Chapter 177, Seventy-Third Cycle (7)
The system calls this world "Detective Conan" and says that Rei Furuya is playing a game between God and the devil, so it's natural to deduce that Conan is the protagonist of this detective game.
Conan, also known as Conan Edogawa, whose real name is Shinichi Kudo, was originally a 17-year-old high school student. After witnessing a transaction by the Black Organization, he was knocked unconscious by Gin and forced to drink the poison APTX4869 developed by Sherry. Unexpectedly, he was rejuvenated and turned into a 7-year-old elementary school student, giving himself the pseudonym Conan Edogawa.
As for the subsequent plot, Rei Furuya, being a "collaborator" and friend of Conan Edogawa, naturally knew most of it.
In order to investigate the information about the man in black who shrunk him, Conan Edogawa stayed at the house of his childhood friend Ran Mouri and began his elementary school detective journey with Kogoro Mouri, who runs a detective agency.
When Kazami Yuya called him a scary person, Furuya Rei said that there were two other people in the world who he found scary, one of whom was even a child.
That little boy is Conan Edogawa.
Even if it's 17-year-old Shinichi Kudo, he's still a child to him, not even an adult yet.
But this very child is the world's beloved protagonist, and only under his leadership can the organization be destroyed.
In other words, Conan's involvement in the organization is unstoppable, and they must protect Conan, who is the protagonist.
After confirming that the shrunken Shinichi Kudo had woken up safely and even managed to escape nimbly, Rei Furuya and Hiromitsu Morofushi each told him about it in their Sakura Team group chat, so that Hiroki Sawada and Jinpei Matsuda, who were waiting at Professor Agasa's house, could prepare.
Hiroki Sawada then prepared to appease them.
Matsuda Jinpei, on the other hand, was prepared to laugh at him.
Adding to the fact that Professor Agasa initially refused to believe that the 7-year-old child was Shinichi Kudo, Shinichi Kudo unexpectedly and quickly accepted the fact after a period of chaos, barely managing to mend his suddenly fractured scientific worldview.
Not long after, Ran Mouri came looking for someone, and thus Conan Edogawa was born, being led back to the Mouri Detective Agency.
Not long after the two left, everyone from the Sakura team gathered at Matsuda Jinpei's house.
Matsuda Jinpei laughed: "Although I already knew, I was still shocked to see a 17-year-old boy turn into a 7-year-old child. This world is really interesting."
Hiroki Sawada smiled slightly and said, "From now on, I'll be the older brother."
Noah's Ark pondered, "Am I still the younger brother?"
Kenji Hagiwara asked Kagemitsu Morofushi, "What does 'a dream of Nanke' mean?"
Once this topic came up, everyone's attention was drawn to it.
Although they were already studying hard, they hadn't reached the level of the academic genius Furuya Rei or Morofushi Kagemitsu, who had studied ancient Eastern texts with his older brother since childhood. They weren't sure if the information they found simply by searching on a search engine was complete.
Zhu Fujingguang first explained the written meaning of "A Dream of Nanke".
Rei Furuya continued, "It should simply mean Conan's name backwards, representing the birth of the protagonist, Conan-kun."
Date Hang frowned in thought: "But, 'A Dream of Nanke' isn't just the ending CG from the last save point, it's also the name of this save point, right? It doesn't feel that simple, maybe it's related to dreams?"
Kenji Hagiwara stroked his chin: "Could it be implying that something is an illusion, a dream? It's unlikely that it's just Conan's name reversed and that's why this idiom was chosen?"
Rei Furuya felt guilty and dared not speak.
He was also a little hesitant.
"A Dream of Nanke" isn't just the CG of the previous save point, it's also the name of this save point. Who knows, the Dream Chair and Nightmare Experiments might appear again in the future. Should he tell everyone in advance? And how can he explain it without revealing that he was the subject of experiments?
...In short, just in case, it's best to write it along with your will so it can be sent automatically after you die.
Morofushi Kagemitsu also said, "Yes, I also feel something's not right. If we clear the sixth save point, the world line where the four-petaled cherry blossoms survive, shouldn't the next one be the world line where the five-petaled cherry blossoms survive?"
Rei Furuya remained uneasy, but had to speak: "It's because I haven't overcome my true death tribulation yet. Before, it was just the system causing trouble. Now that the system and the world have changed, it's not surprising that the situation is different from before."
"But you did manage to clear a save point, did you get a resurrection card?" Noah's Ark asked.
“Hmm.” Rei Furuya took out his phone. “There have been some changes to the Reincarnation Group Chat. The name was confirmed at the New Year’s meeting as ‘Reincarnation Group No. 0’, and now it has been updated so that you can click to view the information of individual group members.”
He tapped his phone twice, but the others still couldn't see anything and could only listen to him read.
[Rei Furuya: From *Detective Conan*, currently on his 73rd playthrough, having died 73 times. Game reward: Five revival cards.]
Rei Furuya blatantly lied: "For example, me: Rei Furuya, from 'Detective Conan,' currently on my 58th playthrough, having died 58 times. Game reward: Five revival cards."
After saying that, he immediately shifted their attention: "Everyone's game reward is different. Homura Akemi gets a Soul Gem that can purify pollution, Shinpei Amishiro gets save/load attempts, Subaru Natsuki gets the chance to ask questions from someone who knows everything about another world, and Rintaro Okabe gets the world's causal exploration line..."
After a heated discussion, the six people fell silent again.
"The game's storyline has officially begun," Furuya Rei said slowly.
The others all looked rather serious.
Rei Furuya smiled and reassured them, "This is a good thing. Once you clear this save point, the game will be over."
Morobuchi Kagemitsu glanced at him but didn't say anything.
But this save point is Rei Furuya's death trap.
It's not the system causing trouble, but rather the world lines converging, and they haven't yet found a way to change the world lines and save Naruto Zero.
“It’s true, it’s true. The system changes during the New Year demonstrated this. Now it’s the world program’s domain, the protagonist Conan’s domain. The system can no longer interfere and cause trouble at will, so we’ll actually be much safer afterward.” Rei Furuya continued, “Although Conan doesn’t seem to have realized it yet, after experiencing countless cases and playing against the organization, he will grow into a very formidable yet reliable child…”
"You seem to trust that kid quite a bit, even daring to entrust your life to him." Matsuda Jinpei's tone was cool, suggesting that he still didn't care about his own safety.
Upon hearing this, Rei Furuya paused in his serious expression, then smiled.
"No, I trust you all, the power of our collaboration." He said frankly, "We have come this far together, and no matter what happens, I believe we will achieve the perfect happy ending."
*
Rei Furuya got home very late, at 11 p.m.
The birth of Conan did make him very nervous, and he hadn't had much rest for the past two weeks. Now that it's finally confirmed, he can relax a little.
It's only January now, and Bourbon's actual appearance won't be until two more months later. In the meantime, he'll be investigating Shuichi Akai and continuing to hunt him down. He'll then disguise himself as Shuichi Akai after Akai fakes his death.
After his storyline is completed, Scotland, who takes over Rum's role, enters the scene. After some probing and tug-of-war between the red and black factions, everyone finally cooperates to destroy the organization on Christmas Day, December 25th...
As Furuya Rei quickly went through all the arrangements in his mind, he opened the Sakura Squad's group chat and discovered that Noah's Ark, who was in charge of protecting Conan's safety, was live-streaming Conan solving the case in the group.
Although the photo captured from the street surveillance camera was not clear, it was enough to identify Conan Edogawa, who had just been knocked unconscious and poisoned by the organization tonight and turned into a child, riding a big dog and chasing after the criminal.
[Noah's Ark: He hadn't even stepped into the Mori family's house before he went off to solve a case with Kogoro Mori.]
Jianggu Ling: "..."
He couldn't help but laugh.
Conan is as "busy" as ever.
Instead of worrying and discussing with everyone in the group, Furuya Rei had a lot of confidence in Edogawa Conan. After confirming that there were no major problems, he switched to the Reincarnation Group Chat.
Since the system changes at the beginning of the year, their pace has changed again, and discussions have become more difficult. However, seeing everyone in the group still working hard makes me feel much more at ease.
He didn't notice the system change at the time. Later, when he asked others, Subaru Natsuki and Homura Akemi, who were online at the time, also said that they only saw the group name suddenly appear and had no other information.
But why, why, at this very moment, have we reached the final stage, only to suddenly name the Reincarnation Group?
And the name is something like "Reincarnation Group No. 0," does that mean there will be Reincarnation Groups No. 1, 2, and 3 later?
But no matter how he tried, the system remained silent, as if it were dead.
Rei Furuya tapped his fingers lightly on the table, temporarily setting aside the system changes and beginning to think about the new save point.
A fleeting dream...
At first, he wondered if he was still trapped in a dream and hadn't come out, and that all this success might just be a beautiful dream he was having.
But it turned out he was overthinking things. He was very confident in his judgment; this was the reality of the world.
He wasn't lying to anyone; he genuinely believed that a major reason the system chose this idiom was because it's Conan's name when reversed.
I hope... everything is alright.
Rei Furuya was still a little unsure, so he lay in bed, preparing to enter his dream to confirm it again.
*
early morning.
"Ring ring—"
Rei Furuya opened his eyes instantly and simultaneously reached out to expertly turn off the alarm clock.
The sun was shining brightly today. A slender ray of golden sunlight pierced through the slightly ajar curtains and fell onto the bed, landing warmly on the naked blond-haired, dark-skinned young man's hand outside the covers.
Rei Furuya yawned, pulled back the covers, got out of bed, put on a shirt, and then checked his phone while brushing his teeth.
His gaze inadvertently swept across the date, and he suddenly froze, then looked back at it again.
The date was clearly written on the screen: January 16th. He wasn't mistaken.
Rei Furuya frowned, suspecting that the phone's calendar was wrong.
Check the network and refresh.
It was still January 16th.
Rei Furuya's face darkened.
How is that possible? Yesterday was clearly January 13th. He just took a nap and nothing happened. How could he have slept for three days and not found any problems with his body?
He frowned and checked the date in three different ways before finally confirming that today was indeed January 16th.
But why?
Had he unknowingly fallen into the organization's or system's trap again? But why didn't even Hiro and the others leave him any information?
Furuya Rei cautiously confirmed once again that there were no surveillance cameras or eavesdropping around, and then clicked into the Sakura team's group chat.
[Zero: What's today's date?]
The first to speak was Noah's Ark, which lives on the internet.
Noah's Ark: Today is January 16th.
[Noah's Ark: What's going on today?]
[Mazda: What's wrong with you? Are you still half asleep? You can't even remember the date?]
[Hiro: Has something strange happened? Is it related to Conan's appearance yesterday?]
Upon seeing this message, Rei Furuya was completely stunned.
[Zero: Yesterday?]
[Zero: Did Shinichi Kudo turn into Conan Edogawa yesterday?]
[Hiroki: Huh? Zero, what happened to you? Are you having memory problems? Did the organization do something?]
[Hagi-chan: ? Zero, what's wrong? Did you just reload a save from the future?]
[Squad Leader: Yeah, it was yesterday, January 13th. Today is January 16th. What happened on your end?]
[Hiro: Zero, can you answer the phone now?]
Rei Furuya could tell they were serious from their attitude, and after glancing at the date, he confirmed that it wasn't April Fool's Day.
He stood there stunned for a while, still somewhat confused about what had happened, and a sense of absurdity gradually spread through his mind.
"Yesterday was January 13th, and today is January 16th?" He confirmed again.
Everyone in the group responded: 【Yeah, what's wrong? Is there a problem?】
Jianggu Ling: "..."
Rei Furuya's hand trembled slightly.
This is a huge problem!!!
Continue read on readnovelmtl.com
