Illusion Report

Chapter 322: Chapter 278: Jin Xueli · Brain Hacker

’How strange. It seemed as if the world had completely forgotten about her overnight.’

Jin Xueli took a sip of her hot latte—though it wasn’t hot anymore. The aroma was gone, and the coffee slid down her throat, tired and listless, leaving a cloying coolness on her tongue.

After all, she had been sitting in the coffee shop for thirty minutes.

She’d finished two desserts and turned a page in her new novel, only to flip back—by the time she reached the second page, she’d already forgotten what was on the first.

Her phone wasn’t much fun either. She just kept scrolling through the same few social media apps. Every so often, she’d open her messaging app to check, but there were still no new messages.

...Jin Xueli was bored to death.

’What is going on?’

’Does the world somehow know that I just had a class upgrade and don’t need to risk my life in the Nests anymore?’

’Is this fate’s signal for me to retire?’

Nominally, she was still a contestant in the "Nest Dominance Game," yet the past few days had been, to put it nicely, as peaceful as could be. To put it bluntly, it was as if she were irrelevant, cast aside by the world.

Chaisi was completely unreachable. The Kai Family’s lips were sealed tighter than her grip on her wallet when she walked past a luxury boutique.

After the lawyer completed the share transfer, he started playing dumb. To this day, she still hadn’t even met the company’s founder.

If she had received nine million dollars in cash, this state of affairs wouldn’t have bothered her at all—she’d have been on a plane to a vacation resort long ago, enjoying her life.

But instead, she had gotten shares—something that left her in limbo.

She had so many doubts and unanswered questions. It felt like this whole affair was far from over. She was left hanging, not knowing the cause, unable to guess the consequences, and with no idea what to do next—and she couldn’t even find a single person to talk it over with.

’Besides, the other contestants in the Nest Dominance Game must know I’ve entered by now, right?’

’Do they think I don’t have the target Illusion?’

It’s been—Jin Xueli picked up her phone, glanced at the date, and slapped it back on the table—it’s been four or five days already. Today is November 28th.

For several days, none of the other contestants had disturbed her life. From a distance, they were sending a clear signal that they looked down on her.

Of course, it wasn’t that she wanted to be hunted down or go into a Nest. But as a Hunter, her days shouldn’t be this boring, dull, and idle, right?

Jin Xueli sighed. She realized her eyes had been lingering on the same line of text for who knows how long and finally gave up, tossing the book back into her bag.

Her mind was completely elsewhere, so naturally, no form of entertainment could hold her attention.

Because she was so utterly bored, when her phone suddenly rang, Jin Xueli lunged for it like a starving tiger pouncing on its prey. The number was unfamiliar, but that didn’t matter. Even if it was a scam call, she could squeeze out a twenty-minute heart-to-heart.

"Where is Chaisi Monroe?"

Before she could even say hello, a strange man’s voice asked point-blank.

In the past, Jin Xueli would have probably been annoyed. ’I’m not Chaisi’s GPS, how should I know where he is?’ But now, hearing someone was looking for her boss, her attitude immediately straightened up. "May I ask who’s calling?"

"John Scott," the man said coldly.

’The founder of Nulife Life Science Company? So he’s actually a real person?’

’The founder, the company... they weren’t just things made up on paper?’

"You—this—"

Jin Xueli hadn’t expected him to suddenly contact her. All the questions she’d had were suddenly gone from her mind. "You know... you know about the Kai Family, right? Why don’t you ask them? Your relationship with the Kai Family..."

"Of course I know the Kai Family."

The man was in a foul mood, spitting out one sentence after another. It seemed he’d been holding it in for a long time and was now venting his complaints to her. "The Kai Family won’t say a thing. I’ve told them repeatedly that my matter is urgent and important, that I must see Chaisi immediately, but I still can’t get a straight answer. They just say Chaisi had to rush off to handle other things before he could explain everything. Busy with what? Too busy to even answer his phone? It’s so irresponsible of him to treat Nulife like this! What’s more, I just squeezed you into the company on his orders—"

He took a breath, cutting himself off.

"Anyway, one of the reasons I agreed to give you shares was because Chaisi promised me you could be of help. Why else would I give you such a massive asset? Since you’ve taken the shares, you can’t just sit on the sidelines when there are matters to be dealt with. The Kai Family told me. You’re also... you’re also one of those, a ’Hunter,’ right?"

...Alright, the other shoe had finally dropped.

’Chaisi’s money really isn’t easy to take, is it?’

"Besides Chaisi, does no one else in the Kai Family know about this?"

She was still in the dark herself.

Logically, with Chaisi missing, another member of the Kai Family should have stepped in to handle things—no matter what Scott’s problem was.

"Of course there was," Scott said with a cold laugh. "But he’s dead. Can you believe it? Just my luck. The Kai Family Hunter assigned to me, the one responsible for my case, died not long ago. Seems he was attacked in a cemetery or something. Otherwise, I wouldn’t have had to resort to calling you."

"Then... what do you want me to do?" Jin Xueli was completely lost. "I don’t even know anything..."

"Where are you?" Scott interrupted her. "What time can you be at my office?"

John Scott was a man who cared a great deal about his appearance.

He was over fifty, but his hair was still thick and neat. Though his features were unremarkable, his skin, body, and shirt were as clean as a blank sheet of paper, carrying a faint, elegant men’s cologne.

Other than smelling nice, Jin Xueli couldn’t find a second good thing to say about him at the moment.

Scott’s small eyes, perched high on his nose, looked down to size her up.

"You’re a Hunter?" He stressed the word "You" heavily, as if in disbelief.

"...Yes."

"You’re very young... in your twenties?"

"Someone who’s seventy or eighty can’t be a Hunter either," Jin Xueli replied.

The Hunter World had a peculiar sense of fairness: it didn’t care about your background or your gender. As long as you had the skill to bring back an Illusion from a Nest, you were a qualified Hunter.

She had almost forgotten that outside of Hunter circles, many of the labels attached to her—almost every single one—represented a flaw or a deviation from the norm.

"I’m not interested in prying into your private affairs. But if there really is something going on, we need to be open and honest about it now so we can cooperate later. So, you and Chaisi... hmm, is Chaisi your..."

Jin Xueli could smell what he was getting at from a mile away.

"Boss," she said, her face stern. "He’s not my boyfriend, I’m not his mistress, there’s nothing like that between us. It’s just a partnership. I earned my shares by risking my own life, not by sleeping with him."

She wasn’t about to pay the bill for a meal she never got to eat.

Scott frowned at her choice of words, then gave a few magnanimous-looking nods, as if that could dispel the awkwardness.

"Of course, of course. Well then, you should be familiar with our... method of operation, right?"

That question stumped Jin Xueli.

She had no doubt that according to Chaisi’s original plan, he was supposed to tell her the inside story after she received the shares—but maybe something had gone wrong with Han Liuyue?

Chaisi had vanished without a trace ever since he went to see the mayor. He hadn’t had time to say a single word of what he was supposed to tell her.

All she knew was that Chaisi and Han Liuyue’s last known location was back at the Kai Family’s estate. After that, the two of them vanished from the Human World.

"You don’t know anything?" Scott’s brow furrowed deeply. "Then what help can you be?"

Jin Xueli shrugged.

"To be a qualified Hunter, you need the ability to grab onto the slightest clue and follow it to the very end until you find your prey. If you want to know what help I can be, you first have to let me know what problem you’re facing."

It was clear that the problem Scott was facing was something he would never speak of unless he had absolutely no other choice.

Even in his own office, he neurotically drew the curtains, repeatedly opened the door to check that no one was in the waiting room outside, and even picked up the phone to listen for a dial tone before making Jin Xueli turn off her phone.

After pacing back and forth several times, he finally sighed and slumped into his chair.

"I don’t know if this is just a case of a desperate person trying anything."

Scott gave a self-deprecating, bitter smile and stared at Jin Xueli. "Before I begin, you need to remember that you also have shares in this company. The lawyer told you, didn’t he? The company is valued at around three hundred million. But you should know that a valuation is just something on paper... If no VCs come in to buy us out, even a valuation of three trillion is worth shit."

He agitatedly pulled open a drawer. Just as Jin Xueli thought he was about to grab a cigarette to calm his nerves, he took out a paper box, hastily tore it open, removed a small Ampoule, snapped off the neck, and downed the contents in one go.

The box was torn open at an angle, the rip pointing directly at a line of printed text: Nulife Biotech.

It was Scott’s own product.

"The problem I’m facing is also your problem. If you want the shares in your hands to be worth something, to be cashable, then we flourish together and we fall together."

She knew that, of course.

"What’s that?" Jin Xueli tilted her chin toward the box.

"This is our biggest problem right now."

Scott took a deep breath and said with a grim face, "The star product that contains my exclusive patented, cutting-edge ingredients, the one that made this company stand out in such a short time... is what you see here, the ’Brain Hacker.’"

He tapped the box.

"What I’m about to say, you absolutely cannot repeat to anyone.

"The core ingredient that makes ’Brain Hacker’ effective was supplied to me by Chaisi of the Kai Family. But due to an unforeseen situation... the raw material is now in unexpectedly short supply. No, let me be blunt: it’s gone. There’s nothing left. The factory has shut down, and we’re barely holding on with our existing inventory. At this critical moment, right before the VC valuation, I can’t maintain production."

Jin Xueli’s mouth slowly fell open. She was stunned. ’Wait a minute—’

’Raw materials supplied by Chaisi? What kind of materials could he possibly provide?’

’Could it be—’

"The whole world thinks the product contains an ingredient that I developed exclusively. So, the fact that ’the supply of the most critical raw material is completely out of my control’ is a secret that must be kept at all costs. Once they find out... you can probably imagine the consequences. If I hadn’t been unable to find Chaisi, and if production hadn’t already ground to a halt, I would never have let these words come out of my own mouth."

Scott stared intently at Jin Xueli and said, "I need the raw material. You must have a close relationship with both the Kai Family and Chaisi... I don’t know much about you Hunters, but you should be able to take over and supply me with the next batch of material, right?"

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