Illusion Report

"...Who are the Kai Family Hunters that entered the Nest this time?"

Mai Mingle turned back, and the answer from her fellow captives confirmed her own memory—"Tian Xi, Chebri, and Sha Xue."

She looked down and posed the same question to Tian Xi again. He sighed, his voice tinged with exasperation as he shouted up, "It’s me, Chebri, and Connie!"

Li Stan quietly drew in a breath.

Robert immediately rushed forward, blocking the crack with his back. He whispered, "...Is he compromised? Or is it Sha Xue who’s been compromised?"

’If the outside world is an elaborate trap set by the Nest, it seems unlikely they’d leave such an obvious way in and out, or mention it so casually. It seems more plausible that something is wrong with Tian Xi’s own perception.’

"Yes, that must be it." Suo Beihua looked up, a sudden understanding dawning on her. Her expression turned grim. "Something’s happened to Tian Xi and the others."

"If something’s happened to him without him even realizing it, who’s going to get us out of here?" Li Stan said, keeping his voice down. If he hadn’t been afraid of Tian Xi hearing, he might have shouted.

"I’m going to ask him a few more questions," Suo Beihua said, tipping her chin to signal Robert away from the crack. "Let’s try to figure out what happened to them—"

She added, "It might help us get out."

"Go on, ask," Emily said.

As Suo Beihua called out and the others listened in silence, Mai Mingle’s thoughts drifted elsewhere for some reason—upwards, to be precise.

Something Tian Xi had said earlier stuck in her mind, though she couldn’t decide if it was reassuring or unsettling—"From the inside, it looks like an infinitely extending stairwell, but from the outside, it’s only about a dozen meters high."

’...Why didn’t I think more about that before?’

Looking down from their current position, they seemed to be on the second floor, less than ten meters from the ground. They didn’t even have to shout to talk to him; just raising their voices was enough.

’If the warehouse is only a dozen meters high from the outside, then if I were to climb up ten floors and break a hole through the wall, how far from the ground would I be? What if I climbed fifty floors? Or five hundred?’

’Would the hole always open up onto the second or third floor?’

’The second or third floor, both are heights you could easily climb down from... So her confusion returned to that one question: What’s the point of an infinite stairwell?’

’And what did the answer to that question have to do with whatever’s happened to Tian Xi’s group?’

"It took us nearly an hour to clear the trials and arrive in the stairwell."

Mai Mingle found herself voicing her thoughts. "So Chebri and... Chebri and Connie... even if they’re familiar with the building’s trials, it would take them at least thirty minutes to reach the stairwell, right? That’s not an unreasonable assumption, is it?"

Even though her voice was low and Suo Beihua was busy shouting down the stairwell, Emily, who was beside her, still heard. Li Stan’s antennae twitched, and he turned to look at her as well.

"Hmm?" Emily prompted her to continue with just a hum.

"...Are there any more chunks of concrete?" Mai Mingle asked, already picking up an iron railing from the floor. "I’m going to go up a floor and make another hole. Want to help?"

"I don’t really feel like moving." Emily’s words came slowly. After a few seconds, she added, "...I’m tired."

’Tired?’

Mai Mingle sized her up, but she couldn’t see anything beyond the enormous nutshell.

"Why? You’re not worried about this hole, are you?" Li Stan chuckled. "You might as well go down a few floors. Maybe the hole you make will be closer to the ground, and you won’t even need a rope to get out."

Mai Mingle couldn’t tell if he was joking.

Up or down, it made no real difference to her—she was full of questions and had zero answers—but she chose to go up anyway.

"Hey!"

Suo Beihua suddenly turned and hissed, halting Mai Mingle in her tracks. When Mai Mingle turned around, she found Suo Beihua staring at her, her eyes gleaming in the dark. "Where are you going?"

Mai Mingle lifted her arm, gesturing with the chunk of concrete she was holding. "I’m going upstairs to make another hole."

"Why?"

Mai Mingle couldn’t answer, so she retorted, "Why not?"

Suo Beihua considered this for a few seconds.

"The stairwell seems to spit us out on random floors. I’m worried that if you leave, you’ll be shuffled like a deck of cards and reinserted into who-knows-what floor. If we get separated in this infinite stairwell, we might never find each other again."

’That was a risk she hadn’t considered...’

"Wait a minute." Suo Beihua seemed worried she would just turn and disappear. "Let me ask Tian Xi a few more questions, then we’ll go up with you. If we all help break through the wall, it’ll be faster, won’t it?"

Robert had no objections—but Mai Mingle couldn’t help but think that he was probably eager to get moving. If he just sat in one place without exerting himself, it would be difficult to keep his spring wound.

Li Stan grumbled for a while. He didn’t object, but he still had a lot to say. In contrast, Emily remained silent and motionless.

Suo Beihua lowered herself a few dozen centimeters and put her face to the crack again. She hesitated, seemingly unsure what to ask next. Her previous barrage of questions hadn’t yielded much useful information.

She exchanged a look with Li Stan, then shouted down as if just to say something, "...Tian Xi, what time is it?"

The sound of Tian Xi’s sigh floated up two stories.

"4:11 in the afternoon," he said, looking at his watch. "You all went in just before three. Anything else? By the way, it’s Sunday, November 24th."

The stairwell fell silent for two seconds.

"No, it’s not Sunday," Suo Beihua said. "What are you talking about? You’re mistaken... Check your phone. Today is Tuesday."

Tian Xi sighed again.

He seemed to comply readily and pulled out his phone. A moment later, Tian Xi shouted up, "Yep. I’m looking at it, and the screen clearly shows Sunday, November 24, 2019."

’...2019?’

They all stared at one another. For a moment, the only sound in the stairwell was their breathing.

"Is he joking?" Li Stan muttered.

"I’m going to make the hole," Mai Mingle said, her mind suddenly made up. She turned and headed upstairs. "If you’re coming, hurry up."

Suo Beihua rose up on her snake tail. "I’m coming," she said hastily, then slithered up the stairs after her, moving even faster than Mai Mingle’s two feet.

Li Stan and Robert followed, with Emily bringing up the rear. She only poked her head out onto the landing slowly, long after the others had already hammered a shallow dent into the wall.

"...Tired,"

When Mai Mingle found a moment to ask, Emily gave the same answer. "Heavy."

With their previous experience, breaking through the wall went faster this time. Before long, they had managed to punch a crack through the thick wall, large enough to see through.

Suo Beihua was the first one there, pressing her eye to the crack. After a few seconds, she slithered away without a word, making way for the next person.

Mai Mingle quickly understood. Suo Beihua was silent not because everything outside was normal, with nothing to report.

When someone is profoundly confused, they sometimes don’t even know what questions to ask—at least, that’s how it was for Mai Mingle for a good half minute.

Their height from the ground hadn’t changed, as if they hadn’t gone up a floor at all. Outside, it was still the same road, and there was still a Tian Xi.

Except that the Tian Xi from before had been standing right below them, against the wall, shouting up. This Tian Xi stood dozens of meters away, by the main gate across the street. His hands were stuffed in his pockets, and he didn’t once glance up at the building, as if he’d completely forgotten about the Hunters being interviewed inside.

’...His braid was tied on the other side.’

"I think," Suo Beihua said, her voice dry and hoarse, "we need to go up one more floor and make another hole."

This time, even Li Stan seemed speechless. Accompanied by the sound of a spring winding tighter, the group went up another floor and repeated the process, breaking open another crack.

On the same street below, Tian Xi, Chebri, and Sha Xue were standing together, discussing something in low voices. Mai Mingle couldn’t make out what they were saying, but Li Stan could.

His antennae stretched out from the crack, swaying in the air. After a moment, he turned his head back and reported:

"...They’re saying, ’There are only ten minutes left until the interview is a failure. How has no one come out yet?’"