Chapter 407 - 355: Fu Tailan: Must Not Be Killed and Diverting the Calamity

"How did you do it?"

The thing speaking was not shy at all; its face was already pressing close to Fu Tailan's.

It was a face that could only be described as "possessing all the requisite features"—beyond that, it was difficult to find a single identifiable characteristic.

From a distance, it was one thing—just a forgettable face. But up close, the part of him that was human, the part that was Fu Tailan, had an uncontrollable urge to put a bullet in it.

'Good thing I'm not carrying a gun.'

After all, getting a close-up look at an untransformed Vulture, one that had maintained its original appearance, was an experience few Hunters ever had. For the first time, Fu Tailan realized that every part of a Vulture's face was in a constant state of vague, fluid motion.

Take this Vulture, for instance. When it turned its head to the left, its eyelashes swam one by one to the right. Upon reaching the outer corner of the eye, they would burrow into the skin, travel under the eyelid right against the eyeball, and then re-emerge one by one from the inner corner to rearrange themselves.

When it spoke, it was a sight one dared not examine too closely. When its lips met, a part of the upper or lower lip would get stuck to the other side. Sometimes, when its mouth opened, a few whiskers would sprout from the corners. Other times, when it closed, the philtrum would suddenly sink, hanging long upon its face.

It was like a human instinct, compelling Fu Tailan to open fire, to grab a hammer and smash this face into a bloody pulp, just to never have to see it again.

…Wait a minute. That's odd.

'I'm a Vulture. I shouldn't feel—'

The thought was cut short by the Vulture before it could fully form.

"Incredible. To know you're a Vulture, yet also genuinely believe you are this very human. How did you resolve that contradiction?"

The Vulture stepped back, and air rushed into the two paces of distance that now separated them. Fu Tailan could breathe again. Only then did he realize he'd been holding his breath.

He glanced behind him.

'…How many Vultures are here? There have to be dozens, at least.'

'Could all the Vultures in the Nest have gathered here?'

Before transformation, Vultures have no hair. As far as the eye could see, there was only a vast expanse of blurry, ochre-colored human faces, like mushrooms sprouting from equally blurry, ochre-colored bodies.

"The last one of us who managed this did so by sheer coincidence. After he entered the human world, he discovered the person he was imitating was already dead. He was trapped in a coffin with the corpse. Only through that fluke was he able to maintain a human appearance while preserving his self-awareness as a Vulture. But you—"

The Vulture shook its head, and the flesh, hair, and eyeballs on its face began to roil even more violently with the movement. It pressed him again. "Well? Speak. How on earth did you resolve the contradiction?"

Fu Tailan breathed a sigh of relief.

An instinct told him he absolutely could not afford to dwell on that last thought. A conversation with the Vultures was the perfect distraction.

"My method… you have a need for it? You can use it?" he said, glancing at the Vultures scattered near and far.

"What kind of question is that? Of course we can use it,"

another Vulture said with a grin. Its voice was identical to the first, like wet clay waiting to be molded—thick, viscous, and indistinguishable in texture or gender. "Who wouldn't want to remember who they are? To feel like a human and a Vulture at the same time? Wow, that opens up so many possibilities. We could play around in both the human world and the Nest as we please."

'The Vultures have really changed—'

Fu Tailan cut the thought short.

'What's gotten into me? That's a strange thing to think, isn't it? It's almost as if I wasn't a Vulture before.'

He had walked all this way through the Nest, and every resident he'd met recognized him as a Vulture. When he finally encountered the first of his brethren, it had called out, and the many more Vultures it summoned had recognized him, too.

'Is the Fu Tailan part of me being too active? Why do I feel like I'm starting to doubt myself?'

'Then again, when I first returned to the Nest, I didn't try calling for my brethren myself.'

'But I am a Vulture—'

"Wow, for a second there, you were completely human," a Vulture marveled. "It made me want to imitate you and then kill you… I almost couldn't resist."

"See?" said the first Vulture. Only its position allowed Fu Tailan to distinguish it from the others. "There's another reason: we've evolved. We're no longer willing to swarm a single target and all turn into the same person. What a waste, right? It's meaningless."

The countless Vultures around them nodded in unison, their blurry, ochre faces undulating up and down, a dizzying sight.

"So, if we maintain our self-awareness, we'll be able to recognize each other at a glance after transforming, just as we recognized you."

"You can recognize him?" a nearby Vulture interjected coldly. "I can't. I thought I sensed something vaguely, but the closer I look, the less I see it."

"Me neither," came a chorus of replies, rising here and there from among the ochre-colored figures.

'If just one Vulture suggests they try killing me—'

'then I won't die I'm a Vulture I'm a Vulture it's just after I became Fu Tailan I thought I was human so I might die for a little while but I should come back to life right in any case I absolutely cannot let them try to kill me I absolutely cannot be killed what's happening what's happening stop thinking about it'

As if realizing he was about to crash his car into a concrete pillar, Fu Tailan violently wrenched the steering wheel of his mind. Surrounded by the Vultures' stares, he forced his thoughts onto a different track.

He waved a hand, even managing a small laugh.

"That's not strange." Fu Tailan listened to his own voice, detecting no tremor. "This isn't a math problem. Consciousness is fluid. You can't just split it fifty-fifty with perfect precision and expect it to never change."

The first Vulture nodded once, then froze, as if struck by a thought. It stared at him before slowly, deliberately, nodding a second time.

"So how did you do it? You're just refusing to say." It seemed to be losing patience.

A thought suddenly struck Fu Tailan.

'Wait, could it be… this?'

After finishing his experiment in the Black Abyss Belt, one thought had remained crystal clear: upon entering the Nest, the first thing he had to do was find the Vultures.

The fact that he still remembered this idea meant it had to be important. That was why Fu Tailan had fought to hold on to it, piecing its fragments back together time and time again.

But the "why it was important" had been lost somewhere in the Black Abyss Belt. Whether by accident or something else, he didn't know.

He had originally assumed it was because he hadn't seen his kind in so long and needed to get back in touch. But—

"It's not that I won't say. It's because my method… cannot be replicated within the Nest."

Fu Tailan said slowly, "I can take one of you with me and personally demonstrate how to achieve this state. Then, you can spread the knowledge among yourselves. Otherwise, it's too much work for me. I'm too lazy to teach you all one-on-one."

"That lazy, entitled attitude is so wonderfully human…" the Vultures murmured in admiration.

"Then I'll go," the first Vulture said at once.

"No problem," Fu Tailan said. "Let me explain my method to you first."

Fu Tailan didn't know how a hierarchy was formed among Vultures, or if one even existed—

Several Vultures who had been conversing nearby suddenly fell silent and slowly turned their faces toward him.

'I know nothing about Vultures because after becoming Fu Tailan, I had to give up a portion of my knowledge and memories.'

'It's hard enough to retain a single sense of self. If I also kept all my Vulture memories, my consciousness as Fu Tailan would be overwhelmed.'

'Yes, that's exactly it.'

Those Vultures stared at him for a moment before finally turning away, apparently having lost interest. Once a consensus was reached, the Vultures dispersed quickly. Soon, only Fu Tailan and the first Vulture were left.

"I've heard of the Black Abyss Belt you mentioned," the Vulture said. "But as for how to get there from the Nest, I really don't know… Hmm, we could ask the other residents."

When competing for something, the residents could be absolutely ruthless, fighting to the death. But as soon as the reason for competition vanished, so did any grudge. The same resident who had just torn off half your face might cheerfully inform you that Hunters often fall in at the next intersection, reminding you not to miss the opportunity.

'Being a resident isn't so bad, actually,' Fu Tailan thought.

The Vulture spat out a short string of syllables, unpronounceable by a human throat and tongue.

The syllables twisted and tumbled over each other. It was clearly a name.

The instant it hit the air, an old woman squatting on the road up ahead snapped her head around.

The old woman resident clamped her hands tightly over her mouth, as if trying to use their force to suppress a smile, to shove a mouthful of teeth back into the black hole of her face.

Though she was smiling, the old woman seemed to be in a terrible mood.

"Whatkillareyoudoingwhatthekillthekilllookinatcan'tyoukillseethatI'mkillingpeople don't-you-kill-knowMaiMinglekillranawayIkillwanttokillherkillherkillhersodamnhatefulwhykillshewhykillshewon'tjustacceptkillherfatewhykill huh? The Black Abyss Belt?"

It was a wonder that amidst her incessant shrieking, she had still managed to hear the Vulture's question clearly. The old woman resident fell silent for a moment, seeming to calm down a bit. "What do you want with the Black Abyss Belt? Trying to get in?"

'She just mentioned Mai Mingle, didn't she? Too bad, another time when I can't go and play with her.'

Fu Tailan nodded, and as he was thinking, a sudden inspiration struck him. "Oh, that's right. That contestant from the ruling game, Chaisi Monroe, is inside the Black Abyss Belt right now."

'This should redirect the old woman's murderous intent toward Chaisi, right?'

'She's dead set on killing Mai Mingle just because she joined the ruling game. Wouldn't killing Chaisi be even better?'

"Oh."

The old woman covered her mouth, still squatting on the ground. Her eyes suddenly curved into crescents, as if her wrinkled skin had been split open by a knife, and a ghastly white light glinted from within the dark gashes.

"Oh. Oh, oh. OH OH OH OH OH OH!!!"

'…Not bad. Looks like it's working.'

"But you can't get in," she said, her next words dashing the hopes of Fu Tailan and the other Vulture. "You, you half-human half-Vulture thing, falling back into the Nest is one matter. But going in from the Nest is something else entirely. You can't get in from here."

"Why not?" Fu Tailan asked.

"Did you throw away all your Nest knowledge when you became a human? You have to ask? What do you think the Black Abyss Belt is for? Isn't it precisely to separate the human world from the Nest?"

The old woman snorted from behind her palm. "The world is just that unfair. Hunters can enter the Nest from the human world, and you can enter the Nest from the Black Abyss Belt, but it doesn't work in reverse. We are blocked at every turn when we try to go to the human world. Only a few lucky ones ever make it through, and they don't live long. In that respect, you Vultures are quite fortunate—ah, no, I'm running out of time, no more talking to you Chaisi Chaisi Chaisi Monroe I'm coming for you coming for you kill kill kill—"

Almost as if she were singing, she remained in her squat as her legs began to scrabble forward rapidly. In the blink of an eye, she vanished around the corner.

The Vulture turned its head to Fu Tailan. "How did you get into the Black Abyss Belt?"

Fu Tailan thought for a moment.

"Everyone was saying earlier that the Vulture who entered the human world once chose to keep one part of its body untransformed during its subsequent transformations—"

"His ass," the first Vulture supplied.

"…Right, right." Fu Tailan rubbed his nose. "That's how it was able to maintain a human form. But because it didn't fully transform, it doesn't actually think it's the Hunter it imitated, right?"

"Correct. What's your point?"

"You need to transform and enter the human world with me," Fu Tailan said with a smile. "But don't transform completely. That way, you'll remember that you're coming with me to get to the Black Abyss Belt…"