Artifact Report

Chapter 367 Jin Xueli: Do Not Peep, Do Not Delve Deeper, Pursue Relentlessly

Welcome to the elevator.

Ground Floor: __40th Floor Rooftop of the Rough Hill Building, Blackmore City__
Access Floor: __High-Rise Access/38th Floor, Roosevelt Hill Building__
Current Floor: __21st Floor, Lawrence Hill Building / Location of Jin Xueli and the Hate-faced Balloon__-
1: __1st Floor of the Roosevelt Hill Building/Ground Floor of Blackmore City/Death Floor/Welcome__-
2: __Unknown/Not recommended to enter but welcome__
3: __Smooth, silky, long, countless curling, trembling tongues licking the crevices and trembling layers of the brain__-
4: __Deep Seabed of Central Bay__
5: __Nest with vertical lower limbs and forest__
From the fifth basement level down, all the locations were nest names; but Jin Xueli glanced at them quickly and found that none of the next five nest names were her usual lodging rooms in the nest.

No, she doesn't even recognize the names of places, let alone a fixed place to stay.

These five lair names seemed to have nothing to do with Blackmore City; she had never even heard of them in all her years as a hunter.

"Nest Surprise Pie Flatbread"? What the heck?
We can't go there. The name of the place doesn't even have a trace of Blackmore City. Who knows if it's the real lair?
"You've led me wherever I am; I'm going to kill you!"

At this moment, apart from the "elevator control panel," all she could see was darkness; silence swallowed everything, except for the hate-faced balloon and the intense hatred in its voice, which still rang clearly from between her arms.

Is it because it went into the "elevator" with me?
It didn't dare to struggle because it didn't know what to do, right?
Indeed, no matter how long you've been a hunter, the lair is never short of new surprises.

When Jin Xueli decided to enroll, she had long forgotten that the night school's promotional poster had promised a "surprise welcome gift"—to be honest, when the residents of the admissions office insisted on giving her a gift, she found it troublesome and didn't really want it.

After all, things that nests actively offer to people are usually not good.

“If I can’t refuse… then can I choose a different welcome gift?” Kim Seol-ri asked tentatively. “You see, I don’t need to modify the passageway, but if you could replace my passageway with something else…”

"That won't do,"

The extra-large resident was quite friendly and enthusiastic, waving a cross-shaped hand gesture. "You can't just change the distribution channels like that. Would it be okay if I changed your self-perception as well? Besides, this isn't about changing your distribution channels."

"What do you mean?" Jin Xueli asked. "Aren't you going to add a 'layer upon layer' setting to the process of me falling after I jump off the building?"

The thought of jumping from a high-rise building still made her legs go weak.

Since this remains unchanged, what difference does it make whether you fall all at once or fall layer by layer, one level at a time—the latter would only be more uncomfortable, right?
"No, no, you've misunderstood."

A resident of Jiajiajia said, "Your path itself remains the same. Whether you use the surprise gift 'elevator' after you jump is up to you; you can choose. The 'elevator' will be activated after each jump. If you don't choose to use it, you'll fall down as usual. Only if you choose to use it will you get on the 'elevator'."

As Jin Xueli was still processing the information with her mouth slightly open, a resident with a large size added another sentence.

"You won't activate the 'elevator' when you jump down from the nest. It will only be activated when you jump from the human world... Well, it's like adding an extra little tool to your path. Your original path hasn't been modified."

This was the first time Jin Xueli had activated the "elevator" since enrolling in school—when she realized that the "stairwell" was just an illusion, she knew she couldn't enter the nest.

The remaining three face-shaped balloons watched her disappear into the air and naturally understood where she went; wouldn't her disadvantage and danger be even greater when the Knight family hunters chased her into the lair?

At least, the Knight family still has some reservations in the world—well, look at these four broken balloons, their reservations aren't too heavy.

All she took was a bottle of serum, why must they kill her?

Did the Knights pee around the gas station?

"Let me go. Take me back. I warn you, my brothers and sisters will definitely catch up with us because we have a connection. They will track me down and kill you."

“You seem a little unsure of yourself,” Kim Seol-ri said.

"Shut your garbage can."

On the rooftop, the hate-faced balloon, like the angry-faced balloon, was unable to have a normal conversation due to its intense hatred; only the smiling and sad-faced balloons could talk to Kim Seol-ri in a back-and-forth, coherent way.

Although the hate-faced balloon retains its original character, it has clearly extracted some of its sanity from hatred; if you add punctuation, it's almost like a normal person.

"You don't recognize this place either, do you?" Jin Xueli asked.

"What a joke! I'm worlds apart from you. I know far more than you do. Of course I know better... wait, why do you say that?"

The hate-faced balloon remained silent for a moment. "Don't you even know where you are?"

Okay, it's completely normal now.

"You don't even know how to get out of here! I can't see anything, it's so dark, so dark, so dangerous! I have a really bad feeling about this! I hate you so much! I'll kill you! When my brothers and sisters come, we'll share your flesh and blood!"

Okay, it's back to normal.

Wait, can't it see the elevator control panel?

That seems plausible; the "elevator" is a surprise gift added to the Jin Xue Li Road area...

Do I have an advantage right now?
The hate-faced balloon suddenly stopped its shrill screams and fell silent from its twisting and struggling, as quickly as if someone had pressed a toggle button.

"What is this feeling?" it murmured softly, as if afraid of disturbing someone. "Where are you going?"

Jin Xueli was taken aback by the question, and subconsciously glanced at the elevator control panel, her hair standing on end.

The elevator is descending ↓

She clearly didn't press any buttons, right? Why did the elevator suddenly—

Wait a minute, isn't that how elevators are used?

If the people in the elevator don't move for a long time, then once someone on another floor wants to go up or down, the elevator will respond to that floor's command...

In other words, something in the basement pressed the elevator button?

"Go back!" Jin Xueli ignored the balloon, let go of it, and pounded on the button marked "G," shouting, "I want to go back to the Ground Floor!"

Aside from the rooftop, none of the floors in the elevator seemed like a safe haven for her to return home alive; even the three human-face balloons waiting for her on the rooftop of the Roosevelt Hill Building were far less likely to be a threat—

"We've reached the ninth basement level,"

A mechanical female voice startled her. Was there an announcement system in this elevator?
"If this is not the floor you are using, please do not look outside or at passengers."

...What was the ninth basement level again?

Kim Seol-ri's hand was still on the G key. In that instant, her hunter instincts made her close her eyes.
-
9: __Location of the Nest Inside the Nest, Dark Cave Bottom, Back Chamber/Location of Golden Snow Pear and the Hate-Faced Balloon__
She squeezed her eyes shut, her body tense, almost pressed against the elevator control panel. She could hear the elevator doors slowly opening, just like any ordinary elevator in the world.

She heard the hate-faced balloon say "Hmm?"

"Is this the nest?" The hate-faced balloon seemed to breathe a sigh of relief, asking to someone in the darkness.

There was something outside the elevator that mumbled a reply, seemingly saying "Yes."

"So this is the lair..." the hate-faced balloon seemed to say as it floated out of the elevator, its voice fading into the distance. "What a hassle going around in circles..."

The second sentence quickly disappeared outside the elevator.

Jin Xueli couldn't sense whether anything was entering the elevator; she just kept pressing the G key frantically until her fingers ached—it should be lit up by now, right?

She kept her eyes closed, unsure if the elevator buttons would respond this time. But as soon as the elevator doors closed again, she suddenly snapped back to reality and quickly took two steps back.

...Generally, after someone gets on the elevator, they need to select the floor they want to go to.

No matter what's going up in the elevator, Kim Seol-ri doesn't want to be in the way of it and the control panel.

“Thank you,” a voice that could clearly speak human language mumbled. “You can open your eyes.”

The elevator announcement immediately came on: "Please do not look at passengers who can be seen."

"You can really open your eyes."

"Please do not look at passengers who can be seen."

"Don't be fooled by it..."

"We've reached basement level five," the elevator announcement interrupted the voice. "If this isn't the floor you're using, please do not look outside or at other passengers."

The voice fell silent; then, the sound of the elevator doors opening and closing came again.

Did you get off the elevator? It's going to the fifth basement level, right?

Jin Xueli was terrified that this was a trap, so she kept her eyes tightly closed and dared not open them. She groped her way to the elevator control panel and found the G key from memory. Like reading Braille, she used her fingertips to identify the shape of the G and pressed it frantically for a while.

When the announcement "Ground Floor" rang out, Kim Seol-ri suddenly realized that her back was soaked with cold sweat.

She only dared to open her eyelids slightly; through that blurry slit obscured by her eyelashes, she finally saw the rooftop of the building once again.

...Yes, that's exactly where she fell. Even the shallow grooves that the angry-faced balloon scraped on the ground are still there.

"I can feel it," the smiley balloon seemed to be laughing from afar. "It went back to its nest! That's great!"

"So that woman's escape route was a fall from a great height," the Sorrowful Balloon said mournfully. "I'm so sad that I couldn't kill her, Knight family..."

"Let's hurry up and get Xiaohen back first. Who cares about the Knight family going to hell?"

Jin Xueli kept her hand on the open button until the three balloons in the distance disappeared from mid-air. Only then did she hurriedly and stumble back to the rooftop. Throughout the entire process, she never dared to look back at the "elevator".

What if there are already passengers inside when the elevator is activated for use next time?
As expected, the surprise gift for starting school was something she had just guessed. Anything the nest offered up was never a good thing.

What exactly did I just go through?
Is the balloon with the hateful face that went in really a nest?
No... no matter how I think about it, it feels like it's gone forever.

Jin Xueli tripped and fell to the ground on the rooftop, breathing heavily for a while, but still had no answer.

All she knew was that now there was one more thing she "least wanted to do"—getting into the elevator.

The sky was weighed down by water-soaked, dark clouds, growing lower and lower, as if it were about to press down on people's heads.

In the nearby buildings... there might already be someone recording everything that just happened.

But Kim Seol-ri doesn't really care what happens if the photos are uploaded online. As long as she's far away and people can't see her face... maybe they'll think it's a TV show.

After the adrenaline receded, all that was left for her was weak and trembling limbs.

Jin Xueli put the hammer back together and searched through all her pockets before finally finding her phone. However, looking at the screen, she didn't know who to call to let them know she was safe.

Amber? But I'm being hunted down, and my location has just been discovered. If I contact her now, it might just cause her trouble.

Who should I tell... without worrying about the other person being implicated?
She looked at the name "Chai Si" in her contact list, and was about to press it when she remembered that he wouldn't answer the phone. Chai Si had been missing for several days, and there was no news of him.

If he were still alive, I wouldn't have suffered all this—the root of all the problems was his sudden disappearance, which prevented him from providing Scott with the original solution.

I've called him so many times before without any effect, so there's no point in trying to find him this time either.

But the Knight family's pursuit of her is ultimately because of the Kay family; the Kay family has to help, right?

After thinking about it, she settled for second best and sent a message to Tianxi. It took all her self-control to avoid adding five or six exclamation marks to the end of every sentence.

This place is not safe to stay for long... As soon as she sent the message, she felt a bit of strength return to her hands and feet, and quickly got up from the ground and grabbed her backpack.

As Jin Xueli turned around, she happened to see the door to the rooftop stairwell being pushed open.

Behind the slowly opening door was a strange man.

As he walked step by step onto the rooftop, she noticed that the color of his eyes covered his entire eye, leaving no whites visible.

He looked at Kim Seol-ri with his hollow eyes and smiled.

"I never expected that even those few balloons couldn't save your life, Miss Kim Seol-ri."

(End of this chapter)