Artifact Report

Chapter 333 Jin Xueli: There's Always a Troublesome Resident Trying to Usurp the Throne
Looking inside the convenience store from the outside, you can see the short walkway in front of the restroom.

Even though she had a vague suspicion in her heart, Kim Seol-ri couldn't help but feel goosebumps when she turned her head away little by little.

The body of the shop assistant, who should have been dead, stepped out of the restroom and looked around.

Its face was looking at the wall in front of it, but the narrow, long face on the upper left side of its head was directly facing Jin Xueli.

She unconsciously tried to crawl backward—but stopped as soon as her back hit the refueling machine.

A step or two behind him, there was that woman lying face down on the ground...

A dozen steps away, the clerk stood in the aisle of the convenience store; his left cheek was fixed on her, then suddenly the corner of his mouth curled up, but his facial muscles sank straight down—almost as if his own mouth had pierced through his cheek muscles.

...Jin Xueli didn't even know what to call this expression. Was it a smile or a cry?
It didn't speak, but gripped the chair legs still stuck in its chest with both hands and pulled them out forcefully.

The chair leg was pulled out of the wound, and a cloud of putrid black dust immediately billowed out.

The shop assistant bent down, and even more black and gray dust and powder suddenly appeared; it gently placed the chair on the ground, and the eye on its left side of its face stared at Jin Xueli without blinking.

"What, what's going on?"

She didn't expect to get an answer, but to her surprise, the woman behind her actually answered her.

“That shop assistant would die violently every six hours.”

The woman loosened her vest, crawled forward a little, and stopped next to Jin Xueli.

She whispered in the shadows, "It will never know who the killer is, because generally there is no killer. Given enough time, anything in its environment could be the cause of its violent death."

Huh? Now that you mention it, the alarm bell on the clerk's chest does indeed have a blank space after the words "the murderer is".

It's not that it doesn't know, it's that it simply doesn't exist?
"Then, I saw on the alarm, 'Wait a moment, we'll be right back'... It'll be right back, so it was just itself?" Jin Xueli was momentarily at a loss for words, unsure whether to laugh or curse. "How could that be?"

“Not only that,” the woman whispered as she lay beside her, “but ‘this kind of thing’ is coming toward you.”

The clerk had already turned around and approached the convenience store entrance; it stood behind the glass door, the backlight casting it a dim silhouette. Its face wasn't clearly visible, but the outlines of two noses, one on each side, could be vaguely discerned, jutting high into the air.

Jin Xueli jolted awake, realizing what was happening: "It...it wants its disguise back, doesn't it? Is that why you reminded me to take it off? I'll do it right away—"

As she spoke, she had already pulled one arm out of the sleeve of her vest.

Even at this moment, she couldn't help but pause to be slightly surprised: So easy to take off?

Wearing this stuff turns you into a shop assistant, but I can't believe I can just take it off whenever I want? Seriously, can "voluntary" things be considered later?
But then another unexpected event occurred—the woman suddenly slapped her hand back, pressing the vest tightly against Jin Xueli's chest, making it impossible for her to take it off.

"What are you doing?" Jin Xueli panicked as she watched the dark figure push open the shop door. "Weren't you here to save me? Didn't you just ask me to take off my vest?"

The woman turned her head, her mouth suddenly opening wide, and the sudden surge of anger and resentment almost made Jin Xueli's vision go black.

"What happened just now? I told you to take your clothes off, but you dragged your feet and wouldn't. If you take them off now, aren't you just asking for death? Are you stupid? You've turned back into a useless human. What's the difference between you and a piece of meat offered up to you? What's the difference? Tell me, what's the difference? What's the difference?"

She was truly enraged, and all those words could be slapped at Jin Xueli's face in an instant.

Jin Xueli's eyes lit up.

Yes, it's those who are almost fully integrated into the inhabitants who have more experience; I almost forgot that inhabitants have such an extremely unfair advantage in the nest.

She immediately signaled to the other person to let go, and then quickly put her arm back through the sleeve.

The shop assistant leaned halfway out of the doorway, staring intently at them.

"I haven't become a resident yet, but that's enough to keep me from being killed?"

As Jin Xueli asked the question, she hurriedly got up from the ground—she couldn't possibly sit on the ground to fight the enemy.

"It's a beautiful thought."

"Huh? Then why would I need to wear it—"

A tight, thin, and high-pitched voice rang out from the side of the shop assistant's head: "...Is it you?"

Jin Xueli turned her head sharply. "What?"

"You're the one who killed me, aren't you?"

The shop assistant's lips were tightly pressed together as he looked at her and asked, "You wanted to usurp my position as a shop assistant. You killed me, dragged me into the toilet, and took off my vest... I saw it all clearly."

“If you can’t speak human language, then don’t speak. You’re just a lousy shop assistant. That’s not called a ‘position,’ it’s called a ‘job.’ Why would you need to ‘usurp’ it? I saw you dead as soon as I walked in.”

As Jin Xueli sized up the distance between herself and the shop entrance, she said, "Since you can see me so clearly, why don't you take a look at the murderer too?"

"The killer is too cunning. Could it be you who secretly murdered me before?" The shop assistant ignored her and said, "It must have been you this morning too. I understand. You've been hunting me down lately."

If it weren't for the fact that she couldn't take care of all four faces at once, Jin Xueli really wanted to slap it.

"Why doesn't it know that it will die every 6 hours?" she asked the woman on the ground, turning her head.

"It obviously knows,"

The woman raised a hand and gestured forward, a patch of dry, peeling skin on her wrist swaying slightly like a cuff. "It simply assumed there must be a murderer."

“There are occasional surprises,” the shop assistant added, standing close to Kim Seol-ri.

When did it get close?

In the blink of an eye—Jin Xueli hurriedly stepped back, forgetting in her haste that there was a refueling machine behind her. With a loud bang, it hit her head and made her lose her senses.

But after all, she had been a hunter for so many years; even though she bumped her head and couldn't see clearly for a moment, the instincts she had developed in the crisis still seized control of the moment—Jin Xueli leaned against the refueling machine, raised her foot and kicked hard in front of her, her boot burying itself deep in something soft.

The shop assistant snorted and staggered back two steps. She regained her composure after the collision and quickly ducked to the side.

In the dim light, she still stretched out her arm and swept it up from the ground, hooking her fingers around the bottle's strap.

After regaining her footing, the shop assistant's face, to the right of his head, was facing Kim Seol-ri.

A pair of eyes, with the outer corners reversed from the inner corners, blinked upwards in reverse. Its head remained still, but its body twisted slightly, turning to face Jin Xueli.

Before she even had a chance to feel nauseous, she swung her arm, sending a one-liter water bottle arcing through the air—the end of the arc, like the claws of a bird suddenly swooping down to hunt, firmly embedded itself in the clerk's right cheek.

It must have let out a scream.

The reason for the uncertainty is that when Kim Seol-ri regained consciousness, she had already collapsed on the ground at some point.

Gas pumps, convenience stores, the night sky, the world... still circled around her, laughing hysterically, jumping up and down, spinning.

The colors and shapes of everything suddenly became suspicious, floating reflections on the water.

Looking beyond the reflection into the water, she dared not, fearing she would never be able to escape her sanity again.

Jin Xueli knew that some residents' voices could cause temporary loss of consciousness; she had experienced it herself. But this was the first time she had encountered such a strong effect—how long did she remain dizzy?
She didn't know, but it was enough for the residents to recover from their pain, and they knelt down in front of her.

Which face of mine do you like best?

It lowered its neck towards Jin Xueli, its face almost touching hers. Four voices, from four mouths, resonated together in a buzzing sound.

Even if she were an experienced hunter, or even a fool, she would know not to give a direct answer at this point.

"Don't worry, I will definitely not compete with you for the shop assistant position."

Staring at that long, blurry strip of flesh floating in the darkness, her stomach clenched. Even though the water bottle strap was miraculously still hooked on her fingers, it was no longer usable as a weapon at this distance. She struggled to steady her breathing and said, "This vest, I'll get it right away—"

Jin Xueli suddenly gasped.

No.

The woman was right; once the shop assistant woke up, the vest couldn't be taken off no matter what.

The notice posted behind the restroom door clearly states this, doesn't it?

Once the shop assistant wakes up and takes off his disguise, he will immediately transform from a "transitional creature" into a "hunter" in its eyes; following the instructions in the notification, the shop assistant will immediately gather all the residents in the surrounding area.

But the woman also said that even if she was wearing a vest, it wouldn't prevent her from being killed by the residents, right?

……what to do?
"Say something!" the shop assistant shouted, catching up with Kim Seol-ri, who was trying to climb back. "Which face do you like?"

Aside from Kim Seol-ri, there probably wouldn't be any other hunter in the world who would be distracted at such a critical moment.

Her gaze passed over the clerk and she noticed that the woman had somehow climbed behind another gas pump, leaving a gap of two or three meters between herself and the clerk. She was now lying prone on the ground, with only her face visible.

Their eyes met, and the woman stopped waving her hand, winked at the shop assistant, and then pointed to herself.

...What does this mean?
Should we get Kim Seol-ri to bring the shop assistants over?
If the shop assistants had listened to her, she wouldn't have ended up like this—wait a minute.

You're half right.

Although Jin Xueli had an idea, she was far from confident, and every muscle in her body was trembling. "I want to take your job, but not for me, but for my ally."

She had already quietly taken the convenience store key out of her pocket; before the clerk could react, she had already raised her hand and thrown the keychain far into the night sky, toward a woman not far away.

The shop assistants raised three faces at once, then lowered one, and shouted simultaneously, "The key!"

Jin Xueli immediately rolled on the spot; as she flipped and leaped up, the shop assistant also twisted and pounced on the bunch of keys.

"Letting customers use the restroom is a kind gesture from the staff, but you took the opportunity to steal my key! Give me back my key! Who is this person? Are they human? Are they a resident? Let go! Let go!"

Jin Xueli hurriedly turned around and saw that the shop assistant had grabbed the key, but the woman had also grabbed one of her feet.

Its strength was clearly much greater than hers. With a few struggles, it kicked off more pieces of skin from the woman's arms and body, making one want to gasp for her in pain. She had almost wrapped her upper body around the shop assistant's legs, but it still looked like she might be thrown off at any moment.

"Come on!"

The woman yelled at her, "Go find a safe place, or somewhere another resident is wandering, go inside and hide for six hours, and wait for it to die again!"

Why would the residents save her? And why would they save her again and again?
Jin Xueli didn't even have time to thank them before rushing into the convenience store, grabbing her backpack behind the counter; luckily, she had her water bottle with her, so she just stuffed it into her bag. Just as she was about to leave, she suddenly stopped—she needed to check the refrigerator's power cord, and it seemed like a new batch of goods had arrived, so she had to put them on the shelves in time.

Besides, the flyers her English teacher asked her to put up haven't been posted yet. They need to be posted in a prominent place so that customers can see them...

"If you dare to start mopping the floor, I'll kill you!" Another angry roar rang out from outside the store.

Jin Xueli snapped out of her daze and came back to her senses.

“No mopping, no mopping,” she hurriedly put down the flyer. “I don’t put up flyers either… oh, wait a minute.”

Kim Seol-ri picked up the flyers again.

The “night school” is not far away…isn’t that exactly “another place where residents linger”?

(End of this chapter)