Artifact Report

Chapter 44 Jin Xueli: Of course you have to pay for things you buy
Beneath the messy short hair, a smooth skin met Jin Xueli's gaze.

She suppressed the urge to gasp just in time.

The slight, smooth depressions beneath its eyebrows seemed to be its eye sockets; it had no nostrils or mouth. When it spoke, a ball of skin under its airtight nose bulged out with every word—always making her worry that it would bulge too high, forming wrinkles when it receded, and a dark hole would sink in the center of the wrinkles.

Jin Xueli sometimes dislikes her own imagination.

"There are so many customers today," Roupi said, his mouth puffing. "Don't worry, it will be ready soon. We have a lot of new goods today."

As it spoke, it placed several cans of drinks into the dark belly of the vending machine.

When the gentle-looking female hunter said, "The vending machine is being restocked," Jin Xueli didn't expect that it was a resident who came to restock.

The four of them had formed a semicircle, blocking the squatting resident and startling her. Jin Xueli took a closer look and realized the restocking process was quite normal: there were several boxes next to the resident, some empty, some half full; and it was currently loading cans into the vending machine one by one.

Sometimes, the nest emphasizes "practicality" in very strange places - instead of placing drinks can by can, why not take care of the residents' faces first?
The man in the baseball cap was accompanied by a girl chewing gum, who was now chatting with the residents: "How often do you restock? Why haven't I seen you before?"

"It depends on how well it sells," the resident replied, surprisingly. "The goods we put in a few months ago didn't sell well, so we didn't need to replenish them, so I haven't been here."

A few months ago... Jin Xueli thought about it and realized that she had taken a look at it. The things were indeed not very good and quite useless.

Every once in a while, a different product would appear in the vending machine at this particular subway station—each can of drink, each packet of snack, a different product with a different function and expiration date. Whether or not you could find the right one was a matter of luck.

"What's new today?" asked the gentle-looking female hunter.

"That's a lot," the resident said enthusiastically. "The suppliers have all changed, and more than half of the products are new! I'll post the new product descriptions here, and you'll see after you take a look."

Its newly posted product introduction took up an entire wall.

The five people looked at each other. The man in the baseball cap took a step outside first and said, "We are the first ones to arrive." He was the first to walk over, illuminate the product introduction with a flashlight, and look at it carefully.

The girl chewing gum stood next to the vending machine and also secured the first seat; the other three followed the rules of buying soda and kept a few steps away from the two of them.

"alright,"

After the five people waited anxiously, the resident finally closed the vending machine, not only took out the key and locked it, but also picked up the empty cardboard box on the ground. "I'm leaving."

The girl chewing gum smiled sweetly and waved at it: "Thank you, bye."

Jin Xueli hadn't seen residents and hunters treating each other with such respect for a while.

As soon as this thought came to his mind, the resident who was halfway out stopped, holding the empty cardboard box, and looked back at the few people.

After the girl in the baseball cap finished reading the introduction and the girl in the gum chewing hat watched it, it was still standing there.

When Jin Xueli couldn't help but glance at it quickly, the skin on the resident's face bulged.

"...Well, I suddenly remembered that the company has an event where lucky customers are invited to try out new products and get free samples."

Jin Xueli quickly turned her gaze away and took a step closer to the soft-looking female hunter.

The girl chewing gum seemed to have suddenly lost her hearing and was concentrating on reading the introduction; no one turned to look at the residents.

"Is anyone coming?"

No one moved, no one looked at it, no one spoke.

"There's none?"

The five hunters seemed to be holding their breath; the man in the baseball cap stood in front of the vending machine, his shoulders tense.

"Really? You know, this opportunity is too good to be missed..."

The skin on the resident's face bulged out from beside Jin Xueli's ear. "What's lost will never come back."

She swallowed back a scream and stared at the ground, wondering when the residents approached.

No response is allowed - any qualified artifact hunter will realize at this moment that no response is allowed.

Except for Jin Xueli, the other four people have probably never seen the "restocking resident" and don't know how to deal with it.

But in just a few short sentences, everyone had obviously reached the same conclusion and taken the same action - this was because hunters needed to make tests and judgments in a split second based on their experience and intuition.

After it sent out the first invitation, the five people fell silent at the same time, which was a "test".

Waiting and seeing what happens is, in most cases, the safest way to test the waters.

From its next sentence "No?", we can see that the replenishing residents believe that "no answer = no going" - this point was immediately captured by the five hunters.

On the other hand, if the resident's next question was "Is everyone interested?", the five hunters would immediately realize that it thinks "no answer = want to go"; in that case, they naturally cannot keep silent and must deny it immediately.

Although the nest and its inhabitants are strange and unpredictable, it is precisely because there is still a glimmer of possibility for people to analyze, think, react and act that the false image hunter has become a long-lasting profession.

"Oh, what a pity."

These words emerged from the skin and fell deeply into the hair of the girl chewing gum.

From Jin Xueli's angle, she could just see the resident standing behind her; the face, which was completely blank, stretched forward and burrowed into the girl's hair. She still didn't know when the resident had gone over. "Okay, then I'm really leaving this time. Doesn't anyone want to exchange numbers with me?"

There is often "consistency" in behavioral logic among the same resident.

Residents who believe that silence on a certain issue is a denial are unlikely to suddenly think that silence is equivalent to acquiescence on the next issue. In the suffocating silence of the five people, the replenishment residents disappeared step by step into the darkness of the subway station entrance and exit with regret.

After several seconds, Jin Xueli finally let out the breath that was held in her chest.

"Scared me,"

The other four people also relaxed. The girl chewed her gum again and said, "I thought they were harmless residents."

"How long have you been doing this?" The man, who had remained silent the entire time, immediately lectured her. "Don't you know that the residents can be dangerous at any time? It just depends on whether they want to attack you. And you were just talking to it non-stop!"

"How long have you been here? A full year?"

The girl walked back from the product display and stood beside her tall, thin companion, glancing at him from the corner of her eye. "Do you know why I think it's a harmless resident? Do you know what the characteristics of a harmless resident are? You like to teach people, right? There's a school paying you a salary, right?"

"Wait a minute, there's no need to argue," the gentle-looking female hunter said, raising her hands as she saw the two sides about to argue. "This isn't a matter of principle, and the danger is over. Didn't I just talk to it?"

"You're not right either," the man said, ignoring his companion's argument.

"Who's dead and it's your turn to judge?" The girl waved her hand, and suddenly huge muscles swelled up on her left arm, filling out her sleeves. "You'd better be more polite next time."

"M&M beans?" The man looked at her arm and sneered, "Which family are you from? Do you think you're the only one who's bought M&M beans?"

M&M's are a vending machine product. It's an abbreviation of the product's name, which stands for "Machine Muscle." As the name suggests, its purpose is pretty straightforward: simple, yet effective.

It's very popular among hunters, especially female hunters, but unfortunately, it's rarely available. The most inconvenient thing is that it expires within 24 hours once you take it out of the nest.

The fact that the girl had M&Ms on her meant at least one thing: she also had a place to hide things in her lair—which wasn't surprising, as most families had a hiding place.

"Listen to me,"

Jin Xueli stepped forward, standing between the two men. She felt compelled to smooth things over. The two had merely exchanged a few words, there was no grudge, just a necessary evil. A fight in this place wouldn't benefit anyone.

"Actually, none of you are wrong. I just discovered tonight that the residents have been a little unusual lately."

Several people looked at her.

The man in the Peaked Cap selected the item, pressed the product number, and asked, "What's going on?"

"You know the resident 'Vulture'? I just met him."

She wanted to smooth things over, perhaps it was just an excuse; Jin Xueli actually wanted to use the "vulture" incident to test the reactions of other hunters and see if anyone had any additional information.

What she hopes most is to be able to confide all her experiences to companions who are also flesh and blood and can understand what she is going through - but she cannot expose the existence of the "candle tears" illusion, and she is afraid of enduring other people's suspicion.

"impossible,"

As soon as Jin Xueli finished speaking, the man immediately made a judgment. "If you don't die, the vulture won't turn into your appearance. This is common sense."

"That's why I said they were acting strangely." Jin Xueli was also a little angry. "If you don't believe me, go look at Colorado Boulevard. Isn't there a hopscotch drawn with chalk?"

The man fell silent and frowned.

"The changes and anomalies that have occurred in the lair recently are indeed more numerous and more frequent than before."

It was the first time that the man in the baseball cap spoke such a long sentence. Only then did Jin Xueli suddenly realize that the other person was actually a woman.

She was at least 1.80 meters tall, with broad shoulders and short hair. Not only was her appearance difficult to distinguish, but her voice was also one degree lower than that of an average woman.

"I assume this isn't your first time buying something from a vending machine."

The man in the baseball cap tossed the soda in his hand into the air and caught it. "Generally speaking, what do you think the price of this fake image is?"

"Five hundred dollars?" Jin Xueli guessed.

The things in vending machines are often like this: they have to be bought with real money, are not cheap, have a single function, are not very powerful, and have an astonishingly short shelf life.

Therefore, the Pseudo-Hunter did not become a soda carrier between Blackmore City and the Nest.

"It used to be about this price." The woman in the baseball cap smiled, a narrow dimple etched into the lower half of her clean-cut face. "I just used my credit card. This can of soda cost me over $9,000. But it was worth it."

As soon as she finished speaking, the gentle-looking female hunter strode towards the product introduction; the flashlight flashed twice, and the female hunter took a deep breath.

　Since I came home, I haven't had a good night's sleep. I rely on coffee and tea to keep myself going every day. If there is no caffeine, there will be no hypocritical money-making in the world. Caffeine is my father, caffeine is my mother, without caffeine, there will be no new--

　　Damn, that was a close call.

　　Oh, and there's something I've been forgetting to mention, guys. I finally know what flavor the Puppet Master potato chips are! (Yes, I didn't mention it before because I didn't think any flavor would suit him.)
　　Want to know? If you want to know, please call the hotline 25115222 for free consultation, 5 yuan per minute. Please remember 25115222.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)