Chapter 11: Maple Leaf Gold Coins
Upon seeing the glowing blue text of the System's mission information, Natsume's casual curiosity instantly sharpened into absolute focus. Originally, she had only intended to humor the children and give the puzzle a passing glance, but the promised reward changed everything. Once this world mission was completed, she would finally have saved up enough Primogems for a ten-pull. She could summon another character to join her ranks.
She lowered her gaze back to the crumpled slip of paper in her hand, observing its contents with newfound intensity. The surface was covered in crude, irregular patterns—a jagged crescent moon, a misshapen triangle, and the three distinct letters ORO scrawled across the bottom.
Natsume searched her memories, trying to recall exactly how these specific symbols were decrypted. The details were fuzzy, buried under years of mundane office work from her past life, but she vaguely remembered it had something to do with the glow of neon lights reflecting at night.
Seeing Natsume stare silently at the treasure map for an extended period, Genta shifted his weight from foot to foot, his patience wearing thin. "Sister Natsume, how is it? Do you have any leads?"
"Hmm..." Natsume dragged out the hum, putting on a thoughtful expression. "The person who gave you this puzzle is quite impressive. I don't have any solid leads right now either." She deliberately softened her tone, pretending to treat the map like a harmless riddle given to the kids by an eccentric adult. Then, she offered a small, calculated hint. "However, I do know what these letters mean."
Conan, who had been trying to act like a normal child, instantly dropped the act. He could not sit still when a code was involved. His mind was already racing through ciphers and anagrams, and he leaned in, asking with urgent intensity, "What is it?"
"It is the Italian word for gold," Natsume answered directly, seeing no reason to keep them in suspense. She offered Genta an encouraging smile. "It looks like the treasure you are looking for is gold. I will be waiting for Genta to find it and treat me to a massive meal."
She played the part perfectly—an indulgent older sister who did not truly believe a real treasure existed, yet fully supported the children's imaginative little game. Natsume mentally applauded her own acting skills. Conan would have inevitably discovered the translation by checking an Italian dictionary at the local library anyway, so feeding them the answer a little early did not disrupt the timeline much.
"Gold?!" Ayumi, Genta, and Mitsuhiko exclaimed in unison, their eyes widening with pure excitement.
Even Conan looked genuinely surprised. He reached out, taking the treasure map back from Natsume's hand, and scrutinized the crude drawings with narrowed eyes. A sliver of doubt crept into his mind. Could this absurd piece of paper actually be real? But how was that possible? Could a random code dropped on the side of the road truly lead to a hoard of Italian gold?
Seeing the Detective Boys completely absorbed in their new objective, Natsume took the opportunity to make her exit. "Then you guys have fun—cough, I mean, good luck finding the treasure. I still need to find a missing cat, so I will be going now."
Hearing Natsume's deliberate slip of the tongue, Conan glanced up, his lips twitching into a deadpan line. 'What the... so she really does not believe there is a gold treasure either. She thinks we are just playing make-believe.'
Realizing that Natsume had her own errands to run, Ayumi and the others were sensible enough not to hold her back. They waved their hands, calling out their goodbyes one by one. "Okay, goodbye Sister Natsume!"
"Goodbye." Natsume turned on her heel and walked down the street, her pace steady.
Once Conan and the children were completely out of sight, a faint constellation of stars materialized over Natsume's shoulder, condensing into the floating form of Paimon.
"Traveler, do you actually know how to solve the code on that treasure map?" Paimon asked, tilting her head.
'I do not know,' Natsume replied internally, her tone completely unapologetic.
Natsume had never been particularly good at complex puzzles. Back when she played Genshin Impact on her computer, she had basically relied on internet guides to brute-force her way through the maddening Relay Stones and Electro compasses of the Inazuma region., the Detective Conan anime had been serialized for over two decades. Expecting her to remember the exact solution to a random code from one of the earliest episodes was asking too much. The mere fact that she remembered it involved neon lights proved her memory was not completely useless.
But her own lack of puzzle-solving skills did not matter. She knew someone who would find this child's play. Even if that person did not possess the exact memory of the anime episode, his sheer intellect would easily crack the cipher on the paper. Natsume had absolute confidence in him.
First, she pulled out her phone and sent a quick text message to Lisa, asking the librarian to help track down the missing cat for her daily commission. Almost immediately, her phone buzzed with a reply. Lisa agreed, but not without teasing Natsume for a few lines, calling her a lazy cutie who left the dirty work to older women.
Natsume sighed, pocketing the phone. Was Lisa's original personality always this flirtatious, or had combining with Natsume's own consciousness somehow amplified it? She felt like Lisa enjoyed teasing her a bit too much. She made a mental note to try and minimize direct contact with the teasing librarian in the future, just to save her own sanity.
Spotting a convenience store nearby, Natsume stepped inside, bought a cheap notepad and a pen, and quickly sketched out the code from memory. As she drew the moon, the triangle, and the letters, she paused, realizing something incredible. She had only glanced at the children's map for a few seconds, yet every jagged line and proportion was perfectly burned into her mind. Her memory was vastly superior to her past life. She could recall minute details with just a single glance—undoubtedly a passive physical benefit brought by inhabiting the Traveler's body.
Once the drawing was complete, she had Paimon open the System interface, snap a digital photograph of the notepad, and transmit it directly to Alhaitham, along with a brief explanation of the situation.
Yes, the genius she had placed all her confidence in was none other than Alhaitham.
Miles away, Alhaitham was in the middle of a complex chemical analysis when he received the internal System ping. He did not bother setting down the glass vial in his hand. His eyes simply flicked to the side, reading the message and viewing the attached image in his mind's eye.
He accessed the shared memory pool. As a construct born from a fragment of Natsume's consciousness, he naturally possessed access to her past life's memories. Though those memories were fragmented and hazy, Alhaitham's mind processed the data like a supercomputer. He cross-referenced the crude drawing with the vague recollection of neon lights, water reflections, and the layout of Tokyo.
Within seconds, he deduced the exact geographical location of the treasure. He drafted a concise reply containing the solution and the coordinates, sent it back to Natsume, and smoothly adjusted the burner beneath his flask. From the outside, it was entirely impossible to tell the Sumeru scholar had just been distracted for even a fraction of a second.
Natsume received Alhaitham's reply less than ten minutes after she had sent the request. She glanced up at the sky. The sun hung low on the horizon, painting the clouds in shades of bruised purple and burnt orange, but it had not completely set yet. There was still plenty of time before nightfall.
Since she already possessed the final coordinates and the exact mechanics of the solution, Natsume had no need to run around the city following the clues step-by-step like Conan and his miniature detective squad. Instead, she adjusted her trajectory, preparing to head straight to the finish line.
According to Alhaitham's breakdown, she first needed to locate an abandoned building bearing a specific neon sign that read Onizakura. After finding the structure and slipping inside, she had to look out a specific window facing the river. The neon lights from the surrounding buildings would form a wave shape, which, when combined with its mirrored reflection on the water's surface, created the distinct outline of a fish. Additionally, the precise distance from that vantage point to a glowing streetlamp by the water formed the eye of the fish.
The letters ORO would be hanging from the ceiling directly above the exact spot where this optical illusion perfectly aligned.
Natsume handled the quiet streets until the rusted, unlit Onizakura sign loomed overhead. She slipped through a broken side door, her boots making no sound on the dusty floorboards. She moved through the gloom until she found the correct window. Looking out over the river, she watched as the city's neon lights flickered to life in the twilight. The wave. The reflection. The streetlamp eye. The fish materialized perfectly on the water's surface.
She stepped back, standing exactly on the alignment spot, and looked straight up into the shadows of the ceiling.
Sure enough, suspended high in the rafters were several heavy black duffel bags. She glanced down and noticed a faint glint near her boot. A single gold coin lay abandoned on the dirty floor, having clearly slipped through a tiny tear in the canvas.
Natsume did not hesitate. She took two quick steps, using the vertical surface of a nearby concrete pillar to kick off. The Traveler's immense physical strength propelled her upward. She caught the edge of the steel crossbeam with one hand, smoothly pulling her body up and crouching silently beside the hanging bags. From here, she had a direct, unobstructed view of the exposed gold coins glinting dully in the dim light.
Paimon materialized beside her, practically vibrating with excitement. "Wow! Traveler, you really found the gold coins! With this much money, just think about how much delicious food we can buy!"
Natsume shot her floating companion a flat look. 'Paimon, all you ever think about is eating, and you do not even have a physical stomach to digest food right now. This is not for snacks. This is the startup capital for our organization.'
"Geez, can I not even think about it?" Paimon crossed her tiny arms, pouting.
Ignoring the complaint, Natsume reached out and touched the coarse fabric of the nearest bag. 'Paimon, can I use the System to put the gold coins inside these bags directly into my inventory?'
Since items pulled from the gacha could be safely stored in the System's spatial grid, logic dictated that items from the outside world might be stored the same way.
"Hmm, I am not entirely sure, but we can definitely try," Paimon said, her annoyance forgotten in the face of an experiment. It was certainly worth a shot.
Natsume focused her intent on the heavy bags. A faint, digitized hum vibrated through the air. In the blink of an eye, the immense weight inside the canvas vanished, leaving the bags hanging limp and empty.
With a mere thought, Natsume pulled up the System inventory interface. A new icon had appeared in one of the empty slots. The text below it read: [Item: Maple Leaf Gold Coins x15,000].
"Traveler, you really can put outside things into the inventory!" Paimon cheered, doing a little loop in the air.
'Yeah,' Natsume responded, a small, satisfied smile touching her lips.
Just like that, fifteen thousand maple leaf gold coins—a fortune worth roughly six hundred million yen—were securely in her hands, completely untraceable.
A pleasant chime echoed in her mind. Natsume checked the interface and saw the world mission status update to Completed. A shower of digital Primogems deposited into her account. She had finally saved up enough for her next ten-pull.
However, she was too pragmatic to simply leave the scene as it was. If Conan and the Italian mafia arrived to find completely empty, deflated bags, it would raise far too many dangerous questions. She needed to maintain the illusion.
Moving swiftly along the crossbeams, Natsume gathered heavy chunks of broken concrete, rusted iron pipes, and dense debris from the upper floor. She carefully packed the refuse into the hanging bags until they bulged with the exact same weight and shape as before. Finally, she used a discarded rag to wipe away her footprints from the dust on the crossbeam and the floor below, completely clearing her traces.
Her work here was done. Next on the agenda: meet up with Lisa, return the missing cat to its rightful owner to finalize the daily commission, and head back to her apartment. Then, all she had to do was wash her hands to cleanse her luck, sit down, and get ready for the summon.
[Inorin's Note:
Enjoying the story? Dropping a quick review, comment, or Power Stone means the world to me and keeps these daily updates flowing!
Want to read 50 chapters ahead or just want to help keep a shameless translator alive? (My livelihood actually depends on this, haha 😭). You can support me directly here:
(P.S. Just remove the brackets and replace the [.] with a regular dot . to use the links!)
✨ Patreon (50 Advanced Chapters): patreon[.]com/InorinTL
☕ Ko-fi (Support / Sponsor): ko-fi[.]com/InorinTL
Thank you so much for reading and keeping this project alive!]