Illusion Report

’So that’s how it is—’

Jin Xueli finally understood the situation she was in.

She had forgotten how she’d been dragged into this Nest trap. The moment she regained consciousness, she was like a newborn infant. For a split second, she couldn’t even remember who she was. Confusion and fear nearly brought her to tears.

Fortunately, the Nest trap didn’t torment her for long. From the overlapping shadows around her, the shape of an arcade gradually emerged.

Jin Xueli came to her senses and slowly let out a sigh of relief.

’...So that’s how it is.’

If she wanted to get out of here, she had to beat the game first. Once the game was over, the memories obscured by the Nest would naturally return.

"The rules of the game are simple,"

the electronic voice from the game’s broadcast chirped. "You and your competitor each have thirty seconds of game time. Within those thirty seconds, hitting the moving targets on the screen will earn you points. Depending on the criticality of the area shot, you can earn anywhere from one to three points... After the game, the person with the higher score can exchange their points for money."

Jin Xueli felt a jolt of energy, and her eyes lit up. "How do you exchange them? What’s the conversion rate?"

"One point for a thousand dollars."

"That high! And you get at least one point for every hit?"

"That’s right," the game’s broadcast replied cordially. "The fully automatic general-purpose machine gun in your hands is equipped with a continuous-feed magazine and can fire 600 rounds per minute. In thirty seconds, that’s three hundred rounds."

All she had to do was keep adjusting the muzzle to track the moving targets, and the continuous automatic fire would take care of earning her points. Even if only half the bullets hit their mark, she would still walk away with at least one hundred and fifty thousand dollars. Earning 150,000 dollars in thirty seconds on this trip to the Nest... this was fantastic.

Her aim was decent. She was eighty percent sure she could beat her competitor, wherever they were.

"Can I play a few more rounds?" Jin Xueli asked, eager to start.

The game’s broadcast suddenly let out a laugh. "There are many rounds... and you’re the one playing all of them."

’What? Does that mean I can play multiple rounds?’

Before Jin Xueli could ask again, the broadcast cheerfully announced, "Your competitor is in position. Are you ready?"

"Huh? Wait," Jin Xueli scrambled to sit down, her eyes fixed on the screen in front of her. She gripped the machine gun tightly and said, "Ready!"

"Alright, the game is about to begin. Three—"

***

’...I have to fight my way out to escape this Nest trap.’

Jin Xueli took a deep breath and readjusted the light machine gun on her shoulder. She had never used a weapon this heavy or with this much firepower before. She wasn’t wearing tactical gear, and her bony shoulders had no padding. The skin and bone underneath ached terribly, but she didn’t dare put the gun down.

’Seriously, if only it were a light pistol.’

’...If only the opponents were residents.’

She slowly took another step forward.

Under the soft, bright glow of countless spotlights was what had once been Jin Xueli’s fantasy of wealth.

Or rather, it was one part of that fantasy—a vast, walk-in closet stretching as far as the eye could see, filled with an untold number of expensive, custom-made dresses.

They were reserved and aloof, as if they knew the Jin Xueli walking among them was not a master worthy of them lowering their heads, cinching at the waist, and accentuating her form.

The sheen, the lines, the texture, the weight, the cut... How much time, energy, ingenuity, and talent from countless people did it take to create each of these garments, these near-masterpieces of art?

𝐟𝕣𝗲𝕖𝕨𝗲𝐛𝗻𝗼𝐯𝗲𝚕.𝗰𝚘𝐦

And now, she had to destroy them, one by one, with bullets.

These were the very things she used to linger over, yet now Jin Xueli didn’t dare to look too long. She couldn’t let her gaze get lost at the intersection of wealth and beauty.

Because the game’s rules had already made it perfectly clear.

The moment her concentration wavered—

A shadow moved in her peripheral vision.

Jin Xueli whipped around just in time to see a long dress that had just stealthily taken itself off its hanger. It swayed its hips toward her, and the semicircle of glittering crushed diamonds on its neckline met her gaze.

The chest of the long dress rose and fell slightly.

As she scrambled to aim her gun, the dress was already raising its sleeves high, charging at her from between the distant racks like a headless, elegant lady unable to let out a shrill, piercing laugh—

"Two—"

***

Jin Xueli sat in a pitch-black darkness so complete she couldn’t see her hand in front of her face.

But she knew exactly where she was.

Everything was too familiar. She didn’t need light, didn’t need to see, just as a person doesn’t need those things to recognize the very skin they inhabit.

This was the first home she had known since her earliest memories.

And the last.

After it, all the other houses—no longer trailer-shaped, each with a different appearance and location—were just houses.

That beautiful, expensive apartment in Blackmoor City now seemed like a daydream her eight-year-old self had once had: distant, unreal, as alien as a foreign planet. She had been completely out of place there.

In this trailer, in the only true home of her life, Jin Xueli had learned many, many things. That was how she had managed to struggle free of that year she was nineteen, escape to Blackmoor City, fall into a Nest, and then emerge from it in one piece.

The cheap faux leather beneath her was old and cracked. It stuck to the skin of her thighs, pricking her with the slightest movement.

She was both twenty-eight and twelve.

Every corner of the home was crammed full of all sorts of junk, not a single inch of counter space to be found, yet nothing was ever thrown away. The trailer was always stuffy with a mixed stench of sweat and canned food. On second thought, that didn’t make any sense.

Because even with the doors and windows shut tight, the old trailer always seemed on the verge of falling apart, with wind whistling in through its very bones all day long.

It wasn’t just the wind. There were summer’s mosquitoes, the neighbors’ shouting matches, and now, the footsteps approaching the trailer one by one...

Jin Xueli released the safety.

She couldn’t see the door, but the direction of the footsteps was clear.

Besides, this was her home.

The man’s slurred voice shouted her mother’s name at the door several times. Jin Xueli listened as he loudly cleared his throat, hacking up a glob of phlegm and spitting it right at the door.

A violent BANG rattled the door. "Open up!"

The man’s anger mounted. Curses and threats splattered against the door as he demanded her mother give him his money back.

"...She went to town to buy groceries," a neighbor, who apparently couldn’t stand it anymore, yelled from an open door. "It’s no use shouting."

"Taking my money to buy groceries," the man slurred, cursing drunkenly, then suddenly paused.

’...Here he comes.’

"Oh, then... Xueli must be home, right?" The man’s lips were practically pressed against the crack of the door. "Open the door, it’s your uncle..."

As the trailer door was kicked open and the dusky violet twilight poured in, Jin Xueli aimed her gun at the figure in the doorway.

"One!"

***

「December 5, 2026, 11:31 PM」

「Central section of 121st and 119th Street, Blackmoor City」

Jin Xueli gasped, jolting awake from the dream.

***

「December 5, 2026, 11:33 PM」

「Intersection of Shady Enshrinement Road, Blackmoor City」

Jin Xueli gasped, jolting awake from the dream.

***

「December 5, 2026, 11:35 PM」

「Junction of 102nd Street and Shelter Harbor Avenue, Blackmoor City」

Jin Xueli gasped, jolting awake from the dream.

The instant she woke, a bright light flooded her vision. She squinted instinctively as the sensation of a torrential downpour beating against her body suddenly rushed into her mind. For a moment, she didn’t even know where she was—until a hand clamped down on her shoulder and yanked her backward.

"Run!"

Jin Xueli froze. She turned her head and saw that Tian Xi had already taken off without her.

’Why—’

She glanced in the opposite direction and immediately understood.

Amidst the torrential rain that seemed to pour from the heavens, an oil tanker had just lost control.

Its tires, tank, and driver’s side window were riddled with countless bullet holes. The tanker had completely overturned and was lying on its side, yet its engine still roared in the downpour, its momentum carrying it straight toward the intersection.

The intense heat from the friction caused the road surface to steam like a thick fog. A massive amount of black liquid, like countless waterfalls finally set free, gushed out into the world. It was swept in all directions by the wind and rain, evaporated into the sky by the heatwave, and splattered across the mortal world by the violent tremors.

Jin Xueli’s grip loosened, and the machine gun—which she didn’t even remember holding—fell to the ground with a CLANG.

With the front of the truck bearing down on her like a collapsing mountain, she spun around and desperately chased after Tian Xi.

"Wh-what’s going on—"

The moment she opened her mouth, countless raindrops flew in. The wind cut through her clothes, and the rainwater sloshing at her feet felt as if it were trying to grab her ankles and pull her back. No, it wasn’t just rainwater on the road anymore.

"It’s Original Liquid!"

She had no idea if Tian Xi could even hear her; she just shouted to no one in particular, "We knocked over the tanker full of Original Liquid! Where did it come from... was it the Knight Family’s? Wh-what’s happening? Why was I—"

Behind her, the oil tanker, like a giant beast in its death throes, finally crashed into a building by the roadside. The ground beneath them rumbled and shook, as if trying to fling off all the water and the people in it.

Jin Xueli finally lost her footing and slipped, falling to the ground.

"Tian Xi!"

Tian Xi seemed to finally hear her cry and skidded to a halt. He was tall with long legs; in just a few breaths, he had already reached the other end of the intersection.

"Give me a hand," Jin Xueli gasped, crying out, "I think I twisted my ankle... Tian Xi?"

Tian Xi remained standing where he was, completely still.

’What’s wrong? Didn’t he hear me?’

Jin Xueli struggled back to her feet. Her ankle didn’t seem to be badly sprained. She glanced at the oil tanker not far behind her, then gritted her teeth against the pain and ran toward him, calling out again, "Tian Xi!"

This time, Tian Xi finally reacted.

He turned his head and looked at Jin Xueli—with an indescribable expression on his face.

Tian Xi wiped the water from his face and pointed to the far end of the T-intersection. "Look," he said, his voice hoarse.

Limping on one foot, Jin Xueli walked over and stopped.

She froze.

She suddenly understood the look on Tian Xi’s face.

Several hundred meters away, on another street, lay another oil tanker, also overturned. Small clusters of flames flickered on its body, not yet completely extinguished by the rain.

Beyond the flickering flames, a car was parked.

The people in the car looked up, their eyes meeting theirs. They slowly opened the car doors, as if waking from a long dream, and got out. They stood behind the open doors, motionless.

From a distance, Jin Xueli and Tian Xi watched Jin Xueli and Tian Xi.