The Cursed Spider Mansion? / Who Doesn't Want to Be an Armchair Detective?

In addition, Jiang Hang changed his voice, which immediately stunned the people at the Nichuri TV, and they immediately agreed to Jiang Hang's request.

It's all about disguising yourself, isn't it? Many girls look completely different before and after removing their makeup, so it's not strange that Jiang Hang would disguise himself a little.

If they just perform this magic-like disguise skill on TV in front of the audience, wouldn't the ratings skyrocket?

So the matter of appearing on the show was quickly finalized.

After that, Jiang Hang tentatively inquired with the people Nichuri TV about the procedures for individuals to obtain a television station business license or to acquire a television station.

He definitely can't acquire the Nichuri TV; even becoming a shareholder wouldn't be that easy.

Although the total market value of Nichuri TV is estimated to be only around 10 billion yen, and it is not one of the five major private television stations in Japan, it is still considered the second core of the Japan television network.

If we were to compare the network of the five major television stations to gangs in a martial arts novel, then the five television stations would be the leaders of their respective gangs, and the Nichuri TV would be like the leader's wife in that gang.

If Jiang Hang were to try and steal her away, the Japan TV station would probably come after him with a knife on the spot.

However, while Nichuri TV is not doing well, other smaller TV stations are still fine.

After learning that Jiang Hang had the idea of starting his own television station, the people at Nichuri TV thought that Jiang Hang just had too much money to burn. However, they still owed Jiang Hang a lot of favors. Therefore, they told Jiang Hang about many small television stations that were not doing well and might go bankrupt or be transferred, and they were willing to act as a go-between for Jiang Hang.

Of course, this kind of thing should obviously be left to professionals.

In addition, a contract needed to be signed for the collaboration with Nichuri TV, so Jiang Hang immediately called over Chihiro Ayasato he hadn't seen for a while, to help out.

Hearing that Jiang Hang had already started considering acquiring the television station, Chihiro Ayasato, who had rushed over from her own office, couldn't help but gently rub her forehead.

Although this type of work accounts for the majority of a law firm's income compared to civil and criminal cases, Jiang Hang's impulsive spending habits are truly extravagant.

Jiang Hang has had her fill of spending money, but tonight she'll have to study the legal documents related to the acquisition of the TV station.

After finalizing the agreement for Jiang Hang to participate in the program, witnessing Jiang Hang's incredible disguise skills firsthand, and then telling Chihiro Ayasato about several TV stations they could contact, the people from Nichuri TV hurriedly left. Tonight, the police had already reported on the case, and Nichuri TV was currently very busy.

Jiang Hang's Jiang Hang was much easier, since he didn't need to deal with those TV stations.

Chihiro Ayasato will investigate the specifics of these TV stations for Jiang Hang in the next few days. Jiang Hang only needs to decide which TV station he prefers before proceeding with further negotiations.

After entrusting all these matters to Chihiro Ayasato, Jiang Hang leisurely went to the art museum to meet with Yusuke Sakata.

Yusuke Sakata seems to be living a relatively stable life at the art museum these days.

Having passed the Assassin's Potion test and gained a clearer understanding of his true thoughts within the illusion, Yusuke Sakata's mental state was now much better than before.

He is now working hard to master the art of disguise so that people won't realize he was once a criminal when he goes out in the future.

Jiang Hang chatted briefly with the other party, confirmed that there were no major problems with the other party's current living environment, and then carefully observed Yusuke Sakata's potential in the Industry Template.

Having witnessed the monstrous talents of the Miyano Sisters, whose entire pages were filled with advanced abilities, Jiang Hang couldn't help but sigh upon seeing Yusuke Sakata's talent, realizing that there truly are differences between people.

Most people have around 5-10 talents, and most of them are at the intermediate level. Having two or three advanced talents is considered quite good.

People with more than 15 talents are already extremely rare, and among those with more than 20 talents, only the Miyano Sisters have been personally confirmed by Jiang Hang.

Of course, Conan, Heiji Hattori protagonists in this world obviously possess a great deal of talent, but because they are not employees of Jiang Hang's businesses, Jiang Hang really cannot confirm how many talents they have.

Yusuke Sakata's talent wasn't actually as much as Miyano Shiho's; he just barely broke through the 20 mark, but his advanced talents were quite good.

Advanced Assassination Talent, Advanced Reconnaissance Talent, Advanced Driving Talent, Advanced Information Technology Talent, Advanced Disguise Talent...

If Yusuke Sakata can fully realize these talents, he may very well become a master assassin in the future.

After a moment's thought, Jiang Hang assigned the Advanced Disguise talent to Yusuke Sakata to speed up his mastery of disguise. Once the other's disguise skills reached the intermediate level, he would switch to the Assassin talent and use the Animus's ability to train Yusuke Sakata as an assassin.

After chatting with Yusuke Sakata for a while and confirming that everything was normal on his end, Jiang Hang left with peace of mind.

Back at his office, after feeding Altair, Jiang Hang unlocked the Bajiquan skill he had obtained last time, preparing to experience firsthand just how powerful this Bajiquan, whose entry-level difficulty was even higher than advanced fighting techniques, truly was.

Then Jiang Hang slept soundly for the first time in a long time, not waking up until almost noon the next day.

When Jiang Hang regained consciousness, the first thing he did was to curse loudly.

"Damn, this is way too difficult!"

Chapter 403: Chapter 399: The Cursed Spider Mansion?

It's not surprising that Jiang Hang made such a remark.

This was the first time that, even with the support of the training space, he had spent an entire night trying to add a skill to his character panel without success.

It's important to understand that training space and learning space are not the same thing.

The learning space is opened up by the system so that he can learn and master the abilities that the system did not provide at the time. The space has a focus aura provided by the system and will also provide him with relevant books. However, how to study is entirely up to him. It is like a highly efficient study room.

Jiang Hang had previously calculated that the speed at which he mastered a basic skill in the learning space was about 10 to 20 times that of ordinary people outside.

It can be said that he can achieve the same effect as a year of study in reality by studying in the learning space for half a month.

The learning space sounds impressive, but it's actually quite inferior to the training space.

The training space is a special space that Jiang Hang can only enter when he masters the skills rewarded by the system. Its auxiliary effects in improving attention, enhancing comprehension, and improving memory are much better than those in the learning space.

In addition, the training space also has a series of courses specially designed for him by the system. It can be said that he has a top-notch teacher as his private tutor throughout the entire process, and he will continue to teach him until his ability reaches the corresponding level.

On one side is a study room, and on the other side is a private tutor. Naturally, there is a significant difference in efficiency between the two.

Of course, the most important point is that the training space has the function of accelerating thinking.

When he first went to learn Poison Mastery, he died 305 times in one night in the training space before he finally mastered it.

The idea of dying 305 times in eight hours in one night is roughly one death every 40 seconds, but in reality, the time frame couldn't possibly be that tight.

In Jiang Hang's memory, he probably spent at least several hundred hours in the study space that night before he raised his Poison Mastery to the advanced level.

Based on this calculation, the acceleration of thought in the training space should be at least 50 times.

He diligently practiced in the training space for an entire night, feeling as if he had been training there for almost a month. However, according to the system's evaluation, he was still halfway to the system's recognition of his entry-level Bajiquan.

Multiply this 50 times by the 20 times learning space, and take into account his current progress, it can be said that even a talented person, under the guidance of a famous teacher, would need to spend five or six years to barely get started.

"With such a high level of difficulty to get started, I wonder how much effort it will take after you get the basics down. Even for someone with talent, it would take at least thirty or forty years to master Bajiquan," Jiang Hang muttered to himself.

Thinking about the inhumane training he experienced in the system space last night, Jiang Hang even felt that being poisoned to death 305 times during his Poison Mastery training was a minor incident.

Most importantly, if he hadn't suddenly remembered to ask how long he had been training in the training space, he might have stayed in bed until evening, and Shizuka Sakaki and the others would probably have called an ambulance immediately.

In fact, it was quite surprising for Shizuka Sakaki and the others that Jiang Hang slept until noon today.

After all, the Meditative Sleep Method they have mastered was personally taught to them by Jiang Hang. With this sleep method, they can fall asleep in just a few minutes when they lie in bed, and they only need five or six hours of sleep to maintain their energy for the whole day.

Jiang Hang usually goes out for morning exercise and does some quests early in the morning. This is the first time they have seen Jiang Hang up so late in all the time they have known him.

Seeing the concerned looks in his two assistants' eyes, Jiang Hang naturally couldn't say that he had overstudied and that was the cause of his overstudy. He could only briefly explain what had happened yesterday afternoon and give himself an excuse for staying up all night to look up information, which was enough to dispel their doubts.

"So something like that happened yesterday afternoon," Koharu Yoshino exclaimed in surprise. "To want to take revenge on the TV station just because the bank robbery failed? That's too extreme."

"If he were normal, he wouldn't be thinking about robbing a bank." After briefly complaining about yesterday's case to Jiang Hang, Shizuka Sakaki laid out all the case files they had compiled that morning in front of him.

Although Jiang Hang had already reviewed most of the requests when he got home yesterday afternoon, he had to admit that Shizuka Sakaki and Koharu Yoshino's organizational skills were getting better and better.

In just one morning, they had basically figured out the basic details of these commissions. Even the commission letter that directly sent money to invite Jiang Hang to come over next week was found to contain a lot of valuable information by Shizuka Sakaki and her team.

"According to our investigation, the place that sent the letter of authorization is known locally as the 'Spider Mansion of Puppet Peak,' and anyone who gets close to that place will be cursed."

"There have been three suicides in the past three years. The first two were three years ago, and the most recent one was just a few days ago."

"The police also went there to investigate, but the final examination results all indicated suicide. To this day, no one knows why those three people committed suicide."

This information was certainly not just gathered from the internet. Shizuka Sakaki and the others had maintained good relationships with many police officers during their months as assistants. Jiang Hang usually dealt with patrol chiefs and inspectors like Wataru Takagi and Inspector Megure, while they dealt more with lower-ranking patrol chiefs and ordinary patrol officers.

During their recent trip to Kyoto, they became friends with Kazuha Toyama in Osaka. The address on the letter of request wasn't a secret, so there was no need to hide it. As a result, Shizuka Sakaki and her friends were able to easily obtain firsthand information from the police.

Jiang Hang frowned slightly as he looked at the information that Shizuka Sakaki and the others had collected.

When he received the letter of authorization, he knew that the request would be troublesome, but judging from what Shizuka Sakaki said, his judgment yesterday seemed to have been too optimistic.

Three suicides in three years, the cursed Spider Mansion, the mysterious letter of commission—all these things combined make Jiang Hang realize that this commission will definitely involve the complex grudges and feuds of several generations of a family.

Chapter 404: Chapter 400: Who wouldn't want to be an armchair detective?

Although Jiang Hang felt that this would definitely be a rather troublesome commission, the more troublesome the commission, the greater the reward it would obviously bring him.

If Jiang Hang hadn't just returned to Tokyo from Osaka, he would have been thinking of making a surprise trip to Tottori Prefecture the next day to see how the client who had invited him to come next week would react to his early arrival.

"Continue investigating this case and see if anything unusual has happened in that area in the past few years. If you can contact the client directly and find out what his client's request is in advance, that would be best."

Hearing Jiang Hang's words, Koharu Yoshino seemed to have thought of something, and her eyes suddenly lit up. "Oh, Jiang Hang, do you mean you want to solve that Gunma Prefecture case while you're in Tokyo?"

"I remember there was a detective in one of the mystery novels I've been reading recently who specifically described this kind of detective... oh right, it's called the armchair detective. Jiang Hang, are you already thinking of developing in this direction?"

Hearing Koharu Yoshino's flattering words, Jiang Hang's lips twitched slightly.

His assistants have been binge-reading mystery novels lately, and he also makes time to learn about famous mystery works, such as the armchair detective.

The biggest difference between an armchair detective and a regular detective is that a regular detective needs to travel back and forth between different scenes. For example, although most of the cases in the Conan series take place in Tokyo, a considerable number of cases still require them to travel all over Japan, and in some chapters or theatrical works, they even go abroad to investigate cases in person.

Back when Jiang Hang was watching Conan, he even complained about what was going on with Conan's school. Why could Conan follow Kogoro Mouri all over the world? Did their school not have a system for absenteeism?

An armchair detective doesn't need to care about these things.

A chair, a cup of tea, a television, and a newspaper—with just these things, armchair detectives can sit comfortably, sipping tea, reading the newspaper, and watching television, all while unraveling the truth of the case.

Like Miss Jane Marple from Agatha Christie's novels, she was usually a kind old lady who sat in her armchair knitting and liked to chat with people. But when a case occurred, she would connect all the trivial details she knew with astonishing speed in order to find the culprit.

If he could, Jiang Hang would certainly like to become an armchair detective who can solve cases without leaving home, but the clue alone is enough to stump him.

After all, to become an armchair detective, one must first ensure the completeness and accuracy of the intelligence. If any crucial information is missed at the scene, even the most skilled detective cannot conjure up case clues out of thin air while sitting in a chair.

Of course, the matter of gathering clues is easy to solve. As long as he develops the Brotherhood's influence and has members active all over Japan, when a case occurs, he can send them to gather information and then relay it back to Jiang Hang for resolution.

In that sense, it's somewhat reminiscent of Sherlock Holmes's brother, Mycroft Sherlock Holmes.

In the setting, Mycroft Sherlock Holmes works in a government agency and is an indispensable key figure in British politics. Although he is not a detective, he can solve the problems he takes on in the shortest amount of time. What he does is stay in his office and listen to the intelligence from the intelligence department.

Sherlock Holmes himself admitted that his brother had a higher intelligence and reasoning ability than him, and every time Sherlock Holmes asked his brother a question, his brother's answer was later proven to be correct.

Jiang Hang stroked his chin and thought about it. Since Conan is going to become the Sherlock Holmes of the Heisei/Reiwa era, isn't it only natural for him to be Sherlock's older brother?

Unfortunately, the idea was good, and Jiang Hang was also preparing to work towards it.

As things stand, this model is not yet suitable for Jiang Hang's style.

The reason Jiang Hang was able to solve one case after another in such a short period of time and become a rising star detective was not because of the reasoning ability he gained from watching Detective Conan on TV when he was a child, nor because of the criminal investigation techniques he had recently taught himself in the learning space. Rather, it was because of Eagle Eye's incredibly clear and comprehensive scanning of the crime scene.

Before finding the ability to grant others Eagle Eye vision, the possibility of becoming an armchair detective is still somewhat distant for Jiang Hang.

However, since Koharu Yoshino has brought it up herself, it's not a bad idea to give it a try.

Anyway, their two assistants need more opportunities to try things out; what if they actually uncover some important clues?

Therefore, in response to Koharu Yoshino's question, Jiang Hang gave her an encouraging look. "Try to gather as much information as possible. If you can find anything, that would be great. If you can't find anything, we can go to Gunma Prefecture together next week."

Encouraged by Jiang Hang, the two assistants earnestly expressed that they would definitely work hard.

In the cases Jiang Hang has been dealing with recently, it seems that none of his assistants have provided Jiang Hang with any help, which makes them feel quite embarrassed.

Now that Jiang Hang has finally entrusted them with this "important commission," they will naturally do their best to investigate what secrets are hidden behind this so-called Spider Mansion.

After explaining this obviously troublesome request, Jiang Hang noticed that the two girls seemed to have taken out the invitations he had thrown into the trash can yesterday afternoon.

Picking up the invitation to a memorial service for a certain actor, Jiang Hang looked at Shizuka Sakaki with a scrutinizing gaze. "Did you bring this out?"

When Jiang Hang brought up this matter, Shizuka Sakaki blushed slightly.

"Because I grew up watching director Akira Kurosawa's movies, and I heard that many big stars will be attending this memorial service. Besides the big stars from Japan, there are rumors that Chris Vineyard, the Hollywood star who recently announced her retirement, will also be attending. So when I saw this invitation in the trash can, I felt it was a shame to just throw it away..." Shizuka Sakaki fiddled with her fingers awkwardly, seemingly feeling a little embarrassed. "But I just feel a little sorry. If you don't want to go, Jiang Hang, could you give it to me to keep as a souvenir?"

Jiang Hang originally had no particular interest in this gathering, and he wouldn't mind if Shizuka Sakaki wanted to give it to her directly. However, as he listened, he suddenly heard a familiar name from Shizuka Sakaki, which immediately piqued Jiang Hang's interest.

Chris Vineyard, isn't that Vermouth? That woman is not to be trifled with. Why would she want to attend this memorial service?

And this invitation, could it be that Vermouth got it for him?

After thinking for a moment, Jiang Hang, without changing his expression, asked Koharu Yoshino to introduce the life and works of director Akira Kurosawa.

Aside from the latest anime series, the only entertainment works he'd ever paid attention to in this world were those he wanted to copy but found already existed in this world. Big stars and directors were completely foreign to him.

According to Shizuka Sakaki, Akira Kurosawa's status in the Japan film industry sounds somewhat like that of Akira Kurosawa. He made many world-shaking films in the last century, winning numerous awards worldwide and receiving an Academy Award for Lifetime Achievement. In a sense, he can be considered a national treasure-level director who single-handedly raised the status of Japan films on the world stage in the last century.

No wonder Shizuka Sakaki picked up the invitation when she saw it being thrown into the trash can.

"Let's leave this invitation here for now. It was sent in advance anyway. I'll ask Daibao Films and Yingdu when I have time to see if they know about this invitation. If there's nothing urgent, I'll take you there for a look around."

"But before that, I need to see this director's work first, otherwise going there without knowing anything would just be disgusting to the organizers."

The memorial service was secondary; Jiang Hang was more concerned about why Vermouth would deliberately use that identity to attend the party in Japan, even though the FBI had already taken notice of Chris Vineyard's identity in the United States and even tracked her down to Japan.