The detective is dead, I did it.

Chapter 19 An Extraordinary History

"Ming Kingdom? What's that?" Li Ang asked, completely bewildered after blocking an attack.

Does this mean that the course of history has changed in some countries during this era?

However, the situation at the scene clearly did not allow him to ask the detective any further questions.

After he swung his knife and cut down another person, the remaining people finally began to waver. Their eyes instantly cleared, their ferocity disappeared, and only fear remained.

One man threw down his weapon and ran away, then a second, and a third.

"That's more like it." Li Ang shook the blood off his knife, watching the fleeing figures. "How much do they make in a month? Why risk their lives like that?"

The room fell silent again, with only the wails of the thugs who were still breathing, and the faint sound of the girls crying could be heard.

Li Ang's choice was to stab each of those thugs, sending them to meet their maker sooner. Of course, Li Ang would have preferred them to go to hell.

"Should we chase after them?" Charlotte asked, putting away her gun.

"No." Li Ang shook his head. "I'm too exhausted. If I chase after them any further, I might get killed instead."

It was too dark outside, and he didn't know where those thugs had escaped to. Although he wanted to eliminate them completely, he knew it was unrealistic.

Charlotte crouched down, opened her palms, and silver light seeped from them, covering the corpses one by one.

Cards emerged in the light, and the identity information on them gradually changed to that of criminals.

Then Li Ang felt the cards begin to transmit waves of power. The muscle soreness subsided, and he even felt his heartbeat become stronger.

"Alright. Now you should be able to become a full-fledged Sequence 9." Charlotte said after she had finished doing all this.

"I thought I woke up as a Sequence 9."

"Of course not." She shook her head. "But the cultist you ambushed and killed gave you a lot of 'experience,' and with these people, it just so happens that you've officially become an ability user."

"The word 'experience' is used quite aptly..." Li Ang hesitated, as if he wanted to say something but then stopped.

"Hmm? You don't like it? Actually, there are other terms, such as the accumulation of abilities, the sedimentation of cause and effect, the transformation of sins..."

"Forget it, experience is good enough," Li Ang interrupted her. "Let's go with experience. At least it's easier to understand."

"Perfect, take a look and see how your abilities have changed." Charlotte took a step back. "Theoretically, each time the sequence upgrades, your abilities will change."

With a thought, Li Ang brought the black blade back into his hand.

The blade remained as black as ink, with dark red patterns on it, seemingly unchanged. But with a thought, the blade suddenly lengthened in his hand!

The blade grew from two feet to three feet, and could even extend! Moreover, with another thought, the blade began to shrink, eventually becoming the size of a dagger.

What is this? My own Ruyi Jingu Bang (magic staff)?

"Shape change." Charlotte observed carefully for a while. "It can freely change the shape and size of the weapon."

"Perhaps it can have a surprising effect in battle later." Charlotte walked up to the second floor, glanced at the girls trembling in the corner of the room, "But for now, let's deal with them first."

Li Ang sheathed his knife. In the corner of the room, several scantily clad girls were huddled together. They were all young, the oldest looking no more than twenty, with expressions of fear and numbness on their faces.

"It's alright. Those people aren't coming back," he said.

The girls didn't answer. The eldest one looked up at him, her lips moved, but she eventually covered her face and wept.

"What should we do with these people?" Charlotte asked Leon. "How about sending them to a factory? I happen to know a few cotton mill owners."

"Sending someone from one hell to another? That's not a funny joke at all."

"But at least they won't starve," Charlotte said earnestly.

If they are sent to the factory, they may become an insignificant cog in that giant gear, but at least they can survive.

And they won't have to suffer beatings and abuse from strange men like they do now.

"Then I saved him for nothing?" Li Ang sighed, feeling quite troubled.

Ultimately, he lacked the power to properly settle these girls.

"I never expected my assistant to be such a righteous guy," Charlotte teased.

"Really? Even though this world is rotten to the core, we still need a little hope."

Externally, demons wreak havoc; internally, capitalists leech off ordinary people; even these detectives who claim to be righteous are actually members of a privileged class at the Celestial Dragon level.

To be honest, Li Ang really thinks this world is not very good.

It's a better world than a terrible one like Warhammer, but not by much, at least for those struggling on the brink of death in the slums.

"Alright, in that case, I'll inform the monastery to take them in."

Charlotte walked up to a girl, reached out, and gently wiped away the tears on her face. The girl instinctively wanted to pull away, but ultimately didn't move.

Although the religious orders of this era have declined, some of their subordinate organizations have been preserved as places to shelter orphans and homeless women.

There were even nuns inside, still worshipping God.

The detectives didn't care; as long as it wasn't about believing in evil gods, everything was fine.

After all, the so-called god that the church preached had no effect whatsoever during the Demon Gate incident, and didn't even show the slightest miracle.

It's already a favor that they weren't labeled as evil gods.

"Then I'll leave it to you."

"It's my duty," Charlotte said. "However, it will take some time to arrange things. They can rest here tonight, and someone will come to pick them up early tomorrow morning."

"Speaking of which," Li Ang suddenly remembered something and asked, "what did you mean by the Ming Dynasty you mentioned earlier?"

"Hmm?" Charlotte, who was observing the scene, looked up. "That Ming Dynasty in the East, huh? Their silk and porcelain are not only beautiful but also very practical; they're top-tier goods among the nobility. Didn't you know?"

"No, the Ming Dynasty you mentioned is the same one I remember..." Li Ang hesitated, then stopped.

"From memory?"

"It's nothing." He thought for a moment, then couldn't help asking, "By the way, was the Ming emperor's surname Zhu, or Aisin Gioro?"

Charlotte looked at him with a strange expression. "Ju. After all, the other side is from a detective superpower... well, no, that's not quite right either."

"Their ability users appeared a little earlier, but they're not called detectives over there, they're called something like 'Jin'..."

"The Embroidered Uniform Guard," Li Ang blurted out in Chinese.

"Yes! That's it." Charlotte's eyes lit up. "How did you know? And your Chinese sounds so fluent."

I've heard people mention it before.

It's hard to say, but at least there's no flaw in the assessment.