Artifact Report

Chapter 330 Jin Xueli - A Dedicated Convenience Store Clerk

If Kim Seol-ri weren't someone easily distracted by curiosity, she might have given herself away the moment she heard her own name.

Even as she felt a chill run down her spine and bent down to grab the hammer, a subtle thought lingered in the corner of her mind, like a hair clinging to her skin—a faint sensation, yet impossible to ignore.

...The residents were staring at her chest.

why?
That's just the left chest area of ​​the vest, nothing unusual.

In that instant, her curiosity and questions became the most urgent problems to be solved in the world, even "escaping for one's life" could be put on the back burner—so Jin Xueli followed the residents' gaze and looked down at her chest.

A name tag that shouldn't be pinned to one's chest was gleaming white.

Eh?
Didn't she tear off the store clerk's name tag?

“Even the names are human,” the resident said, bending down and rolling one eye at her while the other remained on the name tag. “They even paid attention to the details.”

"Ah, ah, yes, we need to lower humanity's guard..."

Taking advantage of this conversation, Kim Seol-ri flipped up the name tag and took a look—and sure enough, it really did say "Kim Seol-ri" in human script.

Luckily, she hadn't picked up a hammer and hit the resident in the face... She felt a lingering fear as she gently patted her pocket.

It's empty inside.

The name tag I just took off my vest has not only reappeared on my left chest, but the name on it has also changed to my own?

Wearing a disguise is one thing, but having your name clearly written on the cover by the convenience store is quite another...

Jin Xueli is not only feeling uncomfortable; she was so frightened just now that her legs went weak.

"Ah, your taste..."

When the resident opened his mouth, he was probably about to speak, but before he could even finish his sentence, a torrent of saliva suddenly poured down from his lips and tongue. Jin Xueli jumped back, feeling an inappropriate sense of relief: thankfully, the saliva looked quite clear, so it wasn't too disgusting.

"Oh dear, I'm so sorry."

The resident took a deep breath, brushed the saliva-dampened hair from her cheeks to the side, and tucked it behind her ear. "You smell so good..."

Kim Seol-ri didn't want residents to praise her body odor.

“I really want to take you apart, flatten you, grind you finely, distill you with water, and extract you into a bottle of perfume…” The resident shook his head and said, “When you die, you must tell me. I will definitely come to support your business then.”

These words raised at least a thousand questions, but none of them could be asked.

Unable to satisfy her curiosity, Kim Seol-ri was like a turkey with its neck being choked, struggling to utter even the simplest words: "Th-thank you...who are you?"

She had to change the subject, lest the residents get too excited and decide not to wait until she died.

“I’m an English teacher,” the resident said politely. “It’s nice to meet you.”

Don't ask, don't ask, or you'll give yourself away—

"English teacher? Where do you teach?"

Jin Xueli regretted it so much that she wanted to shove a fist into her mouth.

However, her luck seemed to be on her side tonight; the residents laughed tolerantly and said, "You really are new here. You haven't been out of a human body for long, have you?"

"Yes……"

"The nest just spawned last week,"

The resident gestured in a certain direction—his black robe flicked and fell back down, making it impossible to discern where he was pointing. "Over there, there's a night school. I teach there."

Wow, the hive facilities are pretty complete! After graduation, do I submit my resume to hive companies for jobs? Does the hive have companies? Oh, yes, it does. "Hive Persistence" is exactly that—

Jin Xueli quickly stopped her thoughts from rushing ahead.

She nodded and said, "Uh... well, then you..."

Considering that anything she said could expose her, she really couldn't come up with anything more intelligent.

“I’m here to exchange for points,” the English teacher said.

Jin Xueli stared blankly as it pulled a card out of its black robe.

Jin Xueli looked at it with even more confusion as it turned its head and pointed outside the convenience store.

The English teacher seemed to think she had made herself perfectly clear; the two people, one a resident and the other a resident, stared at each other in silence for what felt like an eternity.

Didn't they train you?

The residents seemed to have come up with an explanation on their own, uttering that syllable that no human could pronounce again—it must be the name of the shop assistant who is still dead in the toilet.

"...I haven't introduced the points card to you before? No problem, you're lucky to have met someone like me who loves to teach. Let me explain it to you."

Tonight, there's a growing sense that things are going to go completely off track.

She had absolutely no confidence that she hadn't been infected or was dreaming.

Jin Xueli steeled herself, leaned forward, and watched as it placed the piece of paper on the cashier's counter. ...It was indeed a points card.

There are two rows, with a total of eight squares, four of which are stamped with seals—cartoon seals, no less.

The cartoon stamp is a face image; the eyes are crossed out with a pair of X's, and the tongue is sticking out of the corner of the mouth, seemingly indicating that the person is dead.

"You can get a stamp every time we deliver recycling materials to you."

The English teacher explained, "I've already given them four times, and today is the fifth. Once I collect eight stamps, I can exchange them for any item in the store... Isn't that great?"

Jin Xueli could only nod.

The residents fell silent, watching her with anticipation.

What? Does it think that's all there is to the explanation?

If Jin Xueli's question were a mountain, its explanation would be at most like picking a speck of soil from between her fingernails.

It seems like I can't get away with not saying anything.

As long as the other party treats me as a resident pretending to be human, asking questions should be fine, right...?
"Um... recycled materials..."

"You're not very bright. It seems everyone has different strengths. You're so good at pretending, yet your reaction and comprehension are so poor."

Even though she knew it wasn't worth getting angry with a resident, Kim Seol-ri was still a little unhappy.

“The recycled materials are right outside,”

The English teacher flipped up her black robe again and slapped it towards the shop entrance. "Take the keys, go turn on the gas pump, put the paper in, and come back to get it stamped—seriously, who works at this shop, you or I? How come you know less than I do?"

Turn on the fuel dispenser?
But she didn't know what to do—wait, this might be a golden opportunity.

Right now, her biggest worries are twofold: first, she doesn't know how to get her hands on the raw material; second, residents are watching her, and she can't find a reason to leave the convenience store.

If we need to go outside to turn on the gas pump, wouldn't that solve both problems?
It seems today really is her lucky day! Almost every problem that needed to be solved was resolved naturally in the end.

With a renewed sense of energy, Jin Xueli even seemed less unattractive to the residents around her—if it weren't for her, she really wouldn't know what to do tonight.

But how do I turn on the gas pump?
As a guest, the English teacher probably wouldn't know either, right?
As a shop assistant, she knew nothing about anything and asked about everything. Coupled with her human-like demeanor, she was inevitably too suspicious... Kim Seol-ri had to try to ask as few questions as possible in order to avoid arousing the residents' suspicion.

It did say, "Take the key"...

Did I get this string of coins from the shop assistant?
Jin Xueli does remember that there is indeed a keyhole on the side of the gas pump... Okay, let's take advantage of our good luck tonight and give it a try.

"Then I'll stamp it for you first," she said, pulling open a drawer under the counter.

Beneath the transparent drawer bottom, a face distorted by fear, its gender indistinguishable, was obscured by clutter and reduced to fleshy fragments. Only the mouth, clearly elongated, emitted silent screams at her.

Scattered odds and ends were haphazardly stuffed into the drawer; whenever that person pounded hard on the transparent base, something small would jump out of the way—the person under the base pounded twice, which actually helped Jin Xueli, and she immediately spotted a stamp that had jumped up.

"Here you go, stamped it, the fifth one." She threw the stamp back, slammed the drawer shut, and the face disappeared again.

"You're quite decisive," her English teacher complimented her.

Jin Xueli glanced at the backpack at her feet—it would be difficult to explain taking it out. She could always come back for it after the English teacher left…

“You’re much better than that guy, much more efficient.” The English teacher repeated the shop assistant’s name again. “Perfect timing, I have another favor to ask you.”

Jin Xueli had already pushed open the door and came out, asking, "What is it?"

“This,” the resident said, putting one hand into his black robe and reaching into something. When he pulled it out, he had a stack of papers in his hand.

Jin Xueli and the chicken wings that had stood up again in the insulated box looked at the stack of papers it had put down with the same suspicion.

"Our school's recruitment flyers, is it okay if I leave them with you?"

The resident rubbed his hands together and said, "Our school doesn't discriminate in admissions; both humans and residents can attend. But to be honest... we mainly hope to recruit more hunters, since they have so many things we want..."

The English teacher swallowed again.

"There have been quite a few hunters loitering around the gas station lately, haven't there? Could you please help me put out some flyers around... to give us some more fish to catch?"

Which hunter would attend a residential school?
Jin Xueli glanced at the stack of flyers and noticed that they were handwritten; the handwriting was crooked and messy, and when there were words she couldn't spell, they seemed to have been cut out of magazines and newspapers and pasted on—more like an extortion letter than a flyer.

"Okay, I'll leave it here," she readily agreed, eager to get the residents out of the house as soon as possible. After all, it was someone else's property. "I'll put it up for you in a bit."

"You're such a nice person," the English teacher said, beaming with joy, "almost as if you have ulterior motives and other schemes."

"...You really teach languages?"

Jin Xueli was still a little guilty, so she gestured for it to go first. She followed behind the resident, and on the way out, she tidied up the magazine rack and unplugged the refrigerator that had been secretly plugged in again.

The English teacher stood outside in the dim darkness, his black robe blending into the night, leaving only a blurry face floating in mid-air.

“I put the recycled materials over there,” it said, a hand emerging from the darkness, pointing to a gas pump and staring at Kim Seol-ri as if waiting for her reaction.

The most surprising thing for Jin Xueli when she saw the recycled materials was that she found herself calm and not very surprised.

(End of this chapter)