Artifact Report

Chapter 205: Chase: Short Flight
"...What he bought from me that year was a black cube, ten centimeters square."

The first time Uncle Kai told Chai Si about Black Fang was in the early morning three hours after Vesile's death.

"What does it do?"

At that time, Chase had just been awakened from his sleep. He sat down at the breakfast table and took a sip of black coffee that was so strong and bitter that it almost stung his tongue.

He didn't know how Uncle Kai learned that the fake image of Wesile had been scattered after his death, so he asked him to track it down - but he rarely asked about things that Uncle Kai didn't tell him.

"From what I understand, it's an artifact that queries information. Input a command into one side, and relevant text information will appear on the other parallel side."

Uncle Kai chose his words carefully and spoke cautiously.

"After searching, a text message appears?" Chai Si raised an eyebrow. "...Like Google?"

Uncle Kai didn't hide his lack of understanding. He simply shook his head and said, "I was still young then, only seven or eight years older than you are now. After I acquired the Black Square, it was bought by Vesile just four days later... I had a vague feeling then. But now I'm absolutely certain that the Black Square's role was far greater than I imagined."

He looked around, picked up the table napkin, folded it roughly into a square and held it up.

"Of the six faces of the cube, only one will receive the countdown query instruction, and then project the countdown date from the other parallel face."

After Uncle Kai briefly explained it, Chai Si nodded to show that he understood.

"It wasn't until I sold the black side that I started to think: Of the six sides, two are used for input and output. So what about the other four? What do they do? When I tested it, the other four sides didn't respond to my commands at all. What on earth did Vesile discover that I didn't? Unfortunately, even if I wanted to know, I didn't have the chance."

"Yes, there will be," Chai Si blurted out before Uncle Kai could finish the last word. "I'll go find it."

This was a subconscious reaction he had developed over the years - Uncle Kai's wish was an order given to him.

He couldn't bear to see Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai have any regrets.

Whether it was out of guilt, loyalty, gratitude for the upbringing... or a feeling that was even more difficult to explain in words, Chai Si had long since stopped thinking about it.

Whether it was Uncle Kai or Aunt Hai, when they wanted Chai Si to do something, he would even feel a faint sense of relief; as if if they made one more request, he would finally have one more chance to make up for it and repay them a little bit - no matter how insignificant.

Even though he knew he could never repay it.

Uncle Kai nodded, untied his napkin, and wiped the corner of his mouth with it. "Okay."

...Found it, Uncle Kai.

Chai Si looked at the empty and dim alley in front of him and thought - for a moment, he wanted to laugh again.

In the past, he never wanted to laugh when thinking of Uncle Kai and Aunt Hai.

Black found it in a way he had never expected, and much faster than he thought. Isn't it really worth being happy about?
The "input character command" side must exist independently of the "input information command" side. It is another different side - because this side only accepts humans, not even Han Liuyue, so information commands are even more impossible to use.

It must also correspond to an output surface.

The reason for this speculation is not simply based on the correspondence - after disassembling the person and separating the false image, it has to be taken out, right?
It is reasonable to assume that things are taken out from the output side.

From this point of view, among the six faces of the black side, there is a high possibility of a relationship between two of them: one group for information input and output, one group for character input and output... There is still one group left, but he doesn't know what it is.

Chai Si looked up.

No matter what the input surface above is, he can at least be sure that it is not the character input surface; that is to say, if a person falls into it, he will not be accepted by it.

The tricky part is what happens when you don't accept it.

The output surface corresponding to the top is very close to the ground of the alley. The gap between the two can accommodate rainwater, but it cannot accommodate a person at all.

If someone falls in from above, will he be thrown out from the other side, or will he be crushed to death between the black trap and the alley?
Judging from the intelligence he currently has about the Black side, there is no doubt about the answer.

The black side doesn't care what you are. If you enter from the input side, you will come out from the output side; if you enter from the top, you will come out from the bottom. As for the influence of spatial factors, whether it is one person or a group of people that comes out, it is basically certain that it is not within the black side's consideration.

Of course, Chai Si was unwilling to accept that after struggling for thirty years, he was finally crushed into a pool of flesh with his eyeballs and skull shattered by a black square illusion.

...But is there any other way out?

If only someone could try it for him.

Chai Si looked down at the man and pulled his legs twice - unfortunately, he couldn't move them.

He could lift his legs, move them left and right, even make them dance, but he couldn't pull them out.

Forget it. Even if he could pull the person out, he couldn't throw a big, strong man who was about the same height as himself vertically into the air more than three meters high. He was not Superman.

Chai Si let go and dropped the man's feet. They landed on the ground with two thuds - but the next second, he suddenly froze.

……what happened?

He thought he heard a third sound.

It was light and vague, as if trying to take advantage of the movement of the man's limbs to blend in with the sound of the firewood; as soon as the man's feet touched the ground, the surroundings suddenly fell silent again.

Chai Si turned around and stared at the corridor behind him.

"Backlight Room" was located semi-underground, with a flight of stairs leading to the entrance. Standing at the top of the stairs, he could only see three or four meters into the corridor before his vision was obscured. That three or four-meter corridor was empty and dim, without a trace of human presence.

Did he hear wrongly?
Could it be that the assassin has a second subordinate in the bar?
If the assassin had already planted more than one subordinate in the bar, why didn't he send two of them together? Wouldn't that be safer?
If the assassin sent someone new... he was guarding the door, so how did that person get in?
No, he was wrong.

The most fatal problem now is not wondering how the assassin sent people into the bar - even if he can't figure it out, he must act based on the worst-case scenario, so thinking about it is just a waste of time - the most fatal problem is who the assassin sent in.

In fact, if you think about this question for a moment, you will immediately have the answer.

If he was an assassin, after failing the first time, who would he send in the second time to ensure that Chai Si was alive and walked into the black side obediently?

Apart from his hospital gown, Chai Si had nothing on him.

He raised his hand and ripped the shirt hard, and a row of buttons immediately broke off and fell to the ground. He pulled off the shirt, leaving his upper body naked. He held the clothes tightly in his hands and said softly, "...Han Liuyue, you can get out now."

A second or two later, what slowly emerged from the corridor was not a pair of feet.

When a person approaches the door, from Chai Si's perspective, the first thing he should see is legs and feet; however, at this moment, from the corridor floor, like the rising full moon, what gradually emerged was a snow-white, swollen face.

Half of his raven-black hair fell to the ground, flowing like oil and spreading across the floor tiles.

"Brother Chai Si..."

Han Liuyue, who seemed to be lying on the ground with only her head sticking out, suddenly looked at him and smiled, her cheeks puffed up. "How did you suddenly regain your strength?"

She had no intention of knowing the answer.

He had only said half of this when the Noh mask suddenly loosened and a piece of it fell off and cracked - at that moment, Chai Si knew that he had no time left.

He clutched the top of his hospital gown tightly, staring at the small shadow coming towards him, raised his hand and swung it hard in the air, and with a "pop", it seemed to hit something - even though he had extremely strong dynamic vision, the clothes still barely stuck to the piece of debris and knocked it out.

Because it didn't hit the target, most of the force went in vain, and the fragments just rolled back a few times before stabilizing in mid-air again.

"It's not like I can only give out one piece," Han Liuyue, who was missing a piece of his chin, said with regret.

Before he could finish his words, the snow-white fragments that suddenly attacked Chai Si in mid-air turned into a small group - Chai Si immediately opened his hospital gown to cover his head and face, and at the same time threw the gown outwards; immediately several pieces of fragments were wrapped up by the hospital gown, and faintly, some tiny tentacles were twisting through the fabric, as if trying to penetrate it.

He quickly threw his clothes and hit the wall next to him, sending four or five pieces flying.

The second attack was barely blocked, but he had no way to restrain Han Liuyue's fragments. If he continued like this, it was only a matter of time before she pierced him and controlled him to move to the black side.

Fortunately, he had been observing Han Liuyue tonight and realized a phenomenon that she had never mentioned; and no matter how he thought about it, it didn't seem like a coincidence.

"The fragments that broke off from your face can only penetrate the target's face, right? You've never used it to pierce other parts of your body... Obviously, if you don't pierce the face, you'll be more concealed and more likely to succeed."

By the time Chai Si used his hospital gown to knock away the fragments for the third time, he had already begun to feel his weakness. After all, it was just stimulants... He was still far from fully recovered.

There was only one way out, in the alley behind him.

"So what?" Han Liuyue replied.

Before answering, Chai Si glanced at the door. He estimated that the door was about two meters and two meters high, which, combined with his own height... was enough.

He had no choice.

Chai Si said nothing, but suddenly twisted his body, jumped off the ground, stretched out his arms, and grabbed the top of the door frame; at the same time, he supported the side of the door frame with his feet, stretched out his arms, and climbed onto the door frame - as soon as his feet stepped on the door frame, he suddenly felt the door swaying back and forth under his feet, as if it suddenly came alive and wanted to throw him down.

"Brother Chai Si!" Han Liuyue called out from inside the house, and seemed to get up from the ground immediately: "Why are you so hard to kill?"

As soon as he climbed onto the door frame, Han Liuyue could no longer see him from her perspective; but he had already heard her footsteps, rushing towards the door - Han Liuyue has always been a good hunter who will never let go of her prey once she bites it.

Chai Si half-knelt down and looked up at the night sky one meter above his head.

Empty, it looks like there is nothing there.

It is hard to imagine that this scene of darkness and drizzle might be his burial place.

Although he didn't know whether the assassin could hear him, he still laughed and said under his breath: "If I fall out from below, I will be crushed to death."

The night wind blew his hair apart, and the cold rain wrapped around his body densely.

Even if people could fly, there is no place to escape in the vast universe.

Chai Si knew that he was gambling with his own life.

He was gambling that the assassin would not dare to let him die before getting the "rumor".

He wanted to use his own death to force the assassin to put away the black square.

　I almost got stuck halfway through writing... I was stunned for about an hour before I finally figured out how to finish this chapter. My work schedule was already a thing, so there was no need to worry about it.

　　Well, aside from the villains who were written purely to serve as villains, all the other characters I've created with some complexity, I look upon them like a mother looks upon her children... including Brianna, who appears so rarely. But even a mother sometimes wants to kill her unruly child.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)