Boom!

The entire hall quaked as Eulene released her palm strike.

All the walls that were in front of her were crushed into smithereens. The sentient typewriter came into view again.

There was now a completely blank paper on it, devoid of a shred of ink. Silence ensued for a few seconds. Suddenly, the typewriter began to type like crazy.

*mytejyrsskyteelutekyr*historical

It was typing fast, but Xavier was faster. Pieces of metal shards from the rumbles shot towards the artefact and stuck under the keys, jamming them.

Xavier and Eulene rose up from the ground and hovered over the destroyed walls and landed right in front of the typewriter.

The red smile on Xavier's mask returned. "Return carriage if you want to surrender."

There as no response from the machine.

"For every ten seconds you don't surrender, I will pluck out a key."

The trapped typewriter began to crazily move the stuck keys, trying to regain freedom. But his own authority dug his grave. The metal shards were 'indestructible'.

"Ten." Xavier reached out for the printer, aiming at key 'A'.

Just when his hand touched the wood layered key, the carriage return lever beside the machine moved. The page slid all the way to the right.

It had surrendered.

"Wise decision." A green thumbs up momentarily appeared on Xavier's mask before returning to the red smile.

*IT'S CHEATING! CHEATING! I DEMAND A RETEST!* the typewriter began to smack on its keys—with all capital letters.

"Cheating?" Xavier asked, the same mocking smile on his mask. "Which rule did we break?"

*EVERYTHING!* the triggered clicking sounds keep bursting out. *You were supposed to escape the maze!*

"And here we are." Xavier spread his arms and took an arrogant posture.

The typewriter didn't type anything in response for a few seconds.

*Fine! Fine! You win, you damned cheaters!* The angry machine finally conceded.

*Pay attention. I will only explain the entire blueprint once.*

Xavier brought out his pocket watch and checked the time.

"We don't have much time." Xavier pocketed the watch before turning to Eulene. "This is my gift to you," he pointed at the archaic typewriter. "Store it in your ring."

Eulene was taken aback. She never even had the thought of taking the machine with her. She looked at the typewriter and inspected it. Now that she looked at it again, it looked kinda.. cute.

*STOP! STOP! STOP!* the furious clicks returned. *That was not part of the deal.*

"We never said we are not taking you," Xavier retorted.

*Don't you know that to use an artefact, you first need to be accepted by the artefact. As for me acknowledging either of you* the typewriter typed slowly, but suddenly it began to smack the keys and write fast.

*I am never accepting you! NEVER!* It grew silent.

The masked Eulene gave Xavier a glance.

Xavier shrugged. "Don't tell me you can't even appease such a low quality artefact."

*YOU ARE THE LOW QUALITY HERE!*

Eulene clicked her tongue behind the silver mask. However, she was not backing away from the challenge.

Eulene stepped forward and stood right before the typewriter. She decided to do what anyone in the whole world would do after getting access to a typing device for the first time—writing her own name. And she decided to write her Avion name.

After scanning through all the keys, she finally found 'E'. She touched the round and woody key. She could feel the Qi inside the machine; it was Yin, but pure.

She gently pressed the key, but it did not budge. Thinking that she pressed too lightly, Eulene increased the force. However, the result remained the same.

Eulene understood the reason. It was the artefact who was a behind this.

*I am never ltting you type anything!* the typewriter declared.

Eulene was stubborn. She was not backing away! She kept reinforcing the strength on her index finger—the one that was on the 'E' key.

Despite the 'indestructibility' of the object, it was going against a being like Eulene.

And soon enough, the inevitable happened. A crack formed under the E key, and the key finally caved in.

*E*

Eulene then searched for the 'U' key, like a grandma who was introduced to technology for the first time. After two looks, she finally found it, but before she could reach it.

*Eaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!* the typewriter followed the 'E' with a scream of pain.

Xavier raised his brow behind the mask. He had noticed it once before, and then again just now. The machine was showing too much emotions.

He decided to try something out and confirm his hypothesis. Xavier transmitted something to Eulene.

Eulene was taken aback by Xavier's 'weird' order. But a smile surfaced behind her mask. It seemed fun. Besides, the mechanical sound that came after every click was too satisfying.

She began to type. And unlike before, the machine did not sacrificially hinder her any longer.

*F*

*FU*

*FUC*

Before Eulene could press the 'K', the machine automatically typed.

*FUCbfhurbuej what are you doing?!*

Eulene shrugged and pressed the carriage return lever, sliding the paper and switching to a new line. She began to type again, giggling like a little girl as she did it.

*S*

*SE*

Once again, the machine interrupted before Eulene could type in the last letter.

*SEdyhcrd Okay! Okay! I will follow you from now on. But there's a condition. You can't write anything indecent!*

Eulene turned to Xavier. She knew he was up to something.

Xavier nodded with the red smile.

Eulene, in exchange, slid the paper to the next line and typed, *OKAY*

Eulene suddenly felt a strange energy coursing through her. With her heavenly constitution, she could sense a connection with the machine.

"So, what can you do?" Eulene asked.

*Pardon?*

"I have read about magical diaries which writes on themselves and answer any question in the world, or tell the future. What can you do?"

*This is not how we artefacts work.* the machine retorted.

"But you are not a regular artefact, are you?" Xavier interrupted.

His question intrigued Eulene.

The smile on Xavier's mask widened and glowed redder.

"You were a human, weren't you?"