Bizarre Detective Agency

   Chapter 723 Fourteen. What Happened on the Ground

   Twenty-four years later, the meaning of the exorcist has not changed, and it is much thicker.

"real?"

   Katarina never trusts people easily and never makes friends. In the wilderness, lies are as terrible as weirdness, and it is harder to convince her of a man than to make her a thousand shillings.

   But she couldn't resist the huge temptation of "Lu Li is a pure human being".

   "You better not lie to me."

   "Civilians won't listen to you calmly." Lu Li said.

   Katarina was dubious, that was enough for her. If it weren't for Lu Li's help, his identity, and that... trustworthy atmosphere, she would tie people up first and then consider whether to believe it or not.

   "I heard that exorcists destroy monsters without asking for anything in return, help those in need, and protect civilians with their lives. Is this true?" Katerina asked.

   "Mostly." Lu Li replied. "Are there still exorcists?"

   "I can't see it anymore, maybe there are still in the city." Katerina recalled the past and stabbed the homologue into her toe.

   The nearly ten-centimeter-long homolog completely pierced the toe, and strangely did not pierce from the other side.

   "When I was young, there were exorcists, but they were all short-lived ghosts, and most of them were not like what you said... They are no different from me, they are all doing things with money, in order to survive."

   "Does the Exorcist Society still exist?"

   "Never heard of it."

   It could be a lack of information, or it could be extinction in a weird wave.

   They left nothing but tinder.

   When he wanted to ask why there were still towns on the ground, Lu Li suddenly realized that the question could not be finished - he would have countless questions every minute and every second, some Katerina could answer, some even she didn't know.

   So Lu Li asked Katerina to tell him everything she knew on the ground.

   "Then you have to prepare yourself mentally," Katerina said.

   The world has long since fallen apart.

   Soon after the third scourge was born, the fourth scourge was born.

  It seems like an inducement, and the Lennon Islands, known as the "Blessed Sea", were changed overnight by an indescribable force. Broken into countless islands, scattered around like a puzzle.

  The monsters invaded the human gathering places, and the population dropped sharply. If the lights in the windows of the town represent humans, the weirdness is that late at night, the sleeping people turn off the lights over time.

During the    period, many things happened in the Lord's Land and the Broken Lennon Islands, but Katarina didn't know that and didn't care. It seems that she has experienced a lot of misery during that time and doesn't want to talk about it too much.

   The new change in the Badlands as Katarina knew it came about twenty years ago.

   A small town called "Midnight Town" rose from the wilderness. The founders are a group of human believers who believe in the "Midnight Lady".

   It miraculously stood in the dark, grotesque wilderness, and was not attacked by the monstrosities.

   People who were hiding like mice approached spontaneously and learned the truth about the safety of the "town": the church believed in their "gods" and used the power of "gods" to protect the town.

  Because only weirdness can fight against weirdness.

   That was the first human town Katarina knew, but it might not be the first town in this world or this continent.

   Over time, other towns began to appear in the Darklands, and the first Midnight Town became Midnight City.

  The farthest city that Katarina knew was across the strait, the frozen port of Wiener on the mainland.

  Lu Li also knew there.

   Even though the town limits are relatively safe, that doesn't mean humans have found a way to fight the weird: they're just on their feet.

   Contrary to imagination, believers usually do not force people to believe in their gods.

  In other words, the threshold for churches in most towns is very high-they do not allow evil spirits among the believers, and try to keep the power of the "God" as pure as possible.

   But there are also churches who don't care, so their "spirits" become like evil gods, **** and chaotic. This led to the collapse of some towns and the chaotic tendencies of some towns.

   Although the church is the controller of the town, they are not the ruler: in the town, politics and religion are separated. It's like the relationship between the exorcist and the state - mutual dependence and mutual independence.

  The church guarantees the safety of the town, develops believers and strengthens the gods. Politicians build towns and ensure stable governance.

  Because the outside of the town is absolutely dangerous and weird, most churches can only barely protect their towns, so the towns scattered all over the mainland are like isolated islands, and each isolated island has a different owner. They have different laws, different ethos, and sometimes hostile to each other.

   and some unknown islands.

   "Unknown" is caused by a variety of factors. For example, the people who knew it were dead, or the people who knew it couldn't spread the message to the outside world. For survivors, unknown towns are just as dangerous as the wilderness.

   Just like some islands are lush with vegetation, some islands are rich in food, some islands are full of ferocious beasts, and some islands will be submerged by sea water at high tide——

   So that also means one thing: not all towns are friendly and safe.

   And post-apocalyptic people have also found their own way of survival: adaptation.

  Adapt to ubiquitous pollution.

   They depend on the town to survive, planting, working, fishing, hunting, cleaning up weirdness, in exchange for shillings and food, slowing down the infection rate to allow themselves to survive, and if they are lucky, they can get resident status before they become aliens.

  Being a resident is a privilege, and everyone wants to be a resident: that means you can have a house of your own in a town.

   But that requires enough cost or enough contribution.

   Most people who work hard to contribute to the town are tainted as xenos or weirdos before they become official residents - the pollution caused by contact with the weird is far more terrible than the pollution of food and water.

   "If I could become a resident, I wouldn't have to take the risk of cleaning up the weird stuff around town." Katarina sighed, inserting the homologue into her eyeball.

   She doesn't look lost, perhaps because she found Lu Li.

  If Lu Li is really a pure human being, the contribution she gets is enough to make her a resident.

   "Where is the nearest town from here."

   "Thirteen miles away, the name is Tangge Town."

   "Does the town have something to do with the mango ghost?"

   "I think it's a coincidence." Katarina shrugged. "But people in the church do often issue missions to exterminate the ghosts, maybe it has something to do with it?"

   "Is the mango ghost a different species?" Lu Li asked.

   "I don't know...but I haven't heard rumors of someone becoming a mango ghost. And that kind of monster is very difficult to contaminate people... Either get away from it or be killed by it."

  Before Lu Li asked, Katerina took the initiative to say the ability of mango ghosts: "Next time you see them, keep your distance and keep quiet, they can't see things that won't move."

   "I was chased because I was too close, and so were you, and they weren't blind."

   (end of this chapter)