Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 662 - 662 181

662: 181.

They went into hiding 662: 181.

They went into hiding On their way to the safehouse, Lu Li observed the streets, which previously showed occasional glimpses of the guards maintaining the facade of order in the amusement park, had now disappeared.

The park was transitioning from a false façade to genuine fear.

As the rules continued to weaken, the streets saw an increase in monsters no longer donning human shapes.

A malevolent aura mixed together, seemingly dragging Royal City into the Inner World.

Those monsters that still maintained human or animal appearances received covetous looks and probing—a norm by now.

For Anna, releasing the aura of a vengeful spirit was necessary to avoid trouble.

As for the “horse-drawn carriage,” its disguise had been shed back when Lu Li and Anna were at Amprus Noble Bank, revealing a centipede-like giant shell.

This indeed prevented any more covetous looks toward the carriage.

With an hour left until dawn, the carriage arrived at the district where the clothing store was located.

“Hold on a moment…”

Upon seeing the scattered broken glass and the mess behind the window display, Anna immediately became alert.

She asked Lu Li to stay in the carriage and stepped down alone, walking into the clothing store over the shards of glass.

The most striking were the dark crevices from the collapsed clock at the back of the shop.

Anna searched around the store, stepped up to the second floor, and then found a puddle of blood in front of a window.

The trail of blood extended towards the broken window frame.

Anna peeked out and spotted dried dark red blood on the edge of the eaves along with torn pieces of clothing.

After searching the other rooms, Anna returned to the street below and relayed everything she had found to Lu Li.

There were blood traces, and Red and the others had all disappeared…

“Ask the nearby ‘residents’.”

If they had been attacked, it wouldn’t have been quiet.

She hoped the situation wasn’t too dire…

Since the nearby residents had been cleared out, Lu Li and Anna found some survivors in houses further away.

“What happened at the clothing store?” Lu Li asked.

“You…

too slow…” the monster standing at the door mumbled, creating a spine-chilling scene as it gnawed on its own fingers, its left hand already chewed down to the bone.

“Flesh…

was eaten…”

“Tell us what happened in detail.”

The monster greedily scanned Lu Li and Anna’s bodies and demanded, “One…

arm…”

“Okay.”

Lu Li calmly agreed and stepped into the house with Anna.

The monster sat at the dining table, spat out a section of a finger bone, and laid it alongside five or six scattered bones on the table.

It slowly and vaguely told them what had happened about half an hour ago.

Only one human was found and eaten.

Lu Li and Anna gathered crucial information; the others hadn’t been found yet, so they might still be safe.

After the clumsy explanation, the monster began to demand an arm from Lu Li, Anna glanced at Lu Li, then walked behind the monster.

Soon after, Lu Li and Anna appeared in front of the civilian house.

With little time left, they needed to quickly find the missing Red and the others, 20 minutes before daylight.

After that, Lu Li had to head to the Five O’ Clock District, reaching there before the final evacuation.

Back at the entrance of the clothing store, Lu Li and Anna continued to search for other minor clues, such as uneaten food, warm clothing, and markings.

Anna searched the cleared-out civilian homes and basements in the vicinity but found no trace or signs of them.

“Find a witness to ask,” Lu Li said.

They needed to first identify who had died, and if it wasn’t either York or Red—

“It’s Red,” Anna suddenly said as she noticed a few strands of brown hair beneath the broken glass outside the shop window—Red’s hair.

After a moment of regret, Anna asked Lu Li, “Are York and the others still alive…

where would they go?”

“Back to where he originally belonged,” Lu Li said quietly, gazing at the short hair.

“Xiusi University,” Anna said, providing the answer.

It was relatively isolated there, and York was familiar with the place; seeking shelter at Xiusi University was indeed the most likely choice for them after the monster attack.

But entering Xiusi University would waste too much time.

If they weren’t there, the time left wouldn’t be enough for them to search elsewhere—Lu Li could only give up on these survivors and head directly to the evacuation point.

Anna waited for Lu Li to make a decision.

Soon, Lu Li got on a carriage and headed to Xiusi University, just half a street away.

Something happened on the way—perhaps outsiders, or perhaps they were protected by Lu Li to some extent.

Three survivors were actually hiding in a grocery store near Xiusi University.

But they were extremely xenophobic; even when Lu Li revealed his identity, he received no new people.

Lu Li didn’t have much time to waste, and simply told them to go to the five o’clock district before dawn, where the last evacuation would take place.

After Lu Li left, the survivors hiding in the grocery store and pretending to be monsters spoke out, “Could he be deceiving us?”

“If he’s a monster…

wouldn’t he have just eaten us directly?”

“Two fools, he’s testing us!

How could the King possibly abandon this city?

We just need to wait, wait for the royal family to bring the Exorcists to find us…”

…

At the entrance of Xiusi University, the carriage stopped.

Anna accompanied Lu Li as he walked into the campus, heading straight for York’s office—the place where York and the others were most likely hiding.

As they walked through the garden, there were fewer figures in the school.

After most of the humans had been devoured, most monsters chose to leave, leaving only some monsters with no intention of preying—this place indeed became safer than the outside world.

Knock knock knock—

Lu Li knocked on the wooden office door.

A slight noise came from the room and then quickly disappeared into silence.

Then Lu Li said the password he had once agreed with York, “Where is your Sanity Value Counter?”

Swoosh—

The noise finally resounded again, followed by disorderly footsteps and the sound of moving heavy objects behind the door.

The door opened.

“I knew you would find us!”

York’s expression was like finding a pillar of strength, and the other survivors also stood in the room with relieved expressions.

He excitedly said to Lu Li, “Did you see it?

There are only about a dozen monsters left, it’s safe here, and we can hide—”

“Royal City has been abandoned, the last evacuation is at dawn at six o’clock,” Lu Li interrupted York, looking at the clock on the desk previously propped against the door, “Is the time accurate?”

The time pointed to 5:40, with only 20 minutes until dawn.

“What?” York was stunned, then realized what Lu Li was saying, “Of course, I just calibrated it yesterday…”

“Royal City has been abandoned, the last evacuation is in twenty minutes at the five o’clock district, we need to leave now,” Lu Li said, looking at York’s frozen expression.

“But how…

how could this be…

there were millions of people here!”

Despite his disbelief that the royal family and the three major organizations would do such a thing, York, trusting Lu Li a bit more, chose to follow him.

A group of survivors crammed into the monster carriage, being driven straight to the five o’clock district.

The pressing time compressed everyone’s emotions in the carriage; at some point, like other people in the Royal City, they suddenly felt the ground trembling.

A dull quake trembled from deep underground, as if something was awakening.