novelraw Chapter 272: Rain of Anomalies
Chapter 272: Rain of Anomalies
Lu Li sat at his desk, his brow furrowed.
Several minutes had passed since the Trader departed, and Lu Li’s expression remained fixed.
“Dear...” Anna murmured, equally lost in thought.
Dracula's portrait was not a ghost, but an Anomaly—one of the four main types.
Ghosts held little value, and while anomalies were worth slightly more, one that could communicate...
The Trader had offered 400 contribution points for the painting. Combined with the 5,500 shillings in his account, Lu Li had enough to buy another Deep Sea Stone.
The second Deep Sea Stone was due to be delivered soon.
Lu Li was only two stones away from reaching his minimum goal.
“So we can raise the funds we need by selling anomalies...” Anna continued to murmur, her eyes beginning to gleam. “This rain of anomalies... it’s creating more of them, isn’t it?”
“Yes.”Lu Li raised his gaze, having already guessed what Anna was thinking.
It was a perfectly feasible plan, if they could manage to catch the anomalies.
The paperboy was due later. If no one was home, he would just slide the newspaper under the door. As for the Black Crow messenger, it would automatically track an Investigator's location.
That meant they were free to go out.
Lu Li pulled on a coat and rubber boots, then draped a black cloak over his shoulders. With an oil lamp in hand, he left the detective agency, Anna's concealed form accompanying him.
The door closed, and the agency was quiet once more.
The cold rain was pouring down, but it couldn't drown out the morning bustle of Belfast. The streets were only slightly less crowded than usual. People hurried about their business, hiding under umbrellas or in cloaks.
“Are we just going to wander the streets and try our luck?” Anna's voice sounded from beside Lu Li.
The raindrops falling on his face felt like ice. Lu Li pulled his hood lower and said to Anna, who was hidden in the In-Between, “We’re going to Elm Street.”
The journey from the waterfront district to Elm Street would take about two hours on foot.
It was quite a distance, but they needed to go there to find a shelter anyway, so it was a chance to handle both matters at once. If the Elm Grove proved impassable, they could always turn back.
Lu Li was trying to avoid any drop in his Mind Level, so Anna would be taking the lead on this operation. She would do the searching, and she would be the one to deal with any anomalies.
A few minutes later, they had left the waterfront district, but Anna still hadn't sensed any troubling signs.
It was worth noting that Lu Li had already spotted several figures moving through the downpour: members of the Night’s Watch, Investigators, and other exorcists. The Night’s Watch typically moved in steam-powered vehicles, clad in black uniforms. The Investigators wore black cloaks, radiating an air of mystery. Black crows perched on the shoulders of some, making them instantly recognizable.
Exorcists who noticed Lu Li often sensed Anna's presence and would glance at the empty space beside him. Then their eyes would fall to the three-eyed black crow emblem on Lu Li's chest. They would pause for a moment, their expressions a mix of emotions, before they averted their gaze.
This rain of anomalies had enveloped the entire eastern Allen Peninsula, and Lu Li was far from the only one taking action.
After crossing a second street, Lu Li hailed a hired carriage and gave the driver Elm Street as his destination.
Walking was too slow, and besides, there were too many exorcists patrolling nearby. To find the anomalies born from the rain, Lu Li needed to head toward the outskirts of the city.
But even after half an hour, when the carriage reached Elm Street, Anna hadn't sensed a single anomaly, not even a ghost.
The problem wasn't with Anna. Lu Li, briefly touching his Spirit Gun, also felt an unsettling emptiness around them. Aside from the sinister projections wandering the In-Between, he detected nothing.
It felt as if this rain was a cleansing one, not a harbinger of disaster.
It was strange.
The hired carriage slowly pulled away, disappearing into the curtain of rain a few dozen meters down the road. Lu Li’s gaze fell to a ditch at the roadside. Rainwater was collecting in it, churning as it flowed downhill. The cobblestones glistened with moisture.
Elm Street, situated on the edge of the city, was quiet. There were almost no passersby, and the poor visibility prevented Lu Li from seeing the Elm Grove at the end of the street.
“Should we keep going?” Anna asked softly.
“Yes. Stay alert,” Lu Li replied, heading toward the far end of the street.
Nearing the middle of Elm Street, Lu Li saw a house cordoned off with police tape.
The “Man-Eating House.”
This anomaly from Elm Street had been mentioned in Monday’s Investigator Weekly.
“There’s something in that house that gives me a bad feeling...” Anna whispered.
“Can you handle it?”
“I don’t know... It’s not a ghost, so I can’t gauge its strength.”
“Then we won’t risk it.”
Investigators were driven by a thirst for knowledge and discovery, and Lu Li was no exception. But he also knew when to avoid danger—like now, with this house of unknown power.
Lu Li and Anna gave the “Man-Eating House” a wide berth and were about to move on when Lu Li suddenly stopped.
“What is it?”
Lu Li looked at the house’s rain-blurred silhouette. “I hear a call.”
Lu Li possessed a keen sensitivity to the paranormal, a direct consequence of his diminished Mind Level. The lower it fell, the more he could perceive.
“What is it saying?”
“It’s calling me to enter. Let’s go.”
Lu Li turned, ignoring the sinister house's call, and his figure gradually dissolved into the rain.
Once they had moved some distance away, the call vanished.
A few minutes later, Lu Li was standing at the end of the street. Ahead lay a muddy dirt road leading into the forest, which the downpour had turned into an impassable mire.
“There’s really no way through...” Anna said, disappointed.
After a brief pause, Lu Li turned back and headed for the nearest coffee shop.
Creak...
The wooden door opened, letting in a gust of wind and rain that subsided a few seconds later when the door closed. The coffee shop fell quiet once more.
A strange, barely perceptible ripple passed through the coffee shop as Lu Li crossed the threshold, going unnoticed.
Thanks to the large, clear windows, the coffee shop was bright enough that there was no need to light an oil lamp in this weather.
Pausing by the entrance, Lu Li took off his drenched cloak and hung it on a coat rack.
“So cold...” came a faint voice.
Lu Li paid it no mind; such auditory hallucinations were quite common for him. But as he walked to the counter, another quiet voice spoke up: “His boots got me dirty.”
Lu Li stopped and looked around. Besides the owner behind the counter, the coffee shop was empty.
“Did you hear that?” Lu Li asked quietly.
“Hear what?”
Lu Li didn’t answer and took a seat at the counter.
“Ugh... he’s so heavy,” came a strange complaint from the stool beneath him.
“Hello there, new face. What can I get for you?” the middle-aged owner asked cheerfully.
Lu Li didn’t respond to the greeting just yet. He said to Anna, “Listen.”
He ran a fingernail across the surface of the counter.
“My face, aaaaaah!” a piercing scream erupted from the countertop.