Illusion Report

Chapter 167: Chapter 135: Chaisi: The One Who Arrived a Step Ahead

"Chaisi, you’re making me feel a bit embarrassed."

With Chaisi’s large hand on her, Han Liuyue spoke with near-perfect calm, "Even if I don’t have feelings for you, I’m still a woman, after all."

’Is this a personality change from her ordeal, or did one night with Jin Xueli make her such a smooth-talker?’

His hand stilled for a moment. Then, Chaisi said in a low voice, "Be quiet."

"Oh." freewebnσvel.cѳm

Even now, Han Liuyue was just as obedient as ever—even with her hands and feet bound and a tear ripped in the back of her clothes.

Early this morning, a phone call had jolted Chaisi from his sleep.

The subordinate sent to surveil Han Liuyue the previous night told him they had been forced to bind her, bring her back to the Family Faction, and lock her in a detention cell.

"I don’t know how she found us..."

Over the phone, the subordinate’s voice was still shaking. "By the time I realized what was happening, she was already standing right behind me, just watching me without moving. She wasn’t aggressive... but we couldn’t risk it, so we tied her up."

After locking Han Liuyue in the detention cell, the Household Hunters brought her food and water—perhaps to test her current state, or perhaps out of a sense of camaraderie.

"She... it was as if she didn’t recognize them."

It was what the man said next that made Chaisi throw on a jacket and rush over. And it was for this same reason that a sudden theory began to take shape in his mind.

"Conceptually, she’s fine. She knows people need to eat and drink. But in practice... she behaved as if it were the first time in her life she’d ever seen food and water. I told her to drink something, and she said okay, that she was very thirsty and hadn’t had a drink since leaving the Nest. That was already strange... Then I watched as she hesitated for a few seconds before plunging her fingers into a piece of bread."

Her condition was even worse than yesterday.

’In that case, could it be that Han Liuyue hasn’t *undergone* a transformation, but is *undergoing* one?’

’If it’s a process, then perhaps it can be stopped, or even reversed. But how much time is left?’

Chaisi gave a light tug with both hands. The autumn sweatshirt tore like paper, RIIIP, splitting in two and exposing Han Liuyue’s back.

Sure enough, the thick, suffocating, deathly white of a Noh mask was spreading down from her neck, inch by inch. It had already passed the middle of her back.

Chaisi thought for a moment, then wrapped his fingers in a piece of the torn sweatshirt. He pressed against the deathly white skin. "Feel anything?" he asked.

"I do," Han Liuyue replied, completely unconcerned by her predicament. "I feel you poking me."

Han Liuyue was a dead end. Beyond the abnormalities visible to the naked eye, all of Chaisi’s attempts to probe deeper just hit a brick wall.

’I have to go to that underground gallery and find a clue as to why she’s turning into this...’

But Han Liuyue didn’t have much time.

Judging by the rate it was spreading, her entire body would be the color of a Noh mask by the day after tomorrow, at the latest. That was the most optimistic estimate. What would happen then, no one knew.

"Let me go."

There was no shortage of volunteers, like Tian Xi, who had just approached him. "Even Han Liuyue fell victim to it without realizing. You can’t possibly trust anyone else to go, can you?"

Chaisi glanced at the time on his phone.

November 21, 2026

8:10 AM

Like Han Liuyue, Tian Xi was one of the most capable Hunters in their Family Faction.

But he had sustained a minor injury during the battle at the cemetery. To the denizens of the Nest and other such creatures, he was now far more alluring than an ordinary Hunter...

The scar on the back of his hand seemed to tighten and throb with a faint, phantom pain.

He considered his abilities to be second to none. He had all this power, yet at critical moments, he was always unable to use it.

"I’m supposed to sit at home while you, an injured man, go into the Nest?"

Chaisi fought back the urge to say the words.

In the end, he just said curtly, "Let me think about it."

After Tian Xi left, Chaisi was silent for a few minutes before once again opening the footage from Han Liuyue’s handheld camera.

’The key to getting into the Nest must be hidden somewhere in Westley’s history. If it was recorded, I will find it.’

Over half a year ago, Westley had received his first and only "Illusion Report."

On the surface, the Illusion Report was brief. But if one dug deeper, it was clear that it contained a wealth of hidden information. For example, the description of the third objective mentioned "transferring a Path," not "obtaining a Path."

This single difference in phrasing may have determined Westley’s entire course of action.

A method for someone without a Path to "develop" one themselves had a very niche appeal. People who didn’t know Nests existed wouldn’t want a Path. And of those who did know, more than half would rather never set foot in a Nest in their entire lives. They were far more interested in closing Paths than opening them.

After all, you could probably count the number of people in Chaisi’s situation in all of Blackmoor City on one hand.

But "transferring" a Path was a different matter entirely.

The essence of a transfer was theft.

Who received the stolen Path, or what was done with it, was unimportant. The crucial part was who you could steal it *from*.

In the endless cycle of conflict, rivalry, and power grabs among the Hunter Family Factions, could there be a more devastating way to crush a competitor than to ensure they could never enter a Nest again?

If such a thing existed, and if even a whisper of it got out, no one would care about Westley’s wealth and power. He would immediately become a target for everyone.

Westley had probably come to the same conclusion.

Westley would never have entrusted this task to a major Family Faction. He wouldn’t even have issued the mission under his own name. After all, the moment the name "Westley" was attached to it, it would become the center of attention.

If Westley had supporting intelligence, he would have preferred to give this job to a marginal, smaller Family Faction, or even a solo Hunter. He would have hidden it in plain sight, mixing it in with other trivial, miscellaneous jobs.

Furthermore, he would likely have used the pretense of "wanting to open a Path" to bury the true objective deep beneath the surface.

The number of Hunters was small compared to the general population. The Hunter World, however, was still vast enough to contain countless shadowy corners. Even Chaisi wouldn’t dare claim to know its every nook and cranny.

’...Times like these called for this world’s Cleaner Fish.’

"Mr. Monroe,"

Martin Hartley answered Chaisi’s call on the first ring. "I certainly didn’t expect to hear from you again so soon... What is it? Did we miss something?"

"No," Chaisi replied. "Whether it was the police station or the cemetery, your cleanup was impeccable."

"Much appreciated. Then is there something else I can help you with?"

"I need some information."

Martin Hartley was quiet for a few seconds.

"...Mr. Monroe," he finally said, "the reason I’ve been able to stay in this business is that I know where the lines are. I know what can and can’t be said. The jobs we do... that information isn’t our secret, it’s our clients’ secret."

"I know."

"If someone came asking me about the Kai Family, you wouldn’t want me leaking what happened at the cemetery, would you? I’ve survived this long because I’m tight-lipped, and my silence can’t be bought."

Chaisi huffed out a silent laugh.

"Don’t worry. The information I want won’t affect your business or your life. I don’t even need to pay to pry your mouth open... Let’s just call it a favor for a loyal client."

Martin grunted quizzically. "Huh? What is it you want to know?"

"I’m not asking about the major Family Factions. On the contrary, I want to know about the small-timers, the nobodies. I’m interested in the lowest-paying jobs you’ve taken, the ones that best qualify as ’grunt work’."

"...Huh?"

Martin was taken aback for a second, then he laughed. "Mr. Monroe, you’re a crafty one. As long as it doesn’t involve the secrets of our major clients, you want to know about our grunt work? No problem at all."

The time frame Chaisi was asking about was extensive. If he hadn’t been one of Martin’s biggest clients, the man would never have shown such patience, pulling up records and spending a couple of hours first thing in the morning to briefly describe every odd job they’d taken over the past several months.

"...We’re not the only organization that cleans up after Hunters,"

Martin said, his mouth parched by the time he finished. He took a long drink of water. "You might have to ask some of the other outfits—"

"No need. I’ve already found my target," Chaisi said in a low voice. "It was right there in your job log."

As always, his instincts had led him straight to his quarry’s hiding place.

"Oh? Which one was it? Am I allowed to ask?" Martin asked, startled.

"Of course not," Chaisi said with a small smile.

In the early morning hours of November 18, Martin’s men had received an urgent request. They were needed to pose as police officers and de-escalate a situation on-site.

The request itself wasn’t strange. What was strange was the situation they were called in to handle.

A no-name Hunter had visited an old woman in the middle of the night—a woman who hadn’t been able to leave her apartment for years. He had somehow caused her to discover a Path, which resulted in her disappearance. To keep the caregiver she had summoned from blowing the incident out of proportion, the Hunter had been forced to call the Martin Family. freёwebnovel.com

...Bingo.

Both the Hunter’s Family Faction and their base of operations reeked of small-timers, far from any center of power or wealth.

Even though they were Hunters, they couldn’t stop Chaisi from charging into their office like a bulldozer. When the head of the Hunter Family Faction heard him announce the name "Chaisi Monroe," the color drained from his face, and he lost all will to resist.

"H-How did you know?"

He swallowed hard, as if using sheer willpower to keep his legs from giving out.

"We... we did receive a commission. We found an Illusion that can extract a person’s Path and give it to someone else... We couldn’t get in touch with the client and were actually starting to get worried."

There were almost no words, no language in the world, that could describe how Chaisi felt when he heard the next sentence.

"B-But... Mr. Monroe, do you know Fu Tailan? On the night of the 19th—wait, no, it was after midnight, so it must have been the 20th... Anyway, it was very late, but he came to our door personally, offered a very high price, and bought the Illusion."