Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 655 - 655 One hundred seventy-four

655: One hundred seventy-four.

The dungeon’s cage 655: One hundred seventy-four.

The dungeon’s cage They hung the rib racks they had cut from the monster’s body on iron hooks in the kitchen, and the chef picked up the kitchen knife from the chopping board and handed it to Lu Li.

“We brought our own,” Anna said, lifting her chef’s knife.

The chef muttered, putting it back in its place, roughly complaining about the aristocrats’ obsolete and tedious sense of ceremony or something like that.

“You’d better process the ingredients first; I’ll go mix the sauces,” Anna said.

The chef and the owner exchanged glances, signifying agreement, and busied themselves with the rib racks at the chopping board.

Now they were all unsuspectingly turned away from Lu Li and Anna.

Thud—thud—

The kitchen was filled with the sound of two quick, successive thuds, muffled by the wooden door leading to the dining room.

The Spirit-Calling Gun, akin to the holy water fighting evil in the legends, dissolved the two aberrations, leaving behind two slowly cooling bodies.

It was inappropriate to dispose of them now, so Anna temporarily dragged them behind the shelves, barely out of sight should the aberrations come in.

“There should be people imprisoned here.” Anna, stacking up the bodies, looked towards the thick wooden door in the corner: “In the basement?”

“Deal with the guests first,” Lu Li said, taking a stacked apron from the shelf and putting it on, tying it behind his back with both hands.

Anna stepped forward to take the straps: “It’s somewhat dangerous, I’d better go.”

“You have other things to do,” Lu Li said, turning his head towards the chopping board: “Make something fragrant.”

Making food delicious requires skill, but making it smell good couldn’t be easier.

Anna nodded lightly, naturally tied the apron for Lu Li, and from the corner of the kitchen found a piece of steak that would not bother Lu Li.

Ten minutes later, the tightly closed kitchen door suddenly pushed open, and the rising aroma enveloped the shadow with black eyes standing in front of the door.

The dining room’s eating and conversing customers looked up as if on cue, then slightly lifted their heads, sniffing the tempting fragrance that made them swallow hard.

“Would anyone like to try?” Lu Li calmly surveyed and asked.

The guests, casting aside their dignity, raised their hands simultaneously.

“The rib rack is big enough; there’s a portion for everyone.” Lu Li randomly selected a “lucky” customer and took them to the back kitchen.

The wooden door closed again, then swung open a minute later.

“Who’s next?” Lu Li’s calm made the kitchen behind him seem anything but a trap baited with lures.

Selecting a delighted guest, as they entered, Lu Li closed the wooden door once more.

The kitchen, once lively with the sound of the guests stepping in, was now ominously silent; when only two guests were left in the dining room, the part of them that was still human made them finally feel suspicion and wariness.

“Where did the other guests go?” one of the remaining guests asked Lu Li, who now appeared in front of the door.

“They are inside, want to take a look?”

Lu Li’s unchanging tone was his response.

Strangely, that calm face seemed like the turbulent undercurrent beneath the sea’s surface, chilling them to the bone as if facing an aberration…

but that was ridiculous!

It itself was an aberration—

“Hey, where are the people inside?” the guest called out into the kitchen with a hint of inexplicable panic in their voice.

No response.

So Lu Li turned and called out to help, only he was calling someone else: “Anna, you can come out now.”

With only two guests left, it’d be straightforward to take care of them directly.

When Anna, holding a kitchen knife and exuding an oppressive aura, appeared and cornered the two guests, they let out a terrified cry: “You killed them?!”

“This, this isn’t according to the rules…”

“It’s quite fitting,” Lu Li replied, flicking open his gun holster and walking past the dining room’s candle stands, blowing out the candles along the way.

The dining room was immediately shrouded in dimness, shielding the interior from curious eyes peering through the showcase window.

The flickering flames of the furnace cast a dim glow, and Anna dropped the last body on top of the other eight.

She glanced towards Lu Li who was searching for the hideout of the “Hidden Creatures”.

“Behind the door.”

Anna gestured for Lu Li to check behind the kitchen door—there, a visibly recent patch of new wood had been nailed over.

She found a tool to pry open the wooden board and peered inside, while rustling noises faintly emerged from the darkness.

Anna began dragging the bodies, and the Hidden Creatures swarmed like flies to rotting flesh.

Amidst the cacophony, they tore off wall planks to widen the hole, mechanically dragging each body into the gap, much like an assembly line.

The cramped kitchen soon emptied out, and the Hidden Creatures within the crevice retracted back behind the wood panel like closing buds.

Lu Li picked up the oil lamp hanging on the door, lit it with kindling from the furnace, and, carrying it, ventured into the cellar with Anna.

Footsteps echoed in the cool, dark cellar where Anna detected a tinge of blood amidst the chill—a normalcy, as the humans corralled by the restaurant’s owner were merely blood slaves, kept in the basement to provide their blood.

However, the scene was far more brutal than Anna had imagined.

At the bottom of the cellar, darkened blood, already congealed, was scattered about, and each of the three narrow cages contained a figure bereft of covering.

The bad news was that two of those silhouettes no longer had rising and falling chests.

The good news was that the woman curled up in the middle cage was still alive, her body covered in bloodstains that resembled tattoos, with only her wrists relatively clean—though replaced by deep, no-longer-bleeding cuts.

The limp wrists of the two cold corpses beside her bore the same wounds, having died from blood loss and the harsh conditions of the basement.

The woman, barely alive, hung her head low, with matted hair scattered about, concealing her face.

“I’ll leave this to you, I’ll wait for you upstairs,” Lu Li said, taking his eyes off the scene as he handed the oil lamp to Anna and took off his coat.

“It won’t be long,” Anna replied, watching Lu Li ascend the stairs.

She crouched in front of the girl with the coat in her arms, “We are exorcists, here to rescue you.”

The head in the cage slowly lifted, eyes so numb they could fit nothing but despair.

…

Lu Li returned to the entrance of the basement, quietly listening to the faint whispers that drifted from the depths below.

Knock—knock—knock—

Lu Li’s attention was drawn to the sudden knocking at the restaurant’s exterior door.

Other guests?

That’s what Lu Li thought as he watched the kitchen doorway, starting to count silently in his head.

3…4…5…

Knock—knock—knock—

Almost exactly five seconds later, the slow knocking sounded a second time.

Lu Li hesitated no longer, but just then, a pale arm reached out from the gloom of the basement and grabbed his wrist.

“I didn’t feel anything…” Anna whispered, “Is it a ‘door’ trap?”

“Hmm.”

Lu Li nodded.

Knock—knock—knock—

As expected, the third set of slow knocks arrived.

“Where’s the woman?” Lu Li asked, noticing Anna still holding the coat.

“She’s dead…”

Anna thought the woman’s revival was fueled by hope and the will to live, but it turned out to be a fleeting rally—after a few words, the woman’s head once again drooped, never to lift again.

She had lost too much blood to endure any longer.

Squeak—yah—

Suddenly, a grating sound that made hearts stop slowly echoed through the empty, gloomy restaurant.

The door outside the restaurant…

had been pushed open.