Detective Agency of the Bizarre

Lu Li seemed to be trapped in delirium, yet as if rescued, lying on hard cold planks, enveloped by low temperatures and darkness.

Indistinct voices of conversation were hard to discern as they echoed around.

"Has he awoken?"

"Not yet..."

"You must bring him back to life..."

"I know, do you also think he's real?"

"...Exactly the same, have you noticed..."

"But... drifting down from upstream..."

"Wait until he wakes up..."

The conversation was intermittent, and realizing about to faint, Lu Li dragged himself into a dream.

Crash—crash—

The relentless waves day and night battered the reefs under Seaview Cliff.

Lu Li awoke from the dream, lying in a rocking chair under the Annie Tree.

In the distance, voices of conversation carried with the wind, Jimmy Siblings were building their new home.

Finding that unreal silhouette, Lu Li stared for a moment, then detached himself from the dream.

Lu Li gradually woke up.

The chatter inside the house disappeared at this moment, an intolerable nausea submerged reason, Lu Li rose and bent over to vomit.

"Ugh—"

The river water wrapped the vomit and splashed down, with the filth leaving the abdomen, his consciousness and perception cleared a lot.

The fur covering him sealed in the body warmth, the room or cave was permeated with the smell of firewood, a heap of campfire burned under a simple fireplace, illuminating the low room ceiling.

"Look at the vomit, he ate something from there, he's real!"

A female voice sounded, Lu Li looked over, but still being weak, he only saw two silhouettes in the dim.

Lu Li touched his chest, his clothing was gone, the Doomsday Apocalypse sewn into the inner side had disappeared as well.

This was the root of his weakness.

"You're looking for this, aren't you?"

The silhouette approached the bed, entering the firelight's range, illusory, hem, young.

She handed the Doomsday Apocalypse to Lu Li, then retreated to the side of the other silhouette after he took it.

Lu Li was no longer weak, to correspond with her vague aura wilting subsequently.

"You shouldn't give it so easily..." An aged voice spoke.

"This is the Doomsday Apocalypse, Lu Li hasn't concealed its purpose from me, it is real, he is real too."

"It is real, he might be false. Don't forget what we saw upstream..."

"But they weren't as real as this."

The aged voice no longer argued with her, emerging from the shadows: "Do you still remember me?"

"Tesla, Raimy."

Lu Li uttered their names.

Raimy had virtually not changed, as an Evil Spirit in ghostly form, she wouldn't change form as long as she didn't lose herself. But Tesla, with grizzled hair, donned in a flax-colored coat bore no resemblance to how he once was, the elderly seen upstream would make Lu Li realize "he is Tesla twenty years later," but not this old man in front.

Only the way of speaking and standing beside Raimy allowed Lu Li to guess his identity.

Tesla slowly said: "We found you from the riverbank, you drifted from upstream right, then you've experienced those delusional realities, aware of our vigilance... we need time to confirm your identity. And I guess... you're also verifying us, aren't you?"

Lu Li gently nodded: "I'll cooperate with you."

Bang bang bang—

The sound of door knocking echoed, focusing outside, Lu Li started to hear quarrels emanating from outside.

"I'll go explain to them."

Tesla said to Lu Li and Raimy, and headed outside.

As the door opened, the clamor streamed into the room.

"Kill him!"

"We don't need strangers!"

"He'll kill all of us..."

Click.

The door closed, the house regained silence, but Lu Li could still hear the conversation outside.

"He is not a stranger."

"He might cause us harm!"

"I'm also someone who fled in here, I saved you all."

"But he comes from upstream, that Land of Deceit..."

"He's escaped from there."

"We cannot keep him, he'll destroy all of us..."

The human entanglement outside the house seemed more real.

As if realizing people inside the house needed rest and peace, Tesla took the quarrels away.

"Glad to see you're alive... and so young." Raimy warmly looked at Lu Li.

"Do you think I'm real?"

"Unlike Tesla, he believes in reason, I trust feelings." Raimy came to the campfire, picked up a dried torn shirt and handed it to Lu Li: "I know you're real."

Lu Li put on the shirt with a torn hem, and asked: "Is Anna not here?"

"I'm so sorry... we've lived here for over twenty years... never seen her."

Lu Li sank into silence.

Paradise Valley was the only clue to find Anna, but she hadn't come here...

Raimy talked to Lu Li about others who came to Paradise Valley.

Aidanvoya has passed away, her brother Jimmy lost his human form and lives as something weird. Amber is still alive, three children have left forever, sculptures lost in the Eternal Forest.

The real is often crueller than delusion.

Paradise Valley holds nearly a hundred residents, but as time passed, no further survivors entered, the number dropped to merely eighty-three.

Lu Li was the only one to arrive in the past ten years, hence the panic and fear among the people.

Raimy cleaned up the vomit, Lu Li saw what was spewed: river water and sludge-like filth. Raimy said Lu Li must have eaten something in the Land of Deceit.

As time passed, when Lu Li could already walk, Tesla brought several middle-aged men into the house, conducted what they called a "trial assembly."

Lu Li saw Jimmy and the children outside, they waved discreetly, greeting from the door.

Lu Li sat on the bed, wrapped in a shirt, legs donned in pants brought by Raimy.

"Why haven't you aged." Tesla asked.

Among scrutinizing gazes, Lu Li replied: "After failing to solve The Time of Silence, I got lost underground, stayed for twenty-four days, when back to the surface, twenty-four years had elapsed outside."

To Tesla and them, the less believable, the more believable.

But others murmured doubtfully.

Tesla suppressed the buzzing in the room: "How did you unravel the illusions of the Land of Deceit?"

"A few details, and the Flowing Cat in Vig Town."

Anna won't leave it there.

"What is this."

Raimy handed Lu Li a stomach bag.

"Stomach bag, an Alchemical Product from Midnight City, capable of holding up to 30 pounds of stuff."

"And this."

Raimy handed out a Tail-grasping Twig.

"Crown of Thorns, a token from the Mother of the Marsh."

Tesla and Raimy weren't strangers to this name.

"You're giving its things back to it!" Suddenly a middle-aged man stood accusingly at Raimy.

"You have a problem with it?" Raimy's tone was chilling cold.

The middle-aged man quivered and sat down, looking pleadingly towards Tesla.

Tesla ignored his gaze, continued to inquire: "What's the situation outside?"

"Darkness blankets the earth, Weird Times turned into The Dark Era, Midnight City perished, Vena Ice-Free Port established an underground city below, Old Belfast became the Land of Hope, bathed in sunlight." Lu Li narrated calmly.

"Sunlight?"