Artifact Report

Chapter 412 Mai Minghe - The Old Lady is Online Again

"We've known each other for so long, why are you doing this? Really."

The residents loosened the hems of their robes, began to drag themselves along, splashing through the puddles, and walked step by step toward the two people.

"Don't talk about whether you'll actually do it or not. We're good friends. Whether I kill you or you are killed by me, it's just a life. Good friends don't need to be so serious about it, I think."

It walked slowly, and by the time it strolled to the spot where Mercury had been standing, Mercury had already retreated far away—not only retreated, but also, as if testing the waters, sprayed bullets at it for a few seconds.

The residents were very cooperative: it was as if it had suddenly been encased in a slow-motion movie scene, its arms swinging high in the air, its body trembling from the bullets, staggering back one step, then another—and finally crashing heavily to the ground amidst the white spray of countless bullet casings.

Both Mai Minghe and Mercury fell into a brief silence.

The resident pretended to be dead, sticking out his tongue, and mumbled, "Is it over yet?"

No one spoke.

"I'm done shooting, so I'll get up now," it said, scrambling to its feet. "Who knows? Getting shot is more painful than a sudden breakup."

Mercury suddenly chuckled—Mai Minghe figured she was probably angry.

"Listen carefully,"

She stared at the residents and shouted, so loudly that it took Mak Ming-ho a moment to realize she was talking to him. “From now on, don’t use your cell phone. You don’t have a second cell phone, do you?”

“That one is in your hands,” Mak Ming-ho said.

“Okay, there are no computers here, no need to remind you.” The resident didn’t move, so Mercury didn’t move either, just staring at it. “Even if it covers the nest network, as long as you don’t use a terminal with data connection capabilities and don’t establish a connection with the nest network, it can’t invade you.”

...Mai Minghe didn't understand a single word.

"But that doesn't mean we're safe."

Mercury spoke quickly, clearly hoping that Mai Minghe could memorize all the information she had as soon as possible: "From now on, you absolutely cannot run around. Because it has another way to force you to establish a connection with the nest network, which is to physically set up an 'AP', or wireless LAN access point, in your surrounding environment. A router is a type of AP."

Mai Minghe felt his mind was full of questions—he knew every single word, but when put together, it sounded like nonsense.

She only understood "don't run around," but what should she do if she didn't run?

Could they possibly kill the residents?

Mercury was far away, the night was dark, and the heavy rain obscured Mai Minghe's confusion, yet he continued to explain.

"I've never seen it set up a physical access point (AP) before, because it didn't need to and had the opportunity. Now it's different. I don't know how long it's been lurking around, how many APs it's set up, or even what the APs look like. If we accidentally step on one, we'll be forced to connect to the nested network, and that would be the end of us."

The residents hadn't moved until now, when they finally turned to the Mak Ming River and asked with concern, "Understand?"

It basically means there's a trap nearby!

"Don't you know how to avoid it?"

As Mak Ming Ho called out to her, the residents began to walk towards her step by step, at the same leisurely pace.

She dared not wander off or stand still, so she cautiously took a step back whenever a resident took a step, staring at the resident intently the whole time.

Why isn't it in a hurry at all?
"What if it attacks us with force? What if we can't recognize the AP and can't run away? What should we do then?"

Mercury paused for two seconds. "We need to find at least one AP."

She didn't explain in detail, but Mai Minghe still understood.

Mercury didn't have a good idea either. But if they could find an AP, it would mean that the two of them knew its form; knowing the form would allow them to avoid more APs when escaping.

However, now it is all dark and rainy, and everything in the world seems to be submerged. It is already difficult to see each other's positions. How can you find something on the ground that you don't even know how big or what it is?
Moreover, the phone was in Mercury's hands, and she had turned on the flashlight; Mai Minghe, on the other hand, had nothing in his hands.

...She didn't have one, but the driver should have one, right?

Mak Ming-ho held up his index finger to the residents not far away and said, "You wait here."

"Oh, okay. I respect the elderly and care for the young."

The residents obediently stopped—sometimes, Mak Ming Ho couldn't even get angry at the residents' antics, only feeling a mixture of amusement and frustration.

There is definitely no AP (Autopilot) with the driver.

When the resident first appeared, it stood in the opposite direction of the driver and never approached him—of course, this doesn't mean it didn't secretly lay out traps all around beforehand; it's just that if there were already APs on the ground at that time, the human driver would have been unable to avoid being caught in the traps.

That being said, Mak Ming-ho still tried to minimize her contact with the ground—she was like a great swan in a ballet, stretching her legs and leaping one after another, even though she herself felt that she looked probably quite absurd; when she finally landed next to the driver, she almost slipped into the rain.

"Puch."

The residents stood close to her, clearly pronouncing the sounds of snickering: "Pfft, pfft."

When did it catch up with her? Mai Minghe suddenly turned her head, and that face full of eyeballs was almost pressing against hers.

That instantaneous reaction was more like instinct.

Knowing the bullets were useless against it, Mak Ming-ho still fired a long string of white flashes at it—the residents were hit so hard they flailed and retreated, shouting amidst the gunfire, "It hurts! It hurts so much! It's like a masochistic pleasure, isn't it? Like picking at your skin and you can't stop!"

Although the bullet couldn't hurt it, the bullet's kinetic energy still knocked it back a distance.

Taking advantage of the distance, Mai Minghe quickly reached into the driver's pockets and searched them; fortunately, he hadn't left his phone on the truck, but had stuffed it into a side pocket.

Although she couldn't understand the explanation of mercury, one thing was clear: it was fine to just turn on the flashlight.

The sudden beam of light seemed to open a tunnel in the darkness, drawing her gaze toward the road surface, the sidewalk beside it, the nearby shops... and the residents walking toward her step by step through the beam of light.

The reason it hasn't directly resorted to force and killed Mak Ming-ho is probably because it finds that uninteresting; it's more fun to "invade" them and torture them using that nest network.

At least in Mak Ming-ho's mind, there were countless residents who disliked the use of direct and brutal force.

For hunters, whether or not to "tease" someone can sometimes determine life or death—like right now.

But how long can this glimmer of hope last?

"Oh dear, you won't find it," the resident laughed in the flashlight beam.

Its face has limited space; opening its mouth means that its eyeballs, which were originally in place, can only dangle behind its teeth, looking at Mai Minghe through its mouth cavity. "Because you've trampled me underfoot."

In the corner of his eye, Mak Ming-ho paused in his search for mercury on the ground.

“Who are you kidding?” Mai Minghe said, sounding unsure of himself.

She still doesn't know what AP is, but at least she knows that there's nothing beneath her feet.

"It's true, it's true!"

The residents' eyes, both on their faces and in their mouths, were all focused on Mai Minghe, whose phone was still hanging on its ear; the eyeballs inside its ear seemed unable to leave the screen for even a moment. "I anticipated your prediction, so I placed an access point next to this man beforehand. The old lady is using the internet for the first time, a nested network!"

……what?

The mercury had come to a complete stop. She turned her head and stared blankly in the direction of the Ma Ming River and the residents; the driver stood silently in place.

In that brief moment, none of the four figures in the rainy night reacted—until the resident couldn't hold back any longer, laughing and slapping his thigh as he turned to shout at Mercury, "Baozi, look how good I am to you! I only arrested her, isn't that giving you a huge chance to escape?"

Mai Minghe heard everything it said clearly.

But... why can't she move? Did she really step into a trap?
Unless the trap was invisible and colorless, the ground beneath her feet was clearly flat.

She could only stand frozen in place, watching the residents within the pillar of light, their smiles revealing a mouthful of teeth and eyes...

Deep within the darkness of my spine and skull, it felt as if someone was peeking and probing.

"Where's AP?" Mercury shouted, his flashlight beam sweeping across the ground beneath Mai Minghe's feet.

"Really, young people don't know this anymore."

The resident suddenly laughed and said, "Connecting to the internet doesn't necessarily require a wireless router. Setting up an access point is too troublesome; you have to meet all sorts of conditions. Besides, why do you think my thinking is so limited? I have a very broad perspective. I'm a long-time internet user. There are other ways to connect to the internet, like matter, physical phenomena... Oh wait, I remember now."

It laughed heartily: "So it turns out that when I first met you many years ago, I kept the other ways of connecting to the internet a secret from you! See, I just remembered."

What do you mean?
Where did I connect to it—etc.

Mai Minghe stared unblinkingly at the residents in the beam of light, unable to look away even though he was already feeling nauseous. In the flashlight beam, every detail on his face was crystal clear.

...The light emanated from his own hands and fell upon the residents.

Or rather, it voluntarily walked into the light.

When Mercury turned on the flashlight, it pretended not to care, as if the light had nothing to do with it. Instead, it turned around and walked towards Mai Minghe—probably because at that time, it knew that Mai Minghe did not have a cell phone and could not turn on the flashlight.

If it is exposed too early, it will only allow Mak Ming-ho to escape.

But now...

Now, the mercury beam has also connected with the Maming River.

Connecting to the Mak Ming River also means connecting to the residents.

Mai Minghe couldn't move her eyes to look at Mercury; but she thought that if Mercury could still move and speak, it would probably tell her something.

The two women have been captured by the "Nest Network".

(End of this chapter)