Artifact Report

Chapter 454 Mak Ming Ho - Nineteen Hours Were Not Wasted

……Why?
Why would the police chief come to kill me?

Mak Ming-ho stared blankly at Ashley Peggy, their eyes meeting.

The bus swayed slightly, and in this brief lull, only the sound of the engine and the tires rolling over the road could be heard, repeatedly coming together and then pulling apart, rolling forward.

Ashley's face was flat and expressionless, as if he were wearing a narrow, long, stone mask.

No, perhaps this isn't a mask. There truly are people like this in the world: when they deem it necessary, you and they suddenly cease to be the same species.

Maming River became a clam with its shell tightly closed; Ashley was a customer at the counter.

She was simply observing and thinking calmly about how to pry open the clam shell and pick out the soft meat inside.

"Were you the one who just shot me?"

Even with the answer, Mai Minghe still found it unbelievable—a policeman wanting to kill a civilian like her was something she never expected to happen in her entire life. "Why? You're a contestant too?"

"I'm not,"

Ashley was dressed in sportswear tonight, and for some reason, he had a toothbrush tucked into his belt. "But I'm trying to become a player. Since you're in the game of domination, being hunted down by me is part of the game of domination, so don't blame me."

"That toothbrush... could it be the gun you were using earlier?"

"right,"

Ashley raised a hand and showed her the colorful gummy candies wrapped around his fingers. "These used to be my boxing finger sleeves. All the weapons I took with me tonight have turned into harmless things. Looks like fighting isn't allowed on this bus."

“But I still don’t understand,” Mak Ming-ho asked, “what’s the logical connection between your wanting to become a competitor and hunting me down?”

“You have to die to make room for someone,” Ashley explained almost patiently.

Is there such a thing?

Mai Minghe had never heard of it, but given the nature of Nest Domination games, it wouldn't be surprising to see rules that encourage people to kill each other.

Why do you want to become a player?

Ashley glanced at her, as if he didn't understand why Ma Minghe was still asking. "The winner gets whatever they want, what's so hard to understand?"

Mai Minghe opened his mouth, paused, and then asked, "What do you want to gain?"

Ashley simply smiled slowly this time, staring at her without saying a word.

Brianna wants to be rescued, Chess wants to defend the lair, and Fu Tailan says he wants freedom... but Ma Minghe feels that Ashley is different.

Her goal is probably similar to Kaironan's.

"You... knew my location because of my phone?"

Remembering the unusual activity on her phone and the warnings her two children had given her, Mai Minghe asked, "Did you tamper with my phone?"

“It’s a police tracking app,” Ashley answered bluntly, “I didn’t have a search warrant, so it was illegal for me to install this on your phone.”

Despite her ruthless willingness to do things she shouldn't, she surprisingly remembered that she had broken the law.

"Then, what about the bus? Isn't this a trap only found in a lair?"

Mak Ming-ho gestured with his baguette towards the inside of the car and asked, "If shooting me didn't kill me, you tried another method? How did you do that?"

Baguettes have a kind of magic; once you hold one in your hand, you just want to swing it around.

It wasn't that Mak Ming-ho didn't understand the urgency of the situation; it was just that, to her, being hunted down in the last nineteen hours of her life was something she found both laughable and absurd.

"right,"

Ashley had just uttered a single word when her eyes suddenly lifted slightly—though it was only for a moment, it made Mai Minghe feel that she was momentarily distracted, as if something had caught her attention.

Nothing happened in the car just now, right?

After a pause, Ashley continued, "The specifics are irrelevant to you. Whether it's a gun or a nest trap, the purpose is the same."

...that is, to kill Mai Minghe.

The nest was already upside down in the sky, so a trap falling down wasn't anything strange that needed to be figured out—but Mai Minghe was both amused and annoyed at the moment. Apart from being anxious and helpless, he couldn't even feel fear.

"You don't need to do anything. Just wait another nineteen hours, and I'll die on my own."

She naturally wouldn't tell Ashley about the "in vitro telomeres," and sighed, "Just think of me as... suffering from a nest disease. Believe it or not, I don't have much time left to live. And now, the last few hours of my life are being wasted on your pursuit."

Ashley was taken aback. "What?"

"Believe it or not," Mak Ming-ho said lazily, waving his baguette.

As the baguette swayed, she quickly glanced at the police chief.

A person's gaze changes as their attention shifts; this doesn't require much training, just a little observation of people in daily life will allow you to naturally capture this.

Mak Ming-ho has been observing people for eighty-six years. She is almost certain that Ashley is not only distracted, but is also discerning and digesting some kind of continuously fed information; it's as if... as if she is listening to someone speak.

Ashley wasn't wearing headphones, and the only background noise on the bus was the sound of the moving vehicles.

“How much longer you have to live is irrelevant, and what happens on this bus doesn’t take up any outside time,” Ashley spoke again. “The point is, only by killing you can I secure your place as a contestant.”

Mai Minghe nodded.

As long as it doesn't take up her last bit of time.

"So, if you can't use force, how do you plan to kill me?" Mai Minghe asked.

Ashley shrugged, saying nothing, but his meaning was clear: Why would I tell you?

She leaned back in her chair, crossed her arms, as if waiting for something; while waiting, Ashley carefully examined every corner of the bus—it seemed that this bus trap was neither initiated by her nor her "property," and she herself was clearly not very familiar with it.

"You're a hunter too?"

Mai Minghe also started observing the bus and casually asked a question.

"I'm not."

“Then you should have kept shooting at me. You might not have been able to beat me in the nest trap,” Mai Minghe smiled, a hint of pride suddenly rising in his eyes. “I haven’t been in the nest for long, but I think I’m doing a pretty good job as a hunter.”

Ashley did not respond.

Since a bus is a nest of traps, it naturally has its own set of rules for operation...

Putting aside Ashley's eccentricities, Maming River's first step was naturally to find out the operating rules.

This is a medium-sized bus, with about thirty seats.

The bus driver was surrounded by a dark pane of glass, making it impossible to see clearly or hear any movement.

The only screen is mounted behind the driver's seat, facing all the passengers on the bus; one advertisement after another, and only occasionally does the bus route and stop names light up.

No station name belongs to Blackmore City—no, it should be said that no station name belongs to the human world.

"Next stop, a pregnant woman under the spell of antonyms."

"This vehicle is headed to: Ultimate Nothingness"

...What the hell?
Just as Mak Ming-ho managed to make out the two station names, the screen switched back to advertisements.

She wasn't sure if the advertisement was necessary information, so she patiently watched it for a while: a man was sitting in a bar, seemingly mustering up the courage to strike up a conversation with a beautiful woman.

Let's just call her a beauty for now.

Because all the elements of a so-called "beautiful woman" are there, except for the "beautiful woman" herself.

A huge resident, whose body had been pinched into sausage-like pieces, was sitting on a high stool, sipping a drink.

The sausage was adorned with thick black false eyelashes, bright red lipstick, a curly wig, earrings, a bra, a miniskirt... and even the end of the sausage was squeezed into a high heel.

The human male looked at it, his face filled with infatuation and ecstasy.

Nest ads are like amateurs who suddenly decide to write a novel, writing endlessly and carelessly, but soon they lose their way. Mai Minghe watched for almost thirty seconds and found that a person and a sausage had bought a house in the suburbs, and all the sausage residents were pregnant and preparing to establish a new human-sausage family. She still didn't know what kind of ad this was.

Is this an advertisement?
The element "pregnant woman" has appeared twice, hasn't it?
Anyway, I'll just write it down for now, even though Mai Minghe doesn't know what he's writing down.

Ashley in the back row suddenly stood up—Maiming River tensed up, and Baguette got ready—but she just walked over lightly to the bus drop-off door and carefully examined the gaps, corners, card readers and other details.

Mak Ming-ho, holding a baguette, also stood up and began to examine the bus.

You wouldn't believe how many details and information there are until you look: for example, there's an open space next to the drop-off point, which was probably meant for wheelchairs or bicycles, but the marking on the ground is a white stripe figure commonly used to mark bodies at crime scenes.

Judging from the direction of its limbs, it seems to have died a gruesome death.

...What do you mean? Only dead people can occupy this vacant lot?
Mai Minghe carefully avoided the open space.

In addition, the bus was covered with numerous signs and notes—"Cheap concert, Monday morning at 9 am," "Boycott Israel," "Please do not beg on the bus," "Suspect you've encountered human traffickers? Please call Nest 911"...

Who is trafficking residents?

The more Mak Ming-ho looked at, the more confused he became.

She glanced at Ashley every now and then and noticed that he was also frowning, and judging from his expression, he didn't understand much better than she did.

The two brushed past each other several times in the car, each secretly observing the other's reaction; Mai Minghe almost had the illusion that they were just two ordinary hunters who had unfortunately been caught in the nest trap.

The bus announcement suddenly blared, shattering the silent performance and startling both of them.

"Passengers please note that in thirty seconds we will be arriving at the next stop, 'The Pregnant Woman Under the Spell of Antonyms'."

The bus announcement cheerfully stated: "Passengers not going to their designated drop-off station, please take your seats. If you need to stand, please ensure you have permission. Please do not stand at the drop-off doors unless you have reached your stop; otherwise, you will be forced to disembark. This bus is approaching its stop, and new passengers will be boarding shortly. Ten—nine—eight—"

(End of this chapter)