Nothing to Offer, Take It or Leave It / Discovering the Crime Scene ...

If you took the "deduce" out of detective stories and turned them into that kind of story... Ahem, that sort of thing couldn't be written out.

Jiang Hang was also a fairly steadfast member of the ShinRan Party, and he had absolutely no designs on Ran. Otherwise, if he flattered Kogoro Mouri more in the future, or even directly became his apprentice, helped him solve cases, and credited all the achievements to him, there would be a good chance of making him acknowledge Jiang Hang as his "future son-in-law."

As for Ran, as long as he chose to interfere with Conan's main storyline and made it so Conan could never turn back into Shinichi Kudo, Ran Mori surely couldn't wait for Shinichi without limit for the rest of her life, right? Perhaps readers would enjoy that kind of plot, but in reality, it was not so easy to pull off.

She could wait half a year. She could wait a year. But what about longer? Five years, or even ten?

By then, Conan himself would probably give up on Ran.

If Ran truly remained single until Conan grew up again and turned back into Shinichi, Jiang Hang felt that he, as a transmigrator, would be far too much of a failure.

Thinking that, Jiang Hang could not help rubbing Conan's head beside him, making Conan awkwardly break free from Jiang Hang's demonic grasp.

You actually dared to dodge? Hurry up and properly thank me for keeping you from getting cuckolded.

Chapter 22: Nothing to Offer, Take It or Leave It

After learning from Jiang Hang that he had come specifically to investigate because of the recently circulating rumors about armored suits in the museum, Ran immediately showed tremendous enthusiasm. She even invited Jiang Hang and Koharu Yoshino to tour the museum with them.

Clearly, Conan and the others had come here entirely because Ran's curiosity had gotten the better of her.

However, under the resentful double glare of Kogoro Mouri and Conan, Jiang Hang gave up on that idea.

Conan was resentful because of the enthusiasm Ran showed Jiang Hang, while Kogoro Mouri... was resentful because of Koharu Yoshino following behind Jiang Hang.

Although he enjoyed Jiang Hang's flattery, once he learned that this rookie detective had hired such a beautiful girl as an assistant, Kogoro Mouri's attitude toward Jiang Hang underwent another subtle change.

Damn it, I want a beautiful female assistant to help me solve cases too!

That was what Kogoro Mouri thought to himself.

After entering the museum, the two groups headed for different areas according to their own preferences.

After separating from Conan's group, Jiang Hang looked at Koharu Yoshino and teasingly asked her a question.

"So, what did you think of him? He's an incredible famous detective, you know."

Koharu Yoshino responded to Jiang Hang with an unconvinced look.

"Judging from his appearance, he doesn't look anything like the legendary kind of great detective. He just feels like an ordinary lecherous middle-aged man... Is he really the incredibly capable detective Jiang Hang mentioned?"

"That's why you can't judge people by appearances. Have you already forgotten that case from a few days ago? The person who looked like the murderer was the victim, while the criminal was the refined-looking company president. You can't become a good detective just by looking at what is shown on the surface."

But she was more than qualified to be a competent detective's assistant—after all, if you wanted to show how impressive a detective was, being able to solve cases alone was not enough. You also needed a less sharp-witted straight man beside you—no, an assistant—to fully bring out the detective's brilliance.

Gongsun Ce beside Bao Zheng, Li Yuanfang beside Di Renjie, not to mention Sherlock Holmes and Watson.

Even in Conan's manga, whenever Kogoro Mouri opened his mouth, didn't you immediately know who was not the murderer? That "instinct" that could avoid the real culprit almost one hundred percent of the time was incredibly useful for an assistant.

But Koharu Yoshino was not even a beginner in deduction yet, so she should just keep being his driver for now.

With that in mind, Jiang Hang led Koharu Yoshino around the museum.

After all, this was only a museum in a small town, so there were no particularly precious works inside. Although it housed some pieces by famous artists, they were merely lesser-known works among those artists' collections.

However, Jiang Hang had no artistic sense at all. Looking at those works, the only thoughts that came to his mind were things like, "Ah... this painting is pretty good," "This sculpture looks quite lifelike," and "This specimen is interesting"—thoughts completely devoid of any depth.

Koharu Yoshino, on the other hand, knew much more about such things than Jiang Hang. According to her, she had taken some elective art appreciation classes in college. Although she had little talent for creating art, she still possessed a basic foundation in appreciation. After graduation, though, that knowledge had been completely useless while job hunting.

After walking a short distance, Koharu Yoshino suddenly said to Jiang Hang, "I just looked up some information about this museum. Apparently, it's going to be demolished and renovated before long."

Jiang Hang was a little surprised. He had not expected Koharu Yoshino to remember to look up information on the museum while touring it.

This assistant was doing a pretty good job. He had underestimated Koharu Yoshino just now.

"Come to think of it, today's a day off, right? Normally, places like museums and galleries should have the most visitors on days off. And there have recently been rumors about walking armor here, yet there still aren't many people visiting the museum even on a day off. In that case, it probably can't even maintain its regular operations. It can't be helped if it gets sold."

As Jiang Hang said that, he scratched his chin.

Now that he had confirmed a case would happen and learned this information, he could still piece together a few things based on the detective dramas he had watched in the past.

The museum was going to be sold, but the person preparing to buy it intended to do something bad to the museum or the works inside. That caused the museum staff to resent their financial backer, eventually leading to a murder case.

There might be some deviations in the details, but the overall logic should be right.

He had watched so many episodes of Conan, and he had crammed so many detective anime from this world over the past few days. Situations like this naturally gave him a certain sense of familiarity.

Jiang Hang tried using Eagle Vision to inspect the entire museum. However, although he had not encountered many people along the way, it was still a day off. Including staff, there were still forty or fifty people in this enormous museum.

He had been able to track Abe Yutaka because he had marked him beforehand with Eagle Vision. Once Eagle Vision was activated, it automatically locked onto him. But now, Jiang Hang had no idea who the murderer or victim was, so he could not lock onto anyone's perspective.

His brain was still that of an ordinary person. With only one or two seconds of viewing per minute, it was simply impossible to monitor forty or fifty people at once.

After thinking it over, Jiang Hang could only lock onto Conan for now and wait for the system to issue a case notification.

After all, Conan would always be the first to discover the crime scene. As long as Jiang Hang knew where Conan was, he would at least not miss the case.

Solving murder cases was naturally the best way for a detective to make a name for himself. To become a famous detective, one would inevitably experience countless murder cases, but Jiang Hang did not want to get used to them.

This might go against the system's original intention of "training him into a world-class legendary detective," but after thinking carefully about it, Jiang Hang realized that his system had always been a scam. Its original purpose should have been to train him into a legendary assassin, right?

It was only because that scam of a system had transmigrated to the wrong world that it had no choice but to switch careers from the Assassin System to the Detective System.

Although it had now wrapped itself in the skin of a detective, its essence was definitely still that original Assassin System.

The same went for Jiang Hang. In essence, he was not some proper detective, but merely an assassin disguised as a detective.

One was a scam system pretending to be a Detective System, and the other was a positive-energy assassin pretending to be a detective. There was no need to concern themselves with what real detectives did.

Since he had already accommodated it so much, there should be no problem with it accommodating him a little in this regard.

Nothing is true; everything is permitted. Jiang Hang had always remembered that classic creed.

Chapter 23: Discovering the Crime Scene

The system gave no response to Jiang Hang's thoughts.

Perhaps the system did not actively probe Jiang Hang's inner thoughts, or perhaps it tacitly approved of his ideas. In any case, Jiang Hang intended to act according to his own wishes.

As for whether he would change his mind in the future, he would worry about that when the time came.

Maintaining an average frequency of activating Eagle Vision once every two or three minutes, Jiang Hang wandered aimlessly through the museum under Koharu Yoshino's lead.

Everything was normal on Conan's side for the moment. Based on what Eagle Vision showed him, the case probably had not happened yet.

Then, Koharu Yoshino, who was walking ahead, suddenly stopped in confusion.

"Strange, why is this area blocked off? I was actually pretty interested in it."

"What's wrong?" Jiang Hang asked.

Koharu Yoshino pointed at a branching path ahead. "If we go forward, we'll reach the Ocean Exhibition Hall, where they have some ship models and marine specimens. But according to the map I looked at earlier, this direction should lead to... the Hell Exhibition Hall. It mainly displays medieval armor and weapons, along with quite a few demon statues. I looked it up online, and it seems pretty scary. I had wanted to take a look."

"Oh, right. It must be temporarily closed because of the rumor Jiang Hang heard about the walking armor." Koharu Yoshino suddenly recalled the rumor Jiang Hang had heard and found a suitable explanation for the Hell Exhibition Hall being closed.

But Jiang Hang did not think so.

He had been searching for an exhibition related to armor all along. He had seen quite a few suits of armor while touring the museum, but they were all ordinary and did not look like tools a murderer would use to commit a crime.

Although Eagle Vision could see through walls, it generally only detected living beings. Dead objects such as armor and weapons would not appear in Eagle Vision unless they had already become connected to someone.

Yet at this moment, Jiang Hang's Eagle Vision showed two human signals inside the sealed-off exhibition hall!

One person stood silently pressed against a wall, while the other wandered casually around the exhibition hall?

And the posture of the person pressed against the wall was extremely unnatural, as if he were disguising himself as something.

The murderer had put on armor and was standing still, waiting for the other person to approach!

That thought suddenly flashed through Jiang Hang's mind.

"I'm going in to take a look." He looked at Koharu Yoshino beside him.

What came next might be a little cruel for this young woman. Even though Jiang Hang wanted to bring her along to see the crime scene, when it came down to it, he softened and did not plan to take Koharu Yoshino with him.

"Just wait here for me. I'll be out soon."

"Is that really okay...?" Koharu Yoshino did not know that a murder was about to happen inside the exhibition hall. She simply felt that since this area was already closed off, entering would be rather impolite. It would be bad if someone discovered them.

"I came here because of the rumor about armor walking around late at night. If we go back without seeing anything, Sakaki will laugh at both of us back at the agency."

As Jiang Hang said that, he directly stepped past the No Entry sign and headed into the exhibition hall.

Seeing that Jiang Hang had made up his mind, Koharu Yoshino hesitated briefly before following him anyway.

"You're sure you want to come with me?"

As Jiang Hang hurried forward, he heard Koharu Yoshino's footsteps catching up and could not help asking her.

"I'm actually pretty curious about what's inside too," Koharu Yoshino said with a quiet chuckle.

There was definitely something inside that you wouldn't want to see.

Jiang Hang thought that, but just then, he seemed to hear a scream coming from the sealed exhibition hall.

The soundproofing in this hall was excellent. If the assassin bloodline had not greatly enhanced his senses, he might not have been able to confirm it.

Jiang Hang had just used Eagle Vision, and his eyes were still somewhat uncomfortable, but he forcibly activated it again.

Sure enough, he had not misheard. In his Eagle Vision, the murderer had already made his move.

He quickened his pace again and rushed straight to the entrance of the exhibition hall, only to discover that the door at the entrance was locked!

"The door's locked... Then there's nothing we can do. Jiang Hang, let's go back—Jiang Hang, what are you doing?"

Koharu Yoshino had just breathed a sigh of relief and was about to tell Jiang Hang to leave when she saw him suddenly pull a long, thin wire from his person. He bent down and began probing the keyhole with it.

"H-Hey, Jiang Hang, this is a crime..." Koharu Yoshino's expression turned strange. Why had her boss immediately pulled out a wire to pick a lock without another word?

Did detectives have to know this trick too now?

What would they do if someone found them? Would they be taken to the police station? Though Jiang Hang seemed to have a good relationship with the police, and he was wealthy too, so perhaps he could settle something like this with money.

No, no. This was a crime no matter what. She could not just stand by and watch Jiang Hang do something like this...

Just as Koharu Yoshino was about to stop Jiang Hang, the wire turned, and Jiang Hang pushed open the previously locked door.

Well, it was already too late. Nothing she said would matter now.

Koharu Yoshino helplessly covered her forehead with one hand.

Still, she had just looked around, and there did not seem to be any cameras nearby. So as long as they were careful and did not get discovered, they could probably pretend that nothing had happened... maybe.

"Koharu, go outside and call the police. Call an ambulance too."

Jiang Hang's voice suddenly reached her ears, and then she saw him rush directly into the exhibition hall.

"Jiang Hang—"

She cried out in alarm, because once the door opened, the sounds inside the hall inevitably reached her ears.

It was the miserable wail of a man!

Just hearing that sound made Koharu Yoshino's legs go weak.

The Hell Exhibition Hall itself followed a gloomy and oppressive aesthetic. Even in broad daylight, there was not much lighting inside. Now that the hall had been sealed off, there was only faint light around the emergency lamps. Her eyes had not adjusted to the darkness at all, and she could not see what the interior looked like.

Remembering Jiang Hang's instruction for her to call the police, she nervously swallowed.

She wanted to take out her phone and call the police immediately, but her trembling hands fumbled around in her pocket for a long while before she finally managed to pull out her phone.

Chapter 24: The Dragon Slayer Will Eventually Become the Dragon

The hall named Hell seemed to transform into a real hell at that moment.

Along with the man's agonized screams, the smell of blood had long since filled the exhibition hall. Even though Jiang Hang had prepared himself mentally, he still found it difficult to adapt when he witnessed the scene with his own eyes.

In his sight, the murderer, clad in armor and holding a bloodstained sword, looked like a medieval knight.

Before him, another man lay on the floor. Judging from the savage, bloodied wound across the man's back, someone had directly slashed him with the sword.

If the murderer had struck a little harder at the time, this man would probably have died on the spot instead of still having the strength to scream for help. But as vast amounts of blood continuously flowed from his wound, his voice grew weaker and weaker.

In the oppressive, dim environment, the scene strangely did not feel out of place at all.

When the man lying on the ground and wailing saw someone suddenly barge into the exhibition hall, he seemed to have found a savior. He shouted to Jiang Hang, "Save me! Save me! I'll give you however much money you want!"

Jiang Hang stopped two or three meters away from the murderer.

He had not brought any weapons. He was not some weapon master like Uncle Long, nor was he Master Huang or Master Ye. With only Basic Combat Skills, relying on his own speed to dodge the other party's attacks would not be too difficult, but swiftly taking down a murderer wearing armor and wielding a weapon was asking too much of him.

The murderer clearly had not expected a visitor to run into the exhibition hall at such a moment. Looking at Jiang Hang standing not far away, even the eyes behind his armor went blank.