Chapter 486 - 427: Fu Tailan: A Plan Completed with Blood

Chapter 486: Chapter 427: Fu Tailan: A Plan Completed with Blood

A pampered, middle-aged man and a seventeen-year-old youth, his body racked with pain, lunged one after the other for the glass tank that had rolled away into the night—and they reached it at almost the exact same time.

Fu Tailan couldn’t grab the glass tank first. Just as Carter’s fingertips were about to touch it, he swung his leg and kicked it far away again.

The difference between an ordinary person and a Hunter is revealed in these fleeting, split-second moments.

Carter wasn’t an idiot, but he had no combat experience and absolutely no time to think.

So, naturally, he didn’t realize there was no need to panic. The best thing he could have done was shoot Fu Tailan in the head as he lunged closer.

The residents’ tank was a benefit granted to Carter by the "1998 Nest Humanitarian Act." Even if Fu Tailan stole it, he couldn’t use it. Besides, all he had to do to activate it was call out a resident’s name—so why did he need to be holding it?

Whether Carter had turned to shoot or simply called a resident’s name, Fu Tailan, now closing in, would not have gotten off easy.

But just as Fu Tailan had predicted, in that instant, Carter chose the most common-sense action for an ordinary person: he chased after the tank.

’Sigh. I have to put on a show and fight Carter for something he can’t even use.’

Fu Tailan gauged the distance to the apartment building, raised his gun, and shot Carter in the back.

The bullet’s impact shoved Carter forward. He staggered a few steps and face-planted onto the ground.

"Oh my, you’re under attack," an unknown resident said in a thin voice from inside the glass tank. "Quick, call—"

Before it could finish, Fu Tailan aimed for the back of Carter’s head and unleashed a hail of bullets.

Carter couldn’t feel pain or get injured. He took a bullet and subconsciously tried to lift his head. But the moment he did, the next bullet struck, slamming his head back to the ground. The heavy gunshots reverberated through the night, the concussive waves seeming to crack the very air and drowning out the rest of the resident’s sentence.

By the time the gunfire faded, Fu Tailan had already dashed forward, scooped up the tank, and taken off running.

"Hey, you know," said the yellow-clothed resident, swaying as it was jostled about, seemingly unbothered, "this is the first time anyone’s bowed their head to me so many times."

"I’d feel bad if I didn’t return the favor," said the white-clothed resident.

"Fu Tailan,"

Carter scrambled to his feet. Amid a torrent of curses and profanity, he fired several shots at Fu Tailan, all of which missed. "You just wait, I’ll—"

"Carter," cried the green-clothed resident, "are you an idiot? You don’t have to—"

While running, Fu Tailan reached into the tank and shoved the tiny resident against the glass, squashing its face flat. The rest of its sentence was, naturally, muffled and unintelligible.

"You don’t have to hold the glass tank!"

Just as he silenced Xiaolv, Xiaobai suddenly shrieked, catching Fu Tailan completely off guard. "Just call the name!"

’It was just a few head-bows, is it really that big of a deal?’ A string of curses rolled through Fu Tailan’s mind. ’How have I never met residents so eager to return a favor?’

Carter froze, then immediately roared from behind him, "Xiaohuang!"

’He’s going to teleport—’

The thought had barely formed when Fu Tailan slammed right into Carter.

Carter grunted from the impact but managed to stay on his feet this time. He grabbed for the tank with one hand while shouting the next name, "Xiao—"

Fu Tailan aimed for that wide-open mouth and drove his fist straight in.

He knew the consequences of forcing his fist in, but he still used all his strength.

Carter’s two rows of teeth, which couldn’t feel pain or be knocked out, were as hard as a steel trap. They scraped against Fu Tailan’s hand as he smashed it into Carter’s mouth, viciously tearing a strip of skin from the back of his hand.

Tears welled in Fu Tailan’s eyes from the pain, but he didn’t dare relent. Instead, he pushed harder. The teeth sank into his flesh, severing muscle and nerve. He was in too much pain to hold the tank steady any longer, and he let it fall to the ground with a THUD.

Before Carter could grab him, Fu Tailan took a step back and withdrew his mangled, bloody hand.

"Ptooey! Ptooey!"

Carter’s mouth was full of Fu Tailan’s blood. He couldn’t spare a moment to speak, bending over and spitting furiously onto the ground. It was a natural reaction.

Forget a pampered rich man; who in the world, after getting a mouthful of human skin and blood, wouldn’t have the immediate reaction of spitting it all out?

This was the sliver of an opportunity Fu Tailan had bought with his own flesh and blood.

He knew the series of conflicts—being shot, the chase, the struggle for the tank—must have consumed most of Carter’s attention. Carter had little combat experience, but even a seasoned Hunter would struggle to be aware of everything while so intensely focused.

Carter, it seemed, hadn’t noticed that Fu Tailan had been running toward the apartment building.

When he teleported in front of Fu Tailan, he had also placed his back to the apartment building’s main entrance.

As Carter desperately tried to spit the blood and flesh from his mouth, Fu Tailan took a single, soft step around him, pushed open the apartment building’s main entrance with one hand, and grabbed Carter’s collar with his other, uninjured hand.

Only by dragging Carter into the apartment building would Fu Tailan have a chance to make it out of this night alive.

He summoned every last ounce of his strength. The pain wracking his body felt as if it would tear him apart. And even though Fu Tailan wasn’t as strong as Chaisi, he finally managed to wrench Carter down and drag him through the apartment building’s main entrance.

This was his plan.

Fu Tailan released Carter’s collar.

"Fu Tailan," Carter scrambled to his feet. In the dim yellow light of the entryway, he flashed a grin, his teeth stained red. "You’re finished. Xiaobai!"

Fu Tailan stood panting, motionless.

Carter blinked his small, round, shining eyes. "Xiaobai!"

For the next second or two, the atmosphere grew awkward.

"...Xiaobai?" Carter said, taking a step back. "Oh, the door’s closed. You can’t hear me, can you?"

Fu Tailan aimed his gun at him.

"Don’t move," he said, smiling at Carter.

Carter snorted and turned to push open the main door.

Fu Tailan shot him in the foot—in the exact same spot as last time.

The silence shattered. Even after the gunshot faded, Carter’s pained, furious howls remained ear-splitting, echoing without end.

Tears and snot streamed down his face. He was shocked, suspicious, and enraged, cursing and shouting as he drew his own gun and pulled the trigger on Fu Tailan.

The pistol clicked uselessly a few times. A moment later, Fu Tailan let out a long sigh of relief.

"Wh-what’s happening?" Carter stared blankly at his handgun, then back at Fu Tailan. "Why...?"

Utterly exhausted, Fu Tailan kept his gun trained on Carter and sat down on the steps.

’This is just a temporary advantage, the first stage. I have to keep this deception going.’ The thought of how much effort it would take just to see Fu Han made him long for a deep drag from a cigarette.

"Your Humanitarian Act benefits are gone," Fu Tailan said softly, watching the blood from his hand drip onto the floor. "Your gun was part of those benefits, so of course it’s useless now too."

"What? How? That’s impossible! Why?"

A moment ago, he was spouting nonsense about "it’s all fate." Now that misfortune had turned on him, Carter suddenly demanded an answer.

And Fu Tailan had one for him.

"The benefits you received came from a single ’rule’ that exists among the countless scripts and rule-traps of the Nest."

Fu Tailan explained patiently, "Something happened, and the rules were all shattered. They drifted into the Human World, scattered and broken, and one of them happened to take effect on you."

"So what?" Carter’s face, glistening with sweat and tears, looked like a child whose parents had broken a promise. "It was supposed to last an hour!"

"Right, an hour," Fu Tailan said with a smile. "That was, of course, assuming you didn’t enter another rule-trap."

Carter stared at him, his mouth slowly falling open.

"This apartment building,"

Fu Tailan gestured in a circle with the muzzle of his gun, eventually bringing it back to rest on Carter’s face. "is an Illusion, isn’t it?"

Carter asked numbly, "You... you knew?"

"It’s a regional Illusion. It contains a rule-trap from the Nest. When the Illusion is activated in the Human World, that rule-trap unfolds here as well."

That’s why when Carter saw the Nest descending upon the Human World, with residents starting to crawl in, his first thought was to hide inside this apartment building. An ordinary building wouldn’t offer much protection, of course, but a rule-trap that he controlled? Nothing could be safer.

"You’ve never been an Illusion Hunter. You’ve never even been inside a Nest."

He remembered Carter had once been quite proud of that fact.

"You brought a rule from somewhere else into another rule-trap. Of course they’re going to conflict," Fu Tailan said with a laugh. "You think the Nest itself isn’t full of scattered rules? Let me tell you, you could be perfectly fine, just walking down a sidewalk in the Nest, and accidentally step into a rule that gives you a negative status effect."

Carter panted, saying nothing, his eyes darting quickly around the entryway.

"Do you know how we Hunters usually get rid of something like that? We walk into another script, or another rule-trap."

As Fu Tailan spoke, his hand went to the small of his back. The outlet Illusion had been tucked into his belt. "A script or trap with a complete set of rules naturally has higher priority than a single, scattered rule. That’s why the effect of your Humanitarian Act wore off."

"I get it," Carter said, gritting his teeth. "Fu Tailan, you’re really something else. But if you think you’ve won just because you took away my benefits, you’re dead wrong."

He laughed viciously and called out, "Apartment Trap! I’m notifying you now! Target is Fu Tailan! Announce the rules for him!"

Several seconds passed in complete silence. Fu Tailan smiled at him.

"What’s this?" Fu Tailan said slowly. "You mean the apartment building is still standing even after its rule-trap was nullified?"