Artifact Report

Chapter 99: Things that Good Luck Brings

It generally takes four years for most people to complete the required credits, but Chase spent five and a half years to graduate from Haymarket University.

Because the biggest principle he adheres to when scheduling classes is "the fewer the better."

From a very early age, Chase's life had completely deviated from the normal track. Why he went to college like an ordinary person was a bit strange - now that I think about it, maybe it was because Uncle Kai's original plan was that Damian would go to college in the future.

Occasionally walking in the school and looking at the young faces chatting and laughing, Chai Si always felt that "Blackmore University" was a simulation game; he just floated up from the real dark reality and temporarily entered the house-playing game in the sun to take a breath and rest for a while.

If the school did not have the minimum requirements for course selection, he might still be nominally a student of Blackmore University until now - after five and a half years of schooling, the number of people he knew and who knew him probably did not exceed twenty in total.

Morando is one of them.

He hadn't thought of this name for several years.

"Who are you working for?" Chase asked. "If you come to my place, I can forget about what happened today."

The road outside the car was quiet.

The only sound was the occasional passing of cars on the highway far down the hill; from a distance it sounded as if whips were whipping the air.

He arrived too quickly, and Mercury's mercenaries hadn't caught up yet.

"……Thank you."

After several seconds, Morando finally spoke. Chase remembered that she was a polite person most of the time, and this moment was no exception.

"What a shame... If this was just a job, I wouldn't have taken it in the first place."

"I don't remember us having a personal vendetta."

As he spoke, Chai Si slowly opened the car door. Halfway through, the door stopped, and there was still no movement outside.

Judging from the direction of the sound, Morando was still guarding the road ahead; the gun in her hand should be aimed at the car, ready to shoot at the target getting out of the car at any time - but no matter what, he couldn't stay in the car forever.

"Of course not," Morando said from a distance. "That incident a few years ago was just a dispute between factions. Besides, I left the Knight family a long time ago."

"Why is that?" Chai Si asked almost calmly.

His situation was not ideal: he was crouched under the steering wheel and could not raise his body, because as soon as he showed his face behind the glass, the other party would immediately open fire - he could not even see Morando's position, let alone fight back.

Generally speaking, if the initial attack on a moving vehicle fails, the attackers will close the distance, surround and suppress the target vehicle with gunfire, and immediately shoot the driver inside the car before he can jump out.

But Morando didn't do that.

It wasn't that she didn't want to kill him, otherwise she wouldn't have shot him in the forehead. Perhaps she knew very well that if she didn't have enough people to create an overwhelming force, once she got close to the car with Chase inside, she would be the one in danger.

That's the annoying thing about meeting someone you already know: they know your strengths and weaknesses intimately.

What's more, Morandao can advance or retreat - if he can kill Chai Si, he will kill him; if he can't kill him, he can delay him, which will not affect the other side's attack on Uncle Kai.

"I have some personal reasons, so I have to take action against you."

Morando said this, but it was as if he hadn't said anything. "For the same reason, I can't tell you who I'm doing this work for."

This conversation had lasted for nearly a minute; until now, with a heart full of anxiety, Chai Si had finally found a way for him to get rid of Morandao and continue to the cemetery.

Because he found an empty black handbag under the seat on the other side, which seemed to be used by Mercury's mercenaries to carry weapons.

"It doesn't matter." Chai Si chuckled softly, "If you don't want to tell me, there will be plenty of people willing to talk when I get to the cemetery."

Before he finished speaking, he grabbed the empty handbag and threw it out from between the half-open car doors - the moment the bag left his hand, Chai Si had already sat up.

As soon as the bag hit the ground, two gunshots rang out in the air; the handbag jumped off the road and flew a few steps away.

……found it.

Chai Si kicked the windshield, and the glass window covered with spider-web cracks could not withstand his strength. Amidst the uproar like exclamations, it suddenly poured down like broken silver. While the broken glass was still half hanging in the air like raindrops, he had already fired three bullets in succession at where Morandao was.

Morandao thought it would be impossible to focus on two places at once the moment he risked getting out of the car.

It was at that moment that Chai Si was able to sit up and stare straight ahead, catching the small flash of white light between the trees as she fired.

He didn't know whether he had hit Morando or not, and he didn't waste time; as soon as the bullet left the gun, Chase jumped out of the car door, rolled on the ground, and when he jumped up again, he had already crossed half the road and plunged into the trees on the side of the road.

Chai Si, gun in hand, crouched low, and rushed toward the cemetery on the hill. His goal wasn't to kill Morando—though, if he had the chance, he wouldn't let it go—the most important thing at the moment was to rush to Uncle Kai's side without wasting any time.

"I'm sorry, Senior."

When this sentence was uttered, Chai Si finally realized that something was wrong, but it was too late.

When he opened his eyes this morning, he never imagined that he would be restricted in his movements twice in Blackmore City by false images: the first time was his initiative, but the second time he was fooled.

Morando is not a professional sniper. Her main identity is a pseudo-image hunter.

"Besides being able to shoot, I need some other means to come and stop you alone."

As she walked, Morando's voice was getting closer; Chase slowly straightened up, lowered his pistol, and fixed his eyes on her blue eyes.

Although it was inappropriate, at this moment, he actually felt a little nostalgic for the past.

And… and that little familiar feeling he'd just felt, but it was hard to grasp, like a message in a bottle bobbing in the distant waves. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn't figure out where that familiarity came from—but it definitely wasn't because he knew Morando.

Chai Si couldn't waste time on something as intangible as "feeling".

"What kind of artifact is this? At first glance, the surrounding environment seems almost unchanged from before."

He regained his composure, waving the gun around him, finally returning it to Morando. "If I shoot you right now, I'm afraid it would be pointless."

Under the baseball cap, Morando smiled softly.

She may have lived a good life in the past few years; even after so long since graduation, she looks unchanged and still looks like the young person who had just entered school.

"Yes, because I wasn't there at all. I was surprised you realized you were in the artifact zone so quickly. How did you find out?"

The word she used was "there", as if she was standing in another place at this moment, looking at Chai Si from afar - the direction and distance of the sound source were obviously changed as well, because it sounded like she was standing right in front of him.

Chai Si held the gun in his hand and slowly looked around.

"This artifact is silent when activated... but it's quite restrictive, isn't it?"

"Yes. Unfortunately, after you entered this illusion, even if I could see you, I couldn't do anything to you." Morandao shrugged, pulling down his cap, the shadow covering half his face. "If I can't kill you, I can only try to trap you."

...While I was standing here stupidly, Uncle Kai might be in the cemetery on the mountain not far away, meeting with his death.

Chai Si gripped the pistol tightly, gritted his teeth, and slowly forced a smile.

"If anything happens to Uncle Kai, you'll all regret it," he whispered. "Every second I'm trapped here means the person behind you will live one more second in my hands... no matter how much he begs for a quick death."

Morandao looked at him and suddenly sighed softly.

"Chai Si," she said, lowering her eyes, "you are in so much pain, it would be better if I had just shot you to death."

Chai Si didn't say anything.

"It's useless for you to threaten that person," Morando said. "That person is already living in hell every day and isn't afraid of your counterattack or retaliation."

"who is it?"

He knew the other party would not answer; but Chai Si asked anyway.

Even if Morando just said a few more words; the sound echoing in the pseudo-image space was also an interaction with it, and perhaps it could provide him with some information.

"I can't tell you what you want to know, but I have something I can tell you."

Morando raised his eyes from under the brim of his hat and smiled as if to mock himself.

"I know that if I absorb and digest the power of a Hunter family, that person will have a chance of obtaining what they want. As for why you chose the Kai family instead of someone else, I can only explain it by saying you were incredibly lucky. You found the artifact that was scattered after Vesile's death. In order for that person to be saved, I have no choice but to deprive you of the thing you value most... Life, it seems, is a choice between making mistakes and doing evil, right?"

She nodded to Chase and said, "I should go now. I'm sorry I can't wish you good luck."

　The character of Chai Si is very strange. The first two chapters are always easy to write, but the next ones will become difficult. This chapter is very stuck... Fortunately, the original text is in Chinese, otherwise it would be difficult to find the right word to address him as "senior".

　　I broke my favorite mug today...it's a small thing, but it's disproportionately frustrating.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)