Chapter 303: Sinner Question Mark Xiao Ke
Moreover, this codenamed member named Vermouth...why does she look so familiar?
"Haha, I'm here because I'm supposed to be here." Vermouth tossed her hair, her expression becoming serious. "Alright, little scientist, enough pleasantries. Time is money, let's get down to business."
"You've noticed... Lin Xi's current state is not right." Vermouth swallowed the word "boss" back. "She once asked me why her body was like this. I couldn't tell her the truth at the time, because if she knew, that person might find out—our common enemy. He has implanted his consciousness in her brain, allowing him to monitor Lin Xi's every word and action. If he succeeds in taking over her body, Lin Xi's consciousness will dissipate, never to return."
"Is it Madera?" asked Huibara Ai.
That man seemed cold-blooded and insane, capable of uploading his consciousness from his brain into a machine, then implanting it into another person's brain. And as the person in charge of the experiment, he also had the ability to do it.
Vermouth shook her head. "Gin and I had our suspicions, but we couldn't be certain. What we do know for sure is that this person possesses far more information than we do. Whether it's his understanding of this world, medicine, or the human body, his knowledge is far greater than ours."
"Now, I want to tell you what we have discovered, the essence of this world." Vermouth and Hiroki Sawada looked at each other. Hiroki put down the coffee in his hand and operated on the computer. Countless codes suddenly appeared on the screen.
The codes quickly merged into a comic book, floating in the middle of the screen.
Haibara Ai's eyes widened slightly.
"...comic books?"
"Yes, this world can be summarized as a comic book," Hiroki said. "This is the general outline of the world I analyzed using the world data provided by Ms. Shibahara and the software created by Mr. Itakura Taku—it can be understood as a functional model. Because it involves dimensions beyond three, it can't be directly expressed using the pictures that humans in our world can understand. It can only be simulated into a similar shape. In fact, it could also be a novel or something else."
The Miss Shibahara he addressed was Vermouth - this ever-changing witch still preferred to be called Chris Shibahara.
"The most striking feature of this 'world' model is that it's centered around characters. Characters constitute the most important parameters of this 'world.' However, there are also differences in weight between characters. For this world, some people are simply more important than others."
"Well, to use a comic book analogy, the protagonists have more weight than the casual characters, right? Their personalities are more rounded, their range of activities is wider, and their appearances are even more refined."
"The second major characteristic of this 'world' model is that the characters' paths are fixed. This can be understood as meaning that everyone living in this world has a so-called 'fate.' This can be compared to the plot of a comic book: some characters are destined to succeed, some are destined to fail, and some die before the story is even finished."
"That's the theory. But..." Hiroki glanced at Huibara Ai, "Fourteen years ago, the storyline changed. The original trajectory of the world was not what it is now. Someone changed everything."
"We know this because Ms. Shibahara discovered the model before the change—someone gave it to her on a hard drive, most likely the person who changed the trajectory of the world—and we can see how the world would have developed before the change."
"For example, before the change, at this point in time, I should have been dead." Sawada Hiroki spoke cheerfully about his original fate, without a trace of gloom. "I would have committed suicide by jumping off the rooftop of Schindler's Company when I was ten years old."
"Now I have lived to be ten years old in good health, and Schindler's company has collapsed!"
"Then, in the original trajectory, Sugishima-san would also die, in a small corner. I couldn't even analyze why she died—her weight in the original world model was so low that she was no different from a passerby."
Sugishima Jun'e smiled faintly: "I've become more important now, right?"
"Yeah!" Sawada Hiroki nodded vigorously. "To the world, Sister Sugishima's weight has increased, but to me, Sister Sugishima has always been important."
"And then, uh, Miss Shibahara, or Vermouth as you call her, will also die." Sawada Hiroki glanced at Vermouth, "She was shot in the heart while trying to protect Mr. Kudo."
"Huh?!" Conan, who had been listening to their seemingly unrealistic speeches, widened his eyes. "To protect me?"
“Oh, little detective, you were very important to me in that original trajectory.” Vermouth said with a smile, “You protected me, so I wanted to protect you back then. Although that incident hasn’t happened to me now, I can understand the thoughts of the me who did that, so thank you anyway, little detective.”
If she had not met the BOSS at that time, she would probably have gradually gone crazy in the day-to-day experiments and imprisonment. For a person like her, of course she would want to protect the only two angels in the world who showed her pure non-utilitarian kindness.
But she has already met the boss. Now, she is not only Vermouth, but also Chris Shibahara. She has a stronger desire to survive with the boss and witness the end.
"Haha, Miss Haibara, in the original world, you would have invented an antidote, returned to your original state, and worked at a private research institute in the United States, continuing drug experiments. But this time, you would no longer serve your own selfish interests, but instead develop drugs that can help people cure diseases."
"As for Mr. Kudo Shinichi, you will also take the antidote and return to your original state. After defeating the organization, you will continue to work as a detective in Beika Town and help the police solve the case."
"In the original world model, both of you have high weights, and the highest is Mr. Kudo Shinichi—his weight is the highest among all humans in the world." Sawada Hiroki said, "You are very important to this world, Mr. Kudo."
"After the 'plot' was changed, your weight has decreased, but it's still very high."
"Besides that, the biggest difference between the previous world model and the current one... is the appearance of Sister Lin."
"In the previous world, there was no such person as Sister Lin," said Hiroki Sawada. "Whether in the organization (Punch), among ordinary people (Lin Xi), or in the art world (X), she didn't exist. Everything related to her didn't exist in the original world."
"So, I believe that Sister Lin is the key to changing the trajectory of the world. She's the reason I can survive, the reason Sister Sugishima has become important, the reason Miss Shibahara is here, and the reason why a group of us with different perspectives can coexist and communicate harmoniously in the same room."
"The world has changed because of her." Sawada Hiroki sighed, "But...ah, I really hate 'but'! But there's always a 'but' after words like this!"
"But after we loaded Sister Lin's data into the 'world' model, we discovered that she...she...she will die. I mean, everyone dies, but her life will abruptly end at midnight a month from now. As Ms. Shibahara said, this should be the moment when the enemy completely takes over her body and her own consciousness completely dissipates. And, perhaps because so many 'plots' have been changed, in the new world, her weight is the highest, which means that after her death, the entire world will collapse. I don't know what will happen after that, but it's definitely not good."
The boy looked distressed and uneasy, his fingers unconsciously rubbing the sides of his warm coffee cup. "I know it's hard enough to suddenly realize that your world is just a narrow comic book, and you're just a character with a fixed fate. On top of that, suddenly knowing that the world is about to collapse in the near future... I'm really sorry to tell you all this."
"If you don't tell me this, I'll be angry." Huiyuan Ai crossed her arms. "Sister Lin hid everything from me, so what? Are you guys hiding it from me too? And since you didn't get depressed and dazed, but instead kidnapped me and Kudo from the FBI, it means there's still a chance of solving this problem, right?"
"Yeah!" Sawada Hiroki nodded. "Wow, Haibara-chan is worthy of being an adult. She's much quicker at regulating her emotions than I am... Well, we want to create a model ourselves, embed this new model into the 'world', and once again change the 'plot' and Lin-chan's 'fate', just like she changed ours, and let her live."
"And to build a new model, we need the help of Miss Haibara and Mr. Kudo Shinichi."
Edogawa Conan: “?”
And what about him?
"Of course, you're important, Mr. Kudo." Sawada Hiroki seemed to notice his confusion, staring at him intently. "Your high authority means that your thoughts and actions can, to some extent, change the world. Although your authority has decreased now, we can simulate the environment of your original world for you, allowing you to move around in it and provide valuable data for us to build new models. Oh, and Mr. Kudo Yusaku also participated in the design of some of the environments?"
Conan: “???”
And what about his dad?
"Mr. Kudo Yusaku is the screenwriter for our Oak Company's Cocoon project," Hiroki Sawada said with a smile. "The Cocoon is a machine used to simulate the environment of the original world. It's in the No. 4 machine room next door. I'll have the little robot take you there later."
"Please, Mr. Kudo Shinichi—"
"--stop."
Conan, who had been hanging his head, raised his head, with a small flame of anger burning in his eyes: "You guys are talking to yourselves. You kidnapped people for no reason. Why do you think I will help you?"
"What world collapse, what fate, what model? None of that matters. Can you first tell me what role Sister Lin played in this?"
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