Chapter 2: Yagami Reports to the FBI

A gloomy man in a black overcoat walked slowly over, holding a black, exquisitely crafted umbrella that he had just put away. His medium-length black hair obscured his dark, hollow eyes, making it difficult to discern his expression. However, Cheng You felt a chill run down his spine. He paused for a moment before slowly saying, "Um, close the door, it's a bit cold."

The man with pure black eyes glanced in this direction, but took no further action, simply standing there staring at the policeman in front of him.

Cheng You was speechless, so he got up and closed the door himself, thinking to himself that this high school student named Yagami Kamizan was even more gloomy than described in the file. However, as the target of the mission, he still had to take the initiative to approach him. So, after some internal struggle, Cheng You smiled and said, "Sir, won't you sit down?"

Yagami Uesugi remained expressionless, simply pulling out a chair and sitting down.

The police and detectives in the distance just felt that this person was strange, but they still focused on solving the case.

Cheng didn't dwell on Yagami Uesugi anymore; after all, that guy wasn't leaving anytime soon. He looked at the optional tasks displayed on the system interface: one was "Solve a case with Conan." Later, there were tasks like "Solve two cases with Conan," "Solve three cases,"... and so on, for countless cases.

These kinds of tasks are easy to do, and it's a good opportunity to see what the system's rewards are.

“I find this gentleman quite suspicious,” Cheng said, suppressing his glee, straightening his expression as he stood up and looked at the tall, thin, bearded man.

"Hey, I think you're the more suspicious one, the guy who can happily eat at a murder scene," Kogoro Mouri said, pursing his lips.

The tall, thin man chimed in, "Exactly! You look like you've been doing this all along; you must have done a lot of bad things."

"..." Cheng ignored their words and silently walked to the bathroom to observe the deceased. "This tall, thin gentleman said he left early because he had an upset stomach, but when you bumped into me, you were clearly distracted and in a hurry—"

Before he could finish speaking, the tall, thin man immediately retorted, "I'm only anxious because I'm not feeling well, okay?"

Before he could finish speaking, he was interrupted. Cheng You still had a smile on his face: "Really? Why didn't you clutch your stomach or belly first after you bumped into me? Why did you put your hands in your pockets immediately? Were you checking if the weapon was accidentally knocked away? It must have been something very light but large, like a medicine box? A painkiller box would be a good disguise..." His tone was unhurried.

"Nonsense?! I didn't put it in my pocket. You're lying to the police." The tall, thin, bearded man's eyes widened. But his inner thoughts betrayed his true feelings: [Damn it, how could this man notice these details? I already threw the poisoned needle down the drain, but this in my pocket…]

Cheng You only needs to mention it briefly, without any major highlights. His job is simply to complete the mission of cooperating with Conan, allowing the famous detective to identify the culprit earlier. Hopefully, Conan will pay more attention to him; if he could cooperate with Shinichi Kudo, some missions would be much easier.

Sure enough, Conan had a flash of inspiration, as if a thunderbolt had struck his mind. His glasses gleamed with an incredulous white light, and he put his hands in his pockets, a smirk playing on his lips. Ah, so that's how it is.

Cheng You glanced at the system screen in front of him, which showed that the task had been completed, and he smiled with satisfaction.

Knowing the answer and figuring out the process, he is indeed faster than Conan, who knows the process and finds the answer.

At this moment, Mr. Kogoro Mouri, having been injected with an tranquilizer dart, slowly collapsed onto the chair that Conan pushed over.

Wow, it's starting, it's starting! Cheng deliberately feigned surprise: "Wow, this is the legendary Sleeping Kogoro!" Then, while Conan began recounting the murderer's crime using the voice changer, he took the opportunity to slip away.

When he returned to his seat, Yagami was indeed still sitting in the same spot, merely sitting.

Just as Cheng You thought the other person really was some melancholic high school boy, he suddenly heard someone's inner thoughts: "Tsk, isn't Beika Town supposed to have a high crime rate and many shady organizations? I haven't seen any Black Organizations... Do I have to go look for them myself?"

Cheng You: ...Wow, so you went on your own initiative. No wonder you're the main mission target designated by the system.

According to the system, Yagami will encounter the Black Organization tonight, but how exactly he will meet them and how he will gain their trust and join them remains unknown.

Or we could try to get on their good side first, and then follow them up at night to see what's going on.

Despite his many thoughts running through his mind, he maintained the friendly demeanor of a foreign university student and asked Yagami, "Hello, I'm an international student from China. I'm wondering what the housing prices are like here? Do you have any suitable accommodation recommendations?"

At this moment, most people were gathered around Kogoro Mouri listening to the famous detective solve the case. Cheng had only Yagami Kamishin around him who was of similar age and close to him, so it wouldn't seem out of place for him to take the initiative to chat with him.

[Tsk, no wonder the crime rate is so high, people who are so overly familiar are really annoying.] Yagami ignored him and just kept complaining in his mind.

Cheng You's lips twitched: I heard it perfectly clearly.

[However, housing prices in Beika Town are indeed high. It seems I need to find an organization that won't delay paying wages...]

Why don't you consider finding a normal job...? Cheng hadn't given up. He opened his phone app and quickly checked the surrounding property prices. There was a residential area called Mi Garden a little far from the Maoli Detective Agency. The environment was nice, the property prices were reasonable, the apartment layout was to his liking, and the feng shui seemed good.

After observing for a while, Cheng Youling suddenly had an idea and asked Yagami, "Are you also new to Beika Town?"

Yagami finally paid attention to him this time, although he only replied with a simple "hmm".

"Then you probably haven't found a place yet... How about we share an apartment?" Cheng You slowly revealed his purpose, his heart secretly hoping, while his face remained that of a sunny college student.

Since he's a potential real alcoholic and a dangerous individual, I might as well keep him under my watchful eye. That way, I can get information from his inner thoughts. Maybe we can even become friends... Forget it, I don't want to think about that anymore.

[Sharing an apartment? Ha, once I join the organization and make enough money, I'll definitely buy a big villa, and then I'll decide what kind of corpse exhibition to hold.]

Cheng You's lips twitched involuntarily. This guy really is abnormal; he deserves to be chosen by the winery.

Yagami Kamisama thought disdainfully to himself, but his expression remained indifferent: "No."

“There are a lot of haunted houses in Beika Town, and the other clean houses are quite expensive... If I go to work now, I don’t know when I’ll be able to save enough money to buy a house.” Cheng You said this seemingly unintentionally, which just blocked the door to Yagami Kamizan’s dream of a big villa.

[Tsk, indeed. Seeing that he's just a naive young man, maybe we should live together... We can set a few rules, and if he doesn't follow them, just kill him. He'll be the first exhibit in my corpse exhibition.]

As Yagami Kamisama contemplated his grand plan for the corpse exhibition, a smile crept onto his lips. He slowly turned to Cheng You and said, "Okay, let's share the place."

Cheng You: Although it feels chilly, I try my best not to let my house become another haunted house in Beika Town.

“Okay, let’s add each other as friends,” Cheng You said, his face still that of a sunny older brother, even though he was in turmoil inside. “I’ll send you the listings and rent information from LINE.”

"I don't have Line," the other person said casually, taking out their phone.

What?! Not having LINE is like Chinese people not having LINE or QQ on their phones... Well, it seems this Night God is thinking about training himself and how to join the Black Organization every day, instead of focusing on making friends.

If the distillery gets him, it's like getting a new model worker with eyes brighter than Gin's.

"What about exchanging email addresses?" Cheng asked.

"Um."

"My name is Cheng You. What's yours?"

"Yakami Ginseng."

The two finally had a way to contact each other. Cheng said the mission was progressing very quickly so far, although this guy was probably still thinking about how to kill him, haha...

He sent the apartment details to the seller; it was a three-bedroom, one-living room, one-kitchen, two-bathroom unit with good feng shui. He specifically chose the eighth floor because eight is his lucky number. ^_^

"Too high," Yagami Kamisama blurted out abruptly.

"Hmm... Is it high? Which floor would you like to know?"

"The thirteenth floor."

Thirteen...that's an ominous number. And isn't thirteen too high? Cheng You couldn't understand the mentally ill person's thought process. "No, I've already made arrangements with the agent. If you want to change floors, you have to pay."

"Tsk, whatever, let's leave it at that."

After a moment's thought, Cheng asked, "Shall we go check out the Mihua residential area today?"

"I have something to discuss." Yagami refused without hesitation.

I'm going to check out Nishino Ward tonight.

Nishino Ward… Cheng You pondered. This must be the place where Yagami met Gin. He remembered that the address the system sent him was also here.

"Okay, then I'll clean the room first and welcome my roommate." Cheng said with a grin, getting up to pay and leave.

"You don't need to clean my room." Yagami Kamisama raised his yelp-eyed eyes and looked at the other person, a hint of warning in his gaze.

"Okay." Cheng You pouted, but when he faced the receptionist, he had a bright smile on his face. "Thank you, miss. Your hot pot is really delicious."

The case had just been resolved when the tall, thin, bearded man was arrested after kneeling, repenting, and being taken away – the process was very smooth and familiar.

Even without hearing the killer's inner monologue revealing the method, Cheng deduced a fairly accurate picture based on some details. It's likely that the killer placed a poisoned needle inside the painkiller box when returning it. The poison wouldn't take effect quickly, and the killer repeatedly went to the bathroom to borrow more medicine from the victim, bringing back the poison-contaminated box.

Upon hearing the customer's voice, the lady quickly turned her gaze away from that direction and looked at Cheng You: "Thank you for your compliment. Welcome to visit us again."

"Thank you." Cheng You finished paying the bill and was about to leave when he saw the Mori family passing by.

Conan glanced at him a few times, and Cheng You returned the glance with a smile: "Why is this little brother staring at me? Is he attracted by my identification of the suspect just now?"

Conan squinted and chuckled inwardly: Haha.

But still, he asked excitedly, like a child, "Brother, you're so amazing! You can even notice such tiny details."

"It's alright~ But little brother, your reasoning and observation skills are also excellent. You solved the case so quickly." Cheng You squatted down and looked at Conan, smiling gently.

Conan was surprised: What does he mean by this? Why did he suddenly say this? Was it intentional or unintentional? Looking at Cheng You's gentle and harmless smile, Conan thought he was just overthinking it.

"What does this mean, big brother?" he asked in a childish voice.

"Hmm... I'm praising you, little brother." Cheng You smiled and got up to leave. "Whatever you think it means, that's what it means." He wanted to leave a deep impression on Conan.

Cheng Youxiao left, leaving Conan standing there in shock, staring in the direction he had gone. He felt a chill run through him, his head buzzing. Did he really know something? Was he someone from the organization or...?

"Conan, what are you doing?" Ran walked up to him, took his hand, and pretended to be angry.

"Ah!" Conan finally came to his senses and immediately followed Ran away, thinking: Maybe I'm overthinking it. That guy was probably just a slightly crazy passerby, after all, he looked pretty abnormal.

At night, after cleaning the house, Cheng went to the Nishino district and bought a few scalpels for self-defense.

The system was currently processing the settlement for Cheng You's completion of the first task. On the screen in front of him was a spinning wheel divided into hundreds or thousands of sections; there were so many sections that Cheng You couldn't even see what was written on them, even with his eyes squinted.

"So many? Looks like there are a lot of tasks." Cheng You calmly remarked.

System: [That's what makes it surprising; you wouldn't understand.]

Cheng tapped the screen, and the spinning wheel started to rotate. The colorful parts spun rapidly in front of his eyes, making his eyes tired.

Finally, the pointer slowly came to a stop, and the system announced: [Congratulations, host, you have received a reward—a random shop.]

The system interface displayed the store's location, but Cheng You was not interested in it at the moment. He simply said, "What kind of reward is this?" and then switched back to the Xiye District location, watching the red dot slowly move.

Although Nishino Ward is large, the system interface will mark Yagami's coordinates, making it easy to find.

However, compared to this, Cheng You's gaze fell on the text and progress bar at the top of the system interface.

[Time rewind in progress: 50%.] The progress bar shows 50%.

"What is this?" Cheng asked, puzzled.

A note from the author:

Cheng You: What to do if you have a roommate who always wants to kill you?

My upcoming novel for the Detective Conan column is titled "After All the Characters Lost Their Memories".

Suspenseful mystery. After everyone loses their memory, the red and black teams become partners?!