Another Film Studio to Recruit From? / The Blonde Woman in the Arcade

Because of his arrival, the crew had to find a new catering company to provide their lunch boxes. These lunch boxes were more than half more expensive than the previous ones, and the taste was naturally much better. I heard from the HR department that some of the employees who recently came to apply for jobs at Daibao Films were there specifically for the delicious lunch boxes.

While eating his lunchbox, Jiang Hang casually strolled around the film set area.

Even during meals, the production team was still quite busy discussing the upcoming filming plans to avoid any mistakes that could waste those expensive models due to some basic errors.

The people who remain at Daibao Films now all seem full of fighting spirit; those who just want to coast along won't survive here.

Because of the Industry Template from the system, as time goes by, the willing employees at Daibao Films will only become more and more excellent, while those who just want to coast along will not get any benefits. As long as Jiang Hang checks on these people every now and then to see if they have made any progress, he will know what they have been doing during this period.

Just as the crew members finished dinner and were preparing to start work, Sakura Himeshiro, whom they hadn't seen for a while, arrived on set.

Besides the security guards from their last meeting, a slightly disheveled middle-aged man was also by her side this time.

Seeing that Sakura Himeshiro probably wanted to talk to him, Jiang Hang greeted the director Daisuke Mikami, and then found a quiet spot to look at her.

Sakura Himeshiro shook her pipe and gestured to her underlings.

One of the henchmen let out a heavy snort.

Then Jiang Hang saw the middle-aged man, who looked a little disheveled, beg for mercy from him.

If Jiang Hang hadn't reacted quickly and stopped this guy, he might have been kneeling in front of him right then and there.

"Mr. Jiang Hang, please forgive me. I didn't know you also had your eye on that movie theater. If I had known earlier, I would never have done those things."

Hearing the middle-aged man talk about the movie theater incident, Jiang Hang suddenly remembered that he hadn't paid attention to the movie theater incident since he asked Sakura Himeshiro to investigate who the person who hired thugs to cause trouble at the movie theater was.

Almost a week has passed, and with the events of Infernal Affairs and Twilight Mansion in between, followed by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department consultant incident, Jiang Hang has not only forgotten that he has a movie theater waiting to be acquired, but he has also almost completely forgotten the man's name.

His memory was good; after a while, Jiang Hang finally remembered his name.

Harita Seiji, the owner of a third-rate real estate agency, wanted to acquire the cinema that Jiang Hang had his eye on at a low price, and then resell the land to other real estate developers at a higher price to make a profit from the difference.

Chapter 311: Chapter 309: Another photography studio can poach talent?

Judging from his current state, it seems that Sakura Himeshiro gave him a hard time after finding him.

As for what kind of suffering they had endured, Jiang Hang did not inquire, at least the other party appeared to be unharmed for the time being.

Ignoring Harita Seiji's pleas for mercy, Jiang Hang and Sakura Himeshiro walked to the other side and asked him what was going on.

"Didn't I ask you to help investigate him? How did it turn out like this?"

Sakura Himeshiro's attitude towards Jiang Hang was much better.

"I had someone investigate his past. This guy and his company have basically relied on shady dealings since they were established, such as extortion, blackmail, and framing. As long as there is money to be made, this guy will do anything."

"After learning that someone was investigating him, he ran away to another place. It took us a lot of effort to catch him. In order to prevent him from running away again, I used some special methods on him."

Although Jiang Hang already knew that Harita Seiji was no good person, he still found it strange to hear words like "lowlife, not presentable" coming from the mouth of Sakura Himeshiro, a genuine Mafia.

Clearly, Sakura Himeshiro had done thorough preparation before coming to see Jiang Hang, as she directly presented him with a series of irrefutable pieces of evidence.

Harita Seiji is in his forties, but he has been to prison several times, and each time the way he was imprisoned was different.

He has been convicted of crimes such as fraud, intentional assault, and indecent assault, and each time he spends several years or months in prison. After his release, he continues to try to make money.

The real estate closure company he now owns was established after his release from prison a few years ago, and it is currently doing quite well in terms of profitability.

After several experiences in prison, Harita Seiji has become much wiser.

He knew that some things were better left to others to do, and there was no need for him to do them personally. As long as the police had no evidence to prove that he had done them, he was safe.

In a sense, this guy going to prison can also be seen as going home.

Most of the time, Jiang Hang doesn't like to resolve things with violence. As a pacifist and a laid-back person, he prefers to let criminals turn themselves in or voluntarily confess their crimes.

But sometimes, for some people, the quickest solution is only violence.

After learning some things about what Harita Seiji had done from Sakura Himeshiro, he didn't feel too disgusted by Sakura Himeshiro's methods of forcing Harita Seiji.

This kind of person is difficult to reason with; he only becomes obedient in the face of a more powerful force.

Ultimately, Harita Seiji was just a decent thug, far inferior to a real Mafia.

He wasn't afraid of going to jail, but when facing real Mafia, he appeared timid and submissive.

Now that he's learned his lesson from Sakura Himeshiro, he probably won't be able to make any moves in the short term.

Jiang Hang had no interest in personally teaching this guy a lesson. After giving Harita Seiji a disgusted look, he waved to Sakura Himeshiro, telling her to take this eyesore away quickly.

"Are we just going to let him go so easily?" Sakura Himeshiro asked Jiang Hang.

"He's just an insignificant guy. There's no need to go to great lengths for him. Now that the matter is resolved, as long as that guy has any sense, he won't bother us again," Jiang Hang said.

Upon hearing Jiang Hang's words, Sakura Himeshiro's eyes flickered for a moment, then she nodded.

After receiving confirmation that he was safe and could leave, Harita Seiji couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief. He thanked Jiang Hang again and left without looking back.

"Thank you so much for your hard work this time," he said to Sakura Himeshiro.

Sakura Himeshiro didn't seem to care about the thanks.

She seems quite interested in filming Ultraman.

Jiang Hang led her around the storyline for a short while.

"Is this Daibao Films' new work? It looks like it would be very troublesome to film."

She was referring to the various precision models specially made for the filming of Ultraman.

In addition to the fighter jets of the search team where the protagonist is located, there are also miniature models of the port. The value of these models alone is in the hundreds of thousands of yen or even higher. Their purpose is to be destroyed by the monster during the subsequent filming.

This seemed like an extreme waste to Sakura Himeshiro.

Compared to Daisuke Mikami, who has maintained an extremely high reputation in the tokusatsu film industry for 10 years, Sakura Himeshiro is more like a standard businessman.

Just like the Great General series launched by Eito Studios in the past 5 years, it is a highly commercialized tokusatsu work that is very popular with the audience, and the related toys also sell quite well.

However, commercialization is driven by the desire to make more money, and Jiang Hang, who is not short of money, does not care about losses in this area. As long as he is happy, that's all that matters.

As for making money, we'll just have to see how it goes. Of course, it would be best if we could make money, but it's okay if we can't.

"That's how it is with giant-scale tokusatsu. If the production cost goes down, the viewing experience for the audience also goes down," Jiang Hang said. "Actually, the main problem affecting the filming schedule is prop production. Although we have recruited a lot of new prop team members, the speed is still a bit slow."

Upon hearing Jiang Hang's words, Sakura Himeshiro seemed to remember something. "If you're short of props people, I do know someone at another photography studio. They have five or six people in their props team, but that studio doesn't shoot superhero tokusatsu; they shoot period dramas. If you don't mind, I can try to poach them."

Hearing the name of a new photography studio from Sakura Himeshiro, Jiang Hang instinctively wanted to ask if he wanted to buy from that studio.

As if she could see through Jiang Hang's thoughts, Sakura Himeshiro shook her head at him. "Although the photography studio is going to close, the owner of the land is not going to sell the house for the time being, but is going to convert the photography studio into a supermarket."

Sakura Himeshiro briefly explained the situation of that photography studio. It was an old-established studio that was much older than Eito Studios. It had been established for decades and had a glorious period. However, as period dramas gradually faded from the historical stage, such photography studios naturally had no choice but to close down.

Jiang Hang was a little disappointed when he heard that he couldn't buy the film studio, but when he heard about turning the film studio into a supermarket, Jiang Hang immediately thought of something. Although he couldn't buy the film studio, he could find a way to directly bring over the entire crew of that film studio!

Chapter 312: Chapter 310: The Blonde Woman in the Arcade

Tonight's Ultraman filming went very smoothly, with virtually no mistakes. The important parts were all done in one take, which saved Jiang Hang a lot of filming costs.

The next day, Jiang Hang took Ryūichi Naruhodō to the movie theater that he had previously set his sights on and wanted to sell, to discuss the specific acquisition details.

Perhaps it was because Jiang Hang had helped them solve a problem, or perhaps they had learned about Jiang Hang's background from Sakura Himeshiro. The cinema owner and staff were all quite enthusiastic towards Jiang Hang.

It didn't take long for Jiang Hang to acquire the cinema at a very favorable price.

However, since Jiang Hang plans to use this cinema as a base and headquarters for promoting tokusatsu and even animated films, it will need to undergo a period of renovation after being acquired to upgrade it to the level of a first-class cinema in all aspects.

Even if Jiang Hang has the money, it will probably still be several months before the cinema reopens.

As for the matter of poaching people from the photography studio that Sakura Himeshiro mentioned more than ten years ago, Jiang Hang told the people at Daibao Films and didn't inquire about it further.

Jiang Hang is now a boss, so he can leave things like poaching and recruiting employees to the head of the human resources department.

Anyway, Daibao Films is short-staffed right now. If a film studio is going to close down, he wouldn't mind poaching all the capable people from that studio.

Even if the staff digs too much, it doesn't matter, Jiang Hang still has plenty of things from his original world in his head.

Daibao Films and Television is filming Ultraman TV series and producing a new Gomera movie. In addition to the existing Great General series, Eito Studios can also start a few new tokusatsu series.

Besides the Masked Superman series, which has a similar name to the Kamen Rider series in this world but is quite different in content, the Super Sentai series and the Metal Hero series that he watched when he was a child could also be brought to this world.

For Jiang Hang, these can all be considered his interests.

Rather than dealing with the hassle of hiring people, Jiang Hang prefers to continue his detective work or take on small roles on set, like a bomb maker.

After discussing the acquisition of the movie theater, Jiang Hang continued to seek out suitable commissions in and around Beika City.

Jiang Hang can often be seen in places where commissions are easy to come by, such as convenience stores, supermarkets, Amusement Park, and arcades.

Jiang Hang's tasks were quite simple: helping lost children find their mothers, buying new balloons for children whose balloons had flown into the sky, and incidentally stopping some children from doing reckless things.

If you encounter a thief, he can simply grab him and take him to the security office or the nearest police station.

During holidays, you can get about ten of these types of commissions in a single morning, which means you can easily earn tens of millions a day.

However, because Jiang Hang often appears in these places without trying to hide it, the waiters and security guards in these places have become familiar with Jiang Hang.

Just like now, Jiang Hang didn't disguise himself and went directly to the vicinity of a newly opened arcade in Beika City, which is next to Beika Town. He was quickly recognized.

This arcade is considered a large-scale arcade in the surrounding towns, with many new game machines, ranging from traditional joystick games, motion-sensing games, simulation games, and even trendy VR games.

Jiang Hang had spent hundreds of thousands of yuan to get a membership card at this arcade to make his work easier.

Of course, it wasn't just this one arcade; Jiang Hang also got memberships at all the Amusement Park and supermarkets he frequented.

Compared to his spending, the money he earned from missions and commissions at this arcade was already in the tens of millions.

Jiang Hang felt that using such a small amount of money to build good relationships with the arcade owner and staff was an extremely worthwhile investment.

He had only been passing by and had no intention of coming over, but a system notification appeared just as he was passing by.

Generally, system notifications will only appear when there is a case nearby.

In most cases, this function is just a tool Jiang Hang uses to determine if there are thieves around. After all, he is not Conan, a beloved character in the world, and murder cases are not so easy to encounter.

He originally thought this was just a common theft, since it was common in arcades for people to secretly take some game tokens from others because they had run out of tokens.

However, stealing one or two game coins usually wouldn't trigger a system alert, Jiang Hang usually just didn't bother with such things.

But this time, he was stopped by a waiter who looked a little nervous standing outside the arcade as he approached.

Compared to her previous enthusiasm, this waiter now seemed to have found a savior upon seeing Jiang Hang.

"Mr. Jiang Hang, you've come at the right time. Um... the arcade is in big trouble!"

Because he was quite familiar with Jiang Hang, he knew Jiang Hang's identity as a famous detective and that Jiang Hang had a good relationship with the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department. If he got Jiang Hang's help, they might be able to solve the case quickly.

"Big trouble?"

Jiang Hang frowned slightly and asked the waiter, "What's wrong? Explain the situation to me."

Judging from his appearance, it seems that this is not just an ordinary theft case.

With the waiter's somewhat subtle explanation, Jiang Hang quickly figured out the situation inside the arcade.

About five minutes before Jiang Hang arrived, a man in the arcade died during a game.

The waiter was standing outside the arcade waiting for the police to arrive.

Looking at the noisy crowd in the arcade, Jiang Hang took out the consultant's badge issued to him by the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, which made the crime scene much quieter.

Upon entering the arcade, he immediately activated Eagle Eye.

However, as four important figures marked in red by Eagle Eye came into Jiang Hang's line of sight, the corner of his mouth twitched involuntarily.

Encountering Conan and his friends at the crime scene—is this a coincidence, a chance occurrence, or a highly probable event?

I just thought about the cases I've handled over the past few months. It seems like there are only two or three that have nothing to do with Conan.

The other cases were either solved with Conan, or he stole Conan's spotlight.

This time, it was Ran and Sonoko, the two best friends, who appeared in the arcade.

However, among the four red figures, Kogoro Mouri was not present; instead, there was a blonde woman of about twenty-seven or twenty-eight years old with a sexy figure.

Jiang Hang appeared holding the badge of a police intelligence advisor, which naturally attracted the attention of Conan, the Shinigami Elementary Schooler.

He ran straight to Jiang Hang's side, then quickly met Jiang Hang's gaze, as if asking Jiang Hang: How did you get here?

Jiang Hang squatted down and responded, "Don't make that strange face. Shouldn't I be the one asking the questions? I came to check because I noticed something was wrong here. What about you?"

Conan's expression changed slightly, and he forced an explanation. "It was Sonoko who insisted on dragging Ran to this arcade, so I came along. Who knew this would happen?"

Jiang Hang didn't care about Conan's explanation.