Artifact Report

Chapter 267 Mai Minghe's Belated Message
Li Sidan was probably a vigilant, agile, and life-loving person during his lifetime. He always pricked up his ears to listen to the movements around him and paid attention to the direction in which he could escape as soon as possible.

After the lizard appeared, he was the fastest runner among the few people.

There was a distance of two floors between him and Robert behind him; at such a distance, no one saw how he died.

In fact, Mai Minghe couldn't even be sure whether he was really dead.

They stopped below the floor where Li Sidan last shouted for help, cautiously stretched their necks and peeked upstairs - after the screams disappeared, the pale lights and gray cement indifferently pressed on everyone's vision.

A few scattered silver antennas peeked out from the edge of the stair steps, faintly reflecting light.

When a few people rushed to this floor, the green color on the emergency exit sign was no longer visible, only white - as if a little man was clinging to the lid and was about to climb out, and the white body completely submerged the sign.

But now, after Li Sidan's shouting disappeared, the little man also disappeared; all that was left on the sign was an empty green and the four letters "EXIT".

"...We will have to go up and take a look sooner or later," Su Beihua said panting, very tired.

Ai Meili seemed unable to walk, and she was able to stay in the team only by being pulled and dragged by Suo Beihua's snake tail.

Mai Minghe could also see that Ai Meili's condition was getting worse: the nut shell was gradually losing its plant texture, gradually hardening and petrifying, and becoming heavier and heavier, so heavy that she didn't dare to push Ai Meili up the stairs - she was afraid that if her arm trembled, or if Suo Beihua's snake tail slipped, Ai Meili would roll down and smash her into darkness.

"Stand up on your snake's tail and stretch your head out to have a look."

Robert glanced at Su Beihua and gave the order.

Su Beihua must have hated being given orders by him; but starting a few minutes ago, the situation had changed - or rather, the balance of power had changed, and she could no longer ignore Robert's words.

The five interviewed hunters had always maintained a fairly balanced partnership. Suo Beihua's words carried more weight due to her powerful influence, but overall, no one was qualified to issue orders.

Now that I think about it, that was because all five of them originally had guns.

The root of power is violence.

Shortly after encountering the lizard, all five of them ran out of bullets.

No one had a gun, which was a new balance - but amidst Li Sidan's final drawn-out, fear-filled scream, Robert shot at the lizards who were also listening attentively to the movements upstairs.

It's not the pistol issued by the Kai family.

The object in Robert's hand was so small and inconspicuous that when he suddenly raised his hand, no one could tell that he was holding something in his hand - and there was chaos in the stairwell at the time, so no one noticed that he raised his hand.

At that time, the concrete walls were buzzing and echoing with Li Sidan's cries for help and Mai Minghe's helpless shouts; Su Beihua also shouted "What happened" over and over again, but received no answer.

But even if all the chaos and shouting were deleted and the stairwell returned to complete silence, no one would hear any gunshots.

There was no sound when Robert fired the gun.

By the time everyone—including the two lizards—realized that something was amiss, the Tianxi-looking lizard had already let go of the hand that had been holding onto the railing and fell straight into the stairwell.

It fell very quickly, but Mai Minghe and his companions still caught a glimpse of it: it was no longer a flesh-and-blood, lizard-like person; it was a piece of cardboard in the shape of a lizard with its four legs spread out, and a crack in the middle, just like the crack they had chiseled in the wall.

"What's going on——"

Before the Chibelli-like lizard could finish his words, the second one turned into cardboard and fell down.

The last half-lizard, who still retained the appearance of a woman, seemed to realize at this moment that the danger came from the five people in front of him.

It turned its head and immediately jumped downstairs; Robert took a step forward and raised his hand towards its back - it was only then that Mai Minghe finally saw his weapon clearly.

…a cardboard pistol with a paper trigger.

"What are you standing there for?" Robert said to Su Beihua, "You are the only one who can go up and take a look."

Suo Beihua bit her lower lip, swam slowly to the stairs, and stood up from the snake's tail little by little.

Robert stared at the thick, dark green snake tail beneath her without blinking, and his hand closed around the spring again.

...If this continues, he might not be able to do anything other than wind the clock. No, in fact, it's quite surprising that he can still stop winding the clock occasionally.

"Be careful," Mai Minghe knew that these two words were useless, but still couldn't help but remind Su Beihua.

It had been two or three minutes since the next wave of "rescue" appeared in the stairwell; but judging from the number of parallel realities, this short gap would end at any time.

My current escape is almost entirely due to luck; what will I do when my luck runs out next time?

Li Sidan's luck had already run out.

"Did you see him?" Mai Minghe asked tentatively. "...No."

Suo Beihua stood high in the air, looking up at the corner terrace above. She whispered, "I didn't see the body, but he must have..."

She didn't finish her words, nor did she need to.

All that Li Sidan left behind were numerous and clear traces of struggle.

The broken antennas shimmered and rolled down the stairwell like countless silver hairs; the broken antennas became blunt needles, piercing Li Sidan's skin, either cutting or stabbing, leaving behind splattered blood marks.

The bloodstains formed a path where Li Sidan struggled and was dragged.

The chaotic traces left behind during the desperate fight started from the halfway point of the stairs, dragged onto the platform ground, climbed all the way up the wall, and finally disappeared into the "Emergency Exit Sign".

The outer shell of the "Emergency Exit Sign" was broken, revealing an irregular, deep black hole.

Li Sidan probably disappeared into the black hole.

Around the emergency exit sign, on the walls and ceiling, large pools of blood splattered; the blood, still bright red and not yet thick enough to clot, dripped onto the floor. Sometimes, the blood was covered with broken skin, making a "splat" sound.

...The smell is so strong that it seems to be substantial and can obscure vision.

Suo Beihua covered her mouth tightly with one hand, as if trying desperately to suppress the juice churning in her stomach; Robert was stunned and couldn't help but loosen his hand for a while.

Ai Meili stood stiffly on the stairs, showing no reaction.

"...that little man painted on the sign," Suo Beihua said softly, "after he crawled out of the sign, he dragged...dragged Li Sidan back in alive?"

"It seems so."

Robert squeezed past her and climbed the stairs, his soles treading on the broken antenna, each step sounding crisp and hard. "Su Beihua, come up and see if that little man is still on the sign on the upper floor?"

Even though Suo Beihua didn't want to, she held back and didn't say anything. She swept aside the broken antenna, slowly swam to the middle of the stairs, and raised her snake tail again—"No more."

"The emergency exit sign is blank?"

"Yes," Suo Beihua looked up to confirm, "There's only a green sign, but no figurines. Strange..."

She looked back at the emergency exit sign behind her, which had a black hole in it, under the ceiling.

"What's that place back there?"

"What do you mean?" Robert turned around and took a closer look when she asked.

"Where did that villain drag Li Sidan to?" Suo Beihua pointed at the sign. "This sign is a light box. It's broken from the inside. The wires, the box, or the wall should be exposed. But now there's only darkness... Can you see the end?"

She had no intention of waiting for Robert's reply. At this point, she took out her cell phone, turned on the flashlight, and shone a beam of white light inside.

Mai Minghe stood still on the stairs, as if in a dream, watching the beam of light sink into the darkness. It managed to crawl a few steps, illuminating the thicker, more crowded darkness ahead, before finally giving out and being completely swallowed by the darkness.

She thought about it.

The nest information that would never surface unless triggered by keywords always seemed to arrive a step late, as if it wanted to let her ignorance linger a little longer to see if it could create more opportunities for her death.

...Although what Mai Minghe remembered this time did not help her get out of the predicament, this information will still arrive late.

"What's wrong with you?" Su Beihua called her, "Are you scared?"

Mai Minghe shook his head and his eyes fell from the black hole.

She raised a hand and touched the cold, hard mirror behind the door on her face.

“…I think I recognize it.”

Suo Beihua was stunned, a look of doubt on her face. "You mean a black hole? What is that?"

"We need to leave here immediately," Mai Minghe said, pointing upstairs. "Let's go up... I have an idea that might lead us back to our original floor."

　Why did Mai Minghe take so long to write?
　　When I was planning it, I knew I would be writing about her for a while, but I didn't expect to write about her until now...

　　Although it is indeed much easier to write from a single perspective, isn't this a group portrait?

　　
　
(End of this chapter)