Illusion Report

Chapter 357: Chapter 309: A Dual but Unbalanced Perspective: Felled by a Shock

The period of history established by the Nest was from November 15th to the 25th. Fu Tailan had to do everything in his power to ensure that the events within this timeframe remained completely unchanged.

Within those ten days, he had only obtained the "key"—which was why he had to get his hands on it tonight and place it on the coffee table in his apartment.

Within those ten days, Chaisi had obtained the "rumor"—and though the thought made him want to dry heave, Fu Tailan had no choice but to pull the "rumor" from Westley’s dead mouth for him.

As for how that cockroach-head got his hands on it after that... Was Fu Tailan supposed to look after him like his own son?

He’d rather let the Nest kill him than deliver it personally.

As long as the Illusion was released, it would be up to Chaisi’s own abilities after that.

Other than those two items, for the rest of the Illusions... there was no reason Fu Tailan couldn’t take a gamble, right?

As long as the Fu Tailan from November 15th to the 25th hadn’t obtained them, it wouldn’t count as changing fate.

He scanned the area with his peripheral vision.

The Black Cube, the W icon, and the letter K from the key were scattered across the floor, near and far. Connected, the three points formed a wide ’V’ shape, like a pair of striding legs.

The difficult part was that the letter K was too close to Brianna, right at the end of the shape’s left leg.

At the point of the ’V’ was the W icon, and the Illusion closest to him was the Black Cube.

"You can’t use it anymore, can you?" Brianna said suddenly.

Fu Tailan pretended not to understand, his gaze fixed past her shoulder on the doorway of the room where Westley’s body lay.

’She’d been too fast on his heels just now. He had barely leaped out before Brianna was right behind him...’

’On top of that, the smoke hadn’t fully cleared. The room was still full of swirling, hazy white clouds, and visibility was much lower than in the main hall.’

’From the looks of it, she probably hadn’t been able to...’

"Although I can’t be killed by a thought in my head, your Illusion is still powerful enough to knock me unconscious for a while... You’ve seen it with your own eyes."

Brianna raised her hand, twirling the stun baton lightly twice before taking a step forward.

"The more powerful the Illusion, the greater its limitations. All you have to do is take me down and everything here is yours, yet you keep hesitating to use it... It’s because you can’t use it right now, isn’t it?"

Fu Tailan was actually getting a little annoyed.

"Since you already know, why did you have to say it out loud?"

A maximum of one use per 24 hours wasn’t even the biggest drawback of the "Thought Becomes Reality" Illusion—on top of the 24-hour cooldown, every person killed during its last use added another thirty minutes to the timer.

If the buyer in that war-torn region had wiped out an entire army in one go, he would have no choice but to watch the Illusion’s cooldown timer count down day after day until it expired.

Based on the state of the Security Center when Fu Tailan left, he wouldn’t be able to use it again for at least thirty-odd hours.

Brianna chuckled softly.

"I don’t like violence. I probably can’t beat you in a fight," Fu Tailan said with a sigh. "So I have a proposal that might satisfy both of us—"

The exact moment Brianna’s attention shifted was as clear as if someone had flipped a switch.

The reason he had gained such a reputation in Hunter circles and escaped from the Nests unscathed time and again wasn’t just because of the Path.

One moment, Fu Tailan was still calm and relaxed, his body perfectly still; the next, he shot forward like a suddenly released spring that had been held down under immense pressure, lunging for the Black Cube. Brianna flinched, and by the time her mind caught up, he had already gained a split-second advantage.

’Even though he was half a step ahead, Fu Tailan knew he wouldn’t get the Black Cube.’

Brianna swung her arm, and the short stun baton sliced through the air, stirring up eddies in the airflow as it hurtled toward Fu Tailan. If he had clung to even a shred of hope, he would have been hit squarely by the baton.

But Fu Tailan stopped short, dropping toward the ground as if his legs had been kicked out from under him. He caught himself with his hands and thrust out his right foot in a long, sweeping kick.

His foot sent the Black Cube flying. It clattered against the W icon and rolled into a far corner of the main hall.

’Brianna was a quick thinker with a clear, unwavering goal. To snatch the Illusions tonight, the first thing Fu Tailan had to do was shatter her composure.’

’And he would use any means necessary to do it.’

The short stun baton whistled over his head and clattered to the floor behind him. Fu Tailan looked up and gave her a slight smile.

"You’re afraid of that thing, aren’t you?"

He said it as if he were holding a lighter.

"Why is that?"

With that question, Fu Tailan pressed the trigger, and a spark of fear flashed in Brianna’s eyes.

Even if it was just a little, it was enough.

Before the words were even out of his mouth, he twisted toward the spot where the Black Cube had landed. In truth, he had no intention of actually lunging for it; as an experienced Hunter, he could tell with a single glance that the Black Cube’s method of operation was likely complex. Even if he got his hands on it, he wouldn’t have the chance to figure it out and activate it.

But that simple feint was enough to set Brianna in motion.

She couldn’t suppress her fear of the Black Cube, so she absolutely could not allow even the slightest possibility of Fu Tailan getting it.

Fu Tailan leaped back, laughing silently to himself as he watched Brianna dive past him.

’...Residents or humans, they’re all slaves to their emotions and scars.’

He whipped his head around and dashed in the opposite direction before Brianna could react. She could turn on him at any moment; there was no time to stop, bend down, and grab the letter K. Instead, Fu Tailan simply kicked it, sending it flying deep into the room where Westley’s body lay.

Glancing back quickly, he saw that Brianna had already twisted her head around. Her torso was half-lowered, one hand gripping the Black Cube, but her head was tilted back so far it looked like it was about to snap off her neck, staring up at Fu Tailan from below.

’...It was as if, for a moment, she’d forgotten she was still in a human body—that she wasn’t a Resident just yet.’

’Whoops. It looks like Big Sis is mad now.’

Fu Tailan picked up his pace and plunged into the smoke-filled room. As he struggled to pull the door shut, Brianna was like a high-speed, humanoid nightmare, growing closer and larger with every moment.

When only a few steps separated them, he finally managed to slide the door closed and quickly hit the lock. THUD. A muffled impact, as someone slammed their body hard against the other side. Luckily, Westley had been paranoid about dying; the door was so thick and sturdy it didn’t even rattle.

Knowing he shouldn’t, Fu Tailan still let out a "Ha!" at the door.

"...Such a child. Didn’t you know?" Brianna’s voice came, muffled, from behind the door. "A safe room isn’t like a normal apartment. In the main hall, there’s a..."

But the rest of her sentence trailed off.

’A what?’

Fu Tailan was about to walk closer when he came to his senses with a jolt.

’Brianna had the Black Cube now—who knew what its function was, or if it could affect him through the wall? Was she deliberately luring him toward the door?’

He was out of time.

’Brianna would definitely use this opportunity to collect the W icon from the main hall. Then, she wouldn’t just leave him in the room—she’d find a way to get in.’

Fu Tailan hastily took two steps back, spun around, and scanned his surroundings.

He quickly spotted the letter K he had kicked in. He snatched it from the floor and stuffed it into his inner coat pocket along with the letters E and Y.

’This way, at least he had ensured his past self would get the ’key’. Although, letting his past self get the key also meant that Fu Han...’

’...Fu Han would start down that path.’

As this thought surfaced, his eyes fell upon Westley.

Fu Tailan stood where he was, lost in a daze for a moment.

In the hazy smoke, Westley’s eyelids had been smoothed shut. If you ignored the white foam at the corner of his mouth, his expression was almost peaceful.

He just lay there, his cells ceasing to function one by one, his blood slowly cooling. No soul, no consciousness. Unable to make anyone in the world angry or sad, guilty or uneasy.

Fu Tailan walked over and studied him for a few seconds.

’Get a move on,’ part of his brain urged. ’He’s not your dad. Move, go find that Illusion that can vacuum-pack objects—Brianna rushed out too quickly, she definitely didn’t have time to grab it—’

’But another part of his brain seemed to be lost in a dream, staring dazedly at the body of a father.’

Fu Tailan quickly found out what the second half of Brianna’s unfinished sentence was.

A safe room was different from a normal apartment; in its main hall, there was a control panel.

"The lights, the power, the ventilation system, and the doors..." Brianna said in a low voice from behind him. "They’re all controlled by a single system."

Fu Tailan managed to twist and step away just in time to create a little distance, but the stun baton still jabbed into his back. An explosive current surged, its tendrils piercing his muscles and searing his nerve endings white-hot.

His legs gave out, and he stumbled a few steps before collapsing to the ground.

*

Brianna stood quietly in the room, watching Fu Tailan’s limp body slumped against the wall. For a moment, she didn’t move.

She didn’t need to look down to know what Fu Tailan had been staring at so intently just now.

’I never thought... that even after he died, he could still help me out.’

’It was as if he was lying here, knowing he was useless, but still thinking about how to stall Fu Tailan for his daughter, how to help his daughter finish him off...’

Brianna touched the smile stretched across her face, thinking, if only that were true how nice it would be if that were true he wouldn’t have died it wasn’t me who killed him he killed himself

"B-Bree..."

Brianna froze.

The voice was faint and hoarse, thin as a thread, but it was unmistakable.

Slowly, inch by inch, she turned her head, forcing her gaze down onto her father’s ashen face.

His throat moved slightly. A bubble in the white foam at the corner of his mouth popped.

"Am I... Am I going to die... Bree?"

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