Artifact Report

Chapter 441 Mai Minghe, Cynthia, and Old Friends

The light in the lobby on the first floor of the apartment building was suspended by a single lamp, its dim yellow light veiled by a layer of dust. The light seemed poised to flicker at any moment, its occasional flashes sending a chill down one's spine.

As soon as he started reminiscing, it was as if he were back there again—Mai Minghe could almost smell the dust in the apartment building and feel the uneven paint on the walls.

Is memory really such a powerful thing?
At that time, she had just gone downstairs with Hai Luwei and Fu Tailan, intending to wait in the lobby on the first floor until the "renovation project" was finished and the apartment building would let them leave again.

"After we went downstairs, Fu Tailan started looking everywhere for something he had left on the first floor..."

At this point, Mak Ming-ho frowned.

She knew she remembered what the child was looking for, but she just couldn't quite recall it—like sometimes having words on the tip of her tongue but being unable to think of the right words.

Never mind, this detail happened before I met Cynthia, the two are unrelated, it doesn't matter if I can't remember it.

“I was helping him look for it at the time, but it wasn’t anywhere in the lobby, so I went into the hallway.”

The corridor was narrow and long, with two rows of closed doors, one after another, gradually disappearing into a dimness beyond the reach of sight and light.

Strange, the apartment building is not big, and the upper floors are all the same structure, so why does the corridor on the first floor seem to have no end?
Unsure if there were traps in the corridor, Mai Minghe dared not venture too far, peeking out a few times.

She didn't find what Fu Tai Lan was looking for—why couldn't she remember what it was again—and as she turned to leave, she stopped.

"I felt like I caught a glimpse of something out of the corner of my eye."

Yes, that's it. She caught a glimpse of an inconspicuous shadow in the dim light; she remembered everything.

Mai Minghe squinted and stared intently into the shadows for a while.

With a soft "whoosh," a shadowy figure moved in the dim depths.

It was hard to tell when it was still, because Mai Minghe couldn't see whether it was part of the corridor or not—but as soon as it moved, she immediately understood.

It was a pair of legs covered in sweatpants, sticking out from the door of an apartment at the end of the corridor, lying on the ground, dead and motionless.

Judging from the shoes, it appears to be a woman's shoes.

...Are you a resident?
When the "whoosh" sound rang out again, the legs shrank further into the doorway—it seemed the owner of the legs had been dragged inside.

Was it a trap designed to lure people in? Or did someone actually suffer an accident?

While they were clearing the levels upstairs, did new hunters come in downstairs?
Although Mai Minghe was kind-hearted, he wasn't stupid. He called softly to the two people in the hallway, "Come and take a look. There seems to be someone in the corridor."

As the three of them stood at the entrance of the corridor and looked into the depths, they happened to see another door disappearing into the dimly lit depths.

The newly opened door was farther away and even less visible than the door through which the lower leg peeked out.

A figure crouched low, backing out of the apartment door, seemingly dragging a heavy object from the ground; Mai Minghe held his breath, watching the heavy object being pulled into the corridor from behind the door, revealing a tilted head, limp shoulders and arms... It was a person.

do you died?
The shadowy figure seemed oblivious to Mai Minghe and his companions, continuing to back away, dragging the person step by step into the corridor; with each step, there was a soft "whoosh" sound.

The lower leg inside the other door shrank further in—now only a pair of feet remained.

"I thought at the time that it must be a resident. The leg is 103, but the upper body is 104? Of course, I was just using the room number as an example, I didn't see the exact number."

Mai Minghe was a little worried and raised his voice to ask, "Can you hear me when I speak like this?"

“Yes,” Cynthia’s reply came from the night sky. “Continue!”

It's amazing how the two people were able to have a normal conversation despite the distance between them being at least a hundred meters.

On one side, one can see the city of Blackmores and its overturned nest; on the other side, one feels as if they are on the first floor of an apartment building...

The feeling was familiar, but Mai Minghe couldn't quite place it.

It's okay, if you can't remember, then don't think about it.

The most urgent task is to rescue Cynthia.

"Hai Luwei shone a strong flashlight into the corridor, which shone directly into the person's face, and I could see him clearly at once."

The resident was suddenly struck by the beam of light, and with a whoosh, he turned his head, revealing a face covered with veins, and only veins—countless blue and purple blood vessels, some thick and some thin, densely packed, layered and knotted, covering his entire face.

Why are the residents so disgusting?
The sea reeds involuntarily let out a small cry—but no one expected that the residents, like thieves caught red-handed, would panic even more than the sea reeds.

No, oh.

From a face that didn't even have a mouth, a hurried protest rang out: "I didn't do anything!"

Before the three could react, the resident released his grip and threw the unconscious woman's upper body onto the ground.

It immediately kicked the woman again, sending her flying into the apartment building with a thud against the wall—Mai Minghe turned his head and saw that the leg sticking out from the other door had also disappeared.

“If you see anything, you must be mistaken,”

As the resident spoke, he retreated deeper into the corridor, saying, "Don't talk nonsense and slander honest people, there's nothing here. Okay, that's all, Ciao!"

Before the words were even finished, it had already pushed open another apartment door deep inside, slipped inside, and disappeared completely.

The three looked at each other, none of them knowing what had just happened.

"What's going on...?" Hai Luwei swept the spot where the woman had disappeared with her flashlight and said, "Was that woman real, or part of a trap?" Fu Tailan turned and left. "What does it matter? As long as she doesn't come looking for trouble."

But Mak Ming Ho refused to give up.

"That was strange,"

She rubbed her neck, which was a little sore from looking up for too long, and called out to Cynthia in the nest, "I have a feeling that the woman must be human. I need to see where she went. Both apartment doors were still open at the time. I didn't have to open the doors myself, so I didn't trigger anything. The risk wasn't too great."

Mai Minghe borrowed a flashlight and cautiously entered the corridor. With each step, she would throw something to test the way, tap and check her surroundings to make sure it was safe before daring to continue. After walking for quite a while, she finally arrived at the door of the first apartment building that was open.

After the lower leg disappeared, the apartment was just a dilapidated and messy place; the other apartment where the woman's upper body had once been visible was also completely unremarkable.

On his way back, Mak Ming-ho suddenly heard a groan coming from behind a wall.

"Who...who is outside?" a woman's voice asked in a low voice. "Where am I? Is this...a nest trap?"

That was the first time Ma Minghe met Cynthia.

Cynthia was a novice hunter. After running into the lair a few times with experienced veterans, this was her first time entering the lair alone, and she encountered danger.

At first, Hai Luwei couldn't believe she was a person.

"I really am a human being,"

Cynthia spoke from deep within the wall, "If you don't believe me, I'll turn on my phone now, and you can hear it. The hive and its inhabitants don't have cell phones, you should know that, right?"

When Mai Minghe heard the loud, piercing sound of a cell phone alarm coming from inside the wall, her last bit of doubt vanished.

"Fu Tai Lan investigated the situation and said that the resident who arrested you might have a... a..."

What kind of ability was it again? Why do I always stumble over the details?
"Ah, the ability to edit space." Yes, that's it. "In order to hide you, it might have kicked you into some kind of spatial crevice."

That explains why the first-floor corridor seems endless; that explains why Cynthia's calves are outside one apartment while her upper body emerges from the doorway of another—all of this makes sense.

"I didn't expect you to have persisted until now."

"We went into two adjacent apartments and tried to break down the wall between them to see if we could find you, but we didn't succeed," Mak Ming-ho called out. "So, do you remember now?"

The nest in the night sky suddenly felt distant. The air was cold and sharp, as if a layer of fog that had never existed had just been removed.

Cynthia seemed not to hear.

It's incredible that they could talk for so long despite being so far apart; perhaps her voice wasn't loud enough?

Mai Minghe raised his voice again and said, "Cynthia? Did you hear me?"

She shouted until her voice was hoarse, but the nest in the sky above remained silent; there was no further movement from Cynthia.

Why did Cynthia suddenly stop talking?

For a moment, Mai Minghe wondered if the huge, serpentine black shadow had returned when she wasn't looking, but after scanning the lair, she saw nothing.

"Cynthia?"

Her neck was sore and uncomfortable that she lowered her head to try and move it; Mai Minghe stopped as soon as he turned his head.

In the distance, between the orange glow of two streetlights, stood a dark figure.

She stared blankly at the dark figure, remembering the dented part of the car bumper.

"Who is it?" Mai Minghe called out. "Are you a resident?"

The shadowy figure took a step toward her, then another.

As he stepped into the streetlights, Mai Minghe's heart suddenly pounded. He grabbed the machine gun leaning against the car door and shouted, "Don't move!"

Ivan stared at her without moving, then slowly opened his mouth.

His tongue twirled a few times, as if searching for the correct pronunciation position.

“You threw me back into the nest, didn’t expect it to be a wasted effort, did you?” Evan raised one hand and pointed to the nest in the sky, saying, “I’ve fallen down again.”

Mai Minghe's palms were sweating. Wait, if Ivan has been nearby the whole time—

“When I fall down, another resident who can enter the world by ‘being sent back to the nest’ will naturally return to the nest.”

Ivan's hand remained firmly planted in the night sky. "It cooperated with me, and the effect was quite good. You should be familiar with it, right? Didn't you just have that feeling of being both in reality and in a dream?"

"...What do you mean? I don't understand."

Mak Ming-ho's question was almost entirely devoid of sound.

Because she understands.

She felt as if her internal organs had turned inside out, and her back and palms were covered in a layer of white sweat; even though she was standing on her feet, her soul seemed to be sinking deeper into her body.

“We’ve finally shortened the time,” Evan said with satisfaction. “We’ve finally shortened the deadline for your in vitro telomere treatment to December 6th.”

(End of this chapter)