Staring into the dark and abyssal corridor ahead, an overwhelming sense of fear quickly seized my instincts. I took several hurried steps backward, but then forcibly regained my composure, compelling myself to move forward.
I never imagined I could be so terrified of something.
A person might remain calm in the face of all the horrors of the world until the end of their life. If they were brave enough, they could remain courageous until their last breath, facing death heroically.
But when a person is brutally killed and resurrected, experiencing real and painful deaths repeatedly, with the physical and psychological torment before dying all too real, then no matter how commendable their courage, it will be rapidly depleted.
That's me right now.
In the past half-hour, I've been killed more than ten times, and just over a minute from now, someone, or something else, will come to kill me.
The process of dying lasts about a minute, my throat is slit open, and in excruciating pain, I feel blood choking my windpipe. I want to cough, but nothing comes out. I want to breathe, but all that fills my lungs is murky blood.
This minute feels longer to me than an entire year.
But I won't truly die; some unknown force will bring me back to before I was killed.
During this time, I've tried to escape, fight back, call for help, negotiate, hide, and even lie on the ground pretending to be dead.
Then the person will appear as usual, effortlessly kill me, and then depart casually.
As for how I ended up like this, it all started three days ago...
I'm a private detective, running a detective agency with a friend.
In my distant and hazy recollection, detective agencies and private investigators had become exceedingly rare. However, later on, human society underwent a monumental upheaval—the outbreak of the Third World War.
In the war's aftermath, the global order collapsed, giving rise to gangs, thugs, and professional criminals in abundance. Human civilization crumbled, and these elements proliferated like fungi on a colossal corpse.
In such a milieu, private investigation emerged as a lucrative and thriving industry,as a scorching furnace of fortune.
At two o'clock in the morning three days ago, my sleep was rudely interrupted by a damn noise. As I opened my eyes, I immediately identified the source: my partner, Deter Forestial. I remembered he was busy with a case tonight, and judging by his appearance, he had just wrapped it up and returned.
Before my discontent at being awoken turned into a storm of anger aimed at Deter, he spoke up first: "We've got a big-ticket order tonight, get up quickly."
I put away my irritation, quickly put on my coat,followed Deter to the living room.
It was raining outside at the time, and a man was half-lying on the sofa in the reception room, with an obvious wound on his left trouser leg, bleeding outward. The man's face was pale, and he had lost consciousness.
Apart from his left leg, the man had some minor wounds and bruises, seemingly from a recent beating.
This had absolutely no connection to Lin Yi's case tonight—he was busy investigating an extramarital affair for some unfortunate soul who had been cuckolded.
Without much thought, I went forward to assist Deter in treating the man. After confirming that the man wouldn't die immediately, I asked Deter what was going on.
"Came across him on the way back. This guy was lying on the sidewalk across from us," Deter said matter-of-factly.
In the current state of lawlessness, homicides occur frequently in this city. Because you never know if you're going to save a dead gangster who had it coming even in death, even the friendliest Samaritan won't just rush to help a bystander lying in a pool of blood.
Let alone Deter, this guy who never gets up without a profit.
"Hey bro, are you saying this big-ticket case is all about me assuming the role of the physician and saving lives??" I looked at Deter with some amusement, then continued, "I remember we ain't running no charity hospital right?"
Deter didn't respond to my question verbally, but instead opted for a straightforward action—He pulled up the sleeve of the injured man, revealing a mechanical watch.
It was a brand-name watch worth a lot of money. Even if the watch was broken, the expensive metal material of the case alone would be worth a lot of money.
This isn't something gang members or street thugs can afford.
"It's a wealthy man, and there's probably a case behind it. The god of wealth has arrived," Deter remarked.
The man woke up the next morning.
Initially, he was very cautious when he opened his eyes and saw the two of us, but after understanding the situation, he quickly relaxed. Deter is adept at handling assignments, and he always operates with precision. He promptly introduced our identities to the man and expressed that our detective agency was fully capable of taking on any task he might have.
After some contemplation, as Deter had anticipated, he promptly expressed his genuine need for a private detective. His name was Oceus Iluvis, and he wasn't a local resident.
Before delving into Oceus Iluvis's case, it's imperative to provide some context on the World War. The outbreak of the World War occurred fifty years ago.
Its scale surpassed that of all previous wars in human history.
The war rendered sixty percent of the world's regions into complete ruins, where all traces of human existence were obliterated. In the remaining areas, the population dwindled to just one-tenth of pre-war levels. The war caused a regression in technology, productivity, and societal structures by over a century.
In reality, had the previous social structures been preserved, fifty years would have sufficed for humanity to recover its prosperity. However, unfortunately, the war shattered the original social organizations, and post-war food shortages were so severe that humanity endured prolonged periods of internal strife.
This explains the severe wealth disparity, societal chaos, and virtually non-existent law enforcement in the current human world. Most people live below the poverty line.
As for Oceus Iluvis's commission, in essence, it entails retrieving something. Oceus Iluvis belongs to an organization that considers itself capable of saving the world, and he is a technician within this organization.
This organization is renowned in various regions, controlling several cities that are among the few prosperous areas in this post-apocalyptic wasteland, with its influence continually expanding. Oceus's superiors tasked his team with retrieving lost pre-war technology. Unexpectedly, they were attacked by an unidentified armed force, resulting in almost total casualties.
Oceus managed to bravely secure and relocate the most crucial items, hiding them in an unfinished building in the outskirts of Qingze City. Consequently, the assailants have been relentlessly pursuing him.
His commission to us is to evade these pursuers and recover the concealed items.
The commission fee for this single task amounts to a whopping three hundred thousand dollars!
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