Artifact Report

Chapter 246 Mai Minghe: A glimmer of hope amidst the chaos

The sharp and loud cries of the “back drift” residents echoed urgently in the stone house in Mai Minghe’s mind, causing her eardrums to ache—“Back!”

"I want the back!"

Accompanied by a scream, a hasty shadow slid down Ai Meili's back and pounced towards the corner of Mai Minghe's blurred vision, like a bug that was trying to escape after entering the house and turning on the light.

"Back, back, back, back, back. When I was a child, my father carried me on his back. The warm sun shone on my back. When I lay on his back, I could see far away and see a peaceful and stable life ahead. Back, back, back, back, back. I want it."

That string of words was like a series of exploding neurons in the brain. As the biological electrical sparks went out, in an instant, the sound disappeared without a trace along with the "back drift" residents.

Rules... rules... Aimee-li...

Mai Minghe was clearly standing on the sidewalk, dragging an old woman who was holding her neck tightly behind her, but at the same time, she felt like she was squatting in a stone house, pressed down by the stone roof so that she couldn't lift her head, and only her legs and feet could still feel.

So even though her head was raised high physically, she still felt that she had to roll her eyes up and look upwards in order to barely see Aimee Li's lower body.

"quick……"

The old woman increased her strength, reducing Mai Minghe's voice to a ghost. "Tear it apart, the true rules..."

"What, what's going on?"

Ai Meili was mumbling, "I've been tricked...? Where are the real rules...?"

Isn't it right there on the ground? When the "Back Drifter" resident escaped, he dropped a folded piece of paper, already crumpled.

"I can't see. Why can't I see? I can't feel my face—"

Along with her panicked voice came her panicked hands; but there was only one, a right hand that was reaching backwards.

...What about the left hand?

Mai Minghe was not in a state of normal thinking and judgment at the moment, but she still had to struggle with the old woman's strength, fighting for her remaining pitiful sanity.

Could it be that Ai Meili's left hand, still holding the cell phone, is stuck in the gap between the windows?
The old woman did say that Aimee-le-Lie had attracted two residents.

At this moment, her back had returned to normal, but she was still squatting on the ground.

As she looked around, her light brown ponytail swung rapidly behind her head a few times, but it never turned around. Aimeili's right hand was still groping and flapping on the ground upside down: "Yes, only when I find the real rules can I hope to restore the original state..."

...She seemed to have not heard Mai Minghe's order to tear up the rules at all.

Mai Minghe was stunned for a moment, then he realized that it was normal that Ai Meili didn't hear it.

Because she was making two sounds at the same time.

One was the weak command that Mai Minghe squeezed out with great effort; the other was the loud laughter of an old woman, who couldn't help but laugh intermittently.

Rather, it was quite surprising that Aimee could hear the words "real rules" beneath the laughter.

In other words, I can't rely on Ai Meili anymore.

When Ai Meili's fingertips touched and slid across the paper several times and finally grabbed a corner of it, Mai Minghe gritted her teeth and took another desperate step forward - she stepped on the paper, and Ai Meili grabbed it and pulled it forward. With a "hiss", the paper shattered.

"Handyman..."

"Are you annoying?" a voice suddenly rang out, like the clatter of a bunch of keys. "It's not like it's torn in two. You can just put it back together yourself, right?"

"What?" Aimeili was shocked. "Who are you?"

Mai Minghe pressed all his body weight on the piece of paper and rolled it hard with his heel several times, crushing the paper and the ink on the text into pieces and pressing them into the mud between the sidewalk bricks.

No one can see the true rules anymore.

There was silence for a few seconds, and then the poster sighed.

"Okay, let go a little," it said reluctantly. "There's no other way. You can't continue killing her until I put up a new set of rules."

The old woman uttered a string of sharp curse words, so ugly and dirty that one could not help but admire its creativity.

"I'll be back in no time," the poster promised. "Two minutes—no, sixty seconds, sixty seconds and I'll be back with the rules and have them posted up."

...Only sixty seconds?
I risked half my life just to get one minute?

After getting the assurance, the old woman finally withdrew from Mai Minghe's mind little by little, and the roof of the stone house she created also slowly rose; although the stone roof was still covering her head and her neck was still held in the old woman's hand, Mai Minghe finally breathed a breath of oxygen again and finally felt her own body again.

Mai Minghe's first reaction was to pull the old woman's hands with all his might; but its hands were firmly wrapped around her neck, neither tightening further inwards nor making it almost impossible to push them away.

...At least, I can't push it open with my own physical strength.

She blinked.

The poster has disappeared.

Aimee was sitting on the road in front with her back to her, one hand stuck in the gap, and the other hand seemed to be about to rise up to touch her face.

"Aimeili," she called, her voice as calm and gentle as possible. "I need your gun now. Give it to me and I'll find a way to get us out."

Ai Meili was stunned.

She seemed to be trying hard to control herself and regain her composure. "What happened?" With one hand still stuck in the wall, she twisted her body toward Mai Minghe behind her and said, "Why can't I feel my face?"

Where her face should have been, there was now only a large piece of smooth, flat skin, which was trembling slightly as she turned around, as if her head was a piece of meat jelly with one-third of it cut off.

Mai Minghe subconsciously avoided her gaze, then forced himself to look back.

The front third of Aimee's head was gone, but her neck and body were still intact; the pistol was still stuck in her belt.

"I'm trying, but I'm entangled with the residents and can't bend down. I need you to hand me the gun immediately. Time is limited, you have to trust me."

Aimeili lifted up the piece of aspic that was supposed to be a face but was cut smoothly, and remained silent for two extremely long seconds.

It was so long that Mai Minghe wanted to moan, beg, and curse - but she finally took out her gun and pointed it aimlessly into the air.

"Please..." Aimeili murmured.

She had no nose, so it was impossible to tell whether there was any nasal or crying tone in her words.

"What are you going to do?" The old woman seemed to be on guard. "I won't be shot—"

Before it could finish its words, Mai Minghe had already turned his hand and placed the muzzle of the gun against its arm, aiming at the joint, and pressed the trigger deeply with his finger.

The first bullet was like a leaf falling on the surface of a lake, causing only an almost imperceptible ripple.

But Mai Minghe did not loosen his fingers; bullet after bullet, aiming at the same position, flew out again and again, shaking the old woman's arm continuously - after who knows how many bullets, the old woman's arm was like a rope that suddenly broke, and was shot high into the air.

An angry howl echoed in the sky.

The same trick didn't work before, but it works now: because the poster had to try to ensure "fairness" when he appeared, this time the old woman couldn't continue to increase her strength and resist the bullet.

Mai Minghe bent down and finally broke free from the old woman's control.

Although she had not yet regained her consciousness and strength, she still ran, stumbling across the road in waves of dizziness.

"Where are you going?" Ai Meili shouted from behind, "Aren't you going to save me?"

There was no time to answer her. From the corner of the street, Mai Minghe had already seen the poster - he was wearing a brown work jacket, and the face on his neck was deeply sunken into his head, which reminded people of a long corridor with a light bulb that was about to run out of life. It was deep, dark and unclear.

It was holding a bucket of glue in one hand and a poster in the other.

Mai Minghe raised her pistol. Even without looking back, she knew that the old woman was squatting on the ground again, crawling towards her quickly, and had already crawled halfway across the street. She aimed at the poster in the poster's hand and fired, firing a rapid burst of bullets.

"Ah, what are you doing!"

The poster worker screamed angrily, as if hurt by a bullet, and shook his hands wildly, "You've ruined the poster again! Look at this, is this unbearable? I'm telling you, if you keep going like this, you'll be punished—"

Mai Minghe had already rushed out, leaving its roar behind.

As long as the new rules are not posted again, the nearby creatures will not be able to attack the three of them for the time being - this will also be their only lifeline.

Mai Minghe yelled "Get out of the way" at the door of the Tourist Information Center No. 07, and then pushed the glass door open with her shoulder; Li Sidan staggered and was unable to avoid her, and was knocked to the ground. His slender esophagus swung in an arc on his cheek, and he fell to the ground with a "click".

"Don't be afraid," Mai Minghe turned around and said to the humanoid figure on the ground. "Now the nearby residents can't continue to attack people. Everything—all the deterioration and deformation has stopped."

In fact, when she saw Li Sidan's appearance clearly, she was even more scared than him, and her mouth stuttered.

If it weren't for the flesh-colored area mixed with the colors of the clothes, a little fluorescent orange, and a bag of supplies next to it, she wouldn't have recognized that this was Li Sidan.

He has become like this... Even if he gets out, can he recover?

"You...you go hold the door and don't let the old woman in. Did you hear that? Can you still hear? Answer me."

Given Li Sidan's current condition, it is also a mystery as to where he should extend his hand to hold the door.

"Got it..." he mumbled. "Map...be careful..."

Mai Minghe turned his head and glanced around the tourist information center.

Someone who wanted to trick her into letting him out had also said that there was a map of the Old Port in the Tourist Information Center - it turned out that this was not a lie.

There was a row of shelves on the wall of the reception hall, and the most conspicuous thing was a map of the old port - or rather, something that looked like a map of the old port. It had a stern face and was motionless, pretending to have no life consciousness.

The old woman slammed her head against the glass door, startling Mai Minghe.

She looked back, made up her mind, grabbed the "Old Port Map" and held it in her hand.

Map suppressed a laugh.

"get ready,"

Mai Minghe said to Li Sidan on the ground, "Let's take Ai Meili with us and rush out of here together."

　I've been extremely exhausted for the past few days, so yesterday I thought it was almost Chinese New Year, so I decided to clean up the house. So, I cleaned out a mountain of garbage and five tons of dog hair...

　　The next two days will be very busy, with lots of trips to various places. I'm exhausted just thinking about it... Isn't Chinese New Year a time for rest? You're lying to me!

　　
　
(End of this chapter)