Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 674 - 674 One hundred ninety-three

674: One hundred ninety-three.

Fast asleep 674: One hundred ninety-three.

Fast asleep [The unknown deep sea is as mysterious as a dream —— The great explorer Solacevia Sim]

Humans spend a third of their time immersed in a magnificent and bizarre world known as dreams.

Countless poets and authors have called dreams humanity’s second world.

Even though dreams are fragmented, disconnected, and most of the time just a reflection of the real world, there is one point on which everyone agrees: dreams may possess a mysterious power.

Lu Li had encountered two people associated with the mysterious power of dreams.

The “Immortal,” who now may have been dreaming for a million years, and Dorin before him.

“When is the next time you will fall into a deep sleep?” Lu Li asked.

Dorin shook her head, “I don’t know…

It could be in a moment, or a few hours from now.”

Narcolepsy made Dorin’s sleeping patterns unpredictable.

Lu Li nodded and took on the commission, “From now on, Dorin will follow us, and if she falls asleep, we will check our surroundings.”

“Please, you must resolve the nightmare…” Dom pleaded meaninglessly, knowing full well how powerful Lu Li and Anna were.

If even they could not detect the approaching shadows in the dream…

Lu Li didn’t venture into the dark passage to observe the branch.

If it was related to the Bottomless Abyss, his presence would not improve the situation.

Dom went to City Hall to report the situation of the dark passage to the City Lord, while Dorin followed Lu Li and Anna back to their guest room.

“Take it off, you won’t need it around us,” Anna said to Dorin, who had entered the guest room in her protective suit.

The latter nodded gently, took off the Bird Beak Mask, and slipped out of her protective clothing to reveal the frail figure of a fifteen or sixteen-year-old girl.

It was hard to imagine she ever had a cheery side.

She sat quietly by the lonely window, not disturbing Lu Li and Anna, her brows carrying an indelible weight.

If there were a painter here, they might have been able to create a masterpiece of a painting.

New information about the dark passage came shortly after — Exorcists had used wooden planks to block off the branch again and continued to explore towards the exit of the dark passage.

It led to an ancient Watchtower in the eastern wilderness of the city-state, which was also enveloped by the Blood Dandelions, albeit in limited numbers.

The place was on the edge of the Dandelion field.

The Cleaners were continuing their exploration, looking for areas not contaminated by the Dandelions.

Follow-up plans involved workers reaching the other end via the dark passage and setting up rudimentary but effective structures to block them.

If the Cleaners brought good news, like finding an unaffected area, the plan would undergo minor changes, such as creating a corridor leading to the clean area.

Anna turned on the radio, and the broadcast continuously repeated reminders to residents to hide in their homes and not go out, also announcing part of the evacuation plan to alleviate the citizens’ anxiety.

In the meantime, Valenteel and Dom had come to seek Lu Li, asking about the likelihood of a strange invasion that evening — the battered Rend could not withstand an assault from other oddities.

But starting the evacuation plan that afternoon wouldn’t just result in insufficient time to establish a temporary safe area on the other side of the dark passage; it would also tear the population into two halves.

Lu Li could not answer Valenteel, as this was more unpredictable than the weather.

Valenteel sighed and left, with Dom saying a few words of concern for his sister before following him out.

At two in the afternoon, Valrend, surrounded by disaster and in a tight spot, finally received some good news.

They had established contact with Saint An Bastion, 230 miles to the east of Rend, which was not within the range of the Dandelion winds, and they agreed to take in the citizens of Rend.

The Cleaners had also assessed the distance between the dark passage exit and the edge of the Dandelion field: 13 miles.

A long, but not hopeless, distance.

Fortunately, there was no shortage of building materials for the time being.

They disassembled ownerless houses, and after careful disinfection by fire, they sent them through the dark passage continuously to the other side, constructing a corridor.

However, even if all the workers were dispatched to work without rest through the night, it would still be at least midday tomorrow before a corridor 13 miles long could be constructed.

The citizens would have to spend another night in fear in Rend — although some people would not have to.

Anna walked to the window and together with Dorin, looked down at the square below.

A group of aristocratic tycoons wearing finer protective garments gathered in the square, demanding that the City Lord Valenteel allow them priority in evacuation.

Dom stepped forward to explain but was slapped by a lady of high status.

Had he not lost his balance and fallen, inciting a wave of mocking laughter, perhaps that lady would have had her servants beat him half to death.

The people in the square were angry yet powerless, for although Flarend City had been destroyed by the Dandelions, order had not yet disintegrated.

As long as the order had not completely collapsed, these people were destined to remain aloof, enjoying their privileges.

Didn’t you see that the City Lord didn’t say anything, and directly had the Cleaners lead these haughty individuals through the garden and out the hidden passageway?

However, Valenteel also made his protest, for he never showed his face to these nobles from beginning to end.

“It’s hard to imagine that there are still such foolish people at a time like this…” Anna said with disdain for them.

“It’s not foolishness, it’s just that they care more about themselves than their reputation,” Lu Li, who was flipping through Lilia’s books by the fireplace, answered.

Reputation is the most important yet most useless thing.

The aristocratic tycoons didn’t worry about their reputation; a bad reputation couldn’t trip them up.

Even if it could, as long as they let slip some negligible, trivial, worthless thing, those commoners would gratefully propagate everywhere that the noble was a good person.

“Humans…” Anna murmured as she watched Dom being consoled by others in the square.

At that moment, Dorin’s head suddenly drooped and tilted to one side in front of the window.

An invisible hand supported her, and Anna looked up at Lu Li, “She’s fallen asleep.”

“Take her to bed.”

Lu Li by the fireplace closed the book, stood up, walked to the bedside, and removed the Sanity Value Counter, placing it on Dorin’s wrist.

There was no sound, and he looked at Anna.

“I don’t feel anything…” Anna answered, staring at the girl’s peacefully furrowed brows as she slept soundly: “She didn’t wake up in fright, maybe it’s not that nightmare?”

“Perhaps.”

Lu Li opened the guestroom door, instructing the attendant waiting outside to call for Dom and bring the bell that wakes up Dorin.

A few minutes later, Dom rushed over with an old bell torn from somewhere.

“Should we wake her up…” he asked anxiously, with a pained look at his sister.

“Wait a moment, she’s just asleep,” Lu Li answered.

“Would waking her have any side effects?”

“She might fall asleep again…”

“Then wake her up.”

Lu Li stepped back from the bedside, Dom approached, and gently shook the bell.

Ding-a-ling—Ding-a-ling—

The crisp bell sound as comforting as the fireplace’s light spread out, and Dorin slowly woke up amid the ringing.

“Did I…

fall asleep again?” she asked, bewilderedly looking around before sitting up on the bed.

Dom put down the bell and sighed in relief.

“Did you dream of anything?” Lu Li asked.