The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 213: The Morgue

An endless darkness pressed in from every direction. The cramped, grim, enclosed space threatened to drive him mad.

Lu Li pushed himself up and settled onto his back.

The cold walls pressed tightly against him. It wasn't his imagination; gravity had truly shifted.

If this was a coffin, there had to be a way out...

Lu Li braced his hands against the lid and slid it aside.

To his surprise, the lid gave way. Lu Li left only a small gap, just enough to observe what was happening outside and to keep the "kitchen's" gravity from dragging him back in.

The conveyor belt shuddered back to life, occasionally halting or even reversing. The "cooks" had returned to the furnace. An endless stream of fish carcasses passed under their cleavers before being cast into the flames.

Lu Li was lying in the coffin, not standing upright. Everything happening in the "kitchen" outside wasn't unfolding beside him, but directly overhead.

An indescribable feeling of disorientation washed over Lu Li. The spatial distortion brought on a wave of nausea and dizziness.

After observing for a moment, Lu Li slid the lid shut and began searching for another way out of the coffin.If there was no other exit, the coffin's presence here made no sense.

First, Lu Li pressed on the bottom. It didn't budge. The sound of his knuckles rapping against the surface was dull—there was no empty space beneath it.

Next, he tried the side walls. Neither pushing nor sliding them had any effect. But when Lu Li knocked on the right wall, a faint sound came back to him a few seconds later.

Someone had knocked in response.

A dead silence fell inside the coffin. Lu Li held his breath, listening intently, but no further sounds followed.

Lu Li pressed his ear against the wall, trying to hear anything from the other side.

THUMP!

A sudden, powerful vibration shot through the wall, stunning him for a moment.

Lu Li winced and pulled away. Something flickered in his dark eyes.

He exhaled, deciding to ignore what was happening beyond the wall for the time being. Raising his hands, he pressed against the lid above his head.

Creak...

The lid ground open with a horrific screech.

Another exit had appeared in the coffin.

Lu Li didn't climb out immediately. He lowered his hands, shifted closer to the opening, and peered outside.

Through the gap, he could see rusty, half-rotted morgue lockers, coated in the same black substance as everything else.

Who would keep morgue lockers on a ship?

Lu Li pondered the question but quickly dismissed the thought.

The anomalous gravity in the coffin, the black substance with its varying shades, the "kitchen" overhead—logic had no place on this ship.

Did that mean he was currently lying in one of those lockers?

Slowly pushing the door, Lu Li struggled to budge it—the metal had been fused solid by sprawling layers of rust.

Silence. In the room filled with rusty lockers, a door slowly opened, and a head emerged from within.

There were no shadows in the room. The counter on his wrist maintained its steady ticking.

Lu Li climbed out of the cramped locker and dropped to the cold floor.

Getting to his feet, he glanced down at his hands. Several scratches were oozing blood from his wrist. The threads of red stood out against the black substance, contrasting with its dull, sinister, dark-red hue.

Lu Li couldn't tell if he'd been cut earlier or just now, forcing open the rusty locker door. He hoped it was the former.

There was no medicine for tetanus here, and while the black substance was frightening, its properties were unknown. At worst, the outcome would be just as fatal.

Lu Li wasn't afraid of death, but he didn't want a pointless one.

He pictured two young investigators standing by his grave in the future, saying: "He was a mysterious eccentric, the master of Belfast, the founder of the investigator system, one of the four anomaly kings, the lord of storms in Moon Bay. Evil spirits and gods trembled before his might."

"So how did he die?"

"Tetanus."

Lu Li tore a strip of cloth from his shirt and wrapped it around his wrist.

After a look around, he headed for the morgue's exit.

Creak...

A familiar, grating sound suddenly came from nearby.

The door of the locker next to the one Lu Li had climbed out of—the one on the right—was slowly creaking open.

SLAM!

Lu Li slammed the door shut and threw the bolt.

Thump, thump, thump, thump!

Muffled thuds came from inside the locker. Lu Li kept his eyes fixed on the door as he backed away toward the exit.

It was an ordinary, carved wooden door. Beyond it lay another part of the ship.

But the door was locked.

A padlock hung on the bolt. To get out, Lu Li needed to open it.

A door locked from the inside.

Lu Li turned and, to the sound of the ceaseless pounding from the locker, surveyed the morgue.

Which meant the key had to be in one of these lockers.

Ignoring the noise, Lu Li approached the row of lockers by the door. Six of the nine were locked from the outside.

Deciding to leave the locked ones for the moment, Lu Li opened the nearest unlocked locker. A torrent of the black substance immediately gushed out.

Lu Li recoiled, waiting for the black fluid to drain completely, revealing the emptiness within.

Other than the puddle of black substance on the floor, there was nothing inside.

After a moment's hesitation, Lu Li skipped the next locker. He circled the morgue, inspecting the rows of cabinets, and found a half-rotten wooden crate in a corner.

But it was impossible to open it with his bare hands. Lu Li needed a tool.

He would have to keep opening the lockers.

Walking past the now-quiet locker, Lu Li opened the second one in the row near the door.

No black fluid, no anomalies. In the center of the empty locker lay a set of dentures.

In a way, that could also be considered an anomaly.

Lu Li opened the third locker in the row. It was empty.

It seemed there was nothing useful in the unlocked lockers.

Lu Li turned his attention to the locked lockers. He turned the handle of one and pulled it open.

Inside lay the charred corpse of an unknown creature.

He closed and latched the locker before opening a second locked one. Inside were more remains—just two severed arms with ragged edges, neatly folded.

The third locked locker, however, held a surprise for Lu Li.

Inside lay a crowbar. It, too, was rusty and coated in the black substance, but it felt no less sturdy. With this, he could easily pry open the wooden crate.

A locked-room mystery?

Lu Li thought, taking the crowbar and turning to the carved door.

He wedged the crowbar under the bolt and, gripping the handle, yanked hard.

The bolt broke.