Artifact Report

Chapter 156: Fu Tailan - Hunter's Position One Minute Later
Fu Tailan looked back.

The dim light flowed along the long corridor, becoming thick and dark at the end, vaguely covering the doors of the last two apartments.

As if responding to his gaze, Hai Luwei pushed open the door of Room 309 at this moment.

He strode to the center of the corridor. When he looked up, he saw Fu Tailan's face. He seemed to be startled and shouted from a distance: "Oh my god, you are really here?"

…It turns out this guy wasn’t even aware of himself; it was the old lady who discovered it.

Fu Tailan greeted him with a forced smile - how could she really smile?

He was now stuck in the corridor. No matter which way he went, Mai Minghe and the other man might rush into him within one meter, causing an explosion.

Seeing how confident they both looked, it meant... they were sure that they had unexploded bombs on them; whoever had unexploded bombs on them would be the one to be bombed, no matter who came first or later.

Fu Tailan sighed, leaned the broom and dustpan against the wall, and then said, "Although I know that I can't keep my secret activities secret forever, you found out much earlier than I expected."

Mai Minghe looked at him, his face alert, but also with a hint of confusion.

Is there anything difficult to understand about this?
Fu Tailan was also a little confused for a moment; he had to express his praise more bluntly: "You think quickly, you are a good opponent."

Mai Minghe half opened his mouth, as if trying to hide something, and his eyes moved around.

...Why don’t you reply?
"What?... Don't you think I haven't praised you enough?" Fu Tailan was stunned. "This is the first time I've seen someone who likes being praised more than I do—Oh! You can't hear me!"

This time he actually laughed, and laughed out loud.

"Hey, I was blinded by the light. That's right, after being fried over and over for so long, how could a French fry hear someone talking..."

Even though Mai Minghe couldn't hear clearly, she realized the insult. She raised her eyebrows, glared at Fu Tailan, pointed at the broom and dustpan, and shouted, "What's going on? What did you do? You—write it down."

Fu Tailan thought for a few seconds.

Her request was very good. If she hadn't mentioned it, and she and Hai Luwei had attacked him from both sides, it would have made things difficult for Fu Tailan - everything had been going smoothly since they went up to the third floor.

"How slow it is to write."

He took out his cell phone and gestured to type. Mai Minghe hesitated for a moment, as if he remembered the function of the cell phone, and nodded.

Next, she watched Fu Tailan's fingers leap and jump on the screen, and soon a long text appeared. Her eyes and mouth widened, and she couldn't help but look surprised - as if Fu Tailan was not typing, but performing an aerial acrobatic performance.

"You wrote all this? In just a short while?"

After Fu Tailan slid the phone across the floor, Mai Minghe picked it up and exclaimed in amazement, "What a quick move! The words just popped out. Look, there's so much writing."

Ok?
Fu Tailan glanced at her - he never expected that someone would praise the performance of his mobile phone - if he had known, he would have written down the fact that he took a photo of the resident's mailbox.

There was indeed a lot of things he did after going up to the third floor that could be written down.

If we trace back to the source, the initial thought that led to all of Fu Tailan's subsequent actions was his realization that there was an "imbalance" in the rules.

If you think about it carefully, the benefits and risks gained by someone carrying an unexploded bomb are totally disproportionate.

Logically speaking, the third floor of the apartment should encourage people to pick up unexploded bombs as much as possible; only if the unexploded bombs do not explode and disappear quietly, people will be able to stay on the third floor longer.

However, the person who picked up the unexploded bomb would only be immune to the explosion for ten minutes - Fu Tailan heard Mai Minghe and Hai Luwei shouting loudly just now, and knew that before he went upstairs, the two of them would probably only encounter one random explosion every ten minutes on average.

Using up an unexploded bomb and becoming immune to a random explosion that you could have avoided with your skills, isn't the benefit small enough?

But when you consider the risks, the benefits are almost gone - no matter who comes first or later, once someone gets close to the person carrying the unexploded bomb, the latter will immediately have to endure the double explosion of the unexploded bomb and the floor beneath their feet.

In other words, death.

Taking such a huge risk of "death within ten minutes if anyone approaches", the unexploded bomb should definitely bring him greater benefits - what is it?
To discover this, Fu Tailan must first obtain an unexploded bomb.

The odd-numbered apartments on the left are Hai Luwei, and the even-numbered apartments on the right are Mai Minghe - so it must be Shanghai Luwei!
Fu Tailan glanced at Mai Minghe's feet, which had taken off his shoes and were bandaged.

He didn't know at the time that Mai Minghe's foot was also injured, so he immediately decided to follow the sea reed with a broken ankle bone - it turned out to be a correct and lucky decision.

Not long after Fu Tailan secretly followed Shanghai Luwei, the fourth explosion occurred next to Hai Luwei.

It was also during this explosion that Fu Tailan saw the unexploded bomb.

Mai Minghe seemed to have read this paragraph. He raised his head and glared at him.

"There's no point in glaring at me. That was given to me by the apartment."

Fu Tailan muttered softly, "Besides, think about our positions. Can I still remind him that your unexploded bomb has been dropped?"

When the explosion occurred, there was chaos in front; although the explosive object was not large, it still shattered half of the wall.

Flying debris, spreading fire, swirling hot air... From this chaos, Fu Tailan followed a rolling sound, looked down, and found that a black, round unexploded bomb had rolled on the floor - it was obtained without any effort.

But before he bent down to pick it up, Fu Tailan stopped.

To say why... the reason is that it "rolled" here.

The rules only say, "Unexploded bombs that are not picked up will explode after ten minutes" - an unexploded bomb rolling on the ground doesn't count as being picked up by anyone, right?
So if he found something - Fu Tailan looked around and quickly found a set of broom and dustpan that were connected together - and moved it with the broom and rolled it away, would it be considered "picked up by someone"?
"This is how the nest rules. You have to constantly explore, analyze, and reason to truly determine its boundaries and overall picture." Knowing Mai Minghe couldn't hear, Fu Tailan couldn't help but say, "Just like in reality, the phenomena and events within the nest possess rich, complex textures and gradually subtle degrees of understanding. A simplistic approach to understanding will only lead to a simple failure."

He swept the first unexploded bomb with a broom and rolled it all the way into Room 301 - at this time, Sea Reed was still coughing in the fire and smoke.

If it exploded, it would mean that the tool was used to touch the unexploded bomb, which would not be considered as being tampered with; if it disappeared quietly, although it was not ideal, it was not a waste because Fu Tailan had received the information.

Fortunately, it exploded after ten minutes.

"Could it be that...the 'unmanned explosion' in Room 301 was actually an unexploded bomb?"

Mai Minghe looked at her phone and muttered to herself - she probably didn't know how loud her "muttering" was.

Fu Tailan nodded.

In addition to the fact that the staircase had been opened to 1/12 of its original size, he had not expected that after the first unexploded bomb exploded, a second unexploded bomb would appear at the scene. Indeed, the rules also stated that no matter what the cause of the explosion, there was a chance of an unexploded bomb appearing.

At that time, Hai Luwei lived across an apartment from 301. When he limped to the explosion site, Fu Tailan had already gone into the corridor with the unexploded bomb.

"The second unexploded bomb, I brought it with me. Here, this is it."

Fu Tailan opened the side pocket of his backpack and showed Mai Minghe the black ball inside.

The sea reed at the other end of the corridor looked a bit pitiful; he probably couldn't hear anything, so he could only stretch his neck and wait. Fu Tailan was merciful and showed him the unexploded bomb, then put it away with satisfaction in his surprised and envious eyes.

"I wanted to test what real benefits there were from carrying unexploded bombs, but I didn't expect you to find out what I was missing."

Although Mai Minghe couldn't hear him, he had been reading the rumors and actually joined in the conversation: "The benefit you discovered is... Let me read on."

Fu Tailan touched his nose.

Normally, someone in this place should have praised him for his quick thinking; unfortunately, the only two people who were in his audience were also victims, and they were both angry with him.

However, these two victims made it too easy for the perpetrator to target them.

Mai Minghe could only touch the ground with the heel of one foot, making a "dong dong" sound when she walked. She might not have noticed it herself, but to Fu Tailan, it was as clear as a radio announcement - and Hai Luwei's movements were even louder, as he had to hop on one foot.

After Hai Luwei jumped back to Room 303 on one foot, Fu Tailan followed quietly.

It is actually a difficult task to control yourself from entering within one meter of the other person while getting as close to the other person as possible; fortunately, the two victims were very considerate and always broadcast their location at any time.

It was with Sea Reed that he realized the true benefit of carrying unexploded bombs.

This benefit is divided into two parts:

First, when a person holding an unexploded bomb is close to other people, he can reduce the probability of explosion around himself while significantly increasing the probability of explosion around others.

Since Fu Tailan went up to the third floor, he had never encountered any explosions; not long after he met Shanghai Luwei, the other side exploded again - it really made people think in this direction.

The benefit of the second part is after others encounter the explosion.

"When half the room was filled with fire and smoke, I went in with a broom and dustpan."

Fu Tailan couldn't help but tell about such an interesting thing.

"Hai Luwei was huddled in the room, unable to open his eyes. He was so unlucky. I was about a meter away from him, sweeping the floor and found an unexploded bomb. I left before the fire was out."

Of course, the broom will be ignited by the fire; but what if it is ignited?

He is unaffected, not even feeling the heat, and everything in the apartment, including the broom, returns to its original state.

When Fu Tailan heard Mai Minghe loudly announce to the world that he was going to look for sea reed, he re-entered 301 and did another thing.

"You moved the furniture!"

Mai Minghe stared at his phone screen and shouted, "The furniture in Room 303 really isn't arranged that way. You pushed all the big pieces of furniture like the sofa to the side, so I got dust on my hands where the sofa used to be..."

It turns out she noticed the gray...

Although he also noticed the dust at that time, he couldn't stay to mop the floor, so he could only let it go. However, it turned out to be one of the clues for Mai Minghe to discover his existence.

"Why move the furniture? If Sea Reed looks back, he'll notice..."

Mai Minghe was so engrossed in watching that he started talking to himself.

Fu Tailan glanced at the time and smiled slightly.

...In less than a minute, the unexploded bomb on his body will disappear.

At that time, he only needs to take a few steps towards Mai Minghe, and the ground under her feet will explode - the positions of hunter and prey will be reversed once again.

　I was too complacent yesterday. I talked about efficiency too loudly, and I paid the price today... Maybe my efficiency is conserved. If I exceed the target today, I have to make up for it the next day...

　　
　
(End of this chapter)