Chapter 171 Twenty-seven Vigilantes

After the fall of Tokyo, the biggest impact on the lives of ordinary people was rising prices and increased probability of death, but even so, they still had to survive in this city with difficulty, and the pressure was naturally several times greater than before.

Under such circumstances, business in already prosperous areas such as Shibuya, Ikebukuro, Ginza and Roppongi was not affected but became even more prosperous.

It's understandable, because Tokyo residents who lack fun and spice of life really need one or more places to relax themselves, otherwise they will be driven crazy by this city sooner or later.

Well, although in cities outside of Tokyo, almost everyone has already secretly agreed that "Tokyo people are crazy."

The prosperity of these areas is only limited to the daytime. At night, they still have to abide by the "rules" and hide themselves back in their shells like other areas. Otherwise, those guys who are short of money will tell them why such "rules" exist.

This is not to say that there aren't criminals out there who would try to rob or kill people in these places during the day, but anyone with a little common sense would think about an obvious problem.

For example, who is in charge of managing such profitable areas?

Tokyo's upper class are not philanthropists. They will not sit idly by and watch money flow into other people's pockets. Naturally, they will also "protect" the people who run these places to a certain extent in order to ensure their own interests.

Obeying the rules was a requirement for protection, and if someone was so unscrupulous as to try to make some money from the prostitutes and hired guns roaming the streets at night, they would generally not see the next day's sunrise.

Same reason as above.

Of course, some people with a little bit of brains would think about this and be a little more restrained, but unfortunately, outsiders generally don't inquire about so much information that is considered "common sense", which often makes them become the minority who "go out without a brain".

This is why Conan is now squatting among a group of hostages, looking around nervously for the chairman's figure.

The young detective was so anxious that sweat broke out on his forehead, but he was the type of person whose brain became clearer the more critical the moment. Coupled with his speculation about Chi Jiang Na Yue's other identity, he quickly calmed his brain down and thought carefully about where the chairman would go at this time.

Maybe he changed his uniform when he saw something was wrong? He was slightly optimistic for a second.

"Everyone, be quiet." Perhaps annoyed by the hostages' whispering, the man sitting near the door slammed the table and cursed, threateningly sweeping the muzzle of his gun through the hostages, "Otherwise I'll kill the noisiest one first!"

The effect of this sentence combined with the gun was obvious. The other party had just raised the gun and said half of the sentence, but the citizens of Tokyo, who had to experience this kind of thing many times a week, became silent in a few seconds. They held their breath and stared at the kidnappers. Their movements were so uniform that it made people wonder how skilled they were.

The kidnapper almost flinched back in fear from all the stares. He couldn't help but type on his phone and curse his companions: [Are all Tokyo people crazy? I said I was going to kill them, but they kept staring at me. Normally, shouldn't they be too scared to even look at me?]

[It's normal. After all, this is Tokyo. It's a given that Tokyoites are all crazy.] A colleague replied, [Don't do unnecessary things. You can leave after completing the tasks assigned by the boss.]

[I guess they just haven't seen criminals from other places for a long time.] Another accomplice interjected, [I heard that criminals in Tokyo would not openly commit crimes in shopping malls like this in the daytime.]

[It's better than robbing a lousy bookstore. Who knows what the boss is thinking? This is my first time receiving an order from Tokyo.] The kidnapper was inspired by this sentence and started to curse in the channel, [He acted as if he despised us because we were from other places. Do people in Tokyo discriminate against different regions? Trash. If he didn't pay me so much, I really wanted to throw a bomb on his head!]

The accomplice who had sighed earlier - Akae Nazuki leaned against the wall and looked at this sentence on his mobile phone, touching his chin thoughtfully: He didn't feel whether Tokyo people discriminated against each other based on regional differences, probably because he changed the name of the company to Akae Group after inheriting the Karasuma Group, and he also told the outside world that he grew up in Tokyo when he was a child.

[What on earth do the people who hired these kidnappers want to do? They robbed a shopping mall and even set off bombs...] During this time, Shu, who had witnessed the stubbornness of Tokyo criminals along with his savior, could not help but sigh.

[Book] Not hearing Chi Jiang Na Yue's response, my heart skipped a beat and I had a bad feeling.

[Didn't you look at the other side? The person who hired these kidnappers,] Chi Jiang Na Yue paused for a moment, [It was Asa.]

[……? ]

The chairman blinked innocently.

To be precise, if you want to trace the whole picture of this incident, you have to go back to the moment before he took the little detective out of the door.

Since Chijiang Nayue was not prepared to let anyone connect the two identities of vigilante and criminal, when there was no special need, Asa would actually be active in the underground world. However, because his whereabouts were deliberately controlled, Wuming only managed to catch Asa on the tail every time.

If they were caught right away, they wouldn't be able to perform anymore.

While Wuming was actively fighting crime and the chairman was hanging out at various banquets and resorts, Asa was also very busy. Not only did he quickly recruit a bunch of loyal cannon fodder brothers who could be used as tools during this period, he also relied on the [Parliament] intelligence secretly delivered by Uesugi to mess up a lot of [Parliament] members' recent lists.

The frequency of the latter behavior has increased several times in the past two days, following the death of Mr. Yamamoto after the [Parliament] tried to attack the Chairman not long ago. The amount of money lost by the [Parliament] has made everyone feel suffocated.

So they couldn't bear it anymore and chose to take action in advance - before they fully understood Asa's weaknesses and specific intelligence, in order to lure Asa out, they chose to replicate their previous behavior.

Since Asa suddenly went crazy and wanted to mess with their industry because they sent people to attack Chijiang Nayue, and that lunatic Asa felt that this would ruin the game he had set up for Wuming - the [Parliament] guessed that this was because Chijiang Nayue was Wuming's sponsor - then as long as they try to mess with Chijiang Nayue again, that lunatic will take the bait, right?

The second-hand bookstore that Akae Nazuki told Conan was not just an excuse, he really found that place and made an appointment with the owner there to pick up the books this afternoon. He originally planned to pick them up himself and then deliver them directly to Conan when he came, but Conan came early and they could go together.

Unfortunately, that second-hand bookstore was located in Ikebukuro's busiest shopping mall... just across the street, and the Parliament also got the news.

So just like what the kidnapper complained, when Asa received the news, he learned that the fool in the Parliament was responsible for setting up the bait and letting the mercenaries from other places rob the old bookstore that Chijiang was going to visit that month.

Is the person in charge smart? Would a smart person come up with such a crazy idea? Is the person in charge stupid? At least he remembered to look for mercenaries in other places instead of searching for talents in Tokyo's already saturated mercenary market. Otherwise, Asa would have known about them the first time they were looking for people.

Now is not too late.

Asa went to see what kind of plan these idiots could come up with, and finally sat on the person in charge's thighs, which were torn by bullets, and sighed in disappointment.

"That's it?" The red-haired young man criticized the person in charge harshly. "I couldn't think of such a stupid plan when I was two years old. How are you going to deal with Asa like this?"

"Oh, Asa, it was me?" He thought for a moment, as if he could not hear the painful pleas and wails of the person in charge, and said to himself, "I knew that there were only a bunch of idiots outside. It turns out that only Little Moon is interesting to play with."

The person in charge shuddered, and recalled the scene a few minutes ago in his confused mind. He was sitting well in his car, and this killer god suddenly appeared in his car, shot him in the thigh without saying a word, and then sat on his thigh like now. Before sitting down, he even comforted him not to worry, and that he didn't mind if the blood on his leg stained his clothes.

The person in charge fully understood why the people in the action team and Asa who had come into contact with each other became mentally ill and called each other crazy.

Asa tore the plan into pieces and sent a new message to the deceived mercenaries before they went to rob the old bookstore, changing their destination to the shopping mall next to the old bookstore.

Although it was still embarrassing, Asa was not prepared to let them know that he was now the commander.

Oh, what shall we do with the wages of these mercenaries?

Asa thought for a second kindly: Send them to jail. The prison population has increased dramatically, and they don’t need a few bites of food!

On the other side, the original body, Akae Nazuki, received the message at the same time, so she happily took the little detective to Ikebukuro. However, in order to avoid damaging the book to be delivered during the subsequent operation, Akae Nazuki found an excuse and took the little detective into the shopping mall first.

The group of hired soldiers who appeared to be kidnappers took quick action and occupied an entire floor of the shopping mall just when Chi Jiang Na Yue left her child in the waiting room and went to wash her hands.

As soon as Chi Jiang Na Yue came out, he ran into the mercenary No. 1 who was passing outside the restroom. The two looked at each other, he gave the other a weak and sweet smile, and then punched the man mercilessly, knocking him unconscious.

Mercenary No. 1 is now lying on the toilet lid in the bathroom stall.

Naturally, the phone he used before was also the one he found on mercenary number one. Although Chi Jiang Na Yue knew who hired these people and their specific plans, Wu Ming theoretically would not know these things.

He was acting out his whole act, and he wasn't going to let the little detective catch him in such a minor detail.

After getting enough information from his accomplices on the phone, Chi Jiang Na Yue casually put the phone in his pocket and walked towards the waiting room where he left the little detective.

In the eyes of the people in the Parliament, the shopping mall is now a bait to catch Asa. In the eyes of Asa, it is an appetizer before starting the second game with Wuming. In the eyes of Wuming and the chairman, it should be a conspiracy aimed at them.

Therefore, if this key character does not appear, the plot will not be able to move forward.