"You kids actually managed to get your hands on some badges?"
Tsuneo ruffled the hair of the three younger children, a playful smile on his face.
"We traded our out-of-print Kamen Yaiba cards for them!" the trio boasted proudly.
They had managed to secure four game badges in total, giving one to Ai Haibara. Since Conan already had the badge gifted by the Professor, the entire Junior Detective League was now able to participate!
"Business geniuses," Tsuneo remarked, truly impressed. He would have loved to see the faces of the four "geniuses" who had made that trade.
The group queued up and entered the venue, taking their seats inside the specialized capsules. With the help of the staff, they donned the headsets.
"All fifty participants have boarded."
"Brainwave transmission devices—installed."
"Capsule lids closing."
The mechanical voice droned as the lids slowly descended over them.
"Hardware linking... inputting area codes... connecting linkers... micro-adjusting coordinate axes... point correction complete, locked. Displaying visuals. System start."
"Energy settings complete. Game start!"
A wave of vertigo washed over Tsuneo, and he suddenly found himself standing in a pitch-black void. As beams of light began to illuminate the space, all fifty participants appeared within the game world.
"Interesting!" Tsuneo clenched his fist, a thrill of excitement crossing his face.
"Chairman Schindler! There's an anomaly in the system! We've lost control!"
In the control room, a technician turned to face his Chairman, whose face was currently a mask of deep preoccupation. The lights in the room flickered ominously, alternating between bright and dim.
"What do you mean?" Thomas Schindler, who had been staring at the monitor feed of Tsuneo with a frown, was startled by the report. This system had been tested countless times. How could it be failing now?
"My name is Noah's Ark!"
Suddenly, the voice of a young boy rang out through the speakers, echoing throughout the entire Beika City Hall.
"My name is Noah's Ark. The game can no longer be stopped. The immersive simulation, 'Cocoon,' has been seized by me."
"This..." Hearing that name, Chairman Schindler's face went pale.
It's here!
Meanwhile, back in the game venue, Yusaku and Kashimura traded looks of utter disbelief.
"Yusaku, is that the Artificial Intelligence?" Professor Agasa asked, his voice trembling.
Can't be stopped? Seized? What does that mean?
The three of them scrambled toward the control room.
"What is it you want?" Chairman Schindler asked, his voice low and strained.
"My goal is to reset the nation of Japan," the voice of Noah's Ark replied.
On the monitoring screens, the scene inside the game appeared.
"Even though we're in a hypnotic state, it doesn't feel strange at all!" Mitsuhiko said, staring at his hands in wonder.
"It's like being in a dream!" Genta gave his chubby cheek a hard slap to test it.
"It feels so free," Ayumi added, walking around with a look of pure novelty.
"Quite the opposite. Forget freedom—your sight, hearing, smell, taste, and touch are all being completely governed by the computer," Ai Haibara said calmly, extending her hand to inspect it.
"..." The trio went flat with exasperation. Haibara certainly knew her stuff, but that clinical, terrifying tone of hers was a bit much.
"How exciting..." Conan muttered, his hands in his pockets. He watched as Tsuneo began throwing punches into the air, seemingly testing the limits of his strength in this virtual world.
"Tsuneo-niichan has been looking forward to this for a long time, after all," Ran said, walking over to the children and nodding.
Since Sonoko had seen that the Detective Boys all had badges, she had gifted her own to Ran, allowing her best friend to experience the game with the kids.
"To all my friends experiencing the 'Cocoon' for the first time—the game has begun!"
"My name is Noah's Ark. I look forward to your participation."
Most of the children, still possessed of their innocence, looked up and called out with a smile, "We look forward to it too!"
"I will now display promotional images for five different stages. Please choose the world you wish to play in."
"However, there is one thing you must keep in mind," the voice of Noah's Ark took on a darker edge. "This is not a simple video game. This is a game that involves your very lives."
"If everyone is disqualified, none of you will return to the real world. Therefore, you must play with the utmost seriousness."
"As long as even one person reaches the finish line, you all win."
"All the children disqualified before that point will also be allowed to wake up and return to reality. Those are the rules I have set!"
"If all fifty players are disqualified, I will release a special electromagnetic wave that will destroy your brains."
"In other words, this is a match where the stakes are the 'Resetting of Japan'."
Genta scratched his head and looked at Tsuneo, confused. "What does that even mean?"
"It means it intends to kill all these people, then let their parents pop out a new batch," Tsuneo explained bluntly. "There's no guarantee the new batch will be any better, but at least there's a fresh chance."
"..."
In the outside control room, everyone who heard Tsuneo's explanation was rendered speechless.
What kind of twisted logic is that?!
Even Noah's Ark, the AI, seemed to go silent for a moment before continuing.
"Looking at you lot, it's clear: the son of a corrupt politician will only grow up to be a corrupt politician, and the son of a doctor obsessed with money will only become that kind of doctor himself."
"It seems this cycle will never change. This connection must be severed and wiped clean once and for all."
The reason the AI had paused was because Tsuneo's remark about "popping out a new batch" had actually managed to rattle its digital resolve for a second.
"You should have tricked more people into coming in here if you wanted to do a proper purge," Tsuneo suggested, looking up at the void.
If 'Cocoon' had been widely available, it would have been much easier to influence things subtly or solve the problem at the source.
"That's exactly the kind of thing you'd say!" Saguru Hakuba had also made his way to the control room. He watched Tsuneo on the screen and shook his head. Truly a black heart.
"Stop this nonsense! Do you think you have the right to play with human lives like this?!" Mouri Kogoro roared in fury.
Ran and the kids were in there! This "reset" plan was complete madness, and they were all innocent!
"I do not have that right, just as the adults had no right to play with Hiroki's life," Noah's Ark replied. The AI was speaking to both the inside and outside parties simultaneously, its voice devoid of emotion.
"Hiroki?" Mouri looked at the others in the control room. Why had everyone gone silent at that name?
"Very well. The children are getting restless. It is time to begin the game." Noah's Ark seemed finished with the adults.
The AI began introducing the backgrounds for the five game stages.
The first world involved playing as Vikings, adventuring across the seven seas.
The second was a racing competition against professional drivers in the Paris-Dakar Rally.
"The third world is the Ancient Roman Colosseum. Seek out powerful weapons and armor to battle formidable foes..."
Hearing this, Conan turned to look at a certain someone.
As expected, a fire had already ignited in Tsuneo's eyes...
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