Artifact Report

Chapter 398 Brianna: The Infected and the One Who Has Been Waiting for Her
...Do you really want to go?

Brianna stared blankly at the swirling black mist, momentarily stunned, unable to make a decision.

The black fog floated in the middle of the empty road; it gathered and dispersed, but never crossed the boundary, always remaining in the same area.

As the fog thickened and thinned, the road, ripped open by the white lines, and the tall buildings in the distance, gradually shifting their direction, appeared and disappeared, as if the nest were just an illusion, a dream, a falsehood.

As long as you wake up, open your eyes, or turn off your phone...

Perhaps the nest will disappear, and she will find that life still goes on.

She closed and opened her eyes several times; the nest was still there, but she was long gone.

Brianna lay there blankly for a while.

Time had long since lost its meaning for her. It seemed to be the afternoon of December 4th, but she couldn't even be bothered to check her phone for the exact time—what difference did it make?

Instead, Vulture kept urging her on. "What are you daydreaming about? If you don't go soon, what if all the dominant players are dead?"

"What will happen after I go in?" Brianna thought for a while, and could only come up with this one question. "Are there any dangers in the Black Abyss?"

She knew that asking would be pointless.

The Black Abyss has always existed; the lair has only now "broken" open a hole, revealing the Black Abyss. No inhabitants have ever entered before, and no one knows the consequences of going in.

However, if there is indeed danger in the Black Abyss... compared to other residents, Brianna faces a lower risk.

In times of crisis, she can retreat—her body itself is a safety rope securing her to the nest; even if she cannot find the exit of the Black Abyss, at least she can return.

Although she no longer cared about the risks or where she ended up.

Unsurprisingly, the vulture replied, "How would I know so much? We vultures have only recently developed sentience."

"So you dare to come in with me?"

The vulture was honest, though it was long-winded and its words were harsh: it wasn't stupid; it would first check on Brianna's condition, and if everything was alright, it would climb onto her back—after all, her back was infinitely long, and there would always be a back to climb on…

As Brianna listened, she suddenly braced herself against the ground and turned to leave.

"Where are you going?" The vulture was taken aback.

"I'm not going, I ...!"

It was as if a colossal rock of fear had crashed into Brianna's mind, causing human language to scatter in all directions—"What if she sees me like this? I'd rather die than go in! Nobody can force me in!"

"Who are you afraid of being seen?" The vulture asked anxiously and puzzledly, and quickly followed up: "How terrifying you look right now! How nightmarish! Who wouldn't be envious? And you're so terrifyingly rare, unlike the other residents who look like insects or something, so vulgar."

The more it talked, the faster Brianna climbed.

"Besides," the vulture said, getting even more anxious as it saw the opposite of its intention, "why are you afraid of being seen? Just walk around him, won't you?"

Brianna suddenly paused.

Yes... it was mentioned on the radio that Kim Selena and Moran Road were hiding near the Central Bay Pier.

As long as she's a little further away from the Central Bay Wharf...

If she wanted to use the residents' bodies to create a false impression of targeting someone, she wouldn't have needed to get close to Kim Seol-ri at all.

Jin Xueli has only one target illusion: the radio; and it is still in the same room as Jacqueline's dismembered body.

She didn't take the radio because she didn't want to alert the enemy, and even more so, she didn't want others—especially Morandall—to know that she was still alive.

So Brianna retrieved the tracker that was originally used to locate Jacqueline from the pile of dismembered bodies and secretly put it into the back of the radio.

If everything goes smoothly, Kim Seol-ri might never have a chance to come back and get the radio.

In other words... once she enters Blackmore City, all she needs to do is target Chai Si and Fu Tailan.

No matter how clever or powerful they are, when facing the residents, they will only have their skulls shattered with a single slap.

It wouldn't matter if the dead of the future saw me like this.

Thinking of this, Brianna glanced back at the place shrouded in black mist, and then carefully touched the pouch hanging around her neck.

Another "portable styling kit" bought from the beauty salon, along with Jacqueline's phone, was inside the bag. Even though she could no longer unlock the phone with Jacqueline's face, she still remembered Jacqueline's password, so the phone still worked.

Once inside the human world, use Jacqueline's phone to send messages to the Wei family employees and hunters, using them to find out the location of Chai Si and Fu Tai Lan...

Yes, she can. She still has a chance.

Just give me one more chance, just one more.

Even though the more I struggle, the deeper I sink... I want to struggle one last time.

By the time Brianna realized she was repeating this phrase over and over again, countless times, her body had already slowly disappeared into the black mist.

When she turned around, the vulture still standing on the road looked like half a fragment of a photograph at the bottom of Black Lake, swaying and undulating in the black mist, as if it were already far away from her.

Brianna swallowed hard, feeling a little flustered for some reason.

She called out, "Aren't you coming?"

The vulture seemed not to hear; it appeared to be still observing the situation, bending down to look and then looking up to examine it.

...Never mind. Even if it came, it wouldn't be of any help; it would only get in the way.

Brianna turned and crawled into the darkness.

What exactly is the Black Abyss Belt?

She thought to herself in a daze.

Apart from hunters with access to the area and a very few legendary inhabitants, no one can travel between the lair and the human world.

It's impossible to jump into the central bay... to drift with the current, be swept away by the waves, and sink all the way down...

Sinking, sinking into darkness... sinking into darkness no different from what was before me... Then I opened my eyes, opening them from the sea beside Blackmore City.

Whether hunter or resident, this is something no one could do—at least not before.

It turns out that the Black Abyss "isolated" the human world from the nest.

So what's happening in the Black Abyss now? How can people and residents be allowed to travel there?

Never mind, it's none of her business.

It's so quiet and so dark.
Brianna suddenly realized that in this darkness of varying shades, she actually had no idea which direction she was crawling in.

Are we still moving forward? Or have we unknowingly drifted off course?
She glanced back at her body.

In the hazy black fog, she could barely see a sliver of her back; even her sense of her body was fading, like a biscuit soaking in water, slowly loosening and disintegrating, about to drift away in all directions…

She gently closed her eyes.

There's nothing wrong with that.

Even the pain, persistence, resentment, and longing... these emotions that had been tormenting her, urging her on, and forcing her to constantly reach out and grasp at the world, were slowly fading and softening, about to turn into countless fragments, loosening and leaving her.

No, it should be said that even she herself was dissipating, right?
Brianna thought to herself, "So this is the danger the Abyss brings."

Everyone dies eventually, but she died the wrong way last time. This kind of death, as if her whole body had been soaked in hot water, light, peaceful, and relaxed... it's perfect.

It turns out she still had a bit of luck left.

Let Morandow disappear from my memory.
Let bygones be bygones.
“…Briana?” someone called her softly.

Brianna was startled and opened her eyes. Her eyelids, which were about to droop, were barely managed to stay in place.

"Who?" she asked in a hoarse voice, turning her head to look around. "...A vulture?"

No, the vulture didn't know her name. Besides, that voice sounded familiar; it didn't sound like a vulture.

"It's me,"

A deep, gentle male voice came from the bag hanging below her neck. "I'm here to help you."

In the instant she realized what was happening, Brianna almost grabbed the bag and threw it far into the darkness.

“You’ve already gone halfway, well done… Brianna.”

The host's voice sounded like he was talking in his sleep or murmuring, but it trembled slightly.

It seemed like the first time I'd heard his voice fluctuate... like the surface of water trembling slightly before an earthquake.

“Where did you come from—” Brianna began, but then she understood. “How did you get into Jacqueline’s phone?”

The host chuckled softly. There was something in his voice that, like icy fingers, cradled his spine, sending shivers down one's spine.

“I need to keep up with the times too, Brianna.”

Each time he called her name, she would solidify and gather a little more.

“Don’t call me,” Brianna said, quickly pulling out her phone and turning on the screen—only then realizing it was already 12 a.m. on December 5th. She had been climbing all night.

She quickly searched her phone but found nothing unusual.

Just as she was about to ask another question, Brianna suddenly had an idea; she swiped from the last page of apps to bring up a list of all the apps on her phone.

found it.

The icon hidden deepest in the phone is a small radio.

"How—how did you do that?" she asked in a low voice.

“I told you, Brianna, radio needs to keep up with the times. Who listens to the radio anymore?”

The host said unhurriedly, "If the person who touches the radio has a cell phone, the phone will be—well, let's not call it 'infected,' let's just say 'loaded.' A radio app will be loaded onto the phone. The best part is, when the person with the radio app touches another person's phone, the radio app will also be loaded onto that person's phone. Pretty cool, right?"

Brianna was stunned for a moment, then gasped.

She understood why Kim Selena and Morando's conversation had been captured and broadcast on the radio.

Jin Xueli had certainly handled radios, and presumably later encountered Morandow's cell phone as well.

"Your radio, is that the source of the virus? Spreading from one phone to another?" Brianna asked in astonishment. "Who else's phone did Shirley touch? No, those infected by her will continue to infect others... Just how many people's phones are you in?"

"That's none of your business, Brianna."

The host seemed certain that Brianna wouldn't throw her phone away.

“I’m here to help you. Your will is so strong, and it’s amazing that it’s taken so long for it to start showing signs of weakening. How could I bear to let you disappear into the Abyss, Brianna?”

"Shut up, don't call me that, shut up."

"Besides, you need someone to guide you to find the exit of the Black Abyss and enter the human world." The host laughed dismissively. "I only discovered this trick recently... It turns out that as long as you keep summoning at the exit, you can bring the people in the Black Abyss out and into the human world."

Brianna frowned. Something seemed off—

“Come on, listen carefully… Put your phone back and focus your attention on the darkness in the distance… Can you hear me?”

She remained silent and motionless, listening intently.

She heard it.

“Briana,”

The host's voice was like the pale shadow of a crescent moon rising from the depths of darkness after layers of ocean waves have separated and dispersed. The voice floated in the distance, gently calling to her.

“Brianana, come… I’m here… Come on, Briana, you’re not alone. Because I’ve been waiting for you.”

(End of this chapter)