Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 816: Nine. Emergent Homeward Journey

Chapter 816: Nine. Emergent Homeward Journey

The lighthouse radiating light illuminates this unfinished stone temple.

Steam seeps from the underground world beneath the spiral stone steps, making it still unsafe here, the emerging steam starts to heat the stone temple.

The lighthouse’s light grows stronger, filling every corner of this space—

The temple is only adorned with carved patterned columns, seemingly unfinished, or perhaps only ruins remain. Just like the city below, it appears more vast.

He is still underground.

Lu Li has no time to investigate the origins of this temple, the lighthouse dispelling darkness reveals the temple’s edges, and holes in the rock walls. Despite the conspicuousness of the person-high hole conflicting with the temple, it seems to be the only way out of here.

Steam is spreading and diffusing, Lu Li approaches the hole with the diminished lighthouse, escaping the stifling heat that suffocates the skin.

Lu Li enters the hole, but two meters away is the end of the hole.

Collapsed earth and stone block the path leading farther.

A complete human skeleton in a gray jumpsuit leans hopelessly beside the pile of earth. Next to its left hand, which is skeletal, lies a broken iron pickaxe, while a long-dried windproof oil lamp rests by its clearly broken right hand.

It’s almost a relief to see something similar here, even if it’s a skeleton.

Because this means Lu Li is closer to the familiar human world from the unknown depths.

Moreover, the skeleton is fully preserved, which means it...

Steam outside the hole is still spreading, temporarily unable to affect here, but not for long. Lu Li picks up the broken iron pickaxe beside the skeleton’s hand, suddenly noticing a fist-sized mound of earth nearby.

It stands beside the skeleton, like a low grave.

Coincidentally, all other four finger bones on the left hand are curled, only the index finger is straight, vaguely pointing at the raised mound.

Lu Li’s gaze falls, using the pickaxe to flatten the mound.

A notebook buried in the soil emerges.

Was it buried there during the skeleton’s lifetime?

Lu Li has no time to pick up the notebook, as steam is approaching, he grips the pickaxe handle and strikes the collapsed sand and stone.

The hole begins to feel stifling, Lu Li can still endure it, but the exit appears quicker than expected. After pulling out the pickaxe with a swing, bringing an earthy smell, invigorating cold wind blows in from the revealed gap.

Lu Li swings the pickaxe enlarging the gap, the pouring cold wind lowers the cave’s temperature, no longer unbearably stifling.

After a few more minutes of digging, the collapsed earth and stones reveal a passage to crawl through.

Lu Li looks at the adjacent skeleton——if he continues digging a little longer, he can leave here.

Hope being only a wall away seems more despairing, fortunately, he doesn’t know this.

Noticing the notebook again, Lu Li reaches over and pulls it out of the soil pit.

"If your will is inside, I will try my best to fulfill it."

Surrounding sand fills the soil pit, the skeleton’s hand bones spread open and scatter due to the slipping sand, no longer maintaining a pointing stance, as if an obsession sustained for decades dissipates.

Pocketing the notebook, Lu Li holds the lighthouse and steps into the other side of the pile, completely avoiding the oppression of steam, smoothly moving along the winding upward hole.

Only a few meters out, the hole suddenly becomes cave-wide, countless chisel marks on the rock walls indicate this is no longer the path dug by the skeleton’s owner.

It also suggests many people have come through here.

After walking a distance, Lu Li suddenly stops, the lighthouse in his hand gradually grows dim until darkness swallows Lu Li.

Tens of seconds later, Lu Li reignites the lighthouse.

Ignoring the unsettling nature of darkness itself, Lu Li doesn’t feel any peculiar presence from the dark.

He is still deep underground where strangeness can’t reach.

Hopefully, the skeleton isn’t like him, unexpectedly arriving here.

Lu Li takes out the dust-covered notebook from his pocket and opens it.

The first few pages of the notebook are torn out, and the new first page is filled densely with the same ugly and chaotic content.

[It’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad it’s so bad]

The content of the first page seems to indicate the skeleton’s emotions during life.

Lu Li turns to the second page, the handwriting remains chaotic, but has shifted from mere venting to recording information.

[Why did it suddenly shake? The way I came in collapsed, my right hand got crushed, damn it damn it damn it damn it]

[One hand is useless, especially the left one, swinging the pickaxe nearly sprained my wrist]

[Shouldn’t have acted alone... hope others can come, the oil lamp can last five more hours, but strangeness can’t reach this deep, it’s alright without light, just need to overcome fear and avoid losing True Sanity Value]

The notebook’s owner is evidently not an ordinary person——most ordinary people don’t know what Sanity Value is, much less True Sanity Value.

The next page, the notebook becomes even more scrawled and illegible, the reason noted above.

[Can’t do it anymore, my wrist can barely hold a pen, why was the right hand crushed, why why why why]

[Another tremor, I can’t sit here waiting for rescue, what’s outside?]

[Unbelievable... what did I see? An ancient people’s temple and their city!]

Ancient people?

Lu Li thinks.

Does it mean previous generations of humans, or is it wise humanoids called "the ancients"?

[This is the deepest part, those miners almost dug to them]

[A great project, they are even better than us, such depth surely keeps strangeness from finding them. But why are there no traces of them? Because of lava?]

[Oh... another disturbing tremor, why couldn’t I feel it above? Hope it’s not what I suspect causing this noise]

[Interesting stone column patterns, suggest you take a look when you arrive]

[Third tremor! It’s weak this time, but continuous... noisy, I have to check]

[Incredible, water is rushing in, surging onto the lava, what a spectacular scene, wait—water and lava?]

[I’m going to die, whoever sees this, I’m Nasram Alaya, give this notebook to my daughter Monique Alaya, and tell her all my wealth is under the floor beside the fireplace at our old home, tell her I love her. Remember, it’s I love her, not you love]

An unidentified father trapped in the temple due to an accident. He encountered the same things Lu Li did, eventually dying desperately in the hole.

Closing the notebook brings a lot of information, as well as many questions.

Setting it aside for now, Lu Li holds the oil lamp and ascends in the mine-like cave.

After walking approximately a hundred meters, wooden support frames appear at the edge of the rock wall, supporting the mine. At the edge stands a faded wooden sign.

[Coleen Mine No. 13]

[Lowest Level]