Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 277 - 277 One hundred thirty-four

277: One hundred thirty-four.

Adolescence 277: One hundred thirty-four.

Adolescence The faint black glow of the oil lamp by the door spilled into the dimness beyond, illuminating countless rusty iron shelves, a desk, and a chair placed just behind the door.

Clearly, this cabin had been long neglected; the black substance secreted on the floor resembled the surface of a swamp—neither dried up nor marred by messy footprints.

Lu Li’s gaze swept over the empty iron shelves and moved toward the office desk behind the door.

A line of footprints stretched out from the doorway.

Creak——

The drawer was pulled open, but it was completely empty.

A key couldn’t possibly open a door that led to nothing.

Following the line of thought for solving escape room puzzles, Lu Li shifted his gaze and scanned the dark corners of the cabin, finally resting on the coat rack behind the door.

A hat hung on the coat rack.

Circling the desk to reach the coat rack, Lu Li reached up and took down the hat.

It should’ve been light gray, but the pervasive black substance had darkened its appearance.

This hat seemed to be the only item in the cabin.

Lu Li made a mental note of the possibly useful coat rack and chair and left the room with the brass key.

The corridor offered no other exits; all the remaining doors were locked without exception, and there were no monster shadows lurked, the brass key also unable to open them.

Only the door at the end of the corridor could be opened, revealing a narrow staircase leading downward.

Lu Li saw that the wall deep in the staircase was covered with vines that bore vertical-pupiled eyeballs.

After silently observing for a while, Lu Li closed the door, deciding not to venture behind this door that led to unknown places.

Returning to the previous corridor near the maintenance workers’ cabin, several shrinking heads that had peeked out in curiosity retracted in alarm.

As Lu Li walked past the door, pairs of eyes still stealthily watched him through the slightly open door.

“Gurgle gurgle!”

Suddenly, a muttering voice came from behind the door, and a skinny arm reached out, pointing at the hat Lu Li held in his hand.

The other maintenance worker monster shadows also saw the hat in Lu Li’s hand, and a cacophony of sharp muttering erupted.

“Gurgle gurgle!

Gurgle gurgle!

Gurgle gurgle!”

The door opened, and the maintenance worker monster shadows gathered behind it, their eyes on the hat filled with longing.

Lu Li paused and thoughtfully extended the hat towards them.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

The maintenance worker monster shadows looked at each other, and one was pushed forward.

It contracted its neck and stretched out a thin, bony arm as far as possible to take the hat from Lu Li.

“Gurgle gurgle!

Gurgle gurgle!”

A chorus of exclamations rose from the maintenance worker monster shadows behind as they crowded around the one that grabbed the hat.

Amid the noisy, sharp mutterings, the hat was passed from one to another, each trying it on their head, and every monster shadow wearing the hat jumped around in exuberant celebration.

They rejoiced for a while until the hat reached a particular monster shadow, which suddenly became dispirited.

“Gurgle gurgle…” it muttered, pointing at the hat.

“Gurgle gurgle gurgle gurgle…”

Perhaps because of what it said, the mood spread; the once jubilant maintenance worker monster shadows quieted down, and in their gaze at the hat lingered a sense of regret for something missing.

The hat…

Realizing something, Lu Li briefly left the maintenance worker’s cabin.

A minute later, he returned, holding a strand of hair in his hand.

It was the only item he had related to the hat.

“Gurgle gurgle…”

The maintenance worker monster shadow carefully took the strand of hair from Lu Li’s hand, seemingly the thing they desired; they stuffed the hair into the hat, then placed it upon their head——

Hair cascaded down his forehead, covering half of his face.

“Glug glug!”

The shadowy figures became lively again, scrambling to grab the hat and wear it on their heads.

During this time, several repair worker shadows carrying tools ran out of the room, returning to the corridor shortly after with companions.

They went to call for other repair worker shadows.

They hadn’t forgotten about Lu Li, who was still standing outside the door.

They whispered amongst themselves, and one of the repair worker shadows returned to the room and retrieved something from a hidden compartment beneath the loosened floorboard.

It was a bottle of clear water, its surface free of any black substance, as if it had been frequently wiped clean.

The water could be used for drinking or cleaning.

Lu Li accepted the exchange and left with the water bottle.

On the way back to the morgue, Lu Li saw more repair worker shadows returning, including one kneeling on the floor and working on rivets.

The hat with hair seemed like a holy relic to them.

Thud.

Closing the door to the morgue, Lu Li swept his gaze over the still calm doors of the morgue drawers, raising the water bottle.

A label-less, thick-bottomed glass wine bottle with a square body, easily packed and unlikely to roll around on a swaying ship.

Lu Li twisted open the cap and peered through the bottle opening for a moment before bringing it to his nose.

There was no strange or any kind of smell in the bottle, yet it seemed to carry a fresh scent.

It was indeed water.

Lu Li unfurled the cloth on his palm, poured some water on his hand, and washed away the black substance from the cut in the center.

The dried black substance washed away, revealing a clean wound that wasn’t swollen or oozing with mucus, unaffected by any infection.

Lu Li took the opportunity to smear his wet palm around his eyes, wiping off the black substance that had gathered there.

Speaking of which, the illusions had been absent for a long time.

Could it be related to the weirdness here?

But when Lu Li opened his eyes again, he was surrounded by an impenetrable darkness.

As the black substance was wiped away, his strange ability to distinguish things in the dark also vanished.

Was this stuff what allowed me to see?…

Lu Li murmured to himself, when suddenly his heart felt as if it was clutched by a large hand and sharply tensed.

The breath he exhaled bounced back at him, an icy chill mixed with a fishy smell.

Something in the dark was watching him, whispered voices echoing in the lightless gloom of the morgue.

The curse of the Night Calamity had descended upon him once again.

Along with it came the hallucinations induced by the lowering of his Sanity Value.

Body stiffening for an instant, Lu Li immediately raised his arm, rubbing the black substance back onto his eyelids.

The whispers and the cold fishy smell swiftly disappeared, and when Lu Li opened his eyes again, his vision returned to normal and the surroundings became layered darkness.

It was the strange black substance that prevented Lu Li from being attacked by the shadowy figures and also shielded him from the darkness and hallucinations.

Lu Li screwed the cap back on the mostly full water bottle and placed it inside one of the morgue drawers next to the door.

The water wasn’t meant to be used like this, not yet anyway.

After placing the water bottle, Lu Li left the cabin once again.

He still had a pair of shoes to exchange.

Back in the hallway, Lu Li spotted a shadowy figure, identifiable by the seven or eight tentacles extending from its lower body.

A murmur of complaint carried by the sea breeze, as Lu Li approached the Octopus Monster Shadow and saw it cradling a tentacle, in front of which a rivet protruded from the floor.

Lu Li recalled the repair worker shadows rushing away.

The Octopus Monster Shadow had previously refused Lu Li’s offer to trade his shoes, but perhaps now it would reconsider…