Oritis in the world of Detective Conan

Chapter 402 "Queen Bee" (Part 4)

However, Conan did not hear the expected click of the doorknob turning, but instead heard the crackling sound of the wooden door breaking.

Fool's Gold anticipated Conan's prediction and smashed half of the door with his pickaxe, then used his stone arms to grab Conan into his arms like the clamps of a claw machine.

"Look who this is, little mouse who came to explore underground, I caught you~"

Fool Gold's face was pressed against Conan's ear, and Conan could feel the cold breath he exhaled when he spoke. Of course, Conan tried to resist, but Fool Gold's arms were clasped around his waist like an iron clamp, and the other hand covered his mouth and nose.

"Wuwuwu!" Conan felt like he was about to suffocate, and he beat Fool Gold's arms desperately with both hands.

Fortunately, Fool Gold seemed to notice this and slightly loosened the hand covering his nose. Regaining a chance to breathe, Conan grabbed Fool Gold's hand with one hand, while the other hand was still groping around his waist, trying to resist with an inflatable football.

"If you don't want your ribs to pierce your lungs, you'd better stay still." Fool's Gold clamped his arm around Conan's waist, pressing his hand hard on Conan's chest. "Honestly, if you want to experience the pain of breathing, I can help you."

"Ouch!!!" Conan slowly stopped struggling in pain, weakly grasping Fool Gold's arm to breathe, and when Fool Gold loosened his hand covering his mouth, he began to cough violently. "Cough cough cough!"

Seeing that Conan seemed to have taken a considerable hit, Fool Gold originally planned to rip the football launcher from Conan's waist and leave him, but the opponents didn't seem to give him the chance. He dared to say that if he let Conan go now, he would definitely be shot in the head by the incendiary bomb in Shuichi Akai's hand.

"Conan!" Judy was shocked by Fool Gold's actions and immediately pointed her gun at him. "Stop it!"

"A pistol is useless to me, and Shuichi Akai has a incendiary bomb in his hand. Unfortunately, I..." Before Fool Gold could finish his words, a special bullet with a tail flame passed over Conan and hit his head.

"Ouch!" Fool Gold took a few steps back in pain, but did not let go of Conan.

The bullet was specially made by Shuichi Akai at the research institute. It is a high-temperature molten bullet. After hitting the target, it will release a large amount of heat, which is just enough to melt the stibnite with a very low melting point. After all, ordinary bullets have no effect on stones.

Conan and Kaito Kidd had used Fool's Gold to block bullets before. Considering that Fool's Gold was not even afraid of electric shocks, Conan suggested that Shuichi Akai bring weapons that could create high temperatures to deal with Fool's Gold.

The place where the bullet hit the fool's gold was slowly melting, and soon, liquid metal was flowing down from his head.

"Tsk, I didn't expect you to actually use weapons specifically designed to target me." Fool Gold shook his head irritably, shaking off the metallic droplets on his face. "It's my fault for not bringing 'Excitement' with me, but you won't have the chance to hit me again."

Since Conan was still in Fool Gold's hand, Akai Shuichi did not rush to fire a second shot. The current situation was that Fool Gold was holding Conan and standing behind the half door, while Judy, Cameron and Akai Shuichi pointed their guns at Fool Gold.

"Campbell, put him down. The child's body can't withstand such tossing."

Conan turned back to see the source of the female voice behind Fool Gold. Where the eyes used to be on that person's face were replaced by a pair of huge compound eyes, two bee antennae protruded from her flaxen hair, and around her neck was a furry collar like a bee.

Her robe was dark green. In addition to a normal pair of arms, she had a pair of insect limbs at her waist and a pair of golden, transparent wings behind her. The flapping sound he had heard before was the sound made by the friction of these wings.

Considering that she just called Fool Gold "Campbell", the identity of the person in front of her is self-evident.

Fool Jinman reluctantly put Conan on the ground and rubbed the half of his head that was almost melted: "It will take time to repair this part. Do you think my body parts are wholesale?"

As soon as Conan got out of trouble, he staggered to the back of Shuichi Akai. After rubbing his ribs that were almost broken and taking a few deep breaths to adjust himself, he looked at Fool Gold and the entomologist in front of him.

"You are Mr. Norton and Ms. Meili, right? Why are you lurking around Mr. Orpheus? What is Mr. Frederick going to do to Mr. Orpheus? What will happen to Alice?"

"Don't you have too many questions? Take them one by one." Fool Gold impatiently took down the half door and threw it behind him, motioning the entomologist beside him to explain.

[Entomologist: Why don’t you go?]

[Fool's Gold: I have to rub my face back to normal while the part that got hit is still warm.]

[Composer: If you change to the "Sinful Molten Flame" costume, won't you be more fire-proof?]

[Fool's Gold: That makes sense, but I'll just hide back there for a while to let them down. If they bring flamethrowers or something, this place will turn into a barbecue scene in no time.]

[Entomologist: Very good. I'll just hide behind you.]

[Fool's Gold:?]

"Just ask whatever you want to ask and I'll answer them. Campbell's face still needs to be repaired." The entomologist walked forward in the "Queen Bee" costume.

"Ms. Meili..." Conan looked at the golden wings behind the entomologist and hesitantly asked the question he most wanted to know the answer to.

"Are those two 'corpses' in this room really you, and not clones?"

"The question is obvious. That is indeed 'us'. Campbell, Clayberg, and I all belong to the 'Embers Group'. Our past has been sealed by the manor, and few people know about us. So much so that even the photographer, an old member, thinks Clayberg is a newcomer."

"So you participated in the manor's experiments a long time ago?"

"This happened after the incident at Delos Manor and before Orpheus returned." The entomologist nodded. "Orpheus also participated in our experiment."

"You've already seen the results of our experiment. This body is the product of that experiment. As for Orpheus, the aftereffects of that game are quite severe, and he still hasn't gotten over it."

"By the way, little Alice isn't a simple clone. She's a perfect stand-in created by the Orpheus Manor based on Orpheus's memories and fantasies." The entomologist revealed a shocking fact. "Klayberg is currently working on a case involving her."

"Then...her recent illness is..."

"Orpheus's memory is unstable, so little Alice's health has deteriorated. If her spirit suffers a major blow, more problems may arise." The entomologist vibrated his wings a few times.

Akai Shuichi didn't lower his weapon after hearing this. "But what you're doing now seems to be irritating his already sensitive nerves. Since he couldn't stand Mrs. Delos's departure, I'm afraid he won't take the departure of you and your friends very well either."