Looking at the interface that appeared, Takato was a bit puzzled. He had already deduced the answer long ago, so why was it only appearing now? Could it be that because he wasn't on site, his deductions couldn't influence the deduction progress there, so the case wouldn't be closed until Shinichi Kudo made his deductions on site?
"Deduction complete, closing case"
"Case Closing Overall Rating: A"
"Knowledge: S"
"Logic: A"
"Observation: A"
"Settlement complete, overall rating reached A, reward money 40"
Looking at the rating that didn't reach "S" rank, Takato showed a clear expression—sure enough, he must have seen this case somewhere before, so when observing details and deducing the case, he would intentionally lean towards the correct direction, resulting in being unable to obtain an "S" rank rating in "Logic" and "Observation." But did this case appear in the original work?
However, Takato's attention was quickly drawn to the newly appearing text:
"Attention: As the Detective's bounty has exceeded 150, you have gained promotion qualification. Do you wish to start the challenge?"
Promotion Challenge?
If he remembered correctly, in the game "Bounty Detective," the so-called promotion challenge was a challenge to raise the Detective's rating, triggered when the bounty value reached a certain amount. The content of the challenge was a series of case deductions.
This type of challenge usually consisted of a series of cases, typically made up of several cases. Players needed to complete all the case deductions in the entire series, and only if the final average overall rating was above "A" rank would they pass and successfully advance to the next Detective rating.
If the challenge failed, a certain amount of bounty would be deducted. The higher the promotion level, the higher the amount of bounty deducted.
Currently, he was at the lowest level, "Apprentice Detective," so the next stage of promotion would be "Assistant Detective." If the challenge failed, 50 bounty would be deducted.
At this time, his bounty was only 170. If the challenge failed, he would have to complete another case to regain the qualification for the promotion challenge. So, should he accept it or not?
Admittedly, before crossing over, some players in "Bounty Detective" would choose to accumulate enough bounty before starting the challenge so that even if they failed once, they could continue the challenge after the bounty deduction.
However, Takato, as a player ranked in the top ten in the region, wouldn't play this way, because as the Detective rating increased, it would be easier to encounter high-difficulty cases. And by deducing these cases, even if he only received a relatively low rating in the end, he could still obtain a large amount of bounty.
To aim for a higher ranking, he had to participate in more of these cases to earn more bounty. Otherwise, given that even an "S" rank in the early stages only yielded 50 bounty, how long would it take to reach the promotion qualification that required tens of thousands of bounty?
But now he was in the real world. What impact would this "High School Detective" rating on the panel have on him?
At this moment, Hattori Heiji suddenly asked.
"Detective Brother, what are you thinking about?"
Takato also snapped out of his daze.
"No, I was just thinking how impressive you High School "High School Detective"s are."
"Of course."
Hearing Takato's praise, Hattori was still a bit proud.
"Although I've lost to Detective Brother twice, I'll win against you in the future!"
"But, I really want to meet him soon, the Famous Detective of Tokyo, Shinichi Kudo."
Watching the program end on the TV screen, Takato said.
"What? Mr. Akechi, are you planning to go to Tokyo?"
Kazuha understood Takato's meaning.
"Yes, I plan to leave for Tokyo in a couple of days."
"That's perfect then. I'll be going to Teitan High School in Tokyo in half a month to participate in a kendo competition. You can come and watch my competition then!"
Hattori invited Takato, "And you can also meet that Shinichi Kudo from that high school!"
"I say, Heiji, your competition is on the weekend, he doesn't have school that day."
Kazuha reminded him.
"Oh, you never know, we might just run into him!"
Hattori retorted.
Watching the two bickering, Takato silently took a sip of water—from the original work, it seems you two didn't meet. But if my appearance changes things, it's hard to say.
Looking at the panel again, he wondered how this promotion challenge would be realized in reality. It couldn't possibly be like in the game, where cases are drawn from a case story database, could it?
After pondering for a moment, Takato decided to accept, because he suddenly remembered that successfully promoting each time would grant him several special items to help solve cases!
Thus, new text appeared on the panel.
"Assistant Detective Promotion Challenge, please select the case you wish to challenge:"
"Case One: The Tycoon's Anxiety (Wealth can be obtained)"
"Case Two: The Tragic Case from Twenty Years Ago (Fame can be obtained)"
Looking at the newly appeared text, Takato was a bit surprised. Although in the game, promotion challenge questions were also drawn from a pool of corresponding difficulty for players to choose from, what did the text in parentheses mean? Could it be that by solving this case, he could actually gain wealth or fame in reality?
That would be truly unexpected!
Facing these two choices, Takato unhesitatingly chose "Case One." Thus, new text appeared:
"Case One: The Tycoon's Anxiety (Wealth can be obtained)"
"Phase One: There's a strange set of numbers on the cover of the fashion magazine Toyama Kazuha bought today. Decipher it and quickly find out who left this set of numbers."
Upon seeing this, Takato was surprised. This was directly finding a case in reality for him to solve! That meant that the case indicated by "Case Two" also existed in reality!
So, his choice was actually giving him a hint on how to find an opportunity to get into the case?
Speaking of which, Kazuha's bag indeed contained a fashion magazine. Because her handbag was too small, a part of the rolled-up magazine was exposed outside the bag.
"Miss Toyama, your magazine…"
Takato had just opened his mouth when he realized he hadn't thought of an excuse to look at it, and it felt awkward for a man to borrow a women's fashion magazine from a Female student.
"Oh, you mean this one?"
Kazuha took the magazine out of her bag and unrolled it.
"Actually, when I first saw Mr. Akechi today, I wanted to tell you that the outfit the model on the back cover is wearing looks quite similar to yours. It's just that because of Heiji, I forgot for a moment. I didn't expect Mr. Akechi to notice it himself!"
What was initially an awkward topic became reasonable with Kazuha's explanation, and Takato couldn't help but breathe a sigh of relief.
However, what he wanted to see was the cover, and Kazuha was currently showing him the back cover.
"Can I see it?"
"Of course."
Kazuha said, handing the magazine to Takato.
"I didn't expect Mr. Akechi to be quite interested in fashion!"
Takato took the magazine and flipped to the cover. On the cover was a stylish female photo. Next to the photo, a graffiti drawing was abruptly depicted, in which a seemingly randomly generated number sequence was hidden. Takato carefully looked at the numbers within, recognizing them as: 9, 53, 60, 75, 57, 22, 23, 99.
If it weren't for the hint, no one would have guessed that what appeared to be merely artistic creation on the cover was actually a secret code with hidden meaning!
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