Illusion Report

Chapter 189: Chapter 157: Fu Tailan: The Trap That Existed from the Beginning

It felt like the first time he’d ever had such an indescribable feeling.

The Snake Belt had returned to Mai Mingle, not because he’d had a change of heart, but because Mai Mingle had seized the last possible opportunity and had Hai Luwei knock him over at the critical moment. Ever since she had recovered, a strange, peculiar, and conflicted feeling had taken root in Fu Tailan.

On one hand, he wanted to do something for Mai Mingle, to make her happy and help her forget, just for a moment, the nine-month countdown. On the other hand, a burning unease made him secretly wary of her—as if she was about to make his life difficult, and he needed to be on his guard.

But Mai Mingle didn’t say a word about what had just happened, acting as if the person who had just tried to rob her was someone else entirely.

"So, it was a trap?" she asked calmly. "Your mind works fast. What did you figure out?"

For a fleeting, almost imperceptible moment, Fu Tailan felt a flicker of bewilderment.

’...That’s it?’

’Didn’t she almost just die?’

’There’s no way she isn’t bothered by it at all, right?’

For once, in a rare moment of uncertainty, Fu Tailan had no idea how to react to her attitude.

"You can all recall the full text of the apartment renovation notice now, right?"

He could only suppress that strange, burning sensation. "I only read it once outside the door," he said, "but after coming inside, I can recall it and every single word is crystal clear, as if I’d intentionally memorized it. I assume it’s the same for both of you."

The other two nodded.

"That’s right..." Mai Mingle said, thinking. "We thought it was strange when we realized the renovations had started and we couldn’t leave. We had already entered the apartment before the renovation period began, so we never saw the notice you’re talking about, the one posted outside."

"Then how do you know what the notice says?"

Hai Luwei rubbed his own rather useless head. "It just... appeared in my mind..."

Fu Tailan nodded. "You didn’t hear a broadcast, did you?"

"How could there be a broadcast?" Hai Luwei shot him a look. "What kind of residential building installs a PA system? This isn’t a dorm or a prison."

Being called stupid by someone who was so obviously dumber than him made Fu Tailan seethe with anger.

"Well, I heard it," he said coldly. "Or rather, I remember hearing it."

"Hm?" Mai Mingle murmured.

"At first, I thought the apartment seared the notice into our memories to ensure everyone would follow the rules for the next twenty-four hours without forgetting them.

"But if the goal was just to keep us from forgetting the rules, they could have just posted a notice on every floor, couldn’t they? The fact that they went to the trouble of leaving such a deep, vivid impression, while not having a single physical notice inside the building... it has to be a trap."

"A trap?" Hai Luwei grumbled. "What, does it take a con artist to spot one?"

Mai Mingle chuckled softly. Fu Tailan had been about to open his mouth, but when he heard her laugh, he glanced at her and swallowed the string of sarcastic retorts he’d prepared for Hai Luwei.

Suppressing his anger, he put on a stony expression and asked Hai Luwei, "How many years have you been a Hunter?"

"Um... five or six years," Hai Luwei replied, confused.

"How many Nests have you entered?"

"Sometimes I go in frequently. Other times, if I make a big score, I’ll stay out for a long time. I’ve also needed a lot of time to recover from injuries. Like this foot injury—it’ll take at least two or three months to heal. So... let’s say an average of five to seven times a year... thirty or forty times in total, I guess."

Fu Tailan grunted, lifting his chin. "I’ve been in one hundred and forty-six."

If it weren’t for his injured foot, Hai Luwei would have shot to his feet.

"How is that possible? No one can withstand that—how old are you, anyway? The physical toll, the mental stress, and—oh, right—Nest Dissociation Syndrome—"

Fu Tailan couldn’t be bothered to listen to this nonsense. Who didn’t know all that?

"Alright, enough. I’m not saying this to pull rank. After going in as many times as I have, I’ve seen countless Nest traps. Even when I encounter a brand-new one, the intuition I’ve honed kicks in... I can say with complete confidence that the notice in our minds is designed to help us die more efficiently."

"Wait," Mai Mingle couldn’t help but interject. "My knowledge of Nests was instilled in me directly by the Nests themselves. And one thing I know for sure is that a Nest cannot lie about its ’rules’..."

Perhaps it was because Nests were a human creation, and one of humanity’s most fundamental demands is "fairness." No matter how flawed or imperfect, humanity constantly strives to combat the unfairness of the world and of human nature itself through technology, systems, and reason.

By extension, even though every inch of a Nest was designed to claim human lives, it was still obligated to provide its opponents with a relatively level playing field. This was the very reason the "rules" existed.

This was common knowledge in Hunter circles.

"You’re not wrong," Fu Tailan said. "Every rule in the notice posted outside the apartment door is real. But I was talking about the ’notice in our minds’."

"So our memories have been altered?" Mai Mingle understood him immediately.

"Wait a second," Hai Luwei objected. "Even if you can figure it out, it’s not fair for the apartment to just give us a fake, altered notice, is it? What’s the difference between that and just lying about the rules?"

Mai Mingle furrowed her brow in thought.

"You have a point... but there is one exception."

She spoke slowly, as if re-examining every rule of the notice in her mind.

"For example... what if the apartment deliberately left us clues? If we have clues in our possession but still fail to notice the lies mixed in with the rules, then it can’t be considered unfair on the Nest’s part."