The Best of Companions

But halfway through speaking, he suddenly realized something.

This case being solved seemed to have little to do with this high school detective.

The real contributor should have been Sato, who had brought over Oozora Gin's files.

"Sato, well done!"

Inspector Megure abruptly changed tack and praised his subordinate with a gratified expression.

Riding along to victory was certainly great, but if it happened too often, it would inevitably draw criticism from the news media.

Though he no longer hoped for a promotion, being summoned by his superiors for a lecture every other day was hardly a relaxing experience.

This time, he should be able to take it easy for a while, right?

"It wasn't really my credit." Sato was clearly not the type to claim credit for herself. She humbly pointed at Yin Kong beside her. "Actually, it was thanks to this Mr. Yin Kong's reminder."

Takagi nodded in agreement from the side, his tone full of amazement.

"That's right. The moment you started asking about the suspect, Yin Kong had already noticed something was wrong with Mr. Treasure."

Inspector Megure looked at the unfamiliar-faced Yin Kong in surprise and asked excitedly,

"Could it be that Mr. Yin Kong is also a detective?"

Though Kudo Shinichi was impressive, he certainly would not mind getting to know a few more famous detectives.

There could never be too many useful tools, could there?

Kudo Shinichi was immediately interested as well, though there was a trace of unwillingness on his face.

No matter what, the mere fact that someone had found the culprit before him was enough to leave this proud high school detective stewing over it.

Although Yin Kong seemed to have gotten involved in the case earlier than he had, regardless of the reason, he had still beaten him to it.

Yin Kong naturally noticed Kudo Shinichi's undisguised scrutinizing gaze, but he did not care. He simply took out a business card and handed it to everyone.

"All-Purpose Agency [Cunning Rabbit House]?"

Ran tilted her head, looking curiously at the business card in Kudo Shinichi's hand, somewhat surprised.

Yin Kong smiled faintly and introduced himself.

"That's right. Our Cunning Rabbit House takes on all kinds of commissions. We look forward to working with all of you more often."

Ran looked amazed and poked the childhood friend beside her with a finger.

"Shinichi, that sounds pretty interesting. It's the kind of profession that often shows up in manga."

Hearing Ran's praise, Kudo Shinichi naturally looked even more displeased.

He curled his lip and said instinctively,

"I don't think it's anything special. They're probably just trivial jobs like catching cats and dogs, right?"

Ran angrily punched her thoughtless childhood friend.

After all, that was not only rude, but seemed to have caught his father in the crossfire as well.

"It's fine. If anything, I actually welcome such easy commissions."

Yin Kong smiled, looking completely sincere.

In his experience, jobs involving cats and dogs were actually the easiest to trigger Daily Commissions.

In contrast, commissions private detectives most commonly encountered, such as catching cheating spouses or investigating affairs, were far more difficult.

Yin Kong did not think the system gave cats and dogs any special treatment. It was simply because, strictly speaking, those messy commissions already skirted the edge of crime.

Though in the game's story, the Traveler was practically wanted once in every nation they visited, Daily Commissions mostly involved helping local residents resolve all sorts of difficulties.

From that perspective, missing-person commissions should have had a higher chance of triggering tasks.

Unfortunately, his Cunning Rabbit House had only just started and had no reputation whatsoever.

Forget missing-person cases—even cat-and-dog-catching commissions were hard to come by. Sometimes, he could not even scrape together four Daily Commissions in a day.

If he could take on more cat-and-dog commissions, he would welcome them with both hands.

Yet his generosity only made Ran feel even more guilty.

Kudo Shinichi, however, raised an eyebrow and fell into thought.

Though he did indeed disdain commissions involving catching cats and dogs, that did not mean such jobs were truly easy.

After all, when clients came seeking help, the disappearance had most likely happened several days earlier.

Even Kudo Shinichi himself did not dare guarantee that he could solve such a commission.

So this Yin Kong was obviously just bragging.

Kudo Shinichi curled his lip. Just as he was about to expose the man's boastful claims, he noticed Ran's menacing stare at his side.

In the end, he wisely swallowed the mocking words on the tip of his tongue.

The Best Partner

In the end, Yin Kong still failed to get the prize money from the eating contest.

After all, Treasure Tsuruma, the owner, had already been hauled off to jail, so the contest naturally came to nothing.

Still, completing two Daily Commissions in one go was not much of a loss.

Compared to yen, Primogems were obviously more important.

Speaking of which, he really needed to find a "Miss Katherine" soon.

Otherwise, even if he completed four Daily Commissions, he could only receive the most basic rewards. Such waste was truly painful.

Embarrassingly enough, although he had been transported here for over two months, Yin Kong had only earned a little over a thousand Primogems in total—not even enough for a ten-pull.

However, considering there were no map-wide quests or treasure chests, no events or mail, and even otherworldly powers like cheat engines had been sealed away, that pace was actually understandable.

But what made Yin Kong especially helpless was that the results of his first nine single pulls had all been Three-Star Weapons. He had not even gotten a single character. His luck was unbelievably bad.

No matter what, though, in at most three days, he would gather enough Primogems for his tenth pull.

Thinking of this, Yin Kong could not help opening the wish screen.

[City of Lingshu Morning] [Bonds of the Time · Zhongli].

Without him noticing, the game's banner had already rotated to its fourth round.

Looking at this man, arguably the most reassuring man in all of Teyvat, Yin Kong sighed helplessly.

At his current rate, he should not even dream of obtaining these five-star characters for at least half a year. It was more realistic to set his sights on the four-star characters.

Of the three featured characters—Xinyan, Razor, and Chongyun—Yin Kong naturally favored Chongyun the most.

Whether as an exorcist or someone born with a pure-yang constitution, Chongyun would surely be of great use in this bizarre Tokyo where demons ran rampant.

Of course, there was still the possibility that even the guaranteed four-star pull would produce nothing but a weapon—

Yin Kong shook his head, closed the wish screen, and decided not to think about such a cruel future for the moment.

Suddenly, his eyes lit up as he spotted a white glimmer on a vending machine by the roadside.

In the game, these fixed glimmers were called Investigation Points. Players could investigate them to obtain a small amount of Mora.

Some Investigation Points could also yield weapons and artifacts below two stars—commonly known as fodder.

But clearly, Investigation Points in reality could not have fixed locations and refresh on schedule like they did in the game.

So how many he encountered each day depended almost entirely on luck.

[Mora ×300]

Yin Kong was not surprised by this result.

After all, over the past two months, he had only obtained seven weapons through this method in total.

As for artifacts, he had not even seen a trace of one.

However, Yin Kong did not leave immediately. Instead, he began carefully searching the surrounding area.

Sure enough, he soon found a Yukichi Fukuzawa beneath the Investigation Point, hidden in the shadow at the bottom of the vending machine.

"Not bad luck."

This time, Yin Kong was genuinely a little surprised.

Based on his experience, this sort of "windfall treasure" was usually only worth around a thousand yen.

A ten-thousand-yen bill was already equivalent to hitting the jackpot.

If there had not been an emergency food at home crying to be fed, simply searching the streets for Investigation Points would have been enough to maintain a basic living.

But thinking of emergency food, Yin Kong considered it for a moment before entering the department store nearby.

By the time he emerged from the building, he had two boxes of Coffee Jelly in his hands.

"Paimon, you're finally back!"

When Yin Kong opened the apartment door, just as expected, a white figure immediately pounced at him.

"All right, Paimon. Of course I wouldn't abandon you."

Clearly, in this world, the only one who would still call Yin Kong by that name was this little fellow.

Pinching Paimon's soft, squishy cheeks, Yin Kong finally relaxed completely.

"And I've told you many times already. My name is Yin Kong now. If you really can't get used to it, calling me Traveler is fine too..."

Paimon, you're finally back was the name Yin Kong had given himself in the game.

In the game, that ID was not particularly strange. It was even relatively normal compared to some.

But when Paimon seriously called him that, Yin Kong could not help feeling embarrassed.

"Sorry, but I've called you that for so many years. It's normal that I can't change it right away—wow, Coffee Jelly!"

Before she even finished speaking, Paimon's attention had been completely captured by the sweets, and her eyes turned into stars.

Yin Kong gently shook his head, an indulgent smile unconsciously appearing on his face.

After impatiently tearing open the packaging, Paimon did not completely lose herself in it. She still remembered to give half to Yin Kong.

"Traveler, this is for you."

"Mm. Should I say thank you?"

"Hehehe, don't be so stingy. What's the difference between yours and mine?"

While enjoying the sweets, Paimon asked about the daytime contest with a longing expression.

"By the way, Traveler, was the ramen in this world good? How did it compare with the one on Varka's side?"

Yin Kong shook his head.

"The taste was actually pretty good, but there were monsters everywhere, so I had no appetite at all. And there was even a murder."

After hearing Yin Kong's brief account of his day, Paimon sighed with emotion.

"Sure enough, selfish bad guys like that really are everywhere."

But after lamenting for a moment, she realized something.

"Wait, doesn't that mean the time I'm [sealed] here is getting even longer? I don't want that!"

The [sealing] Paimon spoke of did not actually exist.

In truth, Yin Kong could not possibly imprison his best partner. If she wanted to, she could fly out of this tiny apartment at any time.

It was only because of safety concerns that Yin Kong had chosen to have this little fellow stay here temporarily.

After all, this was not Teyvat. If a talkative little fairy like Paimon were exposed to the public eye, who knew what a huge sensation she would cause?

Of course, that alone would not have been enough. The real problem was the monsters that lurked everywhere.

Paimon had suddenly appeared after Yin Kong placed the only Teleport Waypoint he currently possessed.

In her memories, she had merely been teleporting alongside the Traveler as usual when she suddenly arrived in this world.

And like Yin Kong, Paimon could see those terrifying monsters.

Perhaps because Teleport Waypoints possessed the power to dispel darkness in the game, once Yin Kong placed and activated the waypoint in the apartment, the demons and monsters gradually left the area.