Illusion Report

The fine, cold mist chilled his skin, turning it pale. It was as if his sluggish blood flow was keeping the moment of dawning realization from reaching his mind.

But after a few seconds, Chaisi still couldn’t remember a thing.

"You... you weren’t hit with some kind of ability, were you?" Jin Xueli asked hesitantly. "An ability would be one thing, but what if it’s a stroke..."

Tian Xi shot her a glare, but her words seemed to have made him worried too. He turned to Chaisi. "Brother Chaisi..."

"Wait."

Chaisi wiped the rain from his face, slicking his wet hair back. His gaze was fixed on the corpse lying in the distance. "Let me think."

"But..."

Chaisi paid him no mind, glancing from the bar’s back door to Han Liuyue. Her deathly pale face was stretched into a wide smile, casting a solid-looking shadow over the teeth within.

’...Whatever’s happening to me, this strange creature has probably been watching the whole time, fully aware.’

It was too late to act now. If there had been another person behind that door, they’d have had enough time to reach the other end of the bar by now.

The most important thing was to first sort out his own perception of reality.

Based on the reactions from Tian Xi and Jin Xueli, Chaisi realized there were likely two gaps in his awareness: first, that the Between the Backlight bar had a front entrance, and second, that besides the corpse on the ground, another of Brianna’s subordinates had been here.

Tian Xi was part of the Family Faction; he wouldn’t lie. Besides, there was no way he and Jin Xueli could have coordinated beforehand to invent the same story.

The conclusion was unavoidable: his opponent had a way to selectively carve out pieces of his perception.

Forgetting the front entrance meant that when faced with the Black Cube’s trap, Chaisi would have no other escape route. Forgetting the other subordinate meant he wouldn’t give chase and wouldn’t be able to get the Black Cube’s Illusion.

The person who didn’t exist in his memory had calmly walked through a door that didn’t exist in his memory, leaving Chaisi waiting in the alley like a fool, thinking he had the situation completely under control.

He clenched his jaw, the muscles in his cheeks tightening for a moment before he forced them to relax.

’No, there’s no way they left ’calmly.’’

’Perhaps due to some limitation, the ability only affected me. That means the window for escape was extremely narrow. They had to get away before Tian Xi and Jin Xueli could point out that something was wrong...’

’That person was standing behind the door with Han Liuyue a moment ago.’

"You covered for him,"

Chaisi’s gaze fell on Han Liuyue as he spoke in a low voice. "I only lost my awareness of that person, but I haven’t forgotten you. Every single time you spoke or moved just now happened to be the exact moment Tian Xi was about to warn me that something was off."

The moment Han Liuyue moved, Chaisi’s attention would be drawn entirely to her. Even if Tian Xi eventually managed to get his words out, he would have been delayed and interrupted by her actions. Buying even an extra thirty seconds would make a world of difference for the escapee, the difference between success and failure.

’Taking a step back, even if I hadn’t been confused and had immediately chased after him into the bar, she probably wouldn’t have just stood aside and let me pass, would she?’

Han Liuyue raised her hands, holding them suspended in the air to her left and right.

Then, her hands came together with a single, sharp CLAP before slowly parting again.

It was as if she were trying to applaud.

"You guessed it," Han Liuyue’s smile didn’t waver. "Anything else, Brother Chaisi?"

"You didn’t attack me. You just covered his escape," Chaisi said coldly. "Which means you’re betting on both sides. When the situation changed, you decided to let me live to see if I could take you to the mayor. And if I fail to satisfy you, you still have a backup plan."

Han Liuyue slowly nodded.

"Then you must know his name so you can find him later. If not his name, then you have some other guarantee," Chaisi said in a low voice, suppressing the urge to attack. "What is it? Tell me."

Unfortunately, when it came to Han Liuyue, he had no leverage, no way to threaten her.

"Of course not," Han Liuyue said, as if it were the most obvious thing in the world. "You already figured out I’m betting on both sides. I can’t just let one of my bets kill the other."

"She’s not Han Liuyue anymore." Tian Xi lost his patience before Chaisi did, whipping up his gun. "Brother Chaisi, it’s better to rip the band-aid off."

After a few seconds of silence, Chaisi shook his head.

Han Liuyue spoke as if she’d won a great victory. "Now that’s more like it. As long as you take me to—"

"Shut up."

Without a glance in her direction, Chaisi shoved Han Liuyue away. As she staggered back a few steps, he was already striding toward the corpse in the alley.

The burly man who had just tried to throw him into the Black Cube’s trap had been at a disadvantage due to his sheer size. He had managed to dodge the first volley of bullets and was looking for a chance to duck behind the bar’s back door as well, but Chaisi had shot him square in the chest. The blood had formed a dark pool, its surface trembling under the falling rain.

"By the time the others get around to the front entrance, our guy will be long gone."

As he spoke, Chaisi lifted the big man’s jacket and began patting down the inner pockets. Even though he rationally understood he’d been tricked and that the bar did, in fact, have a front door, he still felt a prickle of discomfort saying it aloud. "Tell them to get here and clean up the scene. Leave no evidence."

The gunshots had surely prompted someone nearby to call the police, which meant they had a few minutes at most. Their only stroke of luck was that the alley was flanked by the windowless outer walls of buildings, none of which were residential. There were no corners or vantage points for someone to take photos or record a video.

But they still had to be fast. If the police cornered them again...

"Right," Tian Xi answered, immediately pulling out his phone. "I’ll call them now."

The big man didn’t have much on him, just the usual trio most people carry: wallet, keys, and a phone.

The keychain was a leather fob from a car manufacturer, holding a single car key. Chaisi opened the wallet and, as expected, found the man’s driver’s license.

"The two of them must have come in the same car. The dead man was the driver, and the key is still here." Chaisi tossed both items to Tian Xi. "The one who got away can’t take the car. He’ll have to find another way out."

"So what?" Han Liuyue had, at some point, sidled up to them again.

She was barely human now, not even getting angry after being shoved. She craned her neck and said, "He can hail a taxi, call a rideshare, or take the subway. Blackmoor City is a huge place. Where are you possibly going to find him?"

Chaisi ignored her. Holding the dead man’s phone, he looked up and called out, "Jin Xueli."

When he looked up, he was taken aback. Jin Xueli was standing a good distance away and looked to be inching even farther back, shuffling away little by little.

"And where do you think you’re going?"

"You guys just do your thing," Jin Xueli said, waving her hands dismissively. "Uh, how about I just head home? I see your strength is back—that shove you gave her was pretty forceful. Besides, the Kai Family is here now, so you don’t need my help anymore, right? This whole dead-body business has nothing to do with me, and police stations are the kind of place you only want to visit once..."

Tian Xi immediately seized on the key point. "Recovered? Brother Chaisi was injured? Um, excuse me, who are you...?"

"Who I am isn’t important," Jin Xueli said, glancing at the corpse. "And it’s even less important now. Before, your Brother Chaisi was—hey, am I allowed to talk about that?"

"Don’t get into a conversation with her," Chaisi warned Tian Xi. "She’ll lead you off-topic endlessly."

"Oh, my! That’s just what Brother Chaisi told me, too," Han Liuyue said, clapping her hands again with delight.

No one paid her any mind.

"Tian Xi," Chaisi said. Tian Xi understood immediately, moving to the corpse’s side and propping up its torso.

"Jin Xueli," Chaisi said. "Help me hold his eyelids open."

"Oh, so that’s what you need me for?" Jin Xueli came over reluctantly, carefully stepping around the pool of blood. She reached out with her two index fingers and peeled open the corpse’s eyelids.

Chaisi didn’t try to unlock the phone right away.

He held the phone by its edges, careful not to touch the screen, and did his best to aim the camera at the corpse’s pupils.

Unlocking the phone required not just detecting a face, but also a pair of open eyes looking at the camera. Once they were aligned, it would unlock automatically. But if he touched the screen before it was aligned and the face ID failed, it might trigger a password requirement.

A small lock icon appeared at the top of the phone’s screen.

Watched by three pairs of living eyes and one pair of dead ones, the lock icon turned and clicked open.

"Brother Chaisi, you’ve got good luck," Tian Xi said with a smile. He glanced toward the mouth of the alley. "Oh, and they’re here."

It was a long way to circle from here to the supposedly nonexistent front entrance and back again, but the Hunters under Tian Xi’s command had arrived fairly quickly.

"Just in time." Chaisi looked back, beckoned to the members of the Kai Family, then turned to Tian Xi. "Where’s your car? Have them clean up the scene. We’re leaving now."

"We" included himself, Tian Xi, Jin Xueli, and Han Liuyue, who was perpetually muttering about the mayor—four people in total.

Jin Xueli was forced to sit in the back with Han Liuyue. She pressed herself against the car door, perched on the edge of her seat and leaning forward to keep as much distance as possible between them. Her warm head was right behind the front passenger seat. "What’s the plan?" she asked.

Chaisi was about to answer when he was cut off by a sudden sneeze. Even someone like him, after being soaked for so long in rain that was less than ten degrees, was chilled to the bone and couldn’t handle the sudden change in temperature after getting in the car.

"Bless you." The words, surprisingly, came from Han Liuyue.

Habit truly is a powerful thing.

"Brother Chaisi, take my jacket," Tian Xi said from the driver’s seat, immediately shrugging off his coat and handing it back.

Jin Xueli made a sound of what seemed like disappointment.

’What was that supposed to mean?’

Chaisi glanced back at her, but her tone was unchanged. "So, what’s the plan?"

This was a first for Chaisi—tracking a target he couldn’t remember, a person he’d been convinced didn’t even exist.

You can’t track prey from a complete blank... but the person who didn’t exist in his mind still existed in the lives of others. Knowing that was enough.

His opponent could make Chaisi forget him, but he couldn’t erase the traces he left behind in the world.

"...The best time to hunt is when the prey thinks it’s gotten away."

A slow smile spread across Chaisi’s face. He leaned back against the seat and opened the call history on the dead man’s phone.

Among the recent calls, he saw the name "Secretary Green."