The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 479: The Port Blockade

Shots from spirit pistols echoed, drifting through the fog.

They were close.

The sound of the surf carried on the sea breeze, which failed to disperse the fog. The streets were now empty of townspeople rushing for shelter.

Anna materialized beside Lu Li.

The relentless fog swallowed the faint light of the oil lamp once more. In the impenetrable gloom beyond its illuminated circle, something seemed to be stirring.

A few dozen seconds later, hurried footsteps and voices echoed ahead. Several figures in black robes and sinister bird-beak masks appeared within sight, less than ten meters away.

They saw Lu Li and stopped.

Or rather, they had sensed Anna's presence beside him and hurried over.

"Hello... Senior Investigator," one of the exorcists in a bird-beak mask said, breathing a sigh of relief upon noticing the three-eyed crow badge Lu Li held up. They were holding spirit pistols. The voice, muffled by the mask, was difficult to identify as male or female. "We're glad you've come to help at the port. Please, follow us."

Not all of them were exorcists. Among them were members of the Alliance, police officers, and exorcists who were forbidden from direct contact with the Gnashers."Could you tell me about the situation at the port?" Lu Li asked, putting away his badge and following them.

"Not good," came the muffled voice from under the mask. "This damned anomalous haze is making it impossible to see or act. We've only managed to push them back to the beach. If any of them jump into the water, we won't be able to track them."

"Fortunately, these Gnashers don't possess advanced intelligence. They act on instinct, attacking the living and spreading the infection. It's unlikely they'd jump into the water on their own, unless by accident. But if that happens... there's nothing we can do. We're already doing everything we can."

"A while ago, these monsters nearly broke through... They reached the streets and even forced their way into houses, killing several residents. Luckily, the police were able to stop them with firearms, preventing the infection from spreading."

The Gnashers were not particularly strong. Their physical resilience was comparable to a human's. Even ordinary bullets or bladed weapons could kill them. It was just that bullets were less effective, and melee weapons carried the risk of infection.

The real dangers were the anomalous fog that hindered the exorcists' actions, the risk of infection upon contact, and the sheer number of infected who had turned into Gnashers.

There were at least three to four thousand people at the port. Excluding those who had died in the fog and the few who had managed to hide, there were still about a thousand Gnashers.

The exorcists capable of fighting were less than a tenth of their number.

The sporadic gunfire drifting from the fog spoke for itself.

The epidemic had broken out at the worst possible time and in the worst possible place. It was like the last oil lamp sputtering out in the cold darkness. All one could do was pray it wouldn't be extinguished while stripping off their own warm clothes to feed the flames.

As they neared the wooden bridge leading to the port, the crowd and the noise grew. Torches and bonfires burned everywhere, pushing back the fog.

Lu Li saw survivors, but few were unharmed. Most had amputated limbs and were being carried on stretchers by people in bird-beak masks toward a quarantine zone.

Squads of soldiers with rifles were lined up in front of shuttered shops. Fear, uncertainty, tension, and determination were etched on their young faces.

Nearby, an officer with a ruby-encrusted sword on his chest was addressing his subordinates loudly, "If these monsters dare to set foot in Belfast, the United Aristocratic Guard will drive them out and destroy them, no matter the cost!"

Because of Anna, Lu Li drew hostile sidelong glances, but no one dared approach.

After walking a little further, the person in the bird-beak mask stopped and pointed to a makeshift tent. "We're here. You can get your gear, then head to the port. If that's what you came for, of course."

"Thank you," Lu Li nodded.

"Don't mention it. For all our sakes," the masked person replied, placing a hand over their chest before turning back with their comrades.

The port was now very close.

Twenty to thirty meters away, at the edge of the torchlight, stood rows of wooden barricades. Through the gaps, Lu Li could see the edge of the bridge railing leading to Port Roadster.

The gunfire from the port grew louder, the muzzle flashes in the fog resembling lightning in a storm cloud.

But the fog concealed everything happening at the port. You wouldn't know anything until you went inside.

Lu Li approached the tent and explained his purpose. A woman from the Exorcist United Organization took a bird-beak mask and a sealed robe from an assistant and handed them to Lu Li.

"The mask contains aromatic herbs to protect you from airborne infection. The robe will prevent any fluids from the Gnashers from getting on you."

"I don't need it," Lu Li replied calmly.

The woman glanced at Anna, smiled with understanding, and set aside the mask and robe. She then took out a spirit pistol holster and a small box of ammunition. "Here is your spirit pistol and twenty silver bullets. Due to the danger of the spirit pistol, we don't recommend using it for too long. If you feel your condition worsening, retreat immediately."

Lu Li accepted the spirit pistol, though he already had four concealed under his coat.

"What happens if you get infected by a Gnasher?" Lu Li asked, unbuttoning his coat to stow the fifth pistol.

Slightly surprised by the number of spirit pistols, the woman answered, "They penetrate the skin at the point of contact and spread through the bloodstream. If the infected body part is amputated before the infection spreads further, you can survive."

She didn't say what would happen if you failed to do so, but Lu Li could guess.

Just as Lu Li finished preparing his spirit pistol and was about to head toward the barricades, he heard the woman call out to him.

"I know this is hardly appropriate, but..." the woman hesitated, then asked quietly, "...could you tell me what kind of perfume you're wearing?"

Her determined expression showed just how inappropriate she felt asking such a question in this situation.

Fearing Lu Li might misunderstand, the woman quickly explained, "When you came near, we felt... a sense of peace... as if we were standing in the shade of a sprawling tree."

She couldn't remember the last time she had felt this inexplicable 'freshness'. It seemed like an eternity ago, back when the world wasn't yet shrouded in perpetual autumn.

The assistant standing beside her nodded in confirmation.

Lu Li understood what they were talking about. It was the life force radiating from The Atonement.

"It's not..." Lu Li began to speak, but at that moment, an inhuman, distorted, hoarse cry rang out, and something lunged at him.