Dimensional Codex System: I'm really not a cultist!

”See, I told you that kid is the Grim Reaper.”

After returning home, Fang Zheng recounted to Little Ai what had happened in the Western Mansion earlier, adding his own evaluation.

As for Little Ai...

”Listening to you, it sounds just like superstition.”

As a scientist, Little Ai is a staunch materialist.

”Whether it’s superstition or coincidence, who knows, there are many things in the world humans can’t understand.”

Fang Zheng shrugged his shoulders.

”In any case, if you’re going out with Conan, you should be more careful. If he goes somewhere, it’s not a question of whether or not people will die, but rather where, how, and how many will die.”

”In that case, why don’t we conduct an experiment?”

Hearing this, Little Ai became interested as well. Of course, if someone else had said this to her, she would have taken it as a joke. But she knew Fang Zheng’s true identity, and since even Fang Zheng said so, Little Ai naturally wanted to see if what he said was true.

”What do you plan to do?”

”Tomorrow the Boy Detectives plan to go on a spring outing. How about you come along, Mr. Fang Zheng?”

”Hehe...”

Hearing Little Ai’s invitation, Fang Zheng chuckled and turned his head to look out the window. Outside the window were green leaves and bright sunlight, a scene full of vitality. However, just the day before yesterday, at the Western Mansion, it was snowing heavily...

So, in the blink of an eye, it’s already spring? What about the New Year? Christmas?

Apparently, another event is about to be triggered.

Thinking of this, Fang Zheng gave a meaningful smile as he looked at Little Ai.

”No problem.”

Early the next morning, Fang Zheng drove with Little Ai, following Dr. Agasa and the others into the mountains for the spring outing... Looking back on it, these kids were truly carefree, and Fang Zheng was curious about how they viewed this strange weather reversal. But if Fang Zheng guessed correctly, they probably hadn’t noticed anything at all.

After all, within the rules of this world’s setting, they are only NPCs, at most important ones related to the main storyline.

”Camping, camping!”

Arriving at the campsite, the kids from the Boy Detectives started cheering enthusiastically, and seeing this, Fang Zheng merely shrugged. At that moment, Dr. Agasa approached with a somewhat awkward smile.

”Sorry for troubling you, Mr. Fang Zheng, to come along.”

”It’s nothing. If Little Ai wants to come, I might as well tag along. Besides, it’s nice to enjoy nature while idling.”

While Fang Zheng was chatting with Dr. Agasa, Conan sidled over and said with a cheeky grin.

”And there’s no outsiders here, it’s very peaceful, isn’t it, Dr. Agasa?”

”Ah, yes, hahaha...”

”Hehehe...”

Fang Zheng silently watched Conan. Clearly, this brat was getting back at him for the Grim Reaper comment. After all, it was clear, they were the only ones here, not even a ghost in sight, so Fang Zheng’s statement that seeing him would cause deaths wasn’t valid!

After all, it wasn’t possible for one of them to die, right?

It appears you still lack awareness of your Grim Reaper physical quality.

Looking at Conan, who was blissfully unaware and babbling nonsense, Fang Zheng smiled slightly and said nothing.

Time will prove everything.

”Then, Mr. Fang Zheng, could you help with setting up the tents? Little Ai and I will set up a stove here, and the others can gather some firewood nearby.”

”Okay——!”

Upon hearing Dr. Agasa’s instructions, the young members of the Boy Detectives replied loudly, then happily ran into the woods. Fang Zheng began unpacking and setting up the tents.

Setting up a tent wasn’t a challenging task for Fang Zheng; it took him less than half an hour to pitch two tents. Meanwhile, Dr. Agasa had also finished setting up the stove, but...

”Strange, where did those kids go to gather firewood?”

Looking around, Dr. Agasa couldn’t help but mutter, but Little Ai didn’t seem to mind at all.

”They probably went exploring in the forest. With a curious detective leading them, it’s not surprising.”

”I’ll go check, maybe those brats have gotten into something again.”

Fang Zheng lifted his head and told the two of them, to which Dr. Agasa nodded.

”Then I leave it to you.”

”No problem, I’ll bring them back once I find them.”

Fang Zheng waved his hand, then turned and walked into the depths of the forest.

It wasn’t difficult for Fang Zheng to track down the kids’ whereabouts. Soon, Fang Zheng followed their messy footprints deeper into the forest and found a cave.

”Those little brats are really courting death.”

Seeing the cave with a ”Danger, Do Not Enter” sign, Fang Zheng frowned and snorted. Entering a cave like this recklessly? Although this world’s caves wouldn’t have goblins or dark elves or other dangerous subterranean creatures, the cave itself was complex, and many people got lost and never came out. Without Conan, the final outcome for those kids would probably have been getting lost and turning into corpses.

Well, let’s find them first.

With this thought in mind, Fang Zheng entered the cave and walked down.

As an adult, Fang Zheng moved faster than the brats. In no time, he reached the passage of the cave, where he saw the three kids standing dumbfounded.

”Hey, what are you doing here?”

”Wow!”

Startled by Fang Zheng’s voice, the three turned around to find him standing behind them, glaring at them sternly.

”This place is dangerous, why did you come in here? Hmm...”

Fang Zheng turned on his flashlight and raised an eyebrow.

”Where’s Genta?”

”Ah, Genta, he’s...”

Upon Fang Zheng’s question, Mitsuhiko quickly tried to answer, only to see Genta stumbling towards them from a distance, pale-faced and sweating, collapsing right in front of Conan and the others.

”Hey, Genta, what’s wrong?!”

Seeing Genta’s panic-stricken expression, Conan also became tense and hurriedly asked in a low voice, while Genta trembled as he replied.

”There’s... there’s a corpse!”

”...A corpse?”

Hearing this answer, Conan was momentarily stunned, then couldn’t help but glance at Fang Zheng.

It couldn’t be such a coincidence, could it? He just mentioned earlier that there wasn’t even a ghost around here, so how could there possibly be a murder... God, are you kidding me?

As for Fang Zheng, he calmly watched him. What’s the big deal, it’s normal. A Shinigami Elementary Student going out and encountering a corpse is news? A living person would be news, for sure.

”Da da da...”

Just as the two were staring at each other speechlessly, suddenly footsteps were heard from ahead, and Fang Zheng’s expression darkened. He then stepped in front of the group of bear kids.

”Hide behind me.”

”Um...”

Hearing Fang Zheng’s words, the little kids hurriedly hid under Conan’s lead. At the same time, a man in a green suit also saw them and hurriedly pulled out a gun from his coat, aiming at Fang Zheng and the others.

”Damn!”

”It’s a handgun!”

At this moment, Conan also saw the handgun, and his face changed dramatically. However, before he could say anything else, Fang Zheng instantly raised a flashlight, shining it directly into the man’s eyes. Under the blinding light, the man in the green suit instinctively raised his hand to shield his face.

Simultaneously, Fang Zheng leapt forward like a whirlwind in the night, directly reaching the man in the green suit. He punched straight into the man’s abdomen. The next moment, the green suit let out a wail and doubled over like a bent shrimp. Then, Fang Zheng raised his right hand and karate chopped the man’s neck, causing him to fall silently to the ground, unconscious.

”Hey, what happened?”

At this moment, the people inside the cave seemed to hear the noise outside and quickly ran out to see what was happening. Fang Zheng hid to the side, and just as the people inside emerged, he darted out from the shadows, grabbed the man leading the group by his gun-wielding hand, and threw him over his shoulder, slamming him against the cave wall.

”Die!”

The man at the back hastily tried to pull the trigger at Fang Zheng, but at almost the same instant, Fang Zheng reached out, pushed the man’s wrist aside.

”Bang!!!”

A gunshot rang out.

The bullet nearly grazed Fang Zheng’s sleeve, and as Fang Zheng moved forward, his elbow struck directly at the opponent’s chest. Quickly, the last man rolled his eyes back and collapsed to the ground, losing consciousness.

”Amazing...”

Watching Fang Zheng subdue three armed criminals in the blink of an eye, the kids hiding behind were wide-eyed with surprise, even Conan was quite taken aback. After all, Fang Zheng had never shown any combat skills before, but just now, he clearly demonstrated his proficiency in combat.

Who knows who’s stronger between him and that Kyogoku Makoto character.

Thinking back to the time he and Ran went to the beach and met that senior named Kyogoku Makoto, who, according to Ran, was much stronger than him...

From here, it was straightforward. Fang Zheng discovered a corpse in the cave that had been shot, clearly indicating that these people had killed and dumped the body here, only to be witnessed by the Boy Detectives’ kids. These three criminals were definitely not good people, but who they were exactly was none of Fang Zheng’s concern; just call the police and let them handle it.

But still... he needed to teach those kids a lesson.

After receiving Fang Zheng’s call, Officer Megure quickly arrived with his men, took the corpse and the three unconscious suspects back to the police station, and after a series of necessary communication with Officer Megure, Fang Zheng took the other four kids back to their campsite.

Then, Fang Zheng announced some ”bad news” in front of them.

”Tonight, the four of you won’t be having any dinner!”

”What?! Why?!”

Hearing there would be no dinner, Genta was the first to shout out, only to be met by a cold glare from Fang Zheng.

”Why? You don’t know why yourself?”

”Ugh...”

”Dr. Agasa told you to collect firewood, so where did you all run off to, hmm?”

”We... we just went on a little adventure...”

”Adventure?”

Hearing this, Fang Zheng glared coldly at Ayumi, who was so scared she almost shrank into herself.

”Adventure is not the issue, the issue is your unauthorized actions. Listen up, your parents entrusted Dr. Agasa and me with taking care of you. But what do you do? You act on a whim, go wherever you want without informing us in advance. Do you know how dangerous those caves are?!”

”But, but...”

Facing Fang Zheng’s overwhelming aura, the children were on the verge of tears. Seeing Ayumi being scolded, Mitsuhiko nervously spoke up in defense.

”But didn’t we also discover those fugitives?”

”Don’t waste your breath with results-based arguments. What if I hadn’t come? What would have happened to you? As you saw, those three criminals were armed. You could have been killed by them, then died in that lightless cave, just like the man they discarded. Even if you had screamed and wailed, no one would come to save you. You’d only wait for death in the darkness, your bodies slowly decaying, becoming food for other creatures, until you become a pile of bones...”

”Ugh...”

Hearing these words, Mitsuhiko also turned pale.

”And even if there weren’t any fugitives, do you think the cave isn’t dangerous? Many people enter caves and are never found again. They get trapped underground where it’s pitch dark, with no water, no food, no light. They die there, forever unknown, even their bodies never found. But you, you just go running in! And you, Conan!”

Finally, Fang Zheng turned to Conan.

”You’re always the calmest among them. Why didn’t you hold them back? Do you think you’re so steady nothing would go wrong?”

”Uh, well...”

”Luckily, only one person died today, so it’s no big deal... But as punishment, the four of you won’t have any dinner tonight, and you’ll stand there and watch us eat! Understood?!”

”Yes...”

Heeding Fang Zheng’s admonishment, the four kids listlessly nodded in agreement, and Conan nodded too, then suddenly realized.

Wait, what does ’only one person died so it’s no big deal’ mean?

It’s like saying I did the killing?

What does this have to do with me?!

But really, why find a corpse even when camping...?

With this thought, Conan also found himself feeling down.