Illusion Report

The death of the Bronk brothers didn’t cause a ripple in Blackmoor City. Even in Hunter circles, it quickly faded into silence.

The two of them had been doing well in recent years, just starting to make a name for themselves, but they hadn’t joined a Family Faction yet. It seemed even their own families didn’t know they were Illusion Hunters.

Once they were dead, no one was left to have any suspicions. No one would dig for the truth or wait at the police station demanding an explanation. Their family came to Blackmoor City to clear out their apartment and belongings, and the case file on this "car accident" was closed.

In the end, the only trace left of them as Illusion Hunters seemed to be the blood-blackened wallet on Fu Tailan’s desk.

He picked up the wallet, tossed it lightly into a drawer, and shut it.

"...As I was saying, all investigations concerning the Bronk brothers within Blackmoor City are to be temporarily halted."

Fu Tailan never sat where he was supposed to.

He was currently sitting cross-legged on his desk, one hand propping up his chin. With his eyelids half-lowered, he could see the top of Longzhen’s head in front of his desk.

There were three others in the office with him. Besides Longzhen, the other two were Core Hunters needed for the upcoming operation.

"Halted?" Longzhen hesitated. "But we still haven’t figured out the details of their deal with Westley..."

Today was May fourth. Two days had passed since the Bronk brothers’ deaths, and the Morgan Family’s secret investigation had been ongoing for two days as well.

Witnessing them being silenced wasn’t without its advantages. Fu Tailan became one of the first to know. Before anyone else could react, he had already arranged his plans. By the time he had identified the deceased and deployed his people to investigate, Westley’s men were still on the road cleaning up the wreckage.

Thinking back on it, he found it amusing. When he met with Westley on the night of the incident, both sides had acted as if nothing was wrong. In reality, one side was using its resources to cover its tracks, while the other was already investigating the reasons behind the hit.

The net Fu Tailan cast that night had hauled in all the information that could be quickly gathered within hours of the Bronk brothers’ deaths.

But there were still more questions he hadn’t found answers to, and he could no longer continue to probe.

"Westley’s side has finished cleaning everything up, and the case of the Bronk brothers’ deaths has been closed."

Fu Tailan replied, "There’s no way he doesn’t know about the helicopter that night. He’s freed up now, which means he can pay attention to whether anyone in Blackmoor City is suspicious of this ’car accident.’ At this point in time, he’s bound to be extremely vigilant and sensitive. We can’t let Westley realize we’re sniffing around him."

’Otherwise, it would be the same as calling Westley and turning ourselves in.’

"But we still don’t know what the ’key’ is," Longzhen reminded him. "If we don’t investigate the Bronk brothers, where do we start?"

"Hold on, Ah Zhen. I think I get it."

A female Hunter with lip, brow, and nose rings slapped Longzhen on the shoulder twice, unabashedly. The latter winced before the Hunter spoke. "Did the Supervisor just say, ’within Blackmoor City’?"

Fu Tailan subconsciously rubbed his chest. The spot where Chaisi had hit him was now a large, dark purple bruise, and even the bone ached faintly.

"Right," Fu Tailan said. "It’s not convenient for us to keep probing within ’Blackmoor City’... but isn’t there still the Nest?"

Facing three pairs of eyes, he ruffled his hair a few times and said, "The Bronk brothers got their ’key’ from the Nest, didn’t they? The source of the information is in the Nest, so I took a trip there yesterday afternoon."

"Where?" Longzhen nearly jumped out of her chair. "By yourself? Yesterday?"

She wasn’t a Hunter, and having managed Hunter affairs in a major Family Faction for so long, she seemed to think entering the Nest should be a serious "project." It required prior planning, mapping routes, assigning tasks, selecting suitable members, and moving in as a team. Who just goes in whenever they feel like it?

The other two Hunters, however, just nodded, not particularly surprised.

"Our Supervisor leads by example. How nice, how nice."

The female Hunter—all black leather, fishnets, and studs—clapped her hands a couple of times. CLAP CLAP. "Look at that, leading from the front. He didn’t even call us. And thank goodness you didn’t, or I wouldn’t have had the chance to bring a girl home last night."

The way she sucked up to him was so careless it bordered on mockery. Or maybe her mind wasn’t on whether Fu Tailan had entered the Nest at all.

"This is the office. Don’t talk about your private life," Longzhen said with a stern face, then turned to Fu Tailan. "You’re the Supervisor now. You shouldn’t be risking yourself so casually in the future. Did you find anything in the Nest?"

"I did," Fu Tailan paused, then suddenly asked the female Hunter, "Remy, how come you’re so popular? Why won’t anyone come home with me?"

Before Remy could answer, Longzhen’s eyes were fixed on her. Far more sternly than she had been with Fu Tailan, she warned, "He’s still a minor. Watch what you say."

"When I was his age—"

"You were studying."

Jonah, who had been silent, couldn’t help but let out a snort of laughter. He cleared his throat and steered the conversation back on track. "So, about the results of your trip to the Nest?"

"Oh, right," Fu Tailan touched his nose. "I found the key."

The office suddenly fell silent for a moment.

"...What?" Remy stared at him.

Fu Tailan grinned at them. "Just kidding."

"Supervisor!" Jonah let out a breath, protesting, "That kind of thing—"

"Well, it wasn’t a complete lie," Fu Tailan waved his hand. "Using the intel we gathered, I found the Bronk brothers’ first stop after they entered the Nest. Starting from there, I asked around about their movements..."

Longzhen’s face was growing paler and paler. "Asked around? Who did you ask?"

’Who else could it be.’

"The residents, of course," Fu Tailan replied.

The word "residents" seemed to have a strange, constricting power, imperceptibly tightening the expressions of everyone present and making them sit up a little straighter.

Fu Tailan understood. It was a formless fear, rooted deep in their bones.

He wasn’t immune to it himself.

Like other Hunters, when dealing with the residents, even when he wasn’t being physically attacked, he would often feel the fundamental essence of his humanity being slowly eroded and corrupted... as if he were sinking into a distorted, suffocating abyss, unable to escape.

But what set him apart from the average Hunter—if there was indeed a difference—was that Fu Tailan had discovered from a very young age that he could seemingly "tune" himself.

To use an analogy, he could adjust his "wavelength" to be closer to that of the residents. This wasn’t actually that difficult, because every resident he had encountered was still partly "human."

Though that was often the most terrifying part.

"I’ve long heard that you’re exceptionally good at digging up information from the Nest that other Hunters can’t..." Jonah murmured. "I’m really looking forward to entering the Nest with you someday."

"How cheesy," Fu Tailan said, unmoved. "But you probably won’t get that chance anytime soon."

"How come?" Remy asked.

"To my surprise, the Bronk brothers’ trail was very easy to follow."

Fu Tailan paused to think. "How easy? It was almost as if the Nest had been waiting for someone to ask. It took me almost no effort at all."

...Fu Tailan rarely encountered a resident so enthusiastic and cooperative. It even drew him a map, afraid he wouldn’t be able to find the place.

"It’s a hotel on this street called the ’Legendary Restaurant.’ ’Le-gen-da-ry Re-stau-rant.’ Don’t you go to the wrong place."

The resident extended a long finger and tapped the map. As if afraid Fu Tailan was illiterate, it sounded out every syllable for him.

Beneath the translucent skin of its finger, tiny, twisted human faces faintly churned and rolled. As they moved, they pushed up undulating outlines on the skin’s surface. At a glance, it looked as if the resident’s entire body was covered in sliding tumors.

The resident pleaded with him earnestly. "After you go in, you’ll see a hotel front desk. Ask it if the Bronks who stayed here last time are still here. If the front desk says they’ve checked out, then you ask what you need to ask. If it says they’re still staying here, you should back off for a bit. Don’t say anything more. Just wait. Wait for half an hour, then go back and ask again."

As he was leaving, the resident’s apology was also completely sincere. "I really should take you there myself, but... I’m afraid that if we spend too much time together, I won’t be able to resist laying eggs in your face."

’...How polite.’

It was precisely because this resident was so considerate that when Fu Tailan followed the information to the Legendary Restaurant, he originally thought it was a trap. After all, who would completely trust the words of a resident?

"Oh, those two Mr. Bronks? They’ve already checked out."

The front desk clerk was a normal-looking young man whose upper body was completely indistinguishable from a human’s. As for his lower body, Fu Tailan couldn’t tell. From the waist down, there was only the hotel counter, making him look like a bust emerging from the desktop.

"Why are you asking about them?" the clerk said, seeming rather displeased. "Are you thinking of staying in their room?"

Fu Tailan knew very little about the Legendary Restaurant. He didn’t know if he should say "yes" to staying, much less what the consequences would be. As he was thinking, the clerk added, "Do you know those two? They took our key, and we’d like to hold them accountable."

Fu Tailan’s reaction at that moment was identical to that of the three people in his office now. They jolted, asking, "What key?"

Remy hesitated before adding, "A hotel room key?"

"No, the Legendary Restaurant doesn’t have keys for the rooms. Once you check in, the doors can’t be locked."

Fu Tailan adjusted his posture and said lazily, "The information the clerk gave me was news to me, too. It said the key they lost was for locking the hotel’s main door. It’s not just the Legendary Restaurant that has one; many places in the Nest have a key like this for their main entrance.

"In that respect, it’s just like the normal world. Doesn’t our office building have a key for the main door? Any important building does. The sole function of a key in the Nest is also to lock and unlock... I made sure to ask.

"Generally speaking, the main doors of buildings in the Nest are rarely opened and closed, and who knows where the keys are hidden or who holds them. Even if you found one, it has no other function besides opening and closing that one door.

"I think that’s one of the reasons why Hunters have never noticed them before. There’s no reason for them to appear on a Hunter’s radar, and they hold no value to be sought after."

"Wait, really?" Jonah was stunned. "Then that means—"

"Correct. The ’key’ is really just a key, not even some unique Illusion. By that logic, if you bring the key back to the human world, it wouldn’t even have the function of opening or locking a door. I can’t imagine why anyone would commission a Hunter to retrieve it."

In a way, it was no different from going into the Nest to dig up a floor tile and bring it back. ’What would you even do with it?’

Fu Tailan tilted his head back, stared at the ceiling, and after a moment of thought, said, "That makes it even stranger... How did Westley know that buildings in the Nest have master keys? And what does he plan to do with it? If there’s more than one key and they have no value, why kill the Bronk brothers?"

He could only think of one way to answer these questions.

"Westley’s commission for us to find the ’time’ Illusion—I’m leaving that to you two," Fu Tailan said. "Jonah, Remy, you each pick a team and take turns entering the Nest on the 13th of every month. I won’t be joining you, because I’m going to get a key and see what this is all about."