Otherworld Navigator Activated

Tang Ze scanned Beika Shopping Street and took out his phone to snap a picture.

After all, it was a well-known location. This peaceful street probably had no idea what the future held for it.

Never mind, he lived in the Polo Cafe, so he wasn't in a position to mock other places for being too gloomy.

With a sigh, Tang Ze casually picked a clothing store to browse.

He did need to get some new clothes. The seasonal changes here were quite unpredictable, so it was always good to have more casual wear on hand.

He had plenty of outfits in his inventory, but they were all gear with stat bonuses. Wearing them for everyday use felt strange and didn't quite match his usual style.

He wasn't a high school student in reality, after all. His fashion sense leaned more towards smart casual, favoring khaki and deep gray jackets, trench coats, and black, white, and gray inner layers.

It was a shame his face looked a bit too young; it didn't quite complement his mature style.

After casually finishing his shopping, Tang Ze headed towards a newspaper stand to buy a couple of papers. He wanted to check recent criminal cases and see if there were any new developments with Shinichi Kudo, then decide where to go today and whether to "accidentally" run into the Shinigami Elementary School Student.

Just then, a figure suddenly stumbled out of a nearby second-hand shop and fell towards him.

Tang Ze immediately stopped in his tracks and struck a boxing defensive pose, only to realize a thin middle-aged man had been pushed out of the store and was staggering backward.

"Careful." Realizing it wasn't an attack, Tang Ze steadied the man who was about to fall face-first onto the ground.

"I told you not to bother me!" The chubby shop owner, following the clerk out, yelled at the man with his hands on his hips. "The buyer has already secured the sword. There's no way I'm selling it to you. How many times do I have to tell you!"

"But the deadline for my collateral agreement with Maru Denjirou hasn't passed yet. You have no right to sell 'Kikuchiyo'!" The thin-faced man, sporting a thin mustache, argued heatedly, his face flushed. "This is a breach of contract!"

"You made the collateral with him, not me, so why should I care!" The owner's voice was much louder than his. "If you step foot in this store again, I'm calling the police!"

With that, the owner turned and went back into the store, slamming the door shut heavily.

The man Tang Ze was supporting glared at the shopfront through gritted teeth, clenching his fists tightly, his chest heaving. It was clear intense emotions were bursting within him.

Seeing the man stand upright, Tang Ze let go of his supporting hand.

The man, coming back to his senses, saw Tang Ze's curious gaze and managed a weak smile, offering his thanks.

He turned and walked towards the intersection. Tang Ze watched his slightly hunched back, his lowered hands clenched into fists, and felt his emotions growing more violent under the suppression.

"Maru Denjirou..." Tang Ze whispered, pinching his chin between his thumb and index finger, striking his classic detective pose. "I think I have some impression of that name. Perhaps a victim, or a culprit?"

Before Tang Ze could recall the details, his phone, tucked into his pocket, vibrated twice.

Strange, he had it set to ring mode?

Thinking this, Tang Ze took out his phone and looked closely, his pupils constricting.

In the center of the screen, the red and black Otherworld Navigator was glowing, a window popping up.

"Name: Maru Denjirou"

A Palace? Maru Denjirou has a Palace?

No, he needed to find a more discreet place. If he entered the correct information and someone transformed in the middle of the street, it would be too much trouble.

Tang Ze looked up, scanning his surroundings to confirm no one was paying attention to him, and walked into the narrow alley between two shops.

The Otherworld Navigator, as its name suggested, was a navigation program that allowed one to enter other worlds.

In the conceptual background of P5, humanity's collective subconscious had a storage space. When an individual gained a powerful desire strong enough to warp their surroundings, this core would separate from the general subconscious, forming a personal, independent space – a Palace.

These individuals often viewed a specific location as something else. Based on this imagination, the location in the cognitive world would appear in a distorted form.

Therefore, this program couldn't be activated just by wanting to. You needed to provide accurate targeting, meaning who the Palace's core was, and which location they had distorted into what form.

Since the name Maru Denjirou could trigger the app's reaction, it meant this person had a Palace.

Tang Ze then began to search his memory carefully for the name. Combining the recent dispute between the man and the shop owner, he quickly located a case.

Maru Denjirou was a high-risk profession in Conan, a company president.

Despite being a wealthy man with a company, he had a peculiar hobby of loan sharking. Furthermore, he had preemptively sold many collateral items even before the borrowers defaulted. The man who was furious just now was likely the culprit in this case, Suwa Yuji, a kendo master whose family heirloom, the famous sword "Kikuchiyo," was wrongfully sold by Maru Denjirou. Enraged, he stabbed the man to death.

However, what was more outrageous than the cases in Conan were the flashy death messages.

For example, Maru Denjirou, after being stabbed in the back and on the verge of death, managed to use the knife to carve the killer's name on a cabinet. That was a cabinet as tall as a person! If he had the strength to carve a cabinet, he might have been able to stab the killer or even crawl out of the room to save himself.

Calculating carefully, Tang Ze's time was limited. Once Mori Kogoro received the commission and arrived, the Palace's owner would be beyond saving under the influence of the Death God's aura.

Recalling the general details of the case, Tang Ze tentatively entered a line of text into the second input box.

"Location: Maru Residence"

No error message appeared, so it was indeed this case.

Only one last question remained: what did Maru Denjirou view his home as?

Tang Ze tentatively entered several nouns into the location field – places related to money like bank, vault, safe – but without success. He then tried some entertainment venues, such as clubs and bars, but only received feedback that the location did not exist.

"Ah, guessing is a bit difficult," Tang Ze muttered to himself, continuing to recall details.

Yes, he had the impression that this family was very wealthy because they lived in a Japanese-style house with a garden and had many servants, indicating the owner was of high status.

However, since their home was a traditional Japanese house, perhaps it would be a traditional Japanese architectural style?

Changing direction, Tang Ze tried a few more times, pondering for a moment, and had an idea.

"Location: Daimyo Mansion"

As the last Chinese character was typed into the box, a tablet's electronic female voice came from the phone's speaker.

"Location locked, initiating navigation."

His gaze flickered almost imperceptibly, Tang Ze exhaled and cautiously peeked out of the alley entrance.

As expected, the bustling commercial street outside the alley was now deserted. Everything was completely silent. Tang Ze observed for a moment, then stepped out of the alley, finally able to speak his mind.

"Some loan shark thinks he's a daimyo, how shameless, Maru Denjirou." Tang Ze clicked his tongue twice, looked at the Otherworld Navigator on the screen which displayed the route map, and walked towards his destination.

Unbeknownst to Tang Ze, who believed he had acted completely stealthily, Shuichi Akai, in a building a hundred meters away, stared intently at the alley entrance he had just entered. Seeing no one emerge, he frowned.

His confidence as a top sniper allowed him to confirm that the shadows at the end of the alley were empty.

[Target out of sight. Are there any other lookouts near the target?]

[Yes, all out of sight. The target very likely possesses keen counter-reconnaissance awareness. The individuals tracking and monitoring them have either been discovered or are already gone.]

[Have them withdraw. He probably discovered and evaded us, so continuing to track is meaningless. Leave the surveillance to me.]

Shuichi Akai issued the command, his frown not easing.

How had Tang Ze managed to shake off everyone, including himself as an overhead sniper, in just a few minutes?