Artifact Report

Chapter 113: Report on the Progress of the Settlement of Hailuwei and Maiming River
When it comes to things on a person's face, a slight mistake can lead to a huge difference.

The corners of Mai Minghe's eyes were pinched closer together by less than a centimeter, which made people unwilling to look directly at him.

The skin was wrinkled at the corners of the eyes, but the exposed eyeballs were still white, with no red bloodshot visible - it seemed that no matter how much skin was pulled back, there was only a huge, round white ball under the skin.

If Hai Luwei had not made up his mind yet, he finally stopped hesitating at this moment.

Mai Minghe was too deep in his dream, and the "residentialization" had already begun. Even if he felt sad for the death of the rabbit, what could he do?

Could he still transform the inhabitants back into humans?
After all, the two of them just met by chance.

It's a pity, Mai Minghe is a nice-looking guy...which is rare among hunters.

If she were an ordinary person suffering from a serious illness, Hai Luwei would be willing to donate money to her; or if she were an old lady living alone, he would not mind volunteering.

But she is a hunter.

Dying in the lair is the fate and outcome that every hunter should be aware of.

Hai Luwei stood there for a few seconds, took a last look at Mai Minghe, finally turned around and walked down the stairs step by step.

The resident smiled softly. "I've finally given up. Are you scared too?"

"……Um."

Sea Reed is not one to deceive himself; there is no need to pretend when he is afraid.

Another reason he decided to leave was that the speed at which the Maiming River began to be inhabited was too rapid.

How long had this "lucid dream" begun? Her eyes were already on the verge of merging into one due to the strange changes.

If things continue at this rate, let alone saving her, I'm afraid that in three to five minutes, Hai Luwei will first face two residents - one wearing a wig, and the other "Mai Minghe".

He didn't know exactly when the Maiming River would be fully inhabited, but he knew that moment could come at any time.

Sea Reed wasn't willing to be caught off guard by that moment.

"Bye," the resident said cheerfully. "You're so sensible. I'm sure you can live another two or three days."

...There is really nothing good to say from the residents.

It was clearly talking to her, but Mai Minghe seemed to be unable to hear anything... Alas, this was nonsense. If she could still sense the outside world, she would not be gradually assimilated by the "lucid dream".

When Hai Luwei walked past the car that had crashed into the telephone pole, he found that its trunk lid was still open.

He stretched his neck to take a look, but there was nothing there except some debris.

A sudden thought made him stop in his tracks. He turned around and shouted, "Hey, can I ask one last question?"

"Shut up and keep your voice down. Are you making noise or not? You have no sense of public morality. Do you have no sense of public morality?"

He had heard even more ridiculous things from the residents before, but Hai Luwei remained calm and was not surprised.

"I checked the trunk and it was empty. How did you get out?"

"Stupid! I didn't even get out of the trunk."

……Why?

Because when he first saw the residents, he noticed that the trunk was open, so the sea reed always thought that it came out of the trunk - but yes, there may not be a causal relationship between two parallel phenomena.

"Don't lie to me," Sea Reed said tentatively, "I checked everywhere, and I didn't see you at all."

On the distant steps, the resident suddenly turned around and looked at him.

Just when he thought the residents could no longer bear it and were going to attack him, it turned around and walked towards the steps with Mai Minghe; before turning around, it let out a laugh.

"I've always been standing there in the shadows," it said. "You and I have met eyes, face to face, countless times... But if I use a 'lucid dream' where nothing happened to overwrite your memory of meeting me, wouldn't it be the same as never having seen me?"

…“Lucid dreaming” actually has this kind of usage?
He thought the other party had let him go; but had it turned out that he had already become a victim of "lucid dreaming"?
It’s so strange, why don’t residents harm others at home?
Wouldn't it be possible to digest him before Mai Minghe comes, so that we can free up our hands to deal with Mai Minghe?

Or... he hasn't come out of the "lucid dream" yet?

Thinking further, Hai Luwei was almost unsure whether he was real at this moment; this mental state was undoubtedly too dangerous - he hurriedly slapped himself in the face.

It was painful, but after the slap, he realized that "lucid dream" was not so weak that it could not make up for this small flaw. The slap was in vain.

He looked up and saw that the resident was leading Mai Minghe towards the library. They were too far away to see if Mai Minghe's face had deteriorated again.

Forget it, there are so many things in this world that we can’t do anything about... Let’s go.

Just as Sea Reed lifted his foot, a question occurred to him. The resident seemed to have no reason to lie... If he had been standing in the square, why would the trunk be open?

"...Dear listeners...Today is Thursday, November 2026, 11."

When a man's voice, mixed with the hissing sound of electricity, suddenly emerged from the night, Hai Luwei was so scared that his heart almost stopped beating - the sound was too close, he turned around hastily, but next to him was still the abandoned, empty car.

The difference is that the screen inside the car is now lit up.

Nest 173 Radio
A virtual guide to infinite fantasy worlds

Is this... the car receiving the broadcast signal from the nest? There's a broadcast in the nest?
Sea Reed didn't know whether it was another "rule area" or some method used by the residents, so he took a few steps back cautiously, intending to go around it.

The radio signal seemed unstable, and it was interrupted for a few seconds. When it sounded again, it froze him in his tracks.

"...The protagonist of today's 'Honorary Resident Introduction' possesses extraordinary abilities. Its 'Lucid Dream' allows hunters to assimilate into any state it designates..."

Sea Reed was chosen as a guide because of his rich experience, but everything that happened tonight was beyond his understanding.

"If you make a mentally healthy person experience a maddening episode in a 'lucid dream,' they'll actually go insane. Isn't that amazing? If you make them believe they're a murderer, they'll start taking pleasure in killing. Of course, this doesn't mean much to us.

"The Dream Writer will usually make the hunter who is affected by it think that they don't exist. In this way, all of the hunter's memories, emotions, and body will be taken over by the Dream Writer.

"But tonight, it made a strange and rare choice... It planned to directly assimilate the hunters into residents... Residents who retained everything about their predecessors, rather than being born from fragments, would become extremely powerful, far surpassing ordinary residents..."

That resident is called "Dream Writer"?

From the sound of it, it seems that once the Mai Ming River becomes a resident, it will become much more difficult and terrifying than ordinary residents?
Hai Luwei looked up and found that the "Dream Screenwriter" and Mai Minghe had walked up the stairs in the distance, as if they had not heard the broadcast coming from the car.

No wonder. If it had heard it, it probably wouldn't have allowed the car radio to continue playing the next part completely.

"Next, I will explain the attack methods of 'Dream Writer' in detail to my listeners."

Hai Luwei didn't know how long the Maiming River could last.

He stared at the two figures who paused before entering the library gate, while listening to the radio and praying silently in his heart that the male host would get to the point as soon as possible.

"Lucid dreams require material," the host said calmly and softly. "The character's voice, expression, language, and movement style... all require a lot of material from the original person. Only then can we use this material to recreate a convincing character in the dream.

"In addition, if the target already knows someone or has experienced a scene before, when it reappears in a 'lucid dream', the persuasiveness will increase exponentially, making it almost impossible for the target to break free on their own.

"After all, if you found yourself on the moon, that would be a little weird and cause for alarm, but if you were chatting with your wife in your bedroom, that would be pretty normal, right?
"To this end, our 'Dream Writer''s' matching ability is to allow the target to 'start over' again by redrawing a person's past face..."

Come on, tell me quickly, Hai Luwei stared at the figure on the steps and urged secretly in his heart, you should tell me how to break the "lucid dream", right?

Would the host really sell out residents' information? He began to doubt it.

But the broadcast did not disappoint him.

"It's not impossible to wake the target. But the longer the sentence, the less likely it is to enter the dream. The sentence needs to be short enough and repeated many times to easily enter a lucid dream. You can understand this characteristic as short sentences can generate stronger 'pressure', like a sharp nail."

No wonder he talked for a long time but Mai Minghe didn’t hear a single word he said. Was it because the sentence was too long?

"What's the best thing to say? Perhaps something that can make the target realize something's amiss... I need to guide them to discover the difference between 'lucid dreams' and external reality... Remember, 'lucid dreams' are made from 'the reality the target already perceives'..."

The noise of radio current grew louder and louder, and finally with a rustling sound, the car returned to silence.

The key part is that too little is said - what exactly should be said to wake up Mai Minghe?
But compared to the previous time when he had to grope forward in the darkness and discover the rules, Hai Luwei had to admit that this was already a very valuable clue.

He stared at Mai Minghe's back, then suddenly started running and ran straight towards the library steps. He took two steps at a time, and it didn't take him long to rush to the side of a resident.

The sentence must be short, and Mai Minghe must be aware of the gap between "lucid dreaming" and reality...

The material for this "lucid dream" was the hour or so they had just spent together...

The resident suddenly turned his head towards the sea reed, revealing the face of a young girl, with an alert and irritable expression; but from the neck down, it was still its own body and clothes - there was no watch.

Hai Luwei looked down at his children's fluorescent watch.

00:31
It seemed...he seemed to know what to say.

The decision was made, but when Hai Luwei looked towards the Maiming River, there was a moment when he was so choked that he almost forgot the question he wanted to ask her -

From the corners of Mai Minghe's eyes, which were almost touching, a few fingertips stretched out and pinched the skin between his eyes tightly from behind his face.

　Because the update was postponed once this week, the rest day was also postponed by one day... From now on, I will take Saturday as a fixed rest day to save everyone the trouble of getting used to me.

　　I'm currently reading The Ruin of Frielian. I'm only about 30% into the first volume, but I'm already feeling so sad that my chest is tight... It's very touching, but for people with high sensitivity, the impact is too strong, and it takes a long time to recover after reading for a while.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)