Illusion Report

Chapter 201: Chapter 165: Fu Tailan: The Key Was a Countdown All Along?

The punch Chaisi slammed into his back made Fu Tailan’s vision go black.

The air was driven from his lungs. It wouldn’t have been a surprise if his bones or organs had shattered. With just that single strike from Chaisi, his body and the world around him plunged into darkness.

In the utter blackness, Fu Tailan had only a single thought, one that burned brighter and stronger than any panic.

’The gun.’

’I have to knock him down. I have to get his gun.’

For most people, Chaisi was a dead end. But Fu Tailan had to throw himself headfirst into that dead end, sparing no effort, just to find a chance at survival.

Dimly, he thought he heard his father cry, "Tailan!" ’He’s still here? Can’t he read the situation?’ The thought flashed through his mind. A second later, his shoulder and body slammed into what felt like a reinforced concrete slab.

’Is this even a human body? His body heat is so low it feels like a trick of the mind.’

"Just get out of here!" Fu Tailan roared, shouting at Fu Han, of course.

He had used every ounce of his strength—and taken a punch for it—just to slam into Chaisi, but the man only staggered back a single step before steadying himself.

Before Fu Tailan could even think ’This is bad,’ Chaisi seized him by the hood of his sweatshirt. He treated Fu Tailan like a leech on his skin, peeling him off and flinging him aside. The sheer force of the throw sent Fu Tailan sailing through the air.

The world spun. A coffee table rushed up to meet him, growing larger and larger in his field of view—

He threw his hands out, bracing against the table. He rolled with the impact, landed on the floor, and immediately shoved the table, sending it hurtling toward Chaisi’s shins.

But if a coffee table could knock him over, he wouldn’t be Chaisi.

Chaisi leaped onto the coffee table just in time. From his new vantage point, the dark muzzle of his gun was already aimed at Fu Tailan. They were only a short distance apart; it was too late to dodge or fight back.

So Fu Tailan stopped moving altogether, his eyes locked on the muzzle of the gun.

Or rather, he was staring at the air in front of the muzzle. It’s a strange thing to say, as air is invisible.

But when his Nest Dissociation Disorder was severe, the more he tried to focus on something, the more it became obscured by a swirling fog. As Fu Tailan concentrated, a grayish-white mist began to rise and coalesce in the air—a mist only he could see.

Behind that mass of fog was the faint outline of the gun’s muzzle. Then, Chaisi pulled the trigger.

A deafening ROAR echoed as the muzzle flash illuminated the gray fog, causing it to flicker between light and shadow, a hazy, interwoven mass.

’...Now.’

Fu Tailan sprang up. His arm swept across the coffee table, grabbing the key engraved with "7704 Days"—which had somehow not fallen off—and, using it like a blade, he stabbed hard at Chaisi’s shin.

Although he was no match for Chaisi in pure skill, Fu Tailan was by no means weak in strength or speed.

Chaisi, caught by surprise, couldn’t dodge in time. The tip of the key bit deep into his leg. With a vicious tug, Fu Tailan ripped it free—tearing through fabric and skin alike. Droplets of blood sprayed into the swirling gray mist and simply vanished, never to fall.

Chaisi sucked in a sharp, pained breath. Even without seeing his face, Fu Tailan could feel his shock and surprise; it was as palpable as the gunshot had been.

’Didn’t see that coming, did you, giant?’

’Didn’t expect that shooting me square in the forehead would have no effect at all, huh?’

The pain finally snapped Chaisi back to his senses. He stepped back off the coffee table and lashed out with his other foot in a kick aimed at Fu Tailan. This time, however, Fu Tailan was ready. He dodged aside, and the rush of air from the kick sliced past his ear.

"The bullet?" Chaisi finally couldn’t hold it in any longer. "Where did the bullet go?"

"Up your ass."

Fu Tailan just had to say it. He felt like he would have burst if he hadn’t.

In truth, just controlling his body right now was no easy feat. Under the effects of his Nest Dissociation Disorder, his limbs felt like they were about to drift away from his torso and float off.

While firing back his retort, Fu Tailan forced his scattered senses to coalesce. He was about to climb to his feet when he caught a movement in his peripheral vision. The Fuhan Noodles had somehow wriggled its way to the center of the living room.

He froze for a second, then whipped his head around.

"Fu Han!"

Sure enough, Fu Tailan saw his father still standing by the entryway. He roared, "You haven’t left yet? What good can you do by staying here?"

"But... but..."

The Fuhan Noodles suddenly turned its "face" toward Chaisi and let out a sharp squeak.

’Huh?’

’A product of my own hallucination can actually warn me? Is it because my subconscious sensed Chaisi was about to move?’

As the thought flashed through his mind, Fu Tailan deftly rolled over, diving into the center of the living room and out of the line of fire from Chaisi’s gun. He yelled to Fu Han, "Grab the bag and go!"

The shout made Chaisi freeze for a split second.

"Don’t touch that bag," he said, aiming the gun at Fu Han from his perch on the coffee table. "This is your last chance to leave. Three—"

Chaisi’s countdown, even just a single number, was more effective than anything Fu Tailan had said.

Fu Han dragged his injured leg and scrambled for the door. At the same instant, Fu Tailan lunged at Chaisi on the coffee table, his hand shooting out to grab the gun.

Without even turning his head, as if he’d expected it, Chaisi twisted his body slightly, brought his elbow up, and smashed it down viciously toward Fu Tailan’s face. In that single instant, Fu Tailan managed to do two things.

First, he had to protect his face. ’Seriously, a face this handsome doesn’t just grow on trees. If he smashes it, how am I supposed to face the world?’

’Chaisi is just jealous. Male jealousy is so ugly.’

Second, as he dodged, Fu Tailan kept his eyes locked on his own hand.

Through the swirling fog, he could still faintly see his own hand. It didn’t disappear, but it was steeped in the gray mist, as if it had detached from his body and was floating on some distant shore, at a distance that felt far greater than the actual length of his arm.

In other words, he could now just barely reach things that should have been out of his grasp.

’Of course, it doesn’t feel like I’m grabbing the gun with my hand. It’s more like I’m flying a kite and I’ve just hooked the gun with it.’

It all sounds slow in the telling, but it happened in a flash. Even Chaisi probably didn’t see how Fu Tailan’s hand suddenly seemed to stretch out and grab the barrel of the gun. Chaisi gripped the handle tightly, and Fu Tailan refused to yield an inch. As they grappled, the gun went off. A series of deafening TATATATAs ripped a line of bullet holes across the coffee table, the floor, and the television screen.

Unfortunately, none of the bullets hit Chaisi.

’If only I could envelop Chaisi in the fog and make him vanish into the gap between the Nest and the Human World, just like those bullets. That would make things so much easier...’

But for someone without Nest Dissociation Disorder, without a Path, that gap didn’t seem to exist. No matter how long Chaisi was steeped in the fog from Fu Tailan’s perspective, he remained completely unaffected.

In the end, Chaisi’s strength won out. Even with Fu Tailan using every last bit of his power, the muzzle of the gun slowly, inexorably, turned toward his own face.

’I have to keep my eyes on the muzzle—’

The thought had barely formed when Chaisi suddenly freed one hand and slammed an uppercut into Fu Tailan’s chin.

In that moment, the world blurred. He could almost smell something like calcium and lime—the scent of his own teeth and skull being ground to dust and scattered to the wind.

The blow threw his head back uncontrollably, and his gaze was torn away from the gun’s muzzle.

’So Chaisi’s figured it out? That the bullets disappear when I stare at the muzzle?’

’...Am I going to die?’

The next instant, the gun fired. The bullet carved a tunnel through the air, its destination his throat.

But the blankness and release Fu Tailan had imagined would come with being shot never arrived.

There was only Chaisi’s grating voice, letting out a low, "Hm?"

’What happened?’

Fu Tailan looked down just in time to see the Fuhan Noodles slide off his collarbone. It landed on the floor with a SPLAT, its mismatched limbs wobbled for a moment, and then it righted itself and crawled away.

Chaisi paid it no mind at all. He scanned the room and said, "The bullet vanished again?"

’Wait a minute.’

’The hallucination produced by my Nest Dissociation Disorder... so it’s not just a hallucination? Is it the same stuff as the fog? Is it part of the "gap" too?’

’No, this isn’t the time for analysis—’

While Chaisi was distracted, Fu Tailan finally wrenched the pistol free. He scrambled back a few steps, staring at the gun in his hand in disbelief.

’Did I really get it? Is this a real gun?’

"You have a bulletproof Illusion?" Chaisi said, frowning as if he’d figured it out. "Does that mean you don’t have the key at all?"

His doubt was perfectly logical. With Huangli Roslin, he knew how many Illusions were in the vicinity—the total was fixed. If Fu Tailan had an extra, bulletproof Illusion, then he couldn’t possibly have the key.

"Tell it to the maggots," Fu Tailan said with a smirk, raising the gun to aim at him.

’...Is fate just a little too fond of Chaisi?’

The split second it took to pull the trigger was somehow enough time for Chaisi to lunge out of the way and dodge the bullet. ’Is that even possible?’

The bullet missed its target and continued onward, striking the floor-to-ceiling window. The glass exploded into a shower of silver rain, cascading down against the early night sky and startling a chorus of distant screams from the street below.

The sound of wind, car horns, and people shouting instantly flooded the small apartment.

"Gunshots! Someone’s shooting in that building!" The people of Blackmoor City were all too familiar with the sound of gunfire and knew exactly what it was. "Quick, call the police!"

Chaisi seemed to forget his wariness of the bullets. He launched himself forward like a cannonball, his fist aimed straight for Fu Tailan’s face.

Getting hit by that would be the end of everything. Better to just buckle at the knees and fall flat on his back—which is exactly what Fu Tailan did.

With a CLANG, a key fell to the floor along with him.

Fu Tailan didn’t have time to look at it. He rolled away just as Chaisi’s fist smashed into the floor where he’d just been. He scrambled to his feet, aimed the gun at Chaisi, and frantically pulled the trigger.

’...Out of bullets.’

’How is that possible? I definitely didn’t fire enough—’

Chaisi turned his head toward him and smiled. "Counting bullets is pointless. Did you think I’d bring a fully loaded gun?"

Fu Tailan was too furious to even think of a comeback. He threw the empty gun to the ground and backed away. Chaisi ignored him, however, bending down to pick up the key instead.

He held up the key, glanced at it, then looked back at Fu Tailan.

From across the living room, the engraving on the key—"7703 Days"—glinted faintly in the light.