Chapter 5 The Mihana Shopping Mall Robbery and Bombing
[Please select a disguise for your use when performing time reversal missions.] The system's voice rang in his ears.
Cheng approached the system interface, indicating his understanding of the time reversal. In order not to disrupt the order of the Detective Conan world, the task of reversing time could not be performed using one's original appearance; the system would provide a disguise that would be impossible to detect.
This isn't disguise at all, it's a face-changing act!
Unfortunately, the disguise could only be used in missions involving rewinding time; otherwise, he would have created several aliases. Cheng expressed his regret.
Cheng chose to disguise himself as a young Japanese man with an average face. System: [OK, mission begins!]
At that moment, he felt dizzy, and the world began to distort and disappear, as if an extremely strong force was pulling Cheng You downwards.
A feeling of weightlessness swept over him, and when Cheng You opened his eyes again, he was already standing on the second floor of a shopping mall in Beika Town, but for some reason it was so deserted.
He subconsciously took out his phone and glanced at the time. It was November 1st, seven years ago, before the bombing case that Kenji Hagiwara was handling had even occurred.
System Description: [The Time Rewind function allows you to randomly travel to one month before or after the death of your mission objective. Changes you make during this period will have an impact on the future, provided the mission objective is successfully saved. If the mission objective dies, the time rewind is invalid, and all changes you made will not be reflected in reality.]
[A reminder: you only get one chance.]
"Your rules are so complicated and completely useless," Cheng thought to himself as he walked between the shelves.
The system remained silent, maintaining its air of mystery: "I believe the host will need these rules in the future."
The shopping mall was in turmoil for some unknown reason, and the faint sound of police sirens could even be heard. Cheng You was standing on the second floor, squinting through the glass window. He saw several police cars parked in front of the mall, with police officers standing there with guns raised and serious expressions, not daring to make any rash moves.
"Sure enough, cases are happening all the time in Beika Town." Cheng You curled his lips. Although there is no Conan yet, he believes that the police will handle these things. At this time, the five-person group has not been separated due to the undercover agent and death.
He wasn't worried at all and prepared to wander around the deserted area again. After all, there was a group of hooded robbers with guns guarding the entrance on the first floor, and he couldn't leave. But as he turned the corner, he caught a glimpse of a particularly familiar figure among the many police officers at the mall entrance.
Black, shoulder-length hair; willow-leaf eyes; violet eyes.
——Hagihara Kenji.
Could there be eight eggs (bombs)? Cheng wondered. This was a good opportunity to get closer to Kenji Hagiwara.
Without hesitation, he pulled out his phone and eagerly browsed the latest news reports. Such a significant event would inevitably generate related revelations online.
As expected, the latest push notification was indeed this news—"Robbery and Bombing at Mihua Shopping Mall." Cheng You glanced at the content and learned that the criminal gang, enraged that the hostages had secretly hidden their phones to call the police during the mall robbery, planted an unknown number of bombs inside the mall and used them to threaten the police into paying a ransom to rescue so many hostages.
After all, if an explosion occurs, not only will the hostages inside the mall die, but a large area around it will also be affected, and it will also cause negative public opinion.
"Hiss." Cheng You held his phone away (like an old man on the subway looking at his phone). "Is it this exciting right from the start?"
"Hey! You over there with your phone!" A rude shout came from afar. Cheng You turned around and saw a hooded robber pressing a gun hard against Cheng You's lower back, demanding, "Hey, can't you hear me? Hiding on the second floor?! I'm asking you, why aren't you handing over your phone?"
A fleeting glint of gloom crossed Cheng You's eyes. Just as the robber thought he was seeing things and rubbed his eyes, Cheng You naturally switched to fear, accompanied by trembling movements, and hurriedly handed the phone to the other party: "I didn't hear you! Don't kill me!"
Seeing the man who had been so arrogant just moments before turn around and surrender to him, the robber felt a strange sense of superiority, as if he could easily control someone else's life. This feeling of superiority gave him immense pleasure.
Cheng You listened to his inner thoughts and kept rolling her eyes inwardly.
"Heh, we won't kill you, after all, the police haven't taken the money yet. No matter how valuable the things in this mall are, they're not as valuable as human lives, right?" The robber's face showed greed. "I wonder how much the police will pay for your lives?" He let out a sharp, eerie laugh and walked towards the windowsill. Cheng You secretly watched and discovered that the other party had stuck a bomb there.
After planting the bomb, the robber held a gun to Cheng You's lower back, forcing him to come downstairs and squat down with his hands behind his head. He excitedly told the robber leader, "We just caught a fugitive on the second floor. We can ask those police officers for another ransom."
Cheng You squatted on the ground, his face showing panic, but he was still thinking about whether the bomb was timed or remotely controlled. Although he had seen the bomb's structure, he knew nothing about it.
So he decided to make good use of the abilities given to him by the system to resolve the incident ahead of time, and also to make his presence known to Kenji Hagiwara.
Although he can now hear the thoughts of these robbers, all he hears are their bizarre, perverse pleasures and greedy ideas, with no useful information at all. It seems he still needs to guide them properly.
“Hey,” Cheng suddenly stood up.
"What are you doing?!" The robber who had just gone up to the second floor to plant the bomb glared at him menacingly.
"I need to go to the restroom."
"Tsk, why are you making such a fuss?! Be careful or I'll shoot you!" the robber said viciously, deliberately pointing his gun at Cheng Youtoulu.
"I see, don't do this," the bandit leader said indifferently. "After all, these cowards are quite valuable."
"Tsk," the robber named Jiejian said, pushing Cheng You with his gun. "Go quickly."
Cheng had his hands raised as he was forced into the toilet stall by people behind him who kept pointing guns at him.
"hurry up!"
"Okay." Cheng You hurriedly closed the cubicle door. The moment the door closed, his expression naturally transitioned from panic to ruthlessness.
Because he was wearing a suit, he also had three scalpels in his pocket for self-defense. The moment he touched the knives, Cheng You had already thought of a strategy to deal with them.
He sat on the toilet seat, pretending to have an upset stomach, and started chatting with Jiejian, who was boredly waiting outside the door, "Are you really going to let us go?"
"Why did it take you so long?" Jie Jian ignored his question and spoke in a very unfriendly tone.
"I...I have a phobia allergy. When I'm scared, I have an allergic reaction and then get an upset stomach," Cheng You said quietly, toying with a scalpel. "By the way...how many bombs are you hiding? You're not really going to blow up this whole mall, are you?"
"Hahaha, of course, you're scared now!" the robber laughed.
"You don't know how many bombs there are either? Looks like your boss doesn't think much of you."
"Nonsense! Of course I know! There are only eight bombs!" the robber exclaimed angrily.
[These were all bombs we bought through illegal channels; they were very ordinary, but the police weren't laughing.]
"You haven't forgotten where the bomb is, have you? What if the timer runs out?"
"How could that be? There are four bombs on both the first and second floors, and those bombs are remote-controlled!" the robber said smugly. He thought he could intimidate his opponent with these bombs, but his true intentions had already been exposed.
—【The remote control is too advanced. We're using bombs with a ten-hour timer. A simple toy button can easily scare you. The bombs will explode one by one after ten hours. Even if the police pay the ransom, we won't stop bombing, hahaha.】
"Ah...I see..." Cheng You smiled with satisfaction, opened the mobile phone function on the system interface, logged into his current email account and password, and quickly sent a message to the Metropolitan Police Department.
Next came the waiting. Just as Cheng had expected, the robber downstairs, who hadn't seen him for a long time, called: "Hey, Jie Jian! Where have you been?!"
"Oh no, this hostage has diarrhea!"
"Come here quickly, ignore him, just lock him in the cubicle, we need you here!"
"Okay, I'm coming right now." After hanging up the phone, Cheng You's sinister laughter came through.
"What kind of tone is that?" Hearing the other party's smug voice, the robber had a bad feeling.
"Clang—" The door to the cubicle was pushed open. The robber hadn't even had time to brace the doorknob with the mop, but he wasn't worried at all. Anyway, they could go downstairs together now. "You're so slow. Hurry up, let's go downstairs quickly."
The robber had just turned around when he felt a chill on his neck. Suddenly, his heart raced, and he sensed something. So he slowly turned around and saw Cheng You with a "kind" expression.
With a karate chop, he knocked the robber unconscious. Then he pulled at the robber's coat and hood, but... Cheng disgustedly threw away the hood that had already been put on.
Cheng dressed as a robber, tucked his pistol into his waistband, threw the robber into the cubicle, and used a mop handle to jam the doorknob. After doing all that, he went to the second-floor shelf and randomly picked up a black mask.
Eight bombs... He searched the second floor and finally found four bombs at the counter and windows, but he dared not make any rash moves. He just found the locations but did not touch them.
[Ring~ Host~ There's a message~]
Cheng looked at the new message in his account's email on the system interface; it was signed by Officer Hagiwara.
The message he sent to the Metropolitan Police Department roughly stated that there were eight bombs there and that he would open the second-floor window so they could sneak in.
Kenji Hagiwara replied: I need to take a look at the bomb's structure. I hope you can do your best.
Cheng looked at the system interface. Actually, the system was advanced enough that it could be used as a mobile phone by logging in to an account, but it seemed that it could not take pictures.
The system grumbled, "[You underestimate me. I'm a new-era system; I can recognize objects and create images.]" It then scanned the bomb on the windowsill and generated a clear image of the bomb on the interface.
After sending the picture, Cheng added a message: "Message me after you come in, and I'll help you control the gang leader."
When he opened the window, Kenji Hagiwara replied, "Don't push yourself. We're police officers; we'll protect you all."
Cheng smiled upon seeing the message and slowly made his way downstairs. His next task was to stop the armed robbers as much as possible and, ideally, retrieve his phone beforehand; otherwise, how would he explain his texting to the police later?
When he got downstairs, one of the robbers raised an eyebrow at him and asked, "Why are you wearing a different mask?"
"It stinks in the toilet." Cheng You heard Jie Jian's inner thoughts and had roughly guessed his personality, so his disguise was almost flawless.
They said they needed him for something, but really he was just there to watch over the hostages. Cheng You couldn't help but feel bored.
Suddenly, the system notified him of a message. He opened it and saw that it was a message from Kenji Hagiwara saying that he had successfully reached the second floor.
"It's finally done." Cheng You smiled.
The other robbers were startled by his sudden movement and couldn't help but yell, "What are you doing?"
In a flash, they only saw a dark shadow flash past their eyes, and when they came to their senses again, a gun was already pressed against the head of the robber leader.
Then came a calm but arrogant voice:
"Don't move."
A note from the author:
Long, long ago, deep in a dense forest, lived a monster named "Collection," accompanied by its good brother "Pre-Collection." Since their appearance, the author has been terrified for days, not daring to set foot on Little Green River in search of food.
Fortunately, at this critical moment, the forest welcomed a valiant knight, whom the people of Little Green River called "The Reader." The Reader, wielding a radiant sword, illuminated the dark corner where the collection and pre-orders were located, successfully rescuing the author from his predicament.
From then on, the author and the reader lived a happy and fulfilling life together.
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