Artifact Report

Chapter 292 Brianna: The First Imitation
The SIM card that made the call to Morandall was removed several times, only to be repeatedly put back into the phone by Brianna.

She originally planned to burn it and then throw it away, but when it came time to light it, she couldn't bear to part with it and had to put it back in the end, leaving it in airplane mode.

She would only secretly connect to the signal around five or six in the morning, when Morandau should be asleep.

Brianna was glad she had kept the SIM card.

November 26, 2026, 5:04 AM, cloudy with rain, full signal.

On this day, the day she felt she couldn't hold on any longer, she received twelve unread voice messages and four unread text messages, all from Morandow.

There are two more than the day before...

She stared at the bright red numbers over and over again, as if they were rubies set in a crown.

She is a unique vampire; only one shade of red can prolong this life that is about to become trash—it exists on the phone screen.

Brianna wanted to drink in all the information at once, but she had to control her greed and savor it little by little.

Morando's voice, breath, trembling, pauses, emotions, even the background noise... all flowed into Green's body, allowing her to hold on for a little longer.

"No matter how much money you want, I'll give it to you. Just tell me where that person is..."

“I’ve already called the police. I hope you realize how serious this is…”

"Why did you get rid of the phone? What role did you play? Did she force you to get rid of it? Did she not want me to contact her?"

One message contained only her name—Briana.

After her initial shock, Brianna quickly calmed down.

She held her phone, looking at it over and over again, imagining Morandau's fingers leaping across the screen, spelling out her name letter by letter.

Brianna.

When she came to her senses, she realized that she had been staring at it for nearly thirty minutes.

...That won't do.

If she could, she could sit on the sofa forever, listening to Morandall's voice forever, waiting forever for her to send a message.

But that's impossible; Brianna has plans for the future, and Green's body will soon be unusable.

She's running out of time.

Today, when Brianna went out, she sprayed half a bottle of deodorant on herself, covered herself with a thick layer of talcum powder, and sprayed a lot of perfume—women's perfume, the kind she liked, even though Green's nose couldn't smell anything anymore.

Although she couldn't smell it, she was still clear that the body was beginning to emit the stench of death.

The stench of a corpse, a mixture of deodorant, talcum powder, and perfume, was unimaginable to Brianna; it was probably enough to make anyone vomit.

As she entered the foyer, the butler's expression confirmed her suspicions—the usually composed European man turned pale as she passed by, his lips pressed tightly together, his throat bobbing as if he were trying to suppress something.

"here?"

As expected of a professional butler, she could still manage to speak amidst the pungent stench of her perfume. "At this hour, you want to change the foyer ceiling...?"

“These were instructions Mr. Wei gave me before he passed away,”

Brianna said, "The original plan was to have the construction team come today. The infrared, cameras, and security equipment must be installed along with the new ceiling, and I've already informed Mrs. Wei about it. It doesn't matter, right? Mrs. Wei isn't staying here tonight anyway."

The butler kept his mouth tightly shut and nodded.

Brianna knew she didn't have much time, so two hours after informing the housekeeper, she sent several renovation workers to the door—the foyer had a ceiling height of nine meters; if they wanted to replace the ceiling, they would first have to set up scaffolding and remove the chandelier.

She didn't care how those people were doing the construction. She walked into the reception room alone, locked the door, and took out another phone from her bag—this phone had a different SIM card inside.

2026年11月26日，1:12PM，天气阵雨。

Brianna entered the numbers into her phone one by one and pressed the call button.

The phone rang a few times before being answered.

"Hello?" A boy's voice, soft and indistinct at the edges, as if his throat was shrouded in mist.

“Are you back?” Brianna asked.

There was a pause on the other end of the phone. "...Who are you?"

Brianna hung up the phone without saying a word.

Honestly, they're really dragging this out. How much longer?
She endured the torment alone in the silence for a while.

Since she had nothing better to do, Brianna quickly began to scrutinize her plan repeatedly; she didn't know which step might have flaws or loopholes, so she always had to patch things up in advance and think of backup plans.

At 2:05 PM, she couldn't wait any longer and dialed the number again.

"Are you back?"

"It's you again?" the boy asked. "Wait, aren't you Joe—"

Brianna, suppressing her frustration, hung up the phone. The call came back, but she didn't answer.

At 3:25 PM, she picked up her phone.

If the result is the same again, she can't guarantee she won't lose her temper. She clearly doesn't have much time left, yet she's wasting it on this ridiculous waiting—

“…I’m back,” Fu Tailan said softly.

Brianna let out a long breath.

When fate brought her to this point, she was speechless for half a second.

But taking this step only pushed her plan forward a little; she could stop at any time if she wanted to. She didn't want to stop.

“I need that artifact,” Brianna said. “I know it’s in your hands.”

Fu Tailan remained silent for a few seconds.

“…Okay, as long as it’s not used on Chess Monroe, I don’t care,” he said. “It has a limited number of uses, you know? Only one left.”

Could it be that he used up all the uses? Oh well, it doesn't matter.

“That’s enough. I only need to transfer it once,” Brianna said. “Name your price.”

Fu Tailan remained silent for a while.

"I don't want money."

Not charging money is the most expensive price in the world.

The two exchanged the fakes in a nearby café, in broad daylight, with people coming and going—Fu Tailan simply took a large Bloomingdale's paper bag, casually stuffed the fake, which looked like a vacuum cleaner, into it, and pushed it to Brianna.

"Here you go, the vacuum cleaner you wanted." He was clearly saying this to those around him.

Let alone ordinary people, even if there were knowledgeable hunters nearby, seeing this scene would probably make them doubt themselves and not be sure that the thing that was handed over so casually like a second-hand appliance was the illusion that could turn the hunter world upside down.

"That's it?" Brianna couldn't help but feel a little annoyed. "Didn't you consider whether it's safe for me to hold it like this?"

Fu Tailan simply shrugged.

Oh well, anyway, she'd asked Vesile's driver to wait for her at the intersection, so she could just get in the car and leave...

"You should still have something to say, right?"

As soon as she showed any intention of getting up, Fu Tailan spoke up and rested his arm on the table—he could stop her with a single reach.

“What?” Brianna was taken aback.

"you this……"

Fu Tailan looked Green up and down, gestured with her fingers, and swallowed back the next word. "It's obvious he won't last much longer. It's suffocating."

Brianna felt her face darken.

No, Green's face.

That face, which developed purplish-red lividity on one side because she had taken a nap; that face covered with layers of foundation, a face that could scare a child to tears.

“I don’t know how you…” Fu Tailan glanced at the person next to her, turned her head, and smiled at Brianna. “But I do know that George Green will probably soon… disappear without a trace.”

If Fu Tailan were a little less intelligent, she would probably live a very long life.

"You owe me a favor." He tapped the table lightly and said, "When I want to repay it, who should I go to?"

“You should be glad you were expelled,” Brianna said coldly. “That’s why I was willing to do you a favor in exchange for your things, rather than directly attacking you.”

“Name,” Fu Tailan said, her expression remaining unchanged, repeating only one sentence. “Tell me a name.”

“Jacolin, you know who she is, right?” Brianna smiled. “Give me two or three days, and you can contact her.”

“You really have confidence in yourself,” Fu Tailan said softly.

Brianna ignored him, got up and walked out of the café; she got into her car, returned to her apartment in Vesile, and took out her keys to open the door.

"Secretary Green?"

The butler seemed to have just heard the commotion and was taken aback when he saw her. "How did you get in? Did Madam open the door for you?"

"She's already here?" Brianna, carrying a bag, walked through the scaffolding in the foyer and into the inner room.

“Yes,” the butler said, looking puzzled. “I thought she wouldn’t come today…”

“I sent her.” Brianna stopped and instructed him, “I have something to discuss with the lady. Make sure no one else comes over.”

What exactly am I?

She is certainly no longer human, but she doesn't seem to be a resident either.

The illusion, which had no effect on residents or corpses, still worked on her; the illusion, which was something an ordinary person wouldn't know how to use without reading the instructions, was something Brianna knew how to use just by looking at it.

Wouldn't that be great?
I got the best of both worlds; I'm so lucky, so lucky, so lucky!

Brianna stared at the tube standing straight against her chest, listening to its low buzzing. For some reason, she felt a sudden urge to cry, yet also a strong urge to throw her head back and laugh wildly.

What are you doing with a vacuum cleaner?

When the door was pushed open, it was all over.

George Green's pathway was taken away and stored in that vacuum cleaner-like artifact, waiting for the next host.

She really wanted to tell Chess Monroe in person that the illusion that could fulfill his lifelong wish had been wasted, exhausted, and carelessly used up by her and Fu Tailan, leaving him with nothing—while her own plan was progressing smoothly step by step—how ​​pathetic, she wondered if he wanted this empty shell of a good-for-nothing? An empty shell of a good-for-nothing like him, wouldn't that feel familiar?
It takes a lot of effort to stop laughing.

"What is the taste?"

Mrs. Wei took a few steps into the house, covering her mouth and nose with one hand, her blue eyes narrowing in disgust. "Why does this house smell so bad?"

Perhaps because Brianna didn't respond, she changed the subject.

"Tell me, what did my husband ask you to give me?"

“Something very precious,” Brianna said as gently as possible. “Come, give me your hand, Mrs. Jacqueline.”

(End of this chapter)