of the shop. "The first floor of the detective agency can be used as a venue, and as for the restaurant... as long as we purchase some raw materials, we can easily start it up. Even if we can't make it in the end, we won't tie up too much capital..."

After thinking about it for a while.

Fujino realized that the best thing for him right now was to work in the catering industry.

The food and beverage industry has extremely low barriers to entry.

If done well, it's still possible to become an overnight sensation.

In this era, there are still many opportunities for serfs to rise up and sing their praises.

We haven't yet fallen into the predicament of market monopolies leading to a dead end for entrepreneurship twenty years from now.

After deciding that his future shop would be in the food and beverage industry, Fujino did not make any further plans.

He currently only has 2.2 million yen in hand.

The System Task requires three million yen.

Clearly, that's not enough.

"Looks like I still need to make some money..."

Fujino shook his head, then turned his gaze to the pianist profession that he and the president had drawn earlier:

[Pianist: Beginner (0-100)]

Piano Prodigy: Your hands are perfectly suited for playing the piano, and you possess a certain level of basic piano knowledge.

Steel Soul: Beginner (While playing the piano, you have a 5% chance of entering Steel Soul state. In Steel Soul state, you will gain the original performer's proficiency level in the piece, achieving excellent performance results.)

A pianist only has two professional skills, and from a practical point of view, they are definitely not as good as a CEO.

These effects might indeed be a great skill for pianists.

However, for Fujino, who didn't own a piano, had no interest in playing it, and didn't have the spare money to buy one, it seemed somewhat useless.

A piano can cost several hundred thousand yen.

If he had that money, he'd rather go...

Go and draw some quirky system gadgets.

Actually, calling it a "chicken rib" (meaning something useless or insignificant) is not quite accurate.

At least among the professional skills of a pianist, there is the passive skill of mastering the piano.

With this passive ability, if he becomes famous again and encounters someone showing off by playing the piano, he can give them a good interrogation and then quickly slap them in the face.

"Beep beep!"

Just then, the cell phone tucked in Fujino's pocket suddenly rang with a notification sound.

His thoughts were interrupted, and he took out his phone, only to see a new text message notification.

It was sent by Suzuki Sonoko.

Suzuki Sonoko: ************

Suzuki Sonoko: This is the address of that chat room.

Suzuki Sonoko: By the way, please don't say I'm a girl. My persona in that chat group is that of a man in his thirties.

Fujino: Got it.

Fujino, coming from the information age, can understand the persona of Suzuki Sonoko pretending to be a thirty-year-old man.

After all, it's not like he hasn't done this kind of thing before.

Unlike the older man, he was disguised as an eighteen-year-old high school girl.

Putting his phone away, Fujino took out the laptop he had recently taken out and placed it on the coffee table.

The laptop is entirely white, and on the monitor cover, there is a picture of a girl in a white dress. This girl should be the bride mentioned by the system.

Next to the bride, there's also a Xiaomi logo...

Such a thin and light laptop might not have been considered anything special in Fujino's time.

But in an era when laptops were still like briefcases, this was definitely a product far ahead of current world technology.

If he remembers correctly, the graphics card in this laptop should be a 4090.

And it's at full health.

The theoretical floating-point computing power is around 100 TFLOPS, which is one hundred trillion floating-point operations per second.

What does this computing power mean?

China's Galaxy-4 supercomputer in 2000 had a floating-point computing power of one trillion operations per second, while Skynet in Terminator had a floating-point computing power of sixty trillion operations per second.

In other words, the computer he has is enough to crush any supercomputer in the world—its technological level is twenty years ahead of the rest of the world.

"This computer I'm holding is a bit outrageous..."

Fujino looked at the laptop in his hand, feeling that it was somewhat heavy.

Then, he opened the chat room address that Suzuki Sonoko had given him and joined a chat room called: [Magic Enthusiast Alliance].

—But who could have imagined that twenty years later, a graphics card possessing computing power that could crush the world's supercomputers and even surpass the Skynet computing power in science fiction novels would be used to run pornographic images...

There is a name selection process before joining the chat room.

Fujino casually made up a pseudonym and added it in.

As soon as he joined the chat room, Fujino saw a group of people having a lively discussion about magic.

[Phantom: Did anyone go to Günter von Gödobach's magic show today?]

[The Taciturn Ventriloquist: Is he that world-renowned illusionist?]

[Red Herring: I saw Grobak's performance; he's probably a magician who does illusions.]

[The Vanishing Pani: Where did Red Herring get those tickets? You know, Grobak tickets are incredibly hard to get! I went to the ticket window early every morning a few days ago, but I still couldn't get one.]

[Red Herring: I was just lucky.]

Sun Xiaochuan has joined the chat room.

[Phantom: Sun Xiaochuan? What a strange name.]

[The Vanishing Pani: A new person has joined?]

[Ikasama: Who invited me in?]

[The Disciple of the Magician: It's me. This is a friend of mine; he also likes magic.]

[Sun Xiaochuan: Hello everyone, I am Sun Xiaochuan.]

"Sun Xiaochuan? What a strange name!"

Kuroba Kaito glanced at the newcomer who had joined the chat room and made a comment.

On the other side.

"Red Herring?"

Fujino, sitting in front of the computer, stared blankly at the chat room's username "Red Herring."

If he remembers correctly, this guy is Kuroba Kaito, right?

Although he couldn't recall the details of the murder case involving the magic enthusiast, he did remember the name "Red Herring."

This should be the online name used by Kuroba Kaito or Kaito Kid himself.

"Knock knock knock!"

Just then, there was a knock on the door.

Fujino put away his computer, pushed open the bedroom door, and saw Akemi Miyano standing in the doorway.

"Fujino- kun, dinner is ready."

"Dinner?"

Fujino looked somewhat puzzled.

Normally, he's the one who prepares dinner at the Fujino family's house.

"When Ai and I Ai that you came back so late, and that you had to entertain clients after you got back, we tried to do it a little bit."

Is that so?

Fujino glanced back at the clock; it was already eight o'clock in the evening.

Turning his head, he nodded and chuckled, "In that case, I'll have to try Sister Akemi and Ai's cooking..."

Third floor, Akemi Miyano's room.

Tonight's dinner was prepared by Ai Haibara and Akemi Miyano together.

It's curry.

"Fujino- kun, how did we do?"

Akemi Miyano stuffed a mouthful of curry rice into her mouth, swallowed it, and then looked up at Fujino with an expectant expression, asking him a question.

Ai Haibara, standing to the side, calmly raised her head and fixed her indifferent gaze on Fujino, as if she too was waiting for Fujino's answer.

"Um..."

Fujino glanced at the curry.

Although he only knows how to cook home-style dishes, to be honest, the curry was indeed quite good in terms of taste.

The flavor was a bit bland.

It would be much better if you added more seasoning.

After thinking for a moment, Fujino didn't say anything to spoil the mood and replied, "It's alright. I remember this is your first time cooking, Sister Akemi?"

"Actually, Ai made dinner tonight."

Akemi Miyano smiled and looked at Ai Haibara, "I was just helping out."

Ai Haibara lowered her head and silently put a mouthful of rice into her mouth, a hint of shyness on her face.

It turns out she did it.

No wonder the taste is so bland.

This flavor, while healthy, fails to stimulate the appetite.

For a young man with a fairly good palate, this curry was already quite bland.

Older people tend to prefer slightly stronger flavors because their taste buds have gradually deteriorated.

I really don't know how Professor Agasa managed to get through it.

After dinner, Fujino had just returned to his bedroom when he heard the doorbell ring from the detective agency on the second floor.

"Are there any clients left at this time?"

Having changed into her pajamas, Fujino took out her phone and glanced at the time.

It was already nine o'clock in the evening.

A sense of doubt suddenly arose in my mind.

Generally, most people who come to the detective agency to make requests do so during the day or in the afternoon.

Very few people come here at night.

However, one thing is certain: no matter who it is, as long as they come to commission you at night, the reward will definitely be substantial.

Then, filled with doubt, he went to the detective agency on the second floor.

As soon as he went downstairs, he saw two figures standing in front of the detective agency.

One was an old man, and the other was also an old man.

One of the old men was wearing a brown suit. Fujino recognized him; it was the Director Ochiai whom he had knocked on before.

As for the other man, a portly man in a black suit, Fujino didn't recognize him.

Judging from his appearance, he must be a wealthy person.

"Director Ochiai?"

"Fujino!"

When Director Ochiai saw Fujino, he became extremely excited and immediately gave Fujino a big hug.

"Ahem."

Fujino coughed lightly, feeling a bit awkward after being hugged like that.

The girl was fine, but the old man... well, forget it.

Silently pushing the old man aside, Fujino looked at the radiant Ochiai and asked in confusion, "Director Ochiai, what brings you to my house?"

"Actually, I came here to express my gratitude."

Director Ochiai also felt that what he was doing was somewhat inappropriate.

After taking two steps back and showing a respectful expression, he explained, "Thanks to you, Fujino, the Medieval Museum has been preserved. I've been dealing with Museum matters recently, so I haven't had time to come. Today I finally have some free time, so I took the opportunity to come and express my gratitude."

"I see."

Fujino paused for a moment, then came to his senses and asked, "You won your case?"

"We won."

Director Ochiai nodded. "Thanks to Mr. Fujino for helping to contact Lawyer Fei, we won the case some time ago with her help."