Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 147 - 147 Five

147: Five.

Sanity Value 147: Five.

Sanity Value “Something brought back by them that night.”

Joel added, the pair of eyes on his hook nose scrutinizing once more, trying to discern something from Lu Li’s face.

“What was brought back?” Lu Li pondered thoughtfully.

Just as Valentine was about to say something, he was stopped by Joel raising his hand, his tone severe, “If he doesn’t know and you tell him about ‘that thing’, you’ll be harming him.”

This comment made Lu Li think of the door, “Why would you say that?”

“You don’t know?”

Lu Li replied honestly, “I’ve been an Exorcist for less than half a month.”

This slightly furrowed Joel’s brow, indeed, the first time he saw Lu Li, he thought Lu Li was some reasonably powerful Exorcist, “Who is your guide?”

Perhaps it meant the person who taught Lu Li.

Lu Li mentioned a name, “Hades, he’s been of great help to me.”

“Hades…

that guy, huh.

You must have been conned out of a lot of money by him.” To his surprise, Joel knew Hades and even knew well this Demon Slayer whose head was filled with thoughts of money.

“Has he ever told you that knowing too much isn’t a good thing?”

Lu Li nodded, “He reminded me to always remember, the more you know, the faster you die.”

Those with an excessive curiosity often don’t live long—at least, that’s how it was among them.

“So,” Joel spread his hands, “if you want to know, I can tell you because I was sent here to Watch Town to assist with resolving this matter.

But are you prepared to lower your Sanity Value, ready to know the more detailed contents?”

“Sanity Value?”

Lu Li took note of the peculiar term, it sounded like some threshold affecting mental health.

“You don’t know?

Oh, I almost forgot, that guy Hades isn’t qualified to access this kind of information.” Joel shook his head, his brown eyes fixed on Lu Li as he said, “So, I’m sorry, I can’t tell you.”

Lu Li wanted to know.

The Sanity Value seemed to be somehow linked to the door.

Understanding Sanity Value might allow him to indirectly understand the mechanisms of the door.

“What if I’m willing to assist you?” Lu Li spoke up.

Joel slightly shook his head, refusing Lu Li’s offer, “Forgive my bluntness, but you can’t help with this matter—”

“I’ve encountered Richard, and if he hadn’t run so fast, I would have dealt with him already,” Lu Li interrupted Joel’s words, his voice still steady, without a trace of eagerness to know the truth, “I think that’s my advantage.”

Joel and Valentine exchanged glances, the former stroking his chin, pondering.

“Alright, just like you said, we can give it a try,” Joel lifted his head, agreeing to Lu Li’s terms, “I’ll tell you about Sanity Value, and you’ll join us later to check on those people, helping as much as you can.”

“This seems to violate the rules,” Valentine suddenly spoke up, unwilling to let Lu Li, an outsider, get involved.

Joel scoffed, leaning back into his chair, “He’s currently aiding your subordinates, he’s also helping you not to fall from your position, are we really concerning ourselves with damn rules at this point?”

Valentine’s face went through a series of changes, eventually settling on twilight hues, “You’re right.”

“Now, I’m about to tell our Exorcist Mr.

what Sanity Value is, Deputy Chief Valentine, could you please step out for a moment?”

Valentine paused, “Even me…?”

Joel spread out his palms, “If Sanity Value is harmless, why don’t we tell everyone?”

Valentine couldn’t rebut that statement and gritted his teeth as he left his seat and exited the office.

Only Lu Li and Joel remained in the office, on either side of the desk.

Joel’s gaze shifted from the doorway to Lu Li, “Are you sure you still want to know?”

“Do I look like I want to leave my seat?” Lu Li countered.

Joel stared at Lu Li for a long time, then said slowly, “People like you won’t live very long.”

It wasn’t a malicious curse, but a statement of a certain truth.

“Better than dying oblivious.”

Lu Li said this as if to confirm the statement.

Joel smiled briefly, then quickly composed himself.

He sat up straight, a grave expression surfacing on his face, “Listen well, there are some things I have to warn you about first.

When you learn about the Sanity Value, you will inevitably get involved in the real realm of this world.

While we do not prohibit the spread of Sanity Value, everyone who knows about it will bear the risk.

So if you want others to know—you have to first make sure they want to know, just as I did with you.”

“Understood.”

Sanity Value, or mental value.

It had been disseminated long ago, since before the Night Watchers were organized, since the beginning of the first generation of the Demon Slayer organization.

Initially, it referred to a person’s mental state—of course, it still does today.

Diving, staying in pitch-black rooms, at the site of a fire, being startled, the death of a loved one—all these can affect a person’s mental state, which was what the earliest reference to Sanity Value was about.

It was only as people gradually left ignorance behind, as tall ships sailed far, as they began to explore further worlds, that they first made contact with the strange and bizarre truths of the real world.

However, the world back then was not as dangerous as it is now.

Encounters with oddities were rare, but without exception, the majority who returned alive after such encounters exhibited some form of madness.

Those slightly better off changed drastically in temperament, filled with negative emotions.

Those worse off went insane directly.

This led the first generation of Demon Slayers to commence research.

The man who first put forward the actual theory of Sanity Value was a first-generation Demon Slayer: Isaac Einstein.

He believed that each person’s Sanity Value was different and influenced by personality.

For example, a sociable person and someone who is indifferent would experience different drops in Sanity Value when hearing of a friend’s death.

Sanity Value would decrease with negative emotions, naturally, it could also be restored through positive emotions, such as happiness and pleasure.

This forms the most fundamental part of one’s character: the lower the Sanity Value, the darker the character, edging towards unreasonable.

After constructing a model of a normal person’s Sanity Value, Einstein proposed a new theory: a rapid and continuous onset of negative emotions within a short period could permanently lower a person’s Sanity Value threshold.

For instance, if family members die in short succession.

Einstein applied this new theory to a deeper level, to those oddities wandering our world, because he found that the Sanity Values of these survivors were without exception near the lowest end, and even those who made contact with or listened to their stories suffered irreversible effects on their Sanity Values.

No one knew where these oddities came from.

Some said the spirit world was overlapping with ours; others said they had always been there, just awakened by human exploration.

Fifteen years after the theory of Sanity Value was proposed, Isaac Einstein created the first-generation Sanity Value test, which enabled people to materialize their own mental states.

It wasn’t quite correct to say he created it; strictly speaking, Einstein used the power of a particular specter to materialize the Sanity Value.

This is also why those who know about the Sanity Value take risks—because its very existence can cause a reduction in sanity.