The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 542: Sprouts

"A slight improvement," Lu Li remarked to Anna.

Anna frowned, her gaze sweeping over the anomaly’s corpse. A monster killing people to gain humanity...

"I know what you're thinking. No," Lu Li said firmly, meeting Anna's gaze.

If Anna were to start killing people like an anomaly, her own humanity would quickly vanish, giving way to something alien.

Anna had never seen Lu Li so serious, and she gave a soft nod of assent.

"And the problem might not be just that," Lu Li added, his voice calm again. "I only got significant surges of humanity when I personally used The Atonement. It seems the amount I receive depends on whether I'm the one holding the gun."

"But the price is too high," Anna murmured.

Trading his nearly irrecoverable Mind Level for a fleeting boost in humanity was a price no one could afford to pay.

"We'll leave it for now," Lu Li decided, his mind turning to other ways of obtaining humanity.

He had plenty of time now to think it all through.Anna picked up the "Investigator Weekly" from the blanket and began to read. As she reached the final page, she heard Lu Li's voice. "I'm going to attend the exorcists' gathering."

"Now?" Anna lowered the paper, a worried expression crossing her beautiful face.

"A single newspaper won't give a full picture of what's happening."

"We could buy information from the Trader," Anna suggested.

"That's the backup plan."

For a long time, Lu Li's only source of investigation points was his salary as a Senior Investigator—140 points a week.

Twelve thousand investigation points sounded like a lot, but the prices for everything the Trader sold—be it items or information—were constantly rising, just as they had for the Deep Sea Stone.

Expanding the shelter or installing new doors seemed hopeless.

The days passed in a nearly monotonous rhythm.

Every afternoon, Anna would take The Atonement and set out to hunt. In those hours, Lu Li's humanity would surge at least once, occasionally three or four times, even though Anna usually only brought back a single anomaly's corpse, if she returned with any prize at all.

Not all anomalies possessed a physical form, and even those that did rarely conformed to human standards of beauty. More often, they looked like nightmares made manifest, capable of inspiring profound fear or revulsion.

Jimmy and Remi, however, were in dire need of restoring their own humanity and cared little for the monsters' hideous or frightening forms.

Whenever it was time to eat, Jimmy, his sister, and the "children" would descend from the summit into the Elm Forest, feeding far from Lu Li's sight. When he returned, leaning on Remi for support, Jimmy would be pale, his eyes bloodshot, looking as though he were just recovering from a severe illness.

It was the same every time.

Although the process of feeding was clearly unpleasant, Jimmy's condition improved markedly. His body grew stronger, no longer as emaciated as Lu Li, who spent all his days in a deck chair wrapped in a blanket, looking like an old man.

The "children," however, showed almost no outward change, perhaps because of their old burns. One day, Remi noticed that Vir's "skin" had cracked, revealing that the black crust covering him wasn't skin at all, but a charred layer left by the fire.

Beneath the cracked surface, new skin was already beginning to show.

Anna was changing, too. A certain coldness began to creep into her demeanor, as if she were wearing a mask of indifference. Her aura grew to resemble that of a dangerous predator stalking human prey. Of course, it wasn't humans she was hunting, but anomalies.

Only with Lu Li did her cold mask give way to tenderness.

By contrast, Lu Li's recovery was painfully slow. On the fourth day, he moved more slowly than an old man leaning on a cane.

On their fifth day in the shelter, as Anna prepared to leave, she gathered all the cleaned bones from their meals. Jimmy had left behind a considerable number of anomaly skeletons over the past few days. Anna had recently spotted suspicious tracks near Elm Street; sometimes, monsters even wandered to the very edge of the Elm Forest.

There were both monster tracks and human footprints...

But the dark, oppressive atmosphere of the Elm Forest kept them from venturing any deeper.

Anna decided to scatter the bones along the edge of the forest. It should deter the anomalies—especially whoever had left the human tracks.

Whether they were cultists or spirits of defilement.

On the sixth day, Anna reported that she'd encountered a survivor, but he was being led away by cultists in black cloaks.

Anna had watched them from cover and caught a glimpse of moist, scaly skin flashing from beneath the hem of one cloak.

She remained hidden until the cult had passed.

The captive's fate was of no concern to her; only Lu Li mattered.

Especially when it came to cultists showing clear intelligence and organization.

Such a person is doomed—they will either be sacrificed to an evil god or made one of them.

The humanity gained from Anna's hunting proved to be meager. In six days, Lu Li had recovered less than one percent.

With each passing day, the news on the exorcist radio grew more dire. Nearly the entire Allen Peninsula had fallen. Only Himmfast still held on, sheltering the vast majority of the peninsula's survivors.

On the Main Continent, all the villages and small towns had gone silent. Contact was maintained only with the major cities and capitals, where countless refugees were now massed.

Lu Li correlated the radio reports with a map, making new marks. Cities vanished one by one, like fading stars, until only a single point of light remained on the Allen Peninsula: Himmfast.

The morning of the seventh day arrived.

The mysterious fog that had enveloped the continent began to recede. Mist swirled over the sea, and the black, hill-like bodies of monsters sank beneath the waves.

Lu Li opened his eyes and slowly pushed himself up in bed.

The blanket slid from his shoulders. Anna, sitting beside him with the black cat in her lap, gently draped his cloak over him.

Then, as always, she carefully moved Lu Li, deck chair and all, to the mouth of the cave—ignoring the fact that he could have walked on his own, however slowly.

But this morning was different from the others: next to the deck chair, in the loose soil, two small sprouts had pushed through.

Jimmy and Remi immediately gathered around, marveling at the sudden miracle.

"Is this connected to humanity?" Remi ventured. She could think of no other explanation.

"We'll check tomorrow," Remi declared. She carefully dug up one of the sprouts and replanted it at the other end of the cave, now waiting for the next day with eager anticipation.

The appearance of the miraculous sprouts was soon followed by another surprise.

A black crow landed on the armrest of the deck chair.

Anna took the letter from its leg. The bird didn't fly away, but tilted its head, its eyes reflecting Lu Li, Anna, and the black cat.

Anna brought the crow a treat while Lu Li unfolded the letter.

At the end of the letter was a signature: Tesla.