Illusion Report

"Robert!"

Mai Mingle was the first to react. She shot to her feet, yelling, "Get out of the way!"

The person leaning against the wall, sitting directly beneath the crack, was Robert, who had been winding himself up.

He was completely absorbed, as if ascending through the accumulating sensation of each turn. Mai Mingle had to call his name twice before he finally snorted and came to his senses. "...What? What are you yelling about?"

Before Mai Mingle could answer, he seemed to realize something was wrong.

Robert tilted his flushed, plastic face upward.

He was met with the face on the Tian Xi backdrop, which cast a smiling shadow over him.

Robert shuddered, a half-strangled cry slipping from his throat. He instantly let go. He managed to retain enough sense not to instinctively jump up—otherwise, he would have thrown himself right into the Tian Xi backdrop’s arms. Instead, he scrambled sideways, knocking Li Stan into the wall.

Antennae snapped off. Amid Li Stan’s cries of pain, Robert whipped out the pistol at his waist and fired several shots at the crack.

But the backdrop was only three to five centimeters thick at most. The bullets grazed past it, ricocheted off the wall, and turned into a spray of stray shots. Everyone frantically ducked for cover, screaming and shouting. The scene descended into chaos.

Li Stan yelled repeatedly, "Push it out! Push it back out!"

"You touch it if you want to," Robert roared. He then ordered Emily, who was on the stairs below, "What are you doing just sitting there like an idiot? Run, get out of the way!"

Suo Beihua was also shouting, "Come back! We can’t get separated!"

By now, Mai Mingle had already turned and rushed up the stairs. From her vantage point on the next flight, she could finally get a clear view of the entire Tian Xi backdrop.

’Backdrop’ didn’t seem like the right word.

The man-shaped piece of heavy cardboard had Tian Xi printed on both sides—his face on one, the back of his head on the other. The images were so clear and lifelike it was as if a living person had been pressed flat.

Even as a piece of cardboard, its movement seemed unimpeded. Within seconds, it had slid further into the stairwell, its body now mostly inside.

Mai Mingle raised a trembling, weak hand. She squinted one eye, barely managing to aim her gun at the cardboard figure below, and yelled, "Everyone get back, I’m going to shoot!"

Suddenly, the two arms printed on the cardboard figure split away from its shoulders.

The "Cardboard Tian Xi" used its two long, flat cardboard arms to push hard against the wall, then fell to the floor with a THUD. It landed upside down, leaning against the wall, looking for a moment like a prop that someone had temporarily set aside.

At the same time, Mai Mingle emptied her clip into the back of the Cardboard Tian Xi.

The gunshots crashed through the stairwell like waves of thunder, drowning out all the panicked screams. In the fading echo, the sound of everyone’s breathing was clearly audible as they waited for what would happen next.

The cardboard was motionless. Its back was riddled with holes, bent and crumpled from the impact.

With a soft FLAP, a small piece of new cardboard fell from somewhere and landed on the floor.

Li Stan summoned his courage and peeked over for a look. From her higher position, Mai Mingle also saw it clearly.

The piece of cardboard was round with a pointed tail at the bottom, like a dialogue bubble from a comic book.

"It hurts,"

was written on the cardboard. "I came to save people, and you repay my kindness with ingratitude? Ah, I get it. You aren’t real interviewees. You’re all fakes—residents. That’s why you look a little strange, all swollen and filled with too much fluid..."

A second dialogue bubble fell, this one reading: "Ha! Since you’re all residents, I don’t have to be polite anymore."

"Move it, already!"

Robert had also read the text on the cardboard. He spun around on the landing and kicked at Emily, who was blocking the stairs. "Don’t block—"

His words turned into a cry of pain before he could finish. Robert staggered back, one foot dangling in the air. "My toes—my toes—"

Emily remained seated motionlessly on the stairs, not even wobbling from the impact.

"Get down,"

Suo Beihua, who had been coiled on the corner landing not far from Mai Mingle, suddenly shouted. "Hold on tight! Don’t let me sweep you off!"

Mai Mingle paid no attention to whether the others had understood or had time to react.

Because in that moment, her gaze was captivated by the thick snake tail beneath Suo Beihua. It was as if she had sunk into the shimmering green waves formed by countless fine scales, unable to pull herself free—a river of dark green, glistening wetly as it uncoiled and extended through the air.

The Cardboard Tian Xi, which had just gotten back up, was caught squarely in the tail’s path. The tail wrapped around it and continued its forward surge. As it swept over the open stairwell, the tail loosened its grip—and the Cardboard Tian Xi plummeted straight down into the infinite void.

Countless small, round pieces of cardboard instantly flew into the air, each printed with the same word, forming a chain in midair:

"Ah"

"Ah"

"Ah"

The small cardboards vanished in an instant, following their master into the fall.

’It was hard to know whether to find it absurd, funny, or terrifying.’

"Are you all right?"

A few seconds later, Mai Mingle came to her senses, her eyes darting between Suo Beihua’s face and her snake tail. "Did you... did you touch it with your snake tail illusion?"

"...Is it still an illusion?" Suo Beihua said in a low voice, looking down at her tail.

Mai Mingle couldn’t answer.

’Was her own head slowly solidifying, turning into a mirror?’

"That’s great," Li Stan said with a sigh of relief, seemingly unbothered by the antennae all over his body. "Your snake tail is so useful! I’ll handle detection, and you can sweep any attackers into the stairwell. If we work together, we’ll have nothing to fear, right?"

Robert hissed in a sharp breath of cold air and hopped back to the crack. He bent down and picked something up off the floor.

"That’s not a guarantee. There are definitely people who can avoid detection and aren’t afraid of the stairwell... What’s your plan for them?"

The stairwell fell silent for a second or two.

Mai Mingle had just reached up to touch her face. When her fingers closed around a very real "doorknob," her heart sank—she hadn’t heard a word Li Stan had said.

Suo Beihua was staring at Li Stan, her lips pressed into a thin line.

Robert had been bent over picking something up. Emily hadn’t said a word in a long time, let alone a long sentence like that.

’...So, who was it that just answered Li Stan?’

All the antennae on Li Stan’s body slowly turned, aiming in unison toward the stairwell in front of him.

Mai Mingle looked down at the railing by her feet.

From the edge of the stairs next to Emily, from beneath the railing in front of her, and from the stairwell Li Stan was facing, three heads slowly rose into view.

Three people had climbed up the stairwell and reached them at some point.

"Fortunately, you don’t have to worry or be afraid anymore." The round head at Mai Mingle’s feet opened its mouth to speak to her. "We’ve come to save you."

"Even though you didn’t pass the interview," said another figure—one that vaguely resembled Tian Xi but was definitely more lizard-like (a person?)—"we still have to get you out of the Nest."

"Otherwise, who would dare come to our K-k-k-k-k—Family for an interview in the future," the last one chimed in, its voice faintly feminine.

She (it?) either couldn’t pronounce "the Kai Family," or in that lizard-person’s reality, their Family Faction was literally "the Kakakakaka Family."

It only took three or four seconds for everyone to realize that bullets were useless.

Some bullets were swallowed whole. Others sank gently into the lizard skin only to bounce off playfully, like little insects playing with the lizards. For a moment, the atmosphere was almost lively and cheerful—for the lizards, that is.

"Hurry up and sweep them away!" Li Stan shouted. "Use your tail!"

"Shut up," Suo Beihua snapped.

"Oh, what are you doing here," one of the lizards said.

Another lizard fell into thought. "Why are you shooting at us? Don’t you want to be saved? Then again, how come you haven’t retained any lizard-like features at all? It’s very suspicious."

"Go!" Mai Mingle yelled. "Head upstairs, now!"

A tail that long and thick would be instantly grabbed by the lizard-people, who would use it to climb right up. It was no wonder Suo Beihua was reluctant to use it.

Almost everyone was scrambling upstairs in a blind panic. So what if it was only a temporary solution? Surviving for another moment was all that mattered.

However, someone didn’t think so.

Emily stood on the corner landing and said, "I’m not afraid."

Mai Mingle stopped short, almost getting hit by Robert from behind. ’Getting bumped by that wind-up key would be awful.’

"Emily," she yelled, leaning over the railing and shouting down, "Get up here!"

"I’m not weak," Emily said.

Something that looked like Chebri, but in the shape of a lizard, slowly rose up on its hind legs behind her.

Judging by her increasingly thick and hard shell, convincing her in a few seconds was probably impossible. Mai Mingle turned back, grabbed Suo Beihua’s hand beside her, and said imploringly, "...Please."

Suo Beihua understood what she meant. She glanced down quickly—the other two lizard-human hybrids were also climbing straight up the stairwell, about to catch up again.

"Why?" Suo Beihua asked. "Are you with her?"

"No," Mai Mingle whispered, "but she’s a human life."

Suo Beihua hesitated for a split second. The muscle in her jaw twitched, and then her snake tail unfurled from beneath her once more. As expected, Emily the giant nut had no time to resist before she was wrapped up and dragged up the stairs.

"Come on," Mai Mingle said, reaching for the nut. There was actually nothing to grab onto; it was less like grabbing Emily and more like nudging her along.

"If you value human life so much, why are you even doing this?"

Suo Beihua pushed Emily from behind as the three of them hurried to catch up with Robert and Li Stan ahead.

Mai Mingle had no time to answer her. She could only give a wry smile and say, "Let’s just run!"

But they could only climb the stairs flight after flight on two feet (except for Suo Beihua), while the lizards could swim straight up on all fours. How could they possibly outrun them?

A suspicion grew in Mai Mingle’s mind: ’It feels like they could have pounced on us long ago, but they haven’t.’

The three lizard-like people even seemed to gradually slow down. Once or twice when she looked back, she saw them gripping the railing, crouched at the edge of the stairs, observing something.

...This question was answered soon enough.

"Have you noticed," said Tian Xixi, "on the emergency exit sign..."

"Yes, I noticed it on the lower floors. The little man isn’t running anymore," said Xi Baiyi.

’What little man isn’t running?’

Mai Mingle and Suo Beihua exchanged a glance. Even if it was a trap, they no longer had the energy to resist. They both looked up at the emergency exit sign.

The little man really wasn’t running anymore.

The little figure, which had been pictured striding forward on the sign, was now standing still, its legs together. It didn’t look like it belonged on an emergency exit sign—more like the sign for a men’s restroom.

Not only had its posture changed, but its size had too.

Before, its head and limbs had all fit within the sign, but now it seemed too big to fit. The little man’s legs were no longer visible.

"It’s getting bigger with every floor..." said the Sha Xue-lizard. "No, that doesn’t seem right."

Xi Baiyi suddenly understood. "Oh, the little man is gradually getting closer to us! Closer with every floor. In another floor or two, it should crawl right out of the sign."

As if in response, a scream suddenly rang out from Li Stan on the floor above.