Detective Agency of the Bizarre
Chapter 839 - 32. Wonderful Dream

Chapter 839: 32. Wonderful Dream

After the conversation, the Earl summoned the butler waiting outside the living room and instructed, "Prepare a sumptuous dinner and guest room for our visitor."

"No need, I’m leaving soon."

Lu Li halted the departing butler, rose from the soft sofa, and bade farewell to the Count, "Thank you, Emerald Dream, for enlightening me."

"But I have a different perspective."

Lu Li picked up the coffee cup, poured its contents onto the expensive carpet, released the cup to let it shatter on the low table, selected a sharp fragment, and suddenly stabbed it into his chest.

"What is seen is not reality."

Afternoon, shade, fragrant grass, gentle breeze.

The light gradually spread around. The Count, with a faint smile, the speechless butler, and the expressionless maid.

The light ultimately filled Lu Li’s vision, enveloping him entirely.

...

"Lu Li... Lu Li... wake up..."

Anna’s calling voice sounded in his ear.

Lu Li opened his eyes.

Anna’s ethereal and exquisite face was close, his aching neck resting on the sofa’s arm reminded him he had maintained this sleeping posture for a long time, and outside came the noisy sounds of pedestrians in the alley.

The punctured Emerald Dream did not take him away but led him into the fifth layer.

"You’ve slept for a long time today, it’s already morning. I didn’t dare open the door when the paper boy delivered the newspaper, couldn’t wake you. The paper got dirty from being stuffed under the door..."

Anna’s clear sparrow-like voice prompted Lu Li to sit up and glance around.

Here is the Detective Agency. The time point... before everything turned bad.

"If it weren’t for your constant sleep talking, I’d have thought something happened to you... um... why did you, why did you call my name several times...? Wait, where are you going?"

Anna watched Lu Li leave the sofa, slightly swaying as though walking on a deck, and move to the desk.

Opening the drawer, Lu Li took out the dagger wrapped in its sheath, aimed the tip at his chest to trigger the lighthouse once more.

"Evil spirits begone!"

Anna rushed over frantically, her faint ghostly aura protecting Lu Li, tightly grabbing his arm to prevent the dagger from piercing his chest.

"Wake up... they are just dreams, not real... doing this will kill you!"

Lu Li paused pressing the dagger towards his chest.

It wasn’t just Anna’s intervention that made him stop...

Clang——

The fallen floorboard slammed into the old floor, creating a gap. Trembling, Anna hugged Lu Li, softly comforting him, "There... it’s all just dreams... everything’s over..."

Lu Li, held by Anna, resumed quietness, seemingly asleep. Only Anna couldn’t see his serene eyes gazing toward the living room.

The Emerald Dream’s time aligns with reality. Lu Li can use the lighthouse to escape the Emerald Dream but returning to reality means confronting eternal night.

Lu Li couldn’t know the state of the convoy in reality, though it’s imaginable it would be very bad...

Rashly leaving the Emerald Dream isn’t a good idea.

Anna controlled the dagger, tossed it into the bedroom, and tenderly whispered, "Was it a terrifying nightmare?"

"Yes."

"It’s alright... there’s nothing to fear anymore..." Anna soothed, her lightweight soul body resembling a cloud.

Lu Li seemed to regain calm, sitting back in the wooden chair.

However, if nothing is done, the Emerald Dream won’t allow him to linger long.

The essence of the Emerald Dream lies in "curiosity" and "entertainment," unlike those oddities trapping people in illusion eternally—at least it claimed so in the fourth layer of the dream.

Hence, it holds an "expectation" for Lu Li, creating dreams, awaiting his response. Lu Li copes with the dream, deciphers it, addressing its expectation.

If the expectation disappears, Lu Li’s fate would be abandonment or death.

Anna, uneasy, refused to step back, her clear eyes almost glued to him.

"What time is it now?" Lu Li asked.

Anna, focused intently on Lu Li, seemed startled, quickly answering, "Uh... noon."

"I mean—" Lu Li didn’t continue, reached for the newspaper on the desk’s edge.

Anna’s eyes trembled nervously, watching Lu Li’s hand collide with an invisible wall.

"I want to get the newspaper." He said.

"I’ll get it for you!"

The newspaper delivered this morning swooshed into Lu Li’s hands.

To maintain the existence of the dream, is to maintain the "expectation value" of the Emerald Dream.

Lu Li unfolded the newspaper.

The front page of the "Belfast Today" boldly stamped with the most conspicuous font: [Rain is expected soon, the fog enveloping the Ailen Peninsula’s sky will soon end]

The rainy season hadn’t arrived yet.

Nothing has happened, everyone known is alive...

The Emerald Dream didn’t use the appropriate time point to convince Lu Li "this is the real world," instead creating an alluring trap difficult to resist.

The most false sweetness is a hundred times better than cold truth.

Lu Li once read this newspaper, confirmed the date then put it down.

Swish——

Anna’s cheeks emerged from behind the newspaper, she was close, showing concern, "You’re weird... still pondering the nightmare?"

"I’ve always been like this."

Lu Li diverted his gaze, avoiding her clear eyes.

"But it seems... you’re dodging the gaze."

"No."

The more he avoided, the more Anna cared about the dream’s content, "You wouldn’t be guilty for hurting me in the dream, would you..."

Lu Li lowered his eyes, didn’t respond.

"It’s only a dream, and I’m not..." Comforting Lu Li, Anna unexpectedly felt shy, slightly tilting her head and softly saying, "Still by your side..."

"Speaking of which, when I was little, after a nightmare, I would tell my mother, and after speaking, I wouldn’t be scared... What did you dream about?"

Before Lu Li answered, the Detective Agency’s wooden door was knocked.

Shy Anna hid in the bedroom, then opened the room door.

Yet the visitor came to seek her—Anna’s friend when alive, Daisy.

Anna was delighted by the friend’s visit, but after brief hesitation decided to request Daisy to come another day. Lu Li had a nightmare, she felt it was her turn to care for him.

"No need, I won’t do that for now."

Lu Li said he needed time to think... and to delay time itself.

The Light Thief lasts a maximum of fourteen days. The previous four layers of dreams Lu Li experienced combined were less than six hours.

Uncertain whether a sixth dream layer exists, Lu Li needs to maintain the Emerald Dream’s expectation value. The closer to fourteen days, the greater the chance to avoid eternal night after returning.

Anna reluctantly agreed to Lu Li’s proposal, pulling Daisy to the bedroom to chat. Though she didn’t close the door, her gaze remained glued to Lu Li outside.

Daisy sensed her visit wasn’t at the right time and soon bid farewell, saying she’d visit another day.

Shortly after Daisy left, another visitor arrived at the Detective Agency.

Or it could be said... a member of the Detective Agency.

"Boss!"

Slipping into the Detective Agency, the small, dark Oliver grinned a flattering smile.