Illusion Report

On November 26th, Fu Tailan pushed open the door and walked into the apartment, a place he hadn't set foot in for ten days. Everything was exactly as it had been when he left just a few minutes ago.

'...What a strange thought,' he mused with a wry smile.

If there had been a camera in the living room, the recording from the 26th would have simply shown Fu Tailan walking out the door and returning a few minutes later, as if he had only gone downstairs to check his mail.

And yet, returning now, he couldn't help but find it strange that the plastic sheeting covering the window hadn't fallen off, and that no dust had settled on the table.

Fu Tailan collapsed onto the sofa. After catching his breath, he pulled out his phone. The screen, warmed by his touch, lit up, displaying the time: 3:13 PM.

He still remembered the previous two calls he'd received; Brianna would be calling again. It shouldn't be long now.

At 3:25 PM, the phone began to buzz, just as he'd expected. Fu Tailan smiled and answered the call.

He spoke before Brianna could say a word. "...I'm back."

On the other end of the line, she let out a long breath.

He had expected Brianna to hate him enough to want him dead. To face his victim, he had specifically chosen a bustling café in broad daylight for their meeting. But surprisingly, while Brianna's gaze was cold, her expression grim, and her tone far from polite, she didn't seem intent on causing him much trouble.

It was just that the stench from "Secretary Green" was already so strong it was nearly unbearable.

She had been living in the human world as "Green" for what seemed to be at least two years. How could the body have deteriorated and decayed to such an extent in just the last ten days?

Just as Brianna was about to leave with the paper bag in hand, Fu Tailan couldn't resist calling out to her again.

"...What happened?" he asked, jutting his chin toward Brianna's body.

She shot him a sideways glance.

"Where did you use the other two?" she asked.

"Want to trade answers?" Fu Tailan smiled.

Brianna considered it for a moment, then nodded.

"Chaisi Monroe," she said, pressing her index finger to her temple and miming a gunshot.

A customer at the next table glanced at her reflexively, but neither of them paid it any mind.

"...Well now," Fu Tailan murmured with a faint, almost satisfied smile.

'This Nest Dominance Game really is cruel. You don't even have to do anything; the players will drive each other to their deaths.'

'Speaking of which, didn't that resident, Mai Mingle, desperately want to join the Nest Dominance Game? Hopefully, now that she's human again, she's given up on that idea.'

"Your turn," Brianna prompted.

There was a reason, of course, why Fu Tailan had suddenly thought of Mai Mingle.

"My Family Faction has a Hunter named Jonah. He almost died in a Nest recently. Death alone might not have been so terrible, but the terrifying part was what he described. He said he could feel his brain being slowly assimilated, tendrils sprouting from it, eggs gestating in its fissures... Even after his rescue, the sensation remains etched in his mind."

"Get to the point."

"When they first brought him back, he was crying, dry-heaving, and clawing at his temples so hard his skin tore, leaving his face covered in blood. He said he never wanted to enter a Nest again. And you know me—I'm a very considerate person."

Brianna's expression darkened involuntarily.

"So I gave his Path to another woman who was dying to get into a Nest."

'After that girl from the front desk received the Path and got her first glimpse of a Nest, she just sat there in her chair, stunned and pale, staring into space for a long time.'

'Fu Tailan never found out if she regretted it.'

"So you wasted one. What about the last one? Did you waste it, too?" Brianna demanded. "There were three to begin with. You only left me one."

Fu Tailan shrugged. "Didn't we say we were trading answers?"

Brianna started to speak, then stopped, the realization dawning on her.

He chuckled. "You gave me one answer, and I gave you one. How can you expect me to give you a second one?"

Brianna looked like she'd had enough. Without another word, she turned and headed for the door. But Fu Tailan called after her, "Good luck!"

She must have heard him, but she didn't break her stride as she pushed open the door and left the café.

'Sigh.'

'I hope she didn't take that the wrong way.' Fu Tailan wasn't being sarcastic. He genuinely hoped that one day, it would be Lady Jacqueline herself repaying the favor.

***

Brianna lay prone on the sidewalk under the night sky, dragging herself forward inch by inch on her elbows.

As long as she didn't look back, as long as she pretended not to see the long, trailing thing she had become, she could keep going.

Not far ahead lay Green's corpse. But she was likely the only one who could still recognize it as him.

Less than a day after they had fallen into the Nest, Green's body had already putrefied beyond recognition.

It was as if the body had been sentient, holding itself together, slowing its own decay. The moment Brianna shed it, it could no longer hold back. Before long, it had dissolved into a large pool of pus held together only by clothing and patches of bruised, purple skin.

'Thankfully, there were no flies in the Nest.'

She had assumed that since she and Jacqueline had fallen into the Nest from the same spot, one right after the other, they would have landed in the same place. Under normal circumstances, they should have.

So, the instant she landed in the Nest, Brianna had convulsed, wrenching Green's body off of herself and casting it aside. But after crawling in circles around the area, she was finally forced to confront the sickening truth.

Jacqueline hadn't landed anywhere nearby.

Jacqueline was gone.

'Why why why so I can't have a single wish granted does this world forbid me from having even a shred of luck'

'what do I do Jacqueline's not an idiot what if she gets back to the human world while I'm looking for her it'll all be for nothing it'll be so hard to get close to her again get close get close I don't have an identity I have to kill her I have to kill Jin Xueli I have to kill this whole world'

Several minutes passed before Brianna realized she had been screaming the whole time.

The sound filled her ears and numbed her nerves, fading into a constant background hum until she couldn't even hear it anymore.

The screams of residents echoing in the night were not an uncommon occurrence in the Nest.

She stopped, forcing herself to be calm for a few seconds.

'Calm calm meditation focus focus peace I am fine'

She cleared her throat, only to find it so raw it felt like it would tear.

'If a person screams that long, their throat is bound to hurt. So I'm still human, still human, still human, humanhumanhuman yes I am'

"I have an idea."

Propped up on her elbows, Brianna faced the empty sidewalk and clapped her hands lightly. "I can put out a bounty."

She even knew exactly where to post it.

All she had to do was call the most long-winded, opinionated, and self-righteous resident in the Nest: the radio host.

The program, "A Virtual Guide to the Endless Illusion Realm," was said to be very popular in the Nest.

Brianna thought for a moment and realized that she not only knew of the show, but she also knew exactly how to call the production team and what the number was. This was information that "Brianna" the human should never have known.

'Information about the Nest is constantly fed into the minds of its residents...'

'How rude. Am I not still a person?'

'Isn't it a bit eager, pouring the information in this early?'

Brianna subconsciously went to put her hand in her pocket, but stopped herself immediately.

First, she had no pockets. Second, she didn't know where her thighs were. And third, she didn't have her phone on her.

'She'd gotten so used to being Green, she always felt like her phone was just within reach.'

The only phone she could use was the one on Green's body—the one she had forgotten to take.

So she had no choice but to crawl back, inch by inch, to the corpse that was no longer human-shaped—a corpse that might have even birthed a new resident—and retrieve the phone from its pocket.

'Even in the Nest, you still need a phone to call a number that doesn't actually exist, right?'

The problem had a solution. Brianna was very happy.

Brianna was filled with hope.

Everything was going to be okay.

***

Before crossing the road, Jin Xueli turned on her flashlight and swept the beam back and forth across the area several times.

She didn't like the look of the dense thicket of trees on the other side of the road, shrouded in shadow.

Even the beam of her powerful flashlight could only scrape away the surface layer of blackness, revealing small, pale patches of leaves and branches.

'If something was hiding in that thicket, and she didn't spot it until she was right on top of it, it would be too late...'

But after walking for so long, the first and only public phone booth she'd seen stood right across the road, just a short distance from that thicket. Jin Xueli had no choice.

She took a deep breath.

It had taken her nearly three hours to get down from the scaffolding and walk all the way to Central Park. The woman who looked so much like Jacqueline was long gone.

'After all this time, the Jacqueline-lookalike might not have run into trouble. She might have just left on her own... After nearly three hours, she could be anywhere.'

'Well, at least now I don't have to agonize over whether or not to tell the radio host where I saw the person who might be Jacqueline...'

Jin Xueli didn't know if she was relieved, disappointed, or both.

'Nine million... I was one step closer to nine million.'

'I can't get the bounty now. So what am I going to trade for information on the Original Liquid?'

'Ah, wait, I'm not even sure how to contact the radio show... But the Nest has radio stations, taxis, and lots of other facilities inherited from Blackmoor City. So maybe... it has directory assistance?'

'Wait, does directory assistance even exist anymore?'

'The last time I heard about directory assistance, I think I was just a kid. I can't even remember if I overheard adults talking about it, or if I saw it on TV.'

'If there's no directory assistance, could I call 911?'

'The Nest 911—would the abbreviation be N.P.D.?—they wouldn't hold me responsible, would they?'

Jin Xueli had a knack for letting her thoughts run wild. In no time, her mind was a tangled mess of countless colliding ideas. When she finally snapped out of it, she realized she had already crossed the road and was standing in front of the phone booth.

To her left was the tall, dark thicket. In front of her was the old, filthy, graffiti-covered phone booth.

'If I don't try, I'll never get anywhere.'

Jin Xueli took a soft step inside—and a rustle came from the thicket behind her.

'I knew it—'

As she whirled around, her hand flying back to grip the handle of the hammer in her backpack, a trembling, breathy voice sounded from the trees. It was filled with hope and fear, pleading as it asked, "A-are you human?"

...It was the voice of a woman.