Artifact Report

Chapter 345 Mai Minghe - No Imitation Report

Chai Si put on his pants and zipped them up in front of her—the moment he reached for his zipper, Mai Minghe started studying the ceiling again.

Chai Si himself appeared completely unconcerned, as if he were eating or drinking, showing no sign of taking it to heart.

Mai Minghe looked at the ceiling and thought to himself, "That's strange."

The things that took shape in the early years of her life, eighty years later, still form the tracks that carry the "Mai Minghe" train, and she still rarely deviates from those tracks.

Mak Ming-ho was born into an immigrant family and is much more conservative than the locals.

She remembered that her mother's feet were uneven because her feet had been bound for a short period when she was a child. Although they were unbound later, the bones were injured and had not healed properly, so her feet would wobble slightly when she walked. Her mother walked around the small shop with her feet crooked like that for decades.

As her parents settled down, every few years her mother would allow her to wear slightly shorter pants and skirts; but there are always limits to changing attitudes.

Born into such a family, even though Mak Ming-ho later experienced the burgeoning hippie movement, she always felt that it was the story of another group of people; she would just watch from afar, secretly admire them a few times, and then turn her head away to continue toiling away day after day for survival and livelihood.

If she had lived a different life—like young hippie men and women gathering on the grass, playing guitar and singing—perhaps she would also feel that the body is the body, there's nothing to hide or be ashamed of, right?
I've been lost in thought for a while. Has Chaisi put his pants on yet?

Mai Minghe turned his head and saw that he had taken off his shirt again. He looked away and sighed inwardly.

Could it be because everyone still sees her as an old lady?
That's alright.

She only had two or three decades of youth; after that, she was someone who drifted further and further away from youth. So even now, Mak Ming Ho still occasionally has the illusion that she is actually an old lady with a remarkably obedient and energetic body.

"Alright," Chai Si finally covered himself up, and said while combing his hair back with his fingers, "Let's go, let's go to the first floor."

Huh?
Mai Minghe thought that what he was going to show him was some kind of illusion.

When she broke into the Kai family's house, she searched the first floor as well, but there was no locked room. What important things would be left on the first floor?
Chai Si didn't intend to explain much, but simply led her out the door, picking up coffee from Sha Xue along the way; he knew the way well and led Mai Minghe into a corridor on the first floor.

"When I was trapped in the Black Abyss, I saw you lurking around here, looking like a thief."

As Chai Si spoke, he pointed to a vase of flowers on a table by the corridor. "Back then, I hadn't ventured deep into the Black Abyss yet, and I could even reach out and touch the vase."

"Yes, not only did I bump into it, but I also used it to hit myself," Mai Minghe muttered to himself. "It's like it's haunted."

“The thickness of the Black Abyss Belt is not uniform,” Chai Si explained as he walked forward. “In the thinnest places, you can sometimes reach out and touch the world. But in the thickest places… you can hardly come back.”

"You were able to rescue Han Liuyue, which shows how much effort you put in."

Mai Minghe responded and thought for a moment. "When I was almost cornered by the Kai family hunters, the door to your house suddenly opened. Did you open it from the Black Abyss Belt?"

Chai Si immediately turned around and glanced at her. "What?"

Mai Minghe offered a few explanations, then shook his head: "How could that be? Even if I had seen you then, I would have just pushed you into the hands of the pursuers."

……Too.

Could it be that the door lock is really broken? Or is it just that God is taking pity on her?
Mai Minghe couldn't come up with an answer, so he could only put it aside for the time being.

“We’re here,” Chai Si said, stopping and opening a door.

Mak Ming-ho has been to this room before.

What you see is the Kai family's library; the room, which is about 30 or 40 square meters, has a few computers in the corner that look like they come from two different eras from the style of the mansion, and rows and rows of dark wooden bookshelves along the walls.

Chai Si walked to one of the bookshelves, stretched out his arm, and took down a dusty box from the top shelf, placing it on the table with a "thud".

“See?” he said, sitting down in the chair.

Reading...a book?

Mai Minghe didn't ask any further questions and opened the book box. All the answers must lie in these two dark yellow, old handwritten journals in front of him.

Postscript to The Nest Domination Game

When Mai Minghe saw the handwritten title, he couldn't help but gasp and subconsciously glanced at Chai Si.

The title was obviously added later; the handwriting is very new, and the font is bold and unrestrained, so it was very likely written by Chai Si.

"Of the Kai family's books, there are more than 1,700 related to hunters and lairs. This library only holds a small portion of them. After I was conscripted, I searched for them one by one and finally found this box of books that probably hadn't been read since it was bought."

Amidst the steaming coffee, Chai Si looked down at the cup and said, "It's been so long that we can't even find the purchase channels, the people who handled it, or the relevant records."

According to him, this is not uncommon in hunters' collections.

Once a hunter's family confirms the death of a hunter within the circle, they often reach out to the bereaved family, using various methods to gather all the valuable information left behind by the hunter. Offering a price directly is just one method; others involve impersonating cleaning companies, police officers, apartment managers, or even bereaved family members—they only want what the world considers worthless, and their quick reflexes make them difficult to detect.

But because so many things are thrown into our hands indiscriminately, it's unlikely that anyone will carefully examine each and every one of them.

"And I've heard an urban legend that someone read a death hunter's journal at home and then couldn't get out," Chai Si said almost calmly, taking a sip of his coffee.

"What do you mean? You've been thinking about the content the whole time?"

“No, literally. He got lost in his own house and never made it out. He died trapped there.” Chai Si gestured with his chin toward the diary in her hand and said, “But you can read these two without worry. I’ve checked them, and I’m fine.”

Mak Ming-ho turned the first page.

Recorded by Lancelot on January 12, 1966, in Blackmore City.
"...Now that time has passed and the rule has ended, I can finally organize this experience and record it for posterity."

I was recruited into the Domination game on November 5, 1960.

Although it happened six years ago, I still remember that day very clearly.

After I got up in the morning, I fried some bread slices, sat down to eat breakfast, and prepared to read the newspaper.

The newspaper headline before my eyes had transformed into: "Hello, Mr. Lan Jiesen, who has no ties to his family."

I spilled all my coffee on myself, and the newspaper got soaked too, so it didn't stay on. After looking at the wet newspaper, I sat there blankly for almost ten minutes.

Mai Minghe knew that Chai Si had been observing her reaction, but she was completely absorbed in her notes and had no time to pay attention to anything else.

Lan Jiesen was the third contestant recruited for the Domination Game in 1960; several others participated after him, and he gradually figured it out while searching for the illusions, but he dared not say that he had found them all.

That year, there were only six target illusions, and their effects, images, and names were completely different from this time.

"...I believe that what the illusion itself is is meaningless to the game of domination. It is merely a target randomly selected by the chaotic force of the 'game,' and not something consciously chosen by anyone in the nest."

If a target decoy happens to fall into someone's hands, that person will be drafted.

This seems to be consistent with the present situation.

She continued reading for a while longer, skipping over Lan Jason's detailed records of the struggle. Finally, she looked up after the first notebook was almost finished and Lan Jason had successfully obtained a target illusion.

"what happened?"

She quickly flipped through several pages, wondering if she had missed something. "How come I've been looking for so long and there's still no artifact report? Is it later in the book?"

“No,” Chess said, “I’ve looked at it all, there isn’t one. There was no spoofing report in the 1960 Domination game.”

If the game's mechanics were to evolve with the times and change, it wouldn't be unthinkable... but then, how would the previous round's participants know where to look for the decoys?
Lan Jiesen's target illusion was also stolen from someone else; however, the method by which the previous person obtained the illusion was not explained.

“It’s all in the lair,” Chai Si gestured to the second notebook. “The illusion clues, the struggles, the tracking… all of it happens in the lair. Back then, some of the rewards for completing the game were illusion clues. Even when Lan Jiesen was stealing things, he did it in the lair.”

Indeed... aside from what he said at the beginning of the notes about receiving the summons at home, the rest of the notes were mostly about what happened in the lair.

All of this is because back then, there was a rule in Domination that no longer exists today—"Target illusions are not allowed to be taken out of the nest."

“Back in 1960, the competition was fixed inside the hive.” Mak Ming-ho said slowly as he pondered, “The Domination game, like the hive, harbors immense malice towards humanity. Therefore, competing for clues and illusions within the hive… is a method that can bring the greatest risk to the players.”

Chai Si nodded.

"Doesn't that fit my guess even better? Why did the hive give us a break this time, letting us do things that weren't life-threatening, so we could easily get the artifact report?"

Mai Minghe couldn't understand why, with Chai Si's intelligence, he would ignore such an obvious fact. "Clearly, the Nest wants to use us to attack humanity, right?"

“Yes,” Chess said calmly, “it seems that way now.”

He was so calm that Mai Minghe didn't know what to say and could only utter a "Huh?"

Between the two of them, who didn't understand the situation?
“Keep reading,” Chai Si pushed the second notebook towards him. “I’ll explain after you’ve finished reading them all.”

This time, she read even faster.

Thirty minutes later, Mak Ming-ho raised his head.

She couldn't quite describe her shock; her mind was completely blank, and she could only repeat that fact several times, almost unconsciously.

“How could that be? Someone succeeded back in 1960?” she stammered. “Someone succeeded…successfully took control of the lair?”

(End of this chapter)