The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 604: They Hid

On the way to the safe house, Lu Li observed the streets. Even the few remaining figures of law enforcement, who had maintained the facade of Paradise, had vanished.

Paradise was shedding its false mask, revealing its true horror.

The rules had slackened even further. Anomalies no longer bothering to hide beneath human skin appeared more and more frequently on the streets. Sinister auras mingled, as if trying to drag the royal city into the In-Between.

Anomalies that still maintained a human or animal form were constantly subjected to greedy stares and probing inspections. Anna had to radiate the aura of a vengeful spirit just to avoid trouble. As for the "horse" pulling the carriage, it had dropped its disguise back at the Ample's Bank of the Nobility when another anomaly attacked it, revealing its centipede-like body.

That certainly made the covetous gazes following the carriage disappear.

An hour remained before dawn when the carriage reached the district with the clothing store.

"Wait here," Anna said, her expression instantly hardening as she saw the shattered storefront and the chaos within. She left Lu Li in the carriage and stepped out alone, crunching over shards of glass as she entered the shop.

The most striking sight was the widened, dark rift behind a fallen clock. Anna searched the shop, went up to the second floor, and discovered a pool of blood by the window.

A trail of blood led to the broken frame. Anna leaned out and saw dried, dark-red stains and scraps of fabric on the ledge below.

After searching the other rooms, Anna returned to the street and told Lu Li everything she had found.There was blood, but Reid and the others were gone...

"We'll ask the local 'residents'."

If they were attacked, there must have been some noise.

I hope it's not the worst-case scenario...

Since the nearest residents had already been "dealt with," Lu Li and Anna found survivors in houses farther away.

"What happened at the clothing store?" Lu Li asked.

"You... are too late..." the creature at the door muttered, gruesomely gnawing on its own finger. Its left hand was already stripped to the bone.

"The meat... was eaten..."

"Tell me exactly what happened."

The anomaly eyed Lu Li and Anna greedily and stated its condition: "An arm..."

"Fine."

Lu Li calmly agreed, and they entered the house.

The creature sat down at a table, spitting out a phalanx to join the five or six others already lying there. Slowly and indistinctly, it recounted the events of about half an hour ago.

They only found and ate one person.

Lu Li and Anna gleaned the key piece of information: the others hadn't been found, meaning they might still be safe.

After finishing its clumsy account, the creature demanded Lu Li's arm. Anna glanced at Lu Li, then stood up and moved behind it.

A short while later, Lu Li and Anna were standing at the entrance to the house again.

Time was running out. They had to find the missing Reid and the others, with only twenty minutes left until dawn. After that, no matter what, Lu Li had to get to the Five O'Clock District for the final evacuation.

Returning to the clothing store, Lu Li and Anna continued to search for other clues: untouched food supplies, warm clothes, any signs left behind.

Anna searched the cleared houses and basements nearby but found no traces or marks left by them.

"Let's ask the witness," Lu Li said.

They first needed to find out who had died. If it wasn't York or Reid...

"It was Reid," Anna said suddenly. She had spotted a few strands of chestnut-colored hair beneath the shards of the display window—Reid's hair. A flicker of regret crossed her face before she asked Lu Li, "York and the others are alive... Where could they have gone?"

"To the place they should have gone to begin with," Lu Li murmured, his gaze fixed on the strands of hair.

"Shutes University," Anna supplied.

It was relatively safe there, York knew the layout, and after being attacked by anomalies, they really could have taken refuge at the university.

But the journey would take too much time. If they weren't there, there wouldn't be enough time left to search anywhere else—Lu Li would have to abandon the survivors and head straight for the evacuation point.

Anna waited for Lu Li's decision. Soon, he climbed back into the carriage and headed for Shutes University, located half a block away.

A minor incident occurred on the way. In a shop near the university, three survivors were holed up, perhaps spared from harm due to Lu Li’s presence in the district.

However, they were extremely distrustful and didn't believe Lu Li even after he gave them his name.

Lu Li had no time to persuade them. He only told them to get to the Five O'Clock District before dawn—the final evacuation would be there.

After Lu Li left, the survivors, who were disguising themselves as anomalies, began to talk. "Maybe he wasn't lying?"

"If he were a monster... wouldn't he have just eaten us?"

"Idiots! He was testing us! The king would never abandon this city! We have to wait, wait for the royal family and the exorcists to come for us..."

...

The carriage stopped at the gates of the Shutes University campus. Anna escorted Lu Li inside, and they headed straight for York's office—the most likely place he and the others would be hiding.

Crossing the garden, they noticed that the university had fewer "inhabitants." Once the human "prey" had run out, most of the anomalies had left. Only those who didn't hunt for victims remained—it had indeed become safer here than outside.

Knock, knock, knock...

Lu Li rapped on the wooden office door.

A faint rustle came from inside the room, quickly dissolving into silence.

Then Lu Li spoke the password he had arranged with York: "Where is your Mind Level?"

A rustle...

The sounds resumed, followed by hasty footsteps and the scraping of furniture being moved aside. The door opened.

"I knew you would find us!" Relief was written all over York's face. The other survivors in the room looked just as happy.

He said excitedly to Lu Li, "Did you see? There are only a dozen or so anomalies left here. It's safe, we can hide..."

"The royal city has been abandoned. The final evacuation is at six in the morning, at daw—"

"Is that accurate?" Lu Li cut him off, glancing at the alarm clock on the desk that had been barricading the door.

The hands showed 5:40. Twenty minutes remained until dawn.

"What?" York froze, the meaning of Lu Li's words sinking in. "Of course, I checked it yesterday..."

"The royal city has been abandoned. The final evacuation is in twenty minutes in the Five O'Clock District. We need to go," Lu Li said, looking at York's stunned face.

"But how... how is that possible... There are over a million people here!" Although York refused to believe the royal family and the three organizations were capable of such a thing, his trust in Lu Li was greater, and he decided to follow him.

They crammed into the carriage pulled by the monster and sped toward the Five O'Clock District.

The pressure of time weighed on everyone in the carriage. At one point, they, along with everyone else in the royal city, felt a tremor from beneath the ground.

A deep vibration emanated from the very depths, as if something was awakening.