Because Takato had to find a way to hack into Japan's household registration system, he had spent these past few days researching the most cutting-edge cyberattack and defense technologies of this era.
However, compared to the technological level of his previous world, which he had studied during his postgraduate years, it was too far behind.
Therefore, Takato believed that the hacking methods in this world should not be so strong that he couldn't handle them.
But the current situation was completely beyond his control: a virus he hadn't detected and couldn't stop was thoroughly deleting data from the server's main computer.
Facing this situation, and considering the world of "Detective Conan," the name "Night Baron Virus" naturally flashed in his mind.
This virus was first mentioned in "The Night Baron Murder Case."
Legend has it that it is an illusory computer virus that slowly infiltrates and destroys computers in various major enterprises, a perfect program that engineers cannot detect or stop.
And because this virus was so elusive, it was named "Night Baron"!
The organizers of the event offered "Night Baron" as a reward to the winner of the activity.
But after the case was solved, everyone discovered that the organizers did not possess such a virus; they merely hoped to use it as bait to lure and kill the victim, believing that this virus was only a legend.
However, later on, the virus did indeed appear after Shiho Miyano shrank.
When Haibara Ai used the data disk containing all personnel, drugs, and other relevant information of the Black Organization, which Dr. Agasa, Conan, and she herself had collectively retrieved, Haibara, in her haste to open it, carelessly forgot the fact that the Organization had installed this virus in all disks.
As a result, all the data disappeared shortly after being opened.
The reason was that the disk was not run on a computer within the Organization, thus activating the virus in the disk, and consequently, all data in Dr. Agasa's computer and on the disk were destroyed.
Besides this, there was no other mention of this virus.
Therefore, Takato had considered when watching the "Detective Conan" plot that this might be a virus developed by the Black Organization, after all, attacking major enterprises and protecting their own data from being leaked are things the Black Organization has always been doing.
Thinking of this, Takato felt a headache.
If his assumption was correct, then he had only been in this world for a few days, and he had already had two possible contacts with the Black Organization, which was absolutely chilling!
However, if it really was the "Night Baron" that attacked the internet cafe's main computer, why would it?
Could the internet cafe's cyberattack and this murder case have something to do with the Organization?
Watching the data on the main computer being completely destroyed, the manager, Kinoshita Kawashi, began to panic.
"Akechi! Is there still a way to restore this?"
Takato shook his head, "There's no way.
It was destroyed too thoroughly, even..."
Even the virus itself left no trace!
With such a virus, unless you happen to catch it in the act of destroying your computer data, afterwards you would have no idea what happened, and your computer data would be completely ruined.
And even if you saw it destroying data, it would already be too late to stop it.
But the difference between this virus and the previous Trojan attack was too great.
One stole data from the computer by occupying a large amount of bandwidth, while the other silently and completely destroyed all data.
Was there any connection between the two?
Hattori Heiji, who was nearby, looked at the manager and asked, "Manager, does this server store any important information?"
"It's not that important, but our server stores some data from the General Company, and we also lease it to some important clients to store important data.
If it's all destroyed now, how am I going to explain it to the General Company and our clients!"
The manager seemed at a loss.
"General Company?"
Takato was a bit surprised; was this internet cafe also a chain enterprise?
"Our internet cafe is a subsidiary of a gaming company, and we often open up some game test content developed by the company here to the public."
Kinoshita Kawashi explained.
And upon hearing "gaming company," Takato immediately thought of how the Black Organization had extensively sought out programmer information, and of course, there were a large number of programmers within gaming companies.
A connection began to emerge between the two!
Moreover, the previous Trojan was stealing data; although he had stopped it these past few days, considering that it had been attacked before he arrived, and with the silent "Night Baron" present, who knew what data had actually been leaked!
"Anyway, regarding the deduction of the murder case just now, the employee who took leave and stayed home is very suspicious.
Let's not waste too much time on this computer virus matter for now."
Hattori Heiji analyzed the current situation and suggested.
"Besides, very little time has passed since the incident, and the killer might not have had time to dispose of the evidence yet!"
"Then without further ado, Manager, do you know where this employee lives?"
Officer Otaki immediately followed up with the question.
The manager replied that the store's personnel files should have that information, so he went to his office to retrieve it.
At this moment, the Police officer investigating the victim's identity came to report to Officer Otaki, saying that they currently couldn't find the victim's real identity information.
They only found in the Police database that the victim was suspected of being involved in several blackmail cases, but because there was no evidence, they all ended up unresolved.
Such information was not very valuable, so Officer Otaki told them to continue investigating.
Manager Kinoshita Kawashi also came back with the information at this time.
"Kitajima Satoru, he lives in a nearby rental apartment.
The address is here."
Saying this, the manager handed Kitajima Satoru's personnel file to Officer Otaki.
"Kitajima Satoru?"
The Police officer who had just finished reporting heard this name, and just as he was about to leave, he suddenly stopped.
"What's wrong?"
Seeing his subordinate's reaction, Officer Otaki asked.
"Among the complainants in these blackmail cases, there was one named Kitajima Satoru!"
Upon receiving this answer, Hattori Heiji immediately rushed out after looking at Kitajima Satoru's address; Officer Otaki didn't even react for a moment.
"Heiji! Wait a minute!"
Officer Otaki saw that he couldn't stop him, so he called the Police officer who had just reported and followed them.
Toyama Kazuha, who was standing by, couldn't help but look a bit angry when she saw Hattori Heiji like this.
"Didn't we agree to treat someone to dinner? Now the reservation time is almost over."
Looking at the sulking Female student, Takato felt a bit helpless.
"If you're worried about him, just go and see."
"Worried?
That guy who forgets everything when he encounters a case, I'm not worried about him at all!"
Kazuha said this, but Takato knew she was saying one thing but meaning another.
"On the contrary, you're really amazing. You thought more than Heiji just now. You really managed to curb his arrogance!"
Thought more?
Hearing Kazuha say this, Takato felt a bit embarrassed, after all, if this case really involved the Black Organization, his previous deduction might even be wrong!
Just like that speculation about "revenge."
Takato now vaguely felt that there seemed to be some problem here, but he couldn't articulate it more specifically; he still needed to meet Kitajima Satoru, the suspect who might be the killer, before saying more.
So Takato also quickly followed.
And Kazuha, after much deliberation, also followed them.
Takato just hadn't expected that upon arriving at Kitajima Satoru's residence, what he saw was Kitajima Satoru confessing to the Police!