Artifact Report

Chapter 346 Mai Minghe: The Vanished Ruler and the Future Ruler

In typical films, television dramas, or novels, when the protagonist discovers a major clue in a pile of old papers, they can often follow the clues and trace the truth buried in history, uncovering it one by one.

But in real life, there isn't a giant hand preparing the truth for you on your path.

As Mai Minghe waited expectantly for Chai Si to hand her the next book box and the next record, she found that Chai Si was just sitting there, his hands folded, and he shrugged slightly at her.

“What next book? There isn’t one,” he said. “Didn’t you finish reading it?”

Yes, but—

Mai Minghe opened his mouth, not even knowing where to begin.

She stared at Chai Si for a few seconds, and seeing that he still looked completely oblivious, she simply turned back and looked at the last note again.

"...I'm incredibly lucky. The only reason I survived such injuries is because of my route. I knew this trip might end my life, so I always kept my encounters and battles with him firmly within a short distance of the 13th telephone pole."

In my last moments before losing consciousness, I managed to struggle and bump my forehead against the 13th telephone pole... In my near-death state, I fell unconscious back to Blackmore City, where an ambulance was called. I narrowly escaped death and came back from the brink of death.

I was Anlu's strongest opponent, and the only one who survived after our crushing defeat.

Needless to say, he spent several months in the hospital; after that, Lan Jiesen never dared to enter the lair again.

"Both of my target artifacts were stolen... Anlu collected all six and won the Domination Game."

When he first saw this, Mak Ming-ho thought it was just Lan Jie-sen's speculation—maybe something happened to "Anlu" later, and he ultimately failed to rule the lair.

Otherwise—otherwise—

Does the lair they repeatedly enter and return with false images have an owner?

That's impossible; the lair described by Lan Jiesen is almost identical to the style of lairs today.

Different residents, different scripts, but the lair is still the lair.

Anyone who rules the nest cannot ultimately leave it undisturbed and the world undisturbed—then why bother participating in the competition in the first place?
"While I was in the hospital, I kept up with the news, but I never saw Anlu's name appear anywhere. What is he planning to do after winning the Domination game?"

He wants to be a star? A billionaire? A president? The ruler of the world?
But the world I see is no different from what I saw before.

Filled with doubts, Jason finally left the hospital on crutches.

He hadn't been home for months. His apartment mailbox was overflowing with mail, spilling all over the floor as soon as he opened the door. A thick, messy pile of newspapers, enough for several months, lay by the door; he couldn't even step inside without first getting them inside.

He carried a cane in one hand and newspapers and letters in the other, looking disheveled and awkward, and finally managed to get into his house.

So for the first minute or two, Jason didn't notice that there was someone sitting on the sofa.

"Do you need help?"

An Lu stretched out his arms and rested them on the sofa, turning around to ask, "It seems you were badly injured back then."

Lan Jiesen stared blankly at him, and finally slowly put everything on the ground.

Anlu shouldn't know his home address; Lan Jiesen never registered his name and phone number in public phone books and kept a low profile.

"You won, didn't you?" he asked hoarsely. "Why did you come looking for me then?"

"Yes, I won."

An Lu turned his head back, showing Lan Jiesen the back of his head. On the small television screen opposite him, Lan Jiesen's crossed legs were faintly visible. "Don't worry, I'm not here to kill you."

Lan Jiesen waited a few seconds.

“I’m glad that at least one of my opponents survived. Victory needs spectators, right? Only you in the world know that I won the game of domination, and I can use the nest however I want… You are not only an informed spectator, but also a defeated player. Only in front of you is my victory doubly wonderful.”

“So it was all just for show,” Lan Jiesen said with a hint of bitterness. “You really think you can rule the lair? What are you planning to do next?”

“Don’t worry,” Anlu finally stood up, walked around the sofa, and went to Jason’s side.

According to Lan Jiesen's description, he looks exactly the same as before, but Lan Jiesen can't get rid of a strange feeling—Anlu has many, many more "layers," like dominoes that haven't fallen, standing continuously in time and space.

What he saw was only the surface.

"...What I do is none of your business."

These were the last words Anlu left him. After that, Lan Jiesen never saw him again or heard any news about him.

"After I dominated the game, I stopped being a hunter. Initially, it was because I didn't know what the lair would become and I was afraid to go in; later, around 63 or 64, by chance, I met a hunter I had met once before in the lair."

She told me that her passage had been closed for two or three years. No matter how she tried, she just couldn't get into the nest. She had never heard of passages disappearing on their own before, so she was very frustrated. The following week after she told me this, I mustered up the courage to try, and found that I couldn't get in either. ” The next sentence is also the last sentence of Jason Landson's notes.

"I didn't tell her the truth; I think it wasn't her passage that was closed at the time."

Mai Minghe crossed his arms, staring intently at his notes, before finally looking up.

"What do you think?" she asked.

Chai Si still looked as if this matter didn't concern him much; for some reason, it just made people anxious.

"Could it be that the right to rule has a time limit?" Mai Minghe blurted out all his questions at once. "I've never heard of that An Lu before, and he hasn't left any mark on history. It seems that his purpose was clearly not worldly power and wealth. He closed his lair for the sake of worldly security, right?"

Chai Si glanced at her.

"You really believe there are such people in the world?" he finally spoke, slowly adding, "It seems you had a very peaceful life in your previous life."

All was silent, gradually becoming still, drifting further and further away from the world... indeed, it was peaceful.

"I don't believe there are such selfless people in the world, not even you, right?"

Chai Si lowered his eyelids, a mocking smile spreading across his lips. "I don't trust anyone with noble and lofty motives. For the sake of nobility, people often resort to any means necessary in the process, but once power is in hand, they always find that they have other desires, which can be satisfied incidentally. Since such a great achievement has been accomplished, why can't there be some noble reward for it?"

He stretched out his long legs, sat comfortably, and said, "Those kinds of people are not even as good as a cunning and opportunistic person like me."

An Lu's behavior certainly doesn't seem to reflect any great love for the world.

“You can’t talk about yourself like that. We can change what’s wrong.” Even though he knew it was unnecessary, Mai Minghe still tried to persuade him first before saying, “Then what do you think is going on? You’ve successfully taken control of the nest, so why is there no sound at all?”

“I don’t know.” Chai Si still kept his eyelids down and said, “It happened sixty years ago, which is too far back now. Even the oldest hunter families only have scattered records from that era. Considering that when families collect books and records, they generally only choose those that are of practical use, the chances of something like ‘not being able to enter the nest for several years’ appearing in their collection are very small.”

It is certain that by the late 1960s, there were records of hunters entering and leaving the den.

“If I had to say something…” Chai Si tilted his head and thought for a moment. “There are two points, which may or may not be clues.”

First, the Domination Game began in November 1960 and ended in March 1961, lasting five months, but Lancelot chose to write his notes in 1966.

why?
What was the reason for waiting six years before finally starting to write?
There must have been some reason that prompted him to think about the game of domination and made him feel that he had to record it.

“But Lan Jiesen didn’t write down all his thoughts,” Ma Minghe said. “He was reserved when he wrote. He only recorded what actually happened, but hardly wrote down any opinions or speculations… Thinking about it carefully, doing this in a memoir-like notebook is obviously deliberate.”

There was one motivation that prompted Lancelot to take notes; but there was also a reason that made him hesitant to reveal everything.

What exactly these two things are cannot be explained in just two thin notebooks.

Chai Si nodded. "The second point is that at the end of his notes, Lan Jiesen said, 'It wasn't her passage that was closed at the time.' Even though the entire text is in the past tense, he still deliberately used the word 'at the time.'"

Mai Minghe immediately understood.

"Did Lan Jiesen already know that he could re-enter the lair when he was writing in his notes?"

"I have no other explanation."

Mai Minghe fell silent and thought about it carefully for a while.

“Why did you show me the Lenson Notes?” She shrugged and said, “This history is indeed strange, but we lack information. Just sitting here and thinking won’t help us figure out what happened, and I can’t see any connection to this Domination Game. Even if the Nest didn’t use the game to attack the human world last time, it doesn’t mean they won’t this time.”

"I believe that the Domination Game is an unavoidable disaster for the Nest," Chess said calmly. "The Nest hates and despises humans, and would never willingly give humans an opportunity to rule it..."

Yes, the host who saved her life in the lair said something similar that night—

Mai Minghe couldn't help but blurt out: "Domination is like a hurricane hitting Florida, a natural disaster unique to the nest."

Chai Si snapped his fingers.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

He seemed quite pleased with Mak Ming-ho's analogy, thinking she understood it quickly; before Mak Ming-ho could explain the origin of the analogy, he continued, "Since the nest cannot resist it, and there is historical evidence that the game of domination can indeed bring nest domination to the winner, then does it still matter what tricks the nest wants to play on the world?"

Mai Minghe was taken aback.

Chai Si raised his eyelids, and behind his disheveled hair, his eyes seemed to be sunk to the bottom of a deep, dark abyss.

"...Isn't it enough that the person who ultimately wins the game can reverse the damage and stabilize the world?"

(End of this chapter)