From a Conan-Science Perspective, First Rule Out the Police's Plan

Conan doesn't usually call him unless there's a case, and he only calls after a case has occurred to tell him to come and collect the mission reward.

If you cooperate with Conan a little at the crime scene, you can get a fresh mission reward.

Jiang Hang naturally wouldn't let such an easy task and reward go to waste.

Without saying a word, he answered the phone.

As expected, Shinigami Elementary Schooler is still Shinigami Elementary Schooler. Jiang Hang encountered a serial murder case in Osaka these past few days, Conan kept a low profile for a few days. But today, as soon as Jiang Hang returned to Tokyo, he pulled off a big stunt.

"Have you gone back to Tokyo?" Conan asked Jiang Hang this question as soon as they came up, his tone sounding somewhat anxious.

Jiang Hang had only told Conan that they would spend two days in Osaka and then come back. After that, there was nothing for them to exchange information about immediately, so they naturally didn't contact each other again.

Because of the police's deliberate cover-up, Conan probably doesn't even know about the serial murders happening in Osaka yet.

"I just got back at noon today, and I'm just at my office now. Why is it so noisy over there? Where are you right now?" Jiang Hang asked curiously as he listened to the cheers coming from the other end of the phone.

"I'm at the National Stadium right now. If you don't have anything urgent to do, come over right away. It's a matter of life and death!"

Conan quickly explained the situation to Jiang Hang, who was quite taken aback.

In short, today is the J1 League, Japan's biggest football league, and it's a crucial match that will determine this year's league champion. Conan has secured several good seats in this match, which could potentially clinch the league title early, because he previously helped a key player on one of the teams.

Then Conan took the Detective Boys kids to watch a ball game after school this afternoon.

Just minutes into the game, Conan discovered that a spare soccer ball in the stands had been shot and destroyed by a pistol.

"The staff at the scene didn't believe me, so I called you for help after I found the bullet fragments."

If Conan had Ran and Kogoro Mouri by his side, he probably wouldn't be calling right now.

However, Kogoro Mouri wasn't interested in the ball game, Ran didn't come either because of her club activities.

Aside from calling Inspector Megure, Conan can only ask Jiang Hang for help now.

Compared to going directly to Inspector Megure, it's obviously more reliable to go to Jiang Hang first.

After hearing Conan's description, it's clear that this case is indeed quite tricky.

According to him, there are at least 50,000 to 60,000 people in the National Stadium now. If the murderer is a serial killer, then all 50,000 spectators in the stadium will become the murderer's hostages!

If the armed assailant was not acting alone but in a group, the situation would only be worse.

Based on the current situation, this is highly likely.

"Wait for me for fifteen minutes, I'll be right there," Jiang Hang said, then whistled after hanging up the phone, preparing to head off to work with Altair.

With a venue that can hold more than 50,000 people, if he were to use Eagle Eye to scan through everyone one by one, who knows how long it would take to find the real culprit. In this situation, having the extremely intelligent Altair do the initial screening would definitely be much more efficient than him directly using Eagle Eye to eliminate possibilities.

On the way, Jiang Hang didn't forget to take a moment to call Inspector Megure and explain Conan and the others' discovery.

Who knew that Inspector Megure was also on his way to the stadium?

Just moments ago, the director of the live football broadcast on Nichuri TV received a threatening phone call demanding that they prepare 50 million yen in cash immediately, or they would indiscriminately shoot at the spectators inside the football stadium.

This potentially dangerous act was reported to the police by the Nichuri TV, and was naturally handed over to Inspector Megure, the Investigation Division One, to handle immediately.

"Conan and his friends were at the scene, and they were the first witnesses to the criminal shooting the soccer ball," Inspector Megure thought, never expecting such a coincidence.

Inspector Megure has dealt with the Detective Boys several times now, and he's always had a headache dealing with these kids who never listen to reason and only stay quiet for a few days before starting to cause trouble all over the streets again.

But it cannot be denied that these kids, despite their mischief, often provide the police with important information at crime scenes.

Especially Conan Edogawa Shinichi Kudo looks somewhat similar to Shinichi Kudo.

He lives at the Mouri Detective Agency and then becomes Jiang Hang's apprentice. When he grows up, he will probably become a famous detective like Shinichi Kudo.

Just now, Inspector Megure obtained a lot of information that they didn't know before from Jiang Hang's description of Conan.

There are at least two people involved in each prisoner's case: one is responsible for observing from a distance, and the other is responsible for firing the gun.

Secondly, according to Conan's analysis, the bullets used by the criminal were Russian-made 7.62 caliber bullets. He could even roughly determine what type of handgun the criminal used based on the common handgun models used in Japan arms smuggling, the angle at which the handgun bullets entered the ground, and the depth of the bullets embedded in the rubber track. He estimated that the handgun was about 40 to 50 meters away from Conan and the others to the right, and that a silencer was used to avoid detection.

Otherwise, no matter how loud the cheers are from tens of thousands of people in the stadium, if there is no silencer, the people around the perpetrator will always react when the gunshot is fired.

"What exactly are you and Mori teaching Conan all this time..." Inspector Megure couldn't help but think to himself as he listened to Jiang Hang's words.

Can these things really be taught to a child who has just started elementary school?

Inspector Megure is in his forties and has been a detective for over twenty years. Even he wouldn't dare say he could analyze a handgun's specific model just by looking at the bullets.

Inspector Megure had initially thought it might be a prank, but now that Conan and Jiang Hang had stepped forward to prove it wasn't a joke, his expression turned serious.

"Anyway, we'll be at the stadium soon. I'll contact the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department now and ask them to send reinforcements as soon as possible. Let's meet at the broadcast van at the back gate of the stadium."

By the time Jiang Hang arrived at the stadium in his AE86, the first half of the football match had already been going on for thirty minutes.

Inspector Megure arrived a few minutes earlier than him and was now outside the broadcast van questioning the director about the details of the extortion call made by the criminal.

As Jiang Hang approached, Inspector Megure greeted him warmly. To Jiang Hang's surprise, the director from Nichuri TV also recognized him and looked at him with a look of savior when he saw him getting closer.

"Mr. Jiang Hang, I didn't expect you to come here. I still vividly remember how you solved that murder case on TV last time. I'm sure you can find the identity of that armed criminal for us this time too!"

Jiang Hang naturally couldn't make a promise right away. He first nodded to Inspector Megure: "Inspector Megure, please continue with your questioning. I'll just listen from the side."

Then he looked at the director and said, "Inspector Megure is an extremely experienced officer. If you want to resolve this case as quickly as possible, you should make sure you don't miss any details when Inspector Megure questions you."

With that, he told Altair to go up to the stadium and look for suspicious targets, while he stood next to Inspector Megure and listened carefully as the director recounted the details of the extortion call to them.

Chapter 398: Chapter 394: From Ke Xue's perspective, the first step is to rule out the police's plan.

"I was adjusting the camera lens as usual when someone suddenly called me and said that I would regret it if I didn't listen carefully."

"Then, at that person's instruction, I adjusted an empty camera lens to focus on the stands in front of me, and I saw the football outside the field being shot and blown up by a handgun. Then they started threatening me, demanding that I do what they wanted..."

As the director recounted in detail the phone call he received from the criminals and their warnings, along with Conan's description, quite a few things can be deduced:

There are at least two criminals, one of whom should be observing from directly opposite Conan and his friends' location, so that they can accurately determine what is happening in Conan's direction.

The other person fired a warning shot at a soccer ball that had flown out of play, using a Russian-made 7.62mm Tokarev pistol bullet, not far from Conan and his friends.

Although the man who called did not use a voice changer, he deliberately lowered his voice, so you could only tell that he was a man.

Judging from their choice to call the broadcast director of Nichuri TV to extort 50 million yen instead of asking the management of the two teams on the field, it is very likely that the perpetrators had a grudge against Nichuri TV in the past.

Of course, in addition to these, the assailant also clearly mentioned on the phone that the match was not allowed to be stopped, and that if the match was stopped or there were signs of evacuating the audience, they would open fire indiscriminately on the scene.

Neither Nichuri TV nor Inspector Megure would take that risk.

The most anxious people right now are the executives at Nichuri TV.

After all, the Nichuri TV had just recently been the site of a murder case. They had managed to minimize negative reviews by guiding public opinion to focus attention on Jiang Hang, the famous detective who easily solved the case at the scene.

If another indiscriminate shooting were to occur during a live broadcast, and the perpetrators were targeting Nichuri TV, and if Nichuri TV's rivals were to steer public opinion in that direction, not only would the employees be affected, but even the top management of Nichuri TV would likely have to undergo a major reshuffle.

Therefore, when they heard that the criminals' demand was to receive 50 million yen during halftime, the executives of Nichuri TV did not hesitate to transfer 50 million yen from the company's account, which is now being delivered at top speed.

"Okay, our police reinforcements will be here soon. When the criminals call again to collect the money, we'll try to find the criminal's whereabouts then, and then we'll catch them all in one fell swoop during the transaction!"

After making his decision, Inspector Megure looked at Jiang Hang with a questioning expression. "Brother Jiang Hang, do you have any thoughts?"

Jiang Hang thought for a moment, then shook his head. "I haven't been inside the stadium yet, so I don't know what it's like inside. I plan to go to the highest point of the stadium now and take a look. You can contact me again when the thugs call."

"There are at least two criminals, and it is not yet clear how many guns they have. You must be cautious during the investigation and absolutely do not alert them."

Inspector Megure certainly acknowledged Jiang Hang's abilities; keeping Jiang Hang here to command would only limit his capabilities.

Jiang Hang's idea was also very simple.

He hasn't met Conan yet. If Conan has already discovered the culprit's whereabouts, then solving this case will be much easier.

Using Altair's eyes, which were hovering above the court, Jiang Hang quickly filtered out the overwhelming gray light on the court, and then found Conan and his group's current location among the few blue lights and the even rarer red lights, which were found only once in hundreds or even thousands of people.

Of course, Jiang Hang also marked the locations of the other dozens of people who were marked in red in Eagle Vision, preparing to start investigating these people if he couldn't get any useful clues from Conan.

Conan is currently searching for suspicious individuals in the stands, while the Detective Boys members are scattered throughout the stadium in Jiang Hang's sight. It's obvious that these kids are secretly plotting to find the culprit before the police and prove their Detective Boys skills to the police.

Thinking of this, Jiang Hang silently walked behind Conan and then smacked Conan on the head.

"Ouch!" Conan cried out and turned around to find that the person who had done it was Jiang Hang. He immediately bared his teeth at Jiang Hang and said, "You were really slow."

He didn't bother asking Jiang Hang how he found him in a stadium of 56,000 people, since Jiang Hang had already demonstrated his almost microscopic level of abnormal observation skills to him far too many times.

"I contacted Inspector Megure on the way, and it turned out that he had received a call from the TV station before you called me, so I just went with Inspector Megure to the broadcast van outside the stadium to inquire about the specific situation."

Jiang Hang gave a brief explanation, and then complained to Conan.

"But you Detective Boys are really going all out! You know perfectly well that the criminal has a gun, yet you still dare to run around the entire court. Aren't you afraid the criminal will attack you?"

Listening to Jiang Hang's complaints, Conan's expression was equally helpless. "Do you think I don't want to stop them? But you know the personalities of those guys. You can control them, but I can't. Even if they pretend to be obedient on the surface, they'll secretly start acting on their own behind the scenes. Rather than that, it's better to let them investigate in a safer place as much as possible."

Jiang Hang's lips twitched.

Conan wasn't wrong; those kids in the Detective Boys did indeed have that kind of audacious personality. The more they were forbidden from doing something, the more enthusiastically they would do it.

According to Conan's judgment, one of the criminals was at most 40 or 50 meters away from them when he fired the gun, while the other criminal was opposite them. Under such circumstances, the investigation directions that Conan arranged for the reckless teenagers in the Detective Boys were all on the side of the stadium, and in a position far away from the front stands. In addition, with the detective badges that could be used to communicate with each other, there was no need to worry about them getting lost in the stadium.

It seems that Conan, having been a child for so long, has gradually learned how to deal with these mischievous kids.

After complaining about the bratty kid, Jiang Hang naturally remembered his main purpose for coming, and immediately exchanged information with Conan.

With such a large football field and only a few clues, finding the two criminals among 50,000 people is indeed a pipe dream.

Although Conan had tried his best to search for the shooter around him, so much time had passed that the assailant had probably already left the area.

"I just got back from Osaka and haven't even had a chance to rest yet, and you've already given me a problem," Jiang Hang sighed softly, hearing that Conan still had no clue.

If Conan can't be relied upon for the time being, then it seems that Inspector Megure's method of having all the plainclothes police officers take their positions in advance and search the entire stadium for suspicious persons when the criminals call is clumsy, but it is the only effective way.

After all, the criminal will definitely continue to contact Nichuri TV. At that time, as long as the police count the number of people making and receiving calls in their area of responsibility and investigate them one by one, the criminal's identity will naturally be exposed.

But can this method really identify the criminals?

Jiang Hang questioned this.

It wasn't that Jiang Hang doubted Inspector Megure and the police officers from the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department's abilities, but rather that, according to convention, cases involving Conan shouldn't be resolved by the police so easily.

In a world filled with detectives and phantom thieves, it's normal for cases to occur where detectives work.

But if a case happens around a detective, and the detective ends up being overshadowed by the police before he can do anything, such a plot might get readers sending him death threats.

Therefore, Jiang Hang simply took this as a starting point and thought about it from the opposite perspective—it would be best if the police could really locate the criminal using their methods, but if the police still couldn't find the criminal, then it wouldn't hurt to consider whether the criminal had some special way of evading the police search.

"So, if I were a criminal, what position would I be in that the police, with such a large-scale reconnaissance and observation operation, still wouldn't be able to confirm my identity and location?" Jiang Hang muttered to himself, then looked up at the sky.

The sky above the stadium was clear, Altair was patrolling from above, so there was no possibility that the perpetrators were using drones to observe the scene.

He slowly lowered his gaze to the audience seats.

With less than ten minutes left in the first half of the game, including stoppage time, Jiang Hang would definitely not have enough time to check each of the targets glowing red in the Eagle Eye view.

Since he had chosen to exclude the direction of the Japan police investigation, Jiang Hang stopped worrying about the targets in the stands and instead focused his attention on the stadium below the stands and the rubber track around it.

"Right now, besides the people involved in the football league, the rest of the people on the field are probably all staff from the Nichuri TV..." Jiang Hang muttered to himself, when suddenly his eyelid twitched.

In their previous analysis, the perpetrator chose to call Nichuri TV to make threats, possibly because the perpetrator had a grudge against Nichuri TV.

However, if we look at it from another angle, it seems equally plausible that the perpetrators were employees of Nichuri TV who, dissatisfied with their work and after learning about the recent situation at Nichuri TV, decided to extort a large sum of money from the Nichuri TV.

Most importantly, all the spectators' attention is now focused on the two teams locked in fierce competition on the field, while the police are focused on the stands. However, the staff on the rubber track are required to wear headsets at all times, so even if they look around, they won't attract anyone's attention.

With that in mind, Jiang Hang immediately used Conan and the others' original viewing position as the starting point and began searching for suspicious staff members around the stadium.

When the target range is narrowed down to this extent, then there are very few suspects left.

Looking at the faint red light in his eyes, Jiang Hang's lips curled up slightly.

Although he doesn't have enough evidence to prove the other party is the criminal, it would be easy to confirm just one person.

As for the other criminals...

Jiang Hang had just thought of this when Inspector Megure called him at just the right time.

"Brother Jiang Hang, that thug just called the TV station again, demanding that 50 million be placed at the entrance of Gate 18. According to the plainclothes police, during the thug's call, less than ten people in the entire stadium were using their cell phones at the same time. We are currently dispatching police to keep an eye on those people. Do you want to come over to Gate 18 and stake out the other thug?"

Jiang Hang looked at the red figure in his sight, then shook his head at Inspector Megure: "I've also made a discovery here, and I need to go over and confirm it now. I'll leave Gate 18 to you."

Inspector Megure knew that there might be more than two criminals, and that Jiang Hang might have discovered other accomplices. After exchanging a few words of caution, Inspector Megure hung up the phone and went to assign tasks to his subordinates.

After Jiang Hang put away his phone, the first thing he faced was Conan staring at him with wide eyes.

Looking at Conan's curious expression, Jiang Hang gave Conan two choices. "The criminals demand that 50 million be left at the entrance of number 18. If you're worried that the police can't handle the criminals who come to collect the money, you can go over there now."

However, Conan shook his head without hesitation.

There are probably plainclothes police officers all over there right now. If the criminals can still run away with the money under these circumstances, then all those police officers might as well resign and apologize.