Artifact Report

Chapter 382 Mai Minghe: The Dream of the Sea
Just as she finally managed to pull the belt off, she felt someone reach out and grab the other end of it.

Mai Minghe was startled and quickly twisted her body, but the belt had already been swept away by the waves from her hand. She struggled in the water for a few moments and grabbed the bottom of the engine. Her scalp was still tingling, but she finally breathed a sigh of relief: it turned out there was no one else in the sea, she just hadn't held on to the belt tightly enough.

With great effort, she climbed back onto the boat and saw the sea reeds slowly pulling the rope back; at the other end of the rope was the lifebuoy she had just thrown down.

Inside the lifebuoy, Amy looked like a soaked sack, her arms and head drooping limply, as if all her strength had been drained.

In that instant, Mai Minghe's heart finally sank back into his stomach, and he almost collapsed to the ground.

That's great...that's great.

“Evan is missing,”

As Hailuwei pulled her toward the boat, she turned back and shouted to Maiming River, "What did you do? Just now, a wave crashed over us, and it seems Evan lost his grip on Amy and was suddenly swept away..."

Could it be that the belt really was Ivan's passageway? Was he swept back into his lair?
According to Hai Luwei, he was in no mood to look at where Evan had gone. He was just desperately calling out Aimee's name, telling her to grab the lifebuoy. She was like a piece of ice that was gradually melting, the part of her on the surface of the sea getting smaller and smaller. After a few waves, Aimee disappeared.

Suddenly, Mak Ming-ho, Amy Li, and even Ivan disappeared.

For about ten seconds, the sea reeds stood alone amidst the gloomy sky, the torrential rain, and the Black Sea.

“You have no idea how much I was suffering back then… I didn’t dare to start the boat because you were still at the stern, and I was afraid that if I moved, you would be swept away by the waves. When I finally saw a hand suddenly emerge from the side of the lifebuoy, I thought to myself, looking at how God has taken care of me all this way, I know that the person who came up must be Ivan.”

As Hai Luwei pulled on the rope, she gasped for breath and said, "I really didn't expect this... Luckily, she still had a little bit of consciousness left and managed to grab the lifebuoy."

With their combined efforts, they pulled Aimee little by little from the sea.

While she was in the sea, she was sometimes unconscious and sometimes awake; after boarding the ship, she seemed to feel relieved and completely passed out.

From the outside, Amy looks perfectly normal, with no signs of injury or distortion on her face, except that she is almost pale from the cold seawater—at this rate, she will develop hypothermia.

Mai Minghe quickly wrapped her in a dry towel from the storage box, and then wrapped a waterproof plastic cover over the blanket.

She herself was shivering from the cold, and after checking Amy's pulse, she could no longer bear it—at this moment, the sea reeds had turned the boat around and sped toward the dock, and the wind and rain coming from the boat were even stronger; she shivered and crawled under the plastic sheet to barely shield herself from the wind.

Amy lay beside her, almost like a corpse.

Whenever the boat rocked or lurched, her body would sway back and forth; fearing she might bump into something, Mai Minghe had no choice but to hold her down tightly with his arms.

"Hang in there a little longer," the sea reed cried out from the wind and rain. "We'll be back on shore in ten more minutes! Honestly, this damn rain is getting heavier and heavier, is the sky leaking?"

It's no longer just a problem of torrential rain.

From the moment it began, the gale hitting the boat grew heavier and fiercer. For several brief moments, the small boat was even completely lifted into the air—when they crashed back into the sea, the waves roared up like high walls, like a snow-white waterfall surging towards the dark blue sky; the breathtaking scenery was indescribably magnificent.

It's a complete miracle that they didn't capsize.

From the depths where the sky meets the sea, a storm surges forth, crashing against the world like countless behemoths; the yachts are like blades of grass swaying in the wind, or like small fish racing against the storm, desperately trying to reach the shore before being capsized.

Mak Ming-ho had half his body pressed against Amy, afraid she would be thrown off, while his other hand gripped the rope on the boat tightly; his hand was already numb from the cold, and it was clenched like a chicken claw, as if it would never straighten out again.

She wanted to burst out laughing.

Even many years after her death, Sea Reed and Amy will surely still remember her.

Sea Reed would complain to his future children about a troublesome old lady he had encountered; Amy would scold the inhabitants, criticizing the nest for being incompetent, not even having a false illusion of bringing people back to life.

The world is so vast and wonderful; she turned around and saw that there were still people beside her.

What else is there to regret?

"Oh no!" Sea Reed exclaimed suddenly.

The small boat sped along, but by the time it was time to go ashore, the shore and dock had already disappeared into the iron-gray water curtain.

Whether it was the storm that brought surging waves to Blackmore City, or the rising waters of several large rivers that flooded the city as they rushed toward the sea, the small boat was thrown into the air above the land—or rather, the air above the land where it was originally.

The boat, which had been lucky all the way, finally gave out. It rolled and capsized, throwing the three people into the sea. Fortunately, the water was much shallower here, so they didn't drown. Instead, it cushioned their fall and prevented them from being hit by the ground and bleeding.

"Are you alright?" Sea Reed waded through the water, struggling and disheveled as she thrashed over. "Are you hurt?"

Mai Minghe struggled to his feet from the water, and before he could answer, he shouted from the storm, "Did you see that just now?"

"Saw what?" Hai Luwei was taken aback. "Aimeili? She's up ahead, I saw her—" "No," Mai Minghe interrupted him, but she herself paused. The words were on the tip of her tongue, but she changed them: "Never mind, let's go and rescue Aimeili first."

Now is not the time to chat. The area near the pier is the first to be hit by the flood. If we delay any longer, we may be swept into the sea at any moment.

In the sea...

Mai Minghe couldn't help but look back at the roaring, iron-gray sea in the distance.

...Did she see it wrong?

The two of them supported the half-conscious Aimee, half-dragging and half-carrying her, and walked forward with their feet sinking into the deep water. The floodwaters were not too bad yet, and soon the resistance of the vast waters was less—but finding where Hai Luwei's car was parked was pure wishful thinking.

"My phone is still on me," Mai Minghe said, patting his pocket, surprised even himself. "I quickly called an ambulance to pick us up..."

Even if she suspected her phone was being monitored, now was not the time to worry about the police chief.

"I...I'm fine..." Amy murmured, "I'm much better now..."

“You’re okay, but I’m in trouble,” Hai Luwei immediately complained. “I fell really hard, and besides, we can’t keep walking like this in the rain. Mai Minghe, don’t listen to her, call her quickly—Mai Minghe? What’s wrong?”

The storm and the raging roar of the sea made it difficult for them to even communicate, and drowned out all other sounds.

For example, the sound of a cell phone buzzing or vibrating.

As soon as Mai Minghe turned on his phone, as if he had been waiting for this moment, a "Nest Domination Game Notification" eagerly popped into his phone.

The compassionate athlete, Mak Ming Ho.

Unfortunately, we have to inform you that the second action point to obtain the artifact report for you has officially failed.

Honestly, the mission point was supposed to be for you to rescue people, so why did you end up pushing them into the water instead?
What a poor young man! He had such a bright future in Blackmore City, and you ruined it all.

Is this still the same athlete, Mak Ming Ho, who prioritized human life and had a compassionate heart? Don't you feel ashamed?
The corrosive effect of the environment on people should not be underestimated.

...It's all unsurprisingly nonsensical nonsense.

Mai Minghe couldn't help but snort. She had already anticipated this; she wouldn't let the Nest control her emotions.

She closed the message and tried to call for emergency help, but the touchscreen was slippery and unresponsive after getting wet; there wasn't a dry cloth on the three people, so there was nothing to wipe them with—just as she was getting anxious, her phone rang again.

It's an Amber Alert.

Why are you here again?
Congratulations to the kind-hearted player, Mak Ming Ho! You've had pretty good luck too!
Although your second action failed, your third action succeeded. You didn't expect that, did you?
……what?
She didn't receive any notification about the third action point at all.
Your decisive and efficient actions, while completing the third action point, also made the nest aware of the contradiction between the second and third action points.

Simply put, neither can be completed simultaneously; only one can be chosen. Congratulations, your choice has successfully completed the third action point!
However, this is a major oversight in the game of Nest Domination.

Please ensure your phone has a full battery and proceed with caution. As an apology, the nest will be sending you a message within the next 72 hours.

The message of the "time" illusion.

Mai Minghe stared blankly at his phone, forgetting the wind and rain, the danger, and even the two children beside him for a brief moment.

She had countless questions, yet knew the nest could not give her any answers.

I had clearly prepared myself mentally to give up on the illusion of "time"...

But they told her she had completed the third action point? She didn't even know what the third action point was, how could she have completed it?

"Mai Minghe?" Hai Luwei called her again—she had lost count of how many times it had been—and finally brought her back to her senses.

She stared blankly at Hai Luwei's pale and tired face. After a few seconds, she asked, "You...you didn't see it just now? Before we were pulled ashore..."

"What do you see?" Sea Reed raised her eyebrows.

"In the waves... I think I saw something..."

What followed was nothing short of rambling; not only could no one else understand it, but even Mai Minghe herself didn't. But she had no choice but to express the impression that had formed in that instant.

"I saw it then... a dream wrapped in the waves."

(End of this chapter)