Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 360 - 360 217

360: 217.

Waiting for you to enter my dream 360: 217.

Waiting for you to enter my dream Afterward, the man began searching everywhere for an Exorcist while simultaneously employing various self-harming methods to prevent himself from falling asleep.

As he spoke, he showed Lu Li the cuts on his arms and the burns on his body, which climbed his skin like ugly, scabby centipedes.

This was what he did to prevent himself from sleeping.

The man sought out many Exorcists over several days, but none could detect any supernatural traces on him until three days later when he found Lu Li.

This meant that the last time he had slept was three days ago.

It also meant he was almost out of options—Lu Li was not well-known in the circle of Exorcists.

The man’s body shivered and shook, partly from the cold and partly from an irresistible exhaustion.

“They were right, there are no strange marks on your body,” Lu Li told the man, explaining that neither he nor Anna had detected any malice on this pitiful man.

He added, “However, many oddities are hard to notice, I need to know specifics.”

“What do you want to know?”

Hope flickered in the eyes of the man standing on the brink of despair.

Lu Li said, “The content of the dreams, if you can still recall them.”

“Of course…

Although some are from long ago, I still remember some details, like they were things that happened in reality…” The man’s head drooped again as he showed an expression of recollection.

“But I don’t know how to describe it…

These dreams have no logic, some are snippets of people’s lives, some involve drifting at sea, some are beyond my understanding, and some are just like reality, where I am living a normal life, as if I suddenly took over someone else’s body…”

The man explained to Lu Li that in his dreams he was clearly aware of his own existence and capable of thought.

Like most people’s dreams, they mostly lacked logic and were bizarre.

The main difference was that he knew they were dreams.

This disorderly dreaming usually occurred first and its duration varied with the overall length of his dream.

The longer the dream, the longer the chaotic phase lasted until after a while, when the dream world began to stabilize somewhat.

For example, acquiring the most basic logic.

However, the man told Lu Li that there were still many instances of…

chaos, or what could be called anomalies.

Such as being a man and then abruptly turning into a woman at some point, suddenly being unable to run, finding it very difficult to walk, and being able to briefly levitate in the dream.

These relatively normal dream states occasionally were invaded by segments of chaotic dreams until the dream approached its end, returning to chaos, and then the man would wake up.

The chaotic dreams were like the interspersed singing parts in an opera.

In terms easier for Lu Li to understand: like the opening credits, the main show, commercials, and the ending of a TV series.

Lu Li asked, “Do you die in the dream?”

“Yes!

No…” The man initially shouted without thinking, then hesitated and said, “I die, but then I come back to life…”

“And after you come back to life?”

“Sometimes I switch to a new dream, and sometimes I continue the same one.”

“Don’t the people in the dream find it strange?”

The man paused, followed by a fear expression distinctly different from the pervasive despair: “Some do…”

Most of the time the people in the dreams didn’t notice anything unusual, but many times, when he died unexpectedly due to some “anomaly”—like suddenly realizing he could fly, shooting up a hundred meters, then losing control and falling to his death—upon his return, people around him would show panic, screaming and running away.

And one memory in particular stood out.

He was a member of an adventure group; during an outing with a companion, the chaotic dream set in.

After a bizarre sequence, he returned to a normal dream, and his companion asked him where he had just been.

This kind of eerie event could make one’s hair stand on end even in front of a warm fireplace.

Lu Li fell into contemplation.

It was hard to say whether this was a dream concocted by the man’s brain or if it had really happened—

If on Earth, he could definitively say it was a psychological issue, but here…

“In your dreams, do you notice anything unusual, or receive any kind of message?”

Lu Li asked, and after a slight pause, he added as if realizing something, “Don’t tell me the answer, if there is one, nod; if not, shake your head.”

He had to guard against the possibility that the dream was infectious.

The man hesitated and then shook his head.

“Has your body developed any strange marks?”

“In the dream or—”

“In reality.”

“No, I did these to myself.”

After a moment of thought, Lu Li calmly told the man, “I haven’t found any clues.”

Despair was almost tangible on the man’s face.

Lu Li suggested, “You now have two options: seek help from the Night Watch or an Investigator, or sleep here and let me observe.”

“The Night Watch…

I know the Night Watch, but what about the Investigator?

Can they heal me?”

“I don’t know, if they can’t help, there’s only one other way that might heal you.” Lu Li removed the cap of his pen and looked up at the man, “I can give you the addresses for the Night Watch and the Investigator.”

Investigators didn’t mind civilians visiting and asking questions; for example, the initial Investigator assessment directly involved several civilians entering the base.

The reason for the secrecy of the Investigator’s base was merely to avoid nuisance—they definitely didn’t have time to entertain civilians all day.

“Only one other way…

what is it…?” The man guessed something but still asked.

“Just what you’re thinking, death.”

Feeling the man’s hesitation, Lu Li continued, “Don’t forget I said ‘might,’ no one knows if eternal rest means an endless dream.”

Not being freed after death was the most terrifying kind of despair.

“If I sleep here…

will you find the cause of the problem?” the man asked, trembling, his fists clenched tight in the damp sleeves against his arms.

“I don’t know.”

Lu Li wrote down the addresses and pushed them across the table to the man, then looked up at him calmly.

The sound of a kitchen knife chopping on a cutting board came from the kitchen.

The man clenched his teeth and said, “You’ll heal me, right?”

“I’ll try to find a solution.”

The man made some kind of decision, “I want to receive treatment…

here.”

Perhaps the mysterious aura of Lu Li and his unchanging calm had affected the man; he decided to sleep here for a few hours or maybe years.

“You can lie down on the sofa.”

Lu Li stood up and accompanied the man to the sofa.

The chopping sound from the kitchen ceased, and the man, sitting on the sofa, didn’t notice the blanket silently slipping down, drifting quietly into the bedroom.

This blanket belonged to her and Lu Li.

The man lay back, looking up at Lu Li in front of the sofa with a lack of security, but soon his eyelids began to droop and his breathing became more steady.

He fell asleep quickly.

As if some entities were waiting for him to enter the dream.