Artifact Report

Chapter 42: The Source of Chase Jin Xueli’s Confusion
Chai Si sat on a park bench, staring straight ahead with an unfocused gaze.

He rested his elbows on his knees, half crouching over; a pair of large hands hung gently down, and a T-bar was inserted into his lower back.

Anyone who passed by the path in front of him would try to step back a few steps without making any noise and walk around him from a distance; the area within several meters around Chai Si was empty.

Just now, two little girls were walking towards him from a distance. They kept looking at him and whispering to each other as they walked. But when he came closer, their expressions changed, they looked straight ahead and quickened their pace to walk past him.

When seeing a madman, everyone's reaction is similar: they have to sneak a few glances at him from the corners of their eyes to see where the madman is, what he is doing, and how far away he is from them; at the same time, they have to remain expressionless, ignore him, and quickly distance themselves from him.

In fact, this was not the first time in Chai Si's life that he was considered a lunatic. He had even been scolded like that to his face many times.

But in the past, it was always because he acted cruel and violent, and his attacks were so severe that they could cause death; there has never been a single time when he did this for a reason like today.

It was more than ten minutes ago that we left the subway station.

Logically speaking, he should have returned to Kai's house as soon as possible, handed the "rumor" fake image to Uncle Kai, and then contact Huang Li to take her back from the police - but before he could wait for a taxi, Chai Si had to abandon his original plan and find a small park to go in.

...Because the "rumor" pseudo-image is using his lips, teeth, tongue, and voice to speak one sentence after another.

He had lost control of his tongue, and no matter how hard he tried to push it down, it would bounce up and form new words in his mouth.

He didn't know if it was the fight against the false image that distorted his face, coupled with his uncontrollable mumbling to himself, but everyone looked at him sideways and avoided him along the way.

Chai Si didn't care about being stared at strangely by others.

However, the pseudo-image spoke very fast. As long as a horn sounded on the road or an electric drill sounded at a construction site, he would miss what the pseudo-image said - the words were clearly spoken from his own mouth, but before hearing the voice, even Chai Si had no idea what they were saying.

He could have handed it over to Uncle Kai right away, but he had to suppress his urgency and patiently listen to every word of the pseudo-image, hoping to understand its operating mode and hidden risks as much as possible.

Because he had to ensure that every fake image handed over to Uncle Kai was at least safe.

"You create a rumor, spread it, and then what happens?" he asked as he left the subway station.

Who would have thought that the "rumored" pseudo-image was actually a chatterbox?
Just one question seemed to open the floodgates.

The subway driver must have never asked this question to his own mouth and had not activated the pseudo-image, so he had no idea that such a scene would happen: the pseudo-image was unable to speak so many words in one breath, so it requisitioned Chai Si's tongue and has been talking nonstop until now, with no sign of ending.

Although it may not be very intelligent, the amount of information it contains is definitely not small.

"...It can be divided into four aspects. First, the origin of rumors; second, the spread of rumors; third, the changes in the credibility of rumors; and fourth, the consequences of rumors. Each aspect can be further divided into several subcategories based on several different situations. Now I will start with the first aspect..."

How to describe this feeling?
It's like someone is looking at a PDF of hundreds of pages that should have been printed as reading material, and reading it to you at a very high speed - using your mouth - it feels weird, there is a lot of information, and if you are distracted you can't remember what was said, and you can't ask for it to be read again because your mouth is requisitioned.

So Chai Si sat on the park bench, the upper half of his face was blank, and the lower half was busy.

"...In the best-case scenario, a rumor based on a mixture of real information can spread rapidly in an environment and among a group suitable for its spread. However, it's important to note that just because a rumor may spread doesn't mean everyone will necessarily believe it. Furthermore, everyone knows it's just a rumor, with the potential for disconfirmation.

"The shorter a rumor is, the less distortion it undergoes during its transmission. When it reaches a sufficient number of people in its original form—that is, the first variable—the rumor acquires a certain degree of credibility... We can think of the environment in which the rumor exists as a system. When credibility reaches the second variable, the rumor, as a 'macro-theme' in the system, generates quantum responses with multiple 'butterfly factors.'"

Chai Si really wanted to make it speak human language, but he himself could not speak anything.

"Let's take an example," the pseudo-image finally said the words he had been waiting for from Chai Si's mouth.

"For example, you spread a rumor that 'Xiao Ming from Nest Primary School will get diarrhea if he eats humans.'

"Let's assume the following are the facts that support this rumor: 1. Xiao Ming actually exists; 2. The denizens occasionally eat humans; 3. Xiao Ming sometimes has diarrhea."

...Well, go back and remind the hunters in our sect to take a bath frequently.

“…Rumors are relatively short, and the nest is also a suitable environment for transmission… Let’s assume that it successfully reaches the two variables of ‘number of people spread’ and ‘credibility’. What will happen next?

"The multiple seemingly unrelated factors originally present in the nest will now become 'butterfly factors'. What are 'butterfly factors'? They are the initial conditions that cause the changes in the chaotic system in the 'butterfly effect'.

"Let's say Xiao Ming has a sister, Xiao Mei. Xiao Mei used to eat Xiao Ming every Wednesday night, but after hearing rumors, she thought Xiao Ming wasn't very clean, so she didn't eat him this Wednesday."

...Not to mention passers-by, Chai Si also felt like he was crazy when he heard the voice coming out of his mouth.

"'Hungry Little Plum' became the first 'butterfly factor'.

"The second 'butterfly factor' is supposed to be a captured hunter. The hunter advises the resident who captured him not to kill him. In exchange, he designs a battle royale arena for the resident."

Chase's mouth was dry, but he didn't care about the artifacts. "After all, this is just an example, so for simplicity, let's just use two 'butterfly factors'."

"Hungry Xiaomei went out to look for food and ate one of the contestants in the Colosseum. To make amends to the Colosseum owner, she handed Xiaoming over to him.

"The Colosseum's owner, hoping to select the best children, named the Colosseum 'Nest Elementary School' inspired by recent rumors... And so, as a result of these rumors, a 'Nest Elementary School' actually appeared within the nest."

Chai Si was stunned.

He originally thought that the consequence of the rumor was that "Xiao Ming got diarrhea after eating people" would come true - this felt like he had stepped on empty air.

"Look, the parts of this rumor that could come true could be 'Xiao Ming gets diarrhea if he eats people,' or 'Xiao Ming eats people,' or 'The Nest Elementary School exists'... The last result came about because of the 'butterfly factor' in the nest environment, which led to the conclusion of 'The Nest Elementary School'.

"If we replace it with another 'butterfly factor', then the part that comes true could be 'Xiao Ming gets diarrhea after eating someone.'"

Next, Pseudo Image continued to talk about another example.

The result of using different "butterfly factors" is that Xiao Ming will get diarrhea after eating people.

In short, its operating model is to create a rumor - people hear the rumor - people believe the rumor - the "butterfly factor" (if any) begins to interact with the rumor - finally, the rumor becomes true, or not.

...So in order for the rumor to come true and be satisfying, the types of consequences it could have have to be narrowed down, right?
When Chai Si came to this conclusion, he had already finished speaking a few more sentences.

If you lay the groundwork for a rumor before spreading it, by creating the right "butterfly factor" in the environment, you might be able to help the rumor develop into the desired outcome...

He pondered for only a few seconds, but his busy mouth had already steered the conversation in a different direction, moving from theoretical implications to practical implementation. Chai Si quickly regained his focus and continued listening for a moment before suddenly saying, "...Then, the rumors created by each of 'Rumor''s' previous hosts can serve as a reference for the new host's operations."

...Wait, does it mean that I can find out the rumors that Vesile had created in the past?

"As long as the host doesn't delete it, every rumor will be recorded for future retrieval."

When Pseudo-Image said this, he finally paused for the first time, as if waiting for Chai Si's response.

"tell me,"

Chai Si was finally able to speak with his own lips and tongue: "What was the last rumor before the 'Subway Serial Killer'?"

The artifact received the order and answered so quickly that he almost bit his tongue.

"The 'vulture' in the nest can replicate into a second human being of its target and use that pathway to enter the human world."

Chai Si suddenly twisted his hands together.

Another resident about to enter the world...

No, no, that's not the point.

The point is, why create this rumor? Even if it comes true, what is the significance?
"Who made up this rumor?" Chai Si confirmed when the illusion paused again.

"Wesile."

It seems that Vesile wants to create a resident out of thin air that can enter the human world. What is his purpose?
"What's the manufacturing date?"

The date on the fake newspaper is more than three months from today.

Considering that every rumor must go through its course and come to an end before the next rumor can be created, this is probably the last rumor created by Vesile before his death.

There are only two possible outcomes for the end of a rumor: either it comes true, or it disappears without a trace.

"Is this rumor true?" Chai Si asked again.

"It just happened on November 11th," the artifact replied.

That was... the day after Vesile's death.

　The reason why I said before that writing this article from a group portrait perspective excited me is because I like the feeling of the story lines influencing each other...

　　You said that if I went on from Jin Xueli's perspective, wouldn't it be less interesting to discover the content of the rumor (it's not easy for her to discover, how could a lone hunter know the content of the Kai family's false image)?
　　
　
(End of this chapter)