Conan: I'm really not the mastermind behind the scenes

Chapter 49 The Guiding Viper (two chapters in one)

9:32am.

Kudo Shinichi held up his mobile phone, turned on the flashlight function to illuminate the front, and walked down the corridor of this unknown building.

The water had reached his calves and was still rising. He carefully observed his surroundings.

He judged that this was an underground building. The corridor in front of him was wide and the ceiling was low. There was no sunlight coming in. There was a light bulb at intervals, but it did not light up.

There are doors with almost identical appearances on both sides. Because the light source of the mobile phone is really limited, it is impossible to see where the end of this corridor is.

The harsh environment made the now 14-year-old a little uneasy, and there was someone behind him who was holding on to his arm.

"Kudo, where are we going?"

Hojo Shinji, who was rescued from the water pipe, asked this question for an unknown number of times.

"..."

Kudo Shinichi felt the veins popping out of his forehead.

……

Ten minutes ago, Kudo Shinichi discovered that Hojo Shinji had also been kidnapped, and he was in the room next to his.

Seeing that the person who bullied him yesterday was tied to a water pipe and would drown in ten minutes, Kudo Shinichi immediately stepped forward and put him down without hesitation.

He hates school bullying, but this is no reason to ignore the other person's life.

Hojo Shinji was stunned when he saw who the person who saved him was. He didn't speak for a long time. It was Kudo Shinichi who first asked him why he was kidnapped here.

"I do not know."

Hojo Shinji replied: "After my parents came back from school, my dad wanted to beat me, so I ran out of the house. When I ran to the park, I suddenly lost consciousness..."

At least Kudo Shinichi knew the reason why he fainted. He seemed to be an unlucky guy who was inexplicably affected.

……

calm down.

When trying to save yourself in a dangerous environment, you should try to conserve your strength and not quarrel casually...

Kudo Shinichi was in the dark space, took a deep breath to calm down, and warned himself repeatedly in his heart.

Hojo Shinji added: "It's too dark here, and I don't know how long your mobile phone can last. There was a power generation room just now, why don't we go in and try to start it? If the lights above are on, it will be easier to find the way..."

He was talking about a room they had just passed.

The room looked like a mechanical room, with cables winding around the wall like snakes. The cables were not damaged on the surface and were connected to a generator the size of a bathtub.

The generator was old and had two LPG tanks next to it. The gauges showed there was fuel in them and the hoses were well connected to them.

Kudo Shinichi had learned how to start this old-fashioned generator in Hawaii, but seeing so many cables around him, as well as the rusty hose connections and the water under his feet, he didn't act rashly.

While Hojo Shinji was chattering, they passed by another room.

This room has no door, just like the mouth of a bottle. The entrance is very narrow and can only accommodate a person who is not fat.

Kudo Shinichi moved his cell phone and looked inside, and found that there was a winch for salvaging sunken ships installed on the wall of this room.

There are iron chains wrapped around it. Looking in the direction in which the chain extends, it is found that it passes through a pulley and is then connected to the wooden board above.

I don’t know if the top is the ground or the upper floor of this strange building...

Kudo Shinichi muttered in his heart.

It may be that other things have been added to the food, and his hands and feet don't have much strength now. Otherwise, he can try to climb up by pulling the iron chain to see what's going on above.

"... Kudo, are you listening to me?" Hojo Shinji said suddenly.

"Ah?" Kudo Shinichi was startled, then he recovered his thoughts and said, "I've been listening."

"...Are we going to be trapped here until we drown?" he asked.

Kudo Shinichi glanced at the water at his feet and remained silent. It was really hard to say this.

There is no signal on the mobile phone, and I have not found a map or road sign yet. I have no idea where I am trapped.

The only hope at the moment is for others to discover that they are missing, catch the suspect, find out the location, and then come to rescue them.

Thinking of this, Kudo Shinichi looked at Hojo Shinji: "Does your sister live with you?"

The author of "Detective Kyoko" is Tooka Hojo, the sister of Shinji Hojo. Although he doesn't like the concepts in the work, the cases are very interesting, and she may be able to find them.

Hearing this, Hojo Shinji's face became embarrassed.

"She...may not have time."

He murmured: "Today... no, it was yesterday morning. Someone suddenly came to our house. He looked very menacing. There was also a serious woman who looked very difficult to mess with. He wanted to find her as soon as he came."

"What are they here for?" Kudo Shinichi asked curiously.

"I don't know. I was about to go to school and went out at that time, but judging from the way my parents looked when they were called to school at noon, she might have caused something..."

Hojo Shinji paused when he said this.

This was the first time he took the initiative to mention what happened yesterday after being rescued from the water pipe by Kudo Shinichi.

Hojo Shinji felt very guilty. He couldn't imagine Kudo Shinichi's expression at this time, but he couldn't help but look at it secretly.But in the dim environment, he couldn't see the other person's face clearly.

A few seconds later, Kudo Shinichi's calm voice sounded: "Don't do that kind of thing again."

"...Hmm." Hojo Shinji lowered his head.

"Except for me, have you ever bullied anyone else? Remember to apologize to them after you go out." Kudo Shinichi said in concern.

"No, pushing you into the cold storage was the first time I successfully bullied a classmate. I tried to put cockroaches on you before but you caught me! And yesterday I just pushed you and left without locking the door..."

When Hojo Shinji said this, he felt a little aggrieved.

He admitted that he threw things and pushed people, but when the teacher called his parents yesterday, he scolded him for deliberately locking his classmates in the cold storage. He clearly did not do that.

Kudo Shinichi was stunned.

"You weren't the one who locked the door?!" He lost his voice, "Before that, I ate glass shards in my meal, and..."

"No!" Hojo Shinji retorted, "Didn't you see the surveillance camera later? I have been eating in the corner of the cafeteria, and I don't even know where you were sitting that day."

Kudo Shinichi seemed to have caught something.

If it wasn't added in the dining area later, it was already there when he got it, plus the cold storage door...

...Yes, that is indeed the case. When he was picking up things, he first heard footsteps disappearing, and then suddenly heard the door being locked!Someone came in after Hojo and the others left and deliberately locked him in!

It's the canteen's logistics staff who have a problem!
This time he and Hojo were kidnapped, maybe it was related to each other!

Seeing that Kudo Shinichi was silent, Hojo Shinji thought that he was still doubting himself: "Hey, Kudo, you..."

The next words stopped abruptly.

Hojo Shinji's eyes widened and he suddenly pointed behind Kudo Shinichi: "Snake! There is a snake!!!"

"!!"

Kudo Shinichi suddenly turned his head and looked there.

In the darkness, they saw a pair of snake eyes staring at them. Half of its body was illuminated by the light of the mobile phone. Kudo Shinichi saw that its entire body was dark brown, with yellow-green horizontal spots on its back. "It's the yellow-green spearhead adder!" He recognized it at a glance.

"What...ah?" Hojo Shinji was confused, "Kudo, what are you talking about?"

"The name of this kind of snake!"

Kudo Shinichi quickly said: "It is mainly distributed on the Kerama Islands and occasionally appears in hills or mountains. It is the largest python in Asia and has a high detoxification capacity! Being bitten by it is very serious, and its venom will damage muscle tissue. , many of those bitten will suffer permanent disabilities..."

"Stop popularizing so much science in a place like this, think of a solution quickly!!"

Hojo Shinji screamed.

The yellow-green viper often breaks into human activities. For a long time in the past, hundreds of people were bitten by it every year.

Kudo Shinichi quickly thought about how to deal with the poisonous snake, but at this moment, the snake suddenly turned around and crawled above their heads.

The sound of crawling snakes was eerie in this space, and Hojo Shinji watched helplessly as the snake climbed above him.

It suddenly lowered its head and hissed out its tongue, revealing its slender fangs.Something flowed out of its mouth, dripping right into Hojo Shinji's open mouth.

Hojo Shinji's body froze, and he retched after regaining consciousness. He bent down to scoop up the dirty water at his feet and put it into his mouth. He tried his best to rinse his mouth and cried completely.

"Hey, calm down!"

Kudo Shinichi hurriedly stopped him: "Snake venom is mostly protein, and it has to enter the human blood to exert its toxic effect. As long as there are no wounds in your mouth, you will not be poisoned! And what you touch is its blood, not poison. !”

The snake seemed to be injured, with blood oozing from the corners of its mouth.

Kudo Shinichi once heard from his father that in order to strengthen the courage of soldiers, some special forces in the United States would let them drink the blood of cobras one by one during field training.

Hojo Shinji put down his hands, his face was covered with water marks, and he couldn't tell which ones were tears and which ones were the dirty water below: "...really?"

"real!"

Kudo Shinichi grabbed him and looked directly into those frightened eyes seriously: "If you are worried, go to the hospital for a checkup immediately after you go out. Now that medical technology is so advanced, the fatality rate of venomous snakes has dropped a lot!"

"We can definitely get out - believe me, I will definitely save you!"

He held his hand hard, trying to give him a little more courage in this darkness.

Hojo Shinji finally calmed down, and with the help of Kudo Shinichi, he stood up again.

The two of them looked at the snake again.

The boa constrictor did not move away, hovering silently above them while they spoke.It wasn't until they looked at it again that it slowly retracted its head and continued to crawl forward.

"...This snake is so weird." Hojo Shinji said strangely, "Why do I feel like it is deliberately guiding us to follow it?"

Kudo Shinichi noticed something was wrong with the snake earlier.

Many venomous snakes do not bite easily, but can become aggressive when they feel threatened.

But the venomous snake itself was injured and had been entrenched in the darkness until they arrived.

It suddenly accepted the light source, and did not actively attack the disturbers. Instead, it acted like a prank - yes, only prank is the most appropriate description - and deliberately scared Hojo Shinji.

...Is this a trained snake?
This thought flashed through Kudo Shinichi's mind.

Hojo Shinji swallowed and looked at Kudo Shinichi carefully: "Should we follow?"

Kudo Shinichi looked forward, and was distracted by the sudden encounter with a poisonous snake. Only then did he realize that they had reached the end of the corridor.

If there is no way ahead, then we can only go back.

……

Kudo Shinichi and Hojo Shinji returned the same way.

The yellow-green adder crawled slowly along the cable above them. At first glance, it seemed as if they were following the venomous snake.

As they passed the two rooms they woke up in and walked in the opposite direction of the previous exploration, Kudo Shinichi checked the time on his phone.

It is now 9:55.

There is still no signal on the mobile phone, and the battery is still 51%. With a flashlight, it can last about 2 hours.

Meanwhile, the water was above the knees.

Kudo Shinichi's heart was heavy. He had sworn to Hojo Shinji, but he was not sure that he could really escape.

Yesterday, before being locked up in the cold storage, he sent out a distress email in time and was rescued soon, but now...

Kudo Shinichi glanced at Hojo Shinji, thinking he would be angry - after all, he had chosen the wrong direction, causing them to walk such a long journey in vain.

"Kudo! Look ahead!!"

Hojo Shinji's shout made Kudo Shinichi look forward.

He saw the sun.

The dazzling sunlight shone down from above and fell on a staircase.

Kudo Shinichi temporarily turned off the flashlight function of his mobile phone and walked to the stairs. There were two yellowed instruction pictures posted on the wall next to him.

One of them is a diagram of the internal structure of the building. The rooms they just walked through can be matched one-to-one with the above. The label below is the second underground floor.

And next to it is a map.

Kudo Shinichi looked at the map carefully and found that it was near Okuho Town. There was a star drawn somewhere on it, which might be the specific location here.

However, he couldn't be sure that this map was correct. After all, he was underground and there were no landmarks around to help him judge.

On that star, there was a line of small words written.

——Ark Paradise.

ark……

Kudo Shinichi glanced to the side and saw the snake climbing up.

The ark was about to be submerged, and there was a strange poisonous snake guiding them...

Kudo Shinichi suddenly had a bad premonition, and was about to stop Hojo Shinji to observe for a while, but when he turned around, he saw him running up the stairs.

"..."

He had no choice but to follow immediately.

Once upstairs, the sunlight became abundant, and Kudo Shinichi noticed that the ceiling on the underground floor was very high, much higher than the second underground floor, and it was no longer wood, but a tightly welded steel plate.

There are some small holes in the steel plate. Those holes allow the outside sunlight to shine in, but they cannot allow people to pass through.

Kudo Shinichi took out his phone to check again, but there was still no signal.

There was also an instruction map posted on the wall not far away. Kudo Shinichi went over to look at it and found that it was the internal structure diagram of the first floor. Not far ahead was the exit.

Hojo Shinji ran forward, but soon, he stopped.

"how come……"

Hearing his voice, Kudo Shinichi walked up to him and froze in place at this sight.

——A huge boulder with iron chains wrapped around it blocked the exit.

(End of this chapter)