Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 276 - 276 One hundred thirty-three

276: One hundred thirty-three.

Assimilate 276: One hundred thirty-three.

Assimilate “Gurgle, gurgle…”

The creature with a set of false teeth became even more indescribable; it uttered unintelligible, emotionless mutterings and returned to its desk, picking up an iron piece from a box resembling a trash can and handing it to Lu Li.

Lu Li took it, for he had seen an identical piece in the corpse cabinet.

But this was not enough.

An iron piece treated like garbage in exchange for false teeth that could change its fate seemed a losing deal for Lu Li.

Even though the false teeth were equivalent to garbage for Lu Li—after all, they weren’t his.

So Lu Li, who had put the stamp iron piece in his pocket, extended his hand once more.

“Gurgle, gurgle!”

The Deformed Shadow’s voice grew anxious, its sticky, wet cries persisted for a while, until its muttering turned resigned and complaining.

It reluctantly went back to its desk, pulled out a box that appeared to have been treasured for a long time, silently gazed at it after opening the lid, and with a reluctant air, returned to the door to hand it to Lu Li.

Lu Li’s gaze fell upon it.

It was a box… of excrement.

Held within the iron box, the black granular feces continued to emit a stench powerful enough to dispel the smell of fish.

Lu Li received the iron box and closed its lid at the same time, accepting the box of feces.

If a set of false teeth could prove useful, then so could a box of feces.

For instance, it could be given to a Cleaner Shadow.

…

In the mortuary, Lu Li returned here.

He placed the iron box next to the corpse cabinet, then went to the cabinet where he remembered the stamp was kept and took out another iron piece identical to the one the Deformed Shadow had given him.

Or rather, a stamp.

His fingers wiped away the black substance on the stamp, revealing the engravings and pattern on the iron piece.

The stains within the engravings could not be wiped away, but Lu Li managed to discern that the two stamps depicted a shark’s head.

The only difference between the two stamp iron pieces was their color; the one from the corpse cabinet was red, while the one from the Deformed Shadow was green.

If it was connected to primary colors or the rainbow, did it mean there was one or five more stamps with the same pattern?

Stamps were convenient to carry, so Lu Li put them in his pocket to take with him.

At present, the “props” Lu Li had collected were six in total: two stamps, shoes and hair found in the mortuary, a pocket watch given by the whale shadow, one box of feces from the Deformed Shadow, and the brass key from the box.

It seemed that the stamps might need to be collected as a full set to be of use.

The pocket watch could be given to a shadow that needed a pocket watch, and the same went for the shoes.

The purpose of the hair, slightly more obscure than the pocket watch, and the brass key could unlock certain locked doors.

Next, he could focus on finding the right shadow “buyers” for the pocket watch and shoes.

Lu Li hung the pocket watch on his wrist and took out the oversized leather boots from the corpse cabinet, leaving the mortuary with these two items.

A certain locked corpse cabinet remained silent as he left.

As for how to use the two items, Lu Li had a relatively clumsy but very effective method: enter every room to take a look.

This would help him to familiarize himself with the function of each cabin.

And, in the rules of the “escape room puzzle” game, acquiring all the props and information was very useful.

Lu Li’s identity as a maintenance worker allowed him to move around freely—in areas not forbidden, for example, the lower decks.

The first wooden door that opened before Li was the Octopus Monster Shadow, which murmured indistinctly, asking Lu Li what he wanted.

Lu Li showed it the pocket watch and shoes.

The Octopus Monster Shadow understood Lu Li’s intent, waving its tentacles and muttering indistinctly.

It had seven or eight tentacles, so a pair of shoes was not enough—unless Lu Li could find three more pairs.

The door in front of him closed, and Lu Li moved on to the next one.

In the corridor, Lu Li knocked on door after door.

Some were locked from the inside, with no response.

Some were locked and the knocking provoked irritable muttering.

His targets were the shadows that didn’t lock their doors or did but would open them, as well as the rooms that could be opened with a brass key.

The second door to open before Lu Li was the cabin of the Shark Shadow.

“Gurgle gurgle!”

It grumbled at Lu Li irritably.

Lu Li raised his crowbar, indicating his identity, and the muttering turned into confusion.

Lu Li stood outside the door, pretending to inspect and surveying the inside of the cabin, his gaze fixing on a particular spot.

In a corner of the wall, on a metal cabinet encrusted with black material, a shark was carved.

This shark carved into the metal cabinet had three heads, but now the three heads were missing, showing only the outlines of the empty spaces.

Lu Li then took two iron seal fragments from his pocket.

“Gurgle gurgle!”

A fleeting shadow dashed past him in an instant, and a sharp gust scraped across his cheek, bringing a cutting pain.

Lu Li’s dark pupils contracted, watching as the Shark Shadow snatched the seals and rushed to the metal cabinet, stuffing the two seals into the empty spaces where the heads were missing.

The seals fit perfectly into the spaces, forming a mottled pair of shark heads, but unfortunately, one was still missing.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

The Shark Shadow made a disappointed muttering sound, turned back to Lu Li by the door and muttered a few words, as if to say “if you find the last seal, be sure to bring it over.”

Seeing it hadn’t given any items in return, Lu Li turned and left the room.

Lu Li couldn’t beat the Shark Shadow.

He would come back after obtaining the last seal.

The next door was the kitchen; Lu Li bypassed it — “kitchen” should no longer have anything to offer.

Yet if he finished making a complete circuit of the lower deck without having exchanged items, Lu Li would still try his luck in the “kitchen.”

He knocked on the next door, and a squishy scurrying sound came from behind it, followed by the door opening the next moment.

A short shadow, half the height of Lu Li, appeared at the door, holding a wrench.

Behind it, four more similarly short shadows were present in the room.

He had arrived in front of the cabin where he belonged.

In the eyes of these maintenance workers, he seemed like a giant.

“Gurgle gurgle!” The happy muttering of the short shadow could be heard.

Lu Li raised a shoe and a pocket watch.

“Gurgle gurgle?”

The short shadow muttered in confusion, not understanding Lu Li’s intention.

Lu Li’s gaze swept across the cabin, noting that the empty room contained nothing but the children-sized shadows sprawled on the floor holding their tools.

They didn’t seem to have anything to exchange.

Without a word, Lu Li gripped the doorhandle firmly and closed the wooden door from the outside, moving on to the next room.

Not long after he left, the wooden door reopened, and several small heads curiously peeked out from the edge, looking towards the receding figure of Lu Li.

Elsewhere, Lu Li turned into a corridor and knocked on the first door.

No sound came from inside, and Lu Li went to grip the doorknob only to find the door was locked as well.

As he had done several times before, Lu Li took out the brass key, inserted it into the lock, and turned.

Click—

The lock made a crisp, clear mechanical sound different from the previous doors.

The lock had been opened.