Artifact Report

Chapter 287 Jin Xueli - The First Clue

Kim Sulli never knew who Morando and the others were.

As they sat there, Morando would suddenly speak, taking a point from the whole story and abruptly stopping halfway through.

But the silence wouldn't last long. Morandau would be compulsively pulled back to that person's death, continuing to speak intermittently, saying a few words, and then stopping again.

In this way, piece by piece, Jin Xueli pieced together a rough picture.

She said, "That's just how people are; they never learn from their mistakes."

Even knowing it's dangerous—no, extremely dangerous—you'll still muster the courage to reach out for what you desire.

"She said she regretted it last time. But this time, she doesn't regret it. Even if she fails, even if she dies, it's still better than...it's still better than..."

Morando stopped there. So Jin Xueli didn't know what state she was in, that it was worse than death.

Jin Xueli didn't know how much of Morando's narration was the person's original words, how much was her own addition, and how much was her involuntary imagination while listening to the other person's voice.

As the setting sun gradually faded, in the dim and chilly half of the room, Morandow's narration created a series of images in her mind; hazy and indistinct, as if Jin Xueli were seeing them through a fog.

...It was attacked by its prey, suffered a fatal wound, fell into the sea, and was washed away to who knows where.

When the person opened her eyes, she was lying alone on the coastline as dusk settled in. The straight, narrow road stretched out, guided by a series of lonely streetlights, reaching into the dark blue sky in the distance.

She slowly climbed up to the side of the road.

For a long time, not a single car appeared.

She thought she was going to die under this unfamiliar, deep purple sky.

After what seemed like an eternity, a car braked beside her. The driver's footsteps shook the ground, and his voice rang out from afar, asking her what was wrong, if she could still hear him, and telling her he would call 911 right away...

The man regained some of his senses and remembered that her phone had been washed away by the sea, but her pistol was still tucked into her pocket.

She struggled to her feet, sat on the ground, pointed a pistol at the driver, and told him to hang up the phone and give her the cell phone.

She thought this was probably the last chance she would ever have to make a phone call.

"She said she knew she was going to die. Her brain was shattered by bullets, and the reason she had lasted this long was due to the side effects of the Nest. But even the Nest cannot defy the ultimate law... She said she was gradually disappearing, and she could feel it."

Morando stared at the wine in his glass and said.

"Finally, I can die," the man said.

I want you to know this, because in this way, you will no longer have doubts, no longer be involved with me, and no longer have to wait for me.

Unfortunately, the last sound you heard wasn't my own.

Jin Xueli didn't understand this sentence—and Morando didn't explain it either.

But it didn't matter that she couldn't understand. She thought to herself that no matter who the dead person was or how they died, it had nothing to do with her. She was just acting as an echo chamber, giving Morando a chance to speak.

It might sound a bit heartless, but she was only sitting here listening to comfort Morando; no matter how much she felt sorry for him now, she would forget about it once Jin Xueli turned around and went home.

Morandau, of course, was unwilling to accept it so easily.

“I told her to give the phone to the driver so I could ask him where you were and I would come pick you up right away. But she refused. She said she was far from Blackmore City and by the time I got there, it would be too late.”

The man said her consciousness was fading. He was certain the driver would retrieve her phone after she lost consciousness or died; after that, he didn't know if he would call 911 again.

“You’ve held on for so long,” Morando couldn’t help but fall into the cliché, “you can’t give up yet—”

“…I haven’t given up,” the person said weakly. “I will never give up on you. So…so my last phone call was to you. I hoped it would be your voice to send me off from this world…”

Morando was speechless for a moment.

"Do you remember, when you used to go to the nest... near the end of the seventh day, I would wait for you in the Reverse Light?"

She said softly, "I can't bear to sit at home alone waiting for you. So I go to the bar early... and you'll go there to find me first... You said that as long as I'm not dead, you'll go to find me in the backlight."

Jin Xueli vaguely understood why Morando had been waiting in the bar.

According to Morando, the man's last words were, "I think I'm going to die," and then the call was cut off. Morando tried calling back repeatedly, but for some reason, he couldn't get through.

She waited for two days "against the light," but the person did not appear.

Morando searched online news, asked friends at the newspaper for inquiries, and made countless phone calls to police stations in nearby states and counties along the coastal highway...

"Is there any news about it?" Kim Seol-ri asked. She originally wanted to ask if anyone had found the body, but changed her words at the last minute.

Morando frowned, seemingly unsure how to explain it.

“Her situation… is rather special.” She seemed unwilling to elaborate, yet also unwilling to offend Jin Xueli, only vaguely stating, “The body was sent back to Blackmore City this morning.”

Huh?
The bodies have all been returned, so what is Morando still waiting for in "Between Backlight"?

And there was already a body, yet she spoke as if she had deduced the other person's death before confirming it... Isn't that a bit strange?

Could Morandall be acting strangely because of the trauma?

"You went to identify the body?" Jin Xueli really didn't know how to ask the best question, so she could only change the subject.

“I have no relation to him, so it’s not my place to acknowledge him. But I’ve checked through my connections, and there’s no mistake.”

...“He”? Isn’t he a woman?
We've been referring to "her" the whole time, so it seems Morandall either really was hurt and not thinking clearly, or she's a closeted heterosexual; the second possibility is rather disappointing, and besides, she doesn't seem like it at all...

Wait a minute, that's not important. Kim Seol-ri is always like this; her mind is like a wild horse that she can't control.

"Sorry, I've said so much that has nothing to do with you. You're probably getting bored."

"Oh, no, not at all..."

After all, she had just been thinking that it was inappropriate to think about such things after someone had died, while also considering the possibility that Morando was bisexual.

It was really strange. Even though the body had already been identified, when the bar door was suddenly pushed open, Morando still abruptly looked up—his attention, like a spotlight, was fixed on a woman who had just entered.

For several seconds, she seemed to be eagerly anticipating the woman's approach.

Jin Xueli also glanced back and sighed inwardly.

Morandow is simply escaping reality.

It was obvious at a glance that the woman was not only not going to come up, but was avoiding any interaction with anyone—she was wearing large sunglasses and a scarf, well-maintained, but you could still tell she was over middle-aged; she seemed not to have expected that there would be customers as soon as the bar opened, and after a moment of hesitation, she chose a corner furthest away from the two of them to sit down.

Perhaps feeling uneasy under Morando's gaze, she looked back several times after sitting down, then hurriedly stood up, ignoring the bartender's offer, said "No need," and rushed out the door.

I said,

The bartender was a little annoyed and said with a downcast face, "There are all kinds of people in this bar. If you just stand here all the time, scanning everyone who comes in like a searchlight, it will really affect the business."

That's true; although there's an unwritten rule in the hunter community that you shouldn't seek revenge or cause trouble in bars, there are always exceptions.

With deception, guilty consciences, ulterior motives... all sorts of hunters make up almost half of the regulars—Molando's ambush-like waiting certainly scares away many people.

“Take her home,” the bartender said to Jin Xueli. “I’ll give you your drinks on the house this time.”

No matter how you look at it, you can't find any downsides.

And so, Jin Xueli, leading a silent and dazed Morando, left "Against the Light" with two bottles of wine.

She put Morandow on the sofa and went inside to change into a set of comfortable, den-specific sportswear.

She stuffed all the necessary supplies, weapons, a custom hammer, and spare clothes into her backpack, and also took out a few cans of coffee from the refrigerator and put them in her pocket.

She bustled around the room, while Morando sat on the sofa watching her; after a while, the latter finally came to her senses: "...Are you going to the lair?"

“Yes,” Kim Seol-ri said, “Shouldn’t you be heading home by now? Or are you going to wait for me here?”

She didn't really want others to know about her pathway, but she felt that it shouldn't matter if Morandau saw it—she didn't know where the confidence came from, but she had this feeling anyway.

"Didn't Chai Si give you any feedback? So soon, you're going back in?"

Mentioning Chess seemed like a misperception, but Morandow's expression darkened slightly.

"Don't even mention it... I can't get in touch with them. If I could, I wouldn't have had to go into the lair. Well, it's a long story. I went in this time to look for something."

"An illusion?"

Kim Seol-ri thought for a moment. "I'm not sure, but it shouldn't be an illusion."

All illusions that enter the human world have a countdown. Unless the original liquid has a very long countdown, if it is used to make medicine, there is always a certain probability that the final product will be ineffective because it has expired.

However, after carefully examining the packaging of "Brain Hacker," Jin Xueli discovered that it did not clearly state an expiration date.

Considering the series of steps involved in production, sales, transportation, distribution, and turnover, as well as the possibility that customers might receive the product but not consume it, how long would the countdown be?
Of course, there are also illusions of a countdown of more than ten years.

But the longer the countdown, the more precious and rare the illusion becomes; and according to Scott's retelling, Chess's tone seemed quite arrogant - "As long as we get investment, we don't need to worry about raw materials, we can provide as much as you need."

No matter how you look at it, it doesn't seem like a precious fake.

Morando hummed in agreement, then fell silent again, his thoughts drifting away.

What should we do? Leave her alone? Ask her to go home? Let her watch me jump off the building?

Jin Xueli was fretting when she suddenly asked, "What are you looking for?"

It seems like they're trying to distract themselves by asking questions.

“God knows what I’m looking for,” Kim Seol-ri sighed, taking out her phone. “Oh, right, he gave me a photo… but I don’t recognize it.”

The photo shows a transparent test tube containing the concentrate.

Those who know it call it "brain hacker" stock solution; those who don't might believe you if you called it cough syrup—it's utterly useless.

Morando glanced at it, then looked away as expected.

But after a few seconds, she suddenly raised her head.

“Let me see it again,” she said.

Jin Xueli was taken aback and quickly handed over her phone. "You know him?"

“No…I don’t recognize it.” Morando frowned and said, “This liquid doesn’t look particularly special, but it feels strangely familiar…”

"Familiar? Why?" Jin Xueli wanted to poke her with a pointer to make her continue.

"When I used to live at Knight's house..."

Morando stopped talking and looked up at her. "You're saying this has something to do with Chai Si?"

(End of this chapter)