Opening a Detective Agency at the Edge of the Universe

Female protagonist + ensemble cast + interstellar setting + original worldbuilding + mystery solving + no romance

The poorest detective agency in the entire universe is still working hard today to pay next month’s rent, and to avoid eating nutrition paste that tastes like industrial lubricant!

The agency’s head, Liang Chen, is an ordinary broke person who seems to have no talents apart from being beautiful, having terrifying intuition, and loving to write poems no one understands. Her startup team includes Zhang Bujue, a tech geek who may have social anxiety but is maxed out in black tech; Bonta, a red-haired handsome rogue who calls himself a “gentleman thief” but mostly excels at blowing up the budget; and Rhein, a former temple clerk who was “downsized” by his old employer for quoting books far too much.

Their day-to-day work involves taking on bizarre little jobs that even the intelligence brokers next door wouldn’t touch, like “my narcissus suddenly stopped smiling,” “the virtual soul of a holographic idol ran away from home,” and “the gems at an auction started tap-dancing by themselves in the middle of the night.” Then, while dealing with these silly cases, they somehow get mixed up in conspiracies involving powerful people that sound like nothing but trouble.

Liang Chen has this to say: “Wait! We’re just trying to earn enough to eat!”

Her team replies, “Boss, saying that to the ‘divine relic’ that’s planning to cleanse the entire star system isn’t very convincing.”

This is a story about a bunch of rather abnormal people who, before saving the world (maybe), have to save their bank balance.