Conan: I'm Really Not Tokyo Ghost Story

Page 154

Chapter 181, page 180: Just a passing card player came to fight.

"..."

In his sleep, Sano vaguely heard someone talking. Frustrated, he pulled the blanket over his ears and continued dreaming.

As the sun shifted and began to set, turning half the room orange-red, Sano sat up, bewildered.

...So tired, even though I didn't do anything.

After yawning, Sano got up to wash up, made himself a cup of instant noodles, and then...

"Beep, the current task has been triggered. You can check it at any time!"

The mission trigger sound came.

[Please rescue these four reckless kids who only know how to court death. Completion will earn you 50 enhancement points. Remaining time for the mission: 3:59:59.]

"..."

Sano, who was already used to babysitting assignments, first pulled out a map and glanced at the location of the mission target, Marutan Department Store, which was at least two hours' drive from his home.

...Which idiot boss is this, who could be so stupid as to give their company such an idiotic name?

No wonder Conan, that plague god, visited.

After somewhat speechless, Sano stared at the four-hour mission deadline for a while, sighed inwardly, and reluctantly put down the instant noodles he had just made before heading to the mission objective.

Soon, Sano arrived at Wandan Department Store.

However, it seemed that the department store doors were already tightly closed, perhaps because it was already closed for the day.

...No, it's only a little before seven o'clock, right? Do people get off work that early?

Sano, with a mixture of envy, jealousy, and resentment, looked down on the work ethic of the department store staff.

They should really send that model employee from Gin to teach these guys what dedication really means.

After adjusting his mindset, Sano looked around and saw that there was no one there. He tried switching identities and succeeded. He then took out the Kamen Rider keychain from his pocket.

Let's take this opportunity to experiment and also let account number three make an appearance.

Sano held the keychain, staring blankly for a moment, then muttered under his breath, "...hen~shin!"

……

Inside the department store, Conan and his three squad members were leaping and bounding, constantly trying to escape.

Today was supposed to be the day the three real kids had arranged to see the Kamen Rider puppet show. Conan, the fake kid, was dragged along, but that's not important. What's important is that when everything was over and Genta was already on his way home, he suddenly discovered that the Kamen Rider autograph he had received was gone.

Seeing the impatient little boy, Conan immediately showed off his deduction skills, confirming from the photos that Genta's autograph was left at the department store.

So the team went back to look for it again.

Unexpectedly, because it happened to be right around the department store's closing time, he was locked inside.

I thought it was no big deal and I could just tell the security guards. But to my surprise, the security guards at the department store had already been knocked unconscious and tied up.

A gang of robbers has apparently taken control of the department store!

This gang of robbers is probably the same group that committed several burglaries recently, making headlines in the newspapers. This time, they probably used the guise of a puppet show to infiltrate the department store, find out the plan, and then stay to take control of the situation.

Furthermore, their methods were skillful and experienced; they even cut things like telephone lines, preventing Conan and his friends from contacting the outside world.

This is really troublesome.

Conan's short legs swung so fast they were practically blurry. Although they had drawn an "SOS" distress sign on the rooftop window, it was late at night, and it was unlikely anyone would notice.

The department store's windows were made of thick, burglarproof glass, which was impossible to break open. Yuan Tai even caused quite a commotion, which led to them being discovered by the robbers and thus embarking on their escape.

Then, after much effort, Conan and his friends managed to tie up the two robbers with blankets, but two more robbers reappeared, making their situation increasingly dangerous.

"Damn it, damn it, what am I going to do?!"

Seeing two robbers in black bodysuits appear in front of him, Conan was forced to stop. He wanted to turn back, but he didn't expect that another robber in a bodysuit and a robber dressed as Kamen Rider had already blocked his way.

"Hey kids, let's see how you run now!"

The robber, dressed as Kamen Rider, approached the panicked squad members in the middle with a savage grin on his face.

"What should I do, Conan?!"

The real children fearfully sought guidance from the core of their subconscious.

Conan, too, doesn't know what to do.

If there were only two opponents, I might be able to gamble with my enhanced leg strength shoes and tranquilizer watch, but there are four enemies.

Even if two are solved, the remaining two still cannot be solved.

I can't worry about anything else, I need to tear a hole and escape first!

However, just as Conan was preparing for his final gamble, a dark figure suddenly descended from the sky and landed directly between the two sides, causing both to be momentarily stunned.

The sudden intervention is like adding a third beam to a balance scale, which may change the original imbalance.

Who exactly is coming?

Both sides looked at it carefully with doubt in their eyes.

Sano, who had jumped down from the previous floor in a superhero-like landing pose, slowly stood up. His gaze fell on the robber dressed as Kamen Rider, and he couldn't help but feel a little annoyed.

After obtaining the Kamen Rider keychain, is the Kamen Rider Robber mission available?

...Shouldn't you feel a little guilty about this pirated copy?

"Ah, it's Kamen Rider!"

As die-hard fans of Kamen Rider, the team members recognized the suddenly appearing figure at first glance, but only Ayumi, the little girl, had the mind to exclaim in surprise: "...Although it's black."

"..."

Little girl, in this kind of situation, please don't complain, okay?

Sano was speechless. The robber dressed as Kamen Rider, after realizing what was happening, sneered and mocked, "What's wrong with you? Do you really think you're Kamen Rider, daring to come out and do a good deed?"

"Even if you're not good-for-nothing, you should at least get an authentic outfit to wear. Aren't you ashamed to wear a knock-off?"

"Hahaha."

Looking at the gang of robbers laughing wildly, Sano finally spoke up: "I never said I was Kamen Rider."

The languid voice came from under the helmet, sounding somewhat muffled.

"I'm just a Kamen Rider who's passing by."

Since this enhanced version is a bootleg Kamen Rider, and Kamen Rider is a bootleg Kamen Rider, doesn't that mean Sano's version is the real deal?

Yes, the logic is very clear.

Unfortunately, these bandits clearly didn't understand Sano's joke.

The fact that their plan was discovered was troublesome enough, but now the person they needed to silence had become an adult in addition to the children. They didn't have time to waste on nonsense.

Making money is the most important thing!

Without saying a word, the four bandits used their numerical advantage to pounce on Sano.

Seeing this, Conan originally wanted to warn the unknown person who, although seemingly a bit dim-witted, was at least not on the opposing side, to be careful—after all, he was the only teammate with relatively high combat ability on his side.

But to everyone's surprise, the black figure simply shifted its body twice and perfectly slipped through the attack of the four bandits.

"what's the situation?"

The four robbers, having missed their target, lay on the ground, completely bewildered. The Masked Superman robber reacted the fastest, getting up and immediately pulling out a dagger to stab Sano.

"go to hell!"

too slow.

Sano grabbed the other person's arm and punched him in the face, causing the other person to immediately bleed from his nose.

The three bodysuit-clad robbers who followed behind also threw punches and kicks at Sano, but Sano easily dodged them all, and each of them delivered a friendly punch to his face.

...Sano's significant improvement in agility is most directly reflected in his eyesight, hearing, and reaction speed.

However, this does not mean that the flexibility attribute has no other convenient improvements.

Leaving aside the aspects that are greatly affected by burst and constitution attributes, the other most important point is control.

Let's call it control, or perhaps coordination?

It's basically about having control over your own body. It might not sound like much, but it's actually very useful, especially when combined with the factors mentioned earlier.

In a popular anime, there was a concept of "the eyes can keep up, but the body can't." In Sano's opinion, the main reason why the body can't keep up is because of a lack of agility... or rather, a lack of control.

With the help of the superhuman effect, whenever Sano concentrates, he can feel the presence of every cell in his body.

The contraction and expansion of every muscle, even the undulation of every single hair.

In this state, Sano's body can receive commands faster than others... to put it bluntly, it's probably equivalent to the dodge rate in a game.

Of course, this alone is not enough.

The improved control over his body means that Sano can now perform some fighting techniques that he couldn't do before with great ease, and his skill level has been slightly improved.

Furthermore, with the significant boost to his agility attribute, Sano's burst and constitution attributes also received a considerable improvement.

With these combined, dealing with a few small karaomis would be a piece of cake.

Sano beat the four bandits to a pulp.

Unfortunately, even with the Superman effect alone, the power of Sano's punches is ultimately not as strong as the boost from the special attack suit.

More importantly, Sano also intends to truly mold this Black Masked Superman into a superhero, making it less convenient to use some of the more ruthless techniques—after all, a superhero who can kill is not a superhero.

Looking at the four bandits who had been beaten black and blue and were staggering, and at the other four members of the small team who had started to squat on the ground to watch the show and even cheer, he was shocked.

Sano let out a deep breath.

"Shh!"

Sano suddenly unleashed a spinning kick, followed by a knight's kick, which struck a nearby stone pillar.

"Snap—"

What seemed like a light, effortless kick transformed into a raging storm the instant it landed.