Blazing a Trail in the Closed Beta of Science Online

At first, people thought they were just seeing things. Then Conan anesthetized Uncle Kogoro and found a place to analyze the culprit's methods with his voice changer, only to see a group of people crouched in the corner, staring at him.

Detective Science Online, a massively multiplayer role-playing game that's highly complex, immersive, and challenging. It offers enormous freedom, a variety of main-story exploration modes, a wide range of side quests, and randomly assigned System missions.

Kurokawa Kiri, nicknamed Go, was unexpectedly selected as a beta tester for Detective Science Online.

[Please create your character. First, choose a game name.]

Kurokawa Kiri instinctively typed "Kuro..." and the keyboard suggested "Gin." So he entered those three letters. After he typed the last one, the keyboard automatically suggested "Jinpei."

Fine, then. He'd go by Gin Jinpei.

[Confirm? This cannot be changed.]

[Confirm]

Kurokawa Kiri opened the trending character rankings and saw the names at the top. Suddenly, it all made sense. No wonder the keyboard had suggested those names. There was someone called Gin and someone called Jinpei Matsuda.

Oh no. He was doomed.

[Choose a class. Step one: choose a faction: Red or Black.]

Kurokawa Kiri had no idea what red, white, black, or green meant. He was about to open the descriptions when the whole screen flashed, and his hand slipped, clicking... [or]

[Selection final. No changes allowed (*^ω^*)]

Kurokawa Kiri: Or????

At last, after completing the beginner's guide, early exploration, class selection, and an intensive social-training session, and earning enough favorability, he was about to retire in triumph when the game world suddenly flashed. The System went "Ding ding ding" and upgraded.

[Detective Science Online is launching! Global open beta begins now!]

[System missions are divided into side-story and main-story modes. Earn points to unlock more photo-op and interaction opportunities, and even physical autographed photos.]

In an instant, swarms of people logged into Detective Science Online. The main characters' stories became a massive NPC photo-op event, and every place they could find, including Beika Town, the Tokyo Metropolitan Police Department, and Poirot Cafe, was overrun like a plague of locusts.

Kurokawa Kiri also discovered that the System's favorability instances could advance to romance instances (how many times???), and a countdown indicated a forced update. He randomly stopped a player, but they knew nothing about it. "What favorability? Isn't this a no-CP game? Aren't we all just ordinary players? NPCs are for looking at, not messing with."

Kurokawa Kiri: Then what was all that hard work raising favorability for over the past few years???

A week later, when the new game rankings were updated, players noticed that an OG player called Gin Jinpei was at the top of the points leaderboard, with player ID 0001.

This is a story about anime protagonists becoming NPCs in a game, while ordinary players explore the world however they choose.

Conan, Gin, and the Detective Conan cast: We're NPCs?

It's also the story of a beta tester who maxed out the favorability instances before the game launched. When the global open beta begins, everyone else earns points by taking photos at attractions, but he can only earn points through the advanced romance instances, or all his points will be reset. The tale of a pioneer blazing a trail.

Kurokawa Kiri: I want to earn points by taking photos too. I don't want to earn points by doing *...

Blurb written October 7, 2025, 06:44

Theme: Growth, understanding, and awakening, discovering how to play the game of life