Artifact Report

Chapter 302 Brianna, November 16

Now, every time I see my father, I find him incredibly annoying and bothersome.

Brianna's feelings for him were extremely complicated, but in recent months, she had also developed an unprecedented sense of contempt and amusement.

Before even reaching the private tree-lined road leading to the estate, the annoyance began to unfold at the intersection of the public road: simply blocking the way with an iron gate wasn't enough; now there was an additional 24-hour armed guard post. Every time she drove there, she was stopped and thoroughly checked—even though the security personnel knew she was Vesilé's personal secretary, they never made an exception.

Who would have thought that it would take forty minutes to drive from this intersection to the manor gate; and that there were guards every ten steps and sentries every five steps along the way.

Not only are people repeatedly asked to get out of the car, but the glove box, under the seats, trunk, and under the car are also scanned by metal detectors.

Several men's hands were about to pat my body—even though it was now a man's body, it still felt disgusting—up and down, back and forth, several times.

Every time Brianna got back into the car, a nameless anger would rise within her.

Tonight, as she was about to drive to the intersection, she became even more troubled—Fu Tailan had probably put her phone in her pocket and accidentally dialed the wrong number; she called out "hello, hello" in the car for a while, but could only hear some muffled noises, and finally hung up the call.

...Really, can't the hunter supervisor even control his own phone?

She passed the security check and drove towards the manor under the cover of night.

A new guard tower has been built behind the manor, equipped with an armed patrol drone and a rare avatar.

Everyone within a ten-kilometer radius will have their personal information captured remotely by the avatar, and their name, age, location, occupation, physique, appearance, and other image data will be transmitted back to the manor's security center; if they are carrying avatars or weapons, this information will be even more clearly recorded.

Whenever another person enters the area covered by the illusion, that person's information is added to the list at the guard center, and it always works.

The artifact was something Brianna had painstakingly searched for, requiring a great deal of effort from her. Compared to that, the price of several million dollars was insignificant.

When the result was shown to his father, he sneered and said, "What about the illusion? How am I supposed to prevent someone from using an illusion to harm me?"

"Even a fake image needs someone to hold it..."

"Can you guarantee that there isn't some kind of illusion where the target is set up and then autonomously approaches the assassination target? Or that you don't even need to get close, and can still kill remotely from halfway around the world?"

Brianna, of course, could not guarantee that.

But if that illusion exists in someone's hands, and its owner really wants to kill Vesilé, how can she protect herself? She is only a half-resident, half-hunter, not Santa Claus; this is a warning, not a wish—human power is always limited.

If that were true, you would have died long ago.

It took her a lot of effort to swallow those words back.

These security measures are only a part of what Brianna knows.

Vesile didn't fully trust her, so only Vesile probably knew the full extent of the manor's security, how tight it was, and what methods were used—even though George Green's body contained her former daughter, she had no right to know.

Suspicious, afraid of death, full of petty suspicions, and cowardly and meddlesome...

Brianna would sometimes stand up to pour herself a cup of coffee, and her father would suddenly jump, staring intently at her with his dark blue, teary eyes, as if afraid that his mother would abandon her child, and pester her with "Where are you going?"—After getting the answer, he would instruct her: "Don't go, have them bring it in for you. You stay here and keep an eye on the surroundings for me."

There were clearly two bodyguards standing behind him.

No, it's more like a timid, trembling, extremely bad-tempered, and picky slug that you can't shake off. If you try to shake it off, it will scream and bite you in anger.

If you're so timid and cowardly, why were you so greedy in the first place?

The only person who thinks you absolutely cannot die is yourself.

Anyway, no one in the entire manor will shed a single tear for you, Brianna thought.

I wouldn't, and Jacqueline probably wouldn't either. She wasn't trusted either; every time she entered Vesile's room, she was checked by the bodyguards.

If we really have to say who would force themselves to feel a little sadness... perhaps it would be the other two children?
Even though that's what she thought, she didn't know why, but she still dutifully kept watch for him, found false scenarios for him, and even reassured him that he didn't need to worry.

Perhaps it's a kind of muscle inertia.

No, it's more likely because without Vesilé, the process of finding the seven target artifacts wouldn't have been so smooth—getting four of them so quickly was truly beyond her expectations.

Vecilai, however, did not think so.

When she returned to the manor, she was stopped by a newly transferred bodyguard—whose name seemed to be Ivan—who told her that Vesile had returned early and was now in the study, and asked her to come over.

The bodyguard seemed distracted and absent-minded for some reason, and his face looked quite unpleasant; however, it had nothing to do with Brianna anyway, as her mind was still preoccupied with Vesile's summons.

As she approached the manor, the list of guards at the security center naturally included "George Green," not to mention the numerous guard posts along the way. It was no surprise that Vesile knew she had returned.

Strangely, he himself returned to the manor ahead of time.

What's going on? Didn't I say this banquet was very important?
She had only managed to find out through considerable effort that the Knight family patriarch would also be attending. Although Vesile already possessed four target artifacts, progress on the next one was slow, and now was precisely the time when the next "Artifact Report" was urgently needed.

Could it be that things went particularly well, which is why you came back early?
"Mr. Wei?"

Brianna called out softly as she pushed open the door.

When she first returned from the lair, she accidentally called him "Dad" once; there were other people with Vesilai at the time. Perhaps to cover it up, Vesilai made several sarcastic remarks to her, and after that, she never called him "Dad" again.

When Vesile looked up, Brianna knew that she probably wouldn't have a moment of peace for the next day or two.

He was thin and small, sitting behind a large desk, surrounded by two tall and burly bodyguards, like stars under the moon, which was somewhat comical—except that his dark and displeased face seemed to gather invisible thunderclouds in the room.

The one who found it comical was Brianna, whose body had grown elongated after death; the one who felt suffocated was the remaining Brianna. She closed the door and whispered, "...The Knights are stubborn?"

Without even asking whether the acquisition negotiations went smoothly, it certainly didn't.

"I don't know." Vesilé looked at her coldly, as if scrutinizing a stain.

Brianna was taken aback. What do you mean, "I don't know"?
“I didn’t contact him.” Vesile seemed to be suppressing his anger. “Whether it’s an acquisition or not, I can’t care about that right now.”

Brianna blinked a few times, trying to process his meaning. "Did something... happen at the banquet?"

"How dare you ask?" Wei Xilai suddenly shouted angrily, "You sent me to that banquet, you didn't mean to get me into trouble, did you?"

Brianna glanced at the bodyguard sitting beside him. "...Dylan?"

Dylan looked troubled, glanced at Vesile, opened his mouth, but ultimately didn't say anything.

“Let me tell you,” the father interrupted, “Someone got wind of it early on, knew I was going too, and arranged for an assassin to infiltrate the area beforehand.”

Brianna was genuinely surprised.

For several months now, Vecile has stopped informing anyone of his whereabouts in advance. Even for important meetings, attendees cannot be sure whether he will show up until minutes before the meeting begins.

If someone knew he was going to attend a banquet and planted assassins beforehand... could there be a mole within the organization?
However, her gaze returned to Dylan's face.

Dylan lowered his eyelids and pursed his lips, as if trying to mentally distance himself from Vesilé's account—he said nothing, but there was no need to say anything.

"The assassin is..." she asked, already vaguely understanding the situation.

After all, the same thing has happened countless times in the past six months.

The owner of the Blackmore City baseball team is a notorious playboy, and tonight he happens to have a new girlfriend. Vesley says he doesn't like the woman's appearance; she looks like she has the "stench of a hunter." What's more, she pretended to have grabbed the wrong drink and almost bumped into Vesley's shoulder.

“Mr. Wei was furious,” Dylan finally added quietly.

"What is she trying to do? Why is she coming so close to me in such a big place? And why does the timing have to be so coincidental, becoming my new girlfriend right when I'm there?"

Vesile's anger clearly hadn't been fully vented on the spot; she deliberately saved half for when she sent it back to Brianna. "How did you conduct your investigation? Such a huge loophole, you couldn't see it? You didn't know? Impossible. And that Knight—"

Brianna immediately perked up.

"There's a fake on him!"

She barely knew how to react.

The leader of a hunter's clan, who possesses an illusion—how incredible must that be?

Although Vesilai is not a hunter, he has handled far more illusions than the average hunter, so he considers himself to be very sensitive to illusions.

Ever since he suspected that the head of the Knight family was also a fake, he refused to get any closer to him, feeling extremely uncomfortable and sweating profusely. Before long, he would leave in a hurry.

If the conversation had ended there, Brianna would have assumed that his anger stemmed from fear; that he had been terrified for the past six months, sometimes genuinely, sometimes in a state of paranoia, and was now venting his frustrations on her.

But on this day, Vesilé finally lost control of the dark shadow that had been lingering in his mind. It held him down, and he sank little by little into the depths of darkness from which there was no turning back.

"Why did you specifically send me to contact Knight?"

He lowered his voice again and looked at his daughter. “The report has three action points… Acquiring the Knight family only gives me a 61% chance of obtaining the next fake report.”

Brianna had no idea what he was trying to say.

It's not that she's stupid; if it were someone else, she would probably have realized something by saying this.

But the person opposite her was, after all, the one she had called "Dad" for over twenty years.

"I entrusted you with the method that had the highest probability of success and required me to avoid taking any risks myself, but there has been no progress whatsoever."

A habit that should have died long ago prompted Brianna to subconsciously defend herself: "The rumor that it would allow vultures to enter the human world has not yet taken effect... As for the Pathfinder, let them test it once first, and don't rush to get your hands on it, isn't that what you meant?"

Logically speaking, if Vesile had been willing to buy the artifacts of the transfer pathway in time, they probably would have already obtained the second "Artifact Report".

Now, however, we have to wait for that hunter's family to send someone from the vast sea of ​​people to find an ordinary person with a passageway, test the transfer of the passageway once, and only after it's successful will we decide whether to buy it or not...

Perhaps knowing that Brianna would definitely disapprove, Vessilé had kept it from her, and she only found out a couple of days ago.

"Yes, that's what I meant."

Vesilai chuckled softly. "Do you know why? I always have to be on guard. I've encountered so many dangers; if you think I'd be foolish enough to keep collecting like this, you're seriously underestimating me."

"……What's the meaning?"

"The more target artifacts we collect, the greater the danger to our lives."

Looking at her daughter, Vesile said softly, "You and I are on the same team, but just because it's called 'Team Vesile,' it seems like all the danger is concentrated on me alone."

"You're on this team too. Have you ever faced even one life-threatening situation? If I die after collecting most of the target illusions, you can still safely use my name, inherit my illusions, continue the game, and reap the benefits, right?"

(End of this chapter)