The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 737: Advancing Through the Eternal Night

"A Cursed Title is both a blessing and a curse."

Inside the carriage, Katerina watched the workers scurrying about on the street.

Cursed Titles came from anomalies, and Katerina didn't know exactly how one was acquired... perhaps through reading ancient books, or by catching the eye of an evil god, or by being cursed by an anomaly. It granted the bearer a beneficial ability, but it always came with side effects, or took something away.

That is why it was called a Cursed Title.

"The lesser form of a Cursed Title is Cursed Blood. It's far more common and ordinary, and its significance isn't immediately obvious. Almost every hunter who survives in the Wastelands and becomes sufficiently contaminated has Cursed Blood," Katerina explained, her hand gently stroking her stomach in a gesture filled with maternal complexity. "My Cursed Blood... is her."

"After I was contaminated, it allows me to sense the aura of anomalies more keenly, but it also makes me more conspicuous to certain sensitive ones."

A double-edged sword.

With it, Katerina gained a faint sense of premonition, but that same sense made her easier for perceptive anomalies to detect.

"Many residents of Mantistown have extra eyes," Lu Li remarked. "Is there a connection?"

"Partially... The contamination comes from the land and the environment. The longer you stay in one place, the more likely you are to acquire the local Cursed Blood.""Are the abilities all the same?"

"There are some variations."

Katerina used Krot and the Hyena as examples—the only ones she was familiar with.

The dozen eyes crowded into Krot's socket helped him see the truth beneath the surface of things, while the eyes of the tavern owner, the Hyena, could determine an object's authenticity.

However, such stories were inevitably exaggerated, especially when they came from information brokers and tavern owners, and none of them ever mentioned the price they paid.

"Is there a higher form of Cursed Title?"

Just then, the caravan leader, who bore the title "Survival Instinct," passed by again, cursing under his breath and paying no mind to the two newcomers.

The caravan was about to depart.

"Yes, there are. More Cursed Titles," Katerina said. "They can coexist."

It was hard to say whether a Cursed Title was a good thing or a bad one—while it had clear advantages, it also brought trouble.

For the people of the Age of Anomalies, a Cursed Title was a symbol of power—ordinary hunters couldn't, and wouldn't dare, make contact with the entities capable of bestowing one.

And those who managed to survive the process of gaining a Cursed Title were generally not weak.

Contamination was everywhere, and so was Cursed Blood.

Even the horses pulling the wagons weren't pure. Large patches of dark green, moss-like mycelium grew on their gaunt bodies, sprouting brightly colored mushrooms. The fungus and mushrooms leached nutrients from the horses, but in return, they granted the animals some ability to survive in the Wastelands.

"We're ready to move out. Close up the carriage, and remember the rules and my warnings," the caravan overseer said as he passed by their carriage, giving Lu Li and Katerina a final reminder.

With that, he climbed onto the lead wagon, calling for workers to help him remove the tarp.

Katerina shut the carriage door. The last thing she saw before it clicked shut was the overseer and the workers lifting the tarp, revealing Numa.

Click.

The carriage door closed, sealing the noise outside.

Inside the sealed carriage, the faint glow of a fluorite stone lit up the dark.

"We can rest for a bit. In three or four hours, we should reach the safe zone of the City of Phantoms," Katerina said, holding out a piece of fluorite to Lu Li while pressing her own against the cargo in the back.

"What makes the fluorite glow?"

The fluorite rolled aside, but Lu Li didn't pick it up.

"Who knows? They started appearing everywhere at the start of the Age of Anomalies, just like any other ore," Katerina said. Remembering Lu Li's nature, she took back the fluorite.

If the fluorite happened to be contaminated and it tainted Lu Li, that would be a serious problem.

"It won't go out?"

"No. If you shatter it, it turns into a sparkling, glowing dust. It only goes out if you throw it in water, like a broken oil lamp. But if you take it out and dry it off, it'll start glowing again," Katerina explained.

"Fluorite is the best light source we have, it's just a shame that even the purest stone doesn't shine any brighter than an oil lamp."

The carriage beneath them suddenly shuddered, and a gentle jolt sent Katerina leaning back against the cargo.

The caravan had set off.

"Stay quiet," Katerina murmured, crossing her arms and settling in for the ride.

Soon, a hollow malevolence enveloped the carriage, swirling just beyond the reach of the fluorite's glow.

They must have left the town and entered the safe zone, shrouded by the Eternal Night.

Along with the malevolence came the anomalous aura of Numa. Even Katerina, who had been dozing, sensed it and frowned.

Still, the stronger Numa's aura, the better it protected the moving caravan.

Silence fell both inside and outside the swaying, narrow carriage.

In these rare moments of quiet, Lu Li reflected on everything that had happened since he left the shelter.

Twenty-four years later... the Age of Anomalies... the changed evil spirits... humans protected by evil gods... only an Anomaly can fight an Anomaly...

Lu Li suddenly realized that the "Door" hadn't manifested in a long time.

The last time it had appeared was twenty-four years ago.

He hoped he would find answers to most of his questions in Midnight. With that thought, Lu Li, like Katerina, closed his eyes and leaned back against the cargo to rest.

Disaster always strikes without warning.

An unearthly scream from one of the fungal horses jolted the two of them awake. Before they could react, the carriage flipped, and the tumbling cargo threw Lu Li and Katerina out into the Wastelands, leaving them stranded in the Eternal Night.

The screaming fungal horse tore free from its harness and bolted into the Wastelands.

It wasn't just their carriage in trouble. Lights flared to life all along the caravan, pushing back the palpable darkness and revealing the chaos that had erupted.

Numa was thrashing restlessly inside its iron cage.

"Good boy!"

The overseer leaped from his wagon and rushed to the iron cage, pressing his forehead to Numa's, trying to soothe it.

Numa reacted. It opened its maw, which was studded with small, sharp teeth, and bit off the overseer's head. The headless, bleeding body slumped lifelessly to its knees in front of the cage.

Katerina thought Numa had gone berserk, but then she saw the caravan leader, the one with the Cursed Title, charge into the Eternal Night with a torch and a short blade. She saw workers swinging their own blades, cutting down their comrades. She saw a fungal horse placidly pulling a swaying carriage past them, screams echoing from within.

Weeping and screams echoed across the Wastelands, yet everyone seemed to be bizarrely going about their own business.

At the same time, a fresh, woodsy scent suddenly filled the air.

"It's the Emerald Dream!"

Katerina lost her composure. Goosebumps erupted on her exposed skin as if from a plague, and the beautiful, fairytale name sent a chill down her spine.

"What is it?"

Lu Li shoved aside the last crate pinning his leg, grabbed the nearby fluorite stone, and backed away toward the overturned carriage.

Katerina's reaction put Lu Li on high alert.

"Illusions that devour you! No one can escape them!"

"No one?"

Katerina didn't answer. Without a moment's hesitation, she pulled the Anomaly from her own eye socket.

"From this moment on, don't trust anyone around you—including me!"