Artifact Report

Chapter 400 Brianna: Threading the Needle, Birth, Homecoming
Brianna put the wet phone back into the soaking wet bag.

Even after reading the notice, it took her a while to fully digest and understand it.

"No... no, it shouldn't just be a few sentences."

Her low voice was like a tissue in a downpour, quickly disintegrating – but the host could probably still hear it.

"What can shatter the boundary between reality and illusion, inject doubt, blur the lines... all of that is too vague and general. What does it really mean? What can it do, and what can't it do? You can't just turn everything into clay and mold it however you want, can you?"

The host laughed, his voice sounding like a few new splinters had splintered. "Why are you asking me?"

Brianna was taken aback.

Shouldn't I ask you?
"The emergence of the final target artifact was merely a natural consequence of the conditions being met. It's like the airflow in a cumulonimbus cloud causing charge separation, ultimately leading to lightning... just a natural phenomenon. As for what it can and cannot do, how would I know? It's not in my hands. I'm just Franklin who discovered electricity. As for the uses of electricity, that should be left to the players who will master it later."

Is it not in the host's hands?

It seems it really shouldn't be in his hands... because the notice said that the illusion would be born in the human world.

The host merely projected his voice into the world's broadcast system; his physical body wasn't here, so naturally he couldn't obtain it.

So it's reasonable that he didn't know the exact purpose or appearance of ???

Brianna always felt that her thinking was not thorough enough and that she had missed some key points.

But at this moment, not only was her body being drenched by the torrential rain, but her mind was also being overwhelmed by confusion, leaving her unable to decide on her next move. Logically, she should be looking for the target's illusion, but how could she move around in the world in her current state?

No, that's not right, it's not time to think about that yet...

What did the host just say?

...Franklin?
"You—you're very happy."

Brianna abruptly looked up at the car and said, "You said everything went smoothly, the target illusion has finally been created... You're obviously very satisfied with how things have developed. That's strange... ??? What does its creation have to do with you? What benefit does it bring you?"

"Who said I'm satisfied?" the host asked casually.

“You yourself,” Brianna sneered. “Franklin, who finally discovered electricity, must be very happy. Don’t try to fool me with some nonsense. You’re not a bystander; you’ve orchestrated this whole thing, like Franklin flying a kite into the sky. You’re not the dominant player in the game, so what’s in it for you?”

The host paused for a few seconds, then said, "I'm not telling you."

Brianna paused, then laughed in exasperation: "Are you a child?"

The host said nothing—but somehow, in that moment of silence, Brianna could almost see him shrug.

“Briana, you don’t understand,” he said slowly. “You are so precious to me… I am perhaps the only person in the world who wants you to be unharmed and safe. We are on the same side.”

Brianna almost laughed.

"Stop talking," she said breathlessly. "There's no one in the world...no one in the world is on my side."

“You’re wrong. Look,” the host said almost gently, “I brought you into this world, didn’t I? I even tried to consider things from your perspective and be as thorough as possible for you. For example… what should you do after you’re in this world?”

"What do you mean?" Brianna looked up.

In the dimly lit car, the host said quietly, "Do you really intend to rely on this body to slowly climb up to the top of other dominant gamers?"

He seemed to have anticipated Brianna's silence. "That's why I prepared this car for you."

"...For me?"

"The key is in the car, and it can drive itself, so you don't have to drive it yourself." The host's tone calmed down as he said, "You just need to climb in through the window, get into the seat, and hold on tight. This car will take you wherever you want to go."

...This sounds like a beautiful dream.

She sat in the car, letting the wind tousle her hair.

She watched the road rush forward like a dark river; the world was so vast, she could go wherever she wanted.

How great.

As long as you don't think about it, your long, slender back still hangs out of the car window, stretching endlessly as the car moves...

Brianna gave an almost self-deprecating laugh. Okay.

"I do need a means of transportation,"

As she spoke, she crawled step by step to the car, grabbed the handrail for support, and used her long, long upper body to prop herself up, slithering into the car window like a snake. "But don't expect me to thank you."

I am so terrifying and disgusting that even my nightmares are gentler than her appearance.

When she was hiding in her nest, the inhabitants surrounding her were not much better looking than her, but that was fine; she could bury her head in the sand like an ostrich and pretend she knew nothing.

But now, she is to parade through Blackmore City in this repulsive appearance—to be seen by countless normal, healthy, bipedal humans, and to be constantly hurt by their screams.

Brianna didn't even know who she should hate.

“…Where to?” she asked in a hoarse voice. “I don’t want to go to the docks. Even if this car just passes by the docks in the distance… as long as there is even the slightest chance that she will see me… I will kill you. I will do anything to kill you.”

"Did I say that?" the host's voice rang out in the car. "What love stuff? That's so boring. To be honest, the thought of couples kissing and hugging makes me feel a little disgusted."

Brianna wasn't angry—she was just stunned.

“I don’t care at all, let alone intentionally let her see you.” The host said this, then suddenly exclaimed, “But you reminded me that there’s an important procedure we haven’t started yet. It’s somewhat related to your Morando Road.”

"……what?"

The car engine started quietly; the indicator lights, the display numbers, and the headlights lit up together, like a small mine shaft being dug out from a dark, rainy storm.

The host chuckled softly. "I know of a fabrication that can not only allow people to see history, but also allow them to reach in and change the past."

Brianna knew that he had only just begun.

"If I told you that the timeline you are currently in is actually a new timeline created after I changed history, what would you think?"

“What have you changed?” Brianna asked.

"You know," the host said with a smile, "I'm about to begin today's radio program. Are you ready?"

What? What exactly is he going to do— "Welcome to Nest 173 Radio, this is 'The Virtual Guide to Infinite Illusions,' I am your host." The host said in a low voice, "Today is December 5, 2026, and we have invited a special guest to our program, named Brianna."

Brianna remained motionless in her seat, her stomach feeling icy cold.

The car started moving, turning a corner slowly and silently in the rainy night. The headlights swept past a simple wooden fence—the headlights illuminated a portrait on the fence as they flashed by.

It looked like a portrait of a worker wearing jeans. The portrait was facing away from the construction site, peeking out through a gap in the wall; as the car drove by, the portrait disappeared back into the darkness.

“In the last timeline, you took the radio, and Morandall discovered that you were still alive.”

The host, seemingly with a hint of pity, painstakingly cut through her words: "Do you know what her reaction was? She saw your face, knew you'd been in contact with Kim Seol-ri. She's such a smart person, she immediately understood your plan. She said then—"

"Shut up!"

On the night of December 5th, Brianna uttered the same words that Brianna had heard herself utter on December 2nd.

"For the sake of our listeners, could you please tell us what you originally planned to do with the radio after you took it away on December 2nd?"

It turned out to be the case.

The host used some unknown means to edit this conversation slightly and send it back to his past self on December 2nd.

Only in this way will the person I was three days ago not have taken the radio.

Why didn't you just threaten me not to take it?

Brianna's voice deepened as she recalled the conversation between Morandall and Shirley Kim. She imagined how close the two had been, the brief touch of their fingers as they reached for their beer—so close that she didn't even realize that the words she had blurted out were exactly the same as those on the radio three days earlier.

...It was like a cruel and absurd comedy that had already been written; she had no choice but to follow it step by step.

Brianna's voice rang out from the lair and the human world, separated by three days, and they finished saying what needed to be said—even though her mind was so muddled that she didn't even know what she was saying.

It doesn't matter; because whatever she says is what she heard back then.

"Your original goal was to win dominance, use the power of the nest to completely transform into Golden Snow Pear, and then close the nest, right?" the host asked.

Huh?
Yes, I had the same question back then—

“Why do you say it was the ‘original’ goal?” Brianna asked immediately.

"It's nothing, just checking," the host said with a smile.

Brianna's heart pounded—if she even had a heart. She always pretended she still had human organs.

She remembered that the last time she heard a radio broadcast, it ended right after the host said that.

The broadcast on December 2nd ended there; however, on December 5th, the host did not disappear and remained on the car radio.

“What do you mean?” Brianna pressed. “Why do we need to confirm this?”

The host seemed to think for a few seconds.

“Look back,” he whispered. “Don’t move, keep watching… it’s about to begin.”

Brianna turned over, leaned against the seat, and stared intently at the darkness and storm outside the rear window.

Her body, left outside the car, stretched out long, like a dark white umbilical cord tightly following the vehicle.

The other end of the umbilical cord connected to the darkness she had crawled out of, and to the huge hole that had opened up in the apartment building.

Brianna felt as if she had been plunged into a dream, unable to wake up or move.

The car drove further and further away, and the construction site and residential buildings became smaller and smaller; just when she was almost doubting that the host had made a mistake and that nothing would happen, it began.

The residential building seemed to finally give way under the strain, bending over little by little as it was pulled along by the umbilical cord.

In the hazy, rainy night, the bricks that crumbled and scattered from it were like dust being gently scattered—it was quickly snapped in half and fell to the ground.

It was like sending out a signal to begin.

One after another, the surrounding buildings collapsed and crumbled, surging towards the ground like waves, crashing down the construction site wall and sinking heavily into the depths of the night.

"...Did you see that?" the host asked softly, his voice trembling slightly, as if he were trying to hold back something. "The world is beginning to crumble from the crack... The Black Abyss has been squeezed in."

Even after the building collapsed, that wisp of black mist, connected by an umbilical cord, still floated in the torrential rain between heaven and earth—

It's getting bigger and bigger.

Brianna had many questions she wanted to ask, but she couldn't utter a sound.

“I’ve said it before, the Black Abyss should really be called the Isolation Zone. It lies between the human world and the Nest, so even if the human world is torn apart, the Nest can’t get in.”

...Wait, they can't even get into the "nest"?
He—he didn't just want the residents to come in? He wanted the nest—

"This problem has been blocking my way for a long time, and I can't find the answer no matter what I do."

The host laughed, his voice trembling like a sigh. "Until one day, I discovered you... the most precious resident to me in the entire lair."

"One end remains in the nest, while the other has entered the human world. The Abyss Belt cannot touch you because your mind and spirit are clear and stable in the human world. The middle part of you, even if it remains in the Abyss Belt, will not dissipate."

"You have finally connected the nest with the human world."

"They are truly connected, in a physical sense."

"The Nest can now enter... The Nest has followed you, gradually entering the human world. The Black Abyss had nowhere else to go, so it could only be squeezed in little by little... Do you understand now?"

"You are my most precious 'thread'."

The host let out a long, satisfied sigh. "I brought you through the rift... stitching together humanity and the nest."

He was not surprised by Brianna's shocked silence.

In the stormy, dark night, his voice sounded like a dream.

"Now... I can go home."

(End of this chapter)