Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 818 - 11. Some Questions

Chapter 818: 11. Some Questions

Life was slipping away from the piercing wound in his chest.

Lu Li’s breath grew weaker, and his heavy eyelids became increasingly difficult to hold open.

Suddenly, the back of his hand burned with excruciating pain. The pain did not diminish as Lu Li neared death; it was as if his soul was in agony.

The inverted pentagram branded on the back of his hand by the demon glowed with a color like magma, and the pungent scent of sulfur seeped into his nostrils.

A fictional gateway of magma seemed to form, but it was like a gust of wind blew past, the gate from hell burst like sparks, and extinguished in an instant.

The brand on the back of his hand also went out, and the soul-deep pain disappeared.

With his eyes lowered, in the dim vision, the Grim Reaper harvesting souls drifted from afar.

But it looked more like another figure.

"...Friday?"

Lu Li’s lips moved, producing a weak mosquito-like sound, or perhaps nothing at all.

The silhouette in a black robe glided across the ground, picking up the fallen lighthouse beside him, and wriggled towards Lu Li, opening his pocket and retrieving something.

When the black-robed silhouette pressed it against Lu Li’s charred hand, he discerned from the outline that it was a shard of redemption.

Lu Li had no idea what the black-robed silhouette did, he couldn’t see, nor could he feel.

Then the black-robed silhouette lifted the lighthouse, pressing the base towards the wound on Lu Li’s chest.

Or rather, stuffed it into the chest pierced by some strange phenomenon.

Suddenly, the whispers of countless Believers surrounded Lu Li, softly chanting the inscription at the base of the lighthouse.

"The brilliance of humanity gathers in the wick..."

"It should be where it belongs..."

A warm current spread across his chest. It replaced his slowly ceasing heartbeat and surged through his limbs.

As a price, Lu Li’s humanity rapidly diminished, along with an intensified sense of fatigue.

The eyelids became impossible to hold open, finally shutting completely.

Lu Li’s consciousness sank into an abyss.

...

It was unclear how much time had passed before Lu Li awoke groggily.

The candlestick on the table glowed with a faint light, and Lu Li lay in a dim, small room, covered with a musty, old blanket.

A figure sat carelessly on the cold ground, a needle-like sharp object masochistically stabbing into their leg.

The sound of Lu Li turning his head startled the figure. They looked up, revealing a dirty woman’s face.

"I thought you were dead, I was going to grab some ’spoils’ after the Mantis Ghost left, but then realized you were still breathing, so I took you here," the woman simply recounted what had happened to put Lu Li at ease.

"The wound healed so quickly, are you a Slug Person?"

"Slug Person?"

Lu Li looked out the window, dim and hard to see, even the faint outline was obscured by candlelight.

They were still in the sanctuary.

"Turns out you’re not."

The woman pulled out the nearly ten centimeters long sharp object from her calf and casually stabbed it into her ankle. That should be the inner ankle, but the sharp object penetrated the bone unimpeded. The woman just furrowed her brow in pain and continued, "So where does your healing ability come from? Bloodline? Church? Infection? Or a Homogeneous Item?"

"I don’t understand."

The blanket gradually puffed up, Lu Li lifted his arm, pulled it back to examine the wound.

The damp, musty smell invaded his nose, and Lu Li saw no wound, not even a scar, on the skin of his chest.

As if it had all been an illusion.

To be frank, if a wound even existed, Lu Li would either die from its severity or succumb to infection.

This statement paused the woman, who then uttered a vowel-formed language Lu Li hadn’t heard, "ghl wufi vo?"

"I can understand the words, but not what you’re saying," Lu Li responded.

"That’s good, I only know a few phrases in foreign languages." The woman visibly relaxed, "So, is that your ability?"

"I have no healing ability."

"Then you used a Homogeneous Item?"

"Sort of." Remembering the lighthouse’s peculiarity, Lu Li replied.

The woman wore an expression as if it was as expected, pulled the sharp object from her inner ankle, and stabbed it towards her foot.

"What are you doing?" Lu Li inquired.

"Since you told me as well. My Homogeneous Item, it lets me run faster, but costs lifespan in return."

"The price is significant."

"Significant?" The woman’s tone carried a hint of mockery. "Lifespan is the least valuable thing."

"Are you an Exorcist?" Lu Li asked. The woman’s identity was peculiar; she was pursued by anomalies, owned a Homogeneous Item, and knew things Lu Li did not.

It seemed a lot had happened outside while being trapped underground...

"Exorcist..." The woman’s voice, growing quieter, bore some longing and disappointment, then she shook her head, "No, just an ordinary person barely surviving in the Weird Times."

Speaking while turning his neck made Lu Li somewhat uncomfortable, sensing no abnormalities in his body, aside from humanity returning as a fundamental 2 parts, Lu Li propped himself up on the bed board and sat up.

"Your wound—" the woman’s words abruptly stopped at Lu Li’s unmarked chest, shrugging her shoulders, "Forget I said anything."

"Do ordinary people also have Homogeneous Items?" Lu Li asked.

Every answer from the woman brought more questions to Lu Li.

"You sound like someone from the city’s upper class?" Her words suddenly carried an aggressive, biting sarcasm, "Most ordinary people can’t afford expensive Homogeneous Items."

A new query was born.

But realizing that pressing further might lead to a fallout, Lu Li decided to temporarily ask something else.

Just about to inquire further, but the woman seemed fed up with this question-and-answer routine, "If it’s more questions, even if you ask, I won’t answer."

"Has The Time of Silence been resolved?" Lu Li asked calmly.

The woman indeed did not intend to answer Lu Li, but this question genuinely enraged her, or rather, found it laughable, sharply mocking, "Of course not, amnesiac man, it still exists, and now it’s called Silent Moments."

"Why?" Lu Li frowned.

If The Time of Silence still existed... was that shot ultimately a failure...

"Why? Because it’s a disaster, because it exists for half the day."

"A day, half?" Lu Li murmured.

Did The Time of Silence take offense at him, causing grievance to all humanity?

Now it was the woman who found it strange, she looked at Lu Li curiously, "You’ve always been in the sanctuary?"

"Almost half a month."

"Who would stay in the sanctuary for so long..." the woman muttered, suddenly her eyes sparked with a real gleam, like a poor person seeing a mountain of gold, "Are you a sanctuary resident!?"

"No."

"Really not? You seem to know nothing," the woman still doubted.

Lu Li remained silent, suddenly recalling something.

Something casually mentioned by Friday.

"When did The Time of Silence appear?"

"It’s irregular every day, what exactly are you asking—"

Lu Li fixed his gaze on the woman, "Tell me the time it was born."

Facing those pure black eyes, the prepared sarcasm became difficult for the woman to voice.

"Alright, I’ll only say it once."

She had to answer this apparently ridiculous question, "Twenty-four years ago."