Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 646 - 646 One hundred and sixty-five

646: One hundred and sixty-five.

Layers of mystery 646: One hundred and sixty-five.

Layers of mystery It was unbelievable that they could still rent a carriage on the street and the currency paid was not flesh but shillings.

However, Lu Li whispered to Anna on the carriage that those were not horses—although the bizarre creatures favored human flesh, other types of flesh could also satisfy their appetite.

Perhaps at this moment, not even a real rat could be found in the Royal City.

The creatures pulling the carriage were many-legged, fierce reptiles disguised as horses, their arm-thick tentacles rapidly crawling across the cobblestone road.

The carriage drove through the damp and dark wide streets, with Lu Li watching the street and the Inverted City through the carriage window.

The situation had become worse than an hour ago; the streets were almost entirely filled with disguised bizarre creatures, with hardly any humans to be seen.

They even passed a confrontation that drew a crowd of onlookers, where the suspicious parties confronting each other were both disguised creatures.

One could only hope that people were simply aware of the danger outside, rather than something else.

Twenty minutes later, the carriage arrived near a quaint grocery store.

In the place where the Xius Public Library once stood, the silhouette of a construction site rose sharply towards the sky in the gloom.

This construction site might never be completed.

Stepping off the carriage and under the greedy gaze of the creatures behind, Lu Li and Anna entered the quaint grocery store.

Crack—

The sound of an oil lamp’s broken lampshade crunching underfoot.

Lu Li looked down and surveyed the grocery store.

It seemed that the shop had been recently looted, with shelves collapsed and counters moved aside, blocking the way to the basement, and flattened debris scattered around.

But there were no Homogeneous Items, as if someone had methodically picked them up even in a time of crisis.

This gave the grocery store the appearance of intentional disguise.

Exchanging glances, Lu Li stepped inside the grocery store while Anna pushed away the counters blocking the way, noticing a detail: some tools coincidentally propped up behind the counter.

After clearing the barrier, Lu Li and Anna arrived at the entrance to the basement.

“You stay here, I’ll go down,” Anna said.

“Together,” Lu Li replied, opening his gun holster and handing the kitchen knife to Anna.

Without a word, Anna took the knife and accompanied Lu Li into the quiet and gloomy basement.

Their footsteps echoed, and the cold of the underground raised goosebumps on their skin.

Descending the final step and standing on the level ground, the empty and dim hall was enveloped in a thin mist, seemingly deserted—

Tap tap tap—

Footsteps that weren’t theirs started echoing from the depths of the hall.

In Anna’s increasingly cold, curved eyes, several blood-stained figures emerged from the darkness.

“Another prey has arrived…”

Chilling whispers spread with the murmurs of the voices.

Lu Li’s response was to open his coat, revealing the salvation at his waist.

If they were human, they would recognize the Spirit-Calling Gun.

If not, Anna and the salvation would bury them.

The blood-stained figures halted their steps, and at that moment, a man carrying an oil lamp emitting a dim light walked out from among them, his face indiscernible.

“Exorcist?”

The low questioning voice echoed.

“Senior Investigator Lu Li,” Lu Li stated.

The man surrounded by the grey fog nodded slightly: “True Vision Nightwatch, Uri Reinhardt Wicks.”

A third-tier Exorcist, just one step away from becoming a legendary figure at the top of the tower.

But why would a Nightwatch appear at an Investigator’s base?

And was his identity real?

“Like you, I’ve lost contact with the United Organization,” Reinhardt Wicks said, as if guessing what Lu Li was thinking.

“The Nightwatch office, the Demon Slayer’s cottage, and here—I can’t find them anywhere.”

“Taken out by the strange?” The bad news made Lu Li frown.

“Doesn’t seem like it.

I didn’t find any bodies or signs.

They’re more like…” Reinhardt Wick didn’t finish his sentence and instead said, “I’ve heard about you.

Do you want to join us?”

Reinhardt Wick’s invitation seemed rash at a time when people were suspicious of each other.

Lu Li scanned the blood-stained figures and asked, “How do you distinguish them?”

“It’s simple.

In Paradise, the strange cannot kill each other.” Reinhardt Wick replied, lightly patting the back of the hand holding the oil lamp.

Another shadow emerged from the gloomy edge, holding a tray with a Spirit-Calling Gun and ten silver-plated bullets on it.

“Please prove your identity, Mr.

Luli.”

Lu Li silently watched the figure approach closer and closer, then suddenly shook his head lightly: “No need, I don’t plan to join you.”

It might be an illusion, but the atmosphere among these survivors felt oppressive and peculiar.

And they knew nothing.

“You can’t leave.”

As he turned to leave the place, Reinhardt Wick’s voice came from behind.

“Detain him!”

“Catch the deserter!”

“Don’t let them leave!”

Frenzied shouting suddenly echoed in the underground base, and the survivors, with fierce excitement on their faces, surged forward, then paused because of Reinhardt Wick’s words.

“Stop.”

The low voice quelled all the angry shouts, and in the dim light, Reinhardt Wick, holding the oil lamp, looked like the main character under the spotlight in a drama, solemn as a priest.

He calmly watched Lu Li and Anna, his sculpted face showing no emotion: “I won’t detain you, but I hope after you leave, you won’t talk about us to anyone.”

“Including the United Organization?” Lu Li asked.

“Including the United Organization.”

“I will.” Lu Li nodded.

“But why?”

“Let them leave.” Reinhardt Wick didn’t answer Lu Li’s question but told the survivors, “Then close the doors.

We don’t need anyone else now.”

Lu Li and Anna retreated to the stairs.

The survivors, driven by the last words of Reinhardt Wick and becoming exceedingly frenetic and excited, pushed the heavy iron door to seal the passage to the ground.

“Remember us, Lu Li.”

Suddenly a sigh-like whisper echoed, and when Lu Li heard it, the heavy iron door had already closed heavily in front of him.

The swirling dust quickly returned to silence.

In front of the entrance, Anna frowned and said, “There’s something off about them…”

Lu Li remembered Reinhardt Wick’s last words—Tristan had said something similar.

“Let’s go.”

He didn’t say anything and walked out of the grocery store with Anna back to the street.

“Where to next?” Anna asked, waiting for the thoughtful Lu Li to respond.

Whether Reinhardt Wick was the real Reinhardt Wick or not, the information he revealed was likely true: The Three Major Organizations’ Bases were empty.

The Exorcist United Organization had sensed the danger and left early, or they were planning some secret that Lu Li couldn’t know, but obviously, Lu Li couldn’t find them through surface clues.

“Let’s go back.”

Lu Li said, all he could do now was search for survivors and clear the strange around them.

As for the mysteries, the significance of Inverted City Paradise, the disappearance of the Three Major Organizations, the plans of Tristan and Reinhardt Wick—

Clearly, it was not yet time for them to be revealed.