Chapter 258 - 257: The Final Painting

Chapter 258: Chapter 257: The Final Painting

"Something’s happened?"

When Lloyd saw the manager approaching with the two investigators, he was suddenly struck with a bad feeling...

An unofficial ranking has long circulated through the streets and alleyways of Radiant City—the ’People You Least Want to Meet’ list. The profession of ’investigator’ ranked third, even higher than police officers and tax collectors...

It was no wonder Lloyd felt a sense of dread.

The manager who had brought them over was the first to speak, offering an explanation:

"Don’t be nervous, esteemed member. These two gentlemen are here to ask you a few questions about a situation, not to arrest you."

Lloyd nodded, and then one of the investigators spoke:

"Do you know Agate? A street painter? And did you receive a painting from him three days ago?"

"Hm? I do know a young painter who often sets up a stall by the entrance to the old book market, but we don’t know each other’s names... He did give me a painting, but it wasn’t three days ago. It was today."

Lloyd answered truthfully.

The manager beside him quickly interjected with an explanation:

"Er... Actually, the young painter you mentioned is named Agate... As for the painting, he delivered it here three days ago, and I accepted it on your behalf. You just haven’t been here for the past three days, so I was only able to give it to you today."

His wording was so carefully chosen that Lloyd realized the painter might be in trouble. He pressed, "What happened to him?"

"We’ll get to that later. Can you let us examine the painting you received today?"

"Of course. Be my guest. It’s hanging on the wall in the basement."

As Lloyd spoke, he turned to get the key and opened the door for the investigators.

The moment the door swung open, both investigators’ expressions hardened. They frowned and quickly signaled for Lloyd and the manager to step back.

Then, the silent investigator ’spoke’ directly into his partner’s mind:

’The aura in here... Spiritual Contamination?’

The investigator responsible for verbal communication nodded and ’replied’ in his mind:

’Yes, that’s right. Spiritual Contamination. But thankfully, it’s not very strong... It should be within our capabilities to handle.’

’Right... Don’t turn on the lights yet. Let me take a look first.’

The investigator, who was clearly of the [Wisdom] school, activated his [Eye of Wisdom] and saw the normally invisible remnants of Spiritual Power in the basement.

’Judging from the lingering traces, this guy was researching some kind of Orbit. A rather special one, it seems. These remnants form patterns I’ve never seen before. They’re sort of like... It’s hard to describe. See for yourself.’

With that, he directly projected the image from his own eyes onto his partner’s retina.

Faint, pale-blue traces of Spiritual Charm lingered in the air. They looked like nematodes twisted into braids, swimming slowly over the workbench and through the air before gradually dissipating.

’It’s definitely strange, but it doesn’t look dangerous. It must be some simple, functional Orbit. Maybe it touches on a gray area? In any case, this isn’t the source of the Spiritual Contamination.’

The first investigator thought, then glanced back at Lloyd.

He was currently fending off the manager’s sales pitch. After tricking him into buying a membership, the scoundrel still wasn’t satisfied and was now trying to get him to upgrade to a more premium one...

’Maybe. But that’s not our business. Alright, get ready. Let’s go in and see.’

The second investigator, the one from the [Wisdom] school, pulled a sharp metal triangle from his pocket and held it in his palm, ready to cut his hand to stay awake with the pain if they encountered danger.

His partner did the same. After their silent, private conversation and some simple preparations, the two of them walked into the basement and switched on the light.

The painting on the wall immediately caught their eyes. As they looked at it, they were instantly overcome by a chilling, grotesque bizarreness.

"This painting... it’s just hideous. And so strange. The lines are chaotic, the colors are a mess, the subject is unclear, and it has no aesthetic or artistic quality whatsoever. Can you even tell what the artist was trying to express?"

"I can’t make sense of it either. It looks like a huge, jumbled mess of pixels. It’s so ugly it’s unsettling... Is this really the work of a so-called ’painter’? And not the scribblings of a mental patient? Even postmodern abstract art doesn’t look like this."

"The good news is, it doesn’t contain any of the Forbidden Knowledge we were worried about. It’s just so grotesque it makes your skin crawl and causes a physical sense of discomfort... The victim’s mental state must have already been terrible when he created this..."

"Mm, this should allow us to estimate the approximate time the victim’s condition manifested..."

While critiquing the painter’s work, the two investigators carefully inspected the entire basement, even rummaging through the trash can.

In the end, aside from the painting, they found nothing out of the ordinary—just simple, basic, common materials. The bit of Spiritual Contamination they had sensed earlier had only appeared for a moment when the door was opened, then dissipated.

"What about this painting? Should we confiscate it?"

"Since we’ve confirmed it’s not dangerous, we shouldn’t mess with someone else’s property... But we should probably check that young man’s mental state, right? Give him a psych evaluation. The fact that he’d hang a painting like this on his wall makes me question his sanity..."

After a brief discussion, the two investigators called Lloyd back in. Then, they suddenly lunged at him in a brazen sneak attack, inexplicably shining a flashlight in his eyes.

Caught completely off guard, Lloyd was left dizzy and seeing spots.

"OW, OW, my eyes!!! Are you trying to kill me?"

"Calm down, calm down. It’s just a simple check. Why are you reacting so strongly?"

"You could have given me a warning..."

Lloyd said irritably, rubbing his eyes nonstop.

"Alright, alright. Now let’s do a simple mental assessment..."

The first investigator said, pulling a booklet similar to a color blindness test from his pocket. It was filled with mosaic-like patterns. He flipped randomly to a page and held it in front of Lloyd.

"Take a look at this. What does it look like?"

Lloyd squinted, glanced at it, and answered irritably:

"A ferocious kitten."

"Er... It’s clearly more of a tiger, isn’t it? But that’s a feline too... How about this one?"

The investigator casually flipped to another page.

"A Dingding Cat... Oh, the scientific name should be dragonfly."

"And this one?"

"Shenli Linghua... Er, I mean, a small turtle."

"Seems like there’s no problem... Alright, last question..."

The investigator closed the booklet, turned to point at the painting on the wall, and asked:

"What about this? What do you see in it?"

"Hm? An ancient battlefield composed of broken swords, corpses, blood, and fire. It looks desolate and cruel. Although the technique is a bit amateurish and chaotic, the emotional tone is conveyed very well."

Lloyd answered truthfully.

"What?"

The investigator froze for a moment, then grabbed Lloyd’s shoulder and shone the flashlight in his eyes again.

"Are you just trying to mess with me?"

Lloyd wrenched his arm free. He seemed genuinely angry now, his hand subconsciously reaching for the hilt of his sword.

But the investigator tried to force an explanation:

"Calm down and listen to me. Your mental state is very dangerous right now. I’m trying to help you."

"Sigh... How could I be in any danger? I know what you’re getting at. You just think this painting looks like a pixelated scribble that you can’t understand, right? You can’t even appreciate this kind of postmodern abstract art? Could you please try to have a little imagination? Or maybe some aesthetic taste and artistic appreciation?"

Lloyd retorted irritably.

"Er... so you’re seeing the same painting I am?"

"Of course. There’s nothing wrong with my eyes. You think I’m blind like you?"

Just as the two were about to start arguing, the second investigator quickly ’chatted privately’ with his partner for a moment, apparently discussing something.

Then, the investigator lowered his head and offered a sincere apology:

"Alright, I’m sorry. I misunderstood. It’s just that this case involves Forbidden Knowledge, so I have to be cautious. I hope you can understand."

"Forbidden Knowledge? Then what happened to the painter?"

Lloyd quickly pressed for more information.

"To put it simply, he shoved a paintbrush into his own ear, all the way into his brain. Then he tried to paint a picture with what came out..."

The investigator’s simple description was enough to make Lloyd shiver, as if his own ear had started to ache.

"But the painting was never finished. He died of a cerebral hemorrhage halfway through... His landlord found him yesterday," the investigator continued.

"That’s..."

Lloyd couldn’t help but look up at the painting on the wall—one that couldn’t be called beautiful. This might have been the young painter’s final work.

"Anyway, that’s the situation. Since you insist your mental state is fine, we have no further business here."

The investigator said, preparing to turn and leave.

But Lloyd stopped him and pressed, "Why do these things happen?"

The investigator shrugged, a helpless, bitter smile on his face as he offered a simple explanation:

"Who knows? For people like painters, writers, and sculptors, incidents like this happen to someone every month or two. You just don’t hear about them. So that ’artistic appreciation’ you mentioned? In this day and age, it’s not necessarily a good thing...

But this painting of yours is fine. Take good care of it."

With that, he and the silent investigator left.

"Sigh..."

All Lloyd could do in the face of such a thing was let out a helpless sigh.

He remembered the private cab driver, Goldrinn, mentioning a similar incident before—another case involving a painter and Forbidden Knowledge.

This time, however, it just so happened to have occurred to someone he knew.