Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 167 - 167 Twenty-four

167: Twenty-four.

14:00~18:00 167: Twenty-four.

14:00~18:00 Palm covered the doorknob, pressing slightly.

The wooden door, as if fused with the eerie staircase structure, didn’t budge.

Even pressing his head against the door, Lu Li could not hear any sound from behind it.

It seemed that the 2 p.m.

“game time” had been eluded by Lu Li.

His gaze moved from the wooden door to below.

The blood-red hue on the walls of the stairwell grew denser, radiating a disturbing, bloody light.

The clues had changed, no longer the ones Lu Li had seen before.

Broken clues scattered over every part of the wall, seemingly related at first glance, but when tried to be connected, they only formed meaningless sentences.

[Food][Will][Knowledge][Novelty][More][Grant][Life][Wealth][Strong][Lovable][They]

Fittingly, this was Lu Li’s specialty.

Silently scanning the entire wall stretching downward, Lu Li took in the fragmented clues and pieced them together like a puzzle…

[Knowledge is detestable, but it is your friend, it will make you stronger, smarter, more likely to gain advantages]

[Food grants you novel sensory pleasures, it is also essential for your survival, but eating without restraint can easily destroy your life, in any case, please eat your fill before proceeding]

Like the clues of the previous time on other floors, once pieced together, these formed bizarre warnings.

Linking the two decrypted key phrases with those obtained from the floors above, Lu Li composed a larger clue: it was the period of the day from 11 a.m.

to 1 p.m., a boy resisted the temptations of laughter and the calls of his playmates, reviewed his studies on his own, then craved something to eat…

It sounded unrelated to the surreal and grotesque scene Lu Li had witnessed, but it indeed was what Lu Li was experiencing at the moment.

The bizarre staircase reeked of eeriness, with no possibility of turning back, Lu Li could only proceed downwards along the staircase until he reached the end of this building.

Or die on some temporal floor.

Lu Li focused his mind and continued moving downward.

Thud——Thud——Thud——

A faint cool breeze blew up from the deep steps below, neither damp nor foul-smelling.

Ruffled by the breeze, Lu Li’s messy black hair lifted as he pondered.

What was the next learning time, 2:30 p.m.?

Or 3 p.m.?

Or was it time to eat first?

Thud——

Reaching the 1430th floor, Lu Li quietly waited for a few seconds, and no bizarre events were triggered.

So it was onto the next floor…

Lu Li continued walking towards the seemingly endless steps.

At the 1500th level, Lu Li paused his steps.

Rustling——

At the end of the sightline downstairs around the corner, a group of twisted limbs made chaotic noises as they rushed upwards!

They were slender entities of indefinable form.

They were two to three meters tall, yet only as wide as a palm, with eerie, pale faces that seemed to smile yet not smile, situated in the middle of their writhing torsos.

With every step upwards they took, their slender bodies rocked back and forth violently, bumping into the walls and each other, seemingly about to fall at any moment.

They crowded together, twisting their noodle-like bodies, rapidly approaching Lu Li!

Indeed, as the clues said, this group of “knowledges” was detestable.

Yet, they seemed to be there to assist Lu Li, at least that’s what the assembled clues suggested.

Of course, the clues could also be wrong, intentionally misleading Lu Li to ignore them at this moment—but the staircase wouldn’t do that, it could have provided misleading information from the start.

In the blink of an eye, the crowd of unnervingly slender beings reached the 1500th level, enveloping Lu Li in a tight wrap.

Lu Li raised his arms, not using any abilities, simply protecting himself like that, blocking the rain-like descent of faces with ambiguous smiles.

Caught off guard by one of the creatures kissing his cheek, Lu Li lifted his arms to protect his head, silently resisting the scene.

If Lu Li were brought into the background setting, his actions resembled those of a boy perfunctorily coping with his studies.

The face that had fortuitously kissed Lu Li’s cheek transformed.

Its eyes narrowed, its mouth curved into an arc, and its figure, along with the emerging smile, gradually faded away, only to be pushed forward by the surrounding elongated entities.

The overwhelming intimacy was blocked by Lu Li, and it seemed that it wasn’t necessary for them to kiss Lu Li’s face in order to disappear.

Those that only touched Lu Li’s arms changed too.

Their eyes shifted upward, and their mouths drooped down, their ambiguous smiles turning into mournful glares as their figures also faded away.

Noticing this, Lu Li was pensive.

He slightly moved his arms toward the center, changing the defended area from his entire head to just protecting his cheeks.

This way, although some elongated entities accidentally kissed Lu Li’s arms and disappeared with mournful faces, more of the elongated entities touched Lu Li’s head, their faces breaking into smiles, dispersing into the air.

An ambiguous smiling face hit the top of Lu Li’s head.

The soft touch wasn’t painful, and its ghastly white face broke into a smile, then disappeared on the spot.

This was the last elongated entity.

It was dead quiet around Lu Li.

Lowering his arms, his body was free from any disgusting saliva and discomforting odor.

After checking his body and confirming there were no abnormalities, Lu Li continued downward.

No occurrences on the 1530th floor.

Lu Li passed it by, continuing downward.

The 1600 level came into view, along with several tables on this platform, upon which protective gear and weapons were placed.

“Eat… but with moderation.”

Lu Li muttered the hint he had received from the wall as he arrived at the 1600th level.

Longswords, broadswords, rapiers, daggers, Meteor Hammer.

Shields, large shields, helmets, vambraces, chainmail.

Piles of new weapons were stacked on the tables, perhaps these armaments were the “food” the hint referred to.

Lu Li picked up a short sword, keeping quiet and vigilant of his surroundings.

After no changes occurred, he examined the metal short sword.

The short sword was of a comfortable weight, its blade reasonably sharp.

Unlike the dull ornaments, this was a real weapon.

Would he face enemies that needed to be fought in the following floors…

Lu Li held the short sword in his hand, and turned to walk toward another table where the armor was laid out.

Just like the previous short sword, Lu Li reached for a round shield that could completely protect one’s arm and gently tapped it with the short sword; the tapping echoed.

His gaze shifted, falling on a medieval helmet nearby.

Small weapons and shields would be useful in narrow staircases, and in a situation where retreating was impossible, helmets and armor were equally important.

Lu Li’s hand moved toward the helmet; suddenly, a mass of black tentacles emerged wriggling out from the helmet’s openings, forcing back Lu Li’s extended hand.

Watching the tentacles swayingly retract into the helmet’s interior, Lu Li realized he shouldn’t grab anymore.

As Lu Li withdrew his hand, the seagrass-like cluster of black tentacles also pulled back into the helmet.

No longer coveting the other weapons and armor on the table, Lu Li proceeded downstairs with a short sword in his left hand and moving slowly.

Lu Li had pretty much figured out the ins and outs of the stairwell construction.

Now at the 1400th level, according to the unwritten rule that a serious battle is always preceded by supplies, the 1700 level representing five in the afternoon might bring new trouble.

Such as…

parents checking on study progress.