Artifact Report

Chapter 397 Brianna, the Inspiring Vulture Head

...When she calmed down, Brianna was lying face down in a pool of blood.

The blood was cold, slippery, thick, and pungent.

Her head was tilted to the side, her cheeks soaked in blood; when she lowered her eyes, she could see her own body, like a long, dead snake, motionless.

Jacqueline, whom she had always cherished and loved, was no longer in the room.

The room is now filled only with thick, long-accumulated blood from the dead, spreading across the floor.

Large swaths of blood, along with bits of flesh, entrails, and severed limbs, were flung onto the wall; indistinct, differently shaped pieces of flesh and blood slowly slid down the wall in the darkness—like some kind of malevolent alien insect crawling toward her little by little.

This is a nest... It wouldn't be surprising if severed limbs and bits of flesh really turned into insects.

It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter anymore.

Brianna stared at the dark room walls for a long time before blinking.

Because the vulture's head rolled right up to her face.

She stared motionlessly at the vulture's head, and the vulture's head stared motionlessly back at her.

The two stared at each other in silence for a moment before Vulture spoke: "When you get angry, it's really scary."

Brianna remained silent.

She didn't have the strength to open her mouth.

"It's just a dead man, isn't it? He's gone, so what? Hunters who die in their lairs are all too common. We can just find someone else who dies a more dignified death."

It really doesn't understand anything.

Since Brianna died in the lair, Jacqueline is the first woman to walk as a woman again, and the first woman to truly take control of House Wayne's affairs.

Now it's all over.

Just like in the years before her death, Brianna can no longer step into the Weasleyan house.

That was clearly where she was born... that was her home first.

"Ask me! Why don't you ask me?" The vulture stuck out its long tongue, curved the tip of its tongue, pointed to its face with it, and then withdrew it. "Ask me how my head fell off! Ask me now!"

Between knocking it away and asking a question, Brianna felt that asking a question would save her some effort.

"...What's wrong with your head?" Her voice was hoarse and low, and she stopped before she could finish asking.

But the vultures already have enough stage to perform on.

It couldn't help but feel smug, saying, "I've been watching you smash and ram things, and I'm thinking that even if you tear down the rooms and grind all the residents hiding here to dust, it's still not enough. I'm still waiting to go to Blackmore City to kill people."

Brianna looked at it.

“I wanted to come in and try to persuade you, but I forgot that no one is allowed in this room except for people who look like Jin Xueli. As soon as I stepped in, I was attacked by that flour ball guarding the house, and it ripped my head off.”

It spoke happily. "But then a brilliant idea struck me! This room isn't for ordinary people, but it's for the dead. My head's been removed, so isn't I dead?"

...This dead man is rather talkative.

The vulture rolled its eyes, stuck out its tongue from the corner of its mouth, and made a face like a dead man from a cartoon.

Its tongue touched the ground, and it mumbled indistinctly, "Ugh, like at night, use my head, just a little bit of that..."

It came in through the tongue.

The access control system for this room is both strict and ridiculous.

Kim Seol-ri—

I can't think about her. She's like a floodgate; if I think about her, I'll be overwhelmed by darkness.

"Why?" Brianna finally asked. Apart from her mouth, her entire body remained deathly still and frozen. "What are you doing in here?"

"I believe that as a person—as a resident—one must be trustworthy."

The vulture retracted its tongue and said, "You promised to take me to Blackmore City to kill someone, you dangled such a beautiful promise in front of me, you have to keep your word. You can't be like those... those... what was it again, oh, startups, where I do what I'm supposed to do and then you just drop everything. That won't do."

Perhaps it was all too heavy, too absurd, that Brianna almost wanted to laugh.

She defied the constraints and shackles, desperately yearning for love, taking risks time and again… Even as she struggled and sank deeper, she believed she would eventually pull through. Someone was waiting for her ahead.

Finally, in the stillness of the night, when all was silent and nothingness existed, only a vulture remained by her side, refusing to abandon her.

“I can’t go back,” she whispered. “Go find someone else.”

Vultures are not so easy to deal with.

"Aren't you going to tell me? Why don't you just find another hunter who died in the lair?"

As the vulture's head spoke, it was actually slowly sliding towards the door—its head was desperately trying to merge with its body. "Get up! Hold on, find another hunter to put on your harness, and we'll go to Blackmore City together to find that Ches Monroe! I need to kill the dominant gamer to make a name for myself!"

Brianna simply uttered a meaningless syllable from her nose.

"You probably hate that person too, right? That's why you sacrificed him to me, isn't it? Don't you want him to die?"

"...It doesn't matter anymore."

Even if Chai Si died right before her eyes, so what? She would still be neither human nor ghost, a snake lying on the ground, utterly powerless.

"So, you don't want Jin Xueli anymore?" Vulture changed targets. "Hold my head down first, or I'll slip out the door. How about this? Come on, put your hands up!"

Brianna didn't really care whether she raised her hand or not, but it was too noisy, so she reluctantly dragged her arm over and pressed down on the vulture's head.

"Thank you," Vulture said politely. "Let's continue talking about Jin Xueli."

Brianna let out a sob that sounded like laughter. "There's nothing to say...it's pointless."

"Why?" the vulture said, "Just change it to another hunter—"

“Shut up,” Brianna finally raised her voice. “You don’t understand my plan at all! I’ve switched to an anonymous body, so I can no longer get close to the Weavers, obtain the target illusion, and the game of domination is no longer for me.”

“If the control of the nest is not mine, then I can’t change anything. In this case, even if I can get Jin Xueli involved, I have to be careful. I can’t let Jin Xueli’s body have any problems for the rest of my life… Even if there is the slightest accident, her body may not be able to recover and will rot away in a foul way.”

Her voice grew louder and more excited.

"Am I supposed to wear a body that might break down and rot at any moment, yet might never age, and stay glued to Morandau's side forever? To be disliked by her, doubted by her, and by her—"

Brianna's anger came to an abrupt halt.

If you can't possess the power of the nest, then no matter how many bodies you change or how many times you stand before Morandau, it will all be in vain.

“…At least I’m like this now,” she murmured, her head falling back to the ground with a thud. “At least I’ve preserved the last shred of dignity.”

The vulture clearly didn't understand many parts; but it did understand the "Domination Game" part.

“If you want to win, just kill all the other competitors,” it said, seemingly finding it a very simple problem, glancing sideways at Brianna. “Just collect artifacts from the dead, isn’t that enough?”

Brianna simply couldn't be bothered to respond to it.

"Don't you believe me? I think if you can maintain your current appearance when you enter the world, your advantages as a resident will far outweigh anything else—"

It forgot Jacqueline's name, glanced around the room, and said, "The advantage is far greater than that of the broken one."

Brianna tried to let go, letting its head roll away.

“I’m already a resident,”

This was the first time she had admitted this. Everyone has to come to accept reality eventually. Her problem in the past was that she was always unwilling to accept reality, always wanting to rebel and struggle, which led her to her current predicament. "...I can't enter this world."

"That was true before, but it's hard to say now."

"Oh."

A few seconds of silence filled the room, then Brianna abruptly looked up. "What?"

"Huh? What? What?"

She stared at the vulture's head and asked, "What did you mean by what you just said?"

The vulture uttered a name she never expected to hear at this time and place.

Do you know Fu Tai Lan?

Brianna stared at it blankly. The reason she had approached the vulture was because she had followed a blue vulture that was looking for its companions, or had asked Brianna for directions... How come she was hearing that name again now?

“I know,” she finally just murmured.

"That saves a lot of trouble. You know, we vultures can communicate with each other using a special call system, right?"

"Yes, it's so annoying."

"Okay, that makes things easier. I'll get right to it."

The vulture licked its lips, a hint of anticipation appearing on its usually undulating face. "That Fu Tailan, what bad luck, he was replaced by one of our companions. Our companion is truly remarkable, able to simultaneously possess both Fu Tailan's and the vulture's self-awareness."

“I know this part, skip to the next one.”

“Oh? Oh, you know quite a lot.” The vulture continued, “Anyway, it took another of our companions to teach it how to maintain its self-awareness. That’s not the point, because they both went to Blackmore City through the Hunter’s Passage… But while you were going crazy in the room, I received a message from our companion.”

“…What did you say?” Brianna refrained from scolding it.

"When the Futai Blue Vulture enters the nest, it does not come through the passageway."

The vulture glanced at her and said, "Isn't it strange? There was a resident who always knelt in the shadows by the roadside, and it saw the Futai Blue Vulture fall straight down from mid-air. The Futai Blue Vulture even asked it if it knew where the other vultures were."

That blue vulture had to ask for directions all the way to find the flock... It never whistled once.
So... was it really a "vulture"?

"Our companions found it interesting, so they went to check out the spot where the Futai Blue Vulture fell."

The vulture looked around, then seemed to remember that it didn't have legs to pat, so it emphasized, "Guess what? There's a faint black mist floating over there!"

Brianna had already sat up. "Black mist...? What is that?"

"Well, I'm not sure about the specifics either. There are all sorts of opinions and guesses."

The vulture gave Brianna a rather slick look.

“Some knowledgeable residents say that between the lair and Blackmore City lies a... what's it called again, oh, the ‘Black Abyss Belt’. That black mist might be the Black Abyss Belt. In other words, if you cross the black mist, you might reach Blackmore City... even someone like you in your resident form can cross it and enter the human world.”

(End of this chapter)