Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 696 - 696 215

696: 215.

Observations at the Ruins of Belfast 696: 215.

Observations at the Ruins of Belfast [Belfast]

[A commercial city, a port city, and a tourist city]

[Standing atop Sugard Mountain, you would behold one of the most beautiful sights in the world: the neatly stretched full view of the city, the bustling port, and the sparkling beautiful bay]

[And the elegant, dignified, gentlemanly, beautiful, or handsome neighbors by the Shore of Agate Lake]

A flyer imprinted with past events fluttered past Anna’s eyes, revealing a desolate, grey, and broken illusion after it had passed.

Under thick clouds, the leaden sea surged.

Further away, a black sun hung suspended in the void.

Previously, when Anna traveled to the beach of Oak Forest, she would move along the coastline.

But this time, she crossed through the Ruins of Belfast.

Of course, she avoided conspicuously dangerous areas, such as the Shipwreck District where rusted ships formed a forest, and the Ashes District where ash fell like snowflakes day and night.

Small thin Wanderers roamed the streets ahead.

They were the lowest predators of the city and possessed a vigorous curiosity, or rather, a desire to eat— their first reaction to anything was to take a bite.

‘Wanderer’ was the name Anna thought of because they hardly ever stopped moving, always like the gears on a clock that never ceased.

Anna wasn’t sure if they appeared elsewhere, but when Lu Li sold this information to merchants, it fetched him 70 investigation points.

They occupied several blocks outside the Elm District in groups.

Anna hunted several times without finding any opportunities to catch them alone until, a few days later, one Wanderer strayed alone and Anna captured and killed it.

They were weaker and frailer than she had imagined, with no hard shells, and their outer skin was even softer than flesh, rippling with subcutaneous fat upon touch.

That wasn’t any fat; when the invisible dagger slit its throat, viscous, decaying chunks of flesh and pus burst from beneath the skin.

Once the subcutaneous fluid drained completely, the Wanderer was left a balloon-like creature with only a skin layer remaining.

Even without the sense of smell, Anna could perceive the revolting stench that emanated from it.

She also understood why these weak Wanderers could hold a place in the ecosystem.

They were like walking chunks of rotting flesh.

No creature wanted to provoke such things, except for beings with a peculiar taste.

Anna didn’t enter the Inner World.

Ghosts in the Inner World would recognize one another, and that meant total exposure without any meaning.

She was not here to safely traverse Belfast.

As she ventured deeper into the city ruins, Anna saw more scenes she had never encountered before.

Like buildings enveloped by countless disgusting tumors, wooden houses chewed up with myriad holes, and bizarre sacrificial sites: skeletons were arranged in strange poses, facing steps piled up on wooden racks.

Anna steered clear of there from a distance.

The strange questions Lu Li had encountered during the detective examination suddenly materialized in reality—a delicately sculpted little girl in clean clothes wandered the streets of the ruins.

That could be an Evil Spirit, or perhaps another peculiar being in disguise.

In any case, Anna observed from a distance and bypassed that area.

Aside from unavoidably avoiding some particularly dangerous and weird areas, Anna’s path was resolute—twenty minutes later, she arrived at Sailor Street.

The place she once called…

home.

The Long House’s exterior remained unchanged, not destroyed by the spreading fire.

However, the wooden door was nowhere to be found, likely knocked down by fleeing inhabitants or something else.

Anna walked into the silent corridor; the Detective Agency’s door was wide open, the ground strewn with broken wood chips, and the house showed signs of messy searching everywhere.

Someone had burst through the wooden door and rushed into the Detective Agency searching for something.

It must have been done by survivors, as some food ingredients that there hadn’t been enough time to take were missing from the kitchen.

In the silent Long House, Anna silently entered the bedroom of the Detective Agency, sat on the damp bed from which water could be squeezed, and then turned her head toward the living room, just as she used to.

From here, she could directly see Lu Li behind the desk.

For a moment, it seemed she really saw Lu Li sitting quietly behind the desk reading a book, with the sunlight slanting in through the window and the clamor of passersby and rolling wheels rising.

When Anna came back to her senses, all that was in front of her was the cold, dim disarray.

Longing surged within her, and Anna couldn’t wait to return to Lu Li’s side, then restrained herself and left the Long House for the other end of the Ruins of Belfast.

Anna took note of the traces left by the survivors, now visible everywhere.

After all, other than humans, no creatures cook food and use fire.

But their whereabouts remained a mystery.

Perhaps there were still survivors eking out an existence in these ruins, or perhaps they had met their end due to the rampage of creatures.

Anna made her way, avoiding danger and the dark corners that gazed out at the world, and arrived at the Oak Street District.

The distant Oak Forest, long dead, did not repel outsiders as fiercely as the Elm Forest at the other end of the Ruins of Belfast.

Walking through the sparse forest for a distance, signs of chopping began to emerge and became more frequent.

The oaks near the coastline had almost all been felled to make wooden boats.

Now those boats were discarded on the beach, with the Heretics having completed their tasks and left; the boats were useless.

The chaotic, densely whirling footprints remained only in the forest, the marks on the beach erased by storms.

Aside from a dozen wooden boats, the beach was left with nothing.

Anna entered the Inner World and looked toward the distant solitary island in the depths of the sea.

She couldn’t sense any trace of ghosts.

It might have been too far away, or perhaps the Deep Sea Stone was blocking the spiritual energy, or Heretics had taken away the “prisoners” from the Ghost Prison.

Anna leaned towards the latter reason because she hadn’t sensed much spiritual energy from ghosts along her journey.

The situation was bizarre; she had to go have a look.

No longer masking her form, Anna flew low over the dark sea surface, nearing the island where the Ghost Prison stood.

The sea water appeared even deeper and darker, and not even the white waves crashing against the surrounding rocks could conceal this.

From close up, Anna saw the prison perched on top of the island.

It was mottled like an ancient city, its walls festooned with dead seaweed and dense sea snails.

Those were all Deep Sea Stone…

Seeing the thick black walls, Anna recognized their material.

The entire prison was extravagantly constructed from Deep Sea Stone, the ghosts sealed inside the impermeable prison.

But now it was no longer intact; an ugly, gaping hole had been forcibly opened in the wall.

She could not feel even a trace of ghostly presence.

The prison appeared to be empty, but Anna did not approach further; she gathered up the broken Deep Sea Stone materials, taking them back to the cliff top.

Lu Li would like these things.

As Anna departed, the ceaseless sound of the waves reclaimed the island.

The sea breeze blew past the hole, as if carrying along a deep sigh with the wind.