The Bizarre Detective Agency

Chapter 980: The So-Called Killer

[Midnight — Outer City — Lianhe Street]

[A Ghostly Spirit of unknown origin has taken up residence in an abandoned house, weeping day and night. Unable to endure the disturbance, the local residents have requested assistance from the police. Your task is to find the spirit and either silence its cries or eliminate it.]

[Objective: End the residents' disturbance]

[Advanced: Resolve this case completely]

[Hint: The house has been abandoned for a long time. The origin of the Ghostly Spirit may be connected to its former owner.]

[Base Reward: 1 academic credit; 1 team point]

A standard mission with no apparent anomalies—hopefully, it would be enough to draw out the person pulling the strings.

After arriving at the Midnight outpost, the Holy Light Squad made its way to Lianhe Street. As they neared the abandoned house, they drank their Sequence Potions.

Soon, they saw a dilapidated, windowless shack. Its door was wide open, and there were footprints on the threshold.

"Where's Professor Kris?"Yeger frowned and whispered.

The words had barely faded when a dim light suddenly flared in the darkness beyond the window, outlining a beautiful, tall, and voluptuous figure.

Professor Kris, her wide-brimmed hat tilted elegantly to one side, looked as if she were standing before a coffee shop window in the inner city, not in a dilapidated, dark shack.

Lu Li entered the house and saw Kane, still as gaunt as ever, sitting at the table across from her.

"Master."

Kane hunched over and bowed respectfully.

"Are you the assistant for this operation?" Lu Li asked.

"Guess again," Professor Kris replied, pursing her bright red lips slightly.

Lu Li glanced around. Cobwebs and dust covered the dark house, which had clearly been neglected for a long time.

"The one behind all this hasn't shown up?"

"Darling, try another approach," Professor Kris suggested.

Darling?

Kiruet and the others fell silent, exchanging surprised glances. Could the rumors be true...

Lu Li looked at Kane and understood.

"You're the one who secretly completed the mission."

Kane nearly prostrated himself on the floor, not daring to lift his head.

"A servant has a duty to clear obstacles for his master. I am horrified that I have caused you confusion..."

"You are not my servant," Lu Li repeated, turning his head to his teammates. "I helped Kane once, so he came to help me."

"Professor Kris..."

Kiruet first offered a reserved greeting to Professor Kris. After the professor nodded in acknowledgment, she said, "It's a relief this isn't a conspiracy."

"Once again, I apologize..."

Kane still referred to himself as a servant.

Realizing they needed some privacy, Kiruet pulled Yeger and Nasi out of the house. Once they were gone, Professor Kris said quietly, "Darling, you don't seem pleased to have a Lord accompanying you."

"No."

Lu Li, however, considered it unnecessary. The difficulty of the middle-course missions was limited, and he wasn't particularly eager for the rewards. Starting from level 3, each level increase in any department awarded 10 academic credits, up to level 6. The rewards for advancing his mysticism to level 6 and his theory of humanity would be enough for him to move on to the senior courses.

Lu Li only needed to complete his advancement in mysticism, and then he, along with Kiruet and the others—who were also close to advancing—could move up to the senior courses.

Only poor Fudot, who had just recently become Lu Li's teammate, would be left alone again for several months.

"Have those other Lords not arrived yet?" Lu Li asked.

"Don't tell him."

Professor Kris whispered, but Kane completely ignored her and said, "It will be a few more days. They are hunting an evil god that has lost its servant."

"A little mystery is the only way to build anticipation," Professor Kris said with a sigh of regret.

"Tell them not to take any risks. If the hunt fails, I can still replenish their humanity," Lu Li said. He didn't want these Lords to perish over something trivial.

"Please rest assured. The hunt is actually nearing its end, and no one has died," Kane replied.

"We haven't seen each other for a few days, and your scent has grown even sweeter, darling," Professor Kris whispered seductively.

After resolving the issue with the "covenant" notebook, Lu Li's humanity had approached three units.

His unique quality was already beginning to manifest.

"Be careful of everyone who approaches you, darling. Your body is becoming a delicacy, like a fatal lure... They will do anything to devour you."

Professor Kris reminded Lu Li again. They might not do it now, but in time, as his scent grew sweeter, they would eventually lose control.

"And those churches, don't get too close to them. If they discover you, they will spare no effort to attract you, control you, twist your will, and reap your faith."

The faith that Lu Li rejected like poison was like honey in the eyes of the cults.

Unlike the former, the latter could have a greater impact on Lu Li—after all, he wouldn't be going to the surface or the Old Sewer. But cults were everywhere in Midnight.

"I have faith in the master. He will not be swayed by the temptations of the cults," Kane said, like a loyal servant.

Lu Li once again told him to stop calling himself a servant. Kane reluctantly agreed, but he still stubbornly addressed Lu Li with deference.

The time when he lacked humanity had made him paranoid and mad. Lu Li's salvation had seeped deep into his soul, and it was something he could not easily forget.

Having finished their discussion about the church, Lu Li called for Kiruet and the others to return.

"Professor Kris, may we leave now?" Kiruet asked respectfully.

"Leave? But your mission isn't finished yet," Professor Kris said, her tone rising slightly in surprise.

Kiruet was also surprised.

"The mission is real?"

"Of course. Otherwise, how would we have lured out the 'killer' behind all this?" Professor Kris covered her mouth and chuckled softly.

"Master Lu Li, allow me to resolve this for you once again."

Kane volunteered. With Lu Li's consent, he stepped deeper into the house. Darkness enveloped his body, and a hazy, indistinct power formed around him, as if shrouded in mist.

To the astonishment of Kiruet and the others, a giant eyeball appeared behind Kane's back—crimson, bloodshot, and connected by nerves and blood vessels, like something torn from a monster.

"This is my Cursed Title, Watcher."

[Watcher]

[A mother and child walk past, dust swirling in the air. The scent of shoe soles thick with grime makes you frown. Then a faint breeze carries them into the distance, where they are consumed by a figure that has become one with the sky.]

[You can observe a multitude of details; they swarm into your mind. This is good. This is not good.]

[— A genius on the left, a madman on the right.]

It was both a blessing and a curse.

So this was why Kane remained so gaunt and grim, even after restoring his humanity.

"After releasing its power, his gaze becomes an attack."

Kane's voice rang out, and the giant, head-sized eyeball swept past him. An illusory scream was cut short, and blood began to trickle slowly down the dust-covered wall.

The abandoned house fell silent once more.

Under the envious gazes of Kiruet and the others, the eyeball behind Kane's back vanished into thin air.

Lu Li gestured for Nasi to break through the wall. Amidst the flying splinters, a skeleton was revealed in the gap in the wooden partition.

"It seems there's more to this story," Professor Kris remarked, pursing her red lips slightly.

But that was no longer their concern. After reporting the skeleton in the wall to the local police station, the Holy Light Squad bid farewell to Professor Kris and Kane, who had business to attend to in Midnight, and returned to the Giant Tree.