Illusion Report

Peering in from outside the convenience store, she could just see the short hallway in front of the restroom.

Even though she had a sneaking suspicion, Jin Xueli couldn’t stop the hairs on her arms from standing on end as she slowly turned her head.

The corpse of the clerk, who was supposed to be dead, took a step out of the restroom and looked around.

Its front face was looking at the wall ahead, but the long, narrow face on the left side of its head locked eyes with Jin Xueli from a distance.

She instinctively started to crawl backward—but stopped the moment her back hit a gas pump.

’A step or two behind me, there’s still that woman lying on the ground...’

A dozen or so steps away, the clerk stood in the aisle of the convenience store. Its left face stared at her, unmoving. Suddenly, the corner of its mouth hooked upward, while the rest of its facial muscles sank straight down—as if the corner of its own mouth had pierced through its cheek.

’...I don’t even know what to call that expression,’ Jin Xueli thought. ’Is it laughing or crying?’

It didn’t speak. Gripping the leg of the high stool still stuck in its chest with both hands, it yanked it outward with all its might.

As the stool leg was pulled from the wound, a cloud of putrid, black dust immediately billowed out.

The clerk bent over, and even more of the fine, blackish-gray dust poured out. It placed the stool gently on the ground, the eyes on its left face fixed on Jin Xueli, never blinking.

"Wha—what’s going on?"

She didn’t expect an answer, but to her surprise, the woman behind her actually replied.

"That clerk dies a violent death once every six hours."

The woman let go of the vest, crawled forward a little, and stopped beside Jin Xueli.

In the shadows, she whispered, "It never knows who the killer is, because usually, there isn’t one. The moment the time is up, anything in its surroundings can become the cause of its violent death."

Huh? ’Now that she mentioned it, on the alarm on the clerk’s chest, the space after the words ’The killer is’ was indeed blank.’

’So it’s not that it doesn’t know, but that there’s no killer to begin with?’

"Then, I also saw that the alarm said, ’Be right back’... so the one who’d be right back was the clerk itself?" For a moment, Jin Xueli didn’t know whether to laugh or curse. "What kind of bullshit is this?"

"Not only is it real," the woman whispered, lying beside her, "but that ’bullshit’ is walking right toward you."

The clerk had turned around and was approaching the convenience store entrance. It stood behind the glass door, backlit into a dark silhouette. She couldn’t see its front face clearly, but she could vaguely make out the outlines of two noses, one on the left and one on the right, protruding high into the air.

A jolt went through Jin Xueli as she realized. "It—it wants its vest back, doesn’t it? Is that why you warned me to take it off? I’ll do it right now—"

As she spoke, she was already pulling one of her arms out of the vest’s armhole.

Even at a time like this, she couldn’t help a flicker of surprise. ’It’s this easy to take off?’

’The thing that turns you into a clerk, and you can just take it off whenever you want? Seriously? So "consent" is something you can just decide on later?’

But the next surprise followed immediately—the woman suddenly slammed her hand down, pressing the vest tightly against Jin Xueli’s chest again, preventing her from taking it off.

"What are you doing?" Jin Xueli panicked as she watched the dark silhouette push open the store door. "Aren’t you here to save me? Weren’t you just telling me to take off the vest?"

The woman whipped her head around, her mouth-hole gaping wide. The sudden, explosive rage that erupted from her almost made Jin Xueli’s vision go black.

"Then was then I told you to take it off then and you dawdled now you want to take it off now are you asking to die are you stupid if you turn back into a useless human what’s the difference between that and serving yourself up on a platter what’s the difference huh you tell me what’s the difference difference difference diff—"

She was truly incandescent with rage, slamming Jin Xueli with that torrent of words in a single breath.

But Jin Xueli’s eyes brightened with understanding.

’Of course. Someone on the verge of becoming a full resident would be more experienced. I almost forgot that residents have an incredibly unfair advantage in the Nest.’

She immediately motioned for the woman to let go and quickly slid her arm back into the vest.

The clerk leaned halfway out the door, staring fixedly at them.

"So even though I haven’t turned into a resident, this is enough to keep me from being killed?"

Jin Xueli asked as she scrambled to her feet—she couldn’t just sit on the ground and wait for the enemy.

"In your dreams."

"Huh? Then why am I still wearing—"

A taut, thin, sharp voice spoke from the side of the clerk’s head. "...It was you, wasn’t it?"

Jin Xueli whipped her head around. "What?"

"You’re the one who killed me, aren’t you?"

The lips on the clerk’s front face remained sealed as it stared at her. The voice continued, "You wanted to usurp my station as clerk. You killed me, dragged me into the restroom, and took off my vest... I saw it all."

"If you can’t speak like a normal person, then don’t speak at all. A lousy clerk. It’s not a ’station,’ it’s a ’job.’ Does a ’job’ need ’usurping’? You were already dead when I got here."

Jin Xueli sized up the distance to the store entrance as she spoke. "If you saw me so clearly, why didn’t you get a look at your killer?"

"The killer is too cunning. The one who secretly killed me before... could that have been you, too?" The clerk ignored her question. "It must have been you this morning, too. I understand now. You’ve been hunting me."

If it weren’t for the logistical problem of slapping four faces at once, Jin Xueli would have slapped it.

"Why doesn’t it know that it dies every six hours?" she asked, turning to the woman on the ground.

"It obviously knows,"

The woman raised a hand and gestured. A piece of dry, flaking skin on her wrist dangled like a cuff. "It just assumes there has to be a killer."

"Sometimes there are exceptions," the clerk added, right beside Jin Xueli.

’When did it get so close?’

It had only taken the time to shift her gaze—

Jin Xueli scrambled backward, forgetting in her panic about the gas pump behind her. With a loud CLANG, she slammed into it, the impact rattling her senses.

But she had been a Hunter for many years. Even with her head ringing and vision blurred, the instincts honed by crisis took over. Leaning back against the gas pump, Jin Xueli lashed out with a heavy kick, her boot burying itself deep into something soft.

The clerk grunted and staggered back two steps. The moment allowed her to fully regain her senses, and she immediately crouched and dove to the side.

In the dim light, she swept her arm out, snatching her water bottle from the ground and hooking her fingers through the strap.

After it regained its footing, the face on the right side of the clerk’s head was facing Jin Xueli.

A pair of eyes, with their inner and outer corners swapped, blinked from bottom to top. Its head remained still, but its body twisted slightly, bringing its front to face Jin Xueli.

Before she had time to feel sick, she had already swung her arm. The one-liter water bottle carved an arc through the air, and at the end of its trajectory—like the talons of a swooping bird of prey—it slammed squarely into the clerk’s right face.

It must have screamed.

The reason she wasn’t sure was that by the time her senses returned, she was already on the ground, with no idea how she had gotten there.

The gas pump, the convenience store, the night sky, the world... everything was still spinning around her, laughing shrilly, stomping, and whirling.

The colors and shapes of everything had suddenly become unstable, like reflections shimmering on water.

She didn’t dare look past those reflections, down into the water beneath, afraid her sanity would be pulled under and never resurface.

Jin Xueli knew that some residents’ voices could cause temporary psychosis; she had even experienced it before. But she’d never encountered one this powerful. ’How long was I out?’

She didn’t know, but it was long enough for the resident to recover from the pain and crouch down in front of her.

"Which of my faces do you like?"

It lowered its neck toward Jin Xueli, its front-most face nearly touching hers. Four voices from four mouths resonated together in a low hum.

Never mind an experienced Hunter; even an idiot would know not to answer that question directly.

"Don’t worry," she said, "I have absolutely no intention of fighting you for the clerk position."

Gazing at the long, blurry, flesh-colored shape floating in the darkness, her stomach twisted into knots. The water bottle strap was still miraculously hooked around her fingers, but at this range, it was useless as a weapon. She struggled to keep her breathing even. "This vest," she said, "I’ll just—"

Jin Xueli suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.

’No.’

’The woman was right. Once the clerk woke up, I couldn’t take off the vest no matter what.’

’Didn’t the notice on the back of the restroom door state it clearly?’

’Once the clerk woke up, if I took off the vest, I’d instantly change from a "creature in transition" to a "Hunter" in its eyes. And according to the notice, the clerk would immediately summon all nearby residents.’

’But the woman also said that wearing the vest wouldn’t stop a resident from killing me, right?’

’...What should I do?’

"Speak up," the clerk said, lunging forward with its head to catch up with the retreating Jin Xueli. "Which face do you like?"

Perhaps no Hunter in the world other than Jin Xueli would get distracted at such a life-or-death moment.

Her gaze traveled past the clerk, and she saw that the woman had crawled behind another gas pump, putting two or three meters between herself and the clerk. She was lying flat on the ground, only her face visible.

Their eyes met. The woman stopped waving her hand, then glanced toward the clerk before pointing at herself.

’...What does that mean?’

’Does she want me to lure the clerk over to her?’

’If the clerk would listen to me, I wouldn’t be in this—hey, wait a minute.’

"You were half right,"

Though an idea had sparked, Jin Xueli was far from confident; every muscle in her body was trembling. "I do want to take your station as clerk, but not for myself. It’s for my ally."

She had already悄悄 slipped the convenience store keys from her pocket. Before the clerk could react, she raised her arm and tossed the keychain high into the night air, aiming for the woman in the distance.

Three of the clerk’s faces looked up while one looked down, and they all shouted in unison, "The keys!"

Jin Xueli immediately dropped and rolled. As she sprang back to her feet, the clerk twisted around and lunged for the keys.

"Letting people into the store to use the restroom is just a clerk’s good service and you used it to steal my keys give me back my keys wait who is this person are they human or a resident let go let go!"

Jin Xueli glanced back hastily and saw that the clerk had caught the keys, but the woman had caught it by the leg.

Its strength was clearly far greater than the woman’s. With just a few struggles, it kicked away more of the cracked skin from her arms and body, a sight that made one want to gasp in sympathetic pain. She had practically wrapped her entire upper body around the clerk’s leg, but it still looked as though she could be flung off at any moment.

"Go, now!"

The woman roared at her, "Find a place with rules, or another area where residents roam! Get inside and hide for six hours! Just wait for it to die again!"

’Why would a resident save me? And more than once?’

Jin Xueli didn’t even have time to say thanks. She dove into the convenience store, rushed behind the counter, and snatched her backpack. Thankfully, the water bottle was still in her hand; she just stuffed it into her bag. But as she was about to head out the door, her feet suddenly stopped. ’I should check the power cord for the refrigerated display. And it looks like a new shipment came in, I need to get it on the shelves right away.’

’And what about the flyers the English teacher asked me to put up? I still haven’t posted them. They need to go somewhere prominent, so the customers can see them...’

"If you dare start mopping the floor, I swear I’ll kill you!" another furious roar sounded from outside.

The shout jolted Jin Xueli back to her senses.

"Not mopping, not mopping," she said, hastily putting down the flyers. "And I won’t post the flyers... Ah, wait."

Jin Xueli snatched the flyers back up.

The "Night University" wasn’t far... ’Isn’t that exactly "another area where residents roam"?’