Illusion Report

How did Jin Xueli know the clerk had been murdered with just a single glance?

How did she know it wasn’t an accident or a death by natural causes? How did she know he wasn’t just born with a tragically dead-looking face and was merely slacking off on the job?

The answer was simple.

Jin Xueli stared at the clerk’s corpse—no, ’corpse’ wasn’t the right word, but she hadn’t yet figured out what to call a conceptual aggregate—and for a moment, she even suspected she’d fallen into a trap.

A small red alarm bell was floating above the "corpse," casting a pool of red light all around. A ring of bright white LED text was displayed on the bell, spiraling around and around, making the red light flicker restlessly.

When Jin Xueli pushed open the door, the ring of white text on the alarm bell had just happened to shift into a human language:

"I have unfortunately been murdered"

"Aged 3.5, unmarried"

"The murderer is"

"Be right back"

’So who’s the murderer?!’ Jin Xueli couldn’t help but scream internally.

’And what’s with the "Be right back"? Is this really the time for suspense?’

’And what’s the deal with this alarm bell? Is it some kind of biological function? Does it just pop out when he dies?’

It could have left a dying message, but the four sentences it left were almost complete nonsense. Truly worthy of a Nest resident with their unfathomable minds.

It was also a coincidence. After the clerk’s body fell to the floor, the alarm bell’s red light was blocked by the cash register and the counter. Jin Xueli had been messing around in the store for a while and had only just now realized that not only was there a dead body behind the register, but the dead body had been issuing a constant warning.

Of course, calling it a dead "person" was a rather liberal use of the word "person."

How to describe it?

In the few short seconds before the nausea set in, Jin Xueli quickly sized up the clerk’s dead body.

Though it died at the age of 3.5, its appearance was that of a young man in his twenties or thirties, with four long, narrow faces.

She counted. There were indeed four of them.

’Good thing they’re narrow faces,’ Jin Xueli thought. ’If they were wide, how could you possibly fit four of them on the front, back, and sides of a single skull?’

The left cheekbone of one face was pressed right up against the right cheekbone of the next. A total of four narrow chins circled its neck, like... like four unfurled petals of flesh.

The clerk’s neck and body were like some kind of long worm crawling out from between the open flesh-petals, which then sprouted limbs, hands, and feet as it grew.

It wore a green and white vest, presumably the employee uniform. Besides the words "Nest Permanence," it also had a name tag pinned quite properly to it—though as for how to read the tangled, churning blotches of ink on the tag, Jin Xueli had no idea.

From between the open flaps of the vest, a high-backed stool had sprouted from the clerk’s chest like a mushroom.

’This... must be the murder method and weapon, all in one.’

It looked as if some person—or some resident—had brutally shoved the cashier’s own chair straight into the cashier’s chest.

’So brutal. It must have been a revenge killing, right? Hmm, but there are no signs of a struggle...’

’Wait a minute.’ Jin Xueli smacked herself on the forehead.

’What am I doing?’

’Have I been watching too many movies and reading too many novels? Why am I playing detective?’

It didn’t matter how it was killed by a high-backed stool. Right now, she was the first person to find the body and therefore the prime suspect—not to mention, a human. If she didn’t hurry up and run, what would happen if other residents caught her red-handed?

This was the second time tonight she’d found herself pondering the same question: Did the Nest have a police department?

...Whether there was an NSPD or not, she couldn’t linger.

But before fleeing the murder scene, there was one thing Jin Xueli had to figure out: how to get the Original Liquid.

’The cashier’s computer must be able to control the six pumps outside... I should find a way to activate one of the pumps, fill my portable water bottle with Original Liquid, and then run.’

But to get to the computer, she had to move the clerk’s body first.

It was blocking the way between Jin Xueli and the computer, its lower body bent and folded under the counter like origami. The space behind the counter was narrow, and with such a large humanoid creature collapsed on the floor, there was hardly any room left to stand.

Jin Xueli sighed. ’No other choice. I’ll have to drag it out...’

’But it doesn’t feel right to just leave it on the floor... Ah, there’s an employee restroom in the back. I’ll just drag it in there.’

She bent down, covering her hands with her sleeves. The closer she got to the clerk’s corpse, the more philosophical her questions about her own life became. ’Where am I? What was I born for?’

’Why does my life story include a Chapter on moving a resident’s corpse?’

Looking at it up close, the dizzying sense of cognitive dissonance intensified.

Each of the clerk’s four faces, even when viewed individually, deviated slightly from a human face—so slightly that if you didn’t look closely, you couldn’t quite put your finger on why it made you vaguely uncomfortable.

On one face, for instance, the inner and outer corners of the eyes were simply swapped; the two inner corners pointed toward the temples, while the two outer corners stabbed toward each other.

Another face, hovering in her peripheral vision, constantly grated on her nerves.

Jin Xueli glanced at it subconsciously several times, unable to understand why it was so unsettling—until she grabbed the clerk’s ankle to drag it away. Looking up, she finally realized that the nostrils on that face had fused into one.

There was only a single, empty black hole, with no columella.

’...Seriously, how did things suddenly escalate to this?’

Jin Xueli was trying to drag a corpse with a stool growing out of it, keep an eye on the store entrance, and be careful not to knock anything over all at once. By the time she finally managed to haul the body to the restroom door, she was drenched in sweat. But when she pushed the handle, she found the door was locked.

"Huh?"

As if to prevent the restroom door from changing its mind, she tried again. The door remained stubbornly unreasonable.

"Why would the restroom be locked? Are customers not allowed to use it? Ah, then again, do residents even need to use the restroom...?"

She shook her head hard, forcing herself to refocus.

"The key. The key to the restroom must be around here somewhere... Hmm, could it be at the register?"

A hand gently tapped her on the ankle.

Jin Xueli looked down.

The clerk’s hand moved away from her ankle and pointed to its own waist.

Jin Xueli followed its finger and, sure enough, spotted a set of keys peeking out from under the edge of its vest.

’Ah, great.’

’Mm... wait—’

’Now is not the time to say thank you—’

Jin Xueli stumbled back a few steps, failing to control her volume. "You—you’re not dead?"

The clerk’s corpse lay quietly on the floor, motionless.

The text on the alarm bell continued to spin, "I have unfortunately been murdered," "I have unfortunately been murdered." Flashes of red light pulsed before her eyes, making her nerves seize up again and again.

After waiting for several minutes, it seemed the clerk’s body was, in fact, just a body.

’Since it’s a resident... maybe this is some kind of post-mortem nerve reflex? That could be... normal, right?’

Jin Xueli took out her hammer, held it by the head, and used the handle to flip open the clerk’s vest. Underneath, she found just a set of keys. It didn’t look like a trap.

She tapped each of the four faces with the hammer, but the clerk’s corpse didn’t protest or cry out in pain.

Mustering her courage, she took the keys, unlocked the door, and then, standing against the wall, used her hammer to push the restroom door open. As long as she didn’t look at the corpse on the floor, everything felt almost peaceful and serene.

"W-well, I’m going to have to ask you to go in," Jin Xueli said to the corpse. "Can you walk on your own?"

Of course, the corpse couldn’t walk.

The question ’But can a corpse point to its own waist?’ belonged to that category of questions in the Nest that were meaningless to ask.

Right now, Jin Xueli just wanted to get the Original Liquid and escape the murder scene as soon as possible. She didn’t have the luxury of dwelling on it. She grabbed the corpse’s ankle and began to drag it, bit by bit, into the restroom.

The restroom was a single stall, very narrow. The mirror was covered with a cloth for some unknown reason—but no matter how curious she was, she knew she absolutely could not lift the cloth to take a peek.

She dragged the corpse, which in turn dragged the chair. It was heavy and unwieldy, and only with great difficulty did she manage to get it against the wall. Jin Xueli stuffed the keys in her pocket and was about to leave when she noticed a notice posted on the back of the restroom door, written in both human language and Nest script.

NOTICE

Recently, Hunters have often been seen skulking around, acting suspiciously, stealing merchandise from the store, tampering with the fuel pumps, and leaving behind a strong human stench and feces, which has caused great distress to our customers.

"Why do they make us sound like raccoons..." Jin Xueli grumbled.

To maintain a pleasant and comfortable service environment, please do not feed the Hunters, do not leave trash or expired goods outdoors, and above all, do not give them any opportunity to approach the fuel pumps or the convenience store, lest they build a nest here.

’Could it be—’

Reading this, Jin Xueli abruptly spun around.

In that instant, a full-blown scenario played out in her mind: the clerk wasn’t dead, this whole thing was a trap to lure her in, and the moment she turned, she would find it standing right behind her...

But the clerk was still very much dead.

It lay against the wall, its four faces—of which she could only see three—each pointing in a different direction. They looked a little lost and melancholic, as if they couldn’t understand why they were dead.

Jin Xueli steadied her breathing. As she continued to read the notice, she kept glancing at the clerk.

This company has issued a request to our regulars to join the clerk in driving out and exterminating the Hunters.

Anyone who spots a Hunter need only give a loud shout, and nearby regulars will immediately gather to assist.

The Hunters who frequently wander this area are said to belong to the same Family Faction. Killing one will serve as a warning to the rest.

We ask for everyone’s best efforts. Thank you for your cooperation.

’In that case... isn’t it a good thing the clerk was murdered?’

’Did a Hunter do it for self-preservation? No, that can’t be right. Hunters can’t kill residents... Hey, is this thing even considered dead?’

’No, no, don’t get distracted. Who killed the clerk isn’t important anymore. The point is, this convenience store definitely isn’t safe. I can’t stay long.’

’What a shame. I was planning to steal some stuff from the store, but now I have to grab the Original Liquid and run. The "Nest Permanence" company was right about me after all; this Hunter really does want to steal things.’

’Whatever, I should get out of here—’

At the same moment Jin Xueli pulled the restroom door open, she heard a familiar JINGLE JINGLE JINGLE.

It took her a breath to react before she slammed on the brakes. Blood rushed to her head, and a wave of hot and cold sweat broke out on her back.

...Someone had come in.

No... a resident had come in.

"Hmm? Are you in the restroom?"

A greasy, cheerful voice called out from the direction of the cash register, the words drifting towards the restroom. "Hurry up and come out. I need to talk to you. Don’t keep a customer waiting."