The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 851: In Belfast, on the Allen Peninsula, the Busiest Place

They arrived at the observation post that led to the surface ruins.

"The shelter has no other exit; you'll have to return the way you came."

A faint light filtered from the depths of the anomaly-carved cave, carrying the suggestion of a surface wind.

Click.

The Mind Level counter emitted a slow click.

Contamination was rampant across the surface, meaning the shelter's residents couldn't linger for long in the upper levels.

"Keep them," Eileen said to Katerina, who was preparing to take off her Mind Level counter and dagger.

"Thanks. Ophelia, we'll go on ahead. Let these old lovebirds talk a little longer." Katerina lifted Prusius by the scruff of his neck, tucked a piece of fluorite into his paws, and crawled into the cave leading to the surface.

Ophelia's scorched silhouette remained motionless, showing no intention of giving them any private space.

"It's time to part ways again..."Eileen ignored Ophelia's presence, recalling their last farewell. Anna was still alive back then, and she herself had... oh, she'd already lost her legs by then.

"Will you build a new settlement?"

"Why do you ask?"

"You hide behind a mask of indifference, but we can all see you're a good person. Don't tell me you haven't given any thought to the current, terrible situation."

Eileen expected Lu Li to say he lacked the strength, but after his deep, dark eyes lowered slightly, he replied:

"Right now, I just want to find Anna."

The faintly interested look vanished after Lu Li's words.

"When you find her, don't forget to let me know."

Eileen's white hand lifted from the armrest of her wheelchair, bidding Lu Li farewell.

"I will."

"Wait, I have a request," Eileen called out to Lu Li, who was about to bend down and crawl into the cave.

"There's something dirty on the observation point up there. Please, wipe it off when you get out."

It sounded a bit ambiguous, and the curve of Eileen's red lips showed she'd said it deliberately.

Lu Li said nothing and, along with Ophelia, who felt like a warm stove, crawled into the cave.

Lulu wheeled Eileen to the observation point, where a mottled metal pipe extended from the top of the cave.

Eileen wiped the dust-covered periscope with a handkerchief; at the other end of the lens, only a dim, blurry light was visible for now.

"You seem to have suddenly lost interest in Lu Li?"

Eileen put away her handkerchief, waiting for the surface of the lens to be cleared.

"I thought we were the same type of person—that emotions are just a byproduct that interferes with thinking, and only reason is truth."

But now, he's no different from anyone else.

"My opinion is the opposite of yours," Eileen countered, narrowing her slender eyes as if savoring a thought.

"We believe in a deity not for its divinity, but for the part of it that is human."

"Only non-believers are allowed to join the shelter."

"It's just a comparison, you boring woman."

Lulu was silent for a while, then, when the rustling from the cave ceased, she spoke:

"Are you sad?"

"Why would you think that? On the contrary, I'm very happy. The shelter's crisis has been resolved, contact with the outside world has been successfully established, and the people we know are still active up on the surface."

The view through the periscope slowly cleared. Eileen leaned forward, pressing one eye to the lens.

"I mean, Lu Li is still young, and you're an old woman now," Lulu said at that moment.

"So, you're retorting just to disprove my claim that you're a boring woman?"

Through the now-clean and clear lens, Eileen saw the crumbling ruins, the distant coastline, and a black ring hanging in the void.

The mutilated land looked horrific, but the view was still priceless.

She looked again at the figures leaving the shelter. They emerged from the ruins and vanished among the trees of the Forest of Silence.

...

"What were you just wiping?" Katerina asked Lu Li, her steps rustling through mud-caked, rotting bushes.

"A periscope."

Lu Li was examining their tracks.

Due to the coastal humidity, the forest soil was loose. Their tracks were distinct and would probably only disappear after several months.

But there were no other tracks in the forest besides their own.

The Forest of Silence was uninhabited.

Ophelia had said it was completely desolate here—no anomalies, no life—which ironically made other anomalies avoid it, turning the forest into a pure sanctuary.

On the map provided by the shelter, the Forest of Silence was shaped like an elongated oval, like a long loaf of bread extending inland from the coastline. In its narrowest parts, you could see the wastelands on either side through the trees.

This meant they wouldn't have to expend much effort searching for any survivors who might have left tracks here. As they neared the edge of the deeper part of the forest, they spotted a collapsed wooden watchtower beyond the treetops, as well as a settlement enclosed by a wooden palisade.

Lu Li and the others entered the settlement.

The place had long been abandoned. The collapsed palisade and silent huts bore witness to the disaster that had befallen it.

"Can you sense him?"

The settlement was only a hundred meters in diameter, but finding the "corpse" within it was still no easy task.

"Not until he wakes up," replied The Merchant.

"Isn't there a faster way?" Katerina asked.

They had two hours until dark. But they needed to leave time for the return journey and had to be wary of the anomalous fog appearing prematurely. They had an hour at most before they needed to head back to the coast and board the Andrea.

"The approach of an exorcist might awaken a Merchant," The Merchant added.

That would save a lot of trouble; Lu Li just needed to circle the settlement a few times to find The Merchant.

If he was in the settlement at all, of course.

While Lu Li circled the settlement, Katerina and Prusius explored the few huts that were still standing, but unfortunately, everything inside was already unrecognizable.

When Katerina emerged from a hut, she saw a figure crawling out from the central clearing of the settlement.

It had been buried beneath the embers of a bonfire and ash. Dirt-caked black coals and dust rained from its form, and its enormous backpack was instantly recognizable—

A second Merchant crawled out from underground, stood beside the first, and remained silent.

"Aren't you going to exchange memories?" Katerina asked as she returned.

"We've already said everything," The Merchant replied.

Their hive consciousness allowed them to exchange memories.

"He, like me, has lost everything."

No one was surprised. Knowing that the settlers had taken The Merchant, they realized there would be nothing left in the backpack.

Having successfully found the second Merchant, they left the Forest of Silence before nightfall and returned to the coast.

Passing by the ruins, they saw that the opening behind the statue had been filled in. The color of the earth was almost indistinguishable from its surroundings, and in a few days, no one would ever know there had once been a passage leading to the shelter.

Without lingering in the ruins, they returned to the beach, got into the boat, and boarded the Andrea. As they stood on the creaking old deck, the mountain of flesh on the sea's surface breached at that very moment.

The disgusting mountain of flesh was spewing the anomaly-spawning fog.

The advancing fog, drifting toward the shore, gradually enveloped the Andrea, and the world outside the captain's cabin grew dark and lifeless.

As the anomalous fog shrouded the land, night fell in unison.

"The statues have woken up."

The Merchant answered Lu Li's questioning gaze.