Artifact Report

Chapter 260 Mai Minghe: Four Forms and Infinite Floors
Fortunately, in the eyes of others, the thing around Mai Minghe's neck was just a wooden carved door inlaid with a mirror.

No matter what expression she showed, as long as she didn't make any sound, Robert would not notice her expression or attitude - this really saved him a lot of embarrassment and shame.

Mai Minghe bit his cheek hard, pursed his lips tightly, kept his head level, and only lowered his eyelids to take a peek from time to time.

She couldn't help but look, and no one could help it.

How can I describe the feeling I have now? I've never encountered a situation like this in my entire life...

When she went downstairs with Su Beihua and saw Robert sitting on the landing, Mai Minghe was simply startled.

The skin that Robert showed outside his clothes was flesh-colored plastic, and he looked like Barbie's boyfriend—what was his name?—his limbs and cheeks looked stiff and sluggish; it was a little scary, but not ridiculous.

It was not until he finally stood up hesitantly that Mai Minghe quickly suppressed the sound of "Ah" in his throat.

Robert's trousers were unzipped—because he had to.

From the open zipper of his pants, a silver metal rotating handle, shaped like a large key, protruded; Mai Minghe recognized it at a glance; it was a clockwork.

What did the clockwork replace? The answer is obvious.

……What's the meaning?
Why put a clockwork there?
Just now, Su Beihua told him to move as little as possible, and that’s because... wait, that can’t be possible?
Robert opened his mouth—a separate, movable mouth. When he opened it, a square black slit opened in the plastic face, and the plastic mouth opened and closed, rising and falling.

"Well, another one is trapped. How do we get out? Any ideas?" Robert asked. He seemed to want to pretend that Clockwork didn't exist.

"Actually, after I saw Mai Minghe, I had an idea."

Suo Beihua checked her phone. "We only have six or seven minutes left. Realistically speaking, I think we've failed this interview. Can everyone accept that? It's almost impossible to miraculously break free in such a short time. It's better to conserve our strength and stay safe."

Robert hummed unhappily.

Su Beihua glanced at Mai Minghe, as if waiting for her to express her opinion.

"...No. There are still six or seven minutes left. I think I just need to keep trying for another six or seven minutes." Mai Minghe said quietly, "There's no harm in waiting until the time is up and failure is confirmed before considering a way out, right? It's only a difference of six or seven minutes."

If she gives up in advance when she sees that it seems impossible, what is the point of having a second life?

She had done this sort of thing enough in her first eighty-six years, sometimes out of necessity, sometimes out of voluntary surrender.

Thinking back on it, there's always a sense of frustration and unhappiness, a feeling that makes one avoid the memory. If she could have given it her all, giving it her all until the very end, perhaps she wouldn't mind recalling a simple failure...

"You're probably right," Mai Minghe said to Suo Beihua in a soothing tone, "I don't have any unrealistic fantasies either. But I still want to achieve what I should achieve."

Suo Beihua was silent for a few seconds, and seemed to look at her - but all she could see was a wooden door mirror.

"I originally thought we should stay put and try to get help from the Kai family. For example," she pointed at her phone and spoke in a series of cryptic words, "I just did a search, and while there's no communication signal in the nest, there are at least four Bluetooth signals nearby. Even if we rule out yours, maybe one of them belongs to the Kai family. Perhaps I can pair them up and ask them for help."

…I know every single character, but when put together, they’re harder to understand than the locals.

"Then try it right away," Robert glanced at Mai Minghe, his gaze dropping from the mirror on the wooden door to his chest before looking away. "As for her, if she wants to keep looking for a way out, then she can keep looking. We'll each do our own thing, it's simple. Whoever... makes... progress... first... wait... and see."

Mai Minghe stared at him in disbelief.

Robert slowly stretched out his hand, and Su Beihua immediately looked away.

He grabbed the spring sticking out of his trouser zipper and began to twist it little by little; the spring slowly twisted out from deep inside, making a clear "clicking" sound.

...That's how clockwork is used.

He has to constantly tighten the spring under his crotch to have the power to stand, walk, talk and do things.

This...the form that each person transforms into can't be based on each person's characteristics, right?

"Has the frequency with which you need to wind the spring increased?" Suo Beihua asked coldly.

Robert ignored her and straightened his plastic body again.

"Go find one," he said to Mai Minghe, almost in a commanding tone, "Time is running out. If the interview can—"

"Who's up there?"

The sudden echo of a shout startled everyone. "...Li Sidan?"

Mai Minghe was the first to recognize the voice. He leaned over the armrest, glanced down, and called out, "Is that you? I'm Mai Minghe. The three of us are here."

"It's me. You haven't left yet either? I'm with Ai Meili." Li Sidan shouted, "You haven't found the exit either?"

"Well, no one can pass the interview." Su Beihua muttered.

When the five of them—especially after their transformation, Suo Beihua still had a two-meter-long snake tail dragging along—were squeezed together in the narrow cement stairwell, it was almost worrying that they would accidentally flip over the handrail and fall into the endless depths.

Li Sidan is covered with antennas.

He is a man, at least he doesn't have a clockwork, which is probably not easy.

To be honest, he now looked a bit like a human-shaped hedgehog that had just been tortured; countless silver-white antennas protruded from his skin, densely packed together, and stretched into the air - as soon as someone spoke or moved, countless antennas swayed and swam like water plants, as if looking for the source of the movement.

Even his facial features were unclear, and there were short antennae on both lips. Just one look at him made my scalp tingle and my skin hurt.

Li Sidan not only didn't feel any pain, but he even analyzed it for himself: "Ah, maybe I'm just particularly alert to danger?"

As for Ai Meili, if you don’t tell her that she is Ai Meili, no one can tell that she is the same person.

"...Have you ever played Plants vs. Zombies?"

Li Sidan patted Ai Meili's...shoulder. Let's just say it was her shoulder. Anyway, it was hard to tell what part it was.

"Never played it? Really? Well, that game is a bit old. Anyway, there's a very hard nut in it that zombies can't chew. Exactly the same as that one."

Mai Minghe feels that sometimes the world of young people is more confusing than a nest.

Aimee Nut made a "chi" sound from her nose, but no one knew whether it was a reaction to Li Sidan or because she saw Robert - the huge, cold, hard-shelled macadamia nut (walnut?) was slightly moving away from Robert, and the nut shell scraped against the concrete wall.

Suo Beihua took a deep breath and rubbed her face hard.

"Four Bluetooth signals...seems they're all here?" She tapped the phone screen and said, "No wonder I can't contact the Kai hunters outside. There's no way to ask for help. Until they come in to rescue us and find us, we can only keep looking for an exit."

Since we want to continue looking for a way out, we have to get as much information as possible.

"When did you two enter the stairwell?" Robert demanded. "Why didn't we hear the door open?"

"Just now." Li Sidan also pretended that the clockwork did not exist and said, "I cracked the level on the second floor--"

"Second floor?" Suo Beihua was startled. "I was also on the second floor before."

There was a brief moment of silence as they walked between the group.

“…I came out from the third floor,” Mai Minghe said proactively.

As soon as she finished speaking, Robert and Aimee said in unison, "Me too."

Everyone looked at each other, and for a moment, no one seemed to know what this information meant.

Mai Minghe was sure that she was the only one on the third floor - at least the third floor where she was.

In order to find an exit, she had carefully checked every corner and even put her ears to the walls and the floor... If there was any movement on the other side of the wall, she should not have been unaware of it.

When she remained silent and motionless, she felt as if she had been placed in a cement coffin and buried underground. That kind of hopeless, dead silence couldn't possibly be due to the gentle movements of the people next door.

"The only way we could identify the floor was by the house number."

Suo Beihua frowned and whispered, "...If the house number has nothing to do with the actual floor, then we could have come from any of these infinite floors. In other words, there are countless third and second floors here."

　My blood test results came back, and I wasn't iron deficient; everything was normal, so my weakness had nothing to do with my vegetarian diet. I also asked my doctor what could be causing my weakness if it wasn't iron deficiency, and she said the second biggest reason was that I had unknowingly contracted a virus.

　　My ferritin level in the blood test report was on the low side of normal, which is indeed common after being infected with a virus... Come to think of it, I did have a sore throat before, and it felt like I was going to catch a cold, but it was fine the next day.

　　In other words, my body helped me fight off the virus, supported me through the hard work during the New Year, and helped me get through my menstrual period... I am the body of a female warrior!
　　I'll slowly recover from now on. Thank you for always caring about me and always persuading me to take leave...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)