Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 574 - 574 Ninety-three

574: Ninety-three.

It’s here.

574: Ninety-three.

It’s here.

“`

Even when roasted to a near cinder, the taste of demon flesh couldn’t be concealed.

Richard found it hard to say whether its meat was worse or if the undigested parts in his vomit were more unpalatable.

Having a temporarily safe dwelling and a source of food, Richard began to expand his exploratory range.

To avoid losing his way and to find other “living people” in hell, he erected many stone towers around the Meteorite Crater.

Then ten days passed.

Most of the demon’s carcass was still there, everything in hell could only burn, not decay.

So it was still relatively fresh—although it was fast turning into jerky from the extreme heat.

Richard didn’t want to just scrape by any longer, he felt like he was turning into a beast, so upon waking today, he started cutting the demon’s body to make jerky.

“Tomorrow,” when he awoke, he would take several pounds of jerky and head to the other side of the mountains, and then walk as far as he could.

“You’re hard to find.”

Suddenly, a familiar, human whisper sounded from behind.

In front of the bonfire, where Richard was slicing the demon corpse with a flint, his body suddenly tensed and stiffly looked up.

After a few seconds of locked gaze, Richard burst into maniacal laughter, “You actually died too hahaha!

Let me guess, you couldn’t resist the Ancient God’s shell’s temptation?

Or some calamity out there killed you…

have you realized your mistake now?”

At least from his actions and words, Richard still seemed “normal,” showing no signs of turning into a demon.

“I’m not dead, just a soul that has come to hell through spiritual communication,” Lu Li replied calmly.

Richard now looked like a wild man.

His gaze moved from the demon carcass being cut in front of him to the surface of the meteorite buried in scorched earth, which bore marks made by Richard.

Perhaps each mark represented a day he had spent there.

But does hell have a night time?

“Spiritual communication?

Damn it…” Richard showed a clear annoyance, sizing up Lu Li with an unfriendly stare, “Hey, I’m very lonely here, what if I keep you…”

Other than a thin layer of sole on his shoes and holes burned in the corners of his clothes, this guy was in much better shape than Richard, which irked him.

And the real likelihood that he planned to keep Lu Li around.

501…502…503…

Lu Li suddenly furrowed his brow, looking down at the inverted pentagram on the back of his hand that was glowing red.

The devil wasn’t far now, there was no time for reminiscing.

“I came to find you, I have some questions to ask you,” Lu Li ignored Richard’s entanglement and got straight to the point.

“What do you want to know?

Oh right, there’s not a damned Succubus in sight in hell!

Just lava and these ugly monsters!

If you find whoever wrote there are Succubi in hell, feed them to the evil spirits for me!” Richard suddenly burst out cursing halfway through his tirade.

“Maybe you just haven’t encountered them,” Lu Li answered.

Both his and Richard’s movements were confined to the canyon and the foot of the mountains.

“Why should I help you!” Richard suddenly interjected in a nonsensical manner, refusing to help Lu Li outright.

“I’m the only one who knows your obsession, our goals are aligned.”

Richard scoffed at Lu Li’s rhetoric, “That’s useless.

You know I just want to be the savior myself, if it’s not me, what does it matter to me even if someone saves everyone else?”

Hisss—

Lu Li suddenly grabbed his hand that was emitting a searing sound, the vibrant glow of the pentagram too intense to hide and blossoming through the gaps between his fingers.

Richard’s gaze fell upon it, seeing the patched-up hat that Lu Li was holding, and his manic expression slowly calmed.

“…Have you seen the kids?”

“Yeah.”

“`

Lu Li endured the severe pain on the back of his hand, scanning the surroundings for any sign of the devil.

“Are they still okay…”

“I’ve placed them in an empty house in Elm District, the sewer was too dangerous.”

“Don’t think that just by saying that, I will help you!” Richard suddenly roared at Lu Li.

Lu Li ignored him, slightly lifting his head, his gaze falling on the direction from which he came.

Outside the Meteorite Crater, a figure dressed in a nobleman’s swallow-tail coat, out of place with its surroundings, was slowly approaching.

Flames flowed in its footsteps, and an inexplicable sense of suffocation emanated from around it, with countless ethereal arms emerging around its body, entwined with souls.

“536…

537…

538…”

There were less than three minutes left until the time agreed upon for awakening, but the devil had already arrived.

Lu Li realized that those arms were not a manifestation of the devil’s power—they kept emerging, pulling at the limbs of the devil’s body, slowing its pace.

This was the reason why the devil had come so late.

Lu Li knew what they were.

“I need to leave now,” Lu Li said.

He couldn’t stand against a devil in hell.

“What do you want to know?

For the sake of those kids!” Richard suddenly said through gritted teeth.

Lu Li gazed at the devil descending the Meteorite Crater, and spoke, “What is ‘the gate’?”

“What is the gate?

What nonsense are you talking about?

Be more specific!” Richard urged, seeming even more anxious than Lu Li.

“It was a task you had me do when you were disguised as Marcus, to protect a group of people exploring the sewer.

There, I came into contact with ‘the gate’ and received a curse far more terrifying than the Blood-Colored Tentacles.”

“I don’t know what you’re talking about!

I didn’t even know you at that time!” Richard’s unexpected reply came: “I was desperate for money then, so I found you because you were the cheapest and most naive—I didn’t know who you were until after you broke into the Asylum, got caught, and then escaped.

Only then did I realize it was you, you damned bastard, who wrecked my plans!

Damn bastard!”

Richard roared, falling into madness once again.

Lu Li looked at the figure in the swallow-tail coat, exuding an evil aura, taking step by step closer, his brows deeply furrowed.

If Richard had not lied to him…then was the encounter with “the gate” just a coincidence from start to finish?

“There’s another possibility!”

Richard suddenly shouted again: “Listen, my memory might have been altered.

You know those monsters, they’re like omnipotent, brutishly forcing their tentacles into your head and then scooping out a chunk of memory like digging into pudding—nothing could be simpler for them.”

“And then?”

“Maybe this is also a test!” Richard said hastily: “This test can only be done by you, others can’t even know to do it, they would have their memories altered!”

This kind of speculation could only be thought of by a paranoid madman like Richard.

But logically, Lu Li could not find any flaw in it.

Because the investigator headquarters, which should also know about “the gate,” had not sent any message from beginning to end.

This coincided perfectly with Richard’s speculation.

“I’ll consider it.”

Exhaling a turbid breath that carried the sulphuric stench of hell, Lu Li looked deeply towards the distant figure.

“Now I must leave.”