Artifact Report

Chapter 178 Jin Xueli: Life is full of ways to seek death
It was not known whether the resident had originally intended to take action, but when it saw Jin Xueli, it suddenly stopped.

Its forehead, eyebrows and eyes were exposed above the curtain rail, staring at Jin Xueli intently.

The lower half of his face grew longer and longer, like a piece of dough that was being slowly stretched. The dough couldn't bear the strain and tore into a long, narrow black hole.

A voice came from the black hole: "...What is that in your hand?"

Jin Xueli took a look at her secret weapon - she paid a high price to hire someone to collect materials, polish and customize it, and the construction period alone took two months. She had just received the package when she came back from the nest, and it came in handy for the first time today.

Who would have thought that something used to deal with residents would be used in Blackmore City?

Does Morando know what he is doing? What if it gets out?
"This... is a toy I brought for my cousin," Jin Xueli thought for a moment and said, "You don't know, he's big, but he's a child at heart. I thought he could play with the toys while he's in the hospital..."

Are you kidding me? Who would tell the residents about the secret weapon?

Besides, she still had to decide whether to fight or not based on the circumstances—even if she cooperated with Chai Si, she couldn't risk her life.

"You're such a little girl, yet you love to tell lies. No wonder you're not a good hunter."

Huh? Has his identity been discovered already? Wasn't it because he wasn't surprised when he saw it?

No, that doesn't seem right.

Most people will pay attention to their opponent's reaction and analyze and judge their next move, but residents rarely think this way.

Their attitude can basically be described as "I am entitled to it, so I do what I want" - in other words, extreme egocentrism.

If residents pay attention to human reactions, there is only one possibility, that is, they can derive pleasure and gain advantage from them; otherwise, no matter how intense human emotions are, they will still turn a blind eye.

Jin Xueli thought about it and lowered her secret weapon.

"Take whatever you want, I won't stop you."

"You can't stop it."

...I really want to smash that arrogant ugly face into pieces.

"I have a question for you. What is the name of the hospital you're staying in?"

The resident was lying flat on the bed below the waist, but his upper body slowly got out of bed.

But the two are still connected to form a tall and slender figure - although no one knows how they are connected.

As long as I glanced at the middle of its body, I felt as if my consciousness was bent, like a spoon in a bowl of water; my consciousness was dislocated in the dizziness, and after looking at it for a few times, I still couldn't see clearly what the shape of its body was.

"...St. Louis Hospital."

The slender patient's upper body slowly slid to Chai Si's side; when its slender fingers touched Chai Si's chin, Jin Xueli quickly retracted her hand like lightning.

"St. Louis Hospital? You didn't lie to me?"

She remembered that the hospital seemed to be a place with a lot of people; although she had not been there yet, she heard that people often opened the passage and ended up in St. Louis Hospital.

It thought it was still in St. Louis Hospital, which meant...

It wasn't the residents who entered Blackmoor City, but Morando connected part of the nest behind the door of a ward in Blackmoor City?

It seems that only this ward is connected, and it seems that there is no way to enter the wider nest from here.

So that's what happened... The residents thought it was still in its lair, so they considered every human they saw to be a hunter.

"What happened here before you saw him?" Jin Xueli asked. "Did another hunter come here? A young woman with short hair - Hey, I'm asking you a question!"

The slender resident ignored her and took over with his fingers, pinching Chai Si's chin.

As soon as the skin touched, the unconscious Chai Si felt as if an electric shock ran through his body. His lips trembled and his Adam's apple moved up and down. It seemed that even his coma could not stop his desire to vomit.

Jin Xueli even started to worry - if the second-in-command of the Kai family choked to death on vomit, what would be written on the tombstone?

The resident slowly lowered his face, which was about the length of a baseball bat, and took a deep breath above his mouth.

"That's the taste, right, right, right. So stupid, I love being able to easily manipulate the simple minds of humans. The muddy cognition, cognition, cognition, you have no cognition at all, so self-righteous!"

It was just like a person who had drunk a box of wine, then bent over and made a "whoosh" sound, with something splashing down - Jin Xueli even suspected that she was splashed in the face.

It suddenly raised its hand and stuffed its entire hand into the narrow, vertical, jagged black hole on its face.

Jin Xueli stared blankly as it pulled out a small human head from deep within the hole in its face.

The head was about the size of a 25-cent coin, with all the facial features and ears complete, and a small body attached to the back; the body was completely bald, without any hair or sexual organs, making it impossible to tell whether it was a man or a woman.

Between the two slender fingers, the little man kept writhing and screaming, but because he was so small, even the screams sounded like the voice of a sharp cartoon:

"Let me go, please, let me go, I will never steal your fake image again, I still have a wife and children, let me go home-"

"Nonsense."

The resident looked at the villain with an almost loving expression and said, "You have a bad personality and are ugly. Who would want to have a child with you?"

"What are you doing?" Jin Xueli asked stutteringly.

She looked at the unconscious Chai Si, then at the little figure that was descending into his mouth. Was she going to put the little figure into his mouth...?
It seemed she had to do something quickly to help Chai Si. But amidst her fear, confusion, dizziness, and a touch of inexplicable amusement, she felt a strong sense of unreality—but she didn't need to force herself to muster up her courage, because maybe she would wake up in a little while.

“This artifact is not easy to handle.”

Perhaps seeing she was being so obedient and not trying to stop them, the residents started chatting with her. "After being captured by humans, it only recognizes humans. Don't you think it's forgotten its roots? It can only jump from one human to another through a specific conversation. It's naive, and it can't take anything from that old lady. What a pity."

She understood. No wonder Morando wanted to connect to the nest and use the residents to steal the artifact.

Not to mention that Chase was unconscious and unable to speak; even if he were awake, it would be even more impossible for him to complete a conversation with her. There was no way to get the tongue out of Chase's mouth through normal means—Molando was planning to rob him.

"Then how are you going to produce the fake image?" Jin Xueli asked, tightening her grip on her weapon. "Let me talk to him? What should I say?"

The residents grabbed the little man who was screaming for mercy and stuffed him into Chai Si's mouth like a piece of rag.

Amidst screams, the little man struggled and twisted violently, bumping into Chai Si's teeth, causing his head to be broken and bleeding, and Chai Si's teeth were covered with tiny blood spots.

"I'm the best at catching fakes. Even fakes that only recognize human words can be deceived by the villains I control..."

The resident said this, lowering his head cheerfully and aiming his eyes, which looked like heels, at Chai Si. "Hurry up and find the artifact, catch it, and bring it out to me."

Its hands were constantly pressing on Chai Si's face; pink foam mixed with blood kept bubbling out from the corners of his mouth - even if Jin Xueli was not a doctor, she could see that if this continued, Chai Si might be in danger.

The decision to save people was not made because she had a cooperative relationship of interest with Chai Si - at least, not just because of this.

Because she and Chai Si lying on the hospital bed are both human beings; but the person opposite is not.

"You're so patient, talking so much."

She complimented the resident. Why not.

"By the way, let me ask again, were you religious when you were alive?"

"Ok?"

The resident's eyes rolled back, their calloused edges revealing surprise. "...Religion? You mean religion? Such a boring thing. Hmm... I think the body I was born into was Christian, right?"

Good, it’s a big religion.

Gritting her teeth, Jin Xueli turned the weapon in her hand, suddenly raised it high, and swept it across to hit its face.

"What are you doing? The little girl is so naive—"

The resident spat out nine words at a rapid speed, and before the tenth word came out, the weapon hit one of the heels and eyes.

"Hammer? A toy hammer can't do anything to me—"

The resident suddenly paused.

In the dead silence, the callus on the other eyeball flipped down like an eyelid and blinked.

It turned its eyeball to the side and looked at its companion.

The other eyeball was hit directly by a dark, heavy hammer-like weapon, and was slightly sunken.

The next second, the ward was completely filled with the howling of the residents.

When you hear it howl, it's a suffocating terror: it's like opening your eyes in the morning and finding that you can't keep them open.

You are disconnected from your body, your mind is trapped in absolute darkness, you can no longer see the world, you can no longer speak a word, your body is frozen and dead. But you know that you will continue to live, buried alive in the eternal, ruin-like darkness.

…The panting sound, which seemed to be his own, finally and slowly penetrated the darkness that seemed like a ruin.

The residents' howling was a little weaker than before, but it continued to splash:

"What what what what"

Jin Xueli finally regained her vision and found that she had fallen to the ground without knowing when and had knocked a hospital bed over.

Her secret weapon was flung halfway across the room by the resident, landing in a corner by the door. Beneath the ceiling, the resident was writhing and screaming, "What did you use? It hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it hurts, it's disgusting. I feel an indescribable discomfort, as if the feeling of being insulted has taken shape. It's so weird, so painful, so disgusting! I must turn you into a figment-catching creature, too."

...We'll talk about it when you catch me.

Jin Xueli gritted her teeth and propped herself up, throwing herself onto Chai Si's bed. She reached out and grabbed the human foot hanging on his lips, trying to pull it out with all her strength.

With a "rustle", the curtain on the bed opposite was suddenly pulled open, revealing a face that seemed to have finally lost its patience.

"Are you done with your trouble?" Morandao shouted angrily, "You've got so many tricks up your sleeve to get yourself killed!"

　I also finished watching The Platform 2. I thought it was great, but I still had a few questions, so I searched online for interpretations. I was shocked when I read it, and there were a lot of complaints...

　　I spent a lot of time on Reddit and discovered something quite fascinating: when reading articles, many people look at A and say it's B. The same thing can also happen in movies—isn't this the most direct visual symbol? Do images fail to convey the message?

　　I originally wanted to eat a ready-made one, but ended up writing my own interpretation of the plot...

　　Well, I think the most unscientific part of the movie is probably the messaging system. Humans can't communicate clearly.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)