Artifact Report

Chapter 218 Mai Minghe: How to make money in the face of all changes?

No matter how the times change, she cannot accept that human faces have mutated to this extent.

Mai Minghe stared at the picture, then stared at the sea reed, repeating this several times, and finally came up with a guess - she had been transformed into a nest resident and had grown 0.7 new heads. Did this have some kind of impact on her?

In Hai Luwei's eyes, the mayor might be a normal-looking person?

"Describe," she demanded, "what the mayor looks like?"

What if the picture Hai Luwei sees is different from hers...can her cognition still be cured?
"Why describe this? His face is very white, very round, and puffy, as if it has been soaked in water."

Hai Luwei took a sip of coffee and said naturally, "His eyes are small, like black holes. Anyway, he's really not good-looking... The fact that we elected him as mayor probably also indirectly proves that we, the people of Blackmore City, are particularly tolerant."

Mai Minghe was even more unable to understand the current situation.

She didn't know whether the people of Blackmore City were particularly tolerant; but it seemed that some were particularly blind.

This is clearly not a human face?

“How many years has he been elected?”

"It's been two or three years, right? Even if you don't like his looks, he's a political star. Rumor has it he's even considering running for governor. Many people speculate his ambitions are for the White House."

Mai Minghe really wished that he could watch more TV while lying in bed and remember the mayor's appearance in the news - no, that's not right, if he saw it then, he might have a heart attack.

She scrolled down the page (for some reason, the page didn't slide as smoothly under her hands as it did under Hai Luwei's), and found a piece of news from a few days ago at the bottom.

As a supplementary action to the capture of the "Subway Serial Killer", Mayor Oliver Meissen announced that he would increase patrol police and strengthen security in the subway system; when she clicked on it, she saw several unfamiliar faces in the news photos.

"Who is in this picture?" Mai Minghe asked.

In the news with the mayor as the protagonist, there is no mayor in the photo?
"You're such a weird person," Hai Luwei said, looking at the photo and then glancing suspiciously at Mai Minghe. "Are you kidding me? Isn't that the mayor in the middle?"

Mai Minghe now suspected that this was a prank he had carefully arranged.

Even if she was not familiar with modern technology, she couldn't tease the old lady like that.

“Everyone is different!”

"Same," said Sea Reed.

"How can they be the same? They are obviously different."

"It's obviously the same," Hai Luwei's eyes widened.

"Obviously not--" Mai Minghe swallowed the last two words.

They were like two kids arguing with each other and would keep arguing until dark.

"Then describe to me what the mayor in this photo looks like?"

Hai Luwei looked at the photo and although he was confused, he still obeyed.

"Well, a square face, with dark skin. The eyes are small, like two pores poked out. Anyway, he's not very good-looking."

...Mai Minghe was almost convinced that he was playing a prank on someone.

But although she and Hai Luwei had only known each other for a short time, they had experienced many life-threatening situations together. He didn't seem like such a tactless and reckless child.

"Don't you realize that your descriptions are inconsistent?"

"No," Hai Luwei looked confused.

It's so infuriating.

"Wait a moment,"

She grabbed her phone, threw a few words to Hai Luwei, hurried to the cashier counter of the small restaurant with a breakfast bar, and asked the plump waitress, "Can you help me look at these two photos?"

I don’t know whether to say it’s surprising or not, the waitress’s description of the two different mayor photos is exactly the same as Hai Luwei’s.

In her eyes, the person wearing the snow-white mask is snow-white; when she sees the mayor with normal face, she knows that he has dark skin.

However, even a few diners who were curious and leaned over to listen said in unison that the people in the two photos were exactly the same, both were Mayor Oliver Meissen.

Even when inconsistencies in their descriptions were pointed out, they didn't react at all.

"If you insist, there are slight differences in skin color," the waitress said, "but people tend to get darker and lighter. It's normal."

...This matter must be related to the nest and the false image.

There are all kinds of false images, maybe one of them can change a person's appearance?

If Mayor Oliver Meissen, for whatever reason, wants to change his appearance but still needs to be recognized as the mayor, then changing his own face alone won’t be enough—other people’s perception of him must also change.

How to change it?
Why wasn't she affected? Could it be that nearly becoming a resident had some kind of... vaccine-like effect on her body?
Mai Minghe sat down again with a lot on his mind and put his cell phone on the table.

"You've asked around and found out I didn't lie to you," Hai Luwei heard it from afar just now, and now his face looked as if he had been vindicated.

"It's so strange," Mai Minghe said, "I—"

Before she could finish her words, she looked down and was shocked; for some reason, the screen of her mobile phone was suddenly filled with the mayor's dark face.

"How is this..."

"Oh, you might have accidentally touched it and magnified the picture." Hai Luwei then taught her how to zoom in and out. "Look, if you move it like this, you can see the details of other parts - no, use two fingers - put them together and move them together. Don't take turns moving your fingers up."

Mai Minghe squinted his eyes habitually and checked the mayor's face.

Just now, in the description of Hai Luwei and others, the two photos have one thing in common, that is, "the mayor's eyes are very small, like black pores."

But Oliver Meissen, who had a normal face, had eyes that were not big, but they were not big enough to be pores either - Mai Minghe now had a vague understanding of this.

Only after the picture was enlarged could it be seen clearly that a light and sparse white mist was floating from the right side of the picture, gently staining the mayor's eyes.

…It was as if something was reaching out to the photo from the past and modifying it bit by bit.

This speculation was soon confirmed.

Taking the 22nd - that is, today - as the benchmark, the degree of "masking" in the mayor's photos becomes less with each passing day.

Even in the description of the mayor last month, his eyes were described as "long and narrow, neither big nor small."

But this time, Hai Luwei finally began to wonder, "Huh? Why did he seem a little different last month? Hmm, I can't put my finger on what's wrong... Did he have cosmetic surgery? Did he get hyaluronic acid injections this month?"

What the hell?
In short, based on this point, it can be basically inferred that the mayor's "masking" occurred on the 22nd.

This change gradually eroded past records about the mayor, changing the image of the mayor in the records bit by bit; as the records changed, it further distorted and consolidated people's cognition.

No wonder the word "nest" has so many definitions, it's like a chatterbox.

The Nest didn't want her to hesitate, didn't want her to be unsure who the mayor was.

According to the definition of the mayor in the "Fake Image Report", she should sell the lipstick to today's Snow White Face - the nest hopes that the lipstick will eventually fall into his hands.

why?
Mai Minghe couldn't come up with an answer because she was missing too much information.

"No matter what he looks like, what you should do remains the same."

Hai Luwei reminded her, pointing to the page on her phone and saying, "Look at this news... He's going to sign a welfare housing expansion project on the 28th of this month."

"This is usually signed in the office. We can't barge in."

Sea Reed paused. "'We'?"

"I."

I shouldn't have dragged him around all the time. His foot is injured.

"Generally speaking, if ordinary citizens directly request a meeting with the mayor, they won't get one." Hai Luwei offered her an idea. "But for a political achievement project like this, no matter where he signs it, he'll definitely invite the media to take photos and publicize it, otherwise the signing will be in vain. If you can sneak in with the news media and go in with them, you can meet him."

This is not a bad idea, but how do I get in?
It’s too late to look for a job now.

In response, Hai Luwei shrugged and gave up decisively: "I don't know anyone at the media office, so I can't help you. But if you want to try, maybe 'Backlight Between' can help you find someone - maybe there's a useful artifact."

It's worth a try, but where would she get the money?
She originally sold lipstick just to make money to help with emergencies; now, she has to make some money first before she can find a way to sell it.

How come this new life full of adventures starts out differently than she expected, asking for money everywhere?

She was also unwilling to ask Hai Luwei for a loan; no matter how good the other person was, as soon as money was involved in the relationship, it would easily deteriorate.

Seeing her gloomy expression, Hai Luwei could only offer a blind suggestion: "Only one fake image? Nothing else to sell?"

“That’s all,” Mai Minghe said. “I only got one when I entered the lair—huh?”

She looked up suddenly.

It was true that she had only gotten a lipstick artifact last time in the lair; but that wasn't the only thing she had gotten.

"The 'Backlight Bar'... do they buy information?"

Mai Minghe asked tentatively, "My brain is stuffed with so much information by the nest. Some of it must be useful to someone, right? If I answer hunters' questions, provide them with clues, and share the information I know, would anyone be willing to pay me?"

　Yesterday, everyone gave me so much comfort and pats, I felt embarrassed. Can you understand that feeling? It's like a child crying and acting like a spoiled brat, with no intention of doing anything, but then their parents buy them a Disney movie...?
　　Happy, warm, and ashamed... This is such a tiring...

　　PS: The Silver extra chapter is finally complete! I originally wanted to devise a scheme worthy of Silver, but I'm not sure if I'm good enough, but I've finished it anyway... You can check it out in the original work's related volume.

　　
　
(End of this chapter)