The short-haired, brown-haired girl sat in front of the computer, looking at the results with satisfaction.
But soon, a new doubt arose in her mind:
There's no reason! According to the organization's usual rules, the word 'death' on the list is only written after thorough confirmation. Is it really possible to trick these people?
And even if he really escaped death and tricked them, why would he dare to appear so openly?
However, thinking that even she herself couldn't recognize him when comparing him to photos, he should at least still be safe for now, right? Or is he just someone who looks similar?
Looking at the '98%' similarity displayed brightly on the computer screen, the girl fell into deep thought—perhaps she should investigate 'his' cause of death!
Thinking this, the girl typed a piece of code on the keyboard. After confirming its execution, the computer data quickly began to format!
Waiting for the formatting to finish, the girl turned off the computer, disassembled the hard drive, and then took out a new hard drive from her backpack and reinstalled it into the computer.
The disassembled hard drive was further stripped of its casing by the girl, revealing the internal disk portion.
Next, the girl took the hard drive with the exposed disk portion to the bathroom with tiled floors, took out three tubes of powder from her backpack, mixed them, poured them onto the disk, and then used tweezers to retrieve a small strip of metal from a sealed bottle in her backpack, placing it on the mixed powder.
After doing all this, the girl composed herself, took out a match, and lit the strip of metal!
Soon, as a strong light flared up, a reassuring smile appeared on the girl's lips—the thermite reaction, a reaction whose temperature can reach over 3000℃ in a short time, was enough to completely destroy the disk!
At this moment, Teitan High School was just letting out. Shinichi Kudo and Ran had packed their bags and were about to leave the school together when they saw that the school gate was already surrounded by reporters carrying cameras and microphones.
"Shinichi Kudo is coming out!"
A reporter, no one knew who, shouted this, and then all the reporters swarmed forward, blocking Shinichi Kudo's path. Cameras continuously snapped pictures of Shinichi Kudo, leaving Shinichi Kudo and Ran momentarily at a loss.
"I heard that today your mother, Ms. Yukiko, resolved an incident at Beika City Hall as the 'Dark Night Baroness.' Are you aware of this?"
A reporter at the very front held a microphone and asked, leaning towards Shinichi Kudo.
"Were you involved in the incident that occurred today?"
Another reporter squeezed out from the crowd and asked, rushing ahead.
"According to reliable sources, Ms. Yukiko made a phone call before solving the case. Was that call to you?"
Once again, a reporter blocked others behind him and rushed forward to ask.
Hearing these continuous questions, Shinichi Kudo finally understood what had happened—that old hag!
Facing this situation, Shinichi Kudo didn't know how to answer. At this moment, Ran beside him suddenly grabbed Shinichi Kudo's hand and rushed out of the reporters' encirclement from the side.
"In any case, let's get out of here quickly!"
Ran said.
Watching the two run away quickly, the group of reporters carrying equipment could only watch helplessly, unable to catch up with them.
"So, what exactly happened? What big case did you solve that attracted so many reporters?"
On the way, Ran asked.
"Idiot. It wasn't me!"
Shinichi Kudo said helplessly, "It was my mom! It must have been her. Today, she made a big splash by solving some case in public, which made these reporters flock here!"
"Huh? Shinichi's mom is back?"
Ran said with some surprise.
"Yeah. She came back yesterday and gave me a scare at home. But now, she should be back in America."
Shinichi Kudo said with a hint of helplessness.
Just then, Ran's phone rang. The caller ID showed Suzuki Sonoko.
"Hello, Ran. Are you and Kudo on your way home?"
Picking up the phone, Suzuki Sonoko's voice came through.
"Yes."
"Then I'm afraid you two shouldn't go to the Kudo Residence yet. The Kudo Residence is currently blocked by a group of reporters."
"Huh? Shinichi's house too!"
Hearing Suzuki Sonoko say this, Ran was a bit surprised.
"But, Sonoko, how do you know?"
Ran asked.
"Because I'm near the Kudo Residence right now. Anyway, you two shouldn't come back yet!"
Suzuki Sonoko finished speaking and hung up the phone.
"What should we do, Shinichi?"
Ran looked at Shinichi Kudo and asked.
"I expected this."
Shinichi Kudo was not surprised by this situation, "Let's find a place to hide for now."
"Then why don't we go to my house?"
Ran suggested.
"But, Uncle..."
Shinichi Kudo thought of Ran's father, Mouri Kogoro, and said with some awkwardness, but after thinking it over, he still chose to compromise. So the two headed to the Mouri Detective Agency, located at 5-chome, 39 Beika Town, Beika City, Tokyo.
At the same time, Suzuki Sonoko, who had hung up the phone, was sitting in a truck and arrived at Takato's House.
At this moment, Takato was in front of his computer, typing code and writing a simple web crawler. Then he heard his doorbell ring.
So, Takato got up and went to the window on the second floor, seeing Suzuki Sonoko ringing the doorbell outside, and the conspicuous truck behind her!
Seeing this, Takato was a bit puzzled. After thinking for a moment, he still put on the trench coat that had been splashed with champagne and not yet cleaned, and went out to open the door.
"Miss Suzuki. Is there something I can help you with?"
Coming to the iron gate to open it for Suzuki Sonoko, Takato asked, puzzled.
"Well! Because of the Art Club incident before, I heard from Inspector Megure that it was all thanks to Mr. Akechi's help that I was rescued so quickly, so today I've come to thank you!"
Suzuki Sonoko said, directing the freight workers in the truck behind her to move several pieces of furniture into Takato's House.
"I noticed Mr. Akechi's house didn't have much furniture before, so I just bought a random sofa set as my thank you gift."
"This, I really feel undeserving."
Takato said with some surprise, but sighed inwardly—for his current self, it would have been better to just get cash, as he was almost out of money!
However, being repaid by Suzuki Sonoko like this, it seemed he hadn't truly been treated as a friend by her yet.
Soon, the freight workers finished moving the furniture. After Suzuki Sonoko signed a form presented by them, they drove the truck away.
"Well, I should probably go too. I still have something to do with Ran and the others."
Seeing that the matter was concluded, Suzuki Sonoko said. After they politely said their goodbyes, Suzuki Sonoko walked away.
Returning to the house, Takato looked at the once empty living room, now with a sofa set and coffee table, and couldn't help but feel a little emotional. He had to admit that the sofa set Suzuki Sonoko chose matched the villa's decor quite well. However, his top priority now was to find a way to make money!
Returning to the second floor, he sat in front of the computer and continued writing the almost finished 'crawler' code—searching for data manually was too slow, so he needed software. Once this was done, he could thoroughly check where he could take on lucrative Detective commissions!