Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 823: Sixteen. Sky

Chapter 823: Sixteen. Sky

The wind swept over the silent Dark Wilderness.

"The clouds obscure the sky." By the entrance of the mine, Katerina withdrew her gaze after looking up.

Lu Li emerged from the mine tunnel, lifting his eyes. The sky was shrouded in a cloud cover, casting a dim glow over the dark earth.

"Has the Mist of Strangeness disappeared?"

"No, Tang Ge Town is protecting the surroundings." Katerina pointed in the opposite direction of the town. "The strange mist is kept out, it can’t get in. We’ll go this way."

Katerina led the way, leaving the surface facilities of the mine.

[Colin Mine]

A blurred wooden sign stood askew by the mine entrance, its letters gradually fading as they moved away.

Upon leaving the mine, Katerina put away the fluorescent light. Even those whose minds were corrupted knew how dangerous it was to carry a light source in the wilderness.

Though the dim light barely revealed outlines, it was enough to prevent them from being swallowed by the Lightless Night.

After leaving Colin Mine, about two miles out, Katerina, who had been treading cautiously, began to relax.

She quickened her pace and no longer minded the clear sounds her steps made on the gravel.

"The closer we get to the town, the safer it becomes, no strangeness will appear around us," Katerina said to Lu Li, who lagged behind.

"No strangeness will approach?" Lu Li continued to walk slowly.

"No, I’ve never heard of such a thing," Katerina said with confidence. "The Tang Ge Town church is in the prime of life. The surrounding ten miles are a safe zone, cleared by the church, Hunters, and those who sell themselves."

"I am a Hunter, though the lowest kind."

Without Lu Li, Katerina’s future would be bleak: dying from pollution, signing a contract with the town, spending the money earned from selling herself, and then seeking death in the wilderness.

"Prime of life? Do Evil Gods also mature?"

"Don’t call ’Them’ that; the church will drag you off to be sacrificed if they hear," Katerina warned Lu Li. "They don’t age, but we use those terms to describe towns differently."

"Towns in their prime are firm and vibrant, like Exorcists defying any strangeness. Unless the Divinity dies, the town’s surroundings are absolutely safe."

"The term ’youthful’ is usually applied to newly established towns—newborn, weak, struggling to protect the surrounding areas, sometimes even so weak that strangeness invades within the town itself."

"’Middle-aged’ generally applies to cities. Like middle-aged men compromising with unpleasant things, middle-aged towns aren’t as steadfast as towns in their prime. They allow strangeness to enter safe zones, even towns, as long as it doesn’t maliciously harm humans."

"Elderly towns are the worst..."

Katerina’s tone darkened: "I witnessed the death of an elderly town. It couldn’t block any strangeness, like a sieve. The strangeness rushed into the town in a frenzy, killed everyone they could find, tore the Divinity to shreds, and feasted on it..."

"That’s not the worst. Some elderly towns receive too much mixed faiths and strangeness-derived power, becoming impure, resembling those infected Aliens... They start to attack humans. Eventually, they transform from our gathering places into strangeness lairs."

According to Katerina, many such transformations into "Weird Lairs" occurred.

Corruption is easier than maintaining purity.

Katerina continued to speak, while Lu Li listened quietly.

Tang Ge Town was founded by survivors of a "Weird Lair." In Midnight City, they found a church without a gathering point, and as their Divinity was about to be born, they collaborated to establish Tang Ge Town on the edge of the Dark Wilderness.

Strictly speaking, Katerina experienced the death of an elderly town and a Weird Lair, finally surviving by depending on Tang Ge Town.

After speaking, the atmosphere became as silent as the wilderness.

Katerina didn’t want the conversation to end there, so she couldn’t help but ask, "Are you still angry?"

"Angry about what?" replied Lu Li from behind.

"About me complaining you ask too many questions in the shelter..." Katerina still remembered. "Um... I wasn’t really annoyed by your questions, though you do ask a lot."

Katerina didn’t want to strain her relationship with Lu Li—for Lu Li, whether as a former Exorcist or pure-blooded human, his status in human society was not something she, an unfortunate soul not even considered a resident, could compare to.

In other words, she was trying to please Lu Li, though her attempt was awkward and awkward.

"I am just thinking," Lu Li replied calmly, then asked, "A town doesn’t have just one church?"

A now relaxed Katerina quickly answered: "No. New churches stay in the town and only leave to establish a gathering point when they are about to hatch a Divinity."

"What if they hatch in the city?"

"It depends on their relationship." Even though she had never left the Dark Wilderness, this knowledgeable Hunter replied. "Some towns are founded as twin Divinities, but that’s rare... Only one Twin Town in the Dark Wilderness hosts two Divinities."

Lu Li and Katerina drew closer to Tang Ge Town, already seeing the lights five or six miles away.

This light stood in stark contrast to the dangerous stillness of the Dark Wilderness, evoking a yearning.

As Katerina said, everyone hopes to gain resident status, so they don’t have to venture into the dangerous wilderness anymore.

"What was the world like before?" Katerina asked, her eyes filled with longing and curiosity.

Lu Li briefly described everything before the strangeness began to invade.

Cities with millions of residents, bustling harbors, Exorcists roaming to resolve incidents, and peaceful lives.

"Millions...? Tang Ge Town only has a few thousand..." Katerina couldn’t even imagine such numbers; she just knew it was a lot. "I know about harbors; I heard Vena Ice-Free Port is still as prosperous as before the Weird Times."

Lu Li neither confirmed nor denied this.

It’s unlikely that Vena Ice-Free Port retained its former glory, but a familiar city still standing in the Weird Times is reassuring.

At least there are still familiar things in this world for Lu Li.

As they approached Tang Ge Town, dim lights flickered on the wilderness around them—humans entering or leaving the town, some carrying Fluorite, others holding oil lamps and torches.

Katerina didn’t engage with them, for a simple reason.

Humanity’s enemy isn’t just the strangeness but also themselves.

Upon seeing the faint silhouette of people moving in the town, the clouds began to dissipate from the sky.

Katerina stopped, standing with Lu Li in the wilderness, gazing at the sky.

Cliffs stretching to the horizon replaced the sky, embedded Fluorite resembling stars, emitting a dim glow. The rocks converged at the center of the dome, leaving a moon-like hole.

Lava flowed along the edge of the hole, forming a dark red ring of fire, dripping toward the wilderness.

This was a more vast underground cavern.

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