Free Web NovelChapter 181: Chapter 149: Fu Tailan: The Hunter’s Position After One Minute
Fu Tailan glanced back.
The dim yellow light stretched down the long hallway, growing thick and dark at the far end, vaguely shrouding the doors of the last two apartments.
As if in response to his gaze, Hai Luwei pushed open the door to Room 309 at that exact moment.
He strode into the middle of the hallway. When he looked up, he was met with the sight of Fu Tailan’s face. He seemed to startle, shouting from a distance, "Holy crap, you’re actually here?"
’So this guy didn’t even notice me himself; it was the old lady who spotted me.’
Fu Tailan offered him a smile that didn’t reach his eyes—how could he possibly be genuinely happy?
He was now stuck in the hallway. No matter which way he went, he risked one of the other two getting within a one-meter radius of him, which would trigger an explosion.
Seeing how confident they both looked meant... they had confirmed he had an unexploded bomb on him. And anyone with an unexploded bomb, regardless of who got it first, was always the one who got blown up.
Fu Tailan sighed. He leaned the broom and dustpan against the wall before speaking. "I knew I couldn’t keep my little behind-the-scenes machinations a secret forever, but you found out much sooner than I expected."
Mai Mingle watched him, her wary expression tinged with a hint of confusion.
’Is what I said that hard to understand?’
Fu Tailan was a bit baffled himself. He had no choice but to make the compliment more obvious. "You’re quick on the uptake. A worthy opponent."
Mai Mingle’s mouth fell half-open, and her eyes darted away as if trying to hide something.
’Why isn’t she answering?’
"What? Is my praise not good enough for you?" Fu Tailan was stunned. "First time I’ve met someone who loves being complimented more than I do—oh! You can’t hear me!"
This time, he let out a genuine laugh.
"Ah, I overlooked what was right in front of me. Of course. After getting blasted over and over for half the day, what potato chip can hear a damn thing..."
Even though Mai Mingle couldn’t hear clearly, it didn’t stop her from recognizing the insult. Her brow shot up, and she glared at Fu Tailan, pointing at the broom and dustpan. "What’s that about? What did you do? You—write it down!"
Fu Tailan thought for a few seconds.
’That’s a pretty good request. If she hadn’t suggested it and had just pincer-attacked me with Hai Luwei, I would’ve been in a tough spot. Everything’s been going so smoothly since I got to the third floor.’
"Writing would be too slow."
He took out his phone and mimed a typing motion. Mai Mingle hesitated for a moment, as if remembering what a phone could do, then nodded.
She then watched as Fu Tailan’s fingers flew across the screen. A long block of text appeared in no time, and her eyes and mouth widened in astonishment—as if Fu Tailan weren’t just typing, but performing a trapeze act.
"You wrote all this? In just a moment?"
After Fu Tailan slid the phone across the floor to her, Mai Mingle picked it up, clicking her tongue in amazement. "So fast and smooth. WHOOSH WHOOSH, and the words just appear. Look how much you wrote."
’Huh?’
Fu Tailan shot her a look. ’It never occurred to me that someone would praise my phone’s performance and attribute it to me. If I’d known, I would’ve also written about how I took a picture of the residents’ mailboxes.’
The things he’d done since reaching the third floor did indeed make for a long story when written down.
Tracing it all back, the initial thought that sparked all of Fu Tailan’s subsequent actions was his realization that there was an "imbalance" in the rules.
When you thought about it, the risk-reward ratio for carrying an unexploded bomb was completely out of whack.
Logically, the third floor of the apartment building should encourage people to pick up the unexploded bombs. Only by preventing them from detonating, by letting them disappear quietly, could people hope to survive longer on the third floor. freēwebnovel.com
But a person who picked up an unexploded bomb was only immune to explosions for ten minutes. During Mai Mingle and Hai Luwei’s loud shouting earlier, Fu Tailan had heard everything clearly. He knew that before he came upstairs, the two of them had been encountering a random explosion roughly once every ten minutes on average.
Using an unexploded bomb to negate one random explosion that you could have dodged with skill anyway—wasn’t that benefit small enough?
But when you factored in the risk, that benefit practically vanished. Regardless of who got a bomb first, if anyone came near a person holding an unexploded bomb, the holder would instantly suffer a double explosion: one from the bomb they were carrying and another from the floor beneath their feet.
In other words, death.
’To face such a huge risk—"death if anyone gets close within ten minutes"—the unexploded bomb must offer a much greater benefit. But what is it?’ freewebnøvel.com
To find out, Fu Tailan had to get his hands on an unexploded bomb first.
Hai Luwei was in the odd-numbered apartments on the left, Mai Mingle in the even-numbered ones on the right. ’Obviously, I had to follow Hai Luwei!’
Fu Tailan glanced at Mai Mingle’s feet. She had taken off her shoes, and one foot was wrapped in bandages.
At the time, he didn’t know Mai Mingle’s foot was also injured, so he had immediately decided to tail Hai Luwei, who had a fractured ankle. As it turned out, that was both a correct and a lucky decision.
Not long after Fu Tailan started discreetly following Hai Luwei, a fourth explosion occurred near him.
And it was during this explosion that Fu Tailan saw an unexploded bomb.
Mai Mingle seemed to have reached this part in the text. She looked up with a SWISH and glared at him.
"No use glaring at me. The apartment building basically gift-wrapped that one for me."
Fu Tailan muttered under his breath, "Besides, considering our positions, was I supposed to remind him, ’Hey, you dropped your unexploded bomb’?"
The explosion caused chaos ahead. Although the object that exploded was small, it still blew away half a wall.
Flying debris, spreading flames, coiling waves of hot air... Amidst this chaos, Fu Tailan heard a ROLLING sound. He looked down and saw a round, black unexploded bomb rolling across the floor right to him—effortlessly obtained.
But just before bending down to pick it up, Fu Tailan stopped.
The reason... was because it had "rolled" to him.
The rules only stated, "An unexploded bomb that has not been picked up will detonate after ten minutes." ’A bomb that rolls across the ground doesn’t count as being ’picked up,’ right?’
So, what if he used an object—at that moment, Fu Tailan glanced around and quickly found a clipped-together broom and dustpan—to push it, to roll it along with the broom? Would that count as being "picked up by a person"?
"This is how the Nest’s rules work. You have to constantly test, probe, analyze, and deduce to truly grasp their boundaries and full scope."
Even knowing Mai Mingle couldn’t hear him, Fu Tailan couldn’t help but add, "Just like in reality, the phenomena and events in the Nest have rich, complex textures and subtle gradations. If you try to understand them simplistically, you’ll simply end up dead."
He used the broom to sweep the first unexploded bomb, rolling it all the way into Room 301—while Hai Luwei was still coughing amidst the fire and smoke.
If it exploded, that would prove that touching an unexploded bomb with a tool didn’t count as a person interacting with it. If it simply disappeared, it wasn’t ideal, but it wouldn’t be a waste either, because Fu Tailan would have gained information.
Fortunately, it exploded ten minutes later.
"Don’t tell me... that ’unattended explosion’ in Room 301, that was the unexploded bomb?"
Mai Mingle mumbled to herself as she looked at the phone—she probably had no idea how loud her "mumbling" was.
Fu Tailan nodded.
Aside from the progress toward opening the staircase reaching 1/12, he was surprised to find a second unexploded bomb appear on site after the first one detonated. Indeed, the rules did say that any explosion, regardless of cause, had a chance to generate an unexploded bomb.
At that time, Hai Luwei was an apartment’s length away from Room 301. By the time he limped over to the site of the explosion, Fu Tailan had already taken the new unexploded bomb and slipped back into the hallway.
"The second unexploded bomb, I’ve been carrying it with me. Here, this is it."
Fu Tailan unzipped the side pocket of his backpack to show Mai Mingle the black sphere inside.
Hai Luwei at the other end of the hallway was a bit pitiful. He probably couldn’t hear anything either and could only crane his neck and wait. Feeling merciful, Fu Tailan flashed the unexploded bomb for him to see as well, then put it away with satisfaction, basking in Hai Luwei’s shocked and envious gaze.
"I wanted to test what the real benefit of carrying an unexploded bomb was. I just didn’t expect you to be the one to catch me red-handed."
Although Mai Mingle couldn’t hear him speak, she had been reading his message continuously and now picked up the thread: "The benefit you discovered is... let me read on."
Fu Tailan rubbed his nose.
’Normally, this is the part where someone would compliment me on how sharp my mind is. Unfortunately, my only audience members are also my victims, and they’re both glaring at me.’
’Still, these two victims made it far too easy for their assailant to act.’
Mai Mingle could only put weight on the heel of one foot, so her steps made a THUMP THUMP sound. She might not have noticed, but to Fu Tailan, it was as clear as a public broadcast. Hai Luwei was even louder—he had to hop on one foot.
After Hai Luwei hopped his way back to Room 303, Fu Tailan quietly followed.
It was a difficult thing to manage—staying outside their one-meter radius while getting as close as possible. Luckily, both victims were very considerate, constantly broadcasting their locations.
It was from observing Hai Luwei that he realized the true benefit of carrying an unexploded bomb.
This benefit had two parts.
First, when a person holding an unexploded bomb approaches others, they not only lower the probability of an explosion near themselves but also significantly increase the probability of one near the other person.
Fu Tailan hadn’t encountered a single object explosion since arriving on the third floor. Yet, shortly after he started following Hai Luwei, the man was hit by another one. It was impossible not to consider this possibility.
And the second part of the benefit revealed itself after someone else encountered an explosion.
"While half the room was filled with fire and smoke, I walked in with the broom and dustpan."
It was too good a story for Fu Tailan to resist telling.
"Hai Luwei was huddled in the room, looked like he couldn’t even open his eyes. Poor unlucky bastard. I stayed a meter away from him, swept the floor a bit, and swept out an unexploded bomb. The fire hadn’t even gone out yet when I left."
Of course the broom would be set on fire. But so what if it was?
He was unaffected, not even feeling the heat, and everything in the apartment, including the broom, would eventually be restored.
When he heard Mai Mingle loudly announce to the world that she was going to find Hai Luwei, Fu Tailan re-entered Room 301 and did something else.
"You moved the furniture!"
Mai Mingle shouted as she looked at the phone screen. "The furniture in Room 303—I knew it wasn’t arranged like that! You pushed all the large pieces in 303, like the sofa, to one side. That’s why I felt a handful of dust where the sofa used to be..."
’So she noticed the dust...’
’Even though I noticed the dust at the time, I couldn’t exactly stay behind to mop the floor. I had to leave it, and sure enough, it became one of the clues that led Mai Mingle to discover my presence.’
"Why move the furniture? Hai Luwei would have noticed if he went back..."
Mai Mingle was engrossed in reading, starting to talk to herself.
Fu Tailan glanced at the time and smiled faintly.
’Less than a minute left... before the unexploded bomb on me disappears.’
’When that happens, all I’ll have to do is take a few steps toward Mai Mingle, and the floor beneath her will explode. The positions of Hunter and prey will be reversed once again.’
