Genshin Player in the World of Detective Conan

Even so, they still gritted their teeth, clinging to a sliver of hope.

Seeing this, Paimon immediately said:

"Those stubborn fools! Go, Shinobu—show them what you're made of!"

Paimon had not the slightest sympathy for these bad guys who wanted to teach them a lesson and even steal their treasure.

Yin Kong nodded as well.

"Time to give them a shock."

"Eek—!"

In less than half a minute, the three robbers had utterly lost their backbone. They dropped to their knees and began weeping bitterly over their crimes.

"We were wrong! We'll tell you everything! Please spare us..."

Kuki Shinobu's electric shocks were ten, perhaps even a hundred times more terrifying than they had imagined.

The electricity from the stun gun seemed to have eyes, burrowing specifically into their most vulnerable spots—the places where they could feel the most pain.

The three of them were merely low-level lackeys. Even professionally trained elites might not have been able to withstand Kuki Shinobu's interrogation.

"But as for the treasure map, all we know is that the boss drew it! We really don't know anything else!"

Yin Kong did not doubt that.

If they had actually had any leads, these three guys would not have made the absurd choice of following the first-grade Junior Detective Agency in the original plot.

And they had followed them all over the place for an entire day.

"Then why did you rob the Maple Leaf Gold Coins?"

On careful analysis, it was actually a very strange matter.

The Maple Leaf Gold Coins might have been quite valuable, but among the many treasures in the exhibition hall, they were not eye-catching at all. Their value-for-effort ratio could even be called extremely low.

At least for ordinary people, fifteen thousand Maple Leaf Gold Coins were unquestionably a cumbersome and heavy burden.

Even so, all of those coins combined were worth only around six hundred million yen.

Yet among the many treasures displayed alongside them was a crown set with an enormous diamond, conservatively valued at over two billion yen.

Of course, perhaps this gang of robbers had simply not thought that far ahead.

Maybe they just believed that gold coins could be melted down into gold, making them easier to sell off?

But a large portion of the Maple Leaf Gold Coins' value came from their status as cultural relics. If they were truly melted down into gold, they might not even be worth one hundred million yen.

Surely there could not be robbers this stupid in the world.

Probably not... right?

But as Yin Kong looked at the three men before him, he suddenly was not so sure.

Under his piercing stare, the skinny, black-haired man immediately said, "We don't know either! The boss just ordered us to steal only the Maple Leaf Gold Coins."

Noticing the slight hesitation in the man's eyes and realizing that he was clearly still holding something back, Kuki Shinobu snorted coldly and raised the stun gun.

"I'll talk! I'll talk! I'll tell you everything! Don't let that thing come near me!"

The skinny, black-haired man was terrified out of his wits and no longer dared to conceal anything.

"I accidentally overheard the boss letting something slip while he was on the phone. He said that as long as we got the Maple Leaf Gold Coins, we'd have more money than we could ever spend in this lifetime."

So there really was another force behind this?

Unfortunately, when Yin Kong continued questioning them, the three lackeys knew absolutely nothing else.

It seemed he could only rely on himself.

Fortunately, Yin Kong possessed memories from beyond this world, so he was not completely without clues.

If the fish in his memory was not wrong, then these strange symbols were actually simplified versions of the neon signs the robber leader had seen along the way.

The tower naturally referred to the Tokyo Tower they could currently see.

The moon at the top represented nighttime.

The horizontal line at the bottom represented the riverbank.

But it was broad daylight now, so locating the positions of those neon signs would still take some effort.

At the Golden Arches near Tokyo Tower, Professor Agasa could not help but reveal a kindly smile as he watched the Junior Detective Agency immerse themselves in the colorful snacks, seemingly having nearly forgotten all about the treasure.

After hearing Conan describe how serious the situation was, Professor Agasa had hurried over in concern.

He had brought the restless Junior Detective Agency to the Golden Arches and temporarily restrained their movements with food.

However, people's joys and sorrows clearly did not connect.

The happier the Junior Detective Agency was having it here, the more irritated Conan, who had no leads at all, was on the other side.

"Shi—Conan, still no leads?"

Seeing Conan's movements gradually become more agitated, Professor Agasa could not help reminding him.

"Why don't you eat something and take a break first?"

The high school detective had been scribbling on paper for nearly two hours, but unfortunately, he still could not understand the peculiar thought process of that bandit leader.

Conan shook his head.

"No, Professor. What if that man finds the gold coins first?"

Professor Agasa scratched his head and reassured him.

"Actually, Shinichi, judging from your description, I don't think Mr. Yin Kong seems like a bad person connected to that mysterious organization."

After all, no matter how well they disguised themselves, members of the Black Organization could not possibly really bring a child along with them during their operations, could they?

"Then I can't lose even more!" Conan clenched his fists and said excitedly. "This contest concerns the dignity of me, the famous high school detective."

Seeing this, Professor Agasa knew Conan's fighting spirit had been thoroughly stirred up this time. He shook his head and stopped trying to persuade him.

But however nicely he talked, the more anxious he became, the harder it was for him to sort out his thoughts.

In the end, it was Ayumi's casual reminder that gave the nearly frantic Conan a flash of inspiration, linking the strange pattern on the scrap of paper to shop signs.

At first, he had interpreted the moon on Tokyo Tower as Moon-Viewing Road and wasted plenty of time running around in circles. But after many twists and turns, he finally found the abandoned building where the gold had been hidden.

"Heh heh heh, Yin Kong. As expected, I, the great detective Kudo Shinichi, am still better—huh? What are these police officers doing here?"

However, when Conan confidently arrived at the building's entrance, the smug expression on his face instantly froze.

Two police officers on duty were standing guard there.

Why were the police here?

A bad feeling immediately rose in Conan's heart, and it quickly became reality.

Before long, Yin Kong and Inspector Megure emerged from the building, chatting and laughing together.

"We really have you to thank this time, Brother Yin Kong. If we still hadn't found the stolen goods, the pressure on us would have been enormous."

Inspector Megure's attitude was clearly far more enthusiastic than before.

After all, such a major robbery had occurred in his jurisdiction, and the owner of those gold coins was an influential foreign tycoon. The pressure on them was easy to imagine.

What Yin Kong had done this time made Inspector Megure even more grateful than if he had merely helped them solve ten or eight murder cases.

"Huh, isn't that Conan?"

As he spoke, Yin Kong spotted Conan standing blankly at the entrance and said with a smile, "Inspector Megure, he's one of the children who found the treasure map. Without him, I probably wouldn't have found these stolen goods either."

Paimon poked her head out from behind Yin Kong and said in surprise, "You actually managed to find this place. You're pretty smart, huh?"

Although her adjusted appearance made her look even younger than the Junior Detective Agency, Paimon clearly had no awareness of herself as a child.

Unfortunately, Conan was clearly no longer able to hear Paimon's praise.

The name of the great detective Kudo Shinichi... I actually lost it this easily!

With a smack, Conan dropped to his knees, his face full of disbelief.

After hearing Inspector Megure's words, he knew Yin Kong had indeed found the Maple Leaf Gold Coins who knew how many steps ahead of him.

If he had arrived any later, he practically would not even have caught a whiff of the exhaust.

Damn it, how could the gap be this absurdly huge?

If it had been the previous cases, he might still have found excuses for himself. But this time, there was no doubt that he had been defeated.

And it was an utterly crushing defeat!

Seeing Conan seemingly begin to fade, as though his entire body had turned gray and white, Inspector Megure could not help being startled.

"Isn't that Conan? What happened to him?"

He still remembered Conan, who had helped catch a kidnapper two days ago.

After all, that day, Inspector Megure had encountered the Mouri Family three times in a row—at the scenes of the Roller Coaster Murder Case, Ono Yoko's apartment murder case, and the Chairman's Daughter Kidnapping Case.

Even in all his years handling cases in Beika Town, that absolutely counted as something exceptionally cursed.

Professor Agasa gave an awkward laugh and explained, "It's nothing. Maybe he was deeply shocked to discover that the treasure was actually stolen property. Look, they're the same."

Sure enough, after hearing that the police had taken custody of their "treasure," Genta, Mitsuhiko, and Ayumi were all incredibly disappointed as well.

They simply were not reacting nearly as dramatically as Conan.

"Pull yourself together, Shinichi," Professor Agasa said quietly. "Aren't you still worried about your identity being exposed?"

Conan's eyes were vacant. He only felt that life no longer held any meaning.

"It doesn't matter. Anyway, I've completely lost the name of Kudo Shinichi."

Professor Agasa had not expected this incident to hit Conan so hard. For a moment, he did not know what to do.

"Hey, you little guy, you're called Conan, right?"

Just then, Paimon came bobbing over.

Conan froze for a moment, then finally looked up at Paimon in confusion.

He had no idea why this little fellow had suddenly called his name.

After all, they had only met once. They could hardly be considered familiar.

Besides, don't you look even younger than me?

Why are you calling me a little guy instead?

Waving her hands, Paimon said, "Actually, you don't need to be so upset. Losing to Yin Kong is completely normal.

Victory and defeat are common in battle. Since you lost, just honestly admit it and fix your mistakes. You can win next time. You're so smart at such a young age—you'll definitely become an amazing detective in the future..."

Is this kid named Paimon trying to comfort me?

Watching Paimon earnestly spout those lofty words, Conan could not help freezing again.

Wait, when did I, Kudo Shinichi, become the kind of person who got upset so easily?

It might have been the first time I'd lost to someone around my own age, but I should have been no stranger to the taste of defeat. So why had I become so dejected this time?

Kudo Shinichi, Kudo Shinichi... Did your body shrinking somehow turn your mind and mental resilience into that of a child too?

If Yin Kong could have heard Conan's thoughts at that moment, he would most likely have told him with complete certainty that he had indeed guessed the truth.

Zhongli had once said that the Conan before them had not merely physically regressed in age—his soul had undergone the same "rejuvenation."

In other words, his mind and spirit had also regressed to the state of a seven-year-old.

It was only because he had inherited all of high schooler Kudo Shinichi's experiences and ways of thinking that, at the beginning, Conan had merely been "a shrunken Kudo Shinichi."