Artifact Report

Chapter 380 Mai Minghe: Where Did We Come From, Where Are We Going Back To?
The moment the bat made contact, a deep groove dented into Evan's skull.

His face seemed to collapse halfway like putty. Mai Minghe watched as his cheekbones shrank inward, and even his facial features scattered across his face—the dull thud of the bone hitting the baseball bat was so light that it was almost inaudible.

However, the next second, when he fell to the ground, his head and face returned to normal; as if it were just an illusion caused by her eyes.

"Are you OK?"

Amy raised her bat again, and seeing that Evan seemed unable to get up for a moment, she quickly looked at Mak Ming-ho up and down and asked, "Can you stand up?"

"Wait, wait for me..."

About ten meters behind her, Hai Luwei was still running breathlessly toward them. Although she hadn't arrived yet, her face was pale and bluish, almost visible to people a street away.

Ivan fell to the ground with a thud.

As soon as he was attacked, his strength began to flow back into his veins, which had been like a dried-up riverbed; soon, Mai Minghe's chest filled with breath again. She looked up at Amy, who was extending a hand to her, and said with some difficulty, "When he was hit just now..."

Behind Amy, Evan's neck suddenly lifted off the ground like a live fish.

"Watch out!" Sea Reed shouted, quickening her pace as she rushed forward: "He's getting up—"

Neither of them was able to finish their sentence.

As Amy turned around abruptly, Evan also jumped up from the ground; he ducked and dodged under Amy's outstretched hand, seemingly knowing that his chances of winning were slim, and turned and ran into the road.

We finally found him, and if he gets away again, who knows when we'll be ambushed again?
Mai Minghe was so anxious that he could hardly breathe, and he couldn't even get up. He could only cry out in a trembling voice, "We can't let him get away..."

“Run? He’s dreaming.” Amy cursed, swinging her arm.

The baseball bat in her hand drew an arc in mid-air before flying out of her hand, whistling through the air—and as Evan ran into the middle of the road, the bat slammed into the back of his head.

This time, the sound of the metal bat hitting bone echoed across half the street.

Evan was caught off guard and took a heavy blow, his face immediately falling face down to the ground.

Amy is a girl whose fierceness should not be underestimated.

She rushed into the road after him, and before he could get up, she stomped on the back of Evan's head and kicked him hard several times, as if she were stomping on a rotten watermelon. She also noticed that something was wrong with Evan. While stomping, she cursed, "Your skull can retract? Fine, if you're so capable, stick the back of your head out of your mouth."

One kick was even completely "submerged" in Evan's head, and Mak Ming-ho could only see her calf sticking out from behind Evan's head—just looking at it was enough to make one's scalp tingle, but Amy remained tense, her expression cold and hard, and then raised her foot and kicked down again.

"Wait, stop kicking, just grab it."

As Hai Luwei helped Mai Minghe up, she called out to her, "This is, after all, on the main street, in broad daylight..."

As if he had a problem with the phrase "in broad daylight," before he finished speaking, large raindrops began to fall in clusters from the dark sky.

Dark, damp stains appeared on the sidewalks and roads; the sunlight seemed weary and closed its eyes behind the wet, cotton-like clouds.

Aimeili was very well prepared.

She came here today specifically to capture Evan, and had clearly thought of everything; not only did she bring a baseball bat, but she also reached into her lower back and pulled out a pair of handcuffs, which she used to lock Evan's arms behind his back.

The rain quickly became heavy and dense, pelting so hard that it made it difficult for them to open their eyes.

"Get up," Amy grabbed Ivan, and Hailuwei and Maiminghe, who had finally regained his strength, also arrived.

Evan's head looked like a deflated balloon, dented into the shape of a foot, but it was slowly bulging out again.

He glanced at Mai Minghe out of the corner of his eye, expressionless and silent.

They caught a person—or perhaps not a person—but the next step left the three of them at a loss.

In just a few minutes, a torrential downpour began. The empty roads seemed to have sunk to the bottom of a dark lake, not a single car could be seen; of course, one could not see far before being submerged by the endless curtain of water.

Amidst the rumbling rain, Sea Reed raised her voice and asked, "What do we do? Where do we take him now?"

We can't exactly kill him in Blackmore City; besides, we might not even be able to.

"We can't kill him, can we?"

Hailuwei, still concerned about the Domination game for Maiminghe, wiped the rain from her face and said, "Isn't it only by helping him 'get back on track' that we can complete the action points?"

“That’s definitely a lie,” Amy said irritably. “Look at this guy, is he even human? Getting back on track? I think sending him back to his lair is the real way to get back on track.”

Evan's "right path" certainly couldn't be in the lair, otherwise the "Domination Game" wouldn't have gone to such lengths to send him to Blackmore City.

However, the nest—

Mai Minghe suddenly raised her head, about to speak, but hesitated. "What do you want to say?" Hai Luwei noticed her hesitation.

Mai Minghe wiped the water from his face, the words stuck in his throat, unable to come out; the sound of rain filled his ears.

...She only has 25 days left in her young life.

If she doesn't obtain the "time" illusion within 25 days, she will also be finished when the snake's countdown ends.

Compared to her own demise, the intentions of the nest and the game of domination for humanity became a distant, minor concern; for her, when her world fell into darkness, the universe naturally ceased to exist.

Not to mention Blackmore City, and all the people who live here?
The Domination game tells her that if she rescues Evan and helps his life get back on track, she can get the next action point hint—with the next action point hint, she might survive 25 days and enter a true new life.

Therefore, Mak Ming River has two choices.

First, lock Evan up at home. Interrogate him, test him, try various methods, and wait for notification of the next action point; at the same time, naturally, you must also risk him attacking you again, making contact with other strange things, or escaping into Blackmore City.

Second, tell him to go back to where he came from.

However... if Evan were to be sunk back into the central bay, the second action point would undoubtedly be a complete failure, and she would be out of luck with the illusion of "time".

25 days... is that enough time for her to start all over again and find another illusion that can keep her alive?
"What's wrong?" Sea Reed asked. "It's raining so hard, why are you suddenly spacing out?"

Mai Minghe's gaze swept over him.

He is a person who takes good care of himself. Of the three, only Hai Luwei remembered to wear a raincoat today; although he was a step too late to remember to put on his hat, his hair and face were soaked by the rain, and his skin was white from being soaked.

Even though he didn't look distressed, he always seemed a little distressed, like a dog that had found a new owner but couldn't forget the shadow of being abandoned.

Amy squinted as the rain lashed her eyes, her thin lips pressed tightly together, and she didn't urge Mak Ming-ho to make a decision.

She was like a legendary ascetic, always demanding of herself to remain unmoved by external things, regardless of wind, rain, snow, or frost; in the torrential rain that was inescapable and almost suffocating, she still stood straight like a sentry, holding a metal baseball bat in her hand.

Mai Minghe gently wiped the water from his face. Fortunately, the downpour provided shelter.

“I know what to do.” She smiled at the two children and said, “Can you call a car?”

Everyone is born with a predetermined lifespan from heaven. She lived to be eighty-six, longer than many people.

She was just in a daze at the time and didn't know that her life would fly by so quickly.

So much time was spent worrying, being cautious, keeping accounts, working, cleaning the floor, taking care of parents, patients, children in the orphanage, cooking soup and meals... gradually disappearing and never to return.

She wasted her entire life on trivial matters.

But she has no right to gamble with other people's lives for the possibility of living again—that would be too greedy.

Mak Ming Ho has already received more than he could have imagined; he has been incredibly lucky.

Whether it was entering the lair, being attacked, or now, accompanying the two children and escorting Evan through the torrential rain to the Central Bay Wharf...

Every minute after the passage was opened, every breath after seeing the new world, was a vibrant heartbeat she had never experienced before, surging in the midst of the raging storm.

"Are you really sure?" Sea Reed turned her head and asked through the dark rain, "What if..."

"Go quickly," Mai Minghe urged.

Evan looked at the sea reeds heading to the dock to set sail, and then at the Mak Ming River.

"What do you want to do?" He seemed to still not believe that Mak Ming-ho would really make this decision, repeatedly saying, "You can't scare me. This trick won't work on me. Besides, aren't you afraid the police will arrest you?"

"Do you really think you're human?" Amy scolded him, shoving his shoulder hard and saying, "Shut up and move forward."

The small boat we used to take when we were salvaging Ivan a couple of days ago is still sitting in the same spot; it's being rocked and pushed by the fierce wind and rain and the undulating waves, as if it might fall on the sea at any moment and never be able to climb back up.

Going out to sea in this weather, especially in a small sightseeing boat, is practically throwing your life into the waves—but what's wrong with being dangerous?
Mak Ming Ho wished he could experience more thrills and excitement in his final days, and do more things that others would never have the chance to do in their entire lives.

...Thinking about it this way, pushing someone into a raging stormy sea seems to be something that very few people in the world can experience.

She closed her eyes, wiped the rain off her face, and took a deep breath.

Evan looks respectable, so to decide to push him off the ship feels like murder; I really need to prepare myself mentally.

Amy looked at her and said, "Or I can do it..."

“No,” Mak Ming-ho stood up, gripping the railing as he rose from the rocking boat. “It’s my decision, I’ll make it.”

(End of this chapter)