The suited man led Shiraishi—no, Ren Kuroda—through the villa with trembling steps until they stood before a heavy alloy door. "The money… it's in this room," the man whispered. "It needs three different keys to open. I only have one!"
"That's easy — just blow it open." Ren didn't hesitate; he hefted a four-tube rocket launcher and aimed.
The suited man shook his head. "No. That alloy door is ten centimeters thick. You can't just force it open with explosives!"
Ren ignored him and squeezed the trigger.
Whoosh!!
A high-explosive round streaked through the air and hammered into the alloy door.
Boom!!!
When the dust cleared, the door was back where it'd been.
Not a dent. Only a layer of soot blackening its surface.
The suited man scoffed inwardly and muttered, "See? I told you it wouldn't work."
He hadn't finished the sentence when Ren fired again.
Another high-explosive round hit. The blast threw up another cloud of smoke and debris.
"I think… maybe we should try—" the suited man began, but his words died in his throat.
When the dust settled, the alloy door remained intact.
But the wall beside it had a huge, smoking hole blown clean through.
"Heh. I knew they wouldn't build the whole vault out of alloy!" Ren laughed and trained the launcher on the cavity in the wall. He pulled the trigger.
Two more rounds later and the wall was blown open, a gaping breach revealing the vault beyond.
Ren tossed the launcher aside. "Go in."
The suited man nodded frantically and slipped through the hole into the vault.
Ren followed and stopped short.
Two-meter-high stacks of banknotes towered inside — an image that instantly summoned an idiom to his mind: piled mountain-high.
It wasn't just yen; there were stacks of dollars, won, euros — currencies from all over the world. Beyond them rose mound after mound of gold, carefully stacked into shining hills.
Ren had never seen anything like it. The spectacle hit him like a visual shock.
He stood there for a dozen seconds, frozen by the sight, until a saying bubbled up in his head: when profit reaches 10%, people get tempted; at 50% they start taking risks; at 100% they'll trample every law; at 300% they'll climb onto the gallows without fear.
Then Ren laughed.
Another thought came to him: my neighbor hoards grain, I hoard guns — my neighbor is my granary.
"All the money's here," the suited man said. "This is only a few months' worth of transactions."
"Compared to what the boss's made over the years, this is nothing," Ren said. His eyes brightened. "Where's your boss's vault?"
"I… actually don't know," the suited man replied, careful now. "We just transport the money into the boss's house and leave."
"Useless. If you don't know anything, what are you good for?" Ren pulled out his pistol.
"You said— you said you'd let me go!" the suited man cried, panic lacing his voice. He clung to the promise.
"This place is so obvious I don't need you to guide me." Ren was curt. He squeezed the trigger and sent a single, fatal shot.
Ren glanced at the piles of gold and tried to reclaim them through the System.
It failed.
But the cash? With a swipe, it poured into the System.
The System was considerate enough to convert the foreign currencies — dollars, euros, won — into a uniform sum of yen.
Ren checked the spoils.
Holy— the number shot up into the hundreds of billions of yen.
A grin stretched across his face.
Then he remembered the currency was yen. Converted to US dollars, it was "only" a bit over six hundred million. Thinking of Elon Musk's net worth in the hundreds of billions put him back down to earth. His assets were a drop in the ocean — nothing to get carried away about. He was hardly out of poverty yet; there was a long way to go.
At that moment, the System's voice — long silent — chimed again.
[Mission: Accumulate stolen funds totaling 1,000,000,000 yen — Completed.][You have received a reward — Kill Intent Perception.][Bandit Shop: Life Essentials section unlocked.][New missions issued.][Mission: Accumulate 100 kills.]
"Damn! Where's the billion-yen ransom? You're not playing by the script!" Ren grumbled when he saw the new mission. He'd hoped to get two rewards at once. The System, as usual, was playing tricks — not following the expected flow.
"Kill Intent Perception…" Ren's thoughts flicked to the way Gin had dodged and how Conan had jerked his hips out of the line of fire. Those two absolutely had that kind of skill. Otherwise, how could they avoid bullets so casually?
Ren sighed; they already had the ability and he was just getting it now. Another day of wishing he were the story's main overpowered protagonist.
He glanced at the Life Essentials section and brightened. "Nice — a life-gear tab. Changing clothes will be so much easier. No more swapping outfits on the run; one click and you change identities!"
Life gear was as important as weapons. It made it quick to switch profiles, to change clothes and avoid leaving trace evidence. If he'd had it at the Dorobika Amusement Park job, he might have changed out of the outfit tainted with gunpowder in time — then Shinichi wouldn't have noticed the clue.
In the detective world, tiny traces are all it takes for your identity to be exposed.
With a Life Essentials tab, Ren wouldn't need to worry about wardrobe slip-ups anymore.
"Overall, not bad," he said, satisfied.
The System's new mission was simple on the surface: go out into the streets and rack up a hundred kills.
Ren couldn't bring himself to slaughter innocents. Besides, the world of Conan was full of criminals; he didn't need to commit atrocities to complete the task. There were scum and worse types enough — no need to rush.
After inventorying the loot, Ren pulled out his phone to call Akemi and tell her to come over.
Then he paused. He didn't know if anyone else had survived in the villa. If Akemi walked in and was ambushed, that would be a mess.
To be safe, Ren bought another four-tube rocket launcher — this time loaded with gas rounds. He fired several gas rounds around the villa perimeter and then put on a full hazmat suit.
As he walked toward the villa's main gate, he saw a few of the gangsters crawling out from behind corpses, coughing as they stumbled toward the gate.
"Told you — not everyone's gutsy enough to keep going," Ren said, glad of his caution.
He didn't finish them off; he watched them run for the gate.
After ten or so paces they began to stagger, cough violently, and then collapsed. A few convulsions later, they were motionless.
This time they were truly dead.