Artifact Report

Chapter 195: Chase: A Good Hound Never Lets Go

After the two finished reading the "Fake Report", Jin Xueli put away her phone and subconsciously looked at Chai Si.

Then, they all turned their heads and looked at "Han Liuyue".

A bright red smile suddenly appeared on her snow-white face.

"look,"

Han Liuyue said in an encouraging tone, "The three of us share the same interests and direction. From now on, we must work together well."

She still spoke in Han Liuyue's voice, which made people feel uncomfortable; however, she reminded Chai Si of another thing.

Why was it only passed to Jin Xueli?

Did he also receive the "False Image Report" on his own mobile phone?
This operation involves Han Liuyue. As a direct person involved, he should also have received a copy - even "Han Liuyue" said that the "direction of the three people" is the same.

Oh, and his cell phone...

Chai Si touched his body.

All the clothes were changed into hospital gowns, and no one knew where the driver's license, wallet, cell phone, keys... had gone.

"Are you looking for your phone? You were transferred from the last hospital." Jin Xueli immediately guessed his intention and said, "They said you can pick it up after you're discharged."

"...I understand. Let's go right away."

It's not just about getting the phone back as soon as possible; this hospital is a competitor's territory, and staying here will only lead to more trouble.

Chai Si supported himself on the ground with one hand, his muscles trembling and contracting several times before he finally squeezed out a little strength, allowing him to barely get up - this was the first time since he became an adult that he felt so weak.

The black flake of Fu Tailan seemed to be poisonous... If he had reacted a little slower, he probably wouldn't have survived until now.

That guy must have been seriously injured... He knew how cruelly he had hit her.

If the organ is ruptured, even the Hunter Cooperative Clinic cannot treat it and the patient must be sent to the hospital.

Where was Fu Tailan sent?
"Do you want me to help you?"

He came to his senses and found that Jin Xueli's hand was floating in the air, which was more of a courtesy than actual help.

"I'm afraid you'll crush me if I can't hold you up. Well, I'm not saying you're fat, but you're really heavy..."

"Let him help you walk," Han Liuyue interjected.

She waved, and the tall security guard who had been standing silently in the corridor suddenly turned towards them.

Next to the corner of his mouth, there was a small piece of snow-white fragment, like a ceramic mushroom growing out of the dark brown human skin.

The security guard came forward and supported Chai Si's arm as if he was supporting an old lady.

"What about the others?" Jin Xueli asked.

"Just pull it off my face," Han Liuyue said.

"Will...will there be any consequences?"

"Each has its own aftereffects, depending on where the fragments are lodged. As for the specific impact, I don't know because I don't care."

Han Liuyue spoke in a flat tone and waved to the other four people, who turned around at the same time.

"What the hell are you?" Chai Si asked in a low voice.

"I'm Han Liuyue."

...I really want to kill her.

However, underneath this Noh mask, it may still be Han Liuyue.

If only a fragment was pierced, there would be sequelae, but Han Liuyue's whole body...

Chai Si exhaled slowly.

Rescue her first, and then we’ll deal with the next step.

Pieces of snow-white fragments broke out from everyone's face and slowly floated back to Han Liuyue's face; a few tiny tentacles were wandering behind them, like a group of jellyfish with hard shells.

Small round black holes were left on everyone's eyes, cheeks, chin and other parts.

They were obviously all human, but if you looked deep into the black hole, you could not see the fat, muscles, or blood vessels under the skin. There were only straight, deep dark wellheads that even Chai Si didn't want to look at any longer.

After the fragments left, everyone stood there in a daze, blinking slowly.

Only the doctor had a small black hole on his forehead after the fragments floated up; at first glance, it looked almost as if his head had been stabbed through - his eyes suddenly rolled back and he fell straight to the ground.

Jin Xueli quickly jumped to the side, staring at the doctor lying on the ground, and whispered, "Dead...dead?"

"Han Liuyue" seemed to think that this sentence was not worth her while.

Chai Si suddenly said, "Wait."

"Han Liuyue" turned towards him.

Chai Si pulled down the sleeve of his hospital gown, covered his hand, carefully reached out, and gently grasped the fragment that was pulled away from the doctor's forehead in mid-air.

"What are you doing?" Jin Xueli suddenly became anxious. "I just went to such great lengths to save you—"

"...It's okay. She still needs me to take her to see the mayor."

"Han Liuyue" looked at him steadily.

Chai Si wiped the few small tentacles behind the fragments with his sleeve.

He could even feel that the tentacles suddenly became "happy" when they sensed a person, and tried to drill through the fabric and into the skin of his hand - as soon as he wiped it clean, he immediately retracted his hand and shook off the fragment.

"It's stained with... brain tissue." He explained to the two people staring at him.

Only this fragment of tentacle was stained with the victim's internal tissue.

The thought of tentacles covered with the previous person's brain tissue piercing into Han Liuyue's skin was unbearable.

Until Han Liuyue's death, she was his subordinate, and it was his responsibility to take care of her.

"Let's go," said Chai Si.

After stepping over the unconscious employee on the ground, the four of them quickly left the hospital and got into a taxi. Before getting in the car, "Han Liuyue" pulled out the fragments and left the bewildered security guard on the side of the road.

Retrieving the phone went smoothly, though the nurse at the hospital seemed unprepared for the patient's arrival so soon, repeatedly urging him to stay for the examination. "Sure enough, I got it," Shibaji said, the moment he got rid of the nurse. He immediately opened his phone and saw his "Artifact Report"—the report began with the words "Disgusting contestant Shibaji."

...The favoritism is too obvious.

Compared with the 99.99% probability, the other two mission points are naturally not taken into consideration.

"So what's next?" Jin Xueli sized him up and said, "You look really... I'm not very optimistic about getting any rewards from you in the future."

This girl seems to say whatever comes to mind, without ever considering the social customs or the listeners' feelings.

But she wasn't wrong.

Chai Si really needed to sit down now - just the brief confrontation with the nurse and then walking out of the hospital had made him feel a little dizzy.

Not only did he feel dizzy, he even felt cold all over, which was unusual for him. He even asked the nurse for a lost coat that belonged to someone unknown and had not been claimed for a long time.

"...I know exactly what I sold to the mayor. Human power alone is not enough to penetrate its security."

Chai Si, wearing an ill-fitting coat, sat by the flower bed in front of the hospital, with his hands clasped tightly in the night wind; if Han Liuyue and Jin Xueli next to him were replaced by cardboard and a dog, he would be a typical beggar.

...Luckily, there are no Kai family members around.

"I could bring you before the mayor, but your splinters wouldn't pierce him."

Chai Si looked at "Han Liuyue" and said, "The fake image has been swallowed by the mayor and has become a part of him, so it can protect him 24 hours a day."

"Why didn't you sell such a powerful thing to the president?" Jin Xueli muttered.

"The president doesn't like it. He has better ones."

"Have you seen him?" Jin Xueli was stunned.

"I haven't seen it myself, I've only heard about it. No matter how evil I am, I wouldn't have to endure that kind of torture - don't let me get off topic."

"If you don't interrupt, can you go off topic?"

That's quite right—Chai Si turned his head away and continued to speak to "Han Liuyue," "But based on my understanding of that artifact, I can roughly guess how to numb or bypass its security mechanism. However, this requires me to use an artifact that can work against it."

"Doesn't the Kai family have it?" Han Liuyue asked immediately.

"No."

Like other hunter factions, the Kai family retains and does not sell the artifacts, which are generally things that help hunters survive in the nest, obtain artifacts, or increase combat advantages. The Kai family does not often carry out assassinations, so naturally they do not have a stock of this type of artifacts.

"That won't do. You have to make the mayor one of my body choices."

Han Liuyue thought for a moment and said, "I don't care about the report you received. It has nothing to do with me. But if I can't become mayor, I'll just have to be Han Liuyue forever. You have to think carefully about that."

Shibashi suppressed a sigh. "...I know. I'm trying to figure it out."

"Hey, I have an idea. How about we go to 'Backlight Room'?"

Jin Xueli had been listening up to this point when she suddenly said, "It would be too slow to have the Kai family hunters search the lair for clues now, wouldn't it? Why not go to 'Backlight Between' and post a purchase request to see if there's anything suitable that could be used?"

...That's not a bad idea.

Besides, he really needed a strong drink right now.

Look at the time, it is 11:22AM in the early morning of November 01nd.

Is it only the 22nd?

The past few days had been so eventful, so long they felt like months. He needed a drink to calm his nerves.

If "Han Liuyue" were to hail a taxi, the taxi would just pretend not to see her and speed past; while she was hailing a taxi, Jin Xueli had already called an Uber.

"Han Liuyue" sat in the passenger seat - scaring the driver so much that he screamed - and the two of them sat in the back seat; the car started, drove through the city streets, and sped towards "Backlight".

Less than ten minutes into the journey, Chai Si's cell phone rang.

"...Tianxi?" He picked up the phone. "Why are you calling me at this time?"

Only a few hours had passed since he last contacted the hunters from his family. The hunters from the Kai family probably hadn't realized yet that he had been through a close call.

"Brother Chai, there are quite a few tests lined up at the laboratory. I asked them to work overtime to rush the process, and we just received the test results."

Chai Si was startled, then remembered. Tianxi was probably talking about the red hair that Han Liuyue found in the coffin.

"how?"

Tianxi paused. "The inspector only returned to the lab tonight under my coercion and inducement... and not long after, he called me from the lab."

...This is not a good sign.

"He said it wasn't human hair. It was a high-temperature fiber strand... in other words, it was a wig."

Chai Si suddenly recalled the woman on the path to the cemetery who turned around hastily after being grabbed by him.

The umbrella cast a circle of water; a shadow fell over the upper half of her face.

Because of the umbrella, he could only see the wet ends of her hair... he couldn't see the hair on top of her head to see if there was anything unnatural.

"I see." Chai Si said slowly, "Your call came at the perfect time. Actually, I have another matter that I was about to entrust to you."

"Okay, what's the matter?"

"Morgan's wife, Mrs. Lan, was seriously injured tonight and has been taken to the hospital. First, I need you to arrange for someone to find out which hospital he was taken to. Second, I'll send you an address. You go there in person and search it thoroughly for me. No matter what means you use, you must find the fake hidden in this apartment."

"No problem," Tianxi said simply.

After hanging up the phone, Chai Si sent the address of Fu Tai Lan Apartment to Tian Xi.

Fu Tailan was seriously injured and it was difficult for him to stay conscious; he could not have the energy to change the hiding place of the key.

The keys must still be in the apartment.

　Hi everyone! I've been away for three days and haven't updated, so I haven't seen any of you guys chatting with me. It's been a bit lonely, to be honest.

　　Now I'm finally back. I have to admit that starting point and I might not be compatible. I always suffer a lot. This time, not only was it delayed, but I also caught a cold from exhaustion...

　　A cold is nothing. Seeing that it's still packed with guests even after three days of my absence—huh? No one? Oh no, I was being too sentimental.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)