Chapter 143 Thirty-Seven Cats

The video was recorded a few days before the press conference. Rum was busy dealing with the press conference at the time. Because the time given by Karasuma Renya was too tight, he was so busy that he only managed to arrange all the work last night. He had no extra energy to pay attention to what the store manager was doing.

Not to mention Karasuma Renya, he was hoping that the store manager would inherit the group as soon as the press conference was over, but the group's business was too huge, and Karasuma Renya was basically busy with that in the few days between the time the phone call was hung up and the press conference. He needed to ensure that when the store manager took over the group from him, nothing would go wrong within the group.

In fact, it was for this purpose that he was so eager to hand over power. The 140-year-old Karasuma Renya was no longer so obsessed with power. Compared to this, he hoped that the group and his own wishes could go further.

From the moment the store manager agreed to inherit, he was the true little boss of the group. Since the second-in-command and the boss, who were able to stop the little boss, didn't say anything, how could others stop him?

Of course, the only one who would do this, Gin, had already been packed up and taken away by the store manager.

The video not only shows such a strange and unreasonable scene, but also with the continuous switching of the camera, first a dazzling variety of cats and dogs appear on camera. Most of them will awkwardly introduce themselves to the camera without mentioning their names, and a small number of them will continue to do their own work without even looking up. Only the dogs are barely okay, like a beige little snake in the corner, who can only tie up their tails and type on the keyboard one pseudonym after another with tears in their eyes.

It felt like watching an Animal World short with... overly realistic special effects?

This thought did not last long, because starting from the next second, the small animals in the picture, one by one, seemed to have finally received a positive answer from the photographer, the 'little boss'. They all shook their bodies on the spot as if a heavy burden had been lifted off their shoulders, and then transformed into humans with hands, feet and clear faces behind the diffuse white mist.

The big screen went black, indicating that the video ended here.

No one made a sound in the huge venue for a while. The silence lasted for half a minute. Everyone was actually thinking about the meaning of this short video, until the black-haired young man walked into the center of everyone's sight with a mysterious smile.

"Hmm? Oh, I haven't introduced myself yet? Sorry." He apologized, "Actually, this video was recorded by me two days ago in the group - ah, of course, we are all human beings."

"Similarly, they are the volunteers of the previous two clinical trials." The young man said with a warm smile and amazing words.

Whatever the store manager was thinking, his expression was always flawless. He leaned comfortably and naturally against the dark brown podium, talking to the silent audience. As he introduced himself, the screen behind him played the publicly available part of the aptx series research and development data that Shirley and Conan had helped to organize during this period.

He didn't seem to care at all how slow the people in the audience would be to react to the flood of information he was flooding them with. He just didn't speak like the protagonist of a press conference, and yet, for some reason, no one tried to interrupt his thoughts.

"Just like what you saw in the video..." After a brief introduction, the store manager twirled the pen between his fingers and suddenly changed the subject, "But I guess everyone here actually thinks that the video was edited later and doesn't really exist, right?"

Of course, right? Who would suddenly believe that there is a drug in this world that can turn people into animals? This was the first complaint that came to the minds of most people in the audience.

The store manager pretended not to notice anything. He put the pen back into his front pocket and patted his hands lightly in front of his body twice.

"This isn't magic." He seemed to smile helplessly, distressed that people didn't trust the effects of drugs. "There's really nothing I can do... So, what about this?"

As the store manager finished speaking, a beautiful puppet suddenly jumped up from the shadows below the stage, rubbed the back of the store manager's hand affectionately, and then stood on the completely hollow podium and looked down at everyone in the venue.

Then, in full view of everyone, the cat turned into a small ball of white mist. When the mist dissipated, an ordinary-looking boy sat on it instead of the ragdoll cat.

The boy even waved his hand: "Hello?"

That's right, this young man was Shinichi who had taken the temporary antidote made by Shirley and had been disguised by Yukiko.

Videos may be deceiving, but seeing with one's own eyes cannot be false - the group can't go to the trouble of performing magic to deceive them into believing that this absurd drug actually exists, right? You have to know that the official certificates of approval for the research are still projected on the screen, and they can easily find out that the drug they are talking about actually exists and has been approved!

What's the point of going to great lengths to deceive people about something that will be launched sooner or later? It will be exposed anyway.

But the person on the stage did not look guilty at all, and stood there calmly: "In the first two clinical trials, in order to better observe the effect of the drug and to better advance the research progress, we found volunteers from all over the world. Now the group is very grateful to these volunteers who provided help."

Shinichi sat there listening to the store manager's distortion of right and wrong, with pure shock in his mind - 'You can even say that?'

Obviously, it was because of these beings that were different from humans that the group started researching the drug that could transform ordinary people. However, the store manager said that the group wanted to research the drug that could transform humans into animals, so they found these "volunteers". That's why they turned into cats, dogs, and birds because they were the volunteers who provided more human data for drug research and development...

New Half Moon Eyes: If he wasn’t a cat himself, I would really believe it.

"I know you all have a lot of questions right now. Please rest assured that our researchers will come to personally answer your questions about the aptx series of drugs in the future. You are all welcome to ask questions at that time." The store manager said in a cheerful tone.

"Well... of course, Karasuma Group has been established for more than a hundred years. During this period, we have always maintained a good reputation. Every year, we appear in Tokyo's city promotional videos as an excellent company. I believe everyone is already very familiar with us." He said with a smile, "The aptx series has also obtained all approvals and research licenses. Our cooperation partner is the official, so everyone does not need to worry about this."

If the cat police officers at home had already escaped from the cat mint by now and saw the live broadcast, they would probably recognize it at the first moment -

This is not a store manager at all, he is simply a fusion of the store manager version of Furuya and the store manager version of Hagiwara.

It is not difficult to imagine that the store manager definitely felt that imitating the two sociable guys at this time would allow him to talk to people without being exposed.

"If you are interested in the aptx series, you are also welcome to leave a message on the official website and sign up for the next batch of volunteers." The store manager's voice is refreshing. "Similarly, because the number of places is scarce, the group will conduct the first screening of volunteers with the help of the Metropolitan Police Department. In the future, only citizens who have never had a criminal record will be eligible to enter the screening process."

This certainly won't stop those who really want to use drug A to turn into animals and then commit crimes, but the emergence of a new thing will inevitably be accompanied by the pain of changing the rules. If the Metropolitan Police Department can't adapt to even this level of change, there will really be no one working there.

As long as the store manager is there, the group can ensure that the final destination of every drug produced and sold is under control. He even said the qualification to "enter the screening process" rather than the qualification to purchase. This kind of drug is not a necessity, so controlling its quantity is extremely easy.

Chi Jiang Na Yue had been prepared for this choice. He might not stay here for too long and could not always look after the group. The store manager was also a human body that would die sooner or later, but the world consciousness of this world would always exist, and the world consciousness would write new world rules for the sake of self-protection.

Or maybe, the original "How can a cat (small animal) do bad things?" was simply strengthened into "People who return to their original form will not have the desire to commit crimes." If a crime can still be committed in this way, then there is no choice but to provide the other party with an antidote and put an end to it once and for all.

——Well, this has nothing to do with Chijiang Nayue. He just provided the world with the simplest and most effective solution that would not harm anyone. How to maintain the results brought about by this solution in the future is the business of others.

Everyone present could see the name 'Miyamoto Akira' written on the name tag on the young man's chest. This was a name they had never heard of before.

However, at this time, no one will think that the person on the stage is a nobody anymore.

They all realized that from today on, something was really going to change.

On the screen behind the man that lit up again, an old man was sitting in a wheelchair facing the floor-to-ceiling window, his figure reflected on the glass. From there he could overlook most of the city.

The white-haired old man laughed so loudly that even the breathing mask couldn't cover it up. His cloudy eyes became brighter as he spoke: "Once drug A is announced to be a success, all humans will be able to turn into animals."

"By then, this world and we will all be heading towards a brighter and better future!" he said, "This will be a dream medicine that will completely change the world!"

As soon as these words were spoken, the audience, which had been silent until then, finally reacted. Regardless of whether the people in the venue believed it or not, they all started to move and there was a burst of thunderous applause.

Karasuma Renya in the backstage also fell silent for a moment, not knowing how to face the shocked looks of her subordinates behind her, "You actually agreed to Kaluya's behavior."

There is no way to deny that this...did happen. And just two days ago, the store manager came to the headquarters to find him and asked him several serious questions about the future development of the group.

Karasuma Renya thought that the future heir wanted to learn more about the group's work before taking over, so he happily talked to the child for two and a half hours.

...So if he remembered correctly, in the conversation in the video, his next sentence seemed to be: 'Then we can establish a new order'?

My goodness, if you cut a little more the filling would come out.

Even so, Karasuma Renya still maintained a calm expression, and he was actually not as excited as he was at the beginning.

What's the point of being excited? Kaluuya is a smart kid, but he did such a stupid thing. He made the drug at the core of the plan public. Even if they haven't made their plan clear, Karasuma Renya doesn't think they have any way out.

Humans are so xenophobic, and what they want to study is so unnatural. After today, I'm afraid the Karasuma Group will be attacked by a frightened and angry crowd.

Who asked them to research drugs that could turn ordinary people into aliens?

With this in mind, Karasuma Renya silently asked Rum for a notebook. He took a deep breath and prepared to see how the public opinion on the Internet had developed and whether there was any room for guidance. In short, he had to cut off the live broadcast first, and then he could think of a way to preserve the group as much as possible...

He clicked on the live broadcast room of the press conference.

Barrages of comments were flooding across the screen. Karasuma Renya squinted and struggled to make out the content of these comments that were all saying the same thing.

[So cool, when can mass production start?!]

Karasuma Renya: …

Karasuma Renya: "Rum, give me my glasses."

Has his body finally aged to the point where his vision has become distorted?