Illusion Report

"Who are you?"

Brianna had barely taken two steps into the hall when a floor tile spoke to her.

She looked down and saw, in the faint, winding patterns of a marble tile ahead, the vague outline of a half-turned human face.

The face formed by the patterns was like a cloud on the verge of being blown apart by the wind; with the slightest shift in its light and dark shades or a subtle unfurling of its lines, it would no longer look like a face at all.

How strange. In that moment, a distant, distinctly human, distinctly female concern surfaced in Brianna’s mind—Jacqueline was wearing a skirt.

She took half a step back.

As she retreated, she almost felt as if she had never changed, as if she were still just a young woman.

The feeling was wonderful, but it vanished in an instant.

The face, clearly an illusion born of pareidolia, now remained motionless in the tile and addressed her. "Are you here to enroll or to apply for a job? I can’t tell if you’ve completed your residency. If you’re applying for a job, you have to be a full-fledged Resident, you know."

’And what are you?’

Brianna was here to gather information, so she had to be polite. "And what are you?" she asked, opening her mouth to speak.

The floor-face didn’t seem to mind. "I am part of the Nest University."

The Nest was filled with an endless number of these indefinable things—they were neither living creatures nor Residents, and they had nothing to do with rule-bound sites, scripts, energy, or mutated materials from the Human World. It wasn’t that the face was being deliberately vague.

"I am... I am a Resident," Brianna said with some difficulty. "But I’m not here to enroll or apply for a job. I’m looking for someone."

"Looking for someone," the floor-face repeated. "In that case, you’re classified as a visitor. You have thirty minutes."

On another tile in the distance, a face materialized and jutted its chin toward the stairwell—Brianna couldn’t tell if it was the same face as before, but the "chin-jutting" gesture was now fixed permanently in its patterns, unmoving.

Following the gesture, her gaze fell upon a promotional standee.

’...Thirty minutes isn’t enough time to rescue Jin Xueli, is it?’

’Besides, I don’t even know what kind of trouble Jin Xueli is in right now—hey, wait, that’s not right.’

Brianna’s eyes swept across the hall a couple of times.

Her mind had been so completely preoccupied with Jin Xueli that she was only now belatedly realizing something.

"This Nest University... how come I’ve never heard of it?" she couldn’t help but ask. "What is this place? A theater? A rule-bound site? A maze? A sewer from the Human World?"

The information the Nest had poured into her mind as a Resident naturally included classifications, operating models, and even the contents of countless different locations—information that any Hunter would have treasured, but was destined to never be known by them.

She had once wanted to organize this information and give it to Morando. That way, she could at least reduce the risk of him dying in the Nest.

But she couldn’t. No, it was impossible. She couldn’t give it to him. A great chasm truly did lie between humans and Residents. She had to cross it. She could only crawl her way across, crawl over that chasm, that abyss—

The consequence of having Nest information poured into you, much like frequently entering and exiting the Nest, was a severe case of Nest Dissociative Disorder. The twenty or thirty years she had lived as a human were no match for the erosion caused by the Nest’s information.

"This is the Nest University," the floor tile-face replied with an obvious, unhelpful answer.

But Brianna had never heard of a trap or a rule-bound site called a "university."

"As for why you haven’t heard of it, that’s simple."

The floor tile-face said, "Information about the university and the knowledge taught within it is only known to Residents and humans who have been here. In other words, the ’university’ is higher-level information, not included in the introductory knowledge for Residents. It’s like how you wouldn’t know calculus if you’d only finished elementary school."

’Jin Xueli could have just stayed for thirty minutes, but she enrolled instead... Could it be that she’s not just an idiot, but that she thought she could get information from the university?’

’But even if that was the reason, it’s hardly praiseworthy.’

The time it took for Brianna and the other Residents to catch up was probably less than ten minutes, let alone thirty. Yet before she and the clerk had arrived, Jin Xueli had already enrolled.

’When a normal person sees the Nest University, would they be in such a hurry to enroll? Has she never been to school in her life or something?’

’If that’s really the reason, you couldn’t even call her decision hasty. It was reckless, gullible, and completely thoughtless. Even if she did think about it, it was probably superficial at best. When I eventually take over her body, I won’t be affected by a brain like this, will I?’

"I don’t know what purpose your school has for human students, but I’m looking for—"

Before Brianna could finish, the floor tile interrupted her.

"Well, we’re a school. Our purpose is naturally to teach and nurture people. And to make a little money on the side. The money is also for the purpose of better teaching and nurturing people."

"I’m a Resident. Don’t try to fob me off with that nonsense you feed to humans."

Suppressing her anger, Brianna prepared to walk around the floor tile and head deeper inside. "I told you, I’m here to find someone very important to me. Tell me where she is and return her to me, safe and sound, and we won’t have any problems."

’The priority now is to get Jin Xueli out of this trap. As for whether and when to shed Jacqueline’s body, I’ll have to play it by ear.’

"I knew it. A Resident with only introductory knowledge wouldn’t believe me," the floor tile-face sighed. "Please proceed to the left side of the hall. There is a visitor reception room there. Our administrative assistant will answer any questions you may have."

Brianna walked with a rustle toward the reception room on the left. Behind her, the floor tile-face grumbled, "Sigh. Now that you’re here, the main gate can’t even close."

She didn’t need to turn around to imagine what it was complaining about. She didn’t want to turn around.

The deep blue carpet in the reception room was worn thin from foot traffic, almost gleaming with a greasy sheen. The fluorescent energy-saving lights cast a ghastly white glow, automatically painting heavy, bag-like shadows beneath one’s eyes.

Behind the desk sat a plus-plus-plus-sized Resident who, at first glance, really did resemble one of those warm-hearted Southern aunties commonly seen in the Human World.

"Oh my, another visitor today," it said as it opened its mouth, its voice carrying the drawn-out cadence of a true Southern accent. "I’ve heard all about it. You’re here lookin’ for one of our students, are you?"

After Brianna gave Jin Xueli’s name, the administrative Resident lowered its head and stared at its empty plywood desktop for a moment.

"Ah, yes," it nodded. "A recent enrollee. Hasn’t even turned in all her personal information and records yet. I knew that name sounded familiar! A pretty little thing, too. Kept askin’ me if the teachers who aren’t teaching her class still weren’t allowed to harm her if they saw her... Ahem. If we let the teachers run around school openin’ and closin’ their mouths like Pac-Man, we wouldn’t be able to run a school at all!"

’She was probably worried about the English teacher... If she knew enough to worry about the danger, why did she still enroll?’

’Besides, the dangers of this Nest University were hardly limited to just that.’

"Who are you to her? Are you planning to kill her or eat her?"

The assistant Resident said with great enthusiasm, "Now don’t say I didn’t warn you, she’s in class right now. She can’t come out, and you can’t go find her. You can only wait for her class to end. But until her studies are complete, as long as she’s in the school, we have a responsibility to protect her life. You can’t lay a finger on her in here."

Brianna furrowed her brow.

She had too many questions. After a moment’s thought, she decided to ask the most pressing one first. "She’s a human. She can only stay in the Nest for seven days. When does her class end? She can’t just stay in school here forever, can she?"

"What kind of question is that? Haven’t you ever been to college?"

The administrative assistant chuckled, seemingly good-natured. Even though the words were harsh, coming from its mouth, they sounded warm, even reminiscent of the playful teasing of an older female relative.

"When this class is over, if she doesn’t have another one after, she can naturally leave the school. But that’s also up to the student’s personal preference. If she wants to stay in school right up until her seven days are over, we certainly wouldn’t object."

Brianna felt she had just found the real reason Jin Xueli had enrolled.

’Alright, so she’s not a complete idiot. She knew the clerk might be lying in wait for her outside. She must be planning to take one class and then hide in the school until the clerk leaves, right?’

"What class is she in? How much longer? Which classroom?"

’If there were traps in this Nest University, they must be the classes themselves. As a visitor, I don’t know if I can even go in to save her.’

After a moment’s thought, Brianna added, "I... I’m her... ugh. I don’t want to eat her. The human who gave birth to me was her older sister in life."

The administrative Resident studied Jacqueline’s face for a few seconds. "I see. No wonder your obsession with her is so strong. You can’t kill her, so you have to follow her relentlessly."

It was the truth, but it made Brianna deeply uncomfortable.

"Jin Xueli just enrolled, so she can’t take the specialized courses she wants yet. She has to take a general education course first. However, visitors aren’t allowed inside. The gen-ed class is two hours long, and your visitor’s pass isn’t long enough to wait for her."

The administrative Resident said with a broad smile, "If you’re worried we’re setting traps for our students, you really needn’t be. There are rules about this: a student will be in the same condition after class as they were before. You don’t have to worry. Your ’sister’ will come out of school alive and kicking, I guarantee it."

"So I can only wait at the school gate?" Brianna asked, suppressing her irritation.

"You can wait," the administrative Resident said, leaning back in its chair and clasping its cross-shaped hands together. "But... our school isn’t necessarily always here."

"...What?"

"If another student with a map looks for our school in the right location, they’ll naturally find it, right? And if a student finds our school at Location A, then the school naturally won’t be at Location B, right?"

To a human, it would have sounded like illogical nonsense, but Brianna understood perfectly.

As if afraid she hadn’t understood, the administrative Resident added unnecessarily, "You could be waiting and waiting, and then you turn around, and the school might just be gone."

’Visitors can’t enter the gen-ed class, and I might not be able to wait for Jin Xueli. Does this mean I have to enroll, too?’

’Is this a joke? I finally managed to get inside Jacqueline’s body, I have so many things to do in the Human World, I still have the Nest Dominance Game to compete in, I want to see Morando as soon as possible, who wants to be here, who wants to follow Jin Xueli’s ass around going to school, going to class, taking specialized courses, this whole thing is so stupid, could Morando really fall in love with someone like this?’

"Wait," Brianna said.

The administrative Resident looked up, a wide grin on its face.

"You said just now... what specialized course did Jin Xueli want to take?"

This time, the administrative Resident answered readily.

"The Burial and Recreation of Personal History."