Illusion Report

He was clearly a handsome, well-built man, but when Chaisi stood in the shadows and a slow smile spread across his face, Jin Xueli felt as if her stomach had been filled with ice. All she wanted was to escape this patch of darkness and flee back into the sunlight.

"Wh-what is it?" she asked warily, taking a step to the side. "I—I haven’t done anything..."

She had never in her life seen someone so handsome yet so terrifying.

Chaisi reached out a large hand and, before she could react, clapped her on the shoulder twice. Jin Xueli managed to realize he wasn’t about to attack her just before she could turn and run. Still, each pat landed with enough force to make her bones ache.

"Not bad," he said in a low voice, his eyes fixed on the door, his thoughts unreadable. "...You may not have meant to, but you’ve done me a huge favor."

’What happened? What did I say?’

Although she didn’t know what he was talking about, and he probably wouldn’t tell her anyway, Jin Xueli still asked out of instinct, "So you owe me two favors now, right?"

Chaisi glanced at her.

His mind seemed to be completely preoccupied with something else.

He had only glanced in her direction subconsciously because someone had spoken to him; he probably hadn’t even heard what Jin Xueli said.

’Forget it,’ she thought. ’It doesn’t really matter how many favors he owes me.’

Even if Chaisi decided to put her on the throne as the Queen of England right now, it would be meaningless to her...

Jin Xueli grumbled internally, glancing at the doorknob that wouldn’t budge.

The sign on the door had two words on it: "Evidence Room." No wonder it had locked automatically once it closed. An evidence room door would certainly need to be kept locked at all times.

’But... didn’t Chaisi just say he and the Mercenaries had already turned the Central Police Station upside down? They couldn’t have just skipped this one evidence room, right?’

"The door is locked. Does that mean you haven’t been in this room yet?" she asked, looking back at him.

"...I searched it once. The door was open then." Chaisi snapped out of his reverie, as if just now remembering there was a police chief to find.

He lifted his chin, signaling for Jin Xueli to stand aside. He took two steps back from the door, creating some distance, and said, "Either someone didn’t prop the door open properly when they left, or someone closed it on purpose."

Even though Jin Xueli was mentally prepared, the heavy THUD of his foot kicking the door still made her flinch.

The door was thick and heavy, and Chaisi’s first kick didn’t break it open. A series of thunderous crashes followed, each one louder and heavier than the last, like a steadily building pressure crushing her auditory nerves. Then, with a final explosive sound, the door shattered. Splinters flew as it crashed to the ground.

’...Surely Mercury’s Mercenaries aren’t so unprofessional that they’d forget to prop a door open, right?’

Jin Xueli uncovered her ears and walked forward, raising the beam of light from her phone to scan the room beyond the doorway.

’I’ve made up my mind.’

’The sooner I find their target, the sooner I can get out of this police station.’

’No matter what Chaisi is planning, and no matter what Candle Tears can get me, I am determined to rewrite this day of being dragged into the police station. Once today is rewritten to a day where I never contacted Chaisi, all this talk of favors will naturally become moot.’

’At that point, Chaisi won’t have even met me. After I change history, I’ll be the only one who retains the memories of our meeting and our time together today.’

’Of course, that’s not a bad thing. Chaisi is just too much to handle... So, if I’m a little more cooperative now, it’ll make him lower his guard.’

Eager to get out sooner, Jin Xueli was even more proactive than Chaisi. She stepped over the broken door and entered the room.

The air in the evidence room was cool, dim, and tinged with the faint smell of dust.

As the beam of her flashlight swept across the room, it illuminated rows of high shelves, pulling various labeled containers—cardboard boxes, large bags, and plastic bins—into view. As Jin Xueli walked past, the evidence on the shelves behind her sank back into darkness.

"Doesn’t look like anyone’s in here," she said after a quick circuit of the room.

The evidence room was quite large, almost like a small warehouse. But since there was nothing but rows of shelves, which were further divided into individual compartments by iron bars, there was actually nowhere for a person to hide—let alone the police chief from the photo, who was a large man.

To be thorough, Jin Xueli even bent down and checked under the shelves. The gap between the bottom shelf and the floor was barely big enough for a mouse.

"Mm," came Chaisi’s voice from two aisles away. His flashlight beam cut through the darkness, like a pale yellow gash in the room. "No different from the last time I was here."

If Jin Xueli weren’t so sensitive to others’ emotions, she might have actually believed Chaisi’s mood was as calm as his tone.

"Don’t worry," she said, not quite knowing why she was comforting him. It was probably just a good-natured habit. "Like you said, no one can get out of here. He must still be in the building. And if he’s in the building, we can find him."

"...Mm." Chaisi grunted in response. His flashlight beam reached the far wall, then turned and headed back toward the door. "I’m going to the next room."

He didn’t seem worried at all about Jin Xueli running off—which made sense, as there was nowhere to run.

Even though it wasn’t the time for it, Jin Xueli couldn’t resist her curiosity. She opened the lid of a cardboard box and stuck both her head and her flashlight inside.

As long as her life wasn’t on the line, she always had a little too much curiosity and not quite enough self-control.

’Besides, who could resist peeking inside a box in a police station’s evidence room?’

"What are you two doing in the evidence room?"

A voice drifted in unexpectedly, startling Jin Xueli so badly she lifted her head and nearly knocked the box over. Chaisi’s flashlight beam shot toward the sound, illuminating a figure in the doorway. The moment she saw the person’s face, it felt as if someone had jabbed a needle into her optic nerve.

The middle-aged man had clearly been completely taken over by a resident.

Like the other invaded people, the "Nest communication network" had also done a number on his eyes. Two large clumps of eyes bulged out from beneath the man’s brow—no, "clumps" wasn’t quite the right word.

Countless small eyeballs, clustered tightly together like grapes, formed two large bunches. They spilled out of his eye sockets, bulging and swollen, and dangled against his cheeks.

As the middle-aged man turned his head toward Chaisi, the two clusters of eyes slid viscously across his skin, every single pupil fixed in the same direction.

"So it’s you, Chaisi Monroe. We meet again."

Jin Xueli glanced at Chaisi, who was two aisles away. She silently took a step back and lowered the beam of her phone.

’He and Mercury seem to have known each other for a long time, so it would be normal for him to know a resident contracted with Mercury... right?’

"...Fley?" Chaisi asked in a low voice, as if uncertain.

"You still recognize me?" The resident’s mouth stretched wide, the corners of his lips pulling back so far they almost touched the dangling bunches of eyeballs. "I have you to thank for what I’ve become."

’Huh?’

’That’s not right.’

’How is it that the dominant consciousness in this man’s body isn’t the resident, but this ’Fley’ guy? After being invaded, even if some of the original host’s personality and memories remain, the resident should be in control—just like that policewoman at the cell door earlier. This ’Fley’ is surprisingly resilient.’

"Someone, I don’t know who, didn’t follow the rules... just left the evidence room door wide open... I had just closed it properly, and now you two come along, acting all lawless, even daring to destroy the door."

As he spoke, the middle-aged man named Fley swayed as he walked into the evidence room. His bulky frame completely blocked the doorway.

He abruptly twisted his neck, aiming it in Jin Xueli’s direction, and shrieked, "She dared to look at the evidence! She touched the evidence without authorization, causing contamination-contamination-contamination-contamination—"

The moment the shriek began, he charged between two rows of shelves like a cannonball, heading straight for Jin Xueli. Luckily, her reactions were fast. Having developed a keen sense of danger in the Nest, she immediately turned and fled, diving deeper into the aisle between the shelves.

"I’ll teach you not to touch the evidence-not to touch the evidence-not to touch—"

"Chaisi!" Jin Xueli rounded a corner and dashed between another two rows of shelves, shouting angrily, "Why do I always get dragged into your messes? Help me out here!"

’The one with the grudge is Chaisi, so why is this resident coming after me? What’s that about?’

What was most infuriating, however, was that when she ran straight toward Chaisi, fully expecting him to deal with the resident like last time, he just stood there, frowning, and watched as the two of them—one person, one resident—ran right past him. If he had a lightbulb on his head, he’d be a lamppost.

"What are you doing?" Jin Xueli yelled as she ran, fuming. "I don’t have a weapon! Why are you just standing there?" 𝗳𝚛𝚎𝚎𝘄𝕖𝕓𝕟𝕠𝚟𝚎𝕝.𝗰𝕠𝐦

Chaisi slowly looked up from his thoughts.

"...I think I’ve fallen into a trap."