Artifact Report

Chapter 419 Mai Minghe: Another Way to Avoid Sinking

The continuous rain fell softly into the silence between the two, creating a blank space.

Mai Minghe stared at the road, which was constantly splashing countless white water droplets, and blinked after several seconds—when he opened his eyes, the road was still empty.

She slowly looked around: the road, inside cars, under cars, on the sidewalk in the distance...

Apart from Brianna, who was equally bewildered and staring blankly at her hands, there was no one else nearby.

When Brianna looked up at her and their eyes met, they both asked each other the same question at the same time—"Where's Kim Seolli?"

"you ask me?"

Mai Minghe almost laughed out of anger. "You attacked her, so where is she now? Shouldn't you be the one asking her? Do you, as a resident, have some special ability? Does she just get beaten up and then go into her lair?"

The more she thought about it, the more convinced she was that Kim Seol-ri had definitely entered the lair—what other explanation was there?
"Impossible. Her escape route was by jumping from a high-rise building. She couldn't have gone to the den because she was beaten. Besides, I'm not a resident."

Brianna stared at Maming River, surprised and displeased, looking much more like a living person than before.

"It's not because you had some backup plan, is it? You're such a cunning old fox... Did you use a protective decoy?"

Mai Minghe was genuinely amused; she put her hands in her pockets, turned out the two clean but soaking wet pockets, and said, "Look for yourself!"

Brianna pouted.

"Whether it was meeting Jin Xueli or finding you, it was all unexpected. Everything that happened tonight was unexpected. Even if I didn't have that illusion at all, I couldn't predict the future. Who would have thought you would actually do such a thing? I don't know what kind of hatred or grudge you have..."

"Shut up, shut up, shut up!"

"Look, you're getting angry again as we talk. Take my advice, I've been there. If you can't learn to let go, you'll only trap yourself—"

"what!"

Brianna suddenly clapped her hands loudly, interrupting Mak Ming-ho. She had been thinking the whole time, seemingly not listening to anything, and only now did she glance at Mak Ming-ho.

"What are you rambling on about like an old lady? Who wants to listen to your stale, tired old-fashioned platitudes? Shut up and listen to me."

She clearly wanted Mak Ming-ho to listen to her, but when Mak Ming-ho shut his mouth, she fell silent again; the sound of rain filled the silence once more.

As if struck by a sudden thought, Brianna slowly opened her eyes and mouth wide, as if three black holes were gradually opening up on her face.

"Oh no... oh no! Oh no, oh no, oh no! What if we can't find it? What if Jin Xue Li disappears forever? Oh no, oh no, it's just like that! As expected, I can't get what I want!"

Will Kim Sulli disappear forever?

Does she want Kim Seol-ri to live or die?

Seeing that Brianna seemed to be on the verge of a breakdown again, Mai Minghe quickly comforted her, "It's okay, calm down and tell me what you're thinking. If you don't tell me, how will we know if we can find Jin Xueli, right? Don't rush, let's start from the beginning. No matter what, there's always a way."

She gently comforted her for a while, and Brianna took a couple of deep breaths and finally managed to calm down.

"It must be a consequence of ???. The boundaries of our world have become blurred and softened, allowing some 'effects' that don't belong to our world to leak in. For example, in this world, you clearly didn't hide the gun under the car, yet you still found it there. Maybe, my slap just now caused her to—"

She stopped herself and looked at the hand that had hit Jin Xueli earlier.

"What's wrong?" Mai Minghe asked.

"No...that's not quite right."

"What's wrong?"

"When I hit Jin Xueli just now, I felt the touch was a bit weak and floaty. Even though I hit her, it felt like I didn't hit her at all. Hmm, how about this, let me hit you too, and see if I can knock you out of this world too."

"That won't do,"

Mai Minghe found that sometimes he couldn't even get angry at the residents—he said whatever came to mind, which was a bit too honest. "I still have a machine gun here. If you shoot me, I'll shoot you back. Let's see if you can be blown away."

The man and the resident faced off for a few seconds in the rain.

"Anyway, it was caused by ???, right?" Mai Minghe changed the subject. "So, as long as we find ???, we can save Jin Xueli?"

Brianna frowned deeply, thought for a moment, and then nodded as if extremely reluctantly. "...That might be it."

She glanced at Mai Minghe. "You want to save Jin Xueli?"

“Yes, not just Jin Xueli. Believe it or not, I want to save the entire Blackmore City… and everyone affected by the lair.”

Brianna suddenly wiped the expression off her face, staring blankly at her. "In that case, I have to remind you of something."

"What happened?" "The host used the contestants to let the 'original liquid' flow into the world. Under the influence of the 'original liquid', the confusion, bewilderment, and astonishment encountered by each contestant tonight resonated with each other, which finally led to the birth of ???."

Brianna explained almost calmly, “It appeared in the human world, and the host hadn’t entered the human world yet, so I naturally assumed that it wasn’t in the host’s possession.”

Mai Minghe had a vague premonition and continued, "But...?"

"But even with such miraculous effects, it is still essentially an illusion. An illusion, if no one uses it, will naturally have no effect. Otherwise, what chaos would the world and the Nest descend into?"

Mai Minghe gasped – she had been trying so hard to understand the function of ??? that she hadn't even considered this point.

"Then... then if we've already begun to witness the blurring of the world's boundaries..."

"Yes, that can only mean that ??? has fallen into someone's hands, and that person is using it."

...Besides the host, Mak Ming-ho really couldn't think of anyone else who could have gotten their hands on it so quickly.

She was silent for a moment, then finally nodded slowly. "I understand."

“You know?” Brianna smiled. “Do you know how difficult things are right now?”

Mai Minghe sighed and wiped the water from his face. The storm seemed to be passing quickly, and the rain was gradually lessening.

"It's no longer possible for you to gather all the target artifacts from each contestant."

Brianna laughed again, the laughter coming in flat, even bursts. "Now, something has fallen into the hands of those who are manipulating us from behind the scenes—how much of a chance do you think you have of succeeding?"

She seemed very happy, her lips curving deeply into her cheeks.

"Let me tell you, you can't succeed. Do you know why? Because I want Kim Seol-ri back. Anything I want can never happen, can never be achieved."

Mai Minghe opened his mouth, as if to say something, but nothing came out.

She knew nothing about Brianna's past, didn't know what to say to comfort her, and had no idea what she could get for Brianna.

The world is so vast, the scenery so rich and varied, and there are so many things to love... yet Brianna seems to have received nothing at all.

In the end, Mak Ming Ho simply nodded.

“I will get it,” she said. “I will go to the host, I will go to every contestant, I will get all the target illusions. Then I will come back to you. I will prove you wrong.”

Brianna laughed even harder, her face so dark it looked like it could swallow a child's head.

"Really? That's great. I didn't need to go anywhere anyway, I'll just wait for you here. I'll wait for you to get the other four target artifacts, then you'll come to me and walk right into my trap."

Mai Minghe didn't argue, and simply hummed in agreement.

She picked up the machine gun from the ground, turned around and walked towards the car; when she reached the driver's seat, with a bit of hope, she looked around the car again—and sure enough, Jin Xueli wasn't there.

Mak Ming-ho straightened up, while Brianna remained in the same spot, watching her without moving.

“I have a question for you,” she called out.

Brianna remained silent.

"Suppose I give you all the target illusions, making you the winner of the nest domination game—"

"I said I will not save humanity."

“No, that’s not what I wanted to ask.” Mai Minghe paused, then tentatively asked, “If you were the winner, would you know how to save yourself?”

Brianna shuddered suddenly, as if she had been slapped across the face by someone.

"Who said I need to save myself? I'm not like you. I'm already dead, already dead, already dead. What's the point of saving me? I can't be saved. I'm perfectly fine. I don't need to save myself. No, no, I can't be saved. I can't be saved."

...I knew it!

She died in her lair and became what she is now.

Chai Si had explicitly told Mai Minghe that even the power of the lair had its limitations, and the dead could not be brought back to life—not even the lair master could bring the dead back to life.

Mak Ming-ho nodded again.

“You said the more you struggle, the more you sink… then let’s not waste our energy struggling. I’ll pull you up.” She said softly, “If you don’t know what to do, I’ll think of a way. You, Jin Xueli, and this world… let me think of a way for all of you.”

(End of this chapter)