Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 271 - 271 128

271: 128.

Morgue 271: 128.

Morgue The boundless darkness pressed in from all sides, and the narrow, dim, enclosed space was enough to drive one to the brink of mental collapse.

Lu Li propped himself up, flipping his body over from a prone to a supine position.

The icy wall was pressed against his back, and it wasn’t an illusion—gravity had indeed shifted.

If this were a coffin, then the exit of the coffin should be…

Lu Li braced himself against the lid of the coffin and pushed it to one side.

Unexpectedly, the lid could still be pushed open, Lu Li only opened a gap large enough to observe the outside world, to avoid being again drawn in by the “kitchen’s” gravity.

The conveyor belt struggled to return to operation, occasionally pausing and rewinding.

The “chefs” returned to the stoves and the endless fish carcasses passed their cleavers on their way to the ovens.

Lu Li lay in the coffin, not standing.

Everything in the “kitchen” outside the coffin was not parallel to him, but overhead.

An indescribable sense of disorientation bubbled up in Lu Li’s heart, the loss of directional sense bringing nausea and dizziness.

Frowning in observation for a while, Lu Li closed the coffin lid, searching for other possible exits within the coffin.

If there were none, then the presence of the coffin here would lose all meaning.

First, Lu Li pushed against the bottom of the coffin.

It remained immovable, and the sound of his knuckles knocking was muffled—there was no space below.

Then came the sides.

Pushing and shifting had no effect, but when Lu Li knocked on the right wall, after a dozen seconds, a faint echo came through from next door.

Someone was knocking on the wall on the other side.

The inside of the coffin fell instantly silent, Lu Li held his breath slightly, straining his ears, but no further sound came from next door.

Lu Li pressed his ear against the wall, listening intently to the sound from the other side.

Thump!

Suddenly, a vibration came through the wall, momentarily causing a sharp pain in his eardrums.

Lu Li frowned and dodged away, a flicker of emotion crossing his deep black eyes.

He exhaled a breath of stale air, temporarily ignoring the noise from next door, he lifted his head and raised his hands to push against the top of the coffin.

Squeak—

Amidst the unbearable sound of friction, a gap was pushed open at the top.

Another exit appeared inside the coffin.

Lu Li didn’t immediately escape through this new exit out of the narrow coffin.

He withdrew his hands, moved up towards the top, and peeked through the gap to observe the outside world.

From the small view he could see, there lay a pile of rusty, decaying morgue cabinets, each one coated with a layer of black substance as usual.

Who would place a morgue cabinet on a ship?

Lu Li thought it over subconsciously, then cast the idea aside.

Just like the abnormal gravity within the coffin, the blackness distinct enough to discern color, and the spectacle in the kitchen—logic carried no meaning aboard this ship.

So was he now lying within one of the morgue cabinets?

Slowly pushing open the door of the morgue cabinet, the rust that had barbarously grown on the metal made the door difficult to move.

Complete silence reigned in the room filled with rusted morgue cabinets, as the door of one was slowly pushed open and a head emerged.

There were no other figures, the counter on the wrist kept ticking at a steady pace.

Lu Li crawled out from the oppressively cramped morgue cabinet and fell onto the cold floor.

Getting up from the ground, Lu Li spread out his somewhat painful palm.

Near the wrist, several cuts had appeared at some point, streaked with lines of red within the dark red hue—dull and bizarre compared to the surrounding black substance.

Lu Li wasn’t sure if these cuts happened earlier or while he was just pushing open the rusty door; the former would be better.

Tetanus was incurable here, and although the black substance was terrifying, it was unknown, and the worst outcome would still be on par with tetanus.

Lu Li didn’t fear death, but he didn’t want to die meaninglessly.

It was as if, one day in the future, two rookie investigators stood before a tombstone, discussing the life of the deceased: “He was the Mysterious Arrival, the Master of Belfast, the founder of the investigator system, one of the Four Great Kings of Oddities, the Storm Lord of Crescent Bay, and even the Evil Spirit Wicked God trembled beneath his might.” “So, what was the cause of his death?” “Tetanus.”

Lu Li tore a strip of cloth from the hem of his shirt and wrapped it around his palm several times before tying it tight.

Lu Li looked around and stepped towards the exit of the morgue.

Squeak—

The familiar spine-chilling sound abruptly rang out beside him.

To the right of the morgue drawer Lu Li had climbed out of, the door of the adjacent drawer slowly opened a crack.

Bang!

Lu Li suddenly extended his hand, slamming the drawer door back into place, and twisted the lock on the outside of the drawer to secure it.

Bang bang bang bang—

Resonating thuds began to come from inside the morgue drawer; Lu Li watched it as he backed up to the exit of the morgue.

It was a normal carved wooden door leading somewhere aboard the ship.

But the door was locked.

The latch of the carved wooden door was fastened with a padlock.

To get out, Lu Li needed to open this lock.

The door lock locked from the inside of the room.

Lu Li turned his head and looked around the morgue to the echoing thuds coming from the morgue drawer.

So, the key was inside one of the morgue drawers here.

Ignoring the persistent sounds from a particular morgue drawer, Lu Li approached the row of drawers by the door.

Six out of nine drawers were locked from the outside.

Temporarily leaving the locked drawers alone, Lu Li opened the drawer at his feet that did not have the lock engaged.

As soon as he opened it, a surge of black substance spilled out from inside.

Lu Li, who had retreated promptly, dodged them, waiting for the black liquid from the drawer to completely drain and reveal its pitch-dark and empty interior.

Apart from adding another puddle of black substance to the floor, there was nothing inside.

After a brief hesitation, Lu Li did not go to open the second drawer; instead, he walked around the morgue, passing rows of drawers, and found an almost rotten wooden box in the corner.

But it was not an object Lu Li could open with his bare hands; to open it, he needed some tools.

He still had to continue opening morgue drawers.

Walking past the now silent drawers, Lu Li opened the second one in the row by the door.

No black substance flowed out, nor was there any anomaly; in the middle of the empty morgue drawer lay a set of dentures.

In some ways, this was also odd.

Lu Li opened the third drawer in the row, which was empty as well.

It seemed that what Lu Li needed was not in the unlocked drawers.

Lu Li shifted his gaze to the locked morgue drawers, turned the knob, and pulled one open.

A charred, unidentifiable creature’s body lay inside the drawer.

Closing the drawer and locking it, Lu Li opened the second locked drawer.

Inside was a body as well, but only a pair of arms placed in alignment, with torn and ragged stumps.

The third locked drawer brought Lu Li a surprise.

A crowbar lay quietly inside the drawer, also rusted and coated in black substance, but this did not diminish its sturdiness.

Lu Li thought that using it to break open certain wooden boxes would likely be quite easy.

An escape room puzzle?

Lu Li mused, pulling the crowbar out of the drawer and turning back toward the carved wooden door.

He wedged the crowbar behind the latch, gripped the handle with both hands, and suddenly applied force.

The entire latch snapped off with a sound.