Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 243 - 243 The Swamp Room

243: The Swamp Room 243: The Swamp Room Everyone has their own unique way of handling things.

This assessment, or rather “Giant Terry and Tesla’s Great Adventure,” exists to understand the style of each new recruit.

Lu Li’s caution and Doma’s directness were just one of those styles.

As for whether the new recruits’ styles are suitable for investigators, that was something to be considered later.

Doma tossed aside the head of the poor dwarf puppet with its neck twisted but kept its body, grasping the legs with one hand, and pushed open the wooden door on the left.

The remaining people exchanged glances and followed Doma.

Lu Li still walked at the back, closing the door behind them incidentally.

“Is this swamp an illusion…

It’s just too realistic,” Frank couldn’t help but exclaim as he looked around.

The others had similarly astonished expressions, their eyes wide as they observed their surroundings.

They huddled at the back of the door, in a narrow space, as if dirty and gloomy swamps surrounded everything but the ground under their feet.

Lu Li perceived something from this remark and their behavior, scanned the room, and found it no different from the previous mouth room.

The only difference was that this room had only one wooden door, directly opposite them.

Had he experienced an illusion due to absorbing “the intentions of ghosts”?

Lu Li speculated in his heart.

Indeed, that was the case.

Dark purple miasma bubbled up from the swamp, emitting a foul stench as it churned thickly.

Several gnarled and twisted trees took root in the sludge, while crows perched on the bare branches, letting out unbearable strange cries.

A solitary wooden door stood across the swamp, just like the previous level, leading to the next stage.

A narrow path skirted the center, broken and extending towards the opposite shore.

And right in the middle of the swamp, what appeared to be a foothold on the ground, stood a wooden sign.

It seemed to bear some words.

This was the scene seen by Frank and the others.

[The perilous swamp blocks your path; you must navigate through the treacherous marsh with agility to reach the next area]

The narration of Tristan echoed throughout the swamp.

“The swamp might be problematic, everyone be careful not to step on the oddly colored mire,” Owen cautioned, unable to wait after being upstaged by Doma in the previous level.

He was acutely aware that their performances in the assessment were being watched by the four leaders in charge, and the better they performed, the greater their chances of joining the investigators.

“It’s just a walk!”

With a grunt, Doma whipped up a gust, charging into the swamp path once more.

It was somewhat incomprehensible what the investigator who recommended her for the role was thinking when they made their recommendation.

Equally incomprehensible was this convoluted phrase.

“Be careful,” Frank said tensely, raising his arms as if crossing a single-log bridge, cautiously following behind Doma.

“If this were a maze, this guy would surely have smashed through the wall…” Owen sighed and followed third.

In the small area of “land” in front of the door, only Lu Li and Daniel remained.

Feeling Daniel’s gaze, Lu Li said to him, “I’ll go last.”

Without a word, Daniel turned and followed behind Owen.

Last of all, Lu Li followed them, stepping in their footprints to avoid stepping into unseen dangers of the swamp.

Nervous?

Thrilling?

He only saw the bare red brick walls.

Lu Li was like an Observer detached from the story.

Of course, to put it more positively, Lu Li was the only one among them who saw through the illusion and observed the essence.

As agile as a female leopard, Doma arched her body and effortlessly leaped over the protruding stones in the swamp, landing on the other side of the path.

Behind her, Fulando stretched out his arms, stepping carefully on the stones, swaying left and right until he stabilized his body before jumping to another stone and finally landing on the path.

Owen and Daniel were conventional, but Lu Li’s crossings were the most perilous.

He didn’t pause, nor did he adopt Doma’s stance, but instead crossed as calmly as if stepping on stones across a stream.

Clearly, there were several times his shoes nearly touched the edge of the swamp.

This guy is that good…

Owen muttered in his heart.

He had been observing these people all along.

It was easy to understand Doma, who was stubborn, and Frank, who wanted to be friends with everyone.

Only Daniel and Lu Li were inscrutable to him, and conveniently, both of them were Exorcists.

But now it seemed that Lu Li might be even more formidable?

In fact, Lu Li simply didn’t want to hop around in an empty room like the others—only children playing house would do that.

Especially since Tesla and the others were hiding somewhere, secretly watching.

“I still can’t see what’s written on it…”

This was already the closest position to the center of the swamp on the ground, yet it was still about three meters away.

Frank leaned forward, trying to see the content written on the wooden sign.

Owen analyzed, “The ground there is a different color; it might not be that dangerous.

And with the sign standing there, there might be a hint written on it.

We should find a way to get there or see the content clearly.”

This stage wouldn’t just have a wooden sign standing there without a purpose.

“I can jump over.”

Doma suddenly said.

And as her voice sounded, she had already thrown the headless dwarf puppet onto the central bank.

As her words fell, she bent her legs, and her explosive muscles tensed on her thighs, instantly tightening as she leaped to the other side.

Landing on the edge of the opposite bank, Doma shook her tiny braids on her head and walked to the edge of the wooden sign after picking up the dwarf puppet.

A line of tiny writing appeared in the middle of the sign: “You have been weakened; you need a teammate to help you up.”

The question only just emerged at the bottom of her heart when suddenly all Doma’s strength was drained, and she collapsed to the ground powerless.

“Doma!”

Frank yelled out upon seeing this scene.

Owen stopped Frank, who seemed about to leap over, “Calm down, she’s not really dead.

That might be a trap set by the stage.”

Doma struggled to lift her head, looking at the few people on the path, and weakly said through clenched teeth, “Don’t look at the sign…!”

“You wait for us, we’re coming to rescue you now!”

Frank suddenly ran forward a distance, then turned around, took a deep breath, accelerated towards them, and, as he approached, he abruptly changed direction and stepped on the edge of the path, leaping to the other side.

He almost crashed into the opposite bank diagonally, his landing posture looking terrible and smeared with a bunch of mud, but he still made it over successfully.

“I’ll go over to help too…” Owen sighed helplessly, adopting the likeness of Scholar Fran and leaping to the opposite bank, helping Doma up together.

“I’ve regained some strength…

I can go back by myself!” Doma said, pushing away the two of them and swaying a bit, but managing to stand firm.

“My weapon…!”

“Such a hassle…

Had I known, I wouldn’t have come over.” Owen complained while picking up the puppet that Doma had dropped in front of the sign.

He remembered Doma’s reminder and didn’t look at the content on the sign.

A series of rapid footsteps rang out, followed by a heavy step.

Doma, who had regained some strength, leaped high, her feet landing on the path.

But her momentum didn’t dissipate, and her body uncontrollably lurched towards the outskirts of the swamp—