Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 183 - 183 Forty

183: Forty.

“Arlen Peninsula Real News 183: Forty.

“Arlen Peninsula Real News Lu Li’s expression remained calm as he shifted his gaze to the newsboy under the gas lamp, “Do you have today’s newspaper?”

“Of course.” The obliging newsboy picked up a few newspapers from the stand, “The Arlen Principality Gazette, the Walson Post, the Daily News, which would you like?”

“Don’t you have any local ones?”

Lu Li’s eyes swept over the newspapers, which he could also buy in Belfast.

“You must be from out of town, right?

The local newspaper office in Shadow Town has been closed for many years,” the young newsboy shook his head.

“Do you have old newspapers?”

Seeing there was still business to be done, the young newsboy smiled, “Of course, from when would you like them?”

“All of them.”

“All?” The young newsboy was taken aback.

“I have a hobby of collecting newspapers and am keen to collect different newspapers from different periods,” Lu Li explained briefly.

“I see… but there might not be so many left, please wait a moment.”

The newsboy picked up a stack of old newspapers from behind him and placed them back on the stand: “This is all there is, there might be a few days missing in the middle, is that okay?”

“That’s fine, how much?”

“Let me count…

one, two, three…

thirty-four papers in total, um…

10 shillings will be enough.”

Passing over 10 shillings, Lu Li took a palm-thick stack of old newspapers from the young newsboy’s hands and left the newsstand.

“Aren’t we going to look around some more?

There might be other clues.”

Anna noticed that Lu Li was heading back.

“I’ve already found a clue.”

Lu Li spoke a sentence that Anna didn’t understand; she hadn’t seen that corner of the newspaper.

Confused, she followed Lu Li back to the Big Wave Tavern, and in the midst of the old woman’s casual greeting “Back so soon?” they returned to their upstairs room.

Placing the stack of newspapers in front of the dining table, Lu Li took a brief glance outside the window.

The lights they had lit appeared as a ribbon of light in the night, with sparse lights a little further away, and the outskirts of the town wrapped in a dense darkness.

Rustle—

Pulling the grey cloth curtain shut, Lu Li sat down at the dining table and pulled out a newspaper from the stack.

The Arlen Peninsula Real News

[The Hoax of Shadow Town!

You’ve All Been Duped!]

“Oh~ so this is the clue you mentioned?”

Anna, who suddenly understood, received no reply as Lu Li moved the oil lamp a bit with his hand, the light dancing and making the printing on the yellowed paper clearer.

“Shadow Figures?

Six-legged Monsters?

Most people who know of Shadow Swamp also know of Shadow Town, and those who know of Shadow Town are well aware of the Shadow Figures and the Six-legged Monster.

The local residents have been making money from this legend for decades, but what if I told you it was all made up?”

“There have never been Shadow Figures or Six-legged Monsters.

Of course, maybe in some unknown place hundreds or thousands of miles away, such creatures truly exist, but at least in Shadow Town, Shadow Figures and Six-legged Monsters are nothing more than residents dressed in crude, poorly made suits!”

“Yes, Shadow Town has played all of you for fools.

Adventurers, nobles, merchants, ghost enthusiasts, or whoever else, you’ve all been tricked!”

“They start by telling you ‘Shadow Swamp has ghastly creatures that come to Shadow Town’, but to prevent you from being afraid, they then say, ‘Fortunately, they’re afraid of light, just stay under the light and you will be safe.’ Then after hearing this, you think, ‘Wow, I can safely see those monsters or savages!’ and you excitedly buy a ticket to Shadow Town to see them as if they were animals in a circus.”

“Once you get there, the locals remind you, telling you ‘Don’t close the curtains, after dark you will see the Shadow Figures passing by on the dark streets outside’, and you do as told, excitedly watching those beings mentioned pass by your window, leaving you and the locals satisfied.

You witnessed those things, and the locals made money.”

“But it’s all fake!

Faker than a comic!”

“You might ask, if it’s fake, why haven’t tourists come forward to expose it all over the decades?”

“The truth is, every year many tourists do come forward to reveal the ugly deeds of Shadow Town’s residents.

Unfortunately, most newspapers don’t want to report these truths, and I can’t say for sure whether Shadow Town has bribed them or what—I’m just speculating.”

“Moreover, the practices of Shadow Town are even more despicable than you can imagine.

Why are they so unscrupulous in deceiving everyone?

Because they have something they rely on!”

“Shadow Swamp grows a kind of fruit that causes hallucinations.

It’s a fruit that deepens the subconscious of whoever eats it.

A bit like a dream, but not as chaotic.

In layman’s terms, it makes your subconscious seem real—of course, it’s just a hallucination.”

“They add these fruits to the food, letting you unknowingly consume them.

But don’t worry, the fruit’s hallucinatory effect only lasts for about ten hours, and there are no side effects.”

“So when ignorant outsiders eat these hallucinogenic fruits, their subconscious thoughts are amplified.

What would those tourists visiting Shadow Town be thinking of?”

“Naturally, Shadow Figures and Six-legged Monsters!”

“Just think of how much money they made with this trick?

How could a small town, located on the edge, with a population of three or four thousand and not even a hundred years old, accumulate so much wealth?”

“Because that’s how they developed the town!”

“Every person here has lived in the town for generations.

Conscience?

No, no, no, what is conscience compared to the development of the town and one’s own profit?”

“However, since the Night Calamity emerged, they have been more restrained.

Although they still deceive the ignorant outsiders, it’s not as frequent.

I mean, after the Night Calamity, who would want to go there again, right?

We have horror right beside us, why go so far to witness someone else’s horror?”

“In fact, I completed this article many years ago and attempted to publish it in the Shadow Town Report.

The editor was an upright gentleman with a good conscience, but unfortunately, we underestimated the terrible extent to which Shadow Town’s residents would go—they colluded to shut down the paper, and the last issue that revealed the truth was never published.”

“For years after, I kept trying to get more people to see the truth, but my individual efforts were weak.

Until I found the Arlen Peninsula Real News.

Its promise of absolute truth attracted me, and indeed they did just that.

When I mentioned my desire to expose the truth of Shadow Town, they took my article very seriously, tried to verify it rigorously, and completely confirmed its contents, allowing it to be smoothly published in this issue of the paper.”

“Although late, it’s not too late.

Residents of Shadow Town, you owe an apology for your ugly deeds!”

“I am Thomas Dio, a scholar dedicated to revealing the truth to people.”