Artifact Report

Chapter 388 Chai Si: Congratulations, you've made your appearance!
He only has one minute to solve the mystery.

As the elevator began its slow descent with a low hum, Chai Si almost laughed in anger.

Even if a candidate only has one minute left to answer questions in the exam, they still know what they should do in that last minute—answer as many questions as possible and write as much as possible.

where are they?
Chai Si didn't even know what the problem they were facing was.

To stop the elevator from descending, effective action must be taken, but what kind of action is considered effective?

He knew it was useless, but he still slammed the floor button with his hand. The hospital had six floors, and they came down from the fifth floor. The third floor was already damp, so he slammed the button on the "4". But as expected, the elevator didn't even stop.

...As expected, such a simple method could not stop the elevator from descending.

This means that simply changing the floor where the elevator stops does not constitute a "significant change in circumstances".

57 seconds.

"Are you kidding me?" Han Liuyue had been glaring at the elevator ever since it started descending. "I've been invaded by dampness, and that doesn't count as a change? Am I not damp enough? Then let me go to the third floor and die a full-bodied ghost!"

Whenever she encounters a situation, her first thought is to solve it by sacrificing herself. I don't know where she developed this ridiculous habit. Chai Si wanted to curse, but he couldn't bring himself to do it—not that he couldn't bring himself to curse Han Liuyue, but that he couldn't bring himself to waste time.

If you don't even know what situation you're in, how can you talk about "taking action"?
and many more.

So, if they go from "not being able to see the situation clearly" to "seeing the situation clearly," does that count as a "significant change"?
The focus was indeed on the information that the two of them had just heard...

Thinking back, the first piece of information I received was—"Don't force the door open; moisture is seeping in."

53 seconds.

They didn't force the door open, but Han Liuyue was still damp.

Besides, the second message she heard was that "dry floors can be used for refuge," but before she could recall it, Han Liuyue had already been lured by the elevator to the damp third floor—wasn't that too unfair?

The word "unfair" felt like poison, burning a dull ache in his chest, making him afraid to look at Han Liuyue beside him.

Chai Si closed his eyes tightly, trying to sort out the jumbled mess of information in his mind into a logical chain; but these pieces of information were scattered and disjointed, leaving him completely clueless as to how to interpret them—for example, what is the relationship between "the observation time is 15 minutes" and "convex"?
Furthermore, not a single message mentioned any way to leave.

He was so anxious that he even started to rely on his intuition, just like ordinary people would appeal to gods and Buddhas: Could it be that the elevator was not responding because there was also dampness in the fourth floor where he had just pressed?

48 seconds.

“We need to go to the second floor,” Chai Si said, pressing the number “2” key. “The second floor is dry, right? We need to take refuge on the dry floor.”

This was his best effort to barely connect "changing floors" with one of the elevator messages; but after he finished speaking, a precious second had passed, and no matter how many times he pressed the button "2", it remained grayed out and unresponsive.

Was his interpretation method wrong? Did he make the wrong connection? Is the second floor not dry?
...What is the answer?
41 seconds.

"I forgot to mention earlier," the elevator announcement suddenly said leisurely, "the deletion process will begin in five seconds, since deletion takes time."

If it weren't for the lack of time to find out exactly where the radio was installed, Chai Si would have smashed it to pieces.

So they actually only have 55 seconds left, and 19 seconds have already passed—no, 26 seconds.

They only have 29 seconds left.

He finally glanced at Han Liuyue.

Han Liuyue was pale, her forehead glistening with tears. She gripped the pen tightly, the tip hovering motionless on the palm of her other hand, which had the character "凹" written on it.

Clearly, she, like Chai Si, was completely clueless. Not knowing what to write, she could only adopt the posture of writing.

Both of them are top-notch hunters in terms of both mental agility and physical skills, but they are almost completely useless in this elevator.

"Just delete me, okay?" she murmured. "I have dampness, delete the dampness, and let Brother Chai go..."

Neither the elevator nor the car paid any attention to her.

Countdown 24 seconds.

Chai Si suddenly glanced at the "凹" character on her hand again.

Yes, "凹" means a depression or pit, the two are somewhat similar, he just confused them.

He had just been thinking to himself, what does "15 minutes of observation time" have to do with "convex"? But the second piece of information Han Liuyue mentioned was clearly "concave"; besides, the two are pronounced differently, one is "ao" and the other is "tu"...

Chai Si suddenly paused.

Wait a minute, he doesn't speak Chinese either. How does he know there's a Chinese character "凸" and even its pronunciation?
He turned his head; Han Liuyue noticed and looked up to meet his gaze.

“…凸?” Chai Si tried his best to distinguish its pronunciation from “to”. His tongue and palate formed a tunnel, and the airflow rushed in from the back of his mouth, passed through the tunnel, and the syllable fell straight into the air.

When did the sound of the elevator become ingrained in his mind?

Countdown 21 seconds.

"Oh," Han Liuyue nodded, still with the same helpless and pale expression, "There was such a message."

She understood.

Not only did she understand, she also seemed to want to make some effort in this chaotic and gloomy situation; so she drew a "convex" above the character "凹" – exactly the shape of the character in Chai Si's mind.

Countdown 15 seconds.

What do these two words actually mean? Why tell them the picture and the pronunciation, but not the meaning?
Even though Chinese is a pictographic script, it is not always possible to guess the accurate meaning from the current form of the characters.

Chai Si had once read somewhere that the Chinese character “一” meant “1”, so when he saw “十”, he confidently assumed it must be “2”—completely wrong.

Since it's easy to misunderstand the meaning of a word, why not tell them the meaning... is it because the meaning of the word isn't important?

If we disregard the meaning of the words, then all that's left is the image, right?

Countdown 12 seconds.

Normally orderly thoughts are scorched by the fire of anxiety and despair, gradually turning black and brittle, breaking into pieces.

Forget about reaching a conclusion, I could barely contain my emotions—deletion undoubtedly meant death. How would he die? If he died, there would be no hope of dominating the game. What would happen to Uncle Kai?
Subconsciously, Chai Si's gaze fell on Han Liuyue's forehead, which was glistening with moisture.

What if... what if, under conditions of dampness, even she didn't know what she was doing?

In other words, does the "message" she speaks of really exist? Is it truly reliable?
Didn't I just think to myself that I can't trust her?
If all the information she says is just meant to confuse me—

No, that won't work. 9 seconds left.

Chai Si took a deep breath, and in order to force himself to calm down, he lowered his head, stared intently at the ground, and stopped looking at Han Liuyue.

He had indeed considered that, given Han Liuyue's condition, she might not be able to perform at her usual level and might make mistakes; but that did not mean she was untrustworthy—the two were fundamentally different.

Chai Si never easily trusts anyone, but when he does trust someone, he trusts them completely; hesitation and doubt are nothing more than a form of cowardice and timidity.

The thought came to him was almost like... like a third will was blowing into his mind, trying to tamper with his trust in Han Liuyue.

and many more.

Countdown 5 seconds.

It did happen at the beginning, right?
It seemed as if another voice was constantly advising him that it was perfectly normal not to remember how he got into the elevator and that he shouldn't overthink it—but the truth was that if he didn't "overthink," the scenario or action he accepted would inevitably become the next reality.

In other words, there is indeed a third will in the elevator, not the elevator announcement—the elevator announcement is just a tool, not the third will itself.

Countdown 3 seconds.

Several seemingly unrelated messages suddenly began to reveal their edges and full picture, swimming towards each other and gradually connecting.

It's like... like "concave" and "convex". If you write them down separately, they can be pieced together, like two special puzzle pieces.

"...Brother Chai?"

Han Liuyue seemed to call his name, but Chai Si was completely absorbed in his thoughts. The call sounded so distant, as if it were from a dream, that he didn't hear it.

1. The third will has been trying to tamper with his ideas.

2. The maximum load capacity of the elevator is 15 minutes of observation time.

Where there is time for observation, there are naturally observers.

Logically speaking, "tampering" implies taking action, while "observation" implies being a bystander and not taking any action.

So... this elevator not only contains Chai Si, Han Liu, and the third will, but also a fourth observer...

Yes, all the information—linguistic, textual, and state-related—is derived through analysis. All the information he has is like "concave" and "convex," forming pairs that complement and piece together a meaning, a truth.

Isn't that how elevator announcements convey information?

Give one copy to Chai Si, and another to Han, because their respective messages are precisely for piecing together and completing the story—

and many more.

Han...?
What's up with Han?
"Deletion in progress," the elevator announcement, which had been playing at some point, finally reached Chai Si's ears and mind for the first time.

He turned around and saw that he was standing in the corner.

...Chai Si understood.

He didn't understand everything, nor did he understand the state of the two of them—no, it should be said that one person and another person who was about to be completely deleted—into.

But he finally understood what actions constituted "changing the situation".

To dispel all illusions and reveal the "truth".

...The "reality" inside this elevator.

"Stop! I already know!" Chai Si shouted sharply. "The elevator doors have been open the whole time! They've never closed—there might not even be elevator doors at all!"

That moment of silence seemed to linger for a very, very long time.

In the corner of the elevator, it still exists in my peripheral vision.

“Bring her back,”

Chai Si's voice trembled slightly, sounding both commanding and pleading. He dared not look into the corner, and could only stare fixedly at the iron-gray elevator door.

"There isn't a single door that closes here. I already know the truth... Things changed significantly before you completely deleted her. According to your rules, you should bring her back, shouldn't you?"

The elevator announcements remained silent.

Chai Si didn't even know who he was talking to.

A few seconds later, the elevator announcement finally sounded again. "You said there's no door there... what's that?"

Here it comes. Chai Si took a deep breath.

“Observer,” he whispered.

He didn't dare to blink.

The word was like a hand, gradually erasing a patch of iron-gray, tightly closed elevator doors. In its place lay a dim, impenetrable darkness.

In the dim light, countless faces floated, faintly illuminated by the glow of cell phone screens.

Every face is looking into the elevator.

Grass...moon...bought fortune...southern ridge...Kaf...bouncing...shark...cherry...BM...

There are hundreds of words whose meaning is incomprehensible, which suddenly appear in my mind for a moment and then disappear in the blink of an eye.

Chai Si was already stunned. There was more than one observer...?

"Congratulations, the situation has changed significantly," the elevator announcement said with a sigh, sounding rather regretful. "Now executing Command+Z."

韩

韩六
Han Liuyue

When Chai Si turned his head to the corner again, he saw a completely intact Han Liuyue.

As soon as she came to her senses, she was startled by the face in the dim light at the doorway and exclaimed, "Brother Chai, what happened?"

(End of this chapter)