Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 598 - 598 One hundred seventeen

598: One hundred seventeen.

Every day is more dangerous.

598: One hundred seventeen.

Every day is more dangerous.

The oil lamp on the desk and the fire in the fireplace provided warmth and light.

The light from the refuge stretched a rough shadow into a long, narrow shape, with “the children” and the Jimmy siblings huddled outside.

Should any strangeness attack, it would first have to breach the barrier they formed.

Lu Li’s body and soul would remain in the cave until they fully merged.

The figure on the bed was sound asleep, while Anna sat by the bedside, gently stroking the smooth back of the black cat lying on her lap, even though she couldn’t feel it.

This serene atmosphere persisted until, at one moment, Anna turned her head to look at the figure on the bed.

“What time is it?”

Lu Li, who had opened his eyes, looked toward the alarm clock on the bedside table but couldn’t see it clearly.

“Two o’clock.”

Anna let go of the black cat, allowing it to jump back onto the bed and rub gently around Lu Li’s head with its tail held high.

Lu Li raised an arm in response, but as he drew it back, the movement was a little too quick, and his arm fell powerlessly onto the bed, leaving behind an ethereal arm still raised in the air.

Thankfully, Lu Li seldom turned over in his sleep, so there was no need to worry that he might inadvertently detach his soul from his body during a turnover.

“It’s a bit better,” Lu Li answered Anna’s concerned query.

The process was slower than expected.

An entire day had gone by for his body and soul to merge slightly.

It would take at least a couple of weeks of rest to fully recover without having to worry about his soul detaching.

Anna fed Lu Li some water that had been boiled and was kept warm by the fireplace; he then fell back into a deep sleep.

By the time Lu Li awoke again, it was nearly morning, and there was no sign of the Jimmy siblings or “the children” in the cave, only the occasional sounds of frolicking outside.

After helping Lu Li with his morning wash and meal, Anna carried him to a recliner, extinguished the oil lamp, and took him to the cave entrance to alleviate the oppression.

The rain had stopped the night before, and the temperature was much colder than the day before, as if they had entered deep autumn.

In the recliner, Lu Li and Jimmy both were covered with thick wool blankets, and the fireplace inside the cave had not gone out.

The sea was calm in the distance, but it was no longer possible to see the outline of ships.

It was as if they were on a secluded deep-sea island, rather than beside what was once one of the busiest ports.

The black sun in the void was eerily indescribable, even though looking at it caused neither the click of a counter nor the whispered murmurs to be heard.

Anna told him that at dawn, the Mist of Strangeness once again retreated as if adhering to some schedule.

The radio beside Jimmy also mentioned the Mist of Strangeness several times, saying it was trending towards the Lightless Night, becoming normal.

More coastal cities were affected by the mist, and people were forced to retreat further inland, away from the sea.

The retreat of humans changed nothing, as they discovered the Mist of Strangeness was approaching inland — last night’s fog had already crossed over Sugard Mountain, only a dozen or so miles away from Watch Town on the other side!

There were tens of thousands of original residents and refugees from Belfast City there.

The broadcast said the United Organization of Exorcists was attempting to eliminate the main culprit producing the Mist of Strangeness, but no results had been heard yet.

After last night, many more cities had been attacked by the strangeness, and survivors fleeing with news had narrowly escaped.

The worst part was for the smaller towns and villages that had fallen silent, completely erased from the map.

The strangeness was gradually replacing mankind as the new lords of the land.

Only the Elm Forest on the edge of the cliff maintained an unbroken tranquility for the time being.

Listening to the radio, Lu Li dozed off.

The process of merging his body with his soul made Lu Li sleep more often, like an elderly man frequently fatigued.

Whenever this happened, Anna would cautiously lift the black cat from his legs and pull the blanket up to his neck.

Sometimes Raimy would say with a smile that they looked like an old couple, filled with the warmth of caring for each other and mutual dependency.

During Lu Li’s rest, Anna would leave Elm Forest and return to the city.

It had become completely a land of death, at least as far as Anna could see, there were no signs of survivors anymore.

She found everything that might be useful in a grocery store on a street that had never been touched by the fire and left half of the canned goods behind, taking the rest back to the top of the cliff.

Four boxes of canned goods, thirty pounds of kerosene, a few bags of sand and charcoal, and a set of brand new tools packed in a wooden crate.

After storing the canned goods and kerosene in the cellar, there was no more room left, so Anna had no choice but to temporarily stack them next to the wooden hut of the Jimmy Siblings.

Once Lu Li woke up, she and Raimy planned to build a firewood shed behind the wooden hut to store the tools and firewood.

Now they lacked nothing, except Deep Sea Stone.

Belfast perished, the third day of living on the cliff top in Elm Forest.

Today was Monday.

At dawn, the merchant arrived as promised.

He ascended to the top of the cliff, with 25 boxes of canned goods piled up in front of the “children’s” wooden hut.

No one knew how he managed to bring a load of canned goods that could slowly fill a horse cart to the cliff top.

Besides the items for trade, the merchant also brought “The Investigator Weekly” and the Investigator’s salary.

As a Senior Investigator, Lu Li’s weekly salary was 1400 Shillings.

However, in the infected areas, Shillings had become meaningless, and survivors only bartered goods.

Thus, the salary was converted into 140 investigation points.

Infected areas—that’s what people called the land invaded by the oddities.

Apart from the Eden-like Lennon Islands, all coastal regions of the Ailen Peninsula, the Main Affinity Continent, and the Barbaric Lands were enveloped in the Mist of Strangeness with oddities rampant.

If marked on a map, the ocean seemed to be engulfed in darkness, and the dark claws were extending towards the land from every direction.

“Is it safe here?”

Anna took the newspaper.

Lu Li didn’t immediately look at the news printed on it but asked the merchant instead.

“140 investigation points.”

The price of knowledge was a week’s salary.

“Alright.”

From beneath the filthy scarf, the merchant’s voice emerged, “The forest occupies this place, the oddities have confounded your humanity, the Deep Sea Stone has blocked your humanity.

Until your humanity is strong enough that they can’t cover it up, only the beings from the Inner World can set foot here.”

“How do we stop the beings from the Inner World?” Anna asked, frowning.

“You can’t stop them.”

Beings from the Inner World usually manifest as projections, like evil spirits.

Since they are projections, they’re not subject to any restrictions.

A window can block a storm, but not the cold.

Lu Li was aware of this, but what caught his attention was a strange term the merchant had mentioned: humanity.

“What is humanity?” inquired Lu Li.

“100 investigation points.”

“Why so cheap?”

“It’s no longer a secret, soon.”

“Alright.”

Humanity.

It could also be called vitality, soul, hope.

It signifies everything that is the opposite of darkness, desolation, despair.

It’s incompatible with the oddities and is also seen by the oddities as food and fuel.

Hence, when a world has it, it also means it has a disaster of extinction.

When a fragile fawn wanders into the Dark Forest, the forest will light up with countless covetous eyes.

It is the source of the oddities’ infection of the world.