The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 743: The Town in the Ribcage

The dagger lunged for his chest, but Anna managed to catch Lu Li's hand.

"Even if this is just an illusion, I don't want you to get hurt," she whispered. Her form suddenly dissolved like mist, enveloping Lu Li.

The regretful echo of her voice resounded in his mind: "Find me soon..."

...

Clouds blanketed the sky.

A gloomy twilight descended over the desolate plain.

Lu Li's figure materialized in the dim light.

Incomprehensible words, like a mumbled whisper or fragments of text, surfaced from the depths of his consciousness.

[Beacon]

[You who toy with madness are like a foolish clown in a one-man show. Illusions, indistinguishable from reality, unfold before you like a poorly staged play, rife with absurd errors. You are a beacon piercing the fog, guiding the lost.][You can discern most illusions and perceive true reality.]

[You accepted their gift; do not be so naive as to think you can escape the consequences.]

The Emerald Dream had bestowed upon Lu Li a Cursed Title.

The consequences, however, remained unknown.

Lu Li took in his surroundings. He was at the site of the caravan attack. Traces of the events from two weeks prior still lingered. Humans or Anomalies had scavenged anything of value, leaving only the twisted husks of wagons and iron cages abandoned to the elements.

Dark stains on the ground could have been dried blood, or they could have been ash.

Using the layout of the wreckage for direction, Lu Li started toward the City of Phantoms.

Reality and illusion are never one and the same.

When the silhouette of the City of Phantoms appeared on the horizon, Lu Li realized it wasn't just a small town in the middle of a desolate plain.

It was a colossal skeleton, a true leviathan, so immense that the hill it rested upon seemed like a tiny mound. Most of its frame was buried, but the protruding ribs were as thick as houses, soaring nearly a kilometer into the sky. An elongated skull rested atop the hill.

The City of Phantoms was nestled within the skeleton's ribcage, sheltered by its curving bones.

The Emerald Dream had only conjured an image of the City of Phantoms in Lu Li's mind, never revealing its true form.

Lu Li stared for a moment at the fantastic skeleton and the eerie town within its chest, then tore his gaze away and headed for the bones.

The closer he drew, the more staggering the skeleton's size became, stretching for several kilometers and emanating an unexpected sense of security. Beside it, the City of Phantoms looked like a whelp snuggled against a great beast, or a child taking cover from the rain beneath an awning.

Perhaps it was the skeleton's presence that had allowed him to cross the dangerous wasteland alone and reach the safety of the town.

Perhaps it was this incomparable sense of security, or the town's connection to Midnight, that made wagons and travelers a common sight, unlike in most settlements. The city was teeming with life.

Most of the cargo wagons were pulled by mushroom-horses, but some carriages, likely belonging to nobles or wealthy merchants, employed other creatures.

Unfathomable creatures.

Giant, horse-sized hyenas with five heads that resembled grotesque tumors.

Anomalies that looked like clouds of fog or rain, their forms constantly shifting, with only two purple lights flickering in their depths.

A troupe of chattering dwarves, speaking a human tongue but in a strange, disjointed manner, pulled a wagon harnessed with ropes.

All of it jolted Lu Li from the past and plunged him back into the real world.

Five kilometers from the city, the ribs, like celestial pillars, now loomed overhead.

The people beside them looked like grains of sand.

After passing through the natural barrier of ribs, Lu Li found himself at the entrance to the City of Phantoms. But just like in the dream, he faced the same problem: he didn't know the rules of the town.

Following the other travelers, Lu Li approached a guard, pushed back his hood, and asked, "This is my first time in the City of Phantoms. Could you tell me about the rules?"

"Don't get spooked," the guard replied, clad in old-fashioned yet now useless armor.

"There are a lot of... mischievous little critters here who like to pop out and give people a fright..."

No sooner had he spoken than a tiny, finger-sized clay man scrambled out of a crack in his breastplate and let out a piercing shriek at the guard.

The guard flinched and fell silent.

A few people who turned at the shriek immediately looked away, unconcerned.

"You talk too much, hee-hee-hee," the clay man giggled, leaping to the ground and scurrying into the city.

"So, don't get spooked. If you scream, they'll just start teasing you."

Perhaps it was Lu Li's appearance, or maybe just boredom, but the guard added, "And another thing, don't anger these little ones. The Church won't forgive you if you do."

Lu Li asked where he could get some information. The guard recommended the "Cape of Good Hope" tavern and told him to mention his name, so no one would dare feed him false intel.

And to get his commission, of course.

After thanking the guard, Lu Li headed for the tavern, which was located in the center of the long, narrow City of Phantoms.

The Cape of Good Hope tavern drew all sorts of patrons: locals, travelers, and merchants stopping for a rest.

Here, you could usually find out about anything happening in the Gloom Wastes. For a price, of course.

Lu Li stepped into the tavern. His black cloak, which obscured his features, drew several wary glances—ordinary folk didn't hide their faces.

But when Lu Li pushed back his hood, their wariness gave way to curiosity.

The tavern keeper, trying to place the clean-shaven, black-haired man who radiated an aura of mystery, inquired, "Welcome, honored guest. What can I get for you?"

"Hans sent me," Lu Li said. "I'm looking for some information."

The keeper's smile widened. "You can find out anything you wish here—the mysteries of the City of Phantoms, the secrets of Midnight, even the origin story of the little creatures."

Lu Li was genuinely interested in all of it, but he only had 212 shillings to his name. A respectable sum, but not an endless one.

So, Lu Li decided to set those fascinating stories aside for now and asked, "I'm interested in the fate of the caravan that was traveling from Livitown to Anomtown on the first day of the Eternal Night."

The keeper's smile stretched even wider. "You've come to the right place. The only survivor from that caravan is resting in one of our rooms right now."

Someone else managed to escape the Emerald Dream?

Could it be the caravan leader, the one with the Cursed Title?

The keeper summoned an assistant to go upstairs and fetch the survivor, then turned back to Lu Li. "I take a ten percent cut of whatever you pay for the information. Half of that goes to Hans."

Those were the tavern's rules.

Of course, they could make a deal outside the tavern, but then the establishment wouldn't be responsible for the outcome.

A short while later, a commotion erupted upstairs. Dust rained down from the ceiling, and the patrons looked up in surprise.

Crash!

A figure came tumbling down the stairs, crashing into a wooden table and coming to a stop amid a clatter of overturned plates and bottles.

An agile woman descended next, pouncing on the unconscious man. His back arched, and he spewed a fountain of bile before passing out again.

The woman drew a dagger from her thigh and, with a flick of her wrist, slit open the man's breast pocket. She retrieved her belongings, along with everything the man had on him.

"Hey! No fighting in the Cape of Good Hope!" the keeper yelled.

"So stealing is allowed, is it?" the woman shot back sarcastically without turning around, continuing to work with her dagger.