The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 310: Trading Anomalies

The carriage driver paid little attention to the Trader’s appearance, his clothes, or the enormous pack on his back. In his eyes, this was just another ordinary passenger accompanying Lu Li.

The three of them climbed into the carriage, and its wheels rumbled over the damp, cold cobblestones, heading toward their destination.

The Trader did not utter a single word without reason.

Lu Li, too, remained silent.

Anna might have spoken, but she was hesitant. The Trader’s presence in the carriage made it difficult for her to communicate with Lu Li.

In the silence, Lu Li pulled back the curtain and gazed out the window.

Streets and pedestrians flashed by. Through the veil of rain, the hazy forms of the bloody tentacles were visible high above, swaying gently like seaweed. Not even the downpour could hide them from Lu Li’s sight.

As they passed along the main street, Lu Li noticed a long line of horse-drawn carts laden with cargo.

Lu Li leaned out the window and asked the driver what was happening. After a moment's thought, the driver replied, "It seems they're moving to Agate Lake."

Lu Li asked thoughtfully, "Has this been happening a lot lately?""I suppose so... There were especially many of them yesterday. I don't know where all these rich folk are coming from," the driver said with a touch of envy. The price of a house near Agate Lake was unimaginable for a commoner like him.

People of high standing were leaving the coastal districts.

It was likely, Lu Li mused, that someone had learned of the terrible events in Zenster.

Perhaps they were members of the three major organizations, or people who had received information from them.

Letting the curtain fall, Lu Li leaned back against his seat and glanced at the Trader. A question he wanted to ask suddenly surfaced in his mind.

However, Lu Li held his tongue. Now was not the time for questions.

At least, not yet.

Forty minutes later, the carriage arrived in the old district of Warm Street.

The driver was reluctant to enter, fearing the ghosts that were rumored to wander this long street. But Lu Li assured him that he was an exorcist, which gave the driver the courage to drive on and stop in front of building number 19.

A day had passed, and evening had fallen once more.

With an oil lamp in hand, Lu Li entered the building. The tall, slender Trader followed him like an elongated, dark shadow.

After walking down the silent corridor, Lu Li pushed open an unlocked door, stepped into the living room, and opened the door leading to the basement. "Down here."

A faint chill emanated from the dark space beyond the door. A vague sense of attraction surfaced again, tempting Lu Li to enter and discover what lay within.

"You can collect them. I'll stay here."

Lu Li had no intention of going down there again.

Without a word, the Trader descended into the basement, his damp boots making a squelching sound.

His figure dissolved into the darkness, and only the echo of his footsteps reached Lu Li, who stood at the top with the lamp, a frown on his face.

The Trader, it seemed, was not afraid of the dark.

Who is he, really...

Anna, unnoticed, quietly materialized behind Lu Li and peered over his shoulder into the basement. "It’s still a bit of a shame..."

Lu Li turned his head slightly, giving her a questioning look.

"We never opened the diary or the stone box. What if there was information in there that could have helped us?"

"Many people who died because of anomalies thought the same thing right before the end."

Senior Investigator Thomas, who had died recently, was a case in point. Although his situation was slightly different. Thomas had died from overconfidence and carelessness, not curiosity.

The Exorcist's Survival Guide stated it plainly: stay away from old friends you haven't seen in years who suddenly appear and invite you on a treasure hunt; never open old notebooks or diaries; restrain your curiosity and treat strange and unusual phenomena with caution; if you hear incomprehensible calls or prayers, run, don't assume someone is calling you or that believers are praying nearby.

To be precise, the Exorcist's Survival Guide taught people how to avoid anomalies, not how to confront them.

This philosophy perfectly suited Lu Li in his current state.

The world was in a state of transition, and Lu Li had no desire to take any risks.

He had even temporarily abandoned his attempts to find a way back home.

The footsteps in the basement fell silent for a time, then started up again, this time ascending.

Anna, staring into the dark doorway, suddenly exclaimed, "He just walked right into the darkness!"

"Yes."

"How is that possible..."

"Don't forget, we think of the Trader as an 'it,' not a 'he' or a 'she'."

The edge of a worn garment appeared at the limit of the lamplight. Anna fell silent, and her form dissolved once more.

The Trader climbed the last step and returned to the upper floor.

Lu Li closed the basement door, which was radiating cold, and looked at the stone box and diary in the Trader's hands. "How much are they worth?"

"400 investigation points and 400 investigation points."

"They're the same price?"

The useless Dracula had sold for 400 investigation points, and the contents of the stone box and the diary were worth the same amount.

"Their power is equivalent to that of a ghost," the Trader replied.

Lu Li nodded and then asked abruptly, "If I want to know what's written in the diary and what's inside the stone box, what price will I have to pay?"

"750 investigation points."

Lu Li frowned. Information worth 7,500 shillings?

But before Lu Li could say anything, the Trader added, "You have 750 investigation points remaining."

So, the information only cost 50 investigation points.

500 shillings—not cheap, but not prohibitively expensive either. It was just the right price to make Lu Li hesitate.

"Tell me about these two items," Lu Li said after some thought.

Knowledge was another form of wealth, especially for an investigator.

"The diary was left by a follower of an evil god and contains remnants of its power. Reading the diary will cause the reader's body and mind to gradually transform into a follower of that same evil god. They will also hear the evil god's whispers until they fall into the abyss and become one of its devotees."

"The necklace inside the stone box contains the consciousness of a ghost. Whoever wears it will be influenced by the ghost, suffer from nightmares, their health will deteriorate, and eventually, the ghost will possess their body."

Because this was a "transaction," the Trader clearly explained their properties and abilities.

Both items were anomalies.

It was hard to imagine how they ended up in the basement of this house.

Fortunately, Lu Li hadn't opened them. He had enough problems as it was.

Lu Li's investigation points, which had been at zero, were now back up to 750, and the price of a Deep Sea Stone had risen to 10,500 shillings in a single day.

Even with the shillings he had on hand, Lu Li was still short a little over 1,000 shillings to buy a fourth stone.

Furthermore, he needed to hire workers to expand the cave in the cliff while the weather was still good.

Without mentioning the purchase of a fourth Deep Sea Stone, Lu Li watched the Trader depart. He remained in the living room and began to inspect the house.

He looked it over very carefully.

Anna, guessing his intentions, said, "You're not planning to sell this furniture too, are you?.."

It felt wrong to Anna, taking everything from someone else's house... even though the strange woman was probably already dead.

Lu Li saw nothing wrong with it.

"She said everything here is mine."