Detective Agency of the Bizarre

The morning twilight streaming into the room awakens the sleeping people.

Lu Li slowly woke up, briefly gazed at the gradually familiar ceiling, left the warm bed, and exposed himself to the slightly cool morning air.

Outside, the Agate Lake Camp was gradually coming to life.

To add some wood to the dying fireplace, Lu Li walked out of the wooden hut and checked the sunshine boxes placed under the Annie Tree last night.

A thin layer of sunshine spread on the bottom of the box, yet to evaporate. The sunshine box lasted longer than imagined.

Lu Li emptied the sunshine from the bottom of the box and returned to the hut to check the other three wooden boxes on the table—the stored sunlight had not significantly decreased.

The longer the sunshine box preserves and lasts, the higher its value.

It had already proven its worth—perhaps it could recover the merchants' currency from its slump among the strange.

Besides the value of the sunshine box, Lu Li was equally intrigued by its principle: how is sunlight stored, some kind of alchemical method that embodies and gathers energy?

Lu Li took out an eyeball to call Merchant Anthony, handing him the three sunshine boxes: one to be sent to the Mother of the Marsh, one to the Maiden's Grace Church with a query of its worth, and to auction off the last one at the Earth Dwellers' Trading Company, starting at the price offered by the Maiden's Grace Church.

However, the arrangement met with obstruction as soon as he arrived at the Mother of the Marsh.

"Your Excellency Lu Li, are you not worried that the strange might covet your territory because of this?"

The Mother of the Marsh's whisper descended into Lu Li's mind.

"The more precious this item is, the more greedy they become..."

"The strange's coveting of the Land of Light has never ceased, they just don't know the real situation here," Lu Li replied. He knew it wasn't humans or the Exorcists they feared, but the God of the Deep Sea who created these things.

Perhaps to the vast existence in the depths of the starry sky and other worlds, the God of the Deep Sea is as weak as a child, but in this world, whether in the known or unknown lands, He is one of the oldest and most powerful entities.

An item might add weight for the strange to covet the Land of Light, but it's not the final straw that breaks the camel's back.

"This is your territory..."

The whisper of the Mother of the Marsh made it seem as if He was somewhat disappointed.

"And I have endured too long in the shadows without seeing the light... As the world approaches destruction, I will stand with the last sanctuaries, the Land of Light, and I, the Mother of the Marsh, Saint Mark, the most beautiful flower of Roland Toya Aargon, swear here."

"Thank you."

The Vena Ice-Free Port is barely surviving, Midnight City has been swallowed by the swamp, and indeed the Land of Light is the last hope for humanity.

If the Land of Light is also engulfed by darkness, perhaps humans would still exist above and below ground in this pitch-black world—but there would no longer be a concept of humanity.

"Lu Li, no matter where you are, please call my name directly if you ever need me, Roland Toya Aargon, and I will sense your call..."

The consciousness of the Mother of the Marsh receded from his mind, He also invited the Twisted Shadow to visit the manor, like a gathering among ladies.

Lu Li didn't mind such gatherings which could aid the two alien gods in regaining their humanity, especially for Twisted Shadow. Although Lu Li could trust Him as he trusted the Mother of the Marsh, he knew little about His past life before.

His sister Aileen was still trapped in the Land of Vortex.

While waiting for Merchant Anthony to return with news, Lu Li sat at his desk, opened a notebook recording supplementary knowledge, and supplemented the knowledge that gradually emerged in his mind.

Near noon, the Twisted Shadow came to Lake Heart Island to find Lu Li, whispering in an inquisitive tone: "Why didn't you give it to me..."

Lu Li realized He was talking about the sunshine box.

"I didn't know you liked it."

The conversation seemed liable to cause misinterpretations, but after Lu Li promised to give Him one too, the Twisted Shadow left Lake Heart Island and resumed the gathering with the Mother of the Marsh.

It should have been the Mother of the Marsh who showed Him the sunshine box.

As time passed, during the warmest part of the day, the residents left the solidified school foundation successively, gathered at the square to enjoy lunch, then returned to the shacks to nap for an hour, preparing for the afternoon's study.

All residents expressed bewilderment about the "nap," including Porter and Mitra, who had lived briefly in the Old Era as middle-aged men—there wasn't such a strange rule in any territory or factory at that time. Residents didn't consider a short one-hour rest useful either.

However, it was the lord's order, so they had to comply with Lu Li's wishes and viewed it as the lord's benevolence...or secretly critiqued his excessive kindness.

Only, the nap theory Lu Li transplanted from the past world didn't show significant effects here, as the residents' work efficiency didn't improve—to stay in the Land of Light, everyone was striving to contribute their only value.

In the afternoon, when the hollow beams moved from the Agate Lake Camp to the ruins of Old Belfast, residents gathered at the square to start their afternoon study, while the Mother of the Marsh and Twisted Shadow came to Agate Lake to enjoy afternoon tea.

At this moment, Merchant Anthony returned, bringing back the final offer from the Earth Dwellers' Trading Company: two potent soul strange currencies.

Strange currencies are formed from souls, and when placed near your ear in the dead of night, it's as if you can hear the wails of souls. They themselves are valuable precious items, and naturally exist in tiers: the most common ordinary strange currencies, followed by mid-tier leader and powerful soul strange currencies, and finally, crystal currencies, which are the highest tier, infinitely close to true divinity.

Since strange currencies are not just currencies, the ratios among the three tiers often change, but typically a powerful soul currency is worth a hundred times more than a strange currency, and a crystal currency is a thousand times more valuable than a powerful soul currency—the frenzy at auctions over incomplete crystal currencies bears witness to this.

And the current ratio between a strange currency and a shilling is 1:350.

Although auctioning off two powerful soul currencies was merely a result of rarity and novelty bringing freshness, as more sunshine boxes are sold, prices will gradually drop, but the significance is still profound—this is a tangible tradable commodity from the Land of Light.

Lu Li instructed the merchant to send 30% of the two powerful soul currencies to the Maiden's Grace Church, hoping to maintain the cooperation: the Maiden's Grace Church would produce wooden boxes, and the Land of Light would sell sunshine boxes, with a profit distribution ratio of 30% to 70%.

This time, the Maiden's Grace Church did not decline the proposal, even if the price of sunshine boxes later fell below one powerful soul currency, a 30% share still allowed them to earn over a hundred strange currencies profit per wooden box—with the ability to produce over a dozen wooden boxes a day, that's two thousand or more strange currencies in revenue, approaching the daily income of many prosperous branches.

The trade was accomplished, and Lu Li first instructed Merchant Anthony to bring back an empty sunshine box, then together with the previously left empty sunshine box, accumulate sunlight to give to the Twisted Shadow and the Eternal Dreamer,

and then, as usual, Lu Li asked Merchant Anthony about Andrea's location—the ship carrying the Banyan Tree Guardian was very close to the Vena Ice-Free Port. Now that it need not bypass nests and wandering groups too far, Andrea's speed was approaching normal sailing time.