Artifact Report

Chapter 61: Fu Tailan: The Key is Honest
The death of the Bronk brothers not only did not cause any ripples in Blackmore City, but even in the hunter circle, it quickly disappeared without a trace.

The two of them have done well in recent years and have gained a reputation, but they have not yet joined the family faction, and it seems that their family members are unaware that they are Phantom Hunters.

When a person dies, no one will have any doubts after his death, and no one will dig into the matter or stand guard at the police station door to demand an explanation; the family came to Blackmore City to pack up the apartment and the remains, and the file of this "car accident" was closed.

In the end, the only trace left of them as pseudo-image hunters seemed to be a blood-stained wallet on Fu Tailan's desk.

He picked up the wallet, gently threw it into the drawer and closed it.

"...As I said, all investigations into the Bronx brothers in Blackmore City have been temporarily suspended."

Fu Tailan never sits properly where he should.

He was sitting cross-legged on the desk, with his chin supported by one hand and his eyelids half closed, so he could see the top of Long Zhen's head in front of the desk.

There were three people in the office besides him. Besides Long Zhen, the other two were core hunters needed for the next operation.

"Stop?" Long Zhen hesitated and said, "But we haven't figured out the inside story of their deal with Wei Xilai yet..."

Today is May 4th, two days have passed since the death of the Bronx brothers; the Morgan family's secret investigation has also lasted for two days.

Witnessing their murder and silencing them was not entirely without benefit - Fu Tailan became one of the first people to know about the incident, and before anyone else could react, he had arranged the action plan; when he found out the identity of the deceased and deployed people to investigate, Weisilai's people were still cleaning up the wreckage on the road.

Thinking about it later, he also found it funny: when he met with Vesile on the night of the incident, both sides acted as if nothing had happened, but in fact one side was mobilizing resources to cover up the aftermath, while the other side was inquiring into the reasons behind the murder and silencing the witness.

The net that Fu Tailan had cast that night caught up all the information that could be retrieved as quickly as possible within a few hours after the deaths of the Blanque brothers.

But there were still more questions that he had not yet gotten answers to, but he could not explore them further.

"Wesile's side has dealt with everything that needed to be dealt with, and the deaths of the Bronk brothers have been finalized."

Fu Tailan replied, "He definitely couldn't have hidden the helicopter's appearance that night. Now that he's free, he can keep an eye on Blackmore City to see if anyone has any suspicions about this 'car accident.' At this point in time, he must be extremely alert and sensitive. We can't let Wei Xilai realize we're sniffing around him."

Otherwise, it would be equivalent to calling Vesile directly to surrender.

"But we still don't know what the 'key' is," Long Zhen reminded him. "If we don't investigate the Bronk brothers, where should we start?"

"Wait a minute, Azhen, I think I understand."

A female hunter with lip, eyebrow, and nose studs patted Long Zhen's shoulder twice, causing her face to wrinkle. She then said, "The supervisor just said, 'In Blackmore City'?"

Fu Tailan subconsciously rubbed his chest. The spot where Chai Si had struck him was now a large, dark purple bruise, and even his bones ached.

"Yes," Fu Tailan said, "It's not convenient for us to continue exploring in 'Blackmoor City'...but isn't there still a nest?"

Facing three pairs of eyes, he rubbed his hair a few times and said, "The Bronk brothers also got the 'key' from the lair. The source of the information is in the lair, so I went to the lair yesterday afternoon."

"Where?" Long Zhen almost jumped out of her chair. "Are you alone? Yesterday?"

She was not a hunter, but she was used to doing hunter work in the big party. She always seemed to think that entering the nest should be a serious "project": it required making plans in advance, planning the route and division of labor, selecting suitable members, and gathering a team to go together - how could you just go in casually?

But the other two hunters just nodded, not too surprised.

"It's great that the supervisor is putting his own actions into practice,"

The female hunter, covered in black leather, fishing nets, and rivets, clapped her hands. "Look, you're leading the charge! You didn't even call us. It's thanks to you that I had the chance to bring the girl home last night."

Her flattery was so careless that it was almost sarcastic - or perhaps her mind was not at all on whether Fu Tailan had entered the nest.

"This is the company, don't talk about your personal affairs," Long Zhen said with a straight face. Then he turned to Fu Tailan and said, "You are the supervisor now. You shouldn't take risks with yourself in the future. What happened after entering the nest?"

"Yes," Fu Tailan paused, then suddenly asked the female hunter, "Remi, why are you so popular? Why doesn't anyone want to go home with me?"

Before Ruimi had a chance to answer, Longzhen's eyes were fixed on her, her eyes too blue as she warned, "He's still underage, don't talk nonsense."

"When I was his age—"

“You’re learning.”

Jonah, who had been silent on the side, couldn't help but laugh. He cleared his throat and brought the topic back on track: "Um, what was the result of entering the nest?"

"Oh, yes," Fu Tailan touched his nose and said, "I found the key."

The office suddenly fell into a moment of silence.

"...What?" Ruimi stared at him and said.

Fu Tailan smiled at them and said, "I was just kidding you."

"Boss!" Jonah exhaled and protested, "This kind of thing—"

"It's not entirely a lie," Fu Tailan waved his hand and said, "Based on the intelligence we obtained from our investigation, I found the place where the Bronk brothers settled after entering the lair. Starting from there, I inquired about their whereabouts along the way..."

Long Zhen's face was turning paler and paler. "Ask? Who should I ask?"

Who else could it be? "The residents," Fu Tailan replied.

The word "resident" seemed to have a strange astringent power, which slightly tightened the expressions of the people present and made them sit up a little straighter.

Fu Tailan understood that this was an invisible fear deeply rooted in his bones.

He himself is not immune.

Like other hunters, in the process of dealing with the residents, even when he was not physically attacked, he often felt that the fundamental nature of him as a human being was being eroded and polluted bit by bit... as if he was trapped in a twisted, suffocating sinking, unable to extricate himself.

But what makes him different from ordinary hunters - if there is indeed a difference - is that Fu Tailan discovered from a very young age that he seemed to be able to actively "tune the frequency".

To put it in another way, it is to make his "wavelength" closer to that of the residents - this is actually not difficult to do, because every resident he comes into contact with is partly "human".

Although that is often the most frightening part.

"I've heard you're great at uncovering information from the lair that ordinary hunters can't..." Jonah murmured. "I'm really looking forward to going into the lair with you."

"That's so corny," Fu Tailan said indifferently, "but you probably won't have this opportunity in the short term."

"What's going on?" Remi asked.

"To my surprise, it's easy to find out about the Bronk brothers' whereabouts."

Fu Tailan paused to think for a moment, then said, "How easy is it? It's as if the nest has been waiting for someone to ask. It took me almost no effort."

...Fu Tailan rarely met such enthusiastic and cooperative residents. They even drew a map for him, fearing that he would lose his way.

"It's a hotel on this street called the 'Legend Hotel'. 'Legendary Restaurant', don't make the mistake."

The resident stretched out a long finger and pointed at the map, as if he was afraid that Fu Tailan was illiterate, so he spelled out every word.

Beneath the translucent skin of its fingers, many tiny, distorted human faces were faintly stirring and rolling; as they turned, they pushed out undulating contours on the skin of the fingers. At first glance, it seemed as if the resident was covered with sliding tumors.

The resident said earnestly, "After you go in, you'll see a hotel receptionist. Ask them if Bronck, who stayed there last time, is still here. If they say he's checked out, ask whatever you need to. If they say he's still staying, step away and stop talking. Wait a minute, maybe half an hour, then go back and ask again."

Before leaving, the resident apologized sincerely: "I should have taken you there myself, but I was afraid that if we spent too much time together, I would be unable to resist laying eggs in your face."

...You're so polite.

It was precisely because this resident was so thoughtful that when Fu Tailan followed the information he had obtained and came to the "Legendary Hotel", he originally thought it was a trap - no one would completely believe the words of a resident, right?

"Those two Mr. Blancos? They've already checked out."

The receptionist was a normal-looking young man with a human-like upper body. As for his lower half, Fu Tailan had no idea, for from the waist down he was a hotel counter, a bust seemingly emerging from the countertop.

"Why are you asking them?" the receptionist said unhappily. "Do you want to stay in their room?"

Fu Tailan knew very little about the Legend Hotel and wasn't sure if he should say "stay," much less what the consequences would be. While he was pondering, the receptionist added, "Do you know those two people? They took our keys, and we're trying to hold them accountable."

Fu Tailan's reaction at that time was exactly the same as the three people in the office at that moment - they shuddered and asked, "What key?"

Ruimi hesitated and added, "The hotel room key?"

"No, the Legend Hotel doesn't have room keys. After checking in, the door can't be locked."

Fu Tailan adjusted his sitting position and said lazily, "This is the first time I've heard what the front desk told me. They said the key they lost was used to lock the hotel's main entrance. It's not just the Legend Hotel; many places in the lair have such a key to the main entrance."

"This is just like the normal world. Doesn't our office building door have a key? Important buildings all have them. The only function of the key in the lair is to unlock and lock... I specifically asked about this."

"Generally speaking, the doors to buildings within the lair are rarely opened or closed, and no one knows where the keys are hidden or who has them. Even if you find them, they have no function other than opening and closing that door.

"I think this is one of the reasons why hunters have never noticed them before, because they have neither a reason to appear in the hunter's field of vision nor a value to be pursued by hunters."

"Wait, really?" Jonah was stunned. "That means—"

"Yes, the 'key' is really just a key, not even a unique artifact. According to this logic, if the key is returned to the human world, even the function of opening and locking the door will no longer exist. I have no idea why the hunters were asked to retrieve the key."

In a way, it's like digging up a floor tile from the nest and bringing it back—what are you going to do with it?

Fu Tailan looked up at the ceiling, thought for a moment, and said, "This is even more strange... How did Vesile know that all the buildings in the nest had master keys? What did he want to do with them? If there were more than one key and it had no value, why did he kill the Bronk brothers?"

He could think of only one way to answer these questions.

"Wesile has entrusted us with finding the 'time' artifact, so I'm leaving it to you two," Fu Tailan said. "Jonah, Remi, each of you pick a team and take turns entering the lair on the 13th of each month. I won't be going with you, because I need to get a key and see what it is all about."

　Today's update is late because the plot is starting to get stuck... I know what the next goal is and where it is, but I just can't get there.

　　I'm going bald from all the carding. I don't know why I have to endure this...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)