I, in a Jujutsu Kaisen Manga, Take the Detective Conan World by Storm

While Jiang Lai urgently awaits the manga update, on the other side, people in the Detective Conan world are also camping for updates.

Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji, who have returned to the Mobile Unit's Explosive Ordnance Disposal Squad, just finished handling a thrilling bomb disposal case today.

To celebrate everything going smoothly without incident, Matsuda Jinpei drags his friend Hagiwara Kenji, planning to have a steaming hot mountain produce hot pot feast at home to relax.

Originally wanted to gather all five police academy members plus Kurosawa Akira, but unfortunately, Morofushi Hiromitsu has to work overtime tonight and can't come back. Furuya Rei has been on some unknown mission recently, no news for months, still can't contact him. The class president left Tokyo for Nagano this afternoon, his work is mainly based there.

But this meal can still work with three people.

While the pot broth is heating up, Matsuda Jinpei looks down at his phone, refreshing the page for who knows how many times, muttering: "It should update by now, right... it's been so long since the last update."

To the side, Hagiwara Kenji turns his head to recall for a moment, then smiles: "It hasn't been that long, right? I remember it updated this week?"

Many manga updating monthly is very common. Some even update seasonally or yearly. This new Jujutsu series not only guarantees weekly updates, but can even update several chapters weekly, quite diligent indeed.

"That's true, but I still can't help refreshing." Matsuda Jinpei sighs and puts down his phone. "Jiang Lai hasn't appeared for a long time recently."

"Mm, indeed." Hagiwara Kenji nods. He also knows about Jiang Lai entering the manga, which Matsuda Jinpei told him the next day.

Of course, this matter isn't known to everyone. Matsuda and the others only told some friends who have good relationships with Jiang Lai.

After all, such an unscientific thing sounds more like a nighttime ghost story than reality. Saying it out loud would probably be taken as mental breakdown.

Moreover, if people with ulterior motives learned about space-time travel, there might be many unnecessary troubles.

"Though he hasn't appeared, you've been in contact all along, right?" Hagiwara Kenji comforts. "That means Jiang Lai is doing well over there~"

"True. On one hand it's reassuring, but on the other hand..." Matsuda Jinpei pours the sliced chicken from the plate into the boiling hot pot in front of him. "More appearances would still accumulate popularity. You know, Jiang Lai doesn't even have merchandise now. Wouldn't this make him more likely to become cannon fodder?"

Hagiwara Kenji pauses before reacting, can't help recalling his friend's recent search history:

He didn't deliberately look at his friend's search history, just because Matsuda Jinpei never hides anything from him.

When Matsuda handed him his phone asking him to help search for something, he looked down and saw the records under the search box.

[What are the evaluation standards for popular characters?]

[Where do you vote in manga character popularity polls?]

[What does "my oshi" mean? What do "forming arrays" and "pain bags" mean in 2D culture?]

[Complete vocabulary correspondence table for valley circle beginners]

Hagiwara Kenji: Wow, Jinpei is learning new things.jpg

Surprised at the time, but later he also studied along, improving his knowledge of new circles.

"It's fine, don't worry too much." Hagiwara Kenji says. "The new series hasn't been out long, the official hasn't started merchandise production and sales yet. The merchandise in the... uh, valley groups you joined should all be from the original Jujutsu work."

"Next time merchandise is released, Jiang Lai will definitely be included~" Hagiwara Kenji places one hand under his chin, thinking. "When that happens, I'll also buy some to help boost Jiang Lai's popularity."

"Actually, I think," says silver-haired youth Kurosawa Akira sitting on the other side of the table, "merchandise is just one aspect of popularity manifestation. No need to rush that. There are other more important things to focus on now."

"Like tag building and forum character thread maintenance."

Matsuda Jinpei: "I know, I check in daily. But this requires phone number login, I've opened two alternate accounts at most."

Hagiwara Kenji blinks cleverly: "I'm also checking in daily, but one person's power is limited after all."

Kurosawa Akira holds his water cup and takes a sip: "No problem, I have hundreds to a thousand alternate accounts."

Matsuda Jinpei: "?"

Hagiwara Kenji: "?"

Matsuda Jinpei: "Hah?! Are you joking? How did you do that! Don't do anything illegal in this area, Akira!"

"What are you thinking? You're both police officers, I wouldn't do illegal personal information trading either." Kurosawa Akira calmly puts down his water cup, nodding to explain. "I just had research institute employees basically register several accounts each, then check in daily."

Kurosawa Akira: "As for explanation, mm... just openly say I recently started following a manga, really like one character, asking everyone to check in daily, just as a gesture."

Kurosawa Akira: "And this isn't vote manipulation, right? It's not some activity participation, just spontaneous daily check-ins. I just want Brother Jiang Lai's thread to look more lively."

Three seconds of air silence. Matsuda Jinpei coughs, hesitating: "Though but, adding work to employees because of personal preferences... isn't that bad?"

"This activity is naturally voluntary, and it's not unpaid work." Kurosawa Akira's voice is calm. "As long as they log in and check in, they get extra salary. Money is settled daily, no delays."

Kurosawa Akira: "Incidentally, I recently used my own savings to commission some works on public platforms to increase tag activity and exposure."

Hagiwara Kenji (smiling): The invincible power of money appears!.jpg

Kurosawa Akira: "Additionally, in my spare time from work, I'm learning digital art and short writing. Currently my level has reached medium-high quality. I plan to produce some content myself recently to enrich the pages."

Air silence again for three seconds.

Matsuda Jinpei (greatly shocked): What kind of spirit is this? Hallucinating the model worker spirit of a certain unnamed top killer who was in the organization and is now in Europe!!

Under the two's gaze, Kurosawa Akira maintains his calm posture, pointing at the boiling hot pot, his green eyes lifting slightly:

"Not eating? The meat is all cooked."

"...Eating, eating now." Matsuda Jinpei recovers from his surprise, picking several pieces of meat into his plate, sighing with emotion. "Akira really has talent. I tried drawing before, but whatever I draw looks like explosive device structure diagrams."

Hagiwara Kenji: "Cough, honestly, drawing everything like explosive device structure diagrams is also a talent beyond ordinary people, Jinpei~"

"Is that praise or mockery, eh? Hagi?" Matsuda Jinpei jokingly punches his friend's arm once.

"Naturally it's praise, praise." Hagiwara Kenji laughs and raises his cup.

Kurosawa Akira quietly speaks from the side: "Actually you could also draw Brother Jiang Lai looking like an explosive device structure diagram. I imagine such a magical picture would get many reposts."

Matsuda Jinpei twitches his lips, firmly refusing: "No, stop this topic!"

Just as his words fall, the phone on the table vibrates and rings, attracting everyone's attention.

Matsuda Jinpei opens his phone, sees the update notification from his email subscription, quite delightedly saying: "Oh, the manga updated!"

The image of Jiang Lai appearing on the latest chapter cover immediately draws their attention to the phone.

Mountain produce hot pot can be reheated later, plus the three aren't too hungry currently, so they decisively move the pot and plates on the dining table, planning to finish reading this update first.

Though they can log into the website from their own phones to read, several people together makes discussion more convenient.

So Hagiwara and Kurosawa Akira move their stools, sitting left and right beside Matsuda Jinpei, watching the manga on his phone together.

The opening scene continues from the previous chapter's mission with Itadori Yuji and others.

After completing the mission, Fushiguro Megumi says he wants to return to the apartment to get something, telling everyone not to wait for him as he'll return to Jujutsu High later.

Fushiguro Megumi carries his bag with one hand, walking on the evening road. The road extends far ahead until the scene shifts to a nearby alley entrance.

The eerie alley entrance's art style gives a feeling of a mysterious door. Sound bubbles annotating sounds from inside let viewers simply perceive what's happening within.

"Cut the crap! If you don't want to get knifed, hurry up and pay!"

"Bastard! Can't you hear?!"

Looks like coercive robbery. This scene in the manga makes police officers Matsuda Jinpei and Hagiwara Kenji instinctively frown. Don't know what exactly is happening in the alley...

Next page, a sharp folding knife suddenly appears in the manga, its blade coldly stabbing toward the person by the wall!

"Jiang Lai?! These guys..." Matsuda Jinpei unconsciously exclaims upon recognizing who the figure by the wall is, his fingers gripping the phone suddenly tightening!

"Don't worry, it's fine." Hagiwara Kenji reads a bit faster, pointing to the lower half of this page. "Look, the knife didn't go in."

In the frame, the sharp knife tip stops a centimeter away from the black-haired youth. The knife-wielding thug looks stunned, the trembling blade unable to get any closer to that person no matter how hard he tries.

"It stopped." Kurosawa Akira blinks lightly, recalling: "Is this Brother Jiang Lai's cooperation help from that ghost gentleman he mentioned in the family group?"

"...Should be." Seeing Jiang Lai is safe, Matsuda Jinpei relaxes, then immediately flips to the next page.

Hagiwara Kenji adds a couple sentences: "Jiang Lai's performance here looks very much like that popular character's Limitless."

The perspective later returns to Fushiguro Megumi's side. Obviously, he also heard unusual sounds from the alley, so he quickly rushed to the alley entrance.

The tense, straight sea urchin-haired youth and the indifferent, leisurely black-haired brown-eyed youth meet at sunset's transition between light and dark.

Evening time, when spirits appear.

Unlike the manga's heavy, dark, thrilling atmosphere, the people in front of the phone cheerfully comment:

"Not bad, Jiang Lai's atmospheric control is also very good this time."

"Whoa! These effects, give a feeling of being very strong!!"

"Ya, I see tomatoes in Jiang Lai's shopping bag... those red, round things are tomatoes, right?"

"Should be, hope the fruits and vegetables aren't damaged. Also, he went too easy on those people, Brother Jiang Lai should have beaten them more severely."

After the initial tension, they relax and read the following conversation content, until flipping to the last page:

In the manga, Fushiguro Megumi looks down in shock at his hand that couldn't approach the other person just now, pupils shaking. Inevitably, Gojo Satoru's image surfaces in his mind...

"Connected!" Matsuda Jinpei feels happy for Jiang Lai. "This way, both the Jujutsu world and our side can have relatively clear [Limitless-like] speculation. Jiang Lai should be able to sense some abilities this time, right?"

"Still the ghost gentleman's help, looks like he stopped Fushiguro-kun's gloves." Kurosawa Akira observes the manga scene. "This final scene is probably an unexpected bonus, more intuitive than the knife part."

"Jiang Lai's way of gaining new abilities... is it recognition from inside and outside the world?" Hagiwara Kenji blinks. Though he heard Matsuda explain before, he still can't help confirming once more.

"About right. According to what Jiang Lai said before, it's connected to world will, author will, and forum will." Matsuda Jinpei recalls. "Though it can't fundamentally change a person, it can exert influence from the side. So Jiang Lai has been borrowing these powers."

Hagiwara Kenji touches his chin, his semi-long hair slightly tilting to one side. He thinks, then raises his finger, smiling:

"Since that's the case, should we add fuel to Jiang Lai's ability discussions here?"

Matsuda Jinpei is stunned, then reacts: "Ah, right!"

He immediately logs into the forum.

At this moment in the new Jujutsu series forum, various new posts are sprouting like bamboo shoots after rain.

【#Gojo Lai Daily Centralized Check-in Discussion Thread# (hot)】

【#A Screaming Thread for Everyone, Centralized Shouting in This Thread# (hot)】

【#Has Anyone Finished the Latest Chapter, Come Passionately Discuss with Me!! (writhing) (twisting) Can't take it anymore, so handsome so thrilling!!# (hot)】

【#Report! That Gojo Lai appeared again!! He seems to know Limitless!!!# (new)】

【#Who got scared, Megumi and I both got scared woo woo, new character has such strong presence!# (new)】

【#What's happening in the latest chapter, now Limitless doesn't need Six Eyes?? Or is that not Limitless#】

【#Latest chapter Megumi and Lai Lai detail screenshots, click to appreciate beautiful photos, let's prpr without thinking#】

Scanning through the existing various titles, Matsuda Jinpei hesitates wanting to post a new thread, but his finger hovers, not knowing what kind of title to use.

Kurosawa Akira reminds from the side: "Exaggerated titles attract more attention. Like, mm, clickbait titles?"

Clickbait titles... Matsuda Jinpei's mind quickly flashes through recently acquired new knowledge. After scratching his head and thinking hard, he finally has a flash of inspiration, quickly typing:

【Latest Chapter: Unbelievable, Makes You Break Out in Cold Sweat After Reading! The Person Who Shocked Fushiguro Megumi Into Speechlessness, Could This New Mutant Limitless User Be Him? A Second Gojo Satoru May Be Born!! (Explosive Content Details Click...)】

Matsuda Jinpei (thinking): This should be flavorful enough, right? Send!