Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 261 - 261 One hundred and eighteen

261: One hundred and eighteen.

Merchant 261: One hundred and eighteen.

Merchant [Mother of the Marsh has set her sights on you.]

[Go to Anres Repair Station in the Snowflake District and show the keepsake I gave you to the people there, and have them deal with the mark on your body.]

[Be quick, and do not let the mark turn into a brand.]

[Remember, do not set foot in Shadow Town before the mark is removed; there’s a problem here.

If a week passes after you receive this letter and I have not come for the keepsake, relay this message to the people at the repair station, and they will handle it.]

[There’s a basement in my residence, give them the stuff inside, and everything else is yours.]

The handwriting was messy and the content brief.

The letter was wrinkled from water damage, and the ink had bled, making it hard to read.

The sense of disconnection in the message was severe.

If Lu Li hadn’t learned from Tesla that “the flashlight relic grants Lu Li the right to inherit,” he would have no clue what the last sentence of the letter meant.

This letter was the authentic version of the previous one from “Door,” and it was written by the figure wearing the Bird Beak Mask.

However, she probably couldn’t imagine that, in just a few short days, Lu Li had already removed the mark of Mother of the Marsh and had joined the ranks of the detectives.

Lu Li pulled out the previous letter sent by “Door” from the bottom of the drawer and held it up for comparison.

The two pieces of notepaper were identical, with the tear marks on the edges and the original diary contents matching exactly.

Sending a letter from near Shadow Swamp to Belfast would take about three days, and the envelope was also marked: Sent from the post office of Anjia Town on the night of July 7th.

Lu Li received the forged letter from “Door” on the morning of July 8th.

That is to say, “Door” was fully aware of what was happening around Lu Li and of things Lu Li did not know, but that were still connected to him.

The situation was becoming more and more eerie and mysterious.

After putting away the letters, Lu Li picked up the second letter.

The pungent scent of perfume that was enough to induce sneezing emanated from the envelope—it was obvious where it came from.

Without opening the envelope, Lu Li directly placed Mrs.

Slav’s love letter with the previous ones.

Having dealt with all the letters, Lu Li returned to the couch, sat down, and quietly resumed reading the last part of the newspaper he hadn’t finished.

Bubble, bubble—

The sound of boiling and the scent of cooking meat came from the kitchen.

Whoosh—

The sound of a carriage passing came from the window behind him.

Knock, knock, knock—

A regular knocking sounded at the door.

The door of the Detective Agency was knocked for the third time today.

Anna chopped half a carrot into dices and prepared to throw them into the pot in the last ten minutes.

Hearing the knocking, she curiously poked her head out again, saw a tall figure in ragged clothes with a travel bag standing outside the door, then cautiously retracted her head.

“Here’s the thing you wanted.”

Lu Li closed the door and faced the tall figure.

Lu Li was unable to tell whether it was the same merchant who had appeared before.

They were similarly tall, but the one before him was dressed differently, though still wrapped in numerous layers of clothing.

The merchant, standing behind the door, took off the backpack and pulled out a stack of books and portfolios from the bulging bag filled with who-knows-what.

“Five books, four sets of maps—official and internal ones each, for which you need to pay 17,350 shillings or the equivalent value in information items.”

Clang—

The sound of a soup spoon falling to the floor came from the kitchen.

“Remember to wash it before putting it back in the pot,” Lu Li called out towards the kitchen, then frowned and said to the merchant, “That’s too expensive.

”

The price of the latest Lite steam car was 19,500 shillings, and a standalone wooden house in the Sailor District would not cost more than 7,000 shillings.

A muffled voice came from behind the tattered brown wool scarf: “Internal maps and maps of the Tillage Garden are expensive.”

“What if I don’t want those?”

“350 shillings.”

This was the price for five books and three maps, not too high and not too low, leaning towards fair value.

“Are the four maps of each continent?”

“Yes.”

“How many shillings for the official Tillage Garden map?”

“One thousand shillings.”

“Why is it so expensive?” Lu Li pondered as he asked.

“Information on Tillage Garden is scarce,” answered the merchant.

“How much for a map marked with special content?”

“Four thousand shillings.”

Lu Li’s phone was almost worth the money for a map.

“Do you have an internal map of the Ailen Peninsula?” Lu Li asked, settling for the next best thing.

“One thousand shillings.”

This time, the price finally fell within Lu Li’s affordable range.

But before making the purchase, Lu Li had some details he wanted to inquire about: “What does the internal map have in addition to the official map?”

“Areas of the still existing Evil God’s Territory, relics, danger zones, Sanity Decline Locations, the original positions of evil spirits, immovable anomalies, the Three Major Organizations’ Bases.”

“Still existing…

does the map get updated?”

“The map gets updated the first week of every month, reorganizing the aforementioned elements within the map’s range, adding or deleting them.”

“To get the updated one, I have to buy another copy?”

“Yes.”

It didn’t sound like a good deal, but buying a local map would effectively help Lu Li avoid dangers and understand the current situation of the Ailen Peninsula.

“Can I trade with Contribution Value?”

“Yes, for five books, three maps, and an internal map of the Ailen Peninsula, you need a total of 135 investigative points.

Deducting the points you have, you are left with—” the merchant paused for a moment, as if receiving a message or recalling something, and a few seconds later continued: “—negative 85 investigative points.”

Investigative points, or Contribution Value, might have a ratio of 1:10 with shillings, but these are not the main points.

“Can contributions be owed?”

“Apprentice Investigators and Regular Investigators can owe up to 100 investigative points, with no set return time.

They are automatically returned once you gain investigative points.”

The significance of investigative points clearly surpassed that of shillings, so Lu Li decided not to use investigative points or shillings for the time being.

He walked over to the desk and took one of the few items on the empty, clean shelf, a stone mask.

It was a Homogeneous Item obtained from the owner of the Haunted House, with a faint aura.

Naturally, Lu Li never tried it on to test the ability, and because he was unclear about its specific function, it had remained there.

Now, bringing it to the merchant for valuation and sale seemed like a good idea.

“How much is it worth?”

The merchant took the stone mask, covered by a worn leather glove under the wide sleeve, but no skin was exposed.

The merchant caressed the stripes and grooves on the face of the mask, froze for a few seconds, then spoke in a muffled voice: “A low-level Homogeneous Item that has transformed due to sacrifice, its use is to moderately sense and be detected by a specific Evil God, and slightly sense and be detected by surrounding Evil Gods.”

“You can exchange it for 300 shillings, and if you have nothing else to trade, you will need to pay 1,050 shillings.”

Three hundred shillings was not too little, but Lu Li still asked, “What if the judgment is wrong?”

“We evaluate the rough price of the items.

If after the trade it is discovered that the item is more valuable, we will compensate the difference in price the next time you visit.”

Lu Li nodded his head.

“That would be best.”