Artifact Report

Chapter 426 Chase Damian's Goal
what?
Wait, wait a minute, this is a lie—

When Chai Si regained light and color, he found himself kneeling on the ground, the excruciating pain still trying to tear his body apart, and it seemed as if darkness would return to his vision at any moment.

...He remembered that in his haste, he had rushed forward, which had aggravated his injury.

Was he really that badly injured?
"Brother Chai!"

On the other end, Sayuki couldn't help but call out. She and Chiberly were both anxious, but before they could even take a step, Damian gave a cool laugh: "Nobody go over there."

He posed no threat, nor did he need to.

Despite their reluctance, the two stopped one after the other, still about ten meters away from Chai Si. They stared intently at Chai Si, as if hoping to build a rope with their gaze.

Chai Si tried to smile at them, but his facial muscles only twitched slightly before he collapsed again.

Uncle Kai—I need to remind Uncle Kai not to be deceived by Damian. Uncle Kai knows that between the Nest and the human world lies the Black Abyss Belt, and the Nest cannot possibly cross it…

Black Abyss... the driver's head...

Chai Si knelt on the ground, staring up at Kaironan on the slope not far away.

Caronan continued to look at Damian, without turning around.

“You are indeed a resident who became my son.”

He stared intently at Damian and said in a low voice, "That kid... always has his sights set on the highest. Whatever it is, he only wants the biggest and the best. He only likes the rarest sights and only wants to do the most difficult things that few have ever succeeded at. It's like that when he's building Lego... and it's like that when he's seizing power."

Hepburn lowered his head and wiped his eyes.

"At that time, I was both worried and proud. I knew... Damian had every single condition for conquering the world. This world was a coming-of-age cake waiting for you. I just didn't expect that your ambition and vision would lead to your untimely demise."

Damian didn't speak, Heper didn't speak, and the parking lot fell into an almost unreal, and even more so, silence.

Chai Si supported himself on the ground with one hand and slowly sat down.

He had to command his body to do something; otherwise he would be afraid—afraid of the dark, oppressive fear that always awaited him.

“You are my son, and I know you better than you think.”

Kaironan paused, seemingly realizing that he was gradually beginning to regard Damian as a human. "The same applies to the inhabitants my son became... because it seems you inherited a lot from him."

“Not 'many',”

Damian remained expressionless, as if staring intently at his father from the depths of the eye sockets in his shell. "It's 'almost all'. If you believe in souls, then Damian's soul has simply been transferred from a human body to the body of an inhabitant."

Kaironan was taken aback, and said in a trembling voice, "...Really?"

Before Damian could answer, he shook his head and gave a self-deprecating laugh.

“No, you just want me to care. I’m getting old,” Kaironan said somberly, “...I almost gave the residents hope.”

Damian didn't explain, but laughed—aside from the difference in age and tone of voice, his laughter and the sarcasm in it were almost identical to Keronan's.

Kaironan felt as if he'd been punched out of the blue. Everyone noticed, including him.

After a few seconds, he took a breath before looking at Damian and continuing, "So... I don't believe it."

Chai Si suddenly looked up.

"What don't you believe?" Damian asked softly.

“I don’t believe you came back so that I could win the game of nest domination, so that I could have everything and rule everything. You should resent me like your mother did, and think I let the wolf into the house.”

Kaironan said slowly, “Damian…he has many virtues. But repaying evil with good is not one of them.”

Damian laughed heartily and clapped a few times.

“As expected of your father, he’s quite a handful,” he said with a laugh. “But you’ve misunderstood. I never said that I came back so that you could rule the world. Let’s just say it was a side effect of achieving my goal.”

Chai Si suddenly understood.

He understood sooner than anyone else present—but he still felt ridiculously slow to realize it.

"I came back for only one purpose."

Damian, rather childlike, held up one index finger. "Ever since I discovered that my willpower wasn't enough to get me through the Abyss, I've understood one thing. It turns out that my method of returning to the human world and my goal of returning to the human world are two sides of the same coin. There's no need to separate them at all."

Hepburn had been listening blankly for a while, then finally asked, "What do you mean?"

“He can’t get in on his own,” Chai Si said, slightly startled when he heard his own voice.

"I don't want to hear you—" Heaper's words were interrupted by Damian before he could finish.

“Hyper,” he smiled, but there was a hint of impatience in his eyes. “Let him speak.”

Heper stopped.

“He can’t enter the human world on his own,” Chai Si said almost numbly, each word resonating through his broken ribs. “He has no way to cross the Black Abyss. So, the only way is to bring the lair in.”

No one spoke; everyone was watching him from afar.

“The nest has entered, so he has entered. His goal is to bring the nest in. So he says that his way of entering the world and his goal in entering the world are two sides of the same coin.”

For some reason, Chai Si couldn't help but chuckle softly.

He had examined that night countless times. Each time, he saw countless possibilities; if he changed a little here or there... perhaps everything would be different in the next seventeen years.

Take a good look, if there really are "observers" in this world.

His guilt and remorse are both necessary.

He did not kill the wrong person.

"I killed you back then to prevent a resident from entering the world."

Chais looked up at the young man on the slope and said, “Now you want me to know that what I did back then has led to the entire lair coming in, plunging the world into irreversible chaos and collapse… You want me to suffer. That’s your biggest goal. Am I right, Damian?”

Damian's face seemed to suddenly separate at that moment.

Like the overlapping masks of joy and sorrow representing drama, in that instant, Chess seemed to see Damian's face split into three: one laughing loudly, one twisted with hatred, and one expressionless.

The illusion flashed by, and in the blink of an eye, Damian was back to how he had been.

"Brother Chai, you're really quick-witted. I've admired you since I was little. You're smart and skilled, and you were already as tall as an adult when you were thirteen. Of course, if you didn't have so many convenient and useful advantages, how could you have been allowed to shamelessly survive in the Kai family for so many years?"

As he spoke, he tilted his head slightly, his deep blond hair falling softly down.

"But why are you so calm? You acted like you were going to die the moment a resident came in, but now you're so calm, it's a bit disappointing, isn't it?"

No one could answer him.

“Ah, I see.” Damian’s eyes slowly curved into a smile. “It’s not that your injuries are too severe, causing you to lose your sense of reality. It’s because you don’t quite grasp the reality of the ‘nest entering the human world’… You seem to think that it’s just a matter of spilling some undiluted liquid, and just a few more residents coming in. You can still drive them back as before, right?”

Damian has possessed this almost unsettling insight since childhood—the more you try to hide your thoughts from him, the more obvious they will be in front of him.

“Dad,” Damian suddenly turned his head and smiled at Kaironan, “I’m letting you make the most important choice of your life. Shouldn’t I first show you what that choice is like? Do you want to see it?”

Kaironan stared at him blankly. "What...what are you looking at?"

"What are you looking at?"

Damian seemed to think the question was stupid.

"Of course, it's about seeing this world, which, after connecting with the Nest, is gradually being transformed into a part of itself by the Nest. Starting from Blackmore City, the world will kneel at your feet piece by piece... There will be no more presidents, kings, or richest people in the world, and for you, there will be no more aging or death. This world will become your new 'Kay Family'."

"The new 'Kai family' begins right above our heads."

Damian seemed to be enjoying it—no, he really was.

He gently stretched out one arm, as if to touch the ceiling. His eyelids were lowered, and if you listened carefully, you could almost hear a faint, low humming coming from his nose.

The next second, Damian suddenly snapped his fingers.

The chilly night wind, still mixed with drizzle, rushed into the underground parking lot in an instant—whether it was the cold or the shock, Chai Si suddenly shivered. When he looked up, he found a vast night sky without stars or moon, with heavy dark clouds, stretching across his head in the swaying light rain, as if it were about to press down on the world.

A few hunters let out a low gasp. "The nightclub?"

Above the parking lot, the entire building where Temptation was located had disappeared.

Damian seemed quite satisfied.

"Now, let me show you some of my sincerity, Dad."

(End of this chapter)