Illusion Report

Her phone had been taken long ago. From the holding cell, she couldn’t see the clock on the main hall’s wall. Going by her gut feeling, after what seemed like twenty or thirty minutes, Jin Xueli realized this was bad.

The lightbulb in the cell suddenly went out. The faint, dim light from the main hall seemed to breathe its last on the way down the stairs, never even reaching the bottom.

She fumbled her way to the iron bars. Before her was nothing but a hazy, deep darkness.

’...It’s not a power outage.’

The ever-present, fluctuating clamor of voices in the Central Police Station had vanished at the exact moment the lights died. Not a single cry for help was heard, as if every single person had melted into the darkness.

The temperature plummeted, but it wasn’t the cold of winter or air conditioning. The air grew thick and sticky, as if a layer of saliva coated her skin, sending waves of sickeningly cold shivers through her in the breeze.

Jin Xueli was all too familiar with this gloomy, dark feeling, but she never imagined she would one day be in Blackmoor City and feel as if she were in a Nest.

’This has to be Chaisi’s doing, right?’

’Did he use some kind of Illusion? Weren’t his belongings confiscated by the police? Or is it something that can be fused with the body?’

’As expected of the second-in-command. Even his Illusions are this advanced.’ The thought flashed through Jin Xueli’s mind.

After all, she was in this line of work. Even in a situation like this, her conditioned reflex was to mentally calculate the estimated value of that Illusion. 𝓯𝓻𝒆𝙚𝒘𝓮𝙗𝓷𝒐𝓿𝙚𝒍.𝙘𝓸𝙢

The turn of events was far beyond her expectations. She’d never imagined anyone would dare declare war on the police system. She knew she should seize this opportunity and make good use of it, but for the moment, she couldn’t figure out what to do.

Since the light disappeared, she hadn’t heard a single sound, as if she were the only living person in the entire station. After waiting hesitantly for a moment, Jin Xueli called out tentatively, "Hello...? Is anyone out there?"

"Oh?" a voice responded immediately. "There’s someone locked up in here?"

It seemed to come from the top of the stairs. The voice was calm and unhurried; this couldn’t be an ordinary person caught in the Illusion’s sudden attack.

"Who are you?" Jin Xueli asked.

"You should introduce yourself before asking for my identity," the voice said. It was hard to tell if it was male or female; on second thought, it might be a man with a high-pitched voice. "Aren’t you scared?"

"I was arrested," Jin Xueli replied, not revealing any more information. "How did you get in?"

"You’re sitting in a jail cell. Who wouldn’t know you were arrested?" the voice said. "I’m a Mercenary called in for a job. Our boss said the Blackmoor City police arrested someone they shouldn’t have."

’Mercenaries?’

"Are you a Hunter?" Jin Xueli asked immediately, recalling some rumors she’d heard. "So it’s true that some Hunters work as Mercenaries? I’m a Hunter too—please, I’m begging you, let me out."

"Oh, well, I’ll have to go ask the boss what he thinks."

"Okay," Jin Xueli said, as if clutching a lifeline. She quickly added, "You must have been called by Chaisi Monroe, right? He knows me! You have to tell your boss that I’m a friend of Chaisi’s—a friend. I was arrested with him."

"Got it."

Perhaps it was an effect of the Illusion, but she heard no footsteps receding from the top of the stairs. Come to think of it, she hadn’t heard him approach before he had suddenly spoken, either.

It seemed this Illusion not only snuffed out light but also suppressed sound. The only exception, apparently, was close-range conversation.

On pins and needles with anxiety, time passed with excruciating slowness.

Just as Jin Xueli was beginning to wonder if this Illusion could also affect time, she finally made out a pair of feet descending the stairs through the gloom. As the person drew closer, she realized she had been wrong; the figure’s silhouette looked like a woman’s.

"Don’t get your hopes up," the woman said. "Our boss is willing to let you out, but I don’t know where the key is."

Down from the stairs, the cave-like cell area was even darker. Even though they were face to face, separated only by a set of bars, they couldn’t make out each other’s features. For some reason, though, Jin Xueli felt the other person was a little familiar.

But this sense of familiarity was also fleeting and illusory, like a wisp of white fluff floating on water that would vanish without a trace if you looked at it from a different angle.

"Then what do we do?" Jin Xueli asked. No matter what, the priority was getting out of the cell. "Oh, right, the detective who locked me in earlier might have the key on him..."

"And where am I supposed to find him? I don’t know who he is," the woman outside the bars replied. "Besides, who knows if their bodies are even still intact, or if there’s anything left of them at all."

"Is... Is it because of this Illusion you’re using?" Even in her desperation to get out, Jin Xueli couldn’t help but be stunned by those words.

"What else could it be?" The woman seemed unable to contain her smugness as she continued, "The entire Central Police Station has been separated from Blackmoor City. Even if people in Blackmoor City walk right up to the station’s entrance, they won’t be able to see this building anymore."

"D-Did it turn into a Nest?" That was Jin Xueli’s first guess.

"It’s not that easy to turn the human world into a Nest. If only it were."

The woman sighed with great regret. "In any case, I can’t open these iron bars, and I can’t find the key. I can only use some... unconventional means to get you out. That way, I can report back to the boss. You’re Mr. Monroe’s friend, after all."

’Dragged into this mess because of him, and now I have to rely on his connections to get out.’

"What kind of unconventional means? Using an Illusion?" Jin Xueli asked.

"Yes," the woman said, her jaw moving in the darkness as she spoke. "Look down. Take this."

Jin Xueli took half a step back and looked down. She saw the woman slowly raise an arm and extend a hand between the iron bars, holding something. She fumbled to take it and realized it was a cell phone—she didn’t know whose—its screen dark.

"This is the Illusion," the woman said. "I’m about to call you. Answer it, and it will transport you to my side. That way, you’ll be out of the cell, no key needed."

Even though she had seen and heard of many Illusions, Jin Xueli still found herself amazed by their wonders from time to time.

"Does it need to be unlocked?" she asked. "Face ID, fingerprint authentication, that sort of thing..."

As she said this, for some inexplicable reason, something nudged at her mind—as if a message locked away in her subconscious had suddenly knocked on the door.

"None of that. Just answer it."

"Okay," she said, coming back to her senses. Seeing that she was about to regain her freedom, she gave the woman a grateful smile. "Call me. I’m ready."

The woman’s blurry silhouette raised her other hand, perhaps clutching another phone all along.

The moment the woman pressed what must have been a phone to her ear, the screen of the phone in Jin Xueli’s hand lit up, casting a blue glow on her face. The caller ID was an unknown number, and it didn’t look like a normal phone number—which was to be expected, since it was an Illusion.

Just as she was about to press the answer button, Jin Xueli paused.

In the top right corner of the screen, where the carrier logo should have been, was the word "Nest."

’Nest, as in a Nest?’

The lingering sense of familiarity, that jolt in her mind from just now...

As if guided by some unseen force, Jin Xueli raised the phone, aiming its bright screen at the face of the woman outside the bars.

She saw the face of the female officer who had asked for her fingerprints earlier.

Except, her face no longer had any eyeballs.