Medieval Museum Urban Legend

"I've heard of that urban legend before."

Ran pondered for a moment, then said with interest, "I heard that medieval armor comes to life late at night and wanders around the museum!"

"Medieval armor wandering around the museum?"

Fujino frowned upon hearing this... he felt like this urban legend was somewhat familiar.

A Night at the Museum... no!

It should be the Museum Urban Legend Murder Case from Conan.

If he remembered correctly, this case took place at the Medieval Museum.

And the armor in the urban legend should have been played by the curator, Ochiai.

The old curator was a devoted old man who loved art, viewing artworks as his life. He had dedicated most of his life to the Medieval Museum, where he currently served as curator.

However, due to the recent poor economic conditions in Japan, the company that originally invested in the museum went bankrupt, and the museum was about to be acquired by another company.

It wouldn't have been a problem if the new owner, Mr. Manaka, hadn't gone back on his word and planned to demolish the museum to build a hotel.

In his anger, Ochiai conceived the idea of murder.

The reason he disguised himself as an urban legend was to practice how to cleanly kill Mr. Manaka beforehand, preventing the museum from being demolished.

"Huh?"

Sonoko glanced at Fujino in surprise, as if she had discovered something new. "Senior Fujino, are you also interested in these kinds of urban legends?!"

"It's not exactly interest, just a bit of curiosity,"

Fujino nodded. "After all, urban legends, if they exist, must have a reason for existing."

"That's truly unexpected. It seems Senior Fujino is much better than that arrogant deductive maniac!"

"If that arrogant deductive maniac were here, he would definitely say something like: What urban legends and myths, those are just things for children to believe..."

Sonoko imitates Kudo Shinichi's tone perfectly, glancing at Fujino, she murmured, "You're both detectives, yet the difference is so vast."

Suddenly, as if remembering something, she asked Ran, "By the way, Ran, I haven't seen that guy at school for a long time."

"Shinichi..."

Ran frowned upon hearing this, sighed, and said softly, "He's handling a complex case... and might not be back for a while..."

"That's why I say, that kind of arrogant detective and deductive maniac is the most unreliable!"

Sonoko said indignantly. "I bet that guy has abandoned you, Ran, his old hag, and is off meeting some other pretty girls!"

"Sonoko!"

Ran replied reproachfully, a hint of girlish shyness appearing on her face.

"Hahaha..."

Seeing Ran's shy expression, Sonoko let out a knowing smile.

Then, she turned to both of them and invited, "Senior Fujino, Ran, tomorrow is the weekend. How about we go to the Medieval Museum tomorrow to see the walking armor?"

"The weekend?"

Fujino frowned.

It was Monday today, and tomorrow was the weekend... He really couldn't understand the time progression in the Conan World.

"Ding, detecting Detective Career Upgrade Mission."

At this moment, the system's prompt sounded in Fujino's ear.

Fujino blinked in surprise, opened the system interface, and saw the system mission right before his eyes:

[Detective Career Upgrade Mission: Museum Urban Legend Murder Case

Mission Objective: Resolve the Museum Urban Legend Murder Case

Mission Option 1: Ensure no one dies Reward: 50 Detective Reputation, 500,000 Yen bounty, Random Professional Upgrade Ticket (Purple)

Mission Option 2: Solve the Museum Urban Legend Case Reward: 50 Detective Reputation, 500,000 Yen bounty, Mask of Falsehood (Purple)

Mission Limited Countdown: Two days]

"Two options?"

Fujino was taken aback as he examined the system mission.

Unlike the single choices he usually encountered, this time there were two options provided.

And the rewards for completing these two options were also different...

"Hey! Senior Fujino, are you free tomorrow to go to the Medieval Museum?"

Hearing this, Fujino closed the system interface and saw Sonoko looking at him with eager anticipation.

"Ahem."

He cleared his throat and, after a moment of thought, agreed, "If tomorrow is a holiday, I do have time. I haven't had a good rest lately. Going to the museum to cultivate my sentiments sounds pretty good..."

"Then it's settled!"

Sonoko smiled knowingly.

Her gaze towards Fujino was filled with unspoken meaning.

Sunset.

Fujino returned home, took off his school uniform and hung it in the closet, changed into his usual suit, and after eating a cream pudding rewarded by the system, he opened the system interface and pondered the options before him.

The system's two options presented vastly different approaches.

Option one, guaranteeing no deaths, likely meant he had to stop Curator Ochiai from killing someone to resolve the case.

The reward was a purple random level-up voucher, capable of randomly increasing one occupational level.

Option two, however, was no different from his usual tasks.

Except this time, he knew the case was about to happen.

To solve this case, he would need to wait for Curator Ochiai to commit the murder before heading to the crime scene to resolve it.

Both involved solving a case, but one was about preventing it from happening, while the other was about letting the killer commit the act.

Fujino thought deeply for a moment and made his decision...

Late at night, the Medieval Museum.

Fujino, with the wooden sword on his back and two reinforcement cards at his waist, sneaked into the Medieval Museum.

His infiltration was smooth, not because he was skilled at stealth, but entirely due to the museum's current abysmal security.

Affected by recent urban legends and with the museum set to close in ten days, the security guards hadn't been paid in a month.

Without pay, who would work?

So, in this vast museum, only one elderly man was on patrol.

That old man was over sixty and was only coming to stand guard voluntarily out of respect for the curator.

The Medieval Museum had four exhibition halls: the Sky Exhibition Hall, the Earth Exhibition Hall, the Ocean Exhibition Hall... and the Hell Exhibition Hall. The name of each hall corresponded to the style of its collection, housing different artifacts respectively.

Upon entering the museum, Fujino headed directly towards the Hell Exhibition Hall.

If he remembered correctly, that murder case occurred in the Hell Exhibition Hall.

"I wonder if the old curator came to practice tonight..."

Fujino murmured, looking down the dimly lit corridor of the exhibition hall, "If he didn't..."

"Click! Click! Click!"

Before he could finish his sentence, a series of sharp metallic sounds echoed from the Hell Exhibition Hall not far ahead.

Fujino's heart tightened at the sound. He picked up his wooden sword and slowly walked towards the direction of the noise.

Sticking to the wall, he peered into the Hell Exhibition Hall.

What greeted his eyes was a medieval armor wielding a sword sheath