Illusion Report

Ever since she’d almost escaped only to run right back, the translucent face’s attacks had grown fiercer, more unwilling to let her go. Just a moment ago, it had slammed into her from the depths of her own eyes, and Mai Mingle’s vision had gone black for several seconds.

"What’s wrong with you? Just gonna stand there panting instead of talking?"

Robert lost his patience waiting for her answer. He suddenly turned and strode upstairs, shouting, "This is the floor, right?"

Suo Beihua grew wary. "What do you think you’re doing?"

"Don’t you want to get out?" Robert said with a smile. "She said our reality is behind the wall on this floor, right? So let’s tear it down and see what’s really behind it."

The man was like a wind-up toy; once he was wound up, his mind would start working. Robert seemed to have had a plan all along—when Mai Mingle carefully peeked upstairs, she saw him standing at the landing, raising his cardboard gun toward the opposite wall.

He squeezed the trigger, then let go.

The cement-gray wall remained silent, showing no signs of change.

Robert walked up to it, placed a hand on the wall, and gave it a hard shove.

The same wall that had taken five people half a day of hammering just to crack, now suddenly felt weightless. It slid open smoothly from the sides, revealing the hollow interior of thick cardboard. The whole section tipped backward out of the stairwell, opening up a patch of sky.

Daylight and a rush of cool, fresh air flooded the stairwell, making Mai Mingle shiver.

Robert peered outside for a moment. From where Mai Mingle was standing, she couldn’t see what lay beyond the wall.

He walked back down the stairs.

"Are you sure this floor is our reality, the one we came from?" Robert asked.

"...Yes."

He glanced around, and his eyes suddenly landed on Emily.

Mai Mingle’s heart sank.

"You wouldn’t want to be the first one out, would you?" Robert said. "Let’s drop Emily down, see what happens, and then we’ll go. How about it?"

He had no intention of waiting for an opinion, though. The words had barely left his lips when he wrapped his arms around Emily’s waist and, with a grunt of effort, hauled her up a step.

"Wait," Mai Mingle said, startled. "Are you really planning to throw her down from the third floor?"

"This thick shell... she won’t shatter if she falls. It’s practically designed for this," Robert shot her a look, continuing to drag Emily. "If not her, then who? You want to go first?"

"No, that’s not right. Stop, wait a second." Mai Mingle scrambled to sort through her thoughts. "When I entered, it was from *inside* the third floor. But the opening you made leads *outside*..."

"Didn’t you say this was the right floor?" he retorted. "As long as the floor is right, it’s the same reality. What difference does it make if we’re inside or outside the building?"

Suo Beihua stood in a corner of the landing, her brow tightly furrowed. Her expression was grim, but she didn’t make a move to stop him—likely out of fear of the cardboard gun.

"Let her go!"

Panicked, Mai Mingle rushed a few steps up the stairs. But before she could reach the landing, the translucent face surged up like a giant aquatic creature from the ocean floor, completely swallowing her vision. Though she knew turning her head was useless, she instinctively wrenched it to the side, biting back a cry of pain.

She braced herself for it, but the second impact never came.

...The translucent face had suddenly stopped.

It hovered behind her retina, like a cluster of floaters forming a human face, unmoving as if it were imprinted on her very eyeball.

Mai Mingle blinked, catching her breath.

Following her line of sight, Suo Beihua turned to look at her. "What in the world is wrong with you?"

Mai Mingle raised a hand and touched her face—ever since she’d opened the "door" last time, she hadn’t closed it.

She was standing halfway up the stairs, looking up. That meant the mirror behind the door was reflecting Suo Beihua’s face.

’So that was it.’

"Do you see her?" Mai Mingle asked, her voice hoarse. "...You see her, don’t you? Why did you stop?"

Robert, still holding Emily, paused and eyed her suspiciously. "What? Are you talking to me?"

Mai Mingle shook her head. "No. But just wait a few minutes."

Without giving Robert a chance to react, she looked up at Suo Beihua and said, "Today is November 24th."

"...Right. So what?"

"On the night of November 22nd, I saw Chaisi Monroe at Between the Backlight."

Mai Mingle watched her reaction closely, speaking in a low voice. "He seemed a little under the weather at the time, but he was still well enough to get into a gunfight in the back alley. I’m guessing the whole bar knows about it. The interview was yesterday, November 23rd. For some reason, Chaisi wasn’t with the Kai Family, and he didn’t conduct the interviews. We entered the Nest at ten o’clock this morning."

"What are you getting at?" Suo Beihua asked, raising an eyebrow.

"You said you wanted to infiltrate the Kai Family to track Chaisi’s movements." Mai Mingle took a breath. "...Why?"

"I don’t understand what you mean."

"For an outsider, Chaisi was only missing for one day, the 23rd. He could have just been sleeping at home. His movements are otherwise quite clear, right? There’s no reason to infiltrate the Kai Family just to find out what he did on the 22nd, nor does a single missing day warrant taking such a huge risk, right?"

Suo Beihua remained silent, her eyes fixed on her.

Those eyes, as emerald green as a serpent’s tail, seemed to hold a gaze with the sharp edge of a knife.

Robert glanced back and forth between them, utterly bewildered.

"You told me you were here to investigate his movements because you knew—and you thought I knew, too—that something had happened to him."

Mai Mingle let out a soft sigh.

"Claiming you wanted to go undercover in the Kai Family... that was a pretty smart cover story. It would explain why you’re so familiar with Tian Xi, right down to remembering which way his braid falls. After all, he’s a member of the Kai Family, one of your ’targets,’ so it’s not unreasonable for you to know a few things about him. It’s not the most plausible explanation, of course, but it’s enough to get by."

The translucent face in her vision remained floating there, seemingly staring intently at Suo Beihua as well.

She couldn’t tell if it was just an illusion, but Mai Mingle had a feeling that the expression on the face was... lost. Panicked. Utterly bewildered.

It was as if all he had of Suo Beihua was a hazy memory. As if, after many years, he’d spotted a town flashing by his train window and couldn’t quite recognize it as the hometown of his youth.

"You wouldn’t know the intel my Family Faction has, of course. We have our reasons."

Suo Beihua shook her head, then suddenly smiled. "That one blank day you pointed out isn’t the reason I’m here. The term ’movements’ can mean many things. You can’t assume from that one word that I only want to know Chaisi’s location, can you? What if they have a plan, and I want the inside story?"

Mai Mingle got a strange feeling.

It felt less like a denial and more like she was prompting Mai Mingle to continue.

"You’re right, that alone doesn’t prove much." Mai Mingle held up two fingers. "But I noticed two other things."

"Oh?"

"First, you said something once—that this infinite stairwell is filled with endless second floors and endless third floors. But the Kai Family never told us the building was only three stories high. From the outside, it’s over ten meters tall, much higher than a typical three-story building. That was a piece of information we got from Tian Xi. For a building that tall, why were you so certain it only contained second and third floors, but no fourth?"

Suo Beihua paused for a moment. "And the second?"

"...Second, Chaisi recognized you just now."

Suo Beihua froze. The next second, her expression changed completely, her voice tight. "What do you mean by that?"

"You’re a Kai Family Hunter, aren’t you?"

Mai Mingle asked softly.