The Grammatical Investigator in Conan

"Stopped?"

"What happened?"

Hondo Yingyou stood up from his seat and looked out the window curiously.

Outside the tempered glass was not a subway station, but darkness. The subway stopped in the dark tunnel between the stations.

Qin Zhibo looked at the subway's alarm light. The red light did not flash, indicating that there was no malfunction on the subway, but that it was simply stopped by human control.

"You guys wait a minute, I'll go to the front and take a look."

Qin Zhibo had already memorized the direction of the subway when he entered the station, and now he was heading in the direction of the front of the subway.

When passing the two carriages in the middle, it seemed that the scattered New Yorkers couldn't figure out the situation and kept asking "what happens?"

Qin Zhibo came to the cab at the front, a small space of less than 3 square meters, separated from the passenger area by a mottled metal door.

The vertical glass strips on the door of the conductor's cabin revealed the situation behind the door. The subway driver was not there, and the driver's seat was empty.

The driver disappeared relatively suddenly because the subway stopped under emergency braking.

After taking a look at the complicated control levers and various buttons behind the door, Qin Zhibo felt a little regretful. Conan had not defeated a subway driver yet, so he did not know how to drive a subway.

…

Returning to the original carriage, Qin Zhibo told Koizumi Hongzi and Hondo Eyou about the current situation.

Now there are two methods to choose from. One is to stay in the subway. If the Metropolitan Transportation Authority finds that the subway does not arrive on time, it will send people to search along the track line.

Or get off the car and look for the driver. In the current situation, the driver must have gotten off the car, because there are no jobs related to subway drivers in the cars behind.

As for calling for help, it is impossible. This is a subway and there is no phone signal.

"Did the driver go to the toilet?"

"How about we go look for it."

Neither Yingyou nor Koizumi Hongzi wanted to wait, and so did Qin Zhibo.

Although as long as you wait in the subway, you will be rescued sooner or later, but the process will definitely be quite long.

The United States has not yet experienced the 9/11 incident, and its vigilance against terrorist attacks and hostage-taking incidents is not high, and may not even be as high as in Tokyo, Japan.

In addition, New York's subway lines are old and still use technology from a century ago, so delays of more than ten minutes are not uncommon.

The subway has been busy all day, why not take a break in the middle of the night?

And even if you can't find the driver, you can still go to the maintenance points located every other section of the subway tunnel. There are wired telephones installed there to facilitate the subway maintenance workers to contact each other, and to quickly notify the ground in case of emergency.

Having made up their minds, the three of them got off the subway through the back door of the subway at the end of the car.

Standing on the dark track, dark red lights stretched into the bottomless darkness.

Qin Zhibo took out a [nuclear lighter] and lent the lighter to Yingyou, while he used his night vision goggles to observe his surroundings.

The three of them searched nearby. Koizumi Hongzi saw a map on the wall next to the track, which marked the location of the maintenance points on this line. The nearest one was more than a mile away.

The subway station is 4 miles away, and the time it takes to walk there is enough for the Transportation Department to discover that the subway is out of service.

After searching around the subway twice, I saw that the subway driver was completely missing. If he had gone to the toilet, he would have returned long ago.

So, the three decided to head towards the maintenance point.

…

In the deep underground of New York, the three of them walked towards the maintenance point a mile away with the only light source.

This subway line from Broadway to New York City Hall, in Manhattan, is the earliest line opened to traffic in New York and has a history of 102 years.

Due to its age, this subway line has also undertaken the construction of many other pipelines.

Water pipes like red thorns grow wildly on the wall, and black rubber pipes are the wires that carry power to the signal lights.

Occasionally, a drop of water seeped out from the joints of the water pipes, forming small puddles on the uneven cement floor.

Bang, bang, bang...

Three pairs of feet stepped on the puddle, making the only clear sound in the tunnel.

In the dark and depressing environment, the three of them said little and walked forward based on their intuition.

Cold, humid air blew in from the unknown front from time to time, giving people an uncomfortable feeling.

Suddenly, something incompatible with the dark tones here lay in a puddle on the road and entered Qin Zhibo's field of vision.

He stepped forward and saw a blue and white work permit.

The photo on the work permit shows a man with a stubble on his chin, named Paul, and his position is a subway driver.

This old work permit was lying in a puddle, but it had no water stains. It was obviously dropped here recently.

Under normal circumstances, Qin Zhibo would cast the finding spell at this time.

But this time with Koizumi Hongzi, he obviously didn't need to do this.

Koizumi Anko took the work photo, closed her eyes and meditated for two seconds, then opened her eyes.

"The person should be right in front."

"But be careful, there is something wrong with this place..."

Koizumi Hongzi warned with a serious expression.

As a witch, her magical sixth sense is always accurate except when used on Kaitou Kidd.

This made Qin Zhibo feel vigilant, as if there was really some danger lurking in the tunnel.

Hondo Yingyu also swallowed nervously and followed at the back of the team.

…

After walking a little further, the narrow subway tunnel suddenly opened up.

The walls on both sides of the tunnel opened to both sides, creating a rather spacious shaft.

The subway tunnel passes through the shaft through an iron bridge to the other side of the shaft. A dozen meters below the shaft are the complex New York City underground water pipes.

The air here is extremely humid, and there is a faint smell of rust and putrefaction.

"It should be down here..."

As soon as Koizumi Hongzi finished speaking, a series of strange calls came from the empty space under the shaft.

There was a noise like a gathering of moles, the barking of large dogs, and even the plaintive cries of women.

The chaotic sound made people unable to stop their curiosity when they walked to the iron bridge and lowered their heads to look down.

Qin Zhibo stood on the edge of the iron bridge, lowered his head and looked down. Through his gray-green night vision vision, he saw a group of sneaky figures gathering in the deepest place under the shaft, as if some kind of evil gathering was taking place.

Their misshapen, hunched forms crawled and walked around, all surrounding a panicked man who was slumped to the ground.

The man's mouth was whimpering, and he kept making crying sounds for mercy.

"Please..."

"let me go...oh——my God!"

Suddenly, a rickety figure rushed towards him and knocked the man to the ground with a claw.

"Roar--!"

The figure looked up to the sky and barked like a wolf dog. Only then did Qin Zhibo vaguely see some features on its face.

It was a humanoid monster with protruding upper and lower jaws like a dog. Qin Zhibo immediately recognized what it was.

Ghoul!

Qin Zhibo's face trembled, he didn't expect to encounter a ghoul underground in New York.

Generally speaking, ghouls live in cemeteries near human gathering places. This group of ghouls lives directly under the most prosperous city in the world.

At this time, Koizumi Hongzi, who was lying on the edge of the iron bridge regardless of her appearance, also understood something and murmured: "That... seems to be a ghoul?"

Hondo Yingyou, who was also lying next to him, was surprised, "Ghoul?"

Koizumi Anko explained: "It is a creature that feeds on rotten corpses. It looks like a dog, but is about the same size as a human being..."

"Dog? Human?" Bentang Yingyou's eyes were startled, as if he was thinking of something.

"But this kind of creature often lives in cemeteries. Why does it appear here? And there are so many of them at once..."

Koizumi Hongzi murmured her confusion, while Hondo Eyou was more concerned about the situation of the person below.

"Is there someone down there? Is that the subway driver? Will something happen to him?"

"It's hopeless. He's already dead."

Our hall Yingyou couldn't see clearly the situation below, and Qin Zhibo used the night vision goggles to broadcast the current situation to the two of them.

The claw of the ghoul just now was directly on the driver's neck.

Blood spurted out under the influence of blood pressure, and several ghouls quickly crawled around, greedily licking the man's blood like puppies.

"Let's go quickly before they find us."

Qin Zhibo didn't want to stay too long. If he was discovered by these ghouls, he might have to give them extra food.

"oh……"

Our hall Yingyou felt a little unwilling, but he had no other choice but to get up from the ground.

But by chance, when he got up, he touched a stone on the edge of the iron bridge. The stone slipped into the shaft and collided with an abandoned water supply pipe hanging in the air.

Dang clang——

A hollow metal knocking sound echoed in the shaft, immediately causing several eating ghouls below to look up.

Qin Zhibo's heart immediately sounded alarm, and he stretched out his hand to pull Hondo Yingyu and Koizumi Hongzi back from the edge, who were still looking out.

At this moment, the three of them did not dare to move, and could only quietly hope that the ghouls below did not notice them.

Although these beast-like creatures only have the same combat power, which is slightly stronger than an ordinary human holding a weapon, they have huge advantages over humans in terms of physical strength and endurance.

Moreover, ghouls are social creatures. After experiencing what happened in the Dreamland, Qin Zhibo no longer dared to underestimate the wisdom of their race.

Qin Zhibo held the two men's wrists tightly. The two men also knew the urgency of the situation and held their breath and did not dare to move even half a step.

Fortunately, the ghoul below did not pay too much attention to this "accidental" sound. After looking up for more than ten seconds, he continued to lower his head and lick the fresh flesh and blood.

"call--"

"Let's go first..."

Qin Zhibo stretched his head slightly and glanced down. After confirming that the other party had relaxed his vigilance, he quietly directed the two of them to leave from here.

Thirty-six strategies, walking is the best strategy.

As for the subway driver, Qin Zhibo estimated that the ghoul used the method of "hitting someone" to lure the driver to stop the subway, and abducted him when he got off the car to check.

It can only be said that he was not very lucky.

Just as Qin Zhibo was about to drag the two of them away, there was another unusual noise from underneath the iron bridge.

The rustling sound once again aroused the alarm of the three people, just because it was the sound of something crawling through the pipe!

The sound of a hard object hitting the pipe was very fast, and the rushing sound was moving quickly below, accompanied by a dull "bang" sound jumping on the empty pipe.

Qin Zhibo was shocked. Did he find out after all?

But then, this concern was dispelled.

These sounds are not directed at me above, but towards the deepest depths below.

Qin Zhibo stretched his head and looked down, and found that in the dark green field of vision, a conflict broke out between several ghouls.

They stirred their evil, lanky bodies, biting each other with claws and teeth, and flopped about in the watery clearing below.

Was it because of the uneven distribution of the spoils?

Qin Zhibo was a little confused about this situation, but he immediately discovered something.

The number of ghouls below is about twice as many as what we saw just now.

Dozens of ghouls angrily bit and beat each other in the puddle, and occasionally roared with anger.

Qin Zhibo immediately made a new judgment on this situation.

Just now, another group of ghouls came from nowhere and started fighting with these existing ghouls.

Although Koizumi Hongzi next to her couldn't see clearly what was going on below, she suddenly thought of something with her amazing sixth sense and rich knowledge reserve.

"I remember! This should be two groups of ghouls from different factions fighting."

"There are also different factions among the ghouls. According to different beliefs, they are divided into the traditional faction that eats scavengers and the heretical faction that eats living people."

"Conflicts between these two factions often break out..."

When Koizumi Hongzi said this, Qin Zhibo also remembered that Matsumoto Ryohei said in the dreamland that the ghouls living in the dreamland are the "Kings of Ghouls" who believe in traditional beliefs and only eat corpses.

Moreover, when I first came into contact with Matsumoto Ryohei and the Corpse Ghoul Cult he belonged to, their cult would also be divided into Autobots and Decepticons. The Autobots ate corpses, while the Decepticons attacked living people.

It seems that factions have emerged during the transformation of humans into ghouls.

The battle between the two is like those wars that broke out due to faith in human history, such as the historical battle between Islam and Christianity to rob the holy city of Jerusalem.

Qin Zhibo looked at the ghouls fighting each other below and had some doubts in his heart. Could it be that these new ghouls came from the dreamland?

Suddenly, Qin Zhibo had a bold idea.

If there is a Dreamland passage in this place, can we use this passage to return to the Dreamland exit behind the Suzuki family villa in Japan?

Theoretically, as long as you choose a suitable cave on Xin's Tombs, the corresponding exit will appear.

Wouldn't this be able to travel through time and space?

I'm so talented!

Qin Zhibo was impressed by his imagination, but the battle below was not over.

The two groups of ghouls fought fiercely, and some of the brutal bites even bit off the ghouls' ears.

At this time, a prompt pops up next to the system's field of view.

[Achievement mission in progress: Watch a "dog fight\