Artifact Report

Chapter 291 Jin Xueli - Multiple Choice Question

Don't look down.

With your gaze fixed straight up, step firmly onto one iron bar, then reach out to grab the next one.

At all times, you must ensure that you have three points of contact with the frame—you can only let go of one hand or lift one foot at a time to move upwards as steadily as possible.

Just climb one more floor... just one more floor up...

Jin Xueli stared intently at the night sky. With every movement, the iron poles that made up the scaffolding clanged. Her palms were constantly sweating, feeling slippery and sticky. In her imagination, she had already slipped and fallen from mid-air several times.

Several times, I was pushed down by a resident who suddenly poked his head out—the more I forced myself not to think about it, the more omnipresent the resident became in my mind.

Why is it that I, someone with a severe fear of heights, have to repeatedly climb to higher places?

When Jin Xueli felt she couldn't take it anymore and was about to look down, she quickly bent down, grabbed the surrounding iron bars, and crawled into a layer of scaffolding covered with boards.

My legs were too weak to get up, and my muscles trembled as if crying when I tried to exert myself.

High in the air, the night wind made the scaffolding creak softly; she sat on the plank, wishing she were a bird so she could grip the plank tightly with her feet.

What floor is this? It's high enough, anyway.

Jin Xueli first used a flashlight to shine through the window and scan the empty office several times.

She didn't have to search for long before she found a telephone; it sat obediently on an office desk, completely harmless.

The office was dimly lit and quiet, with nothing out of the ordinary—the entire floor seemed to have been ignored by the residents, so normal that at first glance one might mistake it for being back in Blackmore City.

Kim Seol-ri naturally wouldn't fall for that trick.

Once someone actually gets inside, the office will no longer be peaceful.

She visually estimated the distance between herself and the telephone—it was at least seven or eight meters away. There was nothing she could use to reach the telephone; to make a call, she would have to go inside the building.

I had been hoping that the phone might be near the window; but now it seems my luck is as bad as ever.

An office telephone is definitely a last resort, something to be considered only as a last resort...

Jin Xueli climbed the scaffolding, not primarily for the office telephone.

In the city, there are very few options for climbing to a high place without having to go upstairs.

She swallowed hard, her throat dry, and rummaged in her backpack, pulling out a pair of binoculars.

Since she knew that this time she was going into the nest to search for things, she naturally had plenty of tools: in addition to binoculars, she printed out a picture of the original solution, bought a manual water pump from a pet store, and brought along the pickaxe she already had... Heaven knows what form or situation the original solution might be hiding in?

After adjusting the focus, she steadied her hands and slowly searched the street through the lens.

Although she didn't have time to count when she climbed up, the place she was in must have been at least twenty stories high.

Except for the areas blocked by skyscrapers, her field of vision is still very wide—her gaze extends along the roads, and what used to take hours to walk can now be seen in its entirety with just a flick of her wrist.

No, no, still no.

Why are there no public phone booths anywhere, even though they are the safest option?
There must be people in the world who don't have cell phones, right?

For example, the elderly, the homeless? There will always be people who encounter special circumstances, needing to make a call even without a cell phone, right? Even for that one in ten thousand chance, we should—

Jin Xueli suddenly paused, grabbed the iron bar, turned around, and moved step by step towards the other side of the scaffolding; when she reached the end, just half an inch away from falling, she slid down the bar and sat down, then raised the binoculars again.

Why didn't we start with this approach sooner?
She had been searching blindly all along, without ever really considering where a public phone booth was most likely to still exist.

These days, people who still use public phone booths are either homeless or people who have had an accident—for example, tourists who are unfamiliar with the area and are prone to getting into trouble.

In Heymore, there's a place that perfectly combines both, and it's not far from here—Heymore City Centre Park. During the day, the park is bustling with tourists; but at night, it becomes a place where homeless people and suspicious individuals linger.

The lair is a dream, a twisted and distorted creation of Blackmore City, absurd and deformed, yet remarkably faithful.

If there are public phone booths near the park, then there should be nests there too.

Looking from this direction, one can catch a glimpse of a corner of the park—Jin Xueli squinted, trying to make out the roads, benches, streetlights, and residents little by little from the darkness and shadows…

found it.

A weary, silent public phone booth covered in graffiti was finally captured in a magnified frame.

The distance was so great that even the slightest tremor in the muscles of the hand would make it sway and wobble in the binoculars, as if it were always trying to slip out of the shadows.

But despite her dizziness, Jin Xueli still managed to see: it wasn't an empty phone booth; there was indeed a phone inside. That made things easier. As long as she knew the location, even if it was a bit far, it was much better than risking entering the office building—

Jin Xueli subconsciously glanced back.

She had already turned around and climbed from one end of the scaffolding to the other; but in the window beside her, there was still the same office with the same layout, the same orientation, and the same plan—even the tiny stains on the glass were exactly the same shape.

Jin Xueli quickly turned her head, pretending not to notice, and raised the binoculars again.

I checked the location of the phone booth one more time, then climbed down immediately.

Whether she was followed by someone from the same office or the building was just an endless series of identical spaces, she couldn't get into the building no matter what.

When a telescope magnifies its focal length to cover an extremely long distance, it is very difficult to pinpoint the target at first glance—because people's concept of space and location has not yet caught up.

For a few seconds, Jin Xueli thought the public phone booth she had finally found had disappeared again, so she hurriedly searched around. When she finally found the phone booth again, she was stunned before she could even breathe a sigh of relief.

In just a short while, another person appeared on that road.

A slender woman in her forties, wearing a loose-fitting sweater and yoga pants, is standing under a street lamp with her arms crossed.

She seemed completely oblivious to the fact that she should be wary of the thick shadows of the bushes behind her, instead huddled in the orange glow of the streetlamp, occasionally raising the back of her hand to wipe away Jin Xueli's unseen tears.

Jin Xueli zoomed in on the telescope to its maximum magnification, focusing her gaze on the woman's face; but it was still blurry, and she couldn't make out whether she had blue eyes and thin lips.

Judging from her figure, age, and clothing... she perfectly matches the description of "Jacolin" on the radio.

Wait a minute, is Jacqueline still in the lair?

She remembered that this broadcast explicitly stated that it was a pre-recorded broadcast—and since it was pre-recorded, it could have been recorded at any time.

However... if Jacqueline is still in the lair, it means the recording won't be long, probably no more than two or three days.

As an ordinary person who suddenly falls into the lair, to survive for two or three days is an achievement that's one in ten—I wonder if she discovered the true nature of the lair? Did she learn about the existence of hunters and illusions? Has she figured out how to get home? Will she want to become a hunter in the future?

So many questions, but unfortunately I can't ask any of them.

Jin Xueli used binoculars to scan the area around her several times, fearing that residents might be hiding nearby; however, Jacqueline was lucky, as she had chosen a relatively safe park as her resting place. The area was quiet, and no residents had shown themselves for several minutes.

She seemed to be not far from the phone booth.

If Jacqueline is still there when I make the call, I might as well remind her a few things: for example, the way back is the same, so she needs to leave as soon as possible, because some residents have already put a reward on her...

As Jin Xueli climbed down, her thoughts raced—the next idea came unexpectedly, as if it had crashed into her mind out of nowhere, causing her hand to tremble and her grasp to fall into thin air.

As if electrified, she reacted immediately, gripping the scaffolding tightly with a "snap." Jin Xueli's heart was pounding, and she was wrapped in the iron poles, panting and calming herself for a while high in the air before finally, with some reluctance, recalling that thought again.

...A problem that had been troubling her could actually be easily solved.

Even after she found a public phone, found a way to contact them, and got through to the radio program, Kim Seol-ri still faced an unavoidable problem:

What reward should she offer?
She didn't know what reward the residents of Jacqueline had prepared; but it was certainly something she couldn't afford.

The inhabitants of the nest didn't want money, illusions, or any information from the human world, and they didn't care for any of the things she could offer—even if they wanted them, Jin Xueli wouldn't dare give them to them.

but……

"Provide me with the location of the original solution, and in exchange, I will tell you where Jacqueline is. With her location, you can exchange it for a reward."

Jin Xueli could almost feel the slight vibrations in the air as the words came from the radio.

Trading a stranger's location for nine million dollars...

No, once Nulife Biotech successfully goes public, 3% of the shares will be worth far more than nine million.

What's more, there's that trash can.

Using a stranger's location information to exchange... for at least 200 million.

In exchange for a lifetime of comfort, peace, convenience, satisfaction, and ease.

In exchange, they gained status and were freed from the troubles and pains inflicted upon them by others.

Kim Seol-ri jumped to the ground.

Whether it was because of climbing, the telescope, or something else, something was spinning in her head, making her dizzy.

Before this choice... how many people in the world would choose a complete stranger with whom they have no prior knowledge?
How many people would choose 200 million?
(End of this chapter)