The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 118: The Foolish and the Wise

Whitley slowly curled in on herself, her arms rising feebly to wrap around her body. Her face twisted into a grimace as she moaned in agony, "Ugh... It hurts... My whole body hurts..."

Lu Li knelt, bringing himself almost level with her. "You've been decaying for days; your nerves shouldn't be able to feel anything. Your pain is just an illusion. Let it go."

The fact was incredibly cruel, but it worked. Whitley stopped groaning, her contorted body relaxed once more, and her arms fell to her sides.

"May I ask you a few questions?"

Lu Li looked into her clouded eyes.

"What... do you want to know?"

Her eyes slowly turned, finally settling on Lu Li. Her hand suddenly shot up, reaching for his face.

An invisible wall stopped her, forcing her hand back down. Anna floated nearby, her cheeks puffed out in annoyance.

"I have a general idea of what happened to you. I need to know the cause."

Ignoring their little spat, Lu Li said gravely, "What happened to you?"Whitley was silent, and time seemed to stretch on.

Just as Soren, watching from the corner, began to think she had died, Whitley finally spoke in a slow, halting voice:

"A madman..."

Whitley's account was disjointed and fragmented, as if someone had taken the ravings of a lunatic, scrambled them, and pieced them back together. It was understandable; one couldn't expect a logical narrative from a person whose mind and body were on the verge of collapse.

Soren was a lawyer; analyzing key information from a person's speech was his strength. But this time, he couldn't make any sense of Whitley's words at all.

Perhaps only Lu Li understood what she was saying, what she was trying to express.

As Lu Li had suspected, Whitley was another victim of Richard's experiments, just like Claire. The attack had happened five days ago, which matched the degree of her decomposition. The cool, rainy season had extended Whitley's preservation by a few days. If the weather had been clear and sunny, her body might have started to rot and teem with maggots after only three days.

In her story, Whitley mentioned that Richard had grabbed her on her way home from work, taken her to some dark and damp room, performed an operation, and implanted a bloody tentacle into her body. She described it as a "cold, writhing, disgusting thing, like a worm," and Lu Li concluded she was referring to the bloody tentacle.

Whitley thought she had encountered the Steam Man and expected her life to end on a cold operating table. But to her surprise, the madman let her go—though "let go" wasn't quite the right term, as she was still locked in the room. The madman had simply left, pulling the door closed behind him without even locking it.

Whitley freed herself from her restraints and escaped. Out of fear, she didn't report it to the police. Instead, after a day of rest at home, she went back to work the next day.

She must have noticed her body starting to decay, but unfortunately, Richard's experiment this time included something new—an element that caused a slowing of Whitley's cognitive functions. Her mind grew progressively dimmer, more sluggish, until it reached the state Lu Li now witnessed.

Unexpectedly, it turned out that Whitley didn't have the ability to take over other people's bodies. Perhaps she had the potential but didn't know how to use it.

It was possible the same was true for the other victims connected to the remaining tentacles. This brought Lu Li a small measure of relief. It meant the number of victims wouldn't be as high as he had feared.

"What is a Steam Man?" Lu Li asked, turning his head.

Soren thought the question was for him and opened his mouth to reply, but a clear voice chirped from the air:

"He's a character from horror stories and comic books, based on urban legends. Some conservative citizens and religious folks believe that science and all this metal machinery are destroying the world and angering the gods, which is where stories like that come from."

Anna had always preferred these thrilling tales to lessons on aristocratic etiquette, dull painting, and art.

"The Steam Man is a mad scientist who captures innocent people and turns them into cyborgs, fusing them with industrial machinery."

"Later," Lu Li cut Anna's story short, because Whitley was dying.

Whitley's chest began to heave, though she had no need to breathe, having been dead for days. A rattling sound came from her throat, like an animal lapping up water. Suddenly, as if struck by an electric shock, she seized Lu Li's wrist, gasping for air. Her swollen head lifted, her murky eyes seeming to find focus as they stared intently at Lu Li. "Find... him..."

"I will," Lu Li replied.

With that promise, the last of Whitley's strength left her. Her clouded eyes went dull, her grip slackened, and her hand slid from his wrist.

Her head slumped forward, and the final spark of life was extinguished.

The living and the ghost in the room let out a simultaneous sigh of relief.

"Anna, set up a solidifying barrier," Lu Li said, standing and taking a step back.

"What's a solidifying barrier...?"

Placing a hand on his hip, Lu Li looked at Anna, who was hovering with her head tilted. "I'm about to destroy Whitley's head. To prevent brains, blood, and hair from flying everywhere, you need to use your power to contain it."

"Alright, I get it now. Though, really... gross..." Anna regretted asking Lu Li, as the image now made her feel sick.

She didn't want to ask why he needed to smash Whitley's head and simply used her remaining energy to erect the so-called "solidifying barrier" around Whitley's body.

Lu Li drew his pistol and pulled the trigger.

The deafening roar of the gunshot made the windows rattle and drew shouts from outside. Whitley's head exploded, but the expected bloody mess never came. Just as with Hall, her shattered body began to slowly dissolve into the air.

It was strange. Though infected by the same creature, Claire had left a corpse behind after death, while Hall and Whitley had vanished as if they had never existed.

At least they wouldn't have to worry about how to dispose of the body.

"We thought Whitley was just sick..." Soren exhaled, unsure what expression to wear as he looked at Lu Li. "Um... Mr. Lu Li, is it? Do you have a moment? Perhaps we could talk..."

"I don't have time."

"...Then how can I contact you?"

"My business card is with the secretary. You can ask her for it later."

"Ah, very well."

Soren's abrupt change in demeanor was almost comical. Deciding that Lu Li was in no mood for conversation, he wisely fell silent and escorted him out of Ruth's Bank.

"It seems most people still don't believe ghosts exist in this world," Anna remarked once they were back in the carriage, her spiritual form materializing as she muttered, "even though the Night Calamity is upon us... How foolish they are."

Lu Li had a different view.

"The more a person knows, the more questions they have, and that is the driving force of our progress. Rather than believe in ethereal rumors, these people prefer to trust their own eyes and judgment."

"The truly foolish are those who blindly believe everything they're told."