The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 275: A Second House, and Possibly a Third, a Fourth...

Unfortunately, less than twenty minutes passed between Petra’s call to the police and the arrival of the Night's Watch. In that time, Shelly arrived at Professor Petra's house with breakfast.

She noticed the clothes scattered by the door but thought nothing of it. She simply gathered the items and pushed open the ajar door.

She never came out again.

And then, Petra's clothes and the breakfast appeared on the threshold.

By the time the Night's Watch arrived, the house had nearly finished its "meal" and had discarded the belongings of a third person.

Yes, there had been three victims.

The third was an unknown thief. Perhaps he had followed Shelly or entered a few minutes after her. The Night's Watch was never able to identify him. The house had only spat out his old clothes and a set of lock-picking tools.

Petra rarely had visitors, and when she did, it was usually in the morning. Shelly and the unknown thief were victims of sheer bad luck.

Upon their arrival, the Night's Watch identified the nature of the "Man-Eating House": it was an Anomaly. Approaching it did not lower one's Mind Level.

This house had gained consciousness. It would beckon to people nearby, urging them to enter, but this subconscious call wasn't very strong, and only those with a heightened sensitivity could clearly perceive it.The Night's Watch typically destroys urban anomalies, but their attempt to demolish this house was met with resistance. All present felt a furious entity emerge in their minds, roaring with rage and prepared to destroy them along with itself. To prevent the situation from worsening, the demolition of the "Man-Eating House" was halted and the case was handed over to the Investigators for investigation.

The next day, the story of the "Man-Eating House" appeared in the Investigator Weekly. A local Investigator from Belfast took on the case and headed to Elm Street to investigate.

The Investigator brought with him living and inanimate objects, as well as dead creatures, and tossed them one by one through the door of the "Man-Eating House". The results were varied: living things were not ejected; inanimate objects were ejected; dead creatures were also ejected.

The "Man-Eating House" was a picky eater—it refused to eat carrion.

The Investigator continued to throw things the house couldn't eat, and the house continued to spit them out. This continued for about fifteen minutes, until the hidden consciousness of the evil spirit manifested once more and warned the Investigator.

Any action that harmed it or interfered with its feeding enraged it, including but not limited to the aforementioned actions, damaging its structure, and blocking its front door.

The Investigator began a new phase of the investigation, attempting to communicate with the house. As had happened with Lu Li, every object in the house had gained consciousness and responded to external touch, but not to words.

No matter what the Investigator said, the animated objects within the house remained silent.

After two days of making no significant progress, the Investigator abandoned the case.

To destroy the "Man-Eating House" meant risking its attack. And since the "Man-Eating House" did not pose a great danger, there was no need to take the risk. The case was temporarily shelved until today, when Lu Li encountered a new "man-eating house" and became involved in the investigation.

The report included several photographs of the house at 33 Elm Street. The most recent one was taken at the entrance. The door was open, and the entryway and corridor looked gloomy and foreboding in the camera's flash. The entire photograph was grainy and exuded an inexplicable eeriness, compelling one to look away.

After looking through the photographs of various parts of the house, Lu Li passed them to Plis.

"We don't need to see that," Plis said, smiling and waving his hand.

For the Night's Watch, the less they knew, the safer they were.

"It doesn't lower your Mind Level," Lu Li said, pointing to a note on the first page. "You'd be better off familiarizing yourselves with this. Safe information can sometimes help you avoid danger."

However dangerous knowledge may be, ignorance can never be a virtue.

Plis hesitated for a moment but still took the papers Lu Li offered him.

He wasn't an inflexible man. However, when Plis read the report and passed it to his subordinates, only two of the seven chose to read it, including the woman with the high ponytail named Metty.

Not everyone was willing to come face-to-face with such an indescribable horror.

Sometimes the danger lay not in the knowledge itself, but in the mindset it fostered.

Averting his gaze from Metty, who was studying the documents, Plis asked, "What are you going to do? Study them like the last investigator did?"

"Instead, I want to know how many more there are," Lu Li replied.

Plis frowned. Lu Li's words gave him a bad feeling, though he couldn't pinpoint why. "What do you mean, 'how many more there are'?"

"At first, we thought the problem was only with the house at 33 Elm Street. But today, we discovered an anomaly at 63 Elm Street, and it's no different from number 33."

Lu Li calmly laid out a possibility that sent a chill down everyone's spine.

"You think there could be a third, a fourth, and even more?"

Plis's face turned grim. The possibility Lu Li raised made him shudder. If there were only one such entity, no one would give it a second thought. But with two, one had to consider if there were more.

Plis stood up and ordered his people to put on their cloaks and inspect every house on Elm Street.

"There's no need to go to such trouble," Lu Li stopped them and turned to his right. "Anna, check the vicinity of Elm Street and see if there are any other 'Man-Eating Houses'."

Anna liked to stay on Lu Li's right.

"Leave it to me!"

A clear voice rang out from the empty air, and then silence fell once more.

Lu Li turned to the surprised members of the Night's Watch. "My assistant, a young ghost lady."

The team members' expressions were varied. Plis, with a complicated look on his face, muttered, "A ghost..."

"Is something wrong?"

Lu Li naturally noticed their strange behavior.

Plis smiled and quietly warned Lu Li, "If you don't want trouble, it's best not to reveal your assistant to exorcists and the Night's Watch."

Gades had told him the same thing, but due to the need to protect Anna and his tendency to work alone, few knew of her existence. Lu Li mused, "Because of a misunderstanding regarding ghosts?"

"Misunderstanding? You could call it that... You see, we usually have to deal with ghosts that have attacked people. They are cruel and bloodthirsty, with not an ounce of humanity remaining. If a ghost hadn't helped us when we were in danger once, we probably would have attacked the moment we sensed her presence."

Ghosts were stealthy, and if not eliminated immediately, they posed a great danger. For their own safety, exorcists usually had to quickly decide whether to fight or flee.

"Thank you for the warning," Lu Li nodded in gratitude.