Illusion Report

Chapter 200: Chapter 164: Fu Tailan: The One-Sentence Trap and the Counter

’...Something’s not right.’

Fu Tailan tried to block out his father’s pained cries, gasps, and pleas, forcing himself to focus on what Chaisi had just said.

’Those words were strange.’

Everything else in Chaisi’s speech could be ignored, but the most crucial part was the sentence, "How did you know it was the key?"

He had already told him it was because he discovered it "was very similar to the key Westley had."

’Does Chaisi not believe that explanation anymore?’

’Or is he just trying to fish for more details?’

Fu Tailan had a strong feeling that he was one step behind Chaisi in his thinking, but for the life of him, he couldn’t figure out where he had fallen behind.

The fog of Nest Dissociation Syndrome seemed to rise once again from the corners of his mind, hazy and indistinct, obscuring his thoughts, making them clear one moment and dim the next.

"Not talking? Have you realized something’s wrong?"

Chaisi suddenly smiled and shook his head gently, like a teacher looking at a dull student. A moment ago, he had seemed to be waiting for an answer, but now, he appeared to be the one who had it.

"You’re a bit slow on the uptake today. You’ve realized something, but you haven’t put it all together yet."

Fu Tailan looked up blankly.

"Then I’ll just be blunt."

Chaisi stood up and tossed the flat black object into the corner of the room—the corner farthest from him. The black object ricocheted off the floor-to-ceiling glass window and fell back onto the floor.

Fu Tailan glanced at where it landed.

"That Illusion—you didn’t hide it in the trash can beforehand. You just pretended to pull it out when you opened the can just now, right? It was on you the whole time."

Fu Tailan didn’t speak, but his expression must have given him away.

"Wondering how I know?" Chaisi tilted his head. "You’re really not your usual self today. Didn’t I make it clear just now that I’ve already searched your house and your apartment?"

A jolt went through Fu Tailan. ’That’s right. I was just wondering why the search didn’t seem very thorough...’

"Thanks to a newcomer on our side, I knew before I even came in that there was only one Illusion within a five-kilometer radius of your apartment. I searched the entire place and found nothing worth mentioning... though I did find a few guns in the bedroom."

Chaisi stood in the center of the living room, a single man who nonetheless seemed to block every possibility.

’Forget it. I never expected to get into the bedroom and grab the guns under his watch anyway. If the guns are gone, they’re gone.’

Fu Tailan bit his lip.

"And after you arrived, the number of Illusions increased by one."

Chaisi said slowly, "The flat black object you handed me is undoubtedly an Illusion, and you must have just brought it in with you. I’m guessing the reason I was able to get it so easily is that you wanted to give it to me. If I had kept holding it, I would have ended up in danger, wouldn’t I?"

Fu Han sucked in a breath, looked at his son, and asked, "Is it true? Is what he’s saying true?"

Fu Tailan just wanted to rub his temples hard, to dissipate some of the fog in his mind so he could figure out a way to regain the upper hand.

Though he was loath to admit it, Chaisi was right on the money.

That flat black object, though its name was unknown, had a "master-binding" function: it would "bind" to a master only once, at the moment of its capture, and could never change masters afterward.

This was also why Fu Tailan could hold it. Theoretically, after signing their contracts, all Illusions obtained by the Morgan Family’s Hunters during deployments were the property of the Morgan Family; the Hunter would only get a cut afterward. Even as a Hunter Chief, unless he paid for it himself, he only had temporary and restricted borrowing rights.

Fu Tailan was the one who had captured the flat black object.

If it was given to another person, it would begin to slowly produce a neurotoxin that could penetrate the skin after three minutes. Rather than sell it off as a common poison, the Morgan Family decided to go with the flow and do Fu Tailan a favor, letting him keep it.

At that moment, Chaisi was slowly saying, "You told me one truth, which is that when you came home, the ’key’ was already on the table. And as soon as you saw it, you determined it was one of the seven target Illusions. The reason you gave was ’because it was very similar to the key Westley had.’"

"So what?" Fu Tailan retorted defiantly.

’...Chaisi really is a tough guy to deal with.’

Affected by his Nest Dissociation Syndrome, Fu Tailan had almost let slip the fact that "his phone would ring with a notification," so he had quickly found another reason to cover it up—the "very similar to the key Westley had" excuse.

’On second thought, since I already told the lie, wouldn’t it be a waste not to use it?’

He used that reason to set the "flat black object trap" for Chaisi, but he had failed on the verge of success. Chaisi had still managed to crawl out of the trap.

The trap was simple, yet deadly.

All the keys in the world look more or less the same.

If Westley’s "key" looked like a normal key, then Fu Tailan shouldn’t have thought of Westley at all when he first saw the strange key on the table—because, when you got down to it, any key in the world would be somewhat similar to the "key" Westley had.

In other words, since Fu Tailan could immediately make the connection to Westley’s "key," the target "key" must look very different from a normal key.

Once he figured that out, Chaisi naturally wouldn’t believe that the first key, the one engraved with "7704 days," was the real one, because it looked too much like a normal key.

As it turned out, he hadn’t believed it.

The subsequent surprise knife attack and the struggle for Fu Han were all a prelude for Fu Tailan to hand the flat black object to Chaisi. Of course, it would have been best if Fu Han could have escaped first. However, the slash on Fu Han’s calf had truly been unexpected—in that instant, Fu Tailan’s insides felt as if they had frozen into a small block of ice.

Judging by the effect, Chaisi had indeed been briefly fooled, though not for long enough to be poisoned to death.

’Everything had been going so smoothly. How did he get suspicious again?’

"...It seems you still haven’t understood my question."

Chaisi said, almost leisurely, "If Westley’s ’key’ looked completely different from a normal key, how did you know which of his Illusions was the key? The person who originally found the key has already been silenced. It’s not like Westley wrote you a last will and testament to tell you, is it?

"So, either you have a very deep connection to Westley’s side, or your reason was a lie. Which do you think is more likely?"

Fu Tailan really wanted to sigh.

When he set the trap, he hadn’t thought it through deeply enough, and he’d been a little flustered—whether because of the Nest Dissociation Syndrome or because of Fu Han, he didn’t know.

Usually, even a slight oversight wouldn’t have serious consequences, because most people couldn’t outthink him.

But it was different with Chaisi. The slightest hesitation or oversight would be caught, exploited, and turned against him.

"Since your reason was fake, the flat black Illusion you went to such great lengths to put in my hands definitely isn’t anything good."

Chaisi drew a pistol from behind his back and aimed it at Fu Han.

"So, let me ask you one more time. How did you confirm it was the ’key’?"

’He’s just like a hound, always the first to catch the scent of blood on the wind—even if it isn’t from his original target.’

"I get it," Fu Tailan said, burying his face in his hands and then raking them back through his hair. "I’ll talk. You can stop bluffing."

Chaisi’s response was to flip off the safety.

"Twenty-four hours after obtaining a target Illusion, you receive a phone notification congratulating you on getting the target."

Fu Tailan said with a sigh, "Like an Amber Alert, it doesn’t stay in your notification center, so you can take it or leave it. Besides the congratulations, the notification also said the next contestant would see my possession info... Who would’ve thought the next one would be you?"

Chaisi was silent for a few seconds, then flipped the safety on his pistol back on. Fu Han let out a long breath, looking like he was about to cry.

On the kitchen counter, the "Fuhan Noodles" was still inching its way up the wall, only to fall back down again.

"Why twenty-four hours?" Chaisi suddenly asked.

’Out of that whole string of truths, he immediately seized on the one lie to question it...’

’I’d honestly rather he just torture me than use his brain.’

’If this were just about violence, Chaisi would be a corpse by now.’

"The notification explained that, too."

He still answered fluently, "You have to hold the target Illusion for twenty-four hours to confirm ownership. I suppose that makes sense. Otherwise, if someone just touched the target Illusion but didn’t actually take it, wouldn’t the people who came looking for him later be on a wild goose chase?"

Chaisi glanced at the key on the table, the one engraved with "7704 days."

Fu Tailan already knew what he was going to say and spoke up first. "There was one mistake in your deduction just now. The flat black object was the Illusion I had in the house, and the ’key’ is the Illusion I just brought in."

He took a risk—the newcomer under Chaisi who could detect Illusions had to be Huangli Roslin. Her detection range was enormous but also vague, unable to precisely determine whether an Illusion was stuck inside a trash can in a small apartment.

"The one on the table?"

"No, the real ’key’ is in my backpack." Although Fu Tailan’s expression remained relaxed, the muscles in his back were tensing up bit by bit. "I’ll go get it. Don’t get any funny ideas. There are no weapons in my bag."

Chaisi snorted softly, a sound like a scoff, like a sneer.

"Don’t move." He turned the gun’s muzzle toward Fu Tailan. "Your father can go."

Fu Han froze. On the kitchen counter, the "Fuhan Noodles" immediately stopped moving.

"Chaisi, wh-what do you mean?" Fu Han asked, his voice trembling.

’Did he even need to ask?’

Regardless of whether Chaisi believed what he had just said, the scope of the search for the "key" had been narrowed—narrowed enough that there was no longer a need to leave Fu Tailan alive.

"Dad," Fu Tailan said in a low voice, his eyes fixed on Chaisi. "Go now. Go get help."

Chaisi’s expression remained perfectly calm at the three words "go get help," as if he wasn’t worried at all. Instead, he warned Fu Han, who was limping toward the door, "Don’t touch the backpack."

Seizing the sliver of an opening when Chaisi’s attention turned to Fu Han, Fu Tailan made his move.

’Even if it’s like throwing an egg against a rock, I have no other choice. I have to throw myself into the fray to create a path to survival.’

Besides, among all the Hunters in history, probably only a select few knew this rare piece of information—

When Nest Dissociation Syndrome becomes severe enough, it turns into a weapon.