Artifact Report

Chapter 371 Brianna - What She Discovered
"...What benefits would I get?"

Now that vultures have evolved their intelligence and developed self-awareness, it is almost inevitable that they would ask this question.

Brianna was not surprised at all.

Vulture glanced sideways at Brianna from the corner of his eye, and before he could control himself, his eyeball took two or three seconds to return to its socket. "If you want to ask for information, that's your business, but if I want to tell you information, I need to have a motive."

"……what would you like?"

Brianna wasn't surprised, but that didn't mean she was calm. Suppressing her anger, she asked, "Haven't I heard you complaining for so long?"

After finding the culprit, the vulture, though unable to kill her, tormented Brianna for half an hour in another way: it recounted in detail how terrible things had been, personally demonstrating the abuse it had suffered, and complaining that its reputation among vultures was now no different from that of a piece of chewing gum stuck to the sole of a shoe...

Brianna might have felt sympathy before, but now she just wishes she could twist its head off.

Since her death, she couldn't stand seeing others suffer; the vulture's words made her dizzy and confused, and she thought several times that it was better to just give up. She was just a mere Jin Xueli, who would die sooner or later, and it wasn't worth her suffering like this. However, although she wanted to turn away several times, she never left.

The vulture's complaints were so dense that she couldn't get a word in edgewise, but she was worried about Jacqueline, so every now and then she would quietly shrink back a little.

Brianna shrank back a little, and the vulture followed closely by taking a step; by the time it finished complaining, she had already shrunk back quite a distance, and when she turned around, she could see the tree where Jacqueline was sitting.

"Just listening to my complaints isn't enough," the vulture smacked its lips twice, its mouth twitching for several seconds before regaining its composure. "Hmm... what benefits do I want... what ideas do you have?"

It turns out it didn't even realize it was just greedy.

Once I'm wearing Jin Xueli's clothes, I'll definitely dress her up beautifully... only then will it be worth all the suffering I've endured.

Brianna patiently said, "What desires do the inhabitants have besides preying on humans? Shall I take you into the human world?"

She felt she had already sacrificed a great deal by bringing such a thing into the world, but the vulture shook its head.

"Entering the world, I can do it myself now. Think of another one."

How about I kill you? I'll drown you, burn you, grind you into a cup of rotten mud. Anyway, kill many of you so there will be no more vultures in the world. Um, wait, many vultures. What did it just say?
"...Help you improve your reputation among the vultures?" she asked tentatively.

The vulture's eyes lit up. "Transform...transform into a famous vulture? Me? A celebrity? How can I do that?"

"This is promising," Brianna thought for a moment. "I'll create an opportunity for you to kill a dominant gamer and become famous overnight, how about that?"

“Mai Minghe won’t do,” Vulture immediately shook his head, “Well, you probably know that going after her will be a painful experience…”

"It's not Mak Ming Ho."

Who is Mak Ming-ho? Is there such a contestant? Is she very good? I'll have to look her up later. "It's Chess Monroe."

Brianna added fuel to the fire, saying, "Not only can I create opportunities, but I can also help you devise the plan and work together. After he dies, I'll say you did it all by yourself, and come back to the lair to spread the word and testify for you... How about that?"

The vulture excitedly circled twice on the spot. "Killing is great! I love killing!"

To a human being, it's obvious at a glance that this is doing dirty work for someone else, and the target is Chai Si, making it a chore to avoid at all costs; but for the residents, it's different—murder itself is their supreme pleasure.

It could be both happy and famous, so it naturally became much more obedient and cooperative, saying with its head bowed, "I'll tell you everything I remember, after all, Han Liuyue once told me to become Jin Xueli."

"why?"

The vulture blinked twice. "Hmm... she wants to know about Kim Seol-ri's past."

What a coincidence, everyone seems to want to know about that guy's past.

"Oh, I think I've heard that. Once you become the target, you can inherit the original owner's memories, right?"

“Of course,” the vulture nodded.

Brianna glanced at it. Was she overthinking it?

What the vulture told her was no different from what she knew, but she just felt like it was hiding something from her.

"...Does that mean Han Liuyue will believe whatever you say?"

“Cough,” Vulture turned his face away and scratched his chin. “Whether she believes it or not, I can’t control it. What can she do even if she doesn’t believe it? She can’t kill me. I’ve been tortured to that extent, you have no idea…”

"Shut up."

"Okay, okay."

Brianna pondered for a moment.

How Han Liuyue could identify her might not be that important; what was more important was what had happened to Jin Xueli—she wanted to know, she really wanted to know, she wanted to know now, she couldn't wait to kill Jin Xueli.

“Tell me,” she waved her hand, indicating, “Tell me about Jin Xueli’s memories and past.”

The vulture hesitated for a moment.

"Well, time has passed, it's been a long time, and I've long since returned to my original form..."

Brianna could feel her face slowly sinking down.

“We vultures have a unique characteristic: after reverting to our original form, we erase all memories gained from our previous human form. Think about it, if every memory were preserved, after transforming into human multiple times, you wouldn't even know who's who anymore. With memories of different people mixed together, how could that work…”

Brianna gestured to it. "Come here, get closer and talk to me."

The vulture bent down, looking a little embarrassed: "Hey, didn't you hear me?"

Before it could finish speaking, Brianna slapped it across the face.

After she became a half-resident, her strength surged. Her slap was as hard as steel, and it sent the vulture's head flying. Its neck couldn't withstand the sudden force, and its neck bones snapped. The vulture's head drooped to the side, and half of its face collapsed.

"You have a really bad temper,"

The vulture mumbled through its collapsed beak, "Wait for me to finish. This memory erasure process also takes time... Although I've erased most of Jin Xueli's memories, there's still a part that I haven't had time to erase yet."

After being slapped, it felt better and told Brianna the rest of its memories—"Golden Snowy's way out is by jumping off a building. But she's afraid of heights, so she has to drink a lot of alcohol before she comes in, and only dares to jump when she's drunk and numb."

"Isn't that very dangerous?" Brianna's heart tightened.

“Yes,” Vulture said regretfully, “so she found herself a fixed place to stay. In the nest, she used the script as a reward to reserve a private room. Every time she jumped, she was guaranteed to land in that room and only came out after sobering up, which ensured her safety.”

It rolled its eyes and thought for a moment. "Hmm... what else was there... right, she seems to still be in that room, hiding something very important... was it an illusion? Cough, the residents don't care about illusions, so I didn't think much of it, I can't quite remember."

As if to prove his usefulness, Vulture emphasized, "It really, really is important. I still remember how much she cherished it every time she took it out."

Brianna tapped her fingers slowly on the ground a few times. "...Do you remember where that room is?"

The vulture was quite pleased with itself, its face beaming. "How could I not remember? I can take you there."

It was because of the vultures that Brianna found the red brick house.

The red brick houses are typical of the 19th century, standing side by side in a row. Jin Xueli's place is the one on the corner next to the road; in addition to the main entrance, there is also a separate side door, which is said to be for the tenants, leading to a narrow little garden.

Brianna, who had just put on Jacqueline's new clothes, walked to the side door and was about to push it open when someone knocked on the window.

She turned around and saw Jin Xueli through the dimly lit first-floor window.

(End of this chapter)