Illusion Report

’When did it—’

Even a Hunter’s reaction speed sometimes can’t beat the instant a trap’s iron jaws snap shut.

The moment Jin Xueli touched the policewoman, she recoiled as if shocked. But before she could even back away, something shot out from the gloomy depths in front of her and seized her other arm.

It was... it was the policewoman’s other hand.

So it had stuck both its hands through the bars. The phone was both the "bait" and a homing point; the moment Jin Xueli touched it, she was already within the policewoman’s grasp.

Although the one holding her still had a human body, it unleashed an inhuman strength. Jin Xueli couldn’t help but cry out in pain. Her left arm felt like a piece of dough about to be snapped in two—she wouldn’t have been surprised if her skin had split open and blood had splattered the next second. How could she possibly struggle free?

"You just had to do things the hard way," the policewoman said, laughing breathlessly. "What they said when they wanted your fingerprints wasn’t wrong at all."

’...Did this resident take over the policewoman’s entire body and all her memories?’

The pain was so intense Jin Xueli couldn’t utter a single word, but she realized she was being rapidly dragged forward. Her weight and resistance were practically nonexistent against the resident’s monstrous strength; all she could do was stumble forward. It was hard to believe the hand gripping her arm was even smaller than her own.

At that moment, she did something an ordinary person would almost never think to do.

No matter how quick their reflexes, anyone facing a sudden crisis must first go through a process of "cognition" before "reaction."

To analyze it more deeply, "cognition" actually consists of two parts: first, perceiving the nature of the situation; second, deciding on a course of action based on that situation.

The most crucial difference between a Hunter and an ordinary person isn’t their skill or physical fitness. The biggest difference is likely the time a Hunter needs for "cognition" and "reaction," which is as fast as a flash of lightning.

And it is often this very point that determines who makes it home alive from a Nest, and who can transform from an ordinary person into an Illusion Hunter.

Jin Xueli decisively gave up the struggle.

As she was being pulled straight toward the iron bars, she instead used all her strength to drop low, swinging her arm forcefully across the ground. She swatted the momentarily forgotten phone several feet away, sending it sliding deeper into the cell.

The next second, the side of her face, her ear, and her shoulder slammed hard against the iron bars with a THUD.

She was half-sprawled on the floor, her entire arm yanked out between the bars. The circulation had been mostly cut off, and her fingertips were already cold and numb.

For a moment, she couldn’t even tell if the metallic, bloody smell came from the bars or from her own mouth and nose.

"You see,"

The policewoman’s mouth, a thin, slit-like crack, and her overlapping layers of eyelids and eyelashes were almost pressed against Jin Xueli’s face through the iron bars.

"Wouldn’t it have been better if you’d hopefully answered the phone just now? That would have been a humane euthanasia. Now, your fear is so thick I can smell it even before I’ve entered the human world..."

"What are you going to do?" Jin Xueli asked, her voice trembling.

Half of her was terrified and genuinely wanted an answer; the other half was trying to buy time.

As she spoke, Jin Xueli stretched out a foot, searching the floor for the phone she had just knocked away.

The policewoman didn’t answer.

It was now crouching outside the iron door, its eyes level with Jin Xueli, who was half-sprawled on the ground. It lowered its head, fumbling for something. A moment later, the light of a screen flared up in the corner of Jin Xueli’s vision—illuminating the policewoman’s face, which was pressed right up against hers.

The layers of eyelids and eyelashes formed two bulging spheres, which seemed to glance at Jin Xueli.

’That’s right, the policewoman was holding another phone...’

Just then, Jin Xueli’s toes finally hooked the phone, and she hurriedly kicked it bit by bit toward herself. She shifted her eyes and, in a fleeting instant, got a clear look at the lit-up phone.

The phone’s wallpaper was a selfie of the policewoman herself with a man—their faces were pressed together, eyes shining. One was smiling, the other puckering their lips. They looked like a couple.

"Since it’s not your own phone, I have to make a call."

The policewoman said something that didn’t make sense at first, then lowered her head and unlocked the phone with a passcode—no facial recognition technology would unlock for eyes crammed with layers of eyelids.

’Is it planning to force the phone against my ear?’

Jin Xueli was covered in sweat, alternating between chills and hot flashes.

Her other free hand managed to touch the edge of her phone, but honestly, she had no idea what she could do with it.

Seemingly in a good mood at the prospect of "invading and contaminating" another human, the policewoman even offered an explanation: "Any communication or data exchange that happens on the Nest’s communication network can let a Nest resident contact you. Too bad I can’t call outside, or I’d really love to hear Xiaoji’s voice..."

It still held Jin Xueli’s arm in a death grip, pinning her shoulder between the iron bars so she didn’t even have room to turn her head and avoid it.

By now, Jin Xueli had the phone in her hand. But the cool, heavy, and silent device, which she had risked her life to get, still offered her no hope.

"I’ll just have to call a colleague who’s also on the Nest’s communication network,"

the policewoman said, selecting a name from the contact list and hitting call. The first dial tone rang out from the phone, faint as if it were being suffocated by the darkness. The policewoman laughed, her hand holding the phone already passing through the bars and pressing straight toward the side of Jin Xueli’s face.

’It’s a dead end. This is the end of the road—’

In that instant of despair, Jin Xueli was left with nothing but her survival instinct.

Two facts slammed into her mind, one after the other, and the nearly drowning Jin Xueli clung to them like pieces of driftwood.

Thinking back on it later, if the order in which she realized these two facts had been reversed, she probably would never have made it out of the Central Police Station alive.

The first fact: she heard the dial tone.

She heard the dial tone from the policewoman’s phone, but she was still fine—at least, before the phone was pressed against her, she was still herself, a living, breathing human being.

’Does that mean that even a phone in a call is fine, as long as it’s not right next to my ear?’

It sounds complicated in the telling, but at that moment, Jin Xueli had no time to think. All her actions were more like subconscious reflexes. In the nick of time, she suddenly raised her hand and used the phone she was holding to block the ear she had exposed to the policewoman.

Whether this would work, no one knew.

The instant after her phone blocked her ear, the policewoman’s phone slapped against it with a SMACK. Through her own phone, the second dial tone rang out next to Jin Xueli’s ear, much louder this time.

’...Still alive.’

If her arm weren’t still being gripped, Jin Xueli would have collapsed into a heap. But the terror, worry, and trembling she felt now were, without a doubt, all human emotions.

The second thing she realized was that after the policewoman made the call, the standard iPhone ringtone began to sound softly from a distant corner of the Central Police Station.

’...Sound can travel now?’

With no time to wonder why she could suddenly hear it, Jin Xueli seized the opportunity and screamed at the top of her lungs, loud enough to tear her throat, "Chaisi Monroe! Get over here and save me! I’m going to die because of you!"