Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 438 - 438 295

438: 295.

Soul Projection 438: 295.

Soul Projection Lightning shimmered deep within the clouds.

Jojo blinked a few times in front of the alley and watched Lu Li, who had turned around and was coming back, “Is it all over?”

She had already seen the street lamps slowly lighting up and the brightness in the windows of the buildings.

This place had reverted to a regular dark alley.

“It’s over.”

Lu Li picked up the Spirit-Calling Gun from the puddle and put it back into its holster, then turned to look at Anna, who was listlessly drifting over, “Are you okay?”

“Not really…

Her memories and emotions are those of a madman…” Anna frowned tightly, the twisted consciousness flooding her mind hadn’t dissipated yet, and it seemed that it would take time to heal.

Anna floated back to Lu Li’s side, “What about you?

Are you alright?”

Anna and Jojo hadn’t seen what had happened before.

“I’m fine.”

Lu Li glanced at her silently and then turned to Jojo, “And you?”

Jojo sighed sadly, “I’m okay too, but the food is gone…”

“It’s not too late to buy some now.”

Jojo quickly insisted, “I’ll go!”

“Let’s go together.”

Anna retreated into the Inner World while Lu Li and Jojo headed toward Hunterley’s Delicious Steak Restaurant.

On the way, Jojo thanked Lu Li and then asked him how he found her, “Did you see the newspaper I left behind?”

“Yeah.”

Upon hearing this, Jojo showed a relieved expression.

Back at the restaurant, Jojo ordered the same food as before.

Considering Aunt Mary, young Hunterley made an exception to prepare their food and gave them a ten-percent discount, even though he was already hanging a closed-sign on the window.

Half an hour later, Lu Li and Jojo, holding the food, returned to Aunt Mary’s home.

Aunt Mary had been very worried during Anna and Lu Li’s long absence, but seeing them return safe and sound, she let out a sigh of relief.

However, she felt a sense of loss knowing that Anna and Lu Li would soon be leaving.

Having agreed to resolve the Shadow Town communication breakdown and then to confirm matters at the Lennon Islands, Lu Li and Jojo returned to the carriage.

Aunt Mary stood at the door to see them off, watching quietly as the carriage slowly entered the curtain of rain.

…

The carriage moved toward the west side of Himfast.

The aroma of the delicious food spread throughout the carriage, laid out over the day’s newspaper.

As the carriage gently swayed, they sat around the laid-out food, dining as if they were on a picnic.

Dozens of minutes later, the carriage left Himfast, and the outside world once again turned into an impenetrable, thick darkness.

Jojo packed up the leftover food and refilled the oil lamp hanging outside the carriage with kerosene.

After doing this, she curled up in the corner of the carriage, wrapping herself in her coat.

“When will we arrive at Rose Town?” Jojo asked.

“If we don’t have to take a detour, we’ll get there tomorrow morning.”

Jojo glanced at the clock, which showed that it was still a few minutes to nine o’clock.

But it was already time to sleep.

“I’ll sleep first, goodnight,” Jojo said, pulling up her coat to cover her head and all.

Once Jojo was asleep, Anna appeared next to Lu Li.

She didn’t look too well, her crimson pupils like dark red magma, flickering in light and shadow.

“Did you see what happened to her?”

Anna carefully phrased her reply, “And her emotions…

they were as chaotic as the after-effects of eating colorful poisonous mushrooms…”

These tangled and twisted residual memories continuously assaulted Anna’s consciousness, not painful but making her feel nauseous, as if she were seasick.

“Here, take this.”

Lu Li pulled out the romance novel Jojo had flipped through from his backpack and handed it to Anna.

“Find something to take your mind off.”

Lu Li wasn’t worried that Anna couldn’t bear the ghosts’ memories.

As a shadow, a projection of the soul, its very meaning was to occupy the shells and minds of other entities, which was an inevitable path for her.

What he was concerned about were the consequences of such actions—the more soul projections Anna accumulated, the more other people’s experiences she would have in her mind.

It was somewhat similar to that man who could endlessly prolong his dreams, and yet it was different.

No matter what role he played in his dreams, he always knew “I am myself.”

But Anna couldn’t do this; all the memories were someone else’s, and if Anna couldn’t maintain her own clear sense of self, those occupied memories might take advantage of her vulnerability and assimilate her.

Had it not been for Lu Li breaking the figure’s outline and interrupting Anna’s occupation, Anna, who had consumed all the memories of the vengeful spirit, might have undergone major personality changes.

At that point, would Anna still be Anna…

or would she also be that woman?

“I understand.”

Anna answered gently, took the book Lu Li handed over, sat down next to him, turned to the last page she’d read, and read quietly.

Lu Li used a handkerchief to clean the mud and water residue from the Spirit-Calling Gun’s sequence two to four, replaced the ammunition with new silver-plated bullets, put them in the holster, and then placed the holster in the carrying case.

He slid the carrying case back into the carriage, removed the holster, and carefully cleaned the stains on sequence one.

The second rose on the Spirit-Calling Gun quietly bloomed halfway without any sound.

The shifting scene in the alley let Lu Li know about the first rose’s ability of sequence one: Death Retrace.

It provoked the deepest memories of the souls it killed; Lu Li and the now dissipated vengeful spirit had experienced its effects not long ago.

Each rose on the Spirit-Calling Gun would come with a power, and the powers that came with the blooming of each rose were relatively random—they were usually related to the strange beings it had killed.

However, this ability was of little use; Death Retrace would only take effect when a strange entity was near death.

In other words, its sole purpose was to let Lu Li know the origins of the beings it killed.

After cleaning the Spirit-Calling Gun, Lu Li quietly hung the holster back on his waist, lifted his shirt, and inspected the wound on his abdomen.

There were no cracks or bleeding; the itchiness caused by the moisture and scabbing was outright ignored by Lu Li.

Lu Li checked the wound and decided not to rest.

He unfolded the map once more, reviewing the route under the dim light of the oil lamp as the carriage jostled slightly.

The route chosen was along the main roads of the Ailen Peninsula; although they were not paved with blue stone slabs like in the cities, the roads compacted with stones could prevent embarrassing entrapments in mud.

A cluster of snowflake-like black particles appeared on the map, behaving like schools of fish in the ocean, coming together and scattering in groups, wandering over the landscape then gradually fading from view.

It was just a hallucination caused by low sanity value, and Lu Li had almost gotten used to the sudden apparitions.

Like the resentful gaze that flashed through the stair gaps, the sound of countless jointed limbs creeping from beneath the sofa, or the gigantic silhouette that sometimes loomed ahead in the road.

These had nearly become a part of Lu Li’s life.

Having confirmed the route, Lu Li folded up the map, ready to rest.

With a blanket cushioned behind him, Lu Li leaned back in the carriage and closed his eyes.

The once gently swaying carriage became quiet, with only the sound of a storm coming from outside.

“Thank you for saving me.”

At some point, Anna, who had been quietly reading, suddenly whispered.

“What?” Lu Li opened his black eyes.

“What?” Anna looked up in confusion, meeting Lu Li’s gaze.

Anna had no knowledge of what she had just said.