Artifact Report

Chapter 432 Fu Tai Lan: Fighting a rock with an egg, crashing a tofu car with a tofu.

What exactly happened tonight?

It was clearly a golden opportunity at the start; if we had just followed the plan, we would have met Fu Han soon—but we were hit by Chai Si's car halfway there.

Having finally managed to use the residents to entangle Chais, Carter had been stripped of all his advantages. Suddenly, a nest descended from mid-air, imposing a protective rule on him... Is this reasonable?
Such a positive rule that can have beneficial effects on humans is something that hunters may not encounter even if they try their best in their dens; Carter only limped for two minutes before it hit him on the head.
Fu Tailan squeezed her eyes shut, forcing herself to calm down.

Upon closer examination, the situation may not be as bad as it seems.

The rules that fell into the human world like raindrops were all scattered, broken into disjointed pieces, and no two could be put together.

Besides, Carter's position isn't based on a lair script or a lair trap; perhaps a single rule isn't enough to achieve its full effect?

For example, even if Carter's foot injury heals and he won't suffer new injuries, this is still not the Nest scenario, it's the human world, and there are no residents nearby who run traps—who will provide him with weapons?

No matter how I think about it, this analysis makes sense.

Yes, there is still a chance for him—

"Carter Morgan?"

Fu Tailan crouched behind the car, her whole body trembling.

……No way?

Fu Tailan cursed under her breath as she looked up.

Sure enough... from the nest that was upside down in the sky, a mixture of a human face and a glass window was slowly emerging.

A resident's body was standing on the rooftop of an office building in the lair, with his hands hanging from a rope, like a basket being lowered, as he lowered his head into Blackmore City.

The so-called "head" is actually a large piece of thick glass. At first glance, it looks like a glass artwork with a human face burned into it—except that the face can open its mouth to speak and can look around, and there is a "3" printed on the top of the glass.

"Carter Morgan, please proceed to window number 3 to collect your benefits."

Carter was stunned.

When the glass face hovered above him in the sky, his first instinct was to run; but just as he was about to turn around, he realized what he meant and asked blankly, "You... what benefits are you talking about?"

“An illusion and a weapon,” Face Glass said, “for one hour. This is the benefit you’re entitled to under the Humanitarian Act.”

If it weren't for the fear of revealing her location, Fu Tailan would have loved to bang her head against the car door.

I should have known better than to let Carter go first!
If he goes first, this rule applies to him, and how much can he do in an hour?
"Really...really?"

Carter himself couldn't believe his good fortune; his small, round eyes gleamed with a moist light. "What kind of illusion can you give me? What kind of weapon?"

"The weapon was a SIG.32 pistol; there was no other choice."

Wait, could it be that the illusion is—

"You may choose one of the three artifacts that will be presented next. Once you have chosen, you may not change your decision."

Fu Tailan pinched the corners of his eyes hard, repeatedly reminding himself that he still had that socket illusion, which could "turn off" both the illusion and the pistol that Carter had chosen—but as a top hunter, Fu Tailan knew better than anyone that no illusion was "absolutely" effective.

The socket illusion must be something that can't be turned off...

Given his luck tonight, the situation is really not optimistic.

"Wait, wait a minute, I don't know what they're all for either..." Carter said, then shut his mouth.

Because the face glass window number 3 has already begun to introduce each item one by one.

"Illusion 1, Task Resident. Its earthly twin app is called Task Rabbit, which allows you to hire people to do temporary jobs for you. Using this illusion, you can also hire a resident to come to your side and complete a task you assign."

"Note that humans protected by the 'Humanitarian Act' can hire one resident for free, but in return, you lose the right to choose your resident. You'd better pray that the resident who randomly comes to you happens to be capable of fulfilling your requirements."

Even through the darkness and across half a sidewalk, Fu Tai Lan could hear Carter's barely suppressed, excited breathing.

Within the semi-circular cutout below the face glass, an electronic screen appeared—it must be the artifact, with the word "Place Order" glowing on the screen.

If it's a fake image that needs to be operated by hand... it should be able to be turned off by the socket, right?
As Fu Tailan pondered this, she pulled out a power strip from her lower back and quickly glanced at it.

He had intended to check if the "Task Resident" option would appear on the socket; however, what he saw left him stunned.

How could this be—?
The Task Resident didn't appear on the socket, perhaps because it was still in the resident's hand and too far away; similarly, the SIG.32 pistol also didn't appear.

But what was the other thing he saw?
"Illusion number two: residents' meal. Don't worry, this is not a meal made by residents, nor is it the meal that residents usually eat."

The electronic tablet behind the glass window disappeared, replaced by a bowl of rice—surprisingly, a perfectly normal bowl of poke bowl; but it was only the size of a child's bowl, and looked like it could be finished in just a few bites.

"Once you get it, as long as you haven't finished eating it, no external force can make it spill, and you don't have to worry about it being taken away."

As if seeing through Fu Tailan's thoughts at that moment, the glass window calmly shattered his hopes.

“I…I really want to eat it?” Carter asked. “Of course. Once you eat it, it will immediately take effect in your body, giving you the same strength as an ordinary resident.”

As expected of a Nest inhabitant, his human speech wasn't quite fluent; Carter was indeed taken aback and asked, "What?"

“You will have the strength of a resident,” the glass window seemed a little impatient, “but the level of strength you gain will only be that of a typical resident, that is, the median level of a resident. Your English is really bad.”

Carter held back his rebuttal, looked around the road, and then said, "What's next?"

Since the glass window was lowered, he had glanced around several times—but Fu Tailan could tell that it wasn't a wary, defensive glance.

It was a scan to prevent Fu Tailan from taking the opportunity to escape.

...In other words, Carter realized that he could not control or tame Fu Tai Lan, and had made up his mind to finish him off tonight and eliminate him completely.

The man was in the apartment building behind Carter.

Even if the situation is unfavorable to him, Fu Tailan cannot leave.

Carter was aware of this as well.

"Illusion Three: Landscape Residential Tank"

As the introduction progressed, a small, round fish tank appeared behind the glass window. The tank was empty, but several miniature architectural models stood upright inside.

Even though the glass window was positioned right between two lampposts, when Fu Tai Lan squinted, she could only see a few small figures moving back and forth between the architectural models.

"The landscape resident tank is suitable for placing in any corner of the home, and it is also suitable as a portable decoration. When you hold it in your hand, you can borrow the special abilities of any resident in the tank, and when others look at you, they will only think of you as a resident."

"However, it should be noted that because the residents in the aquarium are only 1/30th the size of the original, the abilities you can borrow are only 1/30th of the original abilities."

Carter clicked his tongue in dissatisfaction. "1/30? That's so little, what's the use?"

These three artifacts are all rare and precious items that are impossible to find normally; only someone who has never even met a single resident in his life could utter such a foolish statement.

"Your benefits have been explained. They are just benefits, so their quality is limited. After your one-hour protection period ends, both the artifact and the pistol will reach their expiration date and turn to dust. Please choose an artifact now."

Fu Tailan could only peek outside every now and then, and only then did she realize that the pistol had somehow ended up in Carter's hands.

The words "SIG.32 pistol" appeared next to a small switch on the socket.

It really does turn off Carter's gun...

Fu Tailan could offer little comfort.

His mind was entirely focused on the switch at the very end of the socket; Fu Tailan stared at it, momentarily unsure of what to do.

"Hey, Fu Tailan!" Carter suddenly shouted, laughing, "Which one do you think I should choose? Don't think I want to kill you with an illusion, don't get the wrong idea."

He paused, then said, "I want to kill you and your good-for-nothing father together."

After Carter finished speaking, his gaze returned to the glass window.

He wasn't on guard at all—because for the next hour, no, for more than fifty minutes, he was invincible.

As long as the resident meal isn't chosen, the other two illusions should be able to be shut down... He also had an idea on how to indirectly force Carter to choose the resident meal.

The most urgent task is to prevent Carter from having the ability—etc.

Fu Tailan lay on the ground, just as she raised her gun at the sidewalk, when she suddenly realized she had almost made a mistake.

No—no, this shot must not be fired.

Wait a minute, has the current situation really pushed him to such a point that he has to risk his life to have even the slightest chance of winning?

No, to say that there is any hope of winning is naive.

He only knew how to take the final step of the plan; but how to survive until the very end was a complete mystery to Fu Tailan.

Because that's not something that lies or clever ideas can help with.

“Hmm… I’ll choose the landscape terrarium,” Carter said. “A 1/30th of a special ability should be more useful than brute force, right?”

When he held the small round fish tank in his hand, Fu Tai Lan indeed found that the "landscape resident tank" appeared on the socket—it was indeed an illusion that could be turned off.

However, this was no longer meaningful to Fu Tai Lan.

Regardless of which illusion Carter chooses or what ability bonuses he gains, Fu Tailan has no other choice but to face it with his own wounded body.

He had only one plan, though it was incomplete.

To carry out this plan, Fu Tailan cannot shut down anything—he cannot shut down the landscaped residential tank, he cannot shut down Carter's gun, and he certainly cannot shut down the apartment building behind Carter.

(End of this chapter)