Artifact Report

Chapter 247 Mai Minghe: The Last Few Seconds

Even Mai Minghe has animality in his blood.

She vaguely remembered that when she was in the Black Heart Restaurant, she grabbed the chair and drew a vague, brown shadow in the air; driven by the rage bursting from her muscles and carried by the torrent of violence, she turned the chair into flying fragments over people's heads.

She vaguely realized that she had kicked open the glass door. When the old woman opened her hands and was about to reveal her mouth, the muzzle of the gun was pressed against her forehead, emitting a circle of bright white fire.

The old woman's head was flipped over again, and her hands dangled in the air, as if trying to regain her balance.

Before it could gain its footing and raise its head again, Mai Minghe swept it across and kicked it to the ground.

Adrenaline melted away all thoughts, anxieties, and fears, washing away the excess, leaving her with only the purest, most animal instinct - to fight for survival.

"Go!" she yelled.

Out of the corner of my eye, I saw Li Sidan half crawling and half running out of the door in a panic, still holding the bag of supplies. He hurriedly fled towards the intersection, leaving behind a series of wet gurgling sounds, like stepping on water-soaked shoes on a rainy day.

Mai Minghe knew that he couldn't look at the old woman's mouth.

By some miracle of mercy, she had never actually seen the lower half of the old woman's face; perhaps that was why she was still alive at this moment - even if her neck was squeezed into a straw, it would not be as dangerous as seeing the old woman's full face directly.

The old woman's head was half-buried under her own shoulders, and at this moment only one ear and the side of her face could be seen.

Its face was scraping the road surface and was quickly pulled out; Mai Minghe quickly turned his head, staring at the back of Li Sidan who was walking away, and at the same time pressed the "Old Port Map" in his hand against the old woman's face.

Her fingers suddenly sank down across the shrinking and struggling map, as if falling off a cliff; she quickly raised her hand, grabbed the map, and stuffed it hard into the darkness below the old woman's nose, where she could not see anything and suspected that nothing existed.

The "Old Port Map" could not make any human sound, nor could it howl; but at that moment, Mai Minghe seemed to hear the sharp cracking sound amplified more than ten times as the texture of the paper was torn apart.

Residents eat residents, and both of them suffer, right?
A heavy feeling of a hangover headache rang out on the old woman's face - yes, it was not a sound, but a real headache that was about to split open due to a hangover from drinking, which suddenly hammered into Mai Minghe's brain.

She didn't dare stay any longer, and endured the pain as she stumbled towards the intersection.

No one knew where the poster had gone, but he would probably get the second rule introduction soon; then it wouldn't come back here again - at least, it wouldn't come back to Mai Minghe's eyes, giving her another chance to break the rules.

They had less than a minute to escape.

"Has it been released?"

When Mai Minghe rushed to the gate of No. 01 "Tourist Information Center", she also knew that she had shouted nonsense - Li Sidan was still the only one at the door; his fingers could barely be seen, and there was not even a theater troupe poster posted at the door.

...Didn’t I just give you all the instructions?
On the troupe's poster, Ai Meili was still squeezed behind the iron railings, with a hand holding a mobile phone stretched out.

But the content of the message on the phone has changed.

Yes, you guessed it right, my face was cut off and locked in the poster
Since we came to this street, I have been caught, my face has been closed
Just hit RELEASE on your keyboard
My face will return to my head

Hurry, it's too late

"Trap, trap," Li Sidan's voice trembled with his body. "This isn't her. This is clearly a trap... I know for sure it won't be Ai Meili."

As he spoke, he crawled forward.

"I, I won't release what's on the poster. That's not Aimee-li anymore. I'm experienced, I know... she's beyond saving. Don't blame me..."

Mai Minghe quickly glanced across the street.

Ai Meili was still squatting on the sidewalk, with one arm stretched into the gap and only the back of her head facing her; the difference from before was that the back that really belonged to Ai Meili was trembling.

Distantly, I could still hear her voice, like tiny pieces of saliva splattering in the air: "Why am I stuck? Why can't I move? Where's my face? Didn't you say you would save me? Where did you go?"

On the road behind her, the old woman was standing up unsteadily, her limbs seemed not yet coordinated to know which direction to turn; one hand was supporting her head which was hanging from her back, one foot was pointing to the two o'clock direction, and the heel of the other foot was facing forward.

Half of the "Old Port Map" stuck out of its mouth and trembled in the air.

Mai Minghe turned around again - she was wrong, she didn't even have a minute.

Before the old woman staggered over—how long did she have? Ten seconds? Five?—Mai Minghe had to decide whether to release Ai Meili from the poster.

In other words, is the person on the poster Aimee Lee?
"Ever since we came to this street, I've been caught and my face has been locked"?
That's obviously not the case, right?
Mai Minghe remembers that after seeing Ai Meili's help poster, she turned back once more and walked across the street. Ai Meili spotted her, spoke to her, and showed her the video on her phone.

At that time, there were two faces of Ai Meili on this road at the same time.

One was growing neatly on her head, and the other was printed on the iron railing behind the poster.

How could this be?
Which face was Aimee Lee's own at that time?
Mai Minghe turned his head again - in just a few seconds, the old woman's limbs had been coordinated, and every hand and foot rushed in the right direction - towards Mai Minghe.

Even if he wanted to fire a few more shots to delay its recovery, it was impossible; just now, Mai Minghe had once again emptied the bullets in Aimeli's pistol.

She turned around and found that the text on the phone screen in the poster had changed again. What are you still hesitating about?

If you don't let me out, you and I will die here.

Quick, hit RELEASE on your keyboard
It's too late, save me

Indeed, it was too late to hesitate any longer. Although the old woman's head was still bent backward, her body was broken but her will was strong, and she had already taken a step forward.

Mai Minghe tore his eyes away and forced himself to stare at the poster again.

...The nest is always in inexplicable places, adhering to common sense and logic. Even if its common sense and logic, like a chopstick placed in a bowl of water, appear to have been twisted and bent.

According to common sense, the face on Aimee's head should naturally be her own face, right?
Then according to this logic, the face that appeared on the poster at that time was naturally not Aimee's face.

So where did the real Aimee Lee's face go at this moment?

Mai Minghe stared at the screen of her mobile phone, watching the text of the message change again - but it was still some words asking for help, persuading, and reminding her to click the keyboard.

At a nearby intersection, Li Sidan turned around and glanced at her.

"Let's go!"

His voice became more and more steady, as if he was gradually becoming more human again. "Even if you saved me, I wouldn't stay here forever to remind you. This is the last time. Don't put up the poster—"

His last word turned into an exclamation as Mai Minghe pressed the button on his phone.

Li Sidan turned around and fled.

Mai Minghe couldn't quite make out his back from the corner of her eye, as the cold sweat stung her eyes. She forced herself not to turn around and look at the elderly woman, who was staggering towards her. She pressed her finger on the blue arrow in the upper left corner of the phone screen.

She decided to take a gamble.

...It makes sense that the nest is in an inexplicable place.

If you can interact with the phone by clicking on the letters RELEASE on a printed image of a mobile phone keyboard... then can you interact with the phone by clicking on other places?

It turns out that the nest is reasonable - albeit a twisted one.

It was clearly a mobile phone screen printed on the poster, but with a tap of Mai Minghe's finger, it exited the message interface and turned into a list of messages from many different contacts.

Mai Minghe was extremely grateful that he had learned how to operate a smartphone before entering the nest this time.

She clicked the arrow again and returned to the mobile app interface; she quickly opened the photo album.

As for why she thought of opening the photo album, there was no logical reason - the last time she saw Aimeili's normal face, Aimeili was about to record another video.

The latest icon in the mobile phone album printed with the poster, when clicked, is a video of only three or four seconds long.

The old woman's shadow covered the road a few steps to the right of Mai Minghe.

The phone screen went black at first, and then Ai Meili appeared; as the camera shook, she seemed to be stunned for a moment, and held the phone closer to her face.

Then, her voice came from the printed phone - "...Huh? Why is it turned to the front camera?"

She suddenly raised her face and put it close to the camera. For a moment, the entire screen was blurred into flesh color.

When Ai Meili took away her phone, the flesh color faded, the camera changed, and the image was cut back to the road surface, Mai Minghe saw it.

After taking away the phone, Ai Meili no longer had a face.

Her head was like a piece of meat jelly with one-third of it cut off, leaving a smooth flat surface.

…It was as if when she stuck her finger to the camera just now, her face fell into the phone and was trapped in the video, but Aimeili herself didn't notice at all.

But does this logic really make sense?

Is this really the way to save her?

Mai Minghe's finger hovered over the small trash can icon and hesitated for a moment.

If I delete this video, Ai Meili will never be able to come out again——

The old woman's face was pressed against Mai Minghe.

　You never thought I'd update on the first day of the Lunar New Year! This means that in the new year, I will... be... a... coder...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)