Artifact Report

Chapter 266 Mai Minghe: The Discovery of the Three Stinky Lizard Leathersmiths

"Robert!"

Mai Minghe was the first to react. He stood up suddenly and shouted, "Get out of the way!"

The person who was leaning against the wall and sitting just below the crack was Robert, who had been winding the spring.

He was completely immersed in it, as if he were climbing upwards through a spiral of accumulating sensations. Mai Minghe yelled twice before he finally blew out a breath and came to his senses: "...What are you doing? What are you yelling about?"

Before Mai Minghe could speak, he seemed to realize that something was wrong.

Robert raised his flushed plastic face.

The face on Tianxi's background happened to meet his eyes, casting a smiling shadow on his face.

Robert's body trembled, a half-scream escaped from his throat, and he immediately let go of his hand; he finally retained a bit of rationality and did not jump up instinctively - otherwise he would have thrown himself into the arms of Tianxi Background Board - but hurriedly jumped to the side, knocking Li Sidan to the wall.

The antennas broke one after another; amid Li Sidan's screams of pain, Robert pulled out the pistol from his waist and fired several shots into the cracks.

However, the background board was only three to five centimeters thick at most. Several bullets scraped past the background board, hit the wall and bounced back, turning into stray bullets flying everywhere. For a moment, everyone crouched in panic, dodging, shouting and yelling, and chaos reigned.

Li Sidan kept shouting, "Push it out! Push it out again!"

"Go ahead and touch me if you want," Robert shouted angrily, and ordered Aimee Li on the stairs below: "What are you still sitting there for? Run! Get out of the way!"

Suo Beihua was also shouting, "Come back, we don't want to be separated!"

Mai Minghe had already turned around and rushed up the stairs. From his vantage point on the upper flight of stairs, he finally had a clear view of the entire Tianxi background board.

Background board doesn't seem to be an accurate term.

Both sides of the human-shaped cardboard were printed with Tianxi - one side was the front face, the other side was the back of the head. The images were clear and lifelike, as if a living person was pressed into the cardboard.

Even a piece of cardboard didn't seem to hinder its movement; within seconds, it slid a little further into the building, with most of its body sticking out.

Mai Minghe raised a trembling hand, squinted one eye, and pointed the muzzle of his gun at the cardboard figure below. He shouted, "Get out of the way! I'm going to shoot!"

The two arms printed on the human-shaped cardboard suddenly split apart from the shoulders.

"Tianxi Cardboard" used its two long and flat cardboard arms to push the wall hard, and fell to the ground with a "bang" - it was leaning against the wall upside down, and for a moment, it looked like a prop that was temporarily placed there.

At the same time, all of Mai Minghe's bullets were poured onto Tianxi Cardboard's back.

The sound of gunfire echoed in the stairwell, like waves of thunder, drowning out all the panicked screams. In the gradually subsiding aftermath, the sound of everyone's breathing could be heard clearly - everyone was waiting for the next incident.

The cardboard didn't move, but there were holes in its back, and it was bent and emaciated from being beaten.

With a "pop", a small piece of new cardboard fell from somewhere and landed on the ground.

Li Sidan plucked up his courage and leaned forward to take a look; Mai Minghe, who was high above, could also see clearly.

The cardboard is round with a pointed tip at the bottom, like a speech bubble in a comic book.

"it hurts,"

Written on the cardboard were the words, "I came to save people, and you're repaying me with evil? Ah, I get it, you're not real interviewees. You're all fake, you're residents. That's why you look a little strange, like you're particularly swollen, filled with too much fluid..."

The second fallen dialog box read: "Ha! Since you are all residents, I don't have to be polite."

"Move quickly!"

Robert also saw the words on the cardboard clearly. Standing on the staircase, he turned around and kicked Aimee who was blocking the stairs. "Don't block—"

The words turned into a cry of pain. Robert stumbled back, one foot dangling in the air: "My toes - my toes -"

Aimeili was still sitting on the stairs, not moving at all.

"Everyone get down,"

Not far from Mai Minghe, Suo Beihua, who had been coiled on the corner platform, suddenly shouted, "Hold on tight! Don't let me sweep you off!"

Mai Minghe didn't pay any attention to whether the others understood or had time to react.

Because at that moment, her eyes were firmly fixed on the thick snake tail under Suo Beihua's body, as if she had sunk into the shimmering green waves formed by countless fine scales and could not be pulled out - a dark green, shimmering, stretching and rolling river, slowly passing through the air.

The Tianxi cardboard that had just climbed up was rolled up right in the air; the snake's tail wrapped around it and continued to pounce forward. When it pounced into the air above the stairwell, the snake's tail loosened - the cardboard Tianxi fell straight into the infinite void.

Countless small circular cardboard pieces suddenly flew into the air, each one printed with the same words, forming a string in mid-air:
"what"

"what"

"what"

The little cardboards disappeared in a flash and fell down after their owner.

...I really don’t know whether to find it ridiculous, funny, or scared.

"Are you OK?"

After a few seconds, Mai Minghe came to his senses, his eyes darting back and forth between Suo Beihua's face and the snake's tail. "Did you...use the snake's tail illusion to touch it?"

"...Is it still an illusion?" Su Beihua looked down at her snake tail and said in a low voice.

Mai Minghe couldn't answer.

Is her head also slowly solidifying and becoming a mirror?
"Great," Li Sidan breathed a sigh of relief, seemingly unfazed by the antennae covering his body. "Is your snake tail so useful? I'll be responsible for detection, and you'll be responsible for sweeping the attackers into the stairwell. If we work together, won't we have nothing to fear?"

Robert hissed, jumped back to the crack, bent down, and picked up something from the ground.

"That's not certain. There are definitely people who can avoid detection and are not afraid of entering the stairwell... How do you plan to deal with them then?"

The stairwell was silent for a second or two.

Mai Minghe had just reached out to touch his face, and when he actually felt a "doorknob," his heart sank—he hadn't heard anything Li Sidan said. Suo Beihua was staring at Li Sidan, her lips tightly pursed.

Robert had been bending down to pick something up; Aimee hadn't spoken a word in ages, let alone spoken such a long sentence in one breath.

...So, who was the person who responded to Li Sidan just now?
All the antennas on Li Sidan's body slowly turned and aimed at the stairwell in front of him.

Mai Minghe lowered his head towards the handrail at his feet.

Three heads gradually rose from the edge of the stairs next to Ai Meili, from under the handrail in front of her, and from the stairwell facing Li Sidan.

Three people crawled up the stairwell and came to my side at some point.

"Fortunately, you don't have to worry or be afraid anymore." The round head at Mai Minghe's feet opened its mouth towards her: "We are here to save you."

"Even though you didn't pass the interview," said another person (human?) who vaguely resembled Tianxi but definitely looked more like a lizard, "I still have to get you out of the nest."

"Otherwise, who would dare to come to our Kakakakaka-house for an interview in the future?" When the last person spoke, his voice sounded vaguely like a woman's.

She (it?) didn't know whether she (it?) was unable to pronounce "Kaijia", or in that lizardman reality, the family style was "Kakakakakajia".

In just three or four seconds, everyone realized that the bullets were useless.

Some bullets were swallowed by the lizard's open mouth, while others sank gently into the lizard's skin and bounced playfully, like little flies playing with the lizard. For a moment, the atmosphere could almost be described as lively and happy - for the lizards.

"Sweep them quickly," Li Sidan shouted, "Use your tail!"

"Stop talking nonsense," Suo Beihua said angrily.

"Hey, what are you doing here?" said a lizard.

Another lizard fell into thought. "Why are you shooting at us? Don't you want to be saved? And why don't you even retain any of your lizard form? That's suspicious."

"Hurry up," Mai Minghe shouted, "Go upstairs first!"

With such a thick and long snake tail, once it rolled up, the lizardman would immediately grab it tightly and climb up - no wonder Suo Beihua refused to let go of the tail.

Almost everyone was desperately running upstairs—even if it was just a temporary solution, what good would it do? Any escape was better.

However, some people don't think so.

Ai Meili stood on the corner platform and said, "I'm not afraid."

Mai Minghe stopped abruptly and was almost bumped by Robert behind him - it would be very uncomfortable to be hit by the spring.

"Aimeili," she leaned over the handrail and yelled down, "Come up quickly!"

"I'm not weak." said Aimee.

Something that looked like a Chibiri, but in the shape of a lizard, slowly stood up from behind her.

Judging from her increasingly thick and hardened shell, it would be impossible to convince her in a few seconds. Mai Minghe turned around, grasped Su Beihua's hand, and pleaded, "...Please."

Suo Beihua understood what she meant and quickly glanced down - the other two lizard-human hybrids were also climbing straight up the stairwell and were about to catch up again.

"Why?" Su Beihua asked, "Are you with her?"

“No,” Mai Minghe whispered, “but she is a life.”

Suo Beihua hesitated for a moment, her masseter muscles emerged from her cheeks, and then the snake tail stretched out from under her body again - Ai Meili, as a big nut, had no time to resist and was rolled up the stairs.

"Hurry up," Mai Minghe reached out to grab Walnut - in fact, there was no place to grab, so it was more like he was pulling Ai Meili than grabbing her.

"You value human life, so why would you do this?"

Suo Beihua pushed Ai Meili from behind, and the three of them chased Robert and Li Sidan in front.

Mai Minghe had no time to answer her, so he could only smile bitterly and say, "Run!"

But they can only climb the stairs in circles on two feet (except for the Sobei flower), while the lizards can swim straight up on all fours. How can they possibly outrun the lizards?

Mai Minghe began to have a suspicion: it seemed that they could have pounced on them earlier, but they didn't.

The three lizard-like figures even seemed to gradually slow down; once or twice, when she looked back, she found that they were holding the railing, crouching on the edge of the stairs, observing something.

...This doubt was soon answered.

"Did you notice?" Tian Xilizard said, "the emergency exit sign..."

"Yes, I found it downstairs. The little man didn't run away." said the lizard.

What villain won’t run away?

Mai Minghe and Su Beihua looked at each other. Even if it was a trap, they had no motivation to resist. They looked at the emergency exit sign at the same time.

The villain really won't run away.

The little figure originally painted on the sign, striding forward, now stood still on the sign, legs together. It didn't look like it should be on an emergency exit sign—it looked more like a men's restroom sign.

Not only has the movement changed, but the size has changed as well.

Originally, the head and limbs could be accommodated in the light board, but now it seems that it can no longer fit in, and the legs of the little man are no longer visible.

"It's getting bigger layer by layer..." said the Sand Snow Lizard, "No, it doesn't seem right."

The lizard suddenly understood: "Oh, that little man is getting closer to us! It's getting closer with each floor. Just one or two more floors up and it should come out of the signboard."

As if in response to it, Li Sidan's scream suddenly rang out from the floor above.

　The sequel is progressing very slowly, with only a little over a thousand words written... Emotionally, I feel like the story is already finished, and it seems to require a lot of mental energy to dig up the past and write a sequel... I don't know if you can understand what I'm saying, because I don't quite understand it myself (.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)