Illusion Report

Jin Xueli had no idea. After she’d uttered the words, "I’m a resident who has entered the human world," she had come dangerously close to not getting out of the car alive.

Chaisi had once grabbed the back of a man’s head in the passenger seat, slammed it straight down, and used the man’s own flesh, blood, and bone to smash the glove compartment to pieces. Amidst the countless fragments that flew through the car, the man never lifted his head again.

To sit in his passenger seat was to put your life in his hands.

But he resisted the impulse to reach out that instant—because Jin Xueli had spoken up just in time, starting from the beginning and recounting her entire experience with the "Vulture" resident.

"...Pretty scary, right? Not only does it copy you, but it also makes you doubt that you’re even yourself."

Jin Xueli sighed softly, as if offering a conclusion. "If I hadn’t blown a hole through the resident’s head and made it revert to its original form... it might have really usurped my existence and returned to the human world in my place."

No matter how harrowing the danger and confrontation had been, telling the story only took ten or twenty minutes. Chaisi listened quietly the entire time, not uttering a single word.

Only after Jin Xueli had finished did he finally ask, "So, the way to fight these ’Vultures’ is to inflict irreparable physical harm on them?"

Between the moment his voice faded and Jin Xueli began to answer, there was the briefest flash of hesitation, a fleeting pause.

’Isn’t this the escape method she discovered with her own two hands?’

"Yes... but there’s a prerequisite."

Her pace was a fraction slower than when she had been speaking normally a moment ago. The difference was minuscule, but to Chaisi, it was too clear to ignore. When people spoke while thinking, while picking and choosing what they could and couldn’t say, their speed of speech would always slow down unconsciously.

If this were an interrogation, that slight change in pace would be the opening Chaisi would use to pry his way in.

"It has to believe it’s human... Only when it suffers an irreparable, fatal wound *as a human* can it ’die.’ Of course, it doesn’t actually die. It just reverts to its resident form."

"Sounds logical." Chaisi glanced at her, his voice low. "What I want to know is, what are you hiding from me?"

Jin Xueli was visibly startled. If not for the seatbelt holding her down, she might have shot up from her seat.

"Huh? What hidden part—you—"

She stared at Chaisi, blinked a few times, and then suddenly deflated with a sigh. "Forget it, you’ve already figured it out... I swear, the part I left out has nothing to do with the Vultures you want to know about. It just involves a bit of my own privacy."

Chaisi smiled at her.

"If it had nothing to do with it, you wouldn’t have gone out of your way to remove it from your story."

"Who says I removed anything?"

Chaisi’s right hand was on the steering wheel, his index finger tapping lightly. He was different from a Hunter. His quarry wasn’t Illusions, but people.

Whenever a person revealed a faint, almost seductive scent of prey, he couldn’t help but feel a sense of pleasure.

"So... shall we go over your story again?"

Jin Xueli pursed her lips.

"Just drop me off at the next intersection," she said, averting her gaze from Chaisi and pointing down the road. "I’ve already said everything I’m going to say."

"East Orange Road?" Chaisi leaned forward to look at the street sign and confirmed in a friendly tone.

"...Yeah."

"Isn’t that still far from the place you mentioned earlier?" Chaisi said reassuringly. He stepped on the gas, and the car shot straight past the East Orange Road intersection, leaving it far behind. "I’ll take you all the way."

Jin Xueli fell silent.

This wasn’t uncommon. When his targets finally realized the situation they were in, they tended to go quiet for a while—though this girl wasn’t a target he had to eliminate.

What was uncommon was that, a few seconds later, Jin Xueli suddenly raised her voice. She was clearly afraid—her voice trembled slightly—but beneath that tremor surged a red-hot anger.

"Why are you so greedy?"

"...What?"

"You wanted to know about the Vultures, and I told you everything! If you don’t believe me, go get a lie detector! Analyze it for contradictions!" She glared at Chaisi. "Why do you have to know the part of the story that has nothing to do with you, but is very important to me? You’re too greedy! Does all the information in the world belong to you?"

Chaisi was stunned for a moment, and before he could think of what to say, Jin Xueli continued her rapid-fire questioning: "Should I give you my bank account password, too? Do you need to know what type of men I like? Can’t the way I get by in the Nest be my own secret? You’re so annoying."

Even though the color had drained from her face, she closed her eyes, slumped back in her seat in a perfect imitation of someone about to take a nap, and said, "So what if you’re the second-in-command? If you’ve got the guts, kill me. If not, wake me when we get there."

Chaisi turned his head and looked back at the road. Two or three seconds passed, and he still couldn’t find the words to say.

’It’s a bit absurd, but in the scene she just created, it almost feels as if I should be the one apologizing to Jin Xueli. It really is too absurd.’

’The thing she’s hiding is obviously related to the Vultures. Her storytelling skills are average, but she’s certainly stubborn.’

Of course, Chaisi had dealt with countless targets who were even more stubborn than she was.

"I’m not an unreasonable person..."

He had just started the sentence as he drove through an intersection. In his peripheral vision, the headlights of a dusty gray car parked on a side road to the left flicked on, and it pulled onto the road behind him.

Chaisi stopped talking and glanced at his rearview mirror.

Jin Xueli couldn’t help but peek at him through a slit in her eyelids, her gaze cautious and wary.

"If what you’re hiding isn’t closely related to what I want to know, then I can pretend I don’t know..." He couldn’t resist stretching his right hand, his long fingers rising into the air before falling back onto the steering wheel, one by one. "I could have said that."

Jin Xueli sat up a little. "Huh?"

"Today has not been a good day... even I’m a bit distracted. To think it’s taken me this long to realize you’re a trap." Chaisi let out a low breath through clenched teeth. "Is that why you wanted to get in my car? To make me walk right into it?"

"What are you talking about?" Jin Xueli asked, stunned.

’Her acting isn’t bad.’

"You’ve got guts, and your acting is very natural." Chaisi turned his head and smiled at her. "Daring to use yourself as bait... you deserve some praise."

If Jin Xueli’s face had been pale before, it was now white as a sheet, as if fear had seeped into her and turned her translucent. If she truly was a professional Hunter worthy of the name "Illusion Hunter," now would be the time for her to start worrying about her life.

"I... I don’t understand what you’re saying."

Jin Xueli subconsciously reached out, fumbling at the car door for a few moments, as if just now realizing that Chaisi would never give her a chance to open it and jump out. "How... how am I a trap? What trap? Weren’t you the one who wanted to know about the Vultures?"

At that moment, the sharp, circling wail of police sirens suddenly pierced the sky.

The cars on the road scattered like startled fish. In the space of a few breaths, the misty, gloomy drizzle in their vision was painted with the flashing red and blue of police lights. The world turned into a giant, pulsating blue aquarium, and Chaisi’s car was the fish trapped in the center, surrounded by layers of police vehicles.

"The police?"

What Chaisi hadn’t expected was that Jin Xueli seemed even more surprised than he was. Her nervousness no longer looked like an act; her lips were pale, and a thin layer of sweat covered her forehead. Even from a short distance, he could hear her shallow, rapid breaths.

’...Could it be that she’s not in on it?’

She looked around frantically from her seat, completely forgetting the hostile tension between them just moments before. She pointed hastily at the only gap in the police cordon ahead. "They’re closing in! Can you break through there?"

But Chaisi stopped the car. He glanced at her, then jutted his chin toward the front.

As if it had been rehearsed, a dark green, heavy-duty military truck drove into the gap in the cordon, plugging it.

When the four letters "SWAT" came into view, Jin Xueli couldn’t help but slump forward, cover her face with her hands, and let out a groan. "Special Weapons and Tactics? Why such a huge response? You... what in the world did you do? They’re here for you, right?"

"...You have nothing to do with this?"

"How could I have anything to do with it?" Jin Xueli lowered her hands, her expression several times more grim than Chaisi’s. "Why would I get involved with the police? I—I can’t get caught by the cops! Let me out of the car! Whatever you did, it has nothing to do with—"

What cut her off were several police officers who quickly surrounded the car, and the dark muzzles of the guns they held.

Jin Xueli stared at them, frozen.

"Hands on your head! Both of you, get out!" the lead officer shouted.

Although he had been chased by the police for driving recklessly on the streets two days ago, today’s reception was clearly different. They had even dispatched a SWAT team, equipped for a battlefield.

Chaisi had done plenty of things, but he really couldn’t think of anything that warranted such a massive, ostentatious response. Or rather, the few things that *could* earn him this kind of reception had been thoroughly buried and washed away by time. It was unlikely they would surface so many years later.

"I don’t even have a gun. Don’t be so tense."

Chaisi rolled down the window and smiled at the dark muzzles pointed at him. "What’s this all about?"

"Chaisi Monroe?" The officer was clearly in charge, yet his body was as tense as stone. He barked another order, "Hands on your head! Get out of the car!"

"Is it because I broke a traffic rule?" Chaisi said as he opened the car door and gently placed one foot on the ground. "See, this is how I think about it. No matter what I’ve done, the fact that I’m willing to run when I see the police means I’m showing you respect, right?"

Several police guns aimed at him. "You have the right to remain silent—"

On the other side of the car, Jin Xueli was also blocked by several officers. They weren’t as wary of her; two of them rushed forward, slammed her against the car, twisted her arms, and seemed to slap handcuffs on her.

Chaisi raised his hands to his ears and glanced back at Jin Xueli.

Her eyes were wide, as if she still couldn’t believe she was being escorted to a police car; as if that car wasn’t a car at all, but a black hole that would devour her the moment its door opened.

Chaisi was no superman, after all. With a SWAT team deployed, he had no choice but to give up and let the police cuff him. The more he thought about it, the less likely it seemed that this was about his reckless driving from a few days ago.

But he knew the law would provide an answer soon enough.

"Chaisi Monroe, you are under arrest on suspicion of the premeditated murder of Westley," an officer said, before shoving him forward. "Get in the car."