Illusion Report

"...Answer the phone," the policewoman urged.

As she spoke, her mouth opened into a thin slit, the sound drifting out from that sliver of pitch-black. "Honestly, what are you shining that light on me for? Now you see."

Where her eyes should have been, only eyelids remained—and not in the sense that there was just an empty socket underneath.

If she had seen empty sockets, Jin Xueli might not have been so startled that she couldn’t even hold her phone steady, dropping it to the ground with a CLANG. After all, she had seen empty eye sockets before; in the Nest, they weren’t even the most terrifying thing.

In the space between the policewoman’s eyelids, more eyelids were crammed, layer upon layer.

Beneath one that was stretched wide, another slightly drooping one protruded. Beneath that one, a half-squinting one emerged... Eyelids of all kinds sprouted one after another, their stacked eyelashes forming the rough outline of an eye, with the tightly shut seam of an eyelid at its very center.

Jin Xueli felt a wave of nausea as she looked away.

"Someone, help!"

Amidst the incessant ringing of the phone, she scrambled back a few steps into the cell and yelled, "Chaisi Monroe! Chaisi! You got me into this, now get me out of here!"

The policewoman tilted her head, watching her as if with great interest.

"Inside the Nest’s communication network, just shouting with your fleshy throat won’t let you contact anyone. Can human vocal cord vibrations travel through radio waves? Of course not, right? Same principle," the policewoman said. "It seems you’ve already figured it out. I’m not one of the Mercenaries Monroe hired."

"No shit!" Jin Xueli cursed.

After a moment, she calmed herself slightly, realizing she was probably safe for now. If the thing outside the bars could have attacked her directly, it would have done so already, instead of handing her a phone and giving her a chance to see the policewoman’s face in its light.

"You’re a resident, aren’t you? I almost fell for your trick because I didn’t know the situation, not because I’m stupid."

"Such a spirited girl... just a bit stingy." A misty voice drifted out from the thin black slit on the policewoman’s face.

The ringing from the phone on the floor stopped. The screen went dark, and the cell was plunged back into profound blackness. The fact that the face was swallowed by the darkness was actually a relief.

"I am indeed a resident of the Nest,"

The policewoman’s voice from outside the cell suddenly twisted into a sound like churning thick ink mixed with a howling wind—as if it were introducing its name. Many residents’ names were impossible to pronounce with human vocal cords, lips, and tongue.

"I never thought I’d get to speak directly with a little girl from Blackmoor City. How lovely. The words you speak with your voice can only be heard by nearby residents. No one else can hear them... After all, this is already the Nest’s communication network."

’Chaisi must have done this.’

’...I have to calm down and figure out how to get out of this.’

Based on the current situation, there was only one way to get out of the cell: ask Chaisi for help. Although Jin Xueli still didn’t know what methods he had used, it was obvious that Chaisi was far more ruthless and desperate than she had imagined. To clear his name, he had actually turned the entire Central Police Station into... this.

Not that she couldn’t understand, though.

If she didn’t have "Candle Tears" and could mobilize the kind of resources Chaisi had, she would probably do the same thing.

’Right, speaking of "this"... what exactly does that mean?’

Jin Xueli glanced at the hazy silhouette standing outside her cell door.

"How can residents enter the human world?" she asked, mustering her courage. "Didn’t you say this place hasn’t turned into a Nest? So how did you get in?"

"I never said I entered the human world," the policewoman replied. "There are a very small number of residents in the Nest who can enter the human world, but the conditions are strict, and I’m not one of them."

’Some residents can get in...? No, that’s not the point right now.’

For some reason, the resident before her seemed quite chatty.

"If you didn’t get in, then this policewoman... what happened to her?"

"She’s a kind soul who let me borrow her body to take a look at the human world. Unlike you, who’s so stingy."

Jin Xueli couldn’t help but shudder.

Another question was finally answered. If the policewoman had fully become a resident, she wouldn’t be blocked by a set of iron bars. The reason she was stuck outside was precisely because her body was still human, just... "invaded" by a resident somehow.

"How did you borrow it?" she couldn’t help but ask. "Since you already have one... body you’ve borrowed, why are you after me too?"

"When it comes to human bodies, you can never have too many," the policewoman said. "The Nest’s communication network won’t last forever. Of course I have to take this opportunity to erode and contaminate a few more people."

’...So, does that mean that besides isolating a part of the human world, the "Nest communication network" is essentially a "medium" that provides a channel for Nest residents to invade human bodies?’

The residents remain in the Nest, yet they can extend their tentacles into the bodies of people in Blackmoor City.

Judging by the fact that she was still fine, a certain condition had to be met within the area covered by the Nest’s communication network to be invaded by a resident—and that was answering a phone call.

Jin Xueli mentally sorted through the information and questions she had so far.

First, under the Nest’s communication network, she absolutely could not answer the phone.

’...But is simply not answering the phone enough?’

Before the lights went out, the phones of everyone in the Central Police Station hadn’t all started ringing in unison. In fact, before the Central Police Station was covered by the "Nest communication network," she didn’t seem to recall hearing any ringtones at all.

’She didn’t answer a call... so how did the policewoman from earlier fall for it?’

’And looking at it from another angle, if you can’t answer incoming calls, does that mean you can’t make outgoing calls either?’

Second, under the Nest’s communication network, normal methods of communication like talking were useless because sound couldn’t travel.

The resident had also said that people outside couldn’t hear you if you shouted. Since the lights went out, she hadn’t heard a single sound, which clearly proved that the normal principle of "sound traveling through air" was no longer in effect, or at least it couldn’t travel far. The resident probably wasn’t lying about that.

She had her doubts about this point, though. How was Chaisi himself communicating? The resident said he had hired Mercenaries—that part seemed credible—but he had to talk to them, right?

It was pitch-black, so they couldn’t communicate by writing. Would a man like Chaisi really whisper into someone’s ear?

She still had too little information to work with, but based on these two rules, nearly all her avenues for seeking help were blocked.

Jin Xueli couldn’t call Chaisi. Even in the same building, Chaisi couldn’t hear her shouts.

What a vexing situation.

"I can’t be the only one in this building who hasn’t been invaded by a resident, can I?" she thought for a moment before asking tentatively. "Why don’t you go after the others?"

"Because Chaisi Monroe is annoying," the policewoman actually answered honestly. "He seems to be looking for some kind of insider in this building, so he gathered up everyone who hasn’t been invaded and locked them up together. As a result, residents like us who only get to connect to the Nest’s communication network once a year can barely catch any targets. It’s so unsatisfying."

’So, Chaisi not only knows how to avoid being invaded, but also how to communicate with his companions inside the network...’

’Thinking about it calmly, after he was brought into the police station, all his belongings must have been confiscated immediately. His situation should be exactly the same as mine.’

’The "Nest communication network" covered the police station first, and only then was Chaisi able to break out. That order of events should be correct.’

’In other words, the method Chaisi used to protect himself and communicate after the "Nest communication network" was established is something I could also do... No, wait. Since he could call for Mercenaries, that means he must have made a call to the outside world at some point.’

’He was able to call the Mercenaries, which means he had a phone—that’s obvious—but it also means he wasn’t using his own phone.’

’Speaking of "not his own phone"...’

’Isn’t there one right here on the floor?’

Jin Xueli squatted down as silently as possible, fumbling for the phone on the pitch-black floor of the cell.

She didn’t know if the phone was the key, but she had to explore the shape of the rules, bit by bit. This might not be the Nest yet, but what held dominion here was, without a doubt, the strange and treacherous "rules" of the Nest.

"...Looking for this?"

As the policewoman’s voice sounded, Jin Xueli realized she had touched the phone—and at the same time, the hand that was resting on it.