Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 707 - 707 Two hundred and twenty-six

707: Two hundred and twenty-six.

Hope in despair 707: Two hundred and twenty-six.

Hope in despair The Mist of Strangeness faded away in the morning as usual,

revealing the ugly, devastated land, with the endless sound of the ocean waves dispelling the deadly silence.

Anna’s illusory silhouette appeared at the cave entrance.

She first looked toward the cliff top.

Annie was safe and sound, and Rem’s cabin had not been damaged, as if the howling that echoed through half the night was just an illusion.

Anna brought a telescope, but realized she didn’t need it to see everything that had happened the night before.

A bizarre and extremely distorted vortex, stretched and elongated, seemed to engulf anyone who looked at it, appearing where Oak Forest used to be.

It extended from the mid-slope of Oak Forest to the top of the mountain, covering most of the Oak Street District, everything curling inward, twisting into the shape of a vortex.

The vortex wasn’t as simple as “a child squatting on the beach, drawing circles in the sand” or “a mischievous child spoiling the patterns in the sand by drawing circles,” but more like pouring paint evenly on a canvas and then spreading it in concentric circles with a clean brush.

The various colors were mixed, blended, and twisted, creating an unspeakable sense of nausea.

The paint had not disappeared; it had merely merged and twisted together.

The houses and trees were the same.

They hadn’t been destroyed; they had just become part of the giant vortex.

And they looked more unsettling than the muddied colors, as if…

if you stared too long, you too would start to curl.

Fortunately, this might just be an illusion, for Anna felt no taint on her consciousness.

Still, just to be safe, it was best to prevent Lu Li from seeing these things.

Anna returned to the cave and told the residents, who hadn’t slept all night, about what had happened in the distance.

The Jimmy Siblings and Aidanvoya went to the top of the cliff to observe, while she stayed to describe the vortex to Lu Li.

She first smoothed out the bedding with her palm, then stood a finger on the blanket and began to twist, the fabric around her finger becoming crinkled and distorted: “It’s somewhat like this, but not folded up.”

“I roughly understand, is there anything else?” Lu Li asked, curious if the Heretics and their master had been eliminated.

“I can go and check,” Anna responded.

“No need, now is not the right time,” Lu Li shook his head.

The commotion there would surely attract some strange attention, just like the pattern itself: a vortex.

“The merchants may already have an answer.”

The merchants didn’t make them wait long.

Jimmy came running with news, his muffled running echoed throughout the entire cave: “The merchants are here, and so are those stones!

Incredible…

in just a moment, the downhill was piled full of Deep Sea Stones.”

“Jimmy!

Come help carry things.” Raimy’s voice called from outside the cave.

Jimmy hastily departed, and the merchant walked in.

Apart from the 100 cubic meters of Deep Sea Stone that had been brought and cut, there were nearly 5 billion research points deposited in Lu Li’s account and an additional 500 cubic meters of Deep Sea Stone that had been stored, there was also news of the Soul Tree.

Unfortunately, it was bad news.

“It refused,” the merchant said.

A chill flashed in Anna’s eyes, while Lu Li remained calm: “Is there a reason?”

“It believes that the price to pay is too high, it can help more Exorcists than just you alone,” the merchant explained.

It was hard to imagine a fiend contemplating and responding from a standpoint akin to that of the Exorcist Association’s higher levels.

Lu Li regretted that he couldn’t investigate the origin of “the gate,” but it was clear that he couldn’t bargain with a fiend: “Please keep an eye out for other methods.”

“Is there any other business?”

Lu Li nodded and turned to Anna, “Call Aidanvoya.”

In fact, there was no need to call her; as soon as the merchant appeared on the cliff top, Aidanvoya couldn’t contain her emotions and hid at the entrance of the cave to eavesdrop.

When she heard her name mentioned, she nearly lost composure and walked into the shelter.

“Let’s sort out your matter now,” Anna told Aidanvoya, focusing on the merchant: “Can you contact the shelter?”

“We can’t.”

Aidanvoya’s face turned even paler.

“What about sending a letter there, or back?”

“We can’t.”

“The shelter’s location.”

“We don’t know.”

“Not even you can know it?” Lu Li inquired.

He knew well how deeply entangled merchants and Exorcists were: the three major organizations, including the venerable Exorcist Association, fully trusted the merchants and cooperated with them deeply.

“No,” the merchant answered indifferently still.

With each question and answer, Aidanvoya’s breath grew more chaotic and out of control.

Anna’s breath spread out, guiding her to pull back.

Raimy, who had come in, also gently hugged her shoulders, but this could not stop Aidanvoya’s grief.

Lu Li’s fingers tapped lightly on the wooden chair’s armrest, pondering something.

The sanctuary clearly wanted to “disappear,” and it had almost succeeded.

Those who couldn’t enter the sanctuary knew nothing more than its name.

The three organizations’ intent matched the meaning of “seed” perfectly.

It was plucked from the fire and hidden in a place unknown to everyone.

One could even say that the inhabitants of the sanctuary were peeled away from this world.

They no longer belonged to this era but to a new world that would come after the Mist of Strangeness had left.

Unless they were found by the Mist of Strangeness.

But how would they know when the new world was coming?

Prophecy?

Or the ability to learn about events in the outside world?

“How do they learn about the outside world?” Lu Li continued to ask.

“Newspapers.”

“Which one, or what kind?”

“A newspaper belonging to the sanctuary.”

“What’s in the newspaper?”

“A combination of the ordinary newspaper and the Investigator’s Weekly.”

“How often does it come?” Lu Li asked.

The questioning was tedious, and even though Lu Li asked and the merchant answered, it never responded to anything beyond the questions asked, even though it knew what Lu Li was about to ask.

“Every day.”

“How big of a disturbance must occur to appear in the newspaper?”

“Like last night’s in Belfast.”

“How much space can it occupy?”

“Half a page.”

“How many pages is the newspaper, single- or double-sided?”

“One page, double-sided.”

That would be one-eighth of its size.

“How much would it cost in investigation points to buy half a page?”

“…70,000.” After a moment’s silence, the merchant answered.

“Less than I thought,” Lu Li said, looking at the silent Aidanvoya, “We don’t know anything about what’s inside the sanctuary, but the sanctuary knows about us.

If you don’t mind not getting a reply, you can write a letter to him every day, to be published in the newspaper.”

Everyone was well aware that 70,000 contribution points were not a small amount.

Few Exorcists would save up that much, or even have that amount.

70,000 contribution points could even buy over 500 crates of canned goods from the merchant now.

But Lu Li was too wealthy.

Even without the unexpected boon of Ghost Prison, the Deep Sea Stones used as walls in the refuge points could give Lu Li a fortune of several billion investigation points—it was just that he couldn’t sell that much.

“Can I do that?” Aidanvoya abruptly raised her head, her dim eyes sparking with new light.

“Yes, as long as you don’t mind other refugees also seeing your letters to Tesla,” Lu Li thought for a moment and then added, “To prevent the sanctuary from refusing or raising the price, I suggest that your letters take up only a small portion of the column in the future.”

Aidanvoya frantically tried to thank Lu Li, but Raimy gently pushed her with a smile, “Go write your letter, and remember to add ‘See you tomorrow’ at the end.”