The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 574: Mirror City

Empty carriages stood scattered haphazardly across the road.

There were no sounds, no people, no lights. The horses had vanished too, as if the carriages had been abandoned long ago.

Lamp in hand, Lu Li walked past extinguished campfires, weaving his way between the dark, scattered carriages. From the deep shadows between them, hostile eyes seemed to watch his every move.

He drew back the curtain on one of the carriages—the luggage was still inside.

There were no tracks on the ground. Perhaps they had been erased by the strong wind, or perhaps...

Lu Li tore his gaze away and looked ahead. Ellen Royal City, shrouded in a strange fog, was only a few hundred meters down the road.

Perhaps the disappearance of the people was connected to their proximity to the city. The other carriages Lu Li had passed, those further away, had still been shrouded in the same strange fog.

Lu Li pulled a watch from his pocket and flipped open the cover. The hands hadn't frozen, nor had they reversed their direction. Time was flowing normally, which meant there were no anomalies nearby.

The watch had been given to him by an exorcist from the group camped about a mile away. Upon learning that Lu Li intended to scout the city, the exorcist had lent him the device, which was capable of detecting anomalies.

It seemed this particular exorcist used time itself to detect anomalies—or more accurately, he searched for traces of their influence on the flow of time.Click.

Snapping the watch closed, Lu Li bypassed a carriage blocking the road and, lamp in hand, headed toward the city—a place shrouded in a darkness deeper than night itself.

Lu Li drew closer and closer, until at last he stood before the city gates of Ellen.

The gates were thrown wide open, as if nothing was amiss. A squad of guards stood watch.

Suddenly, Lu Li sensed something and looked up. A perfect mirror image of the city hung suspended in the sky, a hundred meters above the ground. A thick fog swirled between the two cities, obscuring the truth of the situation.

In the inverted city high above, Lu Li could see crowds of what looked like rotting sludge, their surfaces dotted with eyes, gathered at the gates. One of these slick masses detached itself from the others and began to crawl forward.

Lu Li lowered his gaze back to the motionless guards on the ground. One of them started toward him, his armor clanking with each step.

Lu Li could not see his own reflection in the guard's polished armor.

An anomaly, pretending to be human... But why?

Resting a hand on the butt of his pistol, Lu Li waited for the guard to approach. The face was young, and if not for its bizarre expression and the way its owner kept sniffing the air, it might have passed for an ordinary human.

"Human... your identity will be concealed... The Master grants a new one..." the guard muttered in a strange, slurred voice. "Do not arouse suspicion... The guests of Paradise have the right to eat you..."

"What is Paradise?"

Lu Li always appreciated it when anomalies could speak. It meant he could communicate with them, ask questions.

But the rotting sludge masquerading as a man had no interest in conversation. Lu Li suddenly felt a fleeting gaze wash over him. Then, the "guard" spoke again. "Shutes University... When you arrive, the Master will tell you what to do next..."

Lu Li said nothing, his eyes drifting back up to the inverted city in the sky, searching for any new details.

"You can see the Master's Paradise...?"

To Lu Li's surprise, the "guard," which had seemed so unwilling to communicate, suddenly asked a question.

Lu Li lowered his gaze and gave a slight nod.

The "guard's" demeanor toward Lu Li seemed to shift, though whether for better or worse was impossible to say. It offered a warning: "Throw away the lamp... It will expose you..."

After a moment's thought, Lu Li set the Beacon on the ground.

While the "guard" still seemed inclined to talk, Lu Li asked, "Did a female Vengeful Spirit enter the city about an hour ago?"

"The Master knows all... and will arrange everything..."

After whispering these ambiguous words, the "guard" turned and rejoined its companions.

Lu Li knew the location of Shutes University, but he couldn't figure out how that connected to the phrase, "The Master knows all."

Even without the lamp, Lu Li could see perfectly in the gloom. The streetlights cast a dim, cold glow, and the entire city was veiled in a gray haze, as if it were located deep underground. Even the darkest alleys were as clear as day—the endless night held no power here.

Lu Li stepped onto the street, lost in thought.

Usually, this meant only one thing: the entity controlling this place was far more powerful than whatever caused the endless night. Perhaps it was an Evil God, or, as an Evil God had once said, one of those great beings akin to stars in the sky...

Occasional passersby strolled down the street, acting as if nothing was out of the ordinary. Only by looking up at the inverted city could one see their true forms.

Lu Li watched the street and its reflection. A gentleman in a top hat, cane in hand, was a skeleton in the inverted city. The children chasing one another were ghosts. The beautiful woman who had just winked flirtatiously at him was nothing but a dark cloud.

Among them, however, were real people—just like Lu Li, they cast no reflection in the city above.

They walked calmly among the monsters, seemingly oblivious. Of course, that was impossible. The bloodstains on the cobblestones and the screams that occasionally echoed through the streets told the real story.

Yet they remained unperturbed, acting as if everything were normal, as if... they were imitating the monsters.

Perhaps this was the only way to survive. The rules of "Paradise" dictated that if you aroused suspicion, you would be eaten. And so, they did their best to act as if nothing was wrong.

And so, a picture of a strange "coexistence" between humans and monsters unfolded before Lu Li—a twisted and unnatural merging of two worlds.

A wet, gleaming sheen coated the street. It wasn't water, but blood. The squelching of footsteps and the wet chewing sounds from the dark alleys confirmed it.

Chunks of flesh littered the ground. Both humans and "humans" kicked them aside indifferently, sending them skittering toward the walls of buildings or the grates of storm drains. From the darkness, gaunt hands would dart out, snatch the pieces, and vanish again, followed by the sound of chewing.

Screams and wails occasionally pierced the night's silence.

This was a city of monsters.

"What are you looking at?" a soft female voice inquired from beside him.

An elegantly dressed woman now stood beside Lu Li. She was watching him with a friendly, curious expression.

Lu Li didn't answer, simply raising his head to look at the inverted city once more.

Beside him, her reflection was a bloated, stomach-like creature. A great maw hung from its upper half, dripping saliva onto the cobblestones next to Lu Li's feet.

It was staring at Lu Li with suspicion.

It wanted to devour him.