Artifact Report

Chapter 435 Fu Tai Lan: A Kind of Freedom

Carter was quick-witted, but he didn't realize that his so-called responses were too ordinary and too predictable in the eyes of a top hunter like Fu Tailan.

For example, after realizing that the apartment building rules were invalid, a dark glint suddenly flashed in his eyes, and his lips began to squeeze together, as if he wanted to make his face look more like a pig—he was about to call out the residents' names.

It seems he guessed that once the apartment rules disappeared, the welfare bill might return.

Of course, whether the welfare bill has returned or not, Fu Tailan doesn't know, but he doesn't intend to let Carter find out the answer.

As Carter called out "Little White," Fu Tailan had already turned on the socket switch of the apartment building illusion.

"Apartment Trap Illusion" - This socket illusion from Chess is really a good thing. Not only can it display the illusions of nearby weapons on the socket, but it also has their names noted on it. If it weren't for this name, Fu Tailan really wouldn't have thought of using it to exclude Carter from the welfare bill.

Next time, I must thank Chai Si properly and let him know that the precious artifact he could easily sell for millions of dollars saved my life.

“Carter, your foot injury hasn’t healed yet,” Fu Tailan said slowly. “How could you think the welfare bill is back?”

Carter stared blankly at the muzzle of Fu Tailan's gun, seemingly still processing what was happening before him.

"Oh, I see. You thought that just because the apartment traps stopped working, the welfare law would be reinstated?" Fu Tailan feigned sudden realization. "Huh, what did you think the 'nest' was?"

He looked at Carter and gestured with the muzzle of his gun for him to go to the elevator.

Carter's face, like a black cloth soaked in water, gradually drooped down, remaining motionless.

"You send hunter after hunter into the lair, collect the artifacts brought back by the survivors, and exchange them for money. What they experience in the lair, you don't know, and don't want to know; that's the business of lowly people. Over time, won't you start to misunderstand and think that the lair serves you?"

Carter's jaw muscles bulged, and his eyes were so wide they looked like they were about to pop out of their sockets.

Fu Tailan gestured with his pistol again.

Carter, enduring the pain and panting, made his way to the elevator door; but unlike last time, he didn't plead or say anything nice.

Right.

If you're at a disadvantage from the start, with no hope in sight, and have no choice but to obediently become a prisoner, then so be it; you've just had bad luck.

But just minutes before, Carter had been favored by the nest and had a decisive advantage in the battle, repeatedly pushing Fu Tai Lan to the brink of death. Such a sudden drop in status is something that people with higher positions usually find hard to swallow.

"Press the elevator button and take me to the floor where Fu Han is." Fu Tai Lan walked behind him and thought for a moment. "How many people are upstairs?"

Carter's lips twitched slightly, but he suppressed it. "There are more people than you can handle on your own."

The elevator, which was already stopped on the first floor, opened its doors with a "ding".

Fu Tailan herded Carter into the elevator like a shepherd with a gun, and only sighed after watching him press the "6" button for the top floor.

"Do you think I care about your pig life? Do you think I went through all this trouble just to defeat you, kill you, rescue Fu Han, and stage a happy family reunion, a scene of fatherly love and filial piety? Have you been watching too many Hollywood movies?"

Carter couldn't help but glance at him.

"The protagonist of my final act is Fu Han. I've been waiting to see the final act... You're at best a traffic jam that wasted my time. I have absolutely no interest in your life."

Carter didn't say a word, but he clearly didn't believe it at all.

“If you insist on blocking my way, I don’t mind killing you while I’m at it,” Fu Tailan explained. “But if you move aside in time, I’ll forget who you are in a little while.”

“I’m not a three-year-old. We’re way past the point where we can just part ways.” Carter sneered. “But you have to spare my life, because the sixth floor is full of my men, who are here watching over your father.”

Fu Tailan smiled at him.

“You might not believe it,” he said, “but before I meet Fu Han, I need to overcome as many obstacles as possible, and make as much noise as possible.”

Fu Tailan raised a bloodied and mangled hand and compared it to her own body. "I wish I were covered in blood, that would be even better."

“It will only be your own blood,” Carter said through gritted teeth.

Fu Tailan laughed: "That's fine too. I'm not picky."

Carter was taken aback, not expecting to punch a cotton ball; just then, the elevator stopped on the sixth floor, and after another "ding," the doors slowly opened.

Behind the door was only a steel wall with a combination lock disc embedded in it.

Between the steel wall and the elevator door, only a space wide enough for one person is left, forming a long, narrow passage.

Once the elevator doors closed, the people leaving couldn't even stand one in front of the other; they had to stand side by side in a row. Fu Tailan pressed the muzzle of his gun against Carter's side and said, "Just do what you're supposed to do. Don't make me use bullets to urge you on."

Carter swallowed hard, his throat bobbing.

He quickly pressed the keypad a few times, and with a buzzing sound, the keypad slowly slid open from the wall, revealing a metal plate and a camera underneath.

Carter placed his hand on the metal plate.

"Boss," a male voice said through the microphone after a few seconds, "you just arrived? Did everything go smoothly?"

Long before he fell into a dream and thought that Fu Tai Lan had collected all the illusions, Carter had already informed the apartment building in advance that he was on his way—what should have been a half-hour journey took three or four hours, no wonder the bodyguard asked questions.

"Yeah, everything's fine." Carter, his face pale, said to the camera, "I just have something urgent to take care of. Open the door, I'll come in now."

“Yes,” the person on the microphone replied.

At least from the microphone, the person didn't seem suspicious—the camera wasn't big, and the space around it was narrow. When Carter was speaking right in front of the camera, the person inside shouldn't have been able to see Fu Tailan next to him.

But did the Morgan family not consider the risk of "not being able to see the hijackers" in the first place?

Before Fu Tailan could think further, she heard the low hum of a mechanism operating inside the steel wall.

A door began to slowly sink into the wall that had seemed like a solid piece of wood; the door slid open to the side, and the light behind it illuminated Carter's disheveled appearance.

From Carter's shoulder, Fu Tailan glanced at the space behind the door—due to the limited angle, he could only see an empty corridor.

Nothing happened: no one fired a shot from inside, no one activated a decoy, no one rushed out to save their boss, and Carter didn't just run in.

Instead, he turned back to look at Fu Tailan and said, "Let's go."

"You go in first," Fu Tailan said, raising her chin. "Don't try anything funny."

“Quite cautious,” Carter muttered, stepping through the door.

Because the passageway was extremely narrow, after Carter entered, Fu Tailan stood in the narrow passageway outside the door for a brief moment—he seized this brief opportunity to pull out the power strip illusion and quickly glance at it.

Oops.

When Fu Tailan hurriedly chased after Carter, she realized that he had made a big mistake.

Carter not only deployed manpower on the sixth floor, but also stored a large number of weapons—the power strip illusion only had six positions, but now each switch displayed the same row of small text.
.
45 pistol - Power on - Switch

There is only one reasonable explanation.

This can only mean that there are countless guns and weapons on the sixth floor; the .45 caliber alone fills the space of the power strip illusion.

But how could Carter not have laid other decoys?
Amidst the unknown dangers posed by both hunters and illusions, Fu Tai Lan's only chance to survive was Carter—but he missed the brief opportunity to follow Carter in because of his actions with the illusions.

When Fu Tailan rushed through the door, Carter was already standing in the hallway.

In that instant, Fu Tailan only saw one thing clearly: the corridor ceiling, the walls on both sides, and the floor were covered with huge, intertwined, vine-like silver threads that had somehow spread out.

The giant thread that never appeared on the power strip illusion had no name.

"Grab him!" Carter cried out in anguish as he stood amidst the silken threads.

The doors in the corridor suddenly flung open, and out of the corner of my eye, I saw several figures rush into the corridor, all of them raising their guns—

In that instant, fear, worry, regret... and all other emotions that others might have all vanished from Fu Tailan's mind.

He almost felt a sense of freedom.

Completely relinquishing control and entrusting everything to fate reveals a different kind of freedom and ease.

He didn't need to think about anything; he just needed to rush towards Carter, who was a few steps away.

He did everything he could.

Whether they can get close to Carter in the end depends on fate.

Fu Tailan almost wanted to smile.

(End of this chapter)