The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 593: Familiar People

Perhaps to make up for Emma's earlier awkwardness, the priest showed some goodwill, telling Lu Li the location of the gathering of "selfish ones" they had previously turned away because of their character.

In a sense, Lu Li was one of the "selfish ones" himself.

Lu Li found them hiding in a cellar a block away. Ironically, there wasn't a single anomaly among them.

When these freezing, starving wretches learned that Lu Li had come from another group of survivors, they excitedly pleaded with him to take them along. This was exactly why Lu Li had come, so he told them to head straight for the clothing store—their character had already been tested by time, and no further vetting was needed.

"Can you take us there?" pleaded a woman, clutching a child of about five or six.

Among the seven survivors were two mother-daughter pairs, a young couple, and an old man.

It was dangerous for them to walk the streets, whether together or alone—they would be immediately spotted by hungry anomalies. To avoid an attack, Lu Li and Anna returned to the clothing store, fetched the carriage, and picked them up.

The second floor of the clothing store was large enough to accommodate all of them.

"Where to next?" Anna asked, settling into the carriage with Lu Li.

"To the investigators' base," Lu Li replied.Tristan, Leynhardt Viks, and the priest all seemed to be pursuing the same goal. Two hours had passed, and Lu Li needed to check on Leynhardt Viks's condition; if his fate was the same as Tristan's... then the priest and his people would meet the same end.

The priest's test in the confessional now took on a profound meaning: "Are you willing to sacrifice yourself to save others?"

The sharp clatter of horseshoes on cobblestones echoed through the dark streets, where passersby reacted with indifference to the carriage rushing past, its side curtain raised.

Twenty minutes later, the carriage stopped on the same long street.

Lu Li had arrived just in time, or perhaps... a little too late.

On the roof of the tallest building, a three-story structure, a figure sat slumped, its arms dangling, not quite straight.

Below, a crowd of "passersby" had gathered, gawking at the scene, while others were trying to climb onto the roof to "save" the person.

If not for the greed and bloodlust in their crimson eyes, the scene might have seemed perfectly normal.

"Blood is dripping from his hand," Anna said, pulling back the curtain and looking up at the spectacle.

The "horse," sensing the faint smell of blood in the air, shifted its hooves restlessly. But thanks to repeated "feedings" from Lu Li and Anna, it remained in place, not feeling particularly hungry.

"Come on! Monsters! Come and eat me!"

His shout echoed down the street, and the crowd of "people" grew even more agitated. More figures scrambled up the building, closing in on the young man on the roof. The closest were already just a few meters away.

The young man on the roof didn't keep them waiting long. As the anomalies behind him reached out, he leaped—

"In death—I await you!"

A light breeze carried his final cry.

The young man's legs twisted at unnatural angles, blood blooming on his face, but he didn't die instantly. The eager anomalies swarmed him, gathering around.

In the shadow of death, he felt no pain as his flesh was torn. He turned his head helplessly and suddenly saw Lu Li and Anna in the carriage, recognizing them. With great effort, slowly and silently, he whispered something before the crowd obscured him from view.

"Remember us," he said.

"Tristan and the others are all giving their flesh and blood to the anomalies... is this some kind of self-sacrificial curse?" Anna watched the surging crowd nearby and the figures hastily jumping from the roof.

Because of this, half the street was plunged into chaos.

"They're asking us to remember," Lu Li said quietly.

Prada had also asked Lu Li to remember her. Were they connected somehow?

Lu Li averted his gaze as Anna helped him out of the carriage. He stopped a passerby who lived there. "Why did he do that?"

Perhaps realizing he wouldn't get his share before the anomalies devoured the body, the passerby stopped and answered Lu Li, "A group of lunatics."

"A group?"

The passerby gave Lu Li a strange look, as if trying to decide whether he was an anomaly or a human. He answered casually, "That's the fifteenth one. Every few minutes, some crazy person climbs onto the roof, attracts a bunch of monsters, and then jumps."

This spectral passerby was clearly disgruntled. He had fought for a piece several times, only to end up with a stump of an arm. He wished more of these foolish humans would just offer themselves up.

Anna once again feigned fright, tugging gently on Lu Li's arm and whispering, "Let's get out of here..."

If it weren't for the "demon tail" writhing behind her.

A minute later, Lu Li and Anna emerged from the alley, and the passerby who had been following them was gone. The poor anomaly had been deceived by Anna's disguise.

They still went to the Curiosity Shop and the investigators' base. The heavy gates of the base were wide open, and there was no one inside.

Perhaps they were hiding, or perhaps the last survivor was the one who had just jumped.

Returning to the carriage with Lu Li, Anna fed the leftover arm to the "horse," awaiting Lu Li's next move.

"We're going to the Echo Cathedral," Lu Li said. The priest and his people were the only remaining lead. He needed to find out their plan, and who Prada was, before they sacrificed themselves.

Hopefully, it wasn't too late.

But on the way to the Echo Cathedral, Lu Li was unexpectedly attacked by a spirit of defilement.

Perhaps it wasn't entirely unexpected. A person like Lu Li, who wandered everywhere, was bound to attract the attention of anomalies sooner or later. Ordinary anomalies had trouble distinguishing humans, but to evil spirits and spirits of defilement, humans shone like stars in the night sky.

Anna was attacked at the same time—one moment she was sitting with Lu Li in the carriage, and the next, they found themselves in a dim hut.

Outside the window, the carriage sped past, now empty of passengers.

They had been forcibly transported into a wooden house by the side of the road.

Anna immediately unleashed the aura of a vengeful spirit, making her nature clear, and stood in front of Lu Li. His gaze passed over her head, scanning the gloom-shrouded living room, which seemed to be veiled in a light mist.

"Whoever cleans all the rooms the fastest can leave... but only one person," a familiar female whisper echoed through the empty room. "Attempting to leave by force will result in death. Welcome to the game, we... we..."

Before Lu Li and Anna, a strange, shadowy silhouette slowly materialized in the empty space.

This strange, shadowy silhouette was half male, half female, with a gruesome, symmetrical seam resembling a centipede running between them. On the left was the delicate, beautiful face of a girl dressed in an exquisite noblewoman's gown. On the right was the dull, handsome face of a young man dressed in simple work clothes.

"Sarah and... Adam?"

Anna spoke their names.