Illusion Report

"That’s not happening."

Han Liuyue seemed to have turned into a piece of human-shaped adhesive, wedging herself in the doorway. She used her body to practically glue the wall and door together, showing no intention of letting him pass.

For Chaisi, having a subordinate so casually dismiss his request was a first in his entire life.

By reflex, his voice dropped. "...What did you say?"

His deeply threatening tone usually had an immediate effect, but on Han Liuyue, it was like dust settling in a corner. The world simply kept spinning.

"I said no."

Han Liuyue said it plainly.

She didn’t turn around. Her face was still pressed to the crack in the door, her voice filtering through the black hair on the back of her head. "Didn’t you all just keep stressing it? Your life is important right now. I can’t let you go out there and get yourself killed."

’Get myself killed?’ He—

Just then, Chaisi’s legs, like two hollow sticks barely holding him up, gave a slight tremble, jolting him back to reality.

Since his teens, Chaisi had built a powerful confidence in his skills and reflexes. His strength, speed, and adaptability had long since become an inherent part of him, as natural as breathing.

Just as a person doesn’t worry they’ll suddenly forget how to breathe, he had never imagined a day would come when his strength would fail him.

Just a moment ago, he had subconsciously been about to grab Han Liuyue and toss her aside to clear a path.

It wasn’t even a conscious thought. After countless practiced motions, violence had become his default path—the shortest, most efficient solution.

But now, that confidence hadn’t had time to adjust to his new reality.

’...How am I supposed to drag this body out there and bring Jin Xueli back?’

"You said you sensed something outside," Chaisi asked in a low voice. "You didn’t see anyone, so what was it you sensed? What felt suspicious?"

Over the top of Han Liuyue’s head, he could see a sliver of the alley.

Just as she’d said, it was completely empty. Not a soul in sight.

The motion-sensor light above the door glowed weakly. Silky threads of white rain drifted into the light, and the alley’s deep darkness was disturbed by the feeble glow, dissolving into overlapping layers of shadow.

"It was just a vague feeling, like something was there that shouldn’t be. But I can’t tell you where it is, how big it is, or what it looks like..."

Her face still pressed to the doorway, Han Liuyue said, "If I could see your assassin, I’d have no problem killing him. Then you could take me to see the mayor, no worries. But I don’t see anyone, and I still feel something’s out there. How can I let you walk out into a death trap?

"Since Jin Xueli already stepped on the landmine for you, you should just hurry and leave through the front door. It’s not like she’s necessary for me to meet the mayor, anyway."

Chaisi froze.

’...What the hell is she talking about?’

Since when did Between the Backlight have a front door?

Hearing his challenge, Han Liuyue turned her head. Her gaze locked on him, fixed and unblinking, for a couple of seconds.

"I don’t understand. The front door is the front door. What do you mean, ’since when’?"

"Between the Backlight has no front door," Chaisi said. "The original one, down a flight of stairs from the sidewalk, was sealed up years ago."

Han Liuyue paused, looking like she wanted to say something but held herself back. An unreadable expression flickered across her full, round face.

After a few seconds, she drew out a long, slow "Ohhh." Looking at him, she said something he couldn’t quite decipher.

"Oh, so that’s how it is... Let me think. How can I make this situation work best for me?"

’If I weren’t still clinging to the slim hope that Han Liuyue could be resurrected, I’d kill her right now.’

Chaisi closed his eyes and took a deep breath.

’...I’m getting desperate.’

His perspective on the situation was skewed by Jin Xueli’s disappearance. Fundamentally, he shouldn’t even be thinking about saving her right now.

Jin Xueli was just a distraction.

If she was still alive, taking out the assassin would save her by default. If she was already dead, then thinking about how to save her was a waste of time.

The crucial point was that the assassin was here. So, where were they, and what was their plan of attack?

He could make an educated guess about those two questions. The enemy was probably in the alley, near the back door, and had likely set some kind of trap. The problem was, if they were using an Illusion, it was hard to predict its form or activation method.

Chaisi had once dealt with a trap-type Illusion that existed as particles dispersed throughout the atmosphere.

Once released, an area as large as Blackmoor City itself would be saturated by the trap. However, the Illusion particles would only activate when they came into contact with the target’s exhaled breath. They would then rapidly increase in concentration around the target, causing them to suffocate and die.

Even the most cautious person couldn’t live in a vacuum forever. No matter where you hid, you couldn’t escape the air. And as long as the target was alive, the Illusion particles would continue to spread.

That Illusion was single-use, and it still sold for a heavenly price with more commas than you could count.

Since then, Chaisi had learned two things:

One: he, and every other person on Earth, was now breathing in inert Illusion particles that could no longer activate. Two: Illusions could surpass all imagination, making them impossible to guard against.

’Looked at that way, I should probably thank Han Liuyue for stopping me.’

’They must have guessed that I leaked my own location specifically to draw them out, right?’

’So the assassin turned my own plan against me, setting a trap by the only exit. Between the Backlight is semi-subterranean; I have no other escape route. I was bound to walk right into it.’

But for the assassin, it was incredibly bad luck that Jin Xueli and her group came out right at that critical moment, revealing the danger to Chaisi just in the nick of time.

Chaisi knew he’d always been lucky.

Even this trap had been sprung for him by the very girl who’d just saved his life.

’...No matter how unimaginable an Illusion is, there should still be some trace of it.’

’Even the particle Illusion couldn’t hide from an atmospheric composition scan.’

"Open the door," Chaisi said suddenly. "I’m not going out. I just want to take a look outside, to see if there are any clues."

"Really?"

’If Han Liuyue grabbed me, I wouldn’t have the strength to force my way past her.’ But Chaisi didn’t say that aloud.

"Han Liuyue," he asked in a low voice, "have I ever broken a promise to you?"

Her snow-white, mask-like face stared at him, frozen in silence for a moment.

Beneath that mask-like face, a part of the real Han Liuyue still remained.

"...I understand."

She finally pushed the door open, but her feet remained planted. She was still blocking Chaisi’s path, her body shielding the doorway.

"If someone rushes over and starts shooting, I’m slamming this door shut immediately."

Han Liuyue said "shut the door," not "attack." ’So,’ Chaisi thought, ’the speed of her face-fragments embedding in someone’s body is slower than a bullet, huh?’

Chaisi stood behind Han Liuyue and watched the alley open up before him.

Threads of rain drifted from the sky, collecting in the uneven gaps between the paving stones. The dark puddles trembled under the impact, creating a fine, shimmering filigree of light.

The area right outside the door was empty. Standing inside and looking out at an angle, he could only see about ten feet ahead, where the dark shapes of two large dumpsters loomed. If anyone was hiding behind them, he’d be completely blind to them.

The view to the left was just as empty and dim, as if it hadn’t been disturbed by a human presence all night.

"Can we go back now?" Han Liuyue asked. "You can’t see anything."

Chaisi didn’t answer, his gaze still fixed on the dark alley outside.

"The only door isn’t safe right now, so you should just go back inside, sit tight, and wait for me to get my hands on an Illusion that will help me take down the mayor. We’ll leave when I get it. I don’t care if it takes hours, days, or even weeks—we wait. By then this back door... I mean, this door... will probably be safe."

’The most beneficial plan for her, of course.’ Whether Jin Xueli would still be alive by then wasn’t even a factor in Han Liuyue’s calculations.

"Just give me a few more minutes," Chaisi said.

"What on earth are you doing?"

"...Appreciating the rain."

Han Liuyue didn’t understand in the slightest. "What?"

He wasn’t lying. He was indeed watching the rain.

No poet, farmer, or meteorologist on earth had ever studied the rain with such focused intensity. He didn’t dare miss a single strand, a single drop, a single splash. To get a better view, Chaisi even crouched down, half-kneeling on the ground, and switched on his phone’s flashlight, bathing a patch of the alley in its bright-white beam.

A few minutes later, after repeated prodding from Han Liuyue, he finally stood up.

"Had enough of a look?" Han Liuyue asked.

"Yeah, I’ve seen enough."

Chaisi’s compliance was almost meek. He lowered his head and whispered in Han Liuyue’s ear, "...About ten feet. A square."

"What?"

She’d heard him perfectly; she just didn’t understand.

"I promised I wouldn’t go outside."

Chaisi straightened up and tipped his chin, signaling that she could close the door. "See? I stayed put, just like I said."

The door opened outward. Han Liuyue leaned forward, stretching her arm to grab the handle. "Oh. Thanks?" she said as she reached for it.

"You’re welcome."

Chaisi watched her back as she leaned forward, then reached out a hand.

"But I never said I wouldn’t push *you* out."

He only muttered those words after he’d used every last ounce of his strength to shove Han Liuyue into the alley.