Illusion Report

Chapter 227: Chapter 190: Chaisi: The One Off by a Hair’s Breadth

His right eye was blocked, his vision a hazy, milky white.

Chaisi could vaguely feel several small tentacles swimming and unfurling before his eyelid, like fingers probing for him again and again. Once or twice, a tentacle even licked the skin beneath his eye.

He remained seated, not moving, allowing the small, snow-white porcelain shard to hover before his eye.

Beside him, Jin Xueli had already turned her head. In the corner of his eye, he could see her eyes were wide as she stammered, "Wh-what’s happening? I was just chatting for a second..."

Chaisi tilted his head, avoiding the small, tentacled shard of white porcelain. He picked up his glass from the table, took a sip, and settled back into his seat.

"You can’t do it, can you?" he asked calmly.

The Noh-masked Han Liuyue said nothing.

A small piece of the chin was now missing from her snow-white, swollen face.

"If you control me, I lose my value as Chaisi Monroe. You’d just have another puppet." Chaisi took another sip of his drink and smiled. "Even if you had my phone and my cards... would you know how to make a transfer? Would you know how to use an Illusion?"

"Han Liuyue" still didn’t speak, but the answer was crystal clear.

She didn’t even know how to eat or drink; she thought you quenched thirst by sticking your fingers into a piece of bread.

That was from when Han Liuyue had first returned. Now, this "Han Liuyue" no longer even felt thirst. The further she grew from humanity, the more she had to depend on Chaisi.

"Besides, stabbing someone with one of your shards doesn’t hurt you in the slightest, right?"

Jin Xueli put down her phone and tried to play the peacemaker. "Why get so worked up about it? Just think of it as helping him out. Besides, this is good for your plan, too."

"Han Liuyue’s" eyes, like small black holes, swiveled toward her.

"Think about it. There are people who want to kill him right now. They’re in the shadows, and Chaisi is out in the open. What if they succeed before you even get to see the mayor? What will you do then? If you lure them out and get rid of them first, then Chaisi can do your bidding without any more interruptions. Isn’t that a foolproof plan?"

’...The five thousand dollars was money well spent.’

When Jin Xueli wanted to be, she could be remarkably perceptive.

"Han Liuyue" sat motionless for a good while. With not even the slightest hint of breathing, she looked just like a giant puppet.

After a long moment, she finally spoke. "...This is using me."

"How is this using you? It’s a win-win," Jin Xueli said earnestly.

After a long silence, the small, snow-white shard finally pulled back from Chaisi’s eyelid and swam back toward the chin of the "Noh Mask."

Its tentacles swayed as if sending a signal. A few more tentacles emerged from the fractured edge of the mask to meet it. They twisted and tangled together, gradually drawing closer until the snow-white shard and the "Noh Mask" were whole once more.

’Looking at it now... it seems the tentacles don’t actually pierce Han Liuyue’s body, unlike with the hospital employees she controlled.’

’Perhaps that’s a blessing in disguise.’

Chaisi took another sip of his drink.

As if nothing had happened, he turned to Jin Xueli. "How’s it going?"

"I’d say it’s about eighty percent certain."

Jin Xueli looked at her phone. "Qiao Yuyue was online the whole time, but just a few minutes after I sent out your location, she went offline. I suspect she went to contact Morando. And the reason I’m so sure is because last time, a friend asked me to find out about..."

"That’s enough. You don’t have to give me the details. I get it."

When she was quiet, Chaisi’s brain felt like it was swimming; the moment she started talking, he felt the world begin to spin. "I trust your judgment."

Jin Xueli’s face lit up. "You know, after getting to know you, I’ve realized you’re not such a bad guy. You just don’t market yourself very well."

’What an uncomfortable compliment.’

Even if Morando learned he was at Between the Backlight, whether she would tell the mastermind, and whether that mastermind would act tonight, were two things still beyond Chaisi’s control.

He could only use himself as bait and wait quietly for his target to take the hook.

Fortunately, Hunters were patient—

"I’m so bored,"

Jin Xueli fidgeted as if she had ants in her pants, shifting her weight four or five times in her seat next to Chaisi within just a few minutes. "There’s nothing interesting on my phone. Do we really have to just sit here and wait? Ugh, and you’re not much of a conversationalist..."

"Then talk to her," Chaisi said, his patience wearing thin.

"You know I can’t—"

Unless it was absolutely necessary, Jin Xueli refused to even glance at "Han Liuyue." On this point, Chaisi was no different.

Jin Xueli was halfway through her complaint when her eyes suddenly shot up. "Oh, more people are coming in. They’re doing great business tonight."

The new arrivals were a man and a woman.

The man had a gentle, fair-skinned face, his expression clouded by a layer of weariness. It wasn’t the tiredness from a lack of sleep, but rather the exhaustion of someone busy coping with life, constantly hounded by fate.

The woman beside him, however, seemed to be visiting Between the Backlight for the first time. Her head swiveled back and forth, her bright, sparkling eyes trying to take in everything at once, as if she couldn’t get enough of the sights.

’She looks like she was just released from prison.’

It wasn’t just her curiosity about everything. Her hair looked like a haphazard job done with a pair of scissors, and her clothes were a randomly grabbed set, with no thought given to matching or style. She was even wearing pants under a long skirt. In Blackmoor City, only inmates from Blackmoor Prison would lack the ability or the pressure to care about their appearance.

’But on closer inspection, she couldn’t possibly have been in prison.’

She had a gentle, grounding temperament—peaceful and steady. It felt as if just standing next to her would allow a person to relax their tense muscles and speak without rushing. After all, she felt very... benevolent?

’That can’t be right. You can’t use that word for a young person, can you?’

Chaisi reflected on his own vocabulary.

The pair wasn’t particularly unusual in a bar full of Hunters, so after a quick glance, Chaisi put them out of his mind.

They seemed to recognize him, too. Before ordering, they shot what they must have thought were subtle glances at his table. It wasn’t strange for him to be recognized, and Chaisi simply pretended not to notice.

"Why haven’t they come to kill you yet?" Jin Xueli muttered under her breath. "I’m dying of boredom. This is just killing me..."

She was folding and rolling a napkin in her hands over and over, nearly worrying it into pulp.

To pass the time, she craned her neck, putting on the air of a busybody as her gaze wandered from table to table, watching what everyone was doing and saying. As she watched, she suddenly recoiled and whispered, "Hey, that table’s trying to sell an Illusion."

She was pointing to the man and woman who had just arrived.

Selling an Illusion through Between the Backlight probably meant they were freelance Hunters, without the network and support of a Family Faction.

"I can’t see what it is... It’s pretty small."

Bored out of her mind, Jin Xueli became a live commentator on their sale, regardless of whether Chaisi had any interest. "Oh, the guy who looks like an M seems to have some reservations about that Illusion—"

’Looks like a what?’

Chaisi resisted the urge to comment.

"They called Megan over," Jin Xueli continued her play-by-play. "Whoa, impressive! They’re leaving with Megan!"

"So what?" Chaisi asked.

He rarely came to Between the Backlight himself, so he had no idea if there was any special significance to leaving with a server.

"They must think their Illusion is pretty valuable, which is why they’re not willing to have it photographed and uploaded out here. There’s a small office in the back of the bar. Usually, the more valuable items are taken back there to be discussed."

Jin Xueli was clearly experienced in this area, explaining it all with an expert air. "Negotiating in the back isn’t just discreet and private, there’s another benefit. After the Illusion’s information is uploaded, if the owners don’t want to come back out into the bar, they can take their Illusion and slip out the back door. That way, they reduce the risk of being targeted."

"Afraid of being robbed? But couldn’t someone just wait for them at the back door?" The question came from Han Liuyue.

Jin Xueli refused to look at her. "I said ’reduce the risk.’"

Figuring enough time had passed, she opened her phone and took a look.

"Oh, it’s up. It’s a lipstick."

Chaisi took the phone and looked over the Illusion’s photo and description.

"Is this thing any use against the mayor?" Jin Xueli leaned closer, her hair and warm breath brushing against his arm. "If you could make the mayor think you mean him no harm..."

At the mere mention of the word "mayor," the Noh-masked Han Liuyue instantly craned her long neck, her head hovering over the center of the table.

"That won’t work. The lipstick’s target is human. Even if you could fool the mayor, you couldn’t fool the Illusion inside him."

Chaisi said, pausing to think for a moment. "But... maybe I should buy it."

"Why?"

He didn’t answer. The reason was simple, but he just didn’t feel like saying it.

As long as the lipstick was out in the world, there was a chance Fu Tailan could get his hands on it. The last thing Fu Tailan’s talent for lying needed was a power-up like that.

"Let’s go."

Chaisi stood up first and motioned for another server to take him to the office. To avoid any misunderstandings or complications, he held up Jin Xueli’s phone to show the server the recently uploaded lipstick information. "I want to buy this. The owner is in the back now, right?"

"Yes, and if they’re selling to the Kai Family, I’m sure they’ll get a good price," the server said happily, leading the trio down a short hallway.

Unfortunately, however, the waitress named Megan said the owners had just left.

"I don’t know what news they suddenly got, but they left in a huge hurry. I just heard one of them say, ’I don’t want to get mixed up in this mess,’ as they left the office. I don’t know what they meant. If you hurry, you should still be able to catch them."

Megan thought for a moment, then added, "The back door is just around the corner in the hallway. I’ll go with you; it’ll be easier that way."

Of course, even though Megan had been a Hunter, she would never agree to go alone with "Han Liuyue"—and Chaisi’s own body was weak, he couldn’t move fast.

Chaisi’s gaze naturally fell upon Jin Xueli.

"You go with her and stop them. I’ll wait here."

"Right, we can’t have you going. They might just open fire on sight," Jin Xueli grumbled as she quickened her pace, rushing toward the back door with Megan.

Chaisi listened as the footsteps of the two women quickly reached the end of the hall. A door was pulled open.

He faintly heard Megan call out, seemingly asking the people outside to wait. Then it sounded like they followed them out the door, because a moment later, the door slammed shut, and the hallway fell silent again.

And just like that, all the normal, warm, living people were gone. Only "Han Liuyue" remained by Chaisi’s side.

After a moment, in the pale, narrow hallway, she slowly twisted her head toward him.

"...Something’s not right," Han Liuyue said. "Whether they stopped them or not, they should have been back by now."

Chaisi said nothing.

Han Liuyue tilted up her snow-white, swollen face, aimed it in the direction of the back door, and fell silent for a few seconds.

"I think there’s something outside the door," she said tonelessly.