Artifact Report

Chapter 114 Sea Reed: Completed the Form?
...The only reasonable explanation is that he was assimilated into the residents during his "lucid dream".

Otherwise, his current state would be really too embarrassing; if someone who didn't know the situation saw him, they would probably think that three residents came to the library to study together - Hai Luwei put his head close to Mai Minghe's ear and opened his mouth.

"What time is it? What time is it? What time is it?"

If this isn't how residents talk, then what is?
Hai Luwei's mouth was always busy. He kept saying "What time is it?" while smiling bitterly in his heart.

Doesn’t the car radio say that short sentences are like sharp nails, with enough “pressure” to penetrate and enter a “lucid dream”?

No matter how sharp a nail is, it still needs to be hammered repeatedly before it can be driven into the wall; similarly, no matter how short a sentence is, it’s useless if it’s only said once, right?

The first time he asked her what time it was, there was no response; Mai Minghe didn't respond at all, but instead attracted the residents' stares at him.

See, I have to come a few more times.

He didn't know what happened in the dream. Mai Minghe, who no longer looked like a human, and the residents whose faces kept changing, were walking towards the library step by step. He had no choice but to follow them, muttering "What time is it" over and over again.

"Shut up!"

The resident was indeed angry. He suddenly raised his hand and swept it, and the wind from his finger almost brushed past the sea reed's face.

"You don't seem to be aiming for nothing... Do you know a lot about lucid dreams? It doesn't matter. You won't succeed. It's useless. I must kill you, kill you, kill you. Wait a minute, I'll be free, and you'll be finished."

"The word 'success' shouldn't be used to describe good deeds."

The sea reed dodged behind Mai Minghe in time to avoid another attack from the residents; its five fingers turned into claws, and when it was about to hit Mai Minghe's ear, it stopped abruptly.

"Why do you say that this trick of mine is useless?" Hai Luwei asked, hiding behind her.

"Stupid!" the resident laughed shrilly. "Even if she occasionally heard you ask a question once or twice, I would rationalize it in my lucid dream! Isn't it enough to fill the gap with reality? There are many ways. You think that because you asked the question, she must have heard your voice, right?"

Hai Luwei was stunned.

He wanted to ask, "How do we make amends?" but he didn't. Firstly, he thought it was unlikely the residents would give him a proper answer, and secondly, after a little thought, he figured it out.

If Mai Minghe heard "What time is it" in her dream, but thought that the young girl character was casually asking the guide about the time, then she might not have cared at all - especially considering that her current self-perception is likely to have become a resident.

"You've thought it through quite comprehensively,"

He followed each resident into the library hall, keeping his distance from the residents and ready to hide behind Mai Minghe if things got tough.

"I originally thought that if she heard the 'guide' asking her what time it was in her lucid dream, she would definitely find it strange and it would be a breakthrough..."

The residents turned a deaf ear to him, their faces busy as ever, sometimes changing to sea reeds, sometimes to young girls.

To it, the sea reed feels like a fly that cannot be hit, annoying but it does not affect what it should do.

It seems that we need to change our thinking.

"Whoever's face you replace will be the one speaking in her 'lucid dream,' right?" Hai Luwei thought for a moment and said, "Your name is 'Dream Writer'... So what exactly is the content of the 'lucid dream' script you wrote for her?"

The resident suddenly turned his head slowly towards him. "How do you know...my name?"

At this time, the two people and one resident had already walked through the center of the lobby on the first floor of the library and were heading towards a dark corner. Although it was a library in a nest, there was actually a computer area in the lobby.

"...I guessed it," Sea Reed said stiffly.

"No, no, no, no, no"

Okay, here we go again.

"You, a human, can't possibly guess my name. Someone must have told you. Someone must not want to see a future contestant become a super-powerful resident who obeys my orders. I understand. That's why you suddenly knew how to break my lucid dream. Someone is trying to stop me."

Without punctuation, it gives the illusion of a caterpillar drilling deep into the ear.

While it was speaking, Mai Minghe stopped next to a computer cubicle as if sleepwalking.

The light in the hall was very dim. If you didn't pay attention, you could hardly see the fingers sticking out from the corners of her eyes, tightly grasping the skin at the corners of her eyes.

...as if to tie her eye sockets into the shape of a bow.

"It doesn't matter. I don't even need to ask you how you knew that."

The resident's way of speaking suddenly returned to normal, and even his tone calmed down. He turned his head to look at Mai Minghe and put on the face of Hai Luwei again.

"The 'you' in my dream has already told her to turn on the computer. I'll be free soon... I just need to erase your face and draw the way it looked ten minutes ago, and you'll replay everything for me."

"I can't run away, can I?" Hai Luwei was nervous, but he still said stubbornly, "Before she completely becomes a resident, I will turn around and run away for you to see."

"Then we'll see if you can spot the moment she becomes a resident... Uh, wait." It turned its head and frowned at Mai Minghe. "Someone doesn't know how to turn on a computer?"

...Hai Luwei really didn't know for a moment whether it was weird that Mai Minghe didn't know how to use the computer, or that a resident thought it was weird that she didn't know how to use the computer.

The resident ignored him, staring motionlessly at Mai Minghe. After a few seconds, he squatted down and turned on the computer—the water and electricity in the nest were working properly, so the computer could also be turned on. This might be an opportunity...

Hai Luwei took advantage of the resident's back to him, moved closer, and whispered a series of "What time is it?" in Mai Minghe's ear.

Even though he knew that the "dream screenwriter" would rationalize his questions, he still had to ask - and he had to ask twice as much, so that more "what time is it" could penetrate into Mai Minghe's ears.

…Lucid dreams are constructed from the stuff of reality, the car radio said.

In other words, the "dream writer" cannot create something out of nothing and turn its fantasy into a "lucid dream" in which the target is deeply trapped.

This is also why it waited for the two to talk for more than an hour before finally attacking Mai Minghe - because it needed enough "sea reed" materials to fabricate a lucid dream.

Perhaps that young girl was also "material" it got from somewhere else?

If his analysis was correct, then in her lucid dreams, every time Mai Minghe confirmed the time, she would only see one time - 00:20, which Hai Luwei had told her once in reality.

He hadn't told her any other times, so there was no material after 00:20 in "Lucid Dreams."

In this way, Mai Minghe should have noticed something was wrong, right?
Hai Luwei felt that his analysis made sense. He couldn't find any fault with it. He himself didn't even know how many times he had repeated the same sentence.

But the problem was that even if he talked till his mouth was dry, the Mai Minghe in front of him still looked the same as before, without any change.

She should have heard it at least three or four times, so why hasn't she wavered yet?
If she was so dumb that she couldn't even notice that time wasn't passing, it wouldn't be his fault if she died here.

"Things have come to this,"

The resident's sudden words startled Hai Luwei. "I don't even want you to give up."

He stared blankly at the "Dream Writer." The other person's face had now transformed into that of a young girl.

"The humans who died in the nest were diverse, but all humans harbored a fear of 'failure'... because 'failure' is hurtful, it means you're not good enough. Anyone who says they're not afraid of failure is someone who has to comfort themselves with words like 'failure is the mother of success.'"

It stared at Mai Minghe, its smile growing wider and wider.

"For us residents, 'failure' is as beautiful as the bruises and blood bruises it inflicts on the human spirit..."

"Tell me something I don't know," said Sea Reed. "I've failed several times in the nest. One resident spits out the same words, another eats them. It's really like recycling."

As long as we can get the residents to speak more, we can buy more time for the Mai Ming River, right?

"Okay, then I'll tell you something you don't know." The resident laughed. "Because waiting is pointless... Hey? What's with that expression? Do you think I can't continue with my 'lucid dream' while I'm talking?"

It patted Mai Minghe's shoulder, but the latter did not move.

"Deep within her lucid dream, there's a 'resident registration form' I meticulously crafted. Right now, she's following the instructions of her dream 'guide,' step by step, opening her computer, staring at the desktop, preparing to begin filling out the resident registration form... Once the form is completed, she'll become a complete resident."

The resident touched the crooked wig on his head, and a tilted smile appeared on his face that belonged to the sea reed.

"The scenario of 'Mai Minghe discovering she's a resident' has already unfolded, and it's about to end. No matter how much I say, she's barely conscious."

Hai Luwei looked at it blankly, then looked at Mai Minghe.

If she is following the guide's instructions...then make sure she no longer trusts the guide.

"The guide is a resident!" he shouted. "The guide is a resident. The guide is a resident—his name is Dream Writer—"

Is a sentence of five or six words considered long?
Sea Reed failed to repeat it a few times and lost the opportunity.

The resident's hand on Mai Minghe's shoulder suddenly pushed her away; Hai Luwei was so focused on repeating the sentence that his consciousness was a step slower. When he reacted, he had already lost Moat.

The next second, the resident slapped him in the face—

It may sound strange, but at that moment, Sea Reed almost thought that his mind, blood, breath, pores... were about to be blown away by it.

When he regained consciousness, he was lying on the ground, dizzy.

He slowly raised his head and vaguely realized that he had to run away immediately.

No, if you run now, it might be too late.

From the position of the eyes, Mai Minghe's face was as if torn apart, and was cut into two parts: below the eyebrows and above the cheeks, a dark void was exposed.

Two hands were grabbing at the dark crack, making it bigger and bigger.

In the gradually expanding void, a head slowly emerged.

...He recognized that the head that emerged from Mai Minghe's face was also Mai Minghe.

"Residentialization has been completed," announced the dream screenwriter.

　I have been so busy lately that I haven't written a thank you chapter for a long time. I haven't found the time to do many things. My day doesn't seem to have 24 hours, at most 16 hours. Who has deducted time from me? Please come forward and confess.
　　
　
(End of this chapter)