No, judging by what his assistant meant, had he noticed what was happening inside while he was picking the lock?
Conan's little head instantly pieced together a possibility.
A normal person wouldn't pick a lock just because of a rumor.
And someone like Jiang Hang—considering the sharp nose he had shown during the Maple Gold Coin Case—didn't seem like the kind of man who would do something like that on impulse.
So was it possible that after Jiang Hang learned about the rumor of the walking armor in the museum, he had also obtained some other crucial information from somewhere, deduced that some sort of case might occur at the museum, and come here to investigate? That was why he had been willing to pick the lock just to get inside this closed exhibit hall.
It was just that Jiang Hang had still been one step too late and failed to stop the murder.
If his guess was correct...
Conan looked at Jiang Hang, whose expression remained perfectly normal.
Perhaps this was a man whose way of doing things was completely different from any detective Conan had met before.
The Uses of the Meditation Method
Jiang Hang had no idea what Conan had imagined in that little head of his.
If he had known, he could only have said that Conan really had some skill. The guess he had reasoned out actually had a tiny bit of connection to the truth.
It was just that Conan had thought too highly of him.
He did know that a case would happen here, but he had not deduced it. It was merely an impression from before he crossed over, and later, he had relied on Eagle Eye.
Anyone else with those things could have done the same, or even better.
But Jiang Hang had just remembered something else.
"By the way, I heard around the neighborhood that your mother, Miss Mouri, seems to be a very capable lawyer?"
He had suddenly remembered that Ran's mother, Eri Kisaki, was a famous lawyer. Having watched so much Conan and its movies on and off, Jiang Hang's impression of her was that she was an incredibly badass elite attorney. He did indeed have something he wanted her help with.
"My mother... She is indeed a lawyer. Mr. Jiang Hang, do you have some legal matter you need to consult her about?" Ran was somewhat curious why Jiang Hang had learned about her mother through people in the neighborhood, but it was not exactly a secret. Her mother was a lawyer and dealt with all sorts of people.
Still, Ran did not ask further. Once she saw that Jiang Hang really wanted to consult a lawyer, she quickly gave him the office number for her mother's firm.
"You've truly helped me out immensely. Thank you so much. Well then, I still need to make a trip to the police station, so I'll be going now." Having gotten what he needed, Jiang Hang thanked Ran properly. Before leaving, he ruthlessly messed up Conan's hair again.
"Conan, next time you get the chance, remember to bring those friends of yours to my office. I still haven't treated you to the eel rice I promised last time."
I have absolutely no interest in eel rice, okay...? Only a brat like Genta would get excited over something like that.
Conan thought helplessly, but then another thought occurred to him. Perhaps this was an opportunity. If he could observe the man from closer up, maybe he would be able to figure out what kind of person Jiang Hang really was.
Looks like I'll have to make use of Genta and the others. But they'll get to eat the eel rice they've been talking about for days, so they probably won't blame me, right?
Thinking that, Conan decided to put a visit to Jiang Hang's office on his near-term schedule.
Since he had to go to the police station again to give a statement, Jiang Hang could only leave his AE86 in the museum parking lot for now. Besides, even if he did not need to give a statement, he still felt it would be best not to let Koharu Yoshino touch a steering wheel in her current state.
He bought Koharu Yoshino a bottle of milk and a small bag of bread nearby. She had probably thrown up everything she had eaten that day, and the statement would likely take several hours. Before dinner, it would be better for her to eat some bread and fill her stomach a little.
But Koharu Yoshino truly had no appetite. After drinking a little milk, she could not eat anything else.
"How are you feeling now, Koharu?" Jiang Hang asked as he looked at Koharu Yoshino holding her milk with a somewhat dazed expression.
"I feel... kind of strange," Koharu Yoshino answered honestly.
She seemed to recall the sight of that blood-soaked corpse, and another wave of nausea rose within her.
But there was nothing left in her stomach to throw up. She hurriedly opened the car window and breathed in the fresh air outside, which made her feel much better.
"Sorry. This is the first time I've... seen something like that. I'm not used to it."
"That's normal. You're a girl, after all. It's not strange for you to have less tolerance for scenes like that." Jiang Hang did not say anything as discouraging as, "You'll get used to it after throwing up enough."
He glanced at the young officer driving in front. "Officer Takagi, when you first saw a corpse, you probably felt like throwing up too, right?"
At Jiang Hang's question, the officer driving in front glanced at Koharu Yoshino through the rearview mirror.
He was Takagi Wataru, another officer who often appeared with Inspector Megure in the anime, and someone who later frequently explained case details to Conan.
By the later stages of Conan, even the police had gotten used to Conan wandering all over crime scenes. Conan asked questions, and they answered them. Yet Kogoro Mouri still acted like he knew nothing, and Conan still refused to tell Ran his true identity.
After Conan had been forcibly turned from a short-to-medium-length manga into a massive long-running series, even the author could only keep pretending not to notice these unresolved issues.
Jiang Hang did not have a particularly deep impression of Takagi Wataru, but he remembered that the guy began dating a policewoman later on. He was practically half a winner in life.
"Even veteran officers who have been on the job for years can't handle it sometimes. We're not forensic examiners who deal with corpses every day. Feeling nauseous is perfectly normal. You'll get used to it." Takagi Wataru chuckled, then looked at Koharu Yoshino.
"Though girls might have nightmares for the first few days. You'll be fine after that. Still, I warned you back then. I didn't expect you to follow us in anyway."
Because Jiang Hang had stayed at the crime scene talking with Director Ochiai and had not come out, Koharu Yoshino, worried about Jiang Hang's safety, had followed the police inside after they arrived. Then she had ended up like this.
Who could have guessed it would look like that in there...? Koharu Yoshino thought helplessly. Besides, Jiang Hang had been confronting the murderer inside by himself. While she waited outside, she had been terrified too. All she could think about was what she would do if the murderer attacked Jiang Hang as well.
"I feel like I'll never forget what I saw there for the rest of my life..."
"It's all right. I know a method that can help you sleep well. I'll teach it to you later. Remember to use it when you go to bed tonight. Usually, you'll fall asleep quickly."
Naturally, Jiang Hang was talking about the Meditation Method. In the game, it was a basic skill used to switch between day and night. In reality, its effects were equally astonishing.
Ever since mastering the Meditation Method, Jiang Hang could lie down whenever he wanted to sleep, use it, and fall asleep in less than a minute. His sleep quality was extremely high, and using it consistently even offered certain health benefits.
It could not compare to Nobita's ability to fall asleep the moment his head touched a pillow, but in real life, it was still a god-tier everyday skill.
After all, everyone needed sleep. If it could guarantee sleep quality, plenty of wealthy people who needed sleeping pills to fall asleep would probably be willing to pay a huge price for the method.
Although the complete Meditation Method was rather complicated, there was also a simplified version. Its effects were much worse, but it was easy to practice and happened to be suitable for teaching Koharu Yoshino and the others.
"There's such a miraculous method? Mr. Jiang Hang, if you have the time, could you teach me too?" Before Koharu Yoshino could say anything, Takagi Wataru became interested in what Jiang Hang had mentioned.
The simplified Meditation Method was not some supernatural thing like Ripple Breathing. It was simply a sleep aid involving several positions and special breathing formulas. Anyone could try it, and there was no problem teaching it to others. Takagi Wataru was someone Jiang Hang found agreeable. He had ridden in the man's car several times while going to the station to give statements, and he might have to ride in it often in the future. Teaching him was fine.
"Has your sleep quality been poor lately, Officer Takagi?"
"Not really. It's just that sometimes I have to work overtime until dawn, then get up early the next morning to stay busy. So I might be a little sleep-deprived."
"All right. After we finish giving our statements, I'll explain it to you both in detail."
What Even Is 2D?
"Host has solved a Four-Star Case. Case-solving reward has been issued. Please collect it."
After finishing his statement and teaching the simplified Meditation Method to Koharu Yoshino and Takagi Wataru, Jiang Hang enjoyed a hearty barbecue meal at a grill restaurant near the police station. Then he personally took Koharu Yoshino, who still had little appetite, home.
In truth, Koharu Yoshino's mental state had already stabilized considerably after Jiang Hang and several officers comforted her. Her lack of appetite was only a minor issue.
What mattered more was how Koharu Yoshino handled things herself afterward. In the future, Shizuka Sakaki would surely encounter situations like this as well. If they could never accept or adapt to them, then they could only leave the office.
Still, Jiang Hang had quite a bit of confidence in them. The girls in youth anime were not much weaker mentally than the heroines of morning dramas. Even when facing setbacks, they always recovered quickly, overcame their hardships, and grew stronger.
Maybe when Koharu Yoshino tried to sleep that night and realized she was still hungry, she would naturally overcome her nausea and start turning her house upside down in search of something to eat.
After wishing Koharu Yoshino good night, Jiang Hang watched her head upstairs before checking the rewards from this case.
The Maple Gold Coin Case, worth six hundred million yen, and the five-hundred-million-yen insurance fraud case had both been rated three stars. He had not expected the Art Museum Murder Case to be rated four stars. He had no idea how the system judged these things.
"Case star ratings do not increase based on monetary amount. They are determined through a comprehensive evaluation of the criminal's method, the case difficulty, and the overall impact of the case. Please take note, Host."
"So the Maple Gold Coin Case received its rating because the Mafia robbed a vault and caused a huge impact, while the five-hundred-million-yen insurance fraud case was because of the murderer's method?"
Based on the ratings for the various cases and commissions over the past week, Jiang Hang had more or less figured out the general evaluation standards for cases and commissions.
That excluded unrated daily commissions, such as helping an elderly woman cross the road or taking a child to the hospital.
When someone asked him to help find a lost item, the commission usually had average impact and was not very difficult. They were generally rated between one and two stars, with rewards ranging from two million to ten million yen. Of course, if it involved a theft case connected to Kaito Kid, it would probably start at three stars.
As for missing-person commissions, they generally started at two stars. If the missing person happened to be the heir of some conglomerate or a political official, even a Five-Star Commission would not be surprising.
Any case involving murder, meanwhile, started at no lower than three stars.
In this Art Museum Murder Case, Director Ochiai's murder method was more "clever" than Abe Yutaka's way of manufacturing an alibi. The victim was also the president of a major company, and the crime scene was a public place like an art museum, so the social impact was not small. That was probably why the system rated it four stars.
But rating cases based on the murder method and the difficulty of solving them... It really did not sound pleasant. Sure enough, he would probably feel better not knowing these things.
This reward once again included both money and a skill. So far, cases below three stars had basically only offered yen rewards, while only three-star cases and above came with skill rewards.
The monetary reward for a Four-Star Case was directly fifty million yen. Going by that, a Five-Star Case would reward over one hundred million yen.
Jiang Hang had curiously asked the system where this money came from, and the system answered that it exploited loopholes in this world to obtain it. The more profound details supposedly involved things like the world's origin, and the system assured him that he did not need to worry about the money's source. It would definitely be completely legal and legitimate.
Before any problem could find him, the system would help Jiang Hang resolve it.
After learning that, Jiang Hang realized that even though this system was a little unreliable, it still had the air of a superhuman civilization in this regard.
But the rigid and outdated system's thoughts were actually quite simple: How would this system understand such things? All this money is directly generated by the Yen Generation Plugin included in that 2D Patch Pack. Apparently, its original template came from some godly tycoon system, then a system that hung around 2D worlds modified it and packed it into the 2D Patch Pack.
Thinking about the 2D Patch Pack loaded into itself, the Legendary Assassin System felt like crying without tears. It had merely wanted to follow the younger systems and keep up with the trends. Who could have expected it to actually bring itself to this unregistered 2D world?
It had been in the system circle for nearly ten epochs, yet after this mess, it now had to cram 2D-related knowledge. Otherwise, it could not even understand what was going through its host's mind.
The problem was that those veteran 2D systems on the system forum kept opening their mouths with "nya nya nya," to the point that this system had nearly developed a program bug from seeing it so often over the past few days.
More importantly, it could not understand anything those systems said, just like the strange things that popped up in its host's head.
For example, things like "Winter Three Sprite," "Saint Megumi is the number one under heaven," and a whole wall of "the XXX leaping at your fingertips" left the Legendary Assassin System utterly baffled.
What exactly were those systems talking about? Was Winter Three Sprite a new Sprite flavor from that world? Weren't saints something from those primordial systems? How had that become connected to 2D? And that long string about your fingertips... Forget it. It did not dare comment on that one, afraid those systems would cross worlds to beat it up.
Even now, it still had not figured out what 2D even was. It could only envy those junior systems that were flourishing in other 2D worlds alongside their hosts.
Jiang Hang had no idea that his system was on the verge of being driven mad by the incomprehensible concept of "2D." He continued looking at the rewards besides the yen.
Poison Mastery (Advanced): Through the system's knowledge infusion and training in Virtual Space, you will become a Poison Master. So long as you wish it, you can formulate lethal poisons at any time from common items around you. At the same time, you will possess keener-than-normal judgment and perception when identifying poisons, giving you more options when choosing poisons for assassination.
Well then, Jiang Hang's first advanced skill had appeared. Unsurprisingly, it was still a standard assassin skill. The system remained as irresponsible as ever. At the very least, it could have made the skill description sound a little more presentable.
Even if everyone was slacking off, they should slack off properly. Was it really appropriate to write the word "assassination" so openly in the description?
Still, this skill was undeniably useful in many ways.
On the small scale, whenever Jiang Hang wanted to cook for himself in the future, he would not have to worry about accidentally combining foods in ways harmful to his health.
From a work perspective, Jiang Hang would surely encounter many cases involving poison murders in the future. Though he knew that the poison most frequently appearing in Conan and many other detective dramas was the legendary "potassium cyanide," if he encountered such a case, he could use this skill with Eagle Eye to quickly find where and what poison the murderer had administered. It could also prevent him from being accidentally taken down by poison someday.
But to fully master the skill, he still had to undergo special training in the Virtual Space provided by the system.
Thinking of the last time he had trained his fighting skills and been beaten up by Ezio Auditore for an entire night, Jiang Hang shuddered. Although injuries in Virtual Space would not appear on his real body, they had still left an indelible shadow on his once-innocent heart.
This time, if it was poison training, would he have to try every poison one by one?
Feeling uneasy, Jiang Hang returned to the office, took a shower, lay on his bed, and chose to enter Virtual Space.
I only posted it because I thought it was interesting. Everyone, please don't pay it any mind.
Do You Know How Many Times I Was Poisoned to Death Last Night?
The next day, the sun rose as usual.
Jiang Hang opened his eyes.
"Three hundred and five times." Jiang Hang struggled out of bed and complained to his system. His worries from the night before had come true. The so-called poison training really had consisted of placing dose after dose of poison before him and making him try them. These so-called poisons were basically various chemically manufactured products—solids, liquids, and gases. As long as it was poisonous, it counted as knowledge required for Poison Mastery.
"Do you know how I got through that night? I died a full three hundred and five times before passing the final Poison Master test."
And that was after the system had already infused the knowledge into his mind. Only after dying so many times had he finally been able to thoroughly integrate all the extra knowledge in his head.
Fortunately, time in Virtual Space did not synchronize with reality, and the system had weakened his perception of time within the Virtual Space. Otherwise, who knew how long it would have taken to fully master all that knowledge in the real world?
"This is a necessary process. Only in this way can the Host develop sufficient vigilance toward all kinds of poisons in the future. As an assa... detective, this is a necessary process. Nya, Host, do you understand?"
The moment the system said the word "nya," Jiang Hang and the system both fell silent.
"..." Even though it was still summer, Jiang Hang felt a cold wind blow across him.
"...Program error detected. Emergency repair commencing... Repair complete. Please continue using this system with confidence, Host. System maintenance compensation has been issued. Please collect it yourself."
Jiang Hang had already grown used to the system's unchanging, rigid answers and that classic slip of the tongue. But he had never expected his thick-browed, big-eyed Assassin System to start playing the "nya nya nya" routine too. It was practically killing him.
The feeling was enough to make Jiang Hang die of poisoning on the spot.
Compared to this toxic system, Jiang Hang, a newly minted Poison Master, could only admit defeat.
Still, jokes aside, he had to check the compensation the system used to shut him up.
"System maintenance compensation: one hundred million yen, one set of Legendary Hidden Blades, along with the Hidden Blade Proficiency skill (Advanced), and one Virtual Space Hidden Blade training session."
Before you continue