Illusion Report

Chapter 335: Chapter 291: Fu Tailan: The Nest’s Good Heart

A new note had appeared in the apartment, left for him by Carter Morgan.

It seems you intend to act on your own, the note read.

Since you don’t need our help, the Morgan Family will cease all resource and personnel support. Your authority as Hunter Chief is revoked as of today. The position will be temporarily filled by someone else.

Just don’t forget, the case against Fu Han is still progressing, day by day.

I’ll be waiting for your good news.

The last line on the note was, "If you want to apologize and cooperate again, my door is always open."

...To be honest, just the process of reading the note clearly was no easy feat.

To anyone else, the ink and paper might have looked clear and stable. But Fu Tailan had only read the first line before he recoiled as if shocked, bumping into the sofa. He barely managed to dodge the second line of text as it suddenly rose from the page.

Word linked to word, the letters twisted and stretched, standing up in the air to sniff around. They even turned their "heads" to look around a few times before flopping back onto the paper, seemingly disappointed.

"Nest Dissociation Disorder" wasn’t just a hallucination—at least, not when it developed to his level.

Among all the Hunters in Blackmoor City, probably no one else entered and exited Nests as frequently as he did, without even taking breaks in between. That’s why no one else’s "Nest Dissociation Disorder" had developed into such a tangible anomaly.

Fu Tailan remembered when his symptoms first appeared. He had reached out to touch the illusion, and at that time, his hand had passed right through.

Now... if he were to touch it now, ’it probably wouldn’t pass through, would it?’

He stared almost blankly at the crooked text on the note. After a good while, the meaning finally became clear. But it was as if he had missed the window for an emotional reaction. After reading it, he felt only an emptiness, not a single spark of anger.

Looking into his chest, he saw only a dark, deep cavern.

What good would getting angry do? Carter Morgan wasn’t going to lose sleep over it.

’So someone has replaced me as the interim chief...’

Fu Tailan leaned back on the sofa, gazing at the ceiling. ’It’s probably Longzhen, isn’t it?’ he thought.

He had sensed a hint of it back when he was parachuted in as Hunter Chief. Although Longzhen was very competent and never let anything show on her face.

If it weren’t for him, Longzhen would have likely been promoted to the Chief position. She didn’t enter Nests, but a chief wasn’t supposed to be on the front lines anyway. On the contrary, Fu Tailan’s habit of entering Nests alone whenever he pleased was him being willful, not him fulfilling his duty.

When had Longzhen decided not to enter Nests? She seemed to have mentioned it... ’Wasn’t it when she was in college?’ She had gone in once, been thoroughly disgusted, and felt so scared and repulsed that she never went back in again.

Fu Tailan let his thoughts drift aimlessly like clouds, scattering until the world became a vast, empty white.

After an unknown amount of time, as if plucking tiny shards of glass from thick cotton, he finally managed to drag his consciousness back to the surface and remembered what he needed to do.

The light blue envelope he’d brought out of the Nest was also sealed with glue. With a gentle tear, the envelope let out a series of sharp, gasping laughs—"Hate it, hate it, so itchy, so itchy, it hurts so—"

A sharp RIIIP cut off its final sound.

Fu Tailan thought the Nests really had no taste sometimes.

The letter inside, however, was on a perfectly ordinary piece of paper. The black ink churned and twisted, burning letter-like holes into the page. He couldn’t let his gaze linger on the charred depths of the holes; he could only squint, glance at the outline of the words, and quickly look away.

Nest Saint Louis Hospital Bill

Length of Stay: November 24, 2026, 0:46 AM ---- November 26, 2026, 10:00 AM

Pills Consumed: 6

Bed Used: 1

Care Received from Medical Staff: 12 times (Who’d care about you if it were free?)

Total Cost: Ten days of fate.

Fu Tailan closed his eyes. ’This price... is a bit too high.’

That near-death experience two years ago had only cost him five and a half days of his fate.

Payment Details:

The Nest will select a number of days from your future equivalent to the total cost and decide your fate for that period.

Once your fate is fixed, no matter how you struggle or resist, you cannot escape the established facts of what is to come.

(Don’t you humans often trouble yourselves with questions like "Is fate predetermined?"

Isn’t this great? No need to worry about your future anymore. The Nest has arranged it all for you, clear as day and unchangeable.)

For example, a certain Hunter A paid with six days of his fate for his hospital stay.

The Nest meticulously selected the six days starting from his fortieth birthday and ordained for him the fate of losing his wife and family, his home ruined. So when A turned forty, unless he killed himself first, he would absolutely follow the Nest’s arrangement step-by-step over the next six days, living out his predestined fate of ruin and separation.

Of course, this is an extreme example. We aren’t always so heartless.

We might also arrange for you to win a billion-dollar lottery jackpot! And then, on the way home after cashing in the prize, your whole family dies in a car crash—just kidding, just kidding! Fate can be good, or it can be bad, you know.

In any case, what if something good happens? To live, one must learn to deceive oneself and hold on to hope.

Below are the ten days of your future fate that this hospital has decided for you. Please review.

Fu Tailan stared at the text, not daring to look for too long. He blinked hard a few times, glanced at the kitchen, then at the floor-to-ceiling window, now covered with a plastic sheet that still let the wind whistle through, before turning his gaze back to the letter.

...He wasn’t mistaken. He hadn’t misread it.

’Did the Nest make a mistake?’

The ten days selected by the Nest Hospital were—how could they be from "November 15, 2026" to "November 25, 2026"?

The "Content of Your Predestined Fate" was incredibly complex and detailed, filling two full pages.

Fu Tailan took a closer look and found that the contents written on the paper were identical to what he had experienced over the past ten days: bringing the Illusion to George Green, having the first "Amber Alert" intercepted by him, testing him with the train ticket, receiving the "Nest Dominance Game" summons, finding the "KEY" in the apartment...

...all the way to his life-or-death struggle with Chaisi in the apartment, Fu Han’s disappearance, and Carter Morgan’s threats. Every single event was there, without the slightest error or distortion.

He was a little dumbfounded.

When did the Nests become so generous and kind? The "predestined fate" he had to pay as a price was actually history that had already happened?

’Doesn’t that mean he’s paying no price at all?’

Fu Tailan tossed the letter aside, closed his eyes, and curled his legs up on the sofa.

’...Something’s not right. The Nest would never let him off this easily.’

’There has to be a trap...’

Maybe "trap" wasn’t the right word, but since the Nest called it a "price," it had to be a "price" that would cause genuine pain and make one repeatedly question whether they should have done it.

The past ten days, being used as his hospital fee...

His phone, set to silent, started to BUZZ on the sofa. Fu Tailan opened his eyes and saw an unfamiliar number on the screen.

’...A spam call? This number shouldn’t have gotten out.’

The caller seemed persistent, their call repeatedly tapping at his phone screen.

"Hello?"

Fu Tailan surrendered. When he answered the phone, he heard his own voice, as if it too were about to dissolve and separate, floating hazily on the edge between the human world and illusion.

"Are you back?" a young man’s voice asked.

It sounded somewhat familiar, but he couldn’t place it right away.

The man’s vocal cords and tongue seemed stiff. Each word was flat, carrying a strange sense of strain.

Fu Tailan had never heard a dead person speak, but he felt that if one could, it would sound just like this, as if rigor mortis were setting into the words.

"...Who is this?" he asked.

Without another word, the other person cut the call.

’So it was a wrong number after all?’

Fu Tailan’s body felt light and whole, but his mind was at the opposite extreme. He couldn’t muster the energy to call back and investigate. He collapsed onto the sofa, listening to the RUSTLE of the plastic sheet over the broken window as the thoughts in his head shattered like countless kaleidoscopes.

History that had already happened, used as a price...

A return ticket... throwing up a meal you’ve eaten, only to eat it again...

Longzhen... decided not to be a Hunter back in college...

Fu Han, surrounded by a group of people, snot and tears streaming down his face, yet his hands still moving, again and again...

Blue, or red...

Are you back? a man he couldn’t place asked on the phone.

He froze, suddenly realizing that last thought wasn’t just a thought.

He didn’t know when, but in his daze, he had picked up his phone again. The screen showed an active call from the same number.

The man was asking the same question: "Are you back?"

"You again?" Fu Tailan tried to recall the voice, like holding up a single candle in the darkness of his memory.

’It’s like—it’s like—’

"Wait, are you Geo—"

He didn’t even get to finish the name "George Green" before the other person abruptly hung up.

’So it really was him?’

Why would George Green call him? And why would he say something so cryptic?

What does ’Are you back?’ even mean? ’Could it be he knows I just went to a Nest?’

But if he was able to answer a call on a regular phone in the human world, that obviously meant he was back. ’Why would he need to call again and again to confirm?’

Fu Tailan wasn’t surprised at all when his return call was immediately disconnected. He didn’t try a second time.

’Strange...’

He sat up on the sofa, curling his legs under him, staring like an owl at the scattered papers on the table.

There was something... He could feel it. No, he almost *knew* with certainty that there was something, right under his nose, that he and everyone else had been completely overlooking...

Fu Tailan snatched up his phone.

The phone rang five or six times. Just as he was thinking the other person wasn’t going to pick up, the call was finally answered.

"...Tailan," Longzhen said, her voice somewhat hesitant. "What can I do for you?"

"The Morgan Family has an Illusion. I need you to give it to me," Fu Tailan said softly. "Or you can sell it to me. Name your price."

Longzhen let out a short laugh. "Sorry. No matter what it is, I can’t."

"Not even as a transaction? As long as there’s money, the Morgans will sell anything, won’t they? As the new Hunter Chief, you should have the authority to sell an Illusion to an anonymous Hunter who doesn’t reveal their identity, right?"

Longzhen didn’t seem surprised.

"To be honest, I don’t understand why Carter is being so ruthless about this. I was going to ask you what on earth you did to offend him so badly. But in any case, it’s his direct order, and I can’t defy it. This isn’t because of any personal grudge against you."

Fu Tailan was quiet for a few seconds.

’...It was just a guess, but he decided to try it.’

It was like pumping smoke into a hole to see if you could flush out the prey. Sometimes, a smoke bomb was necessary.

"Is that so? Alright, then let me change the subject. I’ve always been curious about something, Longzhen... Does Carter know that you’ve been feeding information to Chaisi of the Kai Family?"

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