Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 284 - 284 One hundred and forty-one

284: One hundred and forty-one.

Birth 284: One hundred and forty-one.

Birth “Trouble.”

“What trouble?”

“Staying on the deck only troubles us, but staying in the cabin will kill us.”

Was the trouble she referred to the monster shadow, or something else?

Lu Li still didn’t know the root cause, and the woman in the black robe didn’t want to discuss it further.

Five minutes after returning to the captain’s cabin, the fourth wave of shadows crawled out of the deck, charging toward the captain’s cabin under the Shadow Captain’s command.

“The intervals between their returns are shortening,” Lu Li said as he watched the woman in the black robe blow the Shadow Captain’s head off with one shot and block the door, wielding the Spirit-Calling Gun like a fire poker.

“I feel it,” said the woman, stabbing another shadow’s head with the barrel of the gun.

At that moment, it was 4:55, less than an hour before dawn.

The intervals between their appearances had shortened from the initial tens of minutes to now every seven or eight minutes – this meant that half an hour later, they would still face more than six waves of shadows.

“Can your Sanity Value hold up?” Lu Li asked.

“At least it won’t be worse than yours.”

“You knew?”

“Yes.”

Lu Li didn’t ask her how she knew; he stood behind the woman in the black robe, helping her deal with shadows that suddenly emerged from the floor.

After half of the shadows were eliminated, the remaining shadows dispersed on their own.

After resting for five minutes, the fifth wave of shadows crawled out of the ground.

The sixth wave, the seventh wave, the eighth wave…

Bang!

After dispersing a dozen ghosts, she shot the Captain Shadow on the deck twenty meters away with one shot and put away her gun, panting slightly before saying to Lu Li, “Get ready to go.”

“Where to?”

“To the ship’s side, waiting for dawn to arrive.”

“It’s hard to defend there,” Lu Li frowned.

“There’s no other way, if we stay here we might miss the sunrise, and we don’t know the exact time.”

This statement made Lu Li think of something.

He reached into his pocket and pulled out a pocket watch.

Upon flipping the cover open, the hands of the useless, broken pocket watch had frozen, pointing to 5:30.

Did this pocket watch, given to him by the Octopus Monster Shadow, metaphorically represent something…

The woman beside him noticed the item in Lu Li’s hands, “Where did you get that?”

“In the cabin.”

“That might be a clue, representing the time dawn arrives.”

“I thought so too.” Closing the lid, Lu Li turned his head and asked, “Shall we try it?”

The woman in the black robe loaded the last two bullets into the barrel, clicked the breech back on with a snap, “I’m up for it.”

Lu Li’s eyes were low for a few seconds, then he lifted his head, “Then let’s stay in the captain’s cabin until it’s time to go to the ship’s side.”

5:15, 15 minutes until dawn, three minutes since the last shadow attack.

The ninth wave of shadows emerged from the black substance covering the deck, slowly moving toward the two of them in the captain’s cabin.

The woman in the black robe’s movements began to slow down, Lu Li borrowed a Spirit-Calling Gun from her, wielding it as a blunt weapon, smashing the surrounding shadows.

5:19, 11 minutes to dawn, two minutes since the last shadow attack.

The tenth wave of shadows appeared.

A shadow silently approached from behind Lu Li; he quickly reacted, smashing the shadow, but his arm was inevitably touched by the tips of the shadow’s fingers, allowing a large patch of black substance to seep through his nearly dried shirt.

“Don’t let it touch you, areas touched by the shadow will produce black mud, slowing you down, you probably know that.”

“Yes.”

5:21 AM, nine minutes until dawn, one minute after the last shadow attack.

The eleventh wave of shadows appeared.

The woman in the black robe raised her arm, her fingers wrapped in bandages pulled the trigger.

Bang!

Dense black smoke billowed from the muzzle, and the shadow of the captain on deck scattered at the sound but crawled out from the ground again a dozen seconds later.

The intervals between the shadows no longer existed, giving the two of them no time to rest.

The woman in the black robe dropped her arm, “We can’t hold on any longer.

We can’t let them entangle us, think of something.”

Lu Li asked, “How much longer can you last?”

“30 seconds.”

“Go to the entrance of the cabin, I’ll figure something out.”

“Let’s go.”

The woman in the black robe approached the stairs.

At this moment, Lu Li turned her head towards the Captain’s Cabin, noting the time: 5:22 AM.

She threw a Spirit-Calling Gun as if it were expendable, dispersing two shadows, losing force as it fell on the stairs, and was then kicked away by the black-robed woman following close behind.

The Spirit-Calling Gun shot forth, smashing the head of a monster shadow, landing toward the far end of the deck.

The woman in the black robe pulled the trigger down the stairs, with a loud “Bang!” clearing all the shadows on the entire staircase instantly.

Almost simultaneously, shadows crawled out anew on deck, silently approaching.

“Retreat into the cabin, attack again if they come close.”

Taking advantage of the gap, the two escaped to the forefront of the cabin, and Lu Li left a word behind before turning and running into the cabin.

The woman in the black robe withdrew her gaze, looking at the dark shadows closing in.

Almost pressing on the thirty seconds she mentioned, noises arose from deep within the cabin, and Lu Li rushed from the depths of the cabin, followed by bizarrely shaped dark monster shadows.

She raised the Spirit-Calling Gun into the cabin, then lowered it again.

Lu Li was not running frantically, those monster shadows were not chasing her.

Lu Li came to her side, and the monster shadows brushed past them, like boulders in a stream, rushing downstream.

The whale monster shadows, towering four or five meters tall, rampaged unstoppable.

The octopus monster shadow, wearing a pair of boots, comically used its tentacles to strangle a shadow’s chest.

Chef monster shadows swung cleavers, slicing through shadows.

Shark monster shadows turned into afterimages, weaving through shadows, leaving behind scattered ones.

Several small monster shadows jumped onto the backs of shadows, swinging down tools.

Bullhorn monster shadows wielded axes, chopping those rushing to the front.

Thud!

A tremor came from beneath, wood chips flew around the deck, several shadows were flung into mid-air.

A massive vine, several meters thick, burst from the lower cabin like a tentacle, violently smashing down on shadows on the deck.

On one side there was uncompromising destruction, on the other, an endless rebirth.

The surrounding pressure instantly dissipated, the woman in the black robe put away the Spirit-Calling Gun, and walked towards the ship’s railing.

“Why are they helping you?”

“Because I helped them.”

“Interesting…”

On the chaotic deck, the two approached the ship’s railing, the woman in the black robe watching the battle on deck,” Time is almost up, do you have any last words for them?”

Lu Li took out his water bottle, poured the remaining water into his palm, and tossed away the empty bottle.

“Thank you, Belfast,”

he said to the monster shadows on deck that had helped him.

“That’s really your style,” the woman in the black robe commented before starting a countdown, “Countdown ten seconds, nine seconds, eight seconds…

three seconds…

one second.”

“Jump!”

It was 5:30 AM.

A wet palm swiped in front of him, and Lu Li’s figure leaped into the pitch-black sea.

The instant his feet smacked into the surface of the sea, all pressure vanished as if the sea surface was a thin membrane, transporting him to an entirely new world.

As the world spun and he briefly surged above the sea surface, Lu Li saw golden rays of dawn piercing the clouds, spreading across the entire ocean.