Illusion Report

Chapter 184: Chapter 152: Fu Tailan and Mai Mingle’s Judgment

I have to say, the Nest was really trying.

Even though Fu Tailan had exploited the rules to their absolute limit and reduced the number of explosive items, the third floor still racked its brains to create several crises for the trio. And each time, it came up with something new.

Of course, with him around, none of the crises were truly fatal, so he could only grudgingly give the apartment a diligence award.

For example, after the fourth explosion, an unexploded bomb appeared. It rolled out and was about to reach Hai Luwei’s feet when it came to an abrupt stop.

’It hasn’t even touched his shoe. What’s it stuck on?’

The thought had just surfaced in Fu Tailan’s mind when he suddenly realized that due to the blast wave, one of the small objects on the floor—a pen—was missing, blown away somewhere.

"Get back!"

Fu Tailan understood immediately. He gestured while yelling at Hai Luwei, "Get back right now! Out of the room!"

Hai Luwei froze for a second, then scrambled backward. As if sensing its prey was about to escape, the very pen that had stopped the unexploded bomb then exploded.

It detonated the unexploded bomb, and the center of the room erupted in a violent explosion and collapse.

The explosive power of an unexploded bomb was far greater than that of the small objects. If he hadn’t warned Hai Luwei to flee in time, it wouldn’t have been surprising if he’d lost a leg.

’When you think about it, these two were pretty lucky to run into me.’

At this thought, Fu Tailan, who was half-lying, half-leaning against his backpack, stretched his limbs out in a long, lazy stretch.

He stretched out every single one of his fingertips.

"Are we done?"

Even though he had been prepared, Hai Luwei’s face was still blackened with soot from the explosion. On that face, as black as the bottom of a pot, a pair of pink lips opened and closed. "The unexploded bombs, that’s twelve of them now, right? Can we go upstairs?"

Because the last series of explosions had been smaller and the two had been careful to protect themselves, their hearing had returned. It was a bit hesitant, though, so they still had to shout to be heard. freewёbnoνel.com

"Should be," Mai Mingle said, glancing at Fu Tailan. "...You didn’t fall asleep, did you? That was twelve, right?"

The two of them were the bait for triggering the explosions, and with their recent injuries, they looked nothing short of miserable. Standing there, they looked like an anti-war poster.

But Fu Tailan’s job was easy: he just had to stay put, and whenever an unexploded bomb appeared, he’d use a broom to push it out of the room, letting them all gather together far away. After sweeping twice like this, Fu Tailan realized he didn’t need to stand.

’Anyway, the explosions don’t affect the person with the unexploded bomb on them. I don’t have to dodge, so I can sweep while lying down.’

’Since I’m already lying down, might as well use my backpack as a cushion.’

’Leaning on it and crossing my legs can trigger the explosions, you know.’

’Eating snacks while telling Mai Mingle and the other guy where to dodge is even less of a problem, since I don’t need to use my mouth to warn them.’

"Haven’t I been doing my very best this whole time? How can you say I was sleep—"

Fu Tailan didn’t finish, stopping to let out a yawn that brought tears to his eyes.

"We’re getting blown up over and over here, and you can’t even keep your eyes open over there." Mai Mingle shook her head and said, "The stairs should be open now, right?"

"Definitely. The unexploded bombs have gone off thirteen times."

"Thirteen already?" Mai Mingle was surprised, but then she let out a sigh of relief. "Then there’s no problem."

She was about to walk toward Hai Luwei when Fu Tailan stopped her. "Don’t go over there."

"Why?"

Hai Luwei also turned around, his blackened face looking baffled.

"The rule only says the stairs open after twelve unexploded bombs have detonated. But the rule never said that the previous rules become void after the stairs open.

"In fact, I suspect all the rules are probably still in effect. It’s not just that something at his feet will explode the moment you get close... if we linger long enough, items will still randomly explode."

"Why?" Mai Mingle was taken aback. "To use your young folks’ slang, haven’t we ’cleared the level’ already?"

"Because a thirteenth unexploded bomb just appeared," Fu Tailan said with a lazy shrug.

Mai Mingle’s mouth hung half-open, her face a mask of dawning horror. It seemed she understood.

"How sinister—you’re right, the rules must still be active. If everything ended after the twelfth unexploded bomb detonated, how could there be a thirteenth?"

"To be safe, we still need to maintain a distance of over a meter from each other and head upstairs as quickly as possible," Fu Tailan added, speaking to Hai Luwei.

"You don’t have to spell it out for me," Hai Luwei said, annoyed. "I get it. I’m not an idiot."

"Oh?" Fu Tailan’s eyes finally widened as if in great surprise. "Really?" ƒгeeweɓn૦vel.com

Hai Luwei, it turned out, wasn’t a complete idiot. To keep himself and Mai Mingle separated, he insisted on letting the old lady go first—though this was another pointless precaution.

And so, with Mai Mingle in the lead, Hai Luwei in the middle, and Fu Tailan bringing up the rear, the three of them maintained a distance of over a meter and filed out of the room.

’Honestly, before I showed up, he clearly didn’t trust Mai Mingle much either. It seems everything is just a matter of comparison.’

Fu Tailan tossed away the last unexploded bomb he was carrying. This would lower the odds of an explosion happening near the other two. Sure enough, the trio reached the staircase leading to the fourth floor without incident.

"It looks exactly the same as before,"

The three of them stopped in front of the staircase, and Hai Luwei stated the obvious with a sigh. "It really makes you anxious... Is it really open? I’m afraid the whole staircase will explode the moment I step on it."

"It’s fine," Mai Mingle said.

"How do you know?" Hai Luwei asked.

She turned her head, gave a slightly embarrassed smile, and pointed at her feet.

"Um... while you were talking, I already put one foot on it. I wasn’t really thinking about it, but what you just said gave me a fright."

This didn’t mean Mai Mingle was reckless—it was because Hai Luwei was worrying for nothing.

Since the conditions of the rule had been met, the result was certain. The Nest never lied about things like that.

Seeing Mai Mingle carefully put her weight on the heel of her injured foot, support herself with the handrail, and climb two steps, Fu Tailan finally called out from a distance, "Wait a minute. Before you go upstairs, shouldn’t you give me back my phone?"

Mai Mingle turned her head, her brow furrowed slightly. "Now?"

"If not now, when?"

Fu Tailan said slowly, "No one knows what’s on the fourth floor. If something happens to you up there and you disappear along with my phone, all my hard work just now will have been for nothing."

"Why not wait and give it to him when he’s leaving the apartment building?"

Hai Luwei, keeping his one-meter distance from the staircase, interjected. "Doesn’t he want the Illusion you’re carrying? If you give him back his phone, he’ll have no reason to hold back."

"I could pull out my gun right now and have no reason to hold back," Fu Tailan said, glancing at the back of Hai Luwei’s head. "If you were my target, I could hit you with my eyes closed."

Hai Luwei immediately whipped his head around to glare at him, instinctively pressing his back against the wall. "How about," he asked tentatively, "you hand over your gun, too?"

"Do you really think a phone is that important to me?"

"I hear kids these days get pretty addicted..."

"Alright," Mai Mingle said, waving a hand. "Stop arguing, you two. Fu Tailan, I’ll give you back your phone."

"You’re really giving it back to him?" Hai Luwei was stunned.

"After all, just like he said, if he really wanted to rob me, he could just shoot me dead. What couldn’t he take then?"

Mai Mingle took the phone from her pocket, tossed it to Hai Luwei first, and then watched him toss it to Fu Tailan.

"I just want to ask, back on the third floor, you needed bait to trigger the explosions, so you had a reason not to kill me. But now that the stairs are open and you don’t need bait anymore, why didn’t you shoot? I’m someone who doesn’t have many days left anyway. If I died in the Nest, there would be no consequences for you."

Fu Tailan caught the phone and looked up at her, seeming a bit taken aback.

"Well..." He thought for a moment. "What if the fourth floor still needs bait..."

Mai Mingle tilted her head, looking at him. She didn’t seem convinced.

"Besides, we in the Hunter Family Faction all know we should avoid unnecessary deaths. We try not to let people die in Nests..."

"You’re not exactly one to follow the rules, are you," Mai Mingle said.

Fu Tailan seemed a little lost and looked down.

He looked at the phone screen, which lit up to show 5:33 AM, and asked, "Why are you asking this?"

...Two minutes had passed.

"Because I believe that, fundamentally, you’re not an irredeemably evil person."

Mai Mingle sighed and leaned against the handrail. "When I was still in that semi-resident state, it was a different matter. But I’m human again now. You and I have interacted in this apartment building, dodged explosions together, chatted with pen and paper, and worked together to clear the floor... I don’t think you can just shoot me as cleanly as you might have before."

Fu Tailan ran a hand through his fluffy, messy hair.

"Are you trying to say I’m a good person?" he said in a low voice. "Your compliment was so subtle I almost missed it."

Mai Mingle smiled faintly.

"Consider it a compliment. I haven’t lived my whole life for nothing; I’ve sized up more people than I can count... Nowadays, when I meet someone, I can get a general sense of them just by looking them up and down and exchanging a few words."

Fu Tailan cleared his throat.

"I have a feeling you can’t bring yourself to do it to me, right?" she asked.

Fu Tailan nodded.

...Almost three minutes now.

"I have another feeling, too," Mai Mingle said. "And I think it’s just as correct as the feeling that ’you can’t bring yourself to do it’."

"What is it?" Fu Tailan asked immediately.

Right now, he was hoping Mai Mingle would stand there and talk with him for a little longer.

"I feel that this little bit of reluctance won’t stop you from chasing what you want. No, I’m afraid nothing in this world can."

Mai Mingle looked at him, her tone like a sigh.

"When you’re unwilling to do the deed yourself, you use the environment or other people to achieve your goal for you, don’t you?"