Illusion Report

Chapter 166: Chapter 134: Chaisi: He Watched the Footage

Before heading home, Han Liuyue said her goodbyes to a few of the Hunters she was close with.

She said she was exhausted after being up for a day and a night and was going home to sleep like a log.

She said she was deeply saddened about the Hunters who were injured or killed in the cemetery and had decided to visit the wounded in the hospital tomorrow after she woke up. She even asked when the Kai Family would be arranging their funerals.

...All in all, she seemed to genuinely believe that she was Han Liuyue.

It was as if she had only changed her shell, but the essence underneath remained the same.

Her actions seemed to support this. Not only did she properly return the camera to the Kai Family, but she also handed over the paper bag Illusion and the single red hair found in the empty coffin to Chaisi.

’Is this out of Han Liuyue’s last shred of responsibility? Or is it for some other reason?’

"Han—Han Liuyue hasn’t left since she got home,"

The subordinate on the phone’s voice trembled almost imperceptibly when he said the name "Han Liuyue."

"She’s probably sleeping, just like she said. From the rooftop where I am, I saw her draw her bedroom curtains, and then the lights went out. There’s been no movement since. We also have no reports of her leaving through the main entrance."

Chaisi grunted in acknowledgment.

Ever since Han Liuyue—he would call her that for now—had left his room, Chaisi had assigned two Hunters to tail her.

Who she spoke to on her way out, which route she took home, whether she had any contact with anyone on the way... Chaisi had even demanded his men give him a detailed report describing the way she tucked her hair back.

He, too, wanted to know what kind of ears and skin would be revealed when Han Liuyue tucked away the long, straight black hair she’d never had before.

But after asking, he realized he’d never paid close attention to Han Liuyue’s ears or skin in the past either.

"You two stay there and keep an eye on her tonight. Don’t make a move. And don’t let her visit the hospital tomorrow," Chaisi said, suppressing a surge of inexplicable anger. "The sight of her in this state is enough to kill the ones who survived."

"Understood," the subordinate replied. "What if she makes any strange moves?"

"Then tie her up and bring her back to me." Chaisi hung up after saying this.

These were troubled times, and manpower was already tight. Now he had to spare two men to watch Han Liuyue.

Coupled with her usual popularity, this incident had cast another layer of panic over the Kai Family.

As the second-in-command, Chaisi had spent a full half-hour just calming people down. Huangli had been recruited by Han Liuyue, and Chaisi even had to get angry to stop her from rashly charging into the Nest.

’When Han Liuyue returns—’

He pinched the bridge of his nose.

’...If she can return.’

Chaisi took a deep breath and leaned back in his chair.

Uncle Kai’s injuries weren’t serious, and he had already been secretly discharged from the hospital. He would be receiving treatment from a private doctor at home, so there was no need to stand guard at the hospital for the time being. As for the red hair, it was scheduled to be sent to the lab tomorrow to see if any useful information could be extracted.

He glanced at his watch.

11:43... In another 17 minutes, it would be the 21st.

Chaisi thought for a moment, then opened his computer again.

Even though only thirty percent of Westley’s memories had been recorded, the amount of content worth digging into and leads worth chasing was incredible. He was confident that, among all the contestants, he was likely the first to learn of the existence of the "Illusion Report."

’...In the last Illusion Report Westley obtained, the third action item was to find a way to transfer a Path.’

’Completing this single action would grant the next Illusion Report, and that next report would have a 95% chance of containing the target Illusion for the "Dominion Game".’

’With such a high probability, Westley would have certainly focused on it and poured his efforts into finding it.’

’If someone in Blackmoor City already knows how to transfer a Path... perhaps there’s a Path just waiting to be taken.’

’Could he find it just by following the trail Westley left behind?’

’Could he have a Path too?’

Chaisi raised his large hand, which was covered in white scars, and swept his stray hair back.

Even though it was already neat, he couldn’t help but comb through it with his fingers two or three more times, as if hoping to calm himself down.

There was just one problem.

Searching for clues about the "Path" within the countless fragments of Westley’s life would be a time-consuming and laborious process.

’...He didn’t know if Han Liuyue had any time left.’

Chaisi closed his eyes and let out a long breath.

He cursed Han Liuyue under his breath. Unable to shake his irritation, he decisively lowered the room temperature by a few more degrees—and finally made up his mind.

He opened the video from the stationary camera and dragged the progress bar to the part just before Han Liuyue was about to "cut the feed."

Chaisi hit pause and carefully observed the screen. frёewebηovel.cѳm

This was the recording from the camera on the tripod. At this moment, Han Liuyue was standing on the left side of the frame, holding her own camera with one hand.

He couldn’t see Han Liuyue in the frame, only the blurry shadow she cast on the floor. But even from this indistinct shadow, he could tell that her head was squarish—the shadow of the supermarket paper bag on her neck.

Dominating the center of the frame was a gradually melting candle. The Candle Tears dripped into midair, revealing the small image of a seventeen or eighteen-year-old Jin Xueli.

And on the right side of the frame was Vulture, whose joints had been temporarily dislocated by Han Liuyue.

Vulture’s face seemed to retain a hint of Jin Xueli, but it was so twisted and distorted that one could barely make out human features.

With its joints dislocated, it couldn’t stand. It could only lie limply on the ground, looking for all the world like a scoop of melted ice cream that had fallen from a cone.

Dislocating its joints was merely a precaution, better than nothing—after all, it wouldn’t take long for Vulture to recover.

A rope was still tied around it. The rope snaked across the floor, through the shot, and disappeared into Han Liuyue’s hand on the left. Knowing her, Chaisi figured this rope was the real safeguard.

Never mind trying to harm someone; even if Vulture so much as sneezed, the movement would travel along the rope to Han Liuyue’s hand.

’Vulture was probably aware of this, too.’

Chaisi pressed play.

"...As for you, Brother Chaisi, how you’re going to watch Jin Xueli’s history while hiding it from the audience—I’ll leave that problem for you to solve."

Han Liuyue’s calm voice came from the side of the frame. "Goodbye, Brother Chaisi."

After she said this, she turned off her handheld camera.

The blurry shadow bent down; the handheld camera was placed on the floor with a soft thud.

Chaisi let out a low snort.

’Just like Han Liuyue, he, too, should now be part of Jin Xueli’s "novel world," one of its character perspectives, assuming nothing went wrong.’

’It was hard to believe, but he had to assume that "viewers" were watching him right now, watching everything he saw.’

’However, that didn’t affect what he was about to do in the slightest.’

’He already knew what to do.’

’This was perhaps a method only he could use.’

’If the viewers could only see this world through him, then as long as he didn’t allow it, Jin Xueli’s secret would not be exposed.’

’As long as he refused to cooperate and built a wall between himself and the viewers with his willpower, they could stare until their eyes fell out and still not glean a single piece of information.’

Chaisi muted the computer’s audio.

On the computer screen, the Candle Tears gradually dripped down, rippling into the surface of a lake in midair.

Jin Xueli’s greatest secret from nearly a decade ago began to play out frame by frame on the screen—

But all of Chaisi’s attention was focused on everything *but* Jin Xueli’s secret.

If Jin Xueli was like a newborn puppy, unable to suppress her curiosity, her attention always pulled away by the slightest disturbance, then Chaisi was the other extreme.

When he concentrated, it was as if the world was wiped clean and receded, leaving only himself and the target of his focus between heaven and earth.

For the next hour, Jin Xueli’s secret flickered and shifted within the Candle Tears like scenes from a movie, casting light and dark shadows on the floor—yet not a single frame entered Chaisi’s field of vision.

For that entire hour, he silently stared at Vulture and the shadow Han Liuyue cast on the ground.

Boredom, curiosity, and irritation were just distant, unfamiliar words.

To catch his prey, he had endless patience and self-control.

When an hour had passed, Chaisi still hadn’t moved. Jin Xueli’s secret might have ended, but he couldn’t relax his focus just yet. Besides, he still had to wait for Han Liuyue to reappear in the frame.

"Her secret is over," Han Liuyue’s voice sounded from off-screen. "Nothing happened after all, and I was on pins and needles for so long. Time to go home."

As she spoke, she walked into the frame, approached the candle, extinguished the flame in its groove, and then took the paper bag off her head—revealing a Noh-mask-like face.

As if not at all surprised, Vulture let out a low chuckle.

Chaisi hit pause and closed the video.

’He had gathered the information he needed.’

First, during that hour, Vulture had not moved from its spot.

Perhaps it was because it had also endured quite an ordeal, or perhaps it knew that the slightest movement would be detected. It had remained obediently on the ground, resting—except for one moment, when it suddenly turned its head slightly in Han Liuyue’s direction.

It stared unblinkingly at Han Liuyue’s back for a few minutes, then a twisted expression—it was impossible to tell if it was a smile or a snarl, but it was twisted all the same—appeared on its contorted face before it looked away again.

Chaisi checked the timestamp; that had happened at around five-thirty.

Second, at five-thirty, Han Liuyue’s shadow had not changed.

In fact, throughout the entire time Chaisi had been watching, her shadow hadn’t changed at all. Nothing else appeared nearby, and certainly no one else’s reflection.

’She was facing the wall...’

’Which means whatever got to Han Liuyue came from the direction of the wall. He didn’t know if it was small and blocked by her body, or if it had no physical form at all.’

’It seems the next step is to search for clues in the exhibition hall.’

’As expected, he still needed to find the Path.’

Chaisi thought for a moment, then opened the video file from the handheld camera.

’...He was confident that the "viewers" had failed to obtain any information about Jin Xueli’s secret from him just now.’

’And they never would.’