Chapter 196

Despite this incident, the bomb expert quickly recovered and continued driving them to the hotel, explaining the situation.

"Although you've encountered bombings in Hawaii and here, these things are actually quite rare. Don't worry, shootings are more common here, and I've chosen a hotel in a safe area for you!"

"...Oh, thank you."

That was a good way to comfort you, but don't do that next time.

The hotel was indeed a good choice, and it was close to the conference venue. After all, it was a technical exchange conference, and many people would be giving presentations. One or two days would definitely not be enough. If it were longer, the distance between the accommodation and the conference venue would affect the happiness of the trip. It can be said that the "bomb expert" really put a lot of thought into it.

They came on leave, so the time was tight and there wasn't much time for sightseeing or leisure. The exchange meeting started the next day.

Before the official start time, there were still many partygoers. When Usoya Saiki and his group arrived, everyone was already chatting with people they were interested in, either standing or sitting in small groups.

The bomb expert spotted Usakabe Saiki and his group at a glance and quickly came over to invite them to join his side.

“This is my colleague at the FBI, Locke Brad, and these are the three friends I mentioned earlier who were invited by Japan.”

Locke Brad greeted them with a smile: "Hello, just call me Locke..."

The bomb expert, as if he were making his own deductions, enthusiastically said, "In yesterday's bus case, didn't Morgan say 'it was actually all correct'? He was referring to Han Chuan's deductions!"

“I see.” Brad then looked at Usui Saiki and nodded in acknowledgment. “No wonder Joseph took several spots and insisted on inviting Japanese experts. I finally understand. He really helped us a lot… But do Japanese bomb experts really need to know so much?”

"...I'm actually a criminal police officer."

"..."

"Asia likes to cultivate all-rounders..." The bomb expert coughed, trying to change the subject, "Prumia had wreaked havoc in so many countries before and hadn't been caught, but his true identity was discovered in Japan. You should change your habit of always looking down on other countries!"

Brad: "Don't make it sound like I'm racist. I just don't have much contact with Asians, and those names are hard to remember... By the way, do your names have any meaning in Japanese?"

After a brief chat, everyone found a place to sit as the meeting moderator arrived, and the room returned to silence, with only extremely quiet whispers and coughs.

Usoppon Saiki had just glanced around at the conference attendees, and it seemed to be a stereotype of America that the people with the most social arrogance were Americans. People from other countries seemed rather reserved and didn't chat with much enthusiasm, which seemed to reflect another kind of stereotype about researchers...

But considering the identities of some of them, it's understandable.

Based on the character profiling analysis provided by the skill that Sugawa Shinryu received from the attendees, at least five of them have a criminal record and may have been recruited into the government...

He came in with an aura of secrecy, and everyone just glanced at him. No one was so blind as to say he was suspicious. They probably thought he was also recruited and that it was normal for him to have a dangerous demeanor.

Thinking of this, Bo Yezhai suddenly found himself speechless.

For some positions, not recruiting might actually cause more trouble... such as IT personnel, or bomb experts... The former might be outmatched by untrained hackers even if they are regular soldiers, while the latter has a high rate of attrition among regular soldiers...

At the beginning of the meeting, they all started by explaining the purpose and process of the meeting. Perhaps everyone here was too dull about these things and was more focused on the practical stuff. So the fancy introduction was over quickly and they moved on to sharing classic bomb cases from their own countries.

Since it was held in the United States, it was natural for American experts to start.

Joseph, the expert who invited Bo Yezaki and his team, went first, fumbling with a USB drive: "Ahem, I'd like to share about a bomb I encountered a couple of years ago... Don't make that face, everyone. I know technology has advanced rapidly these past few years, but this bomb is still quite troublesome even now... I found it. It's in this folder. Let me show you the model I reconstructed..."

Kenji Hagiwara and Jinpei Matsuda's expressions became somewhat strange.

...In China, the explosives handling class studies this model, and now that they're abroad, they're still discussing it. It's like they've wasted their time abroad.

It has to be said that a classic is a classic. Even after several years, it remains a classic. At first, everyone was a bit indifferent, but once the 3D model was released, the discussion immediately became heated as Joseph explained it.

"The chances of successfully installing it are actually quite small, and it's surprising that the victim would give them this opportunity... Its practicality isn't really that high..."

"It is indeed a bit bulky, but since it is used for extortion, as long as it can be successfully installed, we have won. The strategy is very clear, and luck is also part of the skill."

"Actually, I think..."

After discussing for a while, someone asked, "How did you deal with that last bomb? Did you just detonate it?"

Joseph replied, "That's what I thought, but there was outside help at the time who blew up the control box, so the hotel suffered almost no damage."

An uproar immediately erupted below.

"To blow up the control box without alerting the mechanisms inside or the bomb boxes below? And they actually succeeded?"

"Where are the foreign players from?"

Has the foreign player arrived yet?

Joseph glanced furtively at Usoppō Saiki, as if asking him if he would like to go up.

Bo Yezaki pondered for a moment.

There were no important characters among these people, so the suspicion he generated had no weight. His appetite had already been spoiled, and he didn't care much for these things. He was too lazy to bother with them, so he shook his head slightly and then nodded, meaning that he kept his presence a secret and didn't care about anything else.

Joseph immediately understood and coughed, "That foreign aid worker used his own concocted plastic explosives, with very precise dosage, which is why it turned out so well... Moreover, this design was actually designed for his own department for practice, but it was leaked. Everything is too coincidental; no one else could have done it. I suggest detonating it directly. By the way, I'd like to remind everyone here that liking to design bombs is a personal hobby, and no one can interfere, but please try to keep the design drawings safe to avoid trouble..."

Perhaps out of guilt, and also because he felt that such a bulky bomb had too few practical applications, the mole in the explosives disposal team only traded one copy privately and did not leak it widely. That's why Joseph chose this bomb to discuss today; otherwise, if everyone knew, there would be no point in discussing it.

For some reason, following Joseph's explanation, Usoppō Saiki inexplicably received a lot of doubts.

He clicked on it and found that the contributors to these doubt points were all attendees.

System: 【…??? What's going on? You can get suspicion points without even saying anything weird?】

After a moment's thought and analysis of what Joseph had just said, Bo Yezaki suddenly understood: [It was Joseph's statement that was easily misunderstood.]

【Huh? What he said seemed perfectly normal.】

【Take another look at these phrases: 'The person who designed the bomb didn't mean it that way, the design was just leaked,' 'The person who designed the bomb happened to be there,' 'The person who designed the bomb helped solve the problem'...

The system understood: "[...Why does Joseph sound like this was all planned by the person who designed the bomb?]"

"They suspected the same thing; it's just too much of a coincidence." Bo Yezaki remarked, "They so naturally helped me generate so much suspicion... even though we were just talking normally..."

—Could Joseph be a genius?!

Although Japan has a history of bombings, it lacks creativity in bomb design, so none of them prepared any materials and simply listened in.

The exchange lasted for three days and went smoothly until the fourth day when Brad, who had only attended the first day's meeting, suddenly returned with bad news.

"Sorry, we received a warning message. Someone seems to be planning to kill someone in the meeting..."

We've been communicating for three days now, and we've said pretty much everything we needed to say. As for not sharing our own information, it doesn't really matter. Seeing the experiences shared by others, leaving now wouldn't be a loss at all.

So everyone said, "Let's call it a day!"

Brad looked embarrassed: "Um, sorry, that won't work either. He said that if any of you leave, he will detonate a bomb somewhere... Since we've already been targeted, you might as well stay under our protection for a couple of days to avoid any problems on your way back home."

"What's going on?" Joseph, also an FBI agent, asked his colleague directly and matter-of-factly. "This is so sudden. What happened? Where's the warning letter? Could it just be a joke?"

"...The notice was found on a corpse," Brad said, frowning. "So we can't take it as a joke; he could very well take the next step at any moment."

"A corpse?"

"Yes, and the corpse..."

"—He had a glass marble in his mouth."

Suddenly a female voice spoke up. It was Judy Sterling, the female FBI agent whom Han Chuan Shenliu and the others had met in Hawaii. She walked in with the meeting list and looked at the dark-haired, red-eyed young man with a complicated expression.

"Dark red."

—Just like this person's eyes.