Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 333 - 333 One hundred ninety

333: One hundred ninety.

Building two and perhaps the third and fourth buildings that might come.

333: One hundred ninety.

Building two and perhaps the third and fourth buildings that might come.

Unfortunately, within less than twenty minutes between Petra calling the police and the arrival of the night watchmen, Sherry had brought breakfast to Professor Petra’s door.

She noticed the messy clothes in front of the door but didn’t think much of it, simply picking them up and pushing open the partially ajar door.

Then, she never made it back out of the house.

And at the door, Petra’s clothing and a breakfast appeared.

When the night watchmen arrived, the house’s chewing sounds were nearing their end, and it spat out the belongings of a third person.

Yes, there were three victims in total.

The third person was an unidentified thief who might have followed Sherry or entered a few minutes after she did.

To this day, his identity remains uncertain; the house only regurgitated his tattered clothing and some tools for burglary.

Petra had almost no visitors on normal days, and even when she did, they mostly came during the morning.

Sherry and the unknown thief suffered an undeserved disaster.

After the night watchmen arrived, they confirmed the attributes of the “man-eating house”: a malevolent being, approaching it wouldn’t lower one’s Sanity Value.

This house had acquired a consciousness and would call to people nearby to enter it, but this subconscious summoning wasn’t strong, only those with high sensitivity could clearly feel its presence.

The night watchmen’s usual method for dealing with city oddities was outright destruction, but they met resistance trying to demolish this house.

Everyone present felt a furious consciousness emerge in their minds, screaming at them with the intent of mutual destruction.

To prevent the situation from worsening, demolition of the “man-eating house” was temporarily halted and turned over to investigators for further investigation.

The following day, the contents of the “man-eating house” were featured in the “Investigators Weekly”, and a local investigator from Belfast took up the case, heading to Elm Street to explore.

This investigator brought with him living things, dead things, and things that had died after being alive, and threw them respectively into the house; the results varied: the living things weren’t regurgitated; the dead things were expelled; the formerly alive things were also ejected.

The “man-eating house” was picky; it refused to eat corpses.

The investigator continuously threw things the house couldn’t eat inside, and the house kept spitting them out.

This situation lasted for over ten minutes, until the malevolent consciousness hidden within reemerged and warned the investigator.

Any action harming it or hindering its feeding would enrage it, including but not limited to: the aforementioned items, harming its structure, and blocking its doorways.

The investigator began a new round of attempts, such as communicating with the house.

Similar to Lu Li’s encounter, every item in the house took on a consciousness and would respond to external touches, but not to language.

No matter what the investigator said, the animated objects within the house wouldn’t reply to him.

After spending two days without significant progress, the investigator gave up.

To destroy the “man-eating house” would mean risking obscure dangers from its attacks.

And considering the house’s low threat level, it wasn’t worth the risk to deal with it.

The case was thus shelved temporarily, waiting for a solution until today, a week later, when Lu Li came across a new “man-eating house” and got involved in the incident.

Attached were several photos of 33 Elm Street.

The most recent one was taken at the entrance, the front door wide open, with the foyer and corridor exhibiting an oppressive, dark hue under current photographic technologies.

The entire photo was filled with noise and an indescribable eeriness that made one hesitate to look too long.

Having looked at the different photos from various angles, Lu Li passed them to Pryce.

“We don’t need to look at these,” Pryce said with a smile, waving his hand.

For the night watchmen, the less they knew, the safer they were.

“It won’t lower your Sanity Value,” Lu Li pointed to the first page’s warning and said, “You’d better read it all, harmless information at times can help you avoid danger.”

No matter how perilous knowledge might be, ignorance could never become a term of praise.

Pryce hesitated for a moment, but still accepted the stack of papers handed to him by Lu Li.

He was not a man who didn’t know how to adapt, but after Pryce had finished reading and passed them to his team, only two out of the seven members chose to read them, including the ponytail woman named Matthew.

Not everyone wanted to confront these indescribable fears head-on.

Sometimes, what’s dangerous is not the knowledge itself, but the thoughts that knowledge brings.

Turning his gaze away from Matthew who was flipping through the files, Pryce asked, “What do you plan to do, research them just like the previous investigator did?”

“More than that, I want to know how many more there are,” Lu Li replied.

Pryce frowned, Lu Li’s words giving him an unpleasant premonition, but he was not clear where the problem lay, “What do you mean by how many more?”

“We initially thought that only 33 Elm Street was problematic, but today we discovered the anomaly at 63 Elm Street, and it’s no different from number 33.”

Lu Li calmly laid out the chilling possibility to all those present.

“You think there could be a third, a fourth, or even more?”

Pryce’s complexion turned ugly, the possibility mentioned by Lu Li sent shivers down his spine.

If there were only one of a certain entity, nobody would give it much thought.

But if that entity became two, then one had to consider the problem of there being even more.

Pryce stood up, calling his team to don their raincoats and set out to investigate all the houses on Elm Street.

“There’s no need for such trouble.” Lu Li stopped their actions and turned to his right, saying, “Anna, would you please search around and see if there are any other ‘man-eating houses’ in the Elm District?”

Anna liked standing right beside Lu Li.

“Leave it to me!”

A crisp response echoed from the void, and then silence followed.

To the bewildered watchmen looking his way, Lu Li said, “My assistant, a Miss Ghost.”

The team members had varying expressions, Pryce murmured with a complex look on his face, “A ghost…”

“What is it?”

Lu Li naturally noticed their odd behavior.

Pryce smiled and in a low voice reminded Lu Li, “If you don’t want to cause trouble, it’s best not to reveal your assistant in front of the Exorcists and the watchmen.”

Hades had said something similar to him, but because of protecting Anna and operating alone, Anna’s existence was rarely known by others.

Lu Li, as if deep in thought, replied, “Because of the misunderstandings about ghosts?”

“Misunderstandings?

I suppose so…

You know, the ghosts we often have to deal with are those that have attacked humans, they are cruel and bloodthirsty, showing not a trace of humanity from when they were alive.

If we hadn’t received help from a ghost when we were in danger, we might have taken action the moment we realized it was there.”

Ghosts are elusive, and if the threat is not dealt with immediately, it poses a significant danger.

For their own safety, Exorcists often have to make quick decisions to fight or flee.

“Thank you for the warning,” Lu Li nodded in thanks.