Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 767: 286. This shot is called good night

Chapter 767: 286. This shot is called good night

The campfire cast a faint glow around.

Something stirred within the mist, as if brewing to emerge.

Lu Li added dry wood, causing a burst of sparks.

The wind on the wasteland swept past the edges of the rocks, resonating together with the cracking sounds of the campfire.

Danger lurked within the Mist of Strangeness.

The people on the earth bore this point in mind.

The sounds emanating from the mist could not be concealed even during the Time of Silence.

From afar came the distant echoing of a ship’s horn. Indistinguishable, two voices murmured to each other. Overhead, a strange call like the growl of a jackal passed by.

Faint footsteps approached from the mist. Lu Li thought it would pass like the other noises within the Mist of Strangeness, but it drew closer.

A pair of filthy feet appeared at the edge of the firelight.

Lu Li quietly watched.

The owner of the feet didn’t come closer, but sat down at the edge and revealed a pair of withered arms.

The rest of the body was engulfed in darkness and mist, making it difficult to see.

Perhaps the darkness held no further body, as its outline was as illusory as the mist.

Rustle—

The slender hand resembling a dried claw scraped the ground, gathering a pile of rubble and dirt, delivering it into what seemed to be the head’s area of darkness.

A chilling crunching noise emanated from the mist.

After a few seconds, the claw again scraped the ground, delivering it into its mouth.

Clink, clink—

A can rolled past the campfire, landing in the furrow created by the claw.

The Exorcist manual strictly forbids interactions with entities in the mist; mist represents the unknown and unknown means danger.

The claw emerged from the darkness, pinching the can, delivering it into the darkness.

A teeth-grinding metallic deforming sound carried from the mist, lasting for a period, then the claw reappeared, spread open in front of the furrow, waiting for something.

Clink, clink—

Lu Li sent another can.

After a dozen seconds, the claw spread open.

Lu Li continued to send cans until the last one rolled to the front of the entity within the mist.

It picked it up but didn’t consume it, the other claw pinched something and placed it in the furrow, then retreated into the mist.

The swirling mist filled up the strange gap, restoring calm in front of the campfire.

Lu Li picked up the stick used to stir the campfire, pulling the object left by the entity from the mist in front of him.

It was a matte stone, not bright even under the firelight, slightly larger than a fingernail, displaying an irregular polygon shape. Both delicate and rough, resembling a piece of currency.

Lu Li pocketed it and added wood to the campfire.

The night gradually deepened.

Jingle, jingle—

A wind chime rang at a certain moment, sourced from the evil spirit broadcast carried by Lu Li.

Amidst the crisp and pleasant sound, a claw-shadow extended from the darkness, scratching towards the campfire along the ground.

Lu Li picked up a stone and threw it at the Shadow Thief of Fire. It shrank back into the darkness as if startled, no longer emerging.

Preparing to rest, Lu Li lit an oil lamp for backup light and added wet wood to sustain the fire’s burning long enough; he leaned against the warm rock, resting his eyes.

…

At dawn, the chime of the evil spirit broadcast awakened Lu Li.

The Mist of Strangeness retreated, and smoke rose from the nearly depleted fire heap.

Lu Li did not vanish into the long night.

He stomped out the campfire, turned off the oil lamp, donned his cloak, and resumed his journey in the cold morning.

The intervals of Silent Moments visibly shortened.

At dusk, Lu Li rested overnight in a deserted village seventy miles from the oasis.

Every few hours, the Silent Moments would envelop him.

Because of the straw doll, Lu Li was unaffected.

Fifty miles, thirty miles, ten miles.

The chime within the evil spirit broadcast became frequent and dense at this distance.

By the river, cloaked in a mantle, Lu Li stood atop an earth mound, looking out at the wilderness filled with pitch-black holes, vaguely able to see the oasis silhouetted in the distance.

The Time of Silence was there.

Lu Li kindled a campfire by the riverside and consumed his last meal.

Using broken wooden planks found by the shore, Lu Li covered the ashes and extinguished the fire, then left the riverbank, heading towards the oasis.

The sound of water gradually faded away, and a dull murmur became the main theme of this land.

The sky was shrouded by lead-gray clouds; even the wind dared not whisper, silence and oppression flooded the scarred land.

Lu Li could only hear his own footsteps, as if stripped from this world.

The scenes presented forged a peculiar “epic feeling.”

Like the last chapter in a novel: the ending.

A great black hole stretched across the front, leaking abyssal-like breath from the bottomless darkness within.

In the distance, the oasis was perceptible even without a careful glance.

Lu Li bypassed the abyss, but upon reaching the other side, a silhouette blocked his path.

“This is the endpoint I chose for you.”

A hoarse, distorting voice, devoid of beauty, emerged. The once-cold corpse of a maiden lifted its stiff head, bearing a resemblance to Anna, her ghastly eyes melting into a murky state.

Ultimately, Anna halted Lu Li.

“Do you like it?” Anna inquired.

This body didn’t melt, seemingly because it was possessed by a corpse.

“Not at all.”

Lu Li drew the Spirit-Calling Gun, hanging his arms, gazing at the corpse not far away. His calm eyes seemed to carry sadness, yet perhaps it was merely an illusion.

“Why?” Anna tilted her head slightly, puzzled.

The words and actions manifesting on the corpse became a terrifying abnormality.

“Can we talk after I deal with the third calamity?”

Lu Li, backed by the abyss, cast his gaze beyond Anna, falling onto the oasis a few miles away where the main body of the Time of Silence resided.

He even seemed able to see silhouettes hanging from trees, motionless in the silence.

“Your thoughts aren’t truly yours; it’s the Rope of Descent ritual controlling your consciousness!”

Lu Li replied indifferently, “Just like you.”

“I know what I’m doing…” Anna gently shook her head, her cyan neck piling up sickening folds like pigskin. “Lu Li… Humans are as fragile as sandcastles; even sweeping sea breezes can destroy their world…”

“Therefore… I will help you become a ghost, then…”

Anna extended her palm, grasping something intangible; her eyes, covered by murky filaments, seemed to gaze at Lu Li with deep affection.

“We shall be together forever.”

A breeze rose around her, coating her with dust, revealing the outline of a phantom spear.

Lu Li responded by retreating and raising the Spirit-Calling Gun.

The Spirit-Calling Gun’s silver-plated barrel still bore three buds of roses, but a voice seemed to whisper in Lu Li’s ear: This shot can kill Anna.

The only thing that can counter strangeness is strangeness; the Rope of God could certainly harm the Shadow of the Maiden.

It’s time to end all of this…

Lu Li thought.

His eyes softened, unchanged by Anna’s repellent exterior, whispering gently like lulling into a dream:

“Goodnight.”

Bang!

The gunshot thundered across the wilderness as smoke rose.

Lu Li pulled the trigger while Anna cast the spear.

The spear pierced Lu Li’s chest, and the bullet very nearly grazed Anna’s cheek, flying towards the oasis.

Lu Li fell back into the abyss.