Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 831 - 24. Migrating Ghouls

Chapter 831: 24. Migrating Ghouls

A fog berth appeared ahead.

The Mist of Strangeness lingering on the desolate wilderness resembled the shallow water pools revealed when the tide recedes. They usually manifest at dawn and gradually dissipate over time.

The key is that there are no strange creatures in the fog berths, making them safe; the only danger being the ease of losing one’s direction.

Fog berths are scattered like fragments in the lowlands of the wilderness, like isolated islands, guiding Lu Li and Katerina like ships sailing between them.

"Are you always like this?"

As they stepped back into the mist, the whispers of the wilderness were blocked out, and Katerina’s tense nerves relaxed.

Katerina had mentioned she rarely talked to people, and she wasn’t lying. She mostly kept strangers at a distance, trusting no one but herself. Lu Li was a bit different due to his legendary background and being a pure human.

"Always like what."

The mist was slowly dissipating, with visibility around ten meters.

"So silent, barely speaking except to ask questions."

"Pretty much."

"You should try to change that about yourself, speak more." Katerina hoped to hear stories from before the Weird Times.

After some thought, Lu Li took Katerina’s suggestion: "Tell me about the market prices now."

Katerina was about to say something when a vague figure emerged from the mist ahead.

A dimly outlined woman holding a young boy, softly singing a lullaby to coax him to sleep.

"It’s a shadow of the old era..."

Katerina couldn’t help but lower her voice, filled with longing for those times: "Recreating scenes from before the Weird Times like a mirage."

What appeared before them was a woman soothing a child to sleep.

The lullaby floated from her lips.

"Hear the song and close your eyes; see the shadow claw reaching for the light and step on it; hear three knocks on the door, say please come in; the foolish lump of flesh approaches, ignore it; a beautiful song wafts in, close your eyes and listen; quietly hear the lullaby, and the child falls deeply asleep..."

The drowsy little boy wore a joyful expression, drifting into dreams under the sweet lullaby.

Lu Li and Katerina walked past the woman from the shadow of the old era, and she did not acknowledge them.

"How did the later babies avoid the Silent Moments ritual?"

Lu Li asked as they walked further away.

The woman’s tender gaze left the sleeping boy, raising her head gently to watch the figures disappearing into the depths of the mist.

"...That lullaby, it can lull children to sleep."

Katerina said, lightly singing with the emotion in her mind: "Hear the song and close your eyes; see the shadow claw reaching for the light and step on it; hear three knocks on the door..."

The off-key melody, imbued with emotion, became somewhat pleasant.

"Who wrote the lullaby?" Stripped of emotion, reason prompted Lu Li to ask.

He sensed a peculiar power from the lullaby—it made people relax.

For children, it allowed them to fall asleep.

Katerina paused her song and reflection: "I don’t know."

Nevertheless, people indeed found a way to continue their offspring during the Silent Moments.

This fog berth was only the size of a square, and they reached the edge during their conversation.

Silence once again enveloped the desolate land, clawing towards the sky, the tiny duo walked onward in a wilderness full of perils.

A distance later, they sought refuge in another fog berth.

Walking through the much thinner mist, Katerina resumed the topic they touched on earlier, the current market prices.

The prices in the Weird Times stabilized, unlike the hyperinflation of the early Weird Times; it returned to its original value.

But earning Shilling became increasingly difficult, with the only sustainable source of income being the wilderness, at the cost of life.

"Accept commissions, search for minerals and hunt, scout safe zones... in exchange for surviving." Katerina said.

She thought it would always remain this bad until the pollution became so severe she would sell herself, indulge once, and then embrace death.

Lu Li’s arrival changed things, letting her see a faint hope. Perhaps she could earn a fortune... or even become a resident.

As time passed, the fog berth protecting them in the wilderness gradually dissipated, leaving Lu Li and Katerina exposed in the Dark Wilderness.

Katerina was an excellent Hunter.

It was evident: she was still alive and hadn’t suffered severe infection.

In the wilderness, excellence equated to survival ability, not strength. Survival depended on many factors, including luck.

Katerina’s luck was usually not very good, but not too bad either. Such people are more likely to survive—not dying abruptly like the unlucky, nor being inexperienced like the fortunate.

Near noon, the Light Thief climbed high enough to fully reveal its dark monstrous claws, towering higher than the Spine of the World Mountains to the north.

Twenty miles from the Leviathan Town safety zone.

Lu Li and Katerina hid behind a rock, peering ahead.

Everything on the flat wilderness lay bare. A few hundred meters ahead, a rustling line moved across the wilderness.

"Trouble... it’s Ghouls." Katerina whispered, identifying them by their silhouettes.

"Ghouls?"

"A type of Undead abnormality...more vile than all other species. They hunt us in packs and have intelligence... damn it, we should have bypassed the Ghoul’s Lair!" Katerina cursed under her breath.

"Give me the map."

Katerina handed the map to Lu Li, observing the distant Ghoul group while keeping an eye on Lu Li.

Mole said the route map would help them avoid the Ghoul’s Lair, yet they encountered the Ghoul group...

Were they off track, or did the Mole deceive them, or is the Ghoul group hunting?

"They seem to be migrating." Lu Li calmly stated.

"Migrating?"

"Look closely, they’re carrying things." Lu Li observed the line extending horizontally, in which strong Ghouls were urging the queue. "Do Ghouls have migration habits?"

Katerina pondered for a moment, her body suddenly trembling lightly.

"What is it?"

Katerina suppressed her excitement: "We’re going to strike it rich... this Ghoul’s Lair is upgrading to Ghoul Town, they’re migrating to find a new home!"

This news is enough to catch Leviathan Town’s attention, enough to exchange for a substantial sum of Shilling.

"Let’s go quickly, take the news to Leviathan Town." Katerina whispered, then pulled Lu Li along as they began to retreat in the opposite direction.

The reason for Katerina’s actions became apparent quickly: more robust Ghouls filled the Ghoul group, along with indistinguishable, house-sized bloated silhouettes.

Scattered Scouts left nothing unsearched, including the rock they had temporarily sheltered behind.

Hundreds of Ghouls traversed the wilderness, vanishing beyond the horizon, with no solitary Ghouls appearing again.

Meanwhile, the ascending claws reached closer to the sky.