Artifact Report

Chapter 36: Chase: Finding the Phantom of the Path

When Chai Si was a child, Uncle Kai would sometimes take him camping in the mountains.

Deep in the mountains, far from the ever-bustling Blackmore City, the world was pitch black and silent. Aside from a crimson fire, all he could see were the stars overhead. He had never seen such pure darkness before, as if even the forest had vanished into space.

Uncle Kai taught him to identify constellations, quietly connecting the stars in the sky one by one to form the shape of a ladle, a giant bear... Mountain nights were cold, so he always brought two extra blankets. The young Chai Si, wrapped in a blanket, sat beside Uncle Kai, his gaze drifting across the universe.

At this moment, he thought of the line connecting the stars again.

Although it is far less beautiful than the stars, several light spots seem to gradually emerge from the subway driver in front of him, which can be connected to form a shape.

Based on this vague shape, he had a guess.

1. "A female corpse was found after the subway stopped operating" - this is a fact, a news report not long ago.

Second, "someone was attacked after getting off the night shift" - Chase is not sure whether it is true or not at the moment, it may be one of the hundreds of daily news in Blackmore City.

3. "A female detective and a male professor team up to investigate serial cases" - TV series.

There we have it, the three elements that make up a rumor.

It seems that... my appearance on the subway was like a sudden burst of electricity, lighting up something in the driver's mind.

Before seeing Chase, the subway driver was not at all "suspicious" or "afraid" as he said; when he was walking alone in the empty subway car, he was still humming a song.

However, the moment he saw a tall man holding a weapon, the subway driver apparently temporarily lost the ability to distinguish between truth and falsehood - the above three points were quickly pieced together, and in just a short breath, they created a rumor that "a serial killer has recently appeared in the subway."

What’s interesting is that when the driver blurted out the rumor, he himself wholeheartedly believed the rumor he had just created and even worried about his own life.

…So this is how the “rumor” artifact operates?
By combining and adapting the raw materials of the information, letting the finished rumor flow out of people's mouths... This is only the first step; the next step, I am afraid, is to get the fake image itself to understand it.

No, that's not right. Perhaps it should be said that this is one of its operating modes.

From all indications, the subway driver is just an information database with enough key information and a mouth that can speak out. He has no idea of ​​how he has been affected, and he has no awareness of it at all - it is hard to imagine that Vesile would allow an illusion to manipulate him instead of him manipulating the illusion.

There must be ways to actively exploit it and create rumors; however, this is not the primary issue at the moment.

The most important issue at the moment is to get the artifacts into hand first.

Chai Si stared at the subway driver's cheek, looking at the bulge on his cheek that seemed to be raised by his tongue and passed by it in a stroke - it had happened several times.

"Spit out what's in your mouth."

The driver was stunned. "In my mouth? There's nothing."

Chai Si looked at him without saying anything.

"It's true, there's nothing wrong. I just habitually use my tongue to push against the inside of my mouth." Under his gaze, the driver immediately panicked and said soothingly, "If you don't believe me, open your mouth and see—"

Chai Si cast his unhappily eyes into the flesh-colored cavity.

He had seen a lot of people's internal organs, and although he was used to it, he still felt that they were slippery and ugly.

The human mouth is very strange. If you look at it carefully for a long time, it even reminds him of alien creatures - the red and trembling throat, the hairy tongue, always sliding and swimming slightly in a layer of shiny liquid, as if it has its own will.

But however ugly they were, they were not artifacts; there was nothing in the driver's mouth except what a person's mouth should contain.

Of course, Chase hadn't thought the illusion would be easily spit out, so when it failed, he wasn't disappointed—after all, if there really was something in his mouth, how could he not notice? Ivan couldn't put anything in someone's mouth without them noticing.

Although the form of the artifact was unknown, if it was hidden in his flesh, extracting it would probably involve spilling blood and dirtying hands... The subway, used as a backup car, wasn't an ideal location. As the driver said, someone might be arriving soon.

Chai Si grabbed his collar and was about to lift him up when the driver suddenly seemed to realize something and started struggling and kicking, shouting, "Where are you taking me?"

He was a broad, fat, and heavy man. If it were someone else, it would probably be difficult to subdue him - but as soon as Chai Si noticed his movement, he had already loosened his grip, and at the same time kicked his ankle hard with his right foot. The other party had just let out a cry of pain when Chai Si's T-bar was buried deep in his abdomen, knocking out his breathing, balance, and strength. He collapsed to the ground without a sound.

The driver didn't fall completely to the ground, and he asked Chai Si to grab the back of his clothes and hold him up like a bag of vegetables.

It’s just that the bag of vegetables was a bit big, and it was dragging its legs limply on the ground.

"I'm very interested in rumors," Chai Si said in a negotiating tone as he dragged him forward. "I just want to chat. As for whether you want a complete chat or a fragmented one, it's up to you."

The driver couldn't even breathe smoothly, and for a moment he couldn't say anything except for intermittent and vague groans; Chai Si decided to understand his approval.

It wasn't until he had carried the person a few steps forward that he could vaguely distinguish a few words from the groaning - Chai Si stopped. He looked out the window. In the dark and silent subway tunnel, it seemed that no one would come for a while.

"What did you say?" He bent down and said in a gentle tone, "Speak more clearly."

The driver said something else in a very unclear voice.

Chai Si used his imagination, but could only make out a few incomprehensible words, which seemed to be "line", "bad", and "electricity". As for what they meant, he couldn't spell it out at all.

He was about to ask the driver to say it again when he suddenly had an idea.

He knew how much force he had put in his hands, so he had been careful not to use too much force. Besides, a hit on the stomach wouldn't leave someone speechless for more than ten seconds.

Come to think of it…did the driver open his mouth when he spoke just now?
He seemed to be pricked by this thought, and he threw the driver to the ground like a bundle of bundle.

The other person's face flashed upwards and rolled to the ground. In just a short moment, Chai Si saw clearly that the driver's face was tightly stretched and thin, and his lips were pursed almost invisible. He seemed to be struggling with something, and in order to grit his teeth, a tendon appeared on his lower jaw, jumping and crawling towards his temple.

His eyes rolled up to the sky, as if he had a deeply frightening problem, and the more he couldn't figure it out, the more scared he became.

Just now he was afraid of Tsai and kept talking; but now he kept his lips tightly closed, as if he was afraid of something new.

The next second, Chai Si understood where his fear came from.

The driver's head hit the handrail. It was just a bump, but it seemed to loosen his tense muscles.

He didn't open his mouth, but from between his lips came the sound of a person speaking again, much clearer than before: "In the car... the light... the wire is broken and fell down..."

If Chai Si had realized it even a blink of an eye later, he might have been electrocuted by the wire hanging from the ceiling - even if he woke up in time, he could only barely dodge it at the critical moment, and crashed into a chair beside him, watching a bunch of crackling electric sparks hit the floor in front of him, and the sparks swirled like a snake.

Is this illusion a form of self-protection?
This thought suddenly popped into Chai Si's mind.

The driver subconsciously hugged his head and shrank back; the wire fell to the ground without hitting him, then bounced up again, swung through the air again, and swung towards Chai Si.

The carriage was not spacious, and the place where the panel fell off and the wires fell was right in the middle of the carriage; a live, crackling wire was already very troublesome - but when Chai Si raised his hand and threw out the T-bar, knocking the sparking wire head back a few steps, he heard the voice coming from the driver's cheek again.

"I want to go home,"

Listening to it again now, I realized that it was a voice that didn't resemble a subway driver at all. It was saying hurriedly and vaguely: "I want to go home, a passage, a passage that can lead people to the nest -"

For a moment, Chai Si mistakenly thought he was hit by an electric wire.

Every pore of his body tingled, and he dared not move, as if afraid to startle it, afraid it would stop him from continuing. The scar on the back of his right hand came to life, tightening and contracting his skin.

Chai Si stood in front of the seat, one hand still holding the plastic backrest. Aside from the driver's voice, the entire world seemed to have vanished from his consciousness. He was back in the quiet, dark forest of his childhood. The only difference was that in this darkness, he could only see a single star.

"...No." said the driver's voice under his cheek.

The wire jumped into the air again, and a string of electric sparks drew an arc in the air and landed at Chai Si's feet.

He heard his heart thump against his bones, unable to break free from the cage, and slide back into the dark depths.

In the dead silence, he realized that he had taken a step forward, his legs and feet stiff, his fingers digging into the driver's clothes on his chest, but the hand seemed to be very far away from him.

This meaningless body was far away from him.

"resident,"

As the driver was yanked to his feet, his legs wobbling, he heard another voice from his tightly closed mouth. "There is a resident who has access to the human world."

The driver's heavy breathing, the sound of the wind in the subway car's ventilation system, the crackling of the wires... It was as if a gate was opened, and all the sounds and movements flooded back into Chai Si's consciousness.

"Tell it to be quiet," Chai Si gritted his teeth and squeezed out four words to the driver.

After four words, his peripheral vision told him that there was a dark glass window in front of him, bending towards the inside of the carriage, like a piece of cloth held up by a huge object.

　Although saying this may seem like an excuse to ask for leave, but yesterday when I was so sleepy I was really stuck at 1500 words and couldn't write any further. I felt that the plot had reached a dead end. I didn't know who wrote the first 1500 words, and I didn't know who would write the next one. Anyway, I can't do this job because my brain is a piece of wood.

　　I didn’t sleep well today (the cat meowed, I got up early for a meeting, and didn’t get enough sleep), but at least I did get some sleep, and it was different when I sat down to write again. Hey, I actually had pictures and ideas, and I actually finished writing it.

　　I'm actually a little proud of myself after writing it. Especially the part where Chai Si is so disappointed.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)