Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 274 - 274 One hundred thirty-one

274: One hundred thirty-one.

Slide down 274: One hundred thirty-one.

Slide down Following the slowly moving queue, a minute later, they reached their destination for this trip: a large hall.

The “chefs” whom Lu Li had dealt with twice left the queue, walked behind the service window, and stood in front of barrels filled with food.

The canteen began serving meals.

The queue organized itself in front of the service window, waiting to receive food.

The queue came to a halt, moving forward only slightly each time a strange shadow left with a wooden bowl in hand.

Gurgle gurgle gurgle—

Muffled, viscous, sharp, dull, the chaotic sounds of communication rose among those in the queue.

“Gurgle gurgle?”

An icy, slippery claw suddenly poked at Lu Li’s shirt, and he looked down to find a small shadowy creature, less than half his height, standing next to him.

It was holding a heavy and cumbersome wrench, looking up at him.

What was it asking?

Lu Li could guess: after all, it was holding a wrench, and he was holding a crowbar—they had similar jobs.

But he couldn’t answer and just silently raised his crowbar.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

The small shadowy figure dropped its gaze, mumbling with an emotion that sounded like disappointment.

It might have been asking Lu Li why he was so tall.

As the strange figures ahead of Lu Li dwindled, being closer to the service window allowed him to see the food being served by the “chefs” into the wooden bowls: a dark, viscous substance with three eyeballs floating in it.

As expected.

At least they weren’t consuming the black substance.

The puzzling part was, if this was what they were eating, where was the massive amount of food continuously being produced in the “kitchen” being sent to?

Or was it to say that the fish meat was prepared for the higher levels of the ship’s cabins, like the strange creatures on this level?

During his contemplation, the massive shadowy figure in front of Lu Li received its half-bowl of food, grumbled about the insufficient amount, and turned to walk away.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

The dull-sounding “chefs” serving food recognized Lu Li and made a noise resembling a greeting.

One of them took a wooden bowl from the stack, stirred with a spoon in the barrel a few times, and served Lu Li a full bowl of the black viscous substance—one that seemed like it would spill over with just a light shake.

Thump—

The chef standing by the second barrel served Lu Li six frog eyeballs, which fell into the wooden bowl and caused slow ripples.

Lu Li tucked the crowbar into his waistband, silently took the head-sized wooden bowl, and walked to an empty seat to sit down.

Around him, in addition to the mumbling, there was the rustling sound of creatures eating.

Lu Li didn’t touch the food on the table in front of him; of course, he couldn’t eat any of it, but he now needed to figure out how to empty the bowl.

Nobody knew whether there would be punishment for not finishing the food.

As Lu Li pondered, he observed the surroundings.

Dozens of shadowy creatures were scattered around the canteen, and among them, he couldn’t find the horned shadowy figure.

The meal seemed to be only for the creatures from the lower decks of the ship.

Continuing to shift his gaze, it landed on a bulky shadowy figure at a nearby table, which had a spindle-shaped head, like that of a shark’s, using one hand to pick up the eyeballs from the wooden bowl, indifferent to the strands dripping onto its body, popping them into its wide-open mouth to chew voraciously.

The fist-sized eyeballs seemed no more than snacks to it.

After watching for a while, Lu Li shifted his gaze away before it could notice, looking towards a more distant spot.

The walls and ceiling of the canteen were also covered with those vertical-pupiled eyeballs, similar in size to those in the wooden bowls.

So they could be used not only for surveillance but also as food?

While he considered this, a large shadow spilled over him.

A colossal creature approached Lu Li’s table, its head nearly touching the ceiling as it sat on a chair that seemed miniature in comparison.

“Gurgle.” A muffled rumble like distant thunder, and a shadow fell from the creature’s massive claw that could easily ensnare Lu Li, landing on the table.

It tossed an alarm clock to Lu Li.

The clock was chained on both sides, forming a loop as thick as a barrel.

This was a rather trendy idea, at least Lu Li had never seen anyone in Belfast wear a pocket watch as a wristwatch before.

It wore the contraption on its wrist like a wristwatch.

It believed that Lu Li could fix the thing with a crowbar.

Lu Li shook his head, guessing the giant shadow’s intention, but he couldn’t do it.

After all, he was not a real repairman, and even if he were, he wouldn’t know how to fix an alarm clock.

Whoosh—

Two dense streams of air burst from the giant’s nostrils, blowing Lu Li’s hair down, fluttering the corners of his clothes, as the creature’s thick, sharp claw lifted, reaching for Lu Li—

Lu Li reached out and picked up the alarm clock.

He first wound the spring at the back of the clock; the hands did not move.

He then brought the clock to his ear to listen, and the faint sounds of the internal gears indicated that the spring was working; the problem was not there.

The creature’s claw retracted behind the table.

With the gears moving, the likely issue was elsewhere.

Lu Li turned the alarm clock to face him.

Crosshatched with fine scratches, the glass cover made it difficult to see the hands clearly.

This glass cover was one of the rare things Lu Li saw here that wasn’t black.

Lu Li lifted the crowbar, signaling to the giant that he was about to start the repair—of course, no crowbar was needed for the repair, he just wanted to prevent the giant from reacting too aggressively.

Even if the Spirit-Calling Gun could still be used, it would hardly inflict effective harm on the creature towering four or five meters high.

Lu Li removed the outer circular ring of the alarm clock first.

With the restraint gone, the glass cover came off on its own, which Lu Li caught and placed aside.

His eyes lifted, scanning the giant opposite.

It didn’t raise its table-sized claw again.

The internal hands were now clearly visible, and Lu Li suddenly noticed that the minute hand was trembling slightly but unable to lift, always quivering at the position pointing to 37 minutes.

It was as if it lacked energy or the hand was loose.

The former could probably be ruled out, as the spring had been wound tight.

Lu Li extended his finger, pushing the minute hand upward, but as soon as his finger retracted, the minute hand drooped back down.

His gaze shifted to the center of the clock, where Lu Li saw some black substance seeping around the edges of the cylinder.

The situation became clear; this black substance on the cylinder made the hands, which were snug on the spindle, too slick to move.

Lu Li removed the hour, minute, second hands, and the red timer hand, wiped the black substance off the cylinder, and refitted them.

Tick-tock—tick-tock—

The restored alarm clock began to emit a faint ticking sound.

Putting the glass cover back on and reattaching the ring, Lu Li slid the clock, now chained, back in front of the giant.

“Gurgle…”

In the muffled, contented rumbling, the giant, with movements incongruent to its size, used two claws to pinch the alarm clock, which was smaller than its own fingernail, extending another claw to the back of the clock to turn the minute hand and set the time.

Lu Li saw the time being set to 11:45.

This seemed to indicate the current time.

Reflective, Lu Li pondered that if this encounter were to be seen as part of an escape room puzzle, what he had obtained… was the precise time.

Did the time represent something?

For example, surviving until daylight might bring about a new change.