Chapter 1754: Chapter 1752: Fighting Fire with Fire (Lunch Was Ruined and I’m Frustrated)

It’s early morning.

Fang Zheng held the steering wheel, looking at the street scene in front of him. The morning wind blowing in from outside the car window was a bit chilly, but for Fang Zheng, of course, it was no problem.

The problem is......

"This is Lupin. Professor Moriarty, how’s the preparation on your side?"

"Everything’s going smoothly... By the way, can’t you pick another name, Riko?"

"Oh dear, how can you say the True Name? What if we’re being eavesdropped!"

In this little broken world, who could possibly tap into my personal terminal... I’d like to see someone more capable than Little Angel...

Upon hearing Riko’s complaint from the other side of the communication terminal, Fang Zheng silently sighed. They weren’t in Academy City; instead, they were in the city where Riko attended the Armed Detective Academy. Early this morning, Fang Zheng was called up by Riko, saying she had locked onto the actions of the "Armed Detective Killer" based on intelligence, demanding Fang Zheng and Frenda to assist. So Fang Zheng yawned and hurried over with Frenda through the Teleportation Gate, arriving in this city.

Frankly speaking, for Frenda, this was quite an interesting experience. However, after witnessing Fang Zheng instantly eliminate LV5 Atomic Collapse firsthand, Frenda realized Fang Zheng was obviously not just a simple researcher. Moreover, she herself was a Space Power User, so she could understand this degree of Space Transfer—well, sort of.

"Alright, everything’s ready here... Frenda is also good to go."

"Don’t call her Frenda, call her Irene Adler! Professor Moriarty!"

"... Alright, alright, Irene is also ready, Lupin."

Fang Zheng felt like he was playing role-play with children; he truly hadn’t expected Riko to have an interest in this.

However......

"To be honest, I’m surprised you agreed."

While saying this, Fang Zheng turned to look at Frenda beside him. Today, Frenda was no longer in her usual attire but was dressed in a lace-filled uniform and mini skirt, along with Black Silk and cloak, looking like she was cosplaying a character.

By the way, this outfit was made by Riko herself.

"I thought you didn’t like going to the Dark Side? I thought you’d refuse Riko’s invitation."

"This is different, Professor Moriarty."

Unlike Fang Zheng, Frenda was evidently full of interest in this game, smiling cheekily at Fang Zheng and extending a finger.

"Phantom Thieves are so cool, aren’t they? Think about it, stealing treasure using a method no one expects in broad daylight with everyone’s attention—how cool and romantic! On the contrary, Dark Side missions are dangerous, and you might silently die in a corner. I don’t want to end up like that. You see, being such a pretty girl like me, if I joined the Dark Side, who knows when I’d be cut in half, that’d be really tragic, don’t you think?"

In simple terms, Phantom Thieves get to show off, while the Dark Side just ends in death.

Fang Zheng silently summarized Frenda’s words... Hmm, got to admit, she had a point.

"By the way, are you sure about this?"

To be safe, Fang Zheng still asked. Although Frenda’s Ability Level was LV4 like Kuroko Shirai and Musujime Awaki, her ranking was mostly due to her very rare ability even among Space Power Users. However, when it comes to convenience, she couldn’t compare to Kuroko Shirai who can teleport anytime, anywhere.

So, even though Frenda was eager and excited, Fang Zheng was a bit worried. After all, when it comes to abilities, Ability Users are the strongest, but outside of that, it’s not always the case. Like Misaka Mikoto, if her electric attack fails, she’s just an ordinary girl. Shihou Souki is the same; if embraced without using her power, she’s helpless, so apart from abilities, they’re quite weak.

Therefore, Fang Zheng was skeptical of Frenda’s combat capability.

Upon hearing this, Frenda became displeased.

"Don’t underestimate me, Professor Moriarty! I’m LV4, and even without my ability, I can easily handle some mere Armed Detective Killer!"

"Alright then, let’s see how capable you are."

Fang Zheng shrugged at Frenda’s answer, not paying much mind. As long as he was there to clean up afterward.

"Still, try not to use stuff from Academy City to avoid leaving behind evidence."

"Don’t worry, Professor Moriarty, I’ve got this!"

Saying this, Frenda cheekily stuck out her tongue at Fang Zheng.

However... Fang Zheng wasn’t reassured at all.

Anyway, it didn’t matter much.

"In any case, be careful, try not to leave any biological traces about yourself—you’re not like Riko..."

Mentioning this, Fang Zheng couldn’t help but think about Riko Mine again. Even he had to admit that after unlocking Riko’s potential, her ability was extremely overpowered.

As mentioned before, Riko’s ability is to manipulate her body, enabling her to transform into any material and shape. But it’s more than that; Riko can now extract others’ DNA data to replicate and "transform!"

This isn’t just wearing a human skin mask as a Phantom Thief but a complete transformation from inside out, including iris, fingerprints, DNA—every aspect of biological data changes. So if Riko went to steal something, even if she left fingerprints, hair, or blood at the scene, it wouldn’t matter because it could all belong to someone else!

Fang Zheng now understood why Lupin became such a famous Phantom Thief. With this ability, technology wouldn’t be able to contain him even in modern times—you’d need Magic.

A few decades ago, with primitive technology, he would move as he pleased...

But Frenda was different. As a Great Ability Holder of LV4, her data is recorded in Academy City’s library. If anything is left on the scene, all they need to do is compare and catch you.

This isn’t the era of mystery-solving anymore.

And just then, Riko’s voice came through again.

"Professor Moriarty, target locked, let’s go!"

"Alright, alright, your call."

While speaking, Fang Zheng yawned and stepped on the accelerator.

Then, the sports car shot out.

Regarding the cause and effect of the matter, Fang Zheng already knew from Riko. A short while ago, a school bus of the Armed Detective Academy was hijacked by an Armed Detective Killer—not by sending some Great Han with guns for a literal hijack. Instead, the killer called the students on the bus, telling them bombs were planted on it, and if the bus’s speed slowed down, the bombs would explode.

So now they couldn’t stop and had to keep going.

This was indeed a hijack in some sense.

But......

"Why does this feel so familiar to me..."

After hearing Riko’s account, Fang Zheng instinctively thought of a certain episode from Detective Conan... If it were the Shinkansen, the bombs would definitely be on the tracks.

But for the school bus......

"Definitely on the undercarriage."

Frenda confidently gave her answer.

"If it were me, I definitely wouldn’t plant it inside because it’s easy to find, and obviously not on the roof. The undercarriage is the best choice. Plus, the car is speeding right now, so they can’t stop and go under to defuse it, right?"

"Why are you always thinking about this kind of things you shouldn’t be?"

Fang Zheng glanced at Frenda in annoyance—speaking of LV4 Great Ability Holders, can’t you use your intelligence on something more useful?

"Any way to disarm it?"

Riko was worried when she heard this. She could transform her body into a liquid and attach to the undercarriage of the school bus, which wasn’t difficult. But disarming a bomb... That was beyond her skill set.

"Of course, it’s a trivial matter for me, but let’s first take a look at what the bomb looks like... Professor Moriarty, take me to have a look."

"No problem."

The Armed Detective Academy had already alerted the police, who quickly cleared the surrounding vehicles. After all, this was rush hour, with people going to school and work. If the bus went off in a crowded area, it wouldn’t just be the people on the bus who would die. However, Fang Zheng had his own plan. Since the bus was driving erratically under the Armed Detective Killer’s instructions, the police couldn’t completely block it, so Fang Zheng just had to follow nearby in his car.

In fact, after Fang Zheng drove his sports car onto the highway, they quickly saw the school bus speeding along the elevated highway opposite them.

At this moment, the school bus was racing on the elevated highway, flanked by three driverless Ferraris, closely following. On these Ferraris, mounted Uzi submachine guns could be seen, obviously remotely controlled. 𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

"Wow, it’s actually real!"

Frenda widened her eyes in excitement. She had only seen such scenes in movies, never experienced them firsthand!

"No police nearby... but that’s not surprising."

Fang Zheng glanced around and found that the police cars dared only to follow from a distance. This was normal; after all, the other side could remotely detonate a bomb and had surely warned the police not to act, or else they’d detonate it directly. In such a situation, all the police could do was block roads and follow.

"Alright, stop thinking about irrelevant things. Have you seen the bomb? How is it? Can you manage it?"

"Rest assured, Professor Moriarty."

As Frenda spoke, she took out a monocular and carefully observed the underside of the school bus before nodding her head immediately afterward.

"No problem, I can handle it!"

"Hmm? How are you planning to do that? Do you need me to send you over?"

"No need."

Frenda shook her head proudly.

"Professor Moriarty, you just need to drive to the front of that school bus, and leave the rest to me. I’ll blow it up with a bomb directly!"

"...Hmm?"

Upon hearing this, Fang Zheng and Riko froze.

"What the hell, are you a spy from the monkey side? Which side are you actually on?"

Using a bomb to blow up a bomb to disarm a bomb... Fang Zheng had never seen such a bizarre bomb disposal method in all his life.

"Rest assured, it’ll definitely work! Trust me!"

Frenda looked confident, and Fang Zheng could say nothing more, only...

"So Riko... No, Lupin, what do you think?"

"Can you really do it, Frenda... No, Eileen?"

"Of course."

In response to Riko’s inquiry, Frenda proudly raised her head.

"Who do you think I am? I’m LEVEL4 Great Ability Holder—’Surface Guidance’ Frenda Severine! This is a trivial matter for me!"

But that’s a space ability, not explosion ability...

Hearing this, Fang Zheng silently complained in his heart.

If it were explosion ability, he would have more confidence in Megumin and Louise.

Even without Frenda stating it, Fang Zheng had already learned the true aspect of her ability. Unlike the foolish research institute researcher, Fang Zheng detected the original form of her ability through his personal terminal when Frenda first used it—Mobius Strip.

This was also why Frenda’s ability could arbitrarily store and release items, and why she couldn’t apply her ability to herself.

Even so, this has nothing to do with explosions... That’s clearly your hobby!

"Then let’s do as you say! I believe in you! If you can disarm that bomb, I may be able to recover it and find clues to capture that Armed Detective Killer!"

Since Riko had made up her mind, Fang Zheng naturally asked no further questions, swiftly turning the steering wheel and speeding off through the highway entrance, then following Riko’s directions to the road outside the elevated highway exit. Then Frenda extended her hand to her skirt, retrieving several palm-sized rabbit plush toys.

Fang Zheng: "......???"

Such large items came from under the skirt?

Even though Fang Zheng knew Frenda’s ability worked like this, couldn’t she present it in a better way?

But before Fang Zheng could say anything, Frenda casually tossed these plush toys out of the car window and... shut the window.

"That’s it?"

"That’s it."

Frenda flashed a cheerful V-sign at Fang Zheng.

"Rest assured, Professor Moriarty, watch me pull this off!"

What could Fang Zheng say to that?

He could only watch.

Not long after Fang Zheng drove past the high-speed exit, the hijacked school bus sped down from the elevated highway, and the Ferraris trailing it showed no sign of change.

But the moment the school bus, along with the Ferraris, descended from the highway, an incredible scene unfolded.

"Boom!!"

The plush toy tossed into the grass by Frenda suddenly exploded. The explosion’s fragments shot out rapidly, puncturing one of the Ferrari’s tires. The blown tire caused the Ferrari to veer off course and crash hard into another Ferrari, and the third trailing Ferrari couldn’t avoid it, directly colliding with the front two. Accompanied by explosion sounds, the three costly Ferraris turned into fireballs.

As the three Ferraris exploded, the other plush toys thrown by Frenda suddenly erupted, sending fragments flying. They accurately struck the school bus tires, causing the bus to madly skid, twist, and finally halt in the middle of the highway.

No one noticed that at this moment, the bomb on the bus’s undercarriage also stopped, blinking wildly.

Within a few seconds, it could have turned the entire school bus into a fireball.

Yet at this moment, the last rabbit plush toy beneath the bomb suddenly began to expand.

"Bang!!"

The violent airflow impact blew a hole in the bus’s undercarriage, and amidst this chaos, the deformed bomb twisted and flew into the air, its signal lamp flashing crazily, ready to explode—just as a figure descended from the sky, her long silver-white hair appeared like angel wings, wrapping around the bomb about to explode.

Strangely, the bomb that had been on the verge of exploding went quiet immediately after being wrapped, like it had completely died.

At this point, the shocked students inside the bus looked up, finally seeing the peculiar figure wearing a fancy gown, top hat, and cape, standing on the bus roof, smiling down at them.