Illusion Report

...What in the world was going on?

’Should I run?’

The resident’s limbs were long and spindly, its clothes comically short for its frame. Its head was bald, and it wore a crooked wig, as if just going through the motions.

After taking on Hai Luwei’s face, it showed little interest in him. It just kept wiping Mai Mingle’s face, stroke by stroke, without even glancing his way.

’If I run now, there’s an eighty-percent chance I’ll get away.’

’But... what about Mai Mingle?’

Her facial features, like stubborn but ultimately removable marker stains, gradually faded and vanished with each wipe.

Just moments ago, she was a person with a bright, gentle smile. Now, when he looked up again, all that remained on her face was a blank, slightly uneven canvas of flesh. Countless pores seemed to have taken over the function of her nostrils, pulling the skin up and down in a faint, rhythmic motion, as if she were breathing.

’She’s already like this. Can she even be saved? She looks more like a resident than the residents themselves.’

’Even if I managed to fight this resident off, how could I get her face back—’

"Ah, there we go."

The resident suddenly stopped, its voice thin. "Yes, I will now add your appearance from eighty-six minutes ago."

’What?’

Hai Luwei felt he wasn’t the center of danger right now, so he quickly glanced at his watch. It was... still 12:20. Not even a minute had passed since the resident appeared.

’Eighty-six minutes ago... that would be 10:54. That was the moment Mai Mingle had just arrived at the library entrance and asked me for the time.’

Thinking back, the resident had indeed said, "Let’s start over from the moment you arrived at the library."

’Does "start over" mean her appearance? How different could a person’s appearance from eighty-six minutes ago be from now? What’s the point of starting over?’

He couldn’t understand it at all. He had never even heard of a resident like this before.

Hai Luwei felt like a statue whose feet had yet to be carved. He couldn’t charge forward to save her, nor was he willing to turn and flee. For a moment, all he could do was stand rooted to the spot, watching the resident wearing his face reach for Mai Mingle’s again.

Each of its movements was swift. In the span of a single breath, Mai Mingle’s features were restored—at a glance, she looked exactly the same as before.

’No, that’s not right.’

’There is a difference, but it’s not a change in her features...’

Right now, a faint sheen of sweat glistened on Mai Mingle’s forehead. Her face was pale, her eyelids drooped, and she was panting softly, looking utterly exhausted once more. The hour they had spent resting and chatting on the steps seemed to have been wiped clean from her face.

’...It really is her face from eighty-six minutes ago! So that’s what it meant!’

Though it was completely inappropriate for the situation, Hai Luwei felt a flicker of admiration.

’These residents and their ever-creative methods for harming people... It’s almost tiring to think about.’ His ex-girlfriend had once praised him for being considerate.

The exhausted Mai Mingle seemed not to see the two "Hai Luweis" beside her. She walked straight toward the library entrance, her feet dragging heavily with each step.

"Wait, what’s going on?"

Hai Luwei mustered his courage and yelled at the resident as it turned to follow her, "What are you going to do to her?"

The face he had seen in the mirror for twenty-seven years turned over its shoulder, its pair of dark, empty eyes locking onto Hai Luwei.

"You’re not the target. Just get lost," it said flatly. "I’m only eliminating future contestants today. You should be grateful."

’Future contestants? What is it talking about?’

But a resident’s mind, its thoughts and logic, were like a shattered kaleidoscope filled with twisted, fragmented shards of every color and shape—often incomprehensible to humans. How it chose to refer to a Hunter probably didn’t matter.

Hai Luwei glanced at the exit on the other side of the parking lot.

’...If it’s telling the truth, this is the perfect chance to escape.’

’I don’t know the consequences of not completing the full twelve hours as a guide, but if Mai Mingle dies at the hands of a resident, the consequences and responsibility shouldn’t fall on my head, right?’

’Besides, I’m already so far from the domain where my own rules failed. Are those residents going to drop from the sky and cut off my legs?’

He turned his head again and saw Mai Mingle sit down on the nearby steps with a THUMP. She waved at the resident wearing his face who was higher up on the steps and greeted it.

’...This was indeed the scene that had played out over an hour ago.’

’Wait, could it be that by restoring a person’s external appearance to how it was a while ago, everything they see and think also reverts to that past moment?’

’No wonder the resident said "start over"... But what’s the point of repeating history?’

By the time Hai Luwei realized it, he was already walking toward Mai Mingle. The other "Hai Luwei" on the steps immediately looked up at him.

"Don’t mind me, I won’t get in your way," Hai Luwei said, raising his hands. "I just want to see what you’re up to. Broaden my horizons. I’ll have more experience next time."

The resident stared at him with its dark, empty eyes for a second or two, then turned its head away.

It was his own face, so of course he knew it intimately. He could recognize even the faintest flicker of annoyance and anger that crossed it.

’But even though it’s so unwilling, it’s still holding back and hasn’t attacked me. Maybe it’s because Mai Mingle has already begun the "historical reenactment" and it doesn’t have the time?’

This guess wasn’t just pulled out of thin air. As soon as the resident turned its head, it immediately spoke to Mai Mingle. "...Did you two come together?"

’Two people? What two people?’ Hai Luwei was a bit confused.

As the words left its mouth, the resident took two steps to the side. Though it had been at least five or six steps away, in the blink of an eye, it was standing right behind Mai Mingle.

After a few rapid, flickering changes, when Mai Mingle turned to look behind her, her gaze landed squarely on the face of a young girl wearing eyeliner.

A few seconds later, under the dead-silent night sky, the young girl’s eyes slowly curved down as the corners of her mouth curved high up. It was as if a knife had sliced through the skin, carving three deep, arching lines.

’...What’s wrong? What’s it so happy about?’

Unexpectedly, neither the resident nor Mai Mingle said another word.

The wind had died down at some point, and the air grew heavy and viscous. Every movement, every lift of a hand or foot, felt like pushing through the slight resistance of gelatin.

Mai Mingle remained half-turned, staring straight at the resident, her eyes unfocused and unmoving.

Meanwhile, the resident was quite busy. Its face switched from Hai Luwei’s to the eyeliner girl’s, lingering for varied amounts of time. He had no idea why it kept changing back and forth.

Hai Luwei cautiously took a few slow steps toward the human and the resident, careful not to attract its attention.

’...Mai Mingle wasn’t completely still.’

The light from the steps happened to illuminate her face. Her pupils trembled and flickered, as if she were watching a scene that had captured her entire attention. From time to time, Mai Mingle seemed to be trying to speak, her lips parting and moving slightly—but no sound came out.

’Is this what someone who thinks they’re talking in a dream looks like?’

’It feels... like Mai Mingle is sinking into a dream while fully awake.’

’What is she seeing?’

’If I call out to her, will she hear me?’

Hai Luwei hesitated for a moment, then coughed loudly a few times. The sound echoed far into the night, but Mai Mingle remained unresponsive, like a stone.

The resident suddenly let out two soft laughs.

"You can’t startle her awake. That’s what you were trying to do, right?" It was still staring at Mai Mingle, its face now Hai Luwei’s again. "She has already fallen into the ’lucid dream’ I created... Everything she sees and hears is content I meticulously constructed for her. Since she was already awake to begin with, how can she wake up again?"

"So it’s really called that?" Hai Luwei was taken aback. "My intuition is pretty sharp, huh? I was just thinking that she looked like—"

"Shut up," the resident snapped. "Do you want me to drag you into a ’lucid dream’ too?"

Hai Luwei obediently shut his mouth, not saying the thought that was on his mind.

He shut up not because he was scared, but because he didn’t want to push the resident too far. In truth, a suspicion had already formed in his mind.

’It probably can’t create two ’lucid dreams’ and control two people at once, can it?’

Just as he had explained to Mai Mingle, humans were precious resources to residents, like a powerful tonic. If it could control two people at once, this resident would have already made its move.

’For some reason, it used its one slot on Mai Mingle instead of me—maybe she really is some kind of contestant. In any case, as long as Mai Mingle is in the dream, I’m safe.’

’Sigh, I guess my luck has finally turned around after hitting rock bottom.’

As he thought this, Hai Luwei sat down on the steps. He observed Mai Mingle’s state and asked casually, as if making small talk, "Hey, buddy—or are you a lady? I’m just curious. What’s your ultimate goal in controlling her with a lucid dream?"

The resident’s brow furrowed sharply. Several minutes had passed, and it had kept Hai Luwei’s face the entire time, which was incredibly creepy. It seemed both displeased and yet unable to suppress a bit of smugness. It gave a thin, sharp laugh and said, "If telling you will make you shut up, then I don’t mind. Once she follows the script I’ve written for her, she’ll gradually be assimilated by me."

"Then why are you wearing my face? She can’t see or hear reality, so she wouldn’t even know if you were headless. And you were switching back and forth between two faces..."

Hai Luwei blurted this out, then suddenly slapped his forehead. "Don’t tell me the ’lucid dream’ needs me *and* another character? Are you playing two parts by yourself?"

"shutup shutup shutup shutup illkillyou illkillyou illkillyou buthavetowait"

Great. Nest residents were always like this, unable to speak normally for more than a few sentences before dropping punctuation altogether. That fragmented, high-speed, repetitive speech pattern was like a punctured artery, SPURT-SPURTING blood. Hearing too much of it felt like being slapped in the face.

"What do you mean by assimilation?" Hai Luwei asked, looking at Mai Mingle’s dazed, dream-like expression. "Becoming like you? She still has a full head of hair, she’s not bald..."

He had thought that if he could provoke the resident, it might accidentally slip up, maybe even destabilizing its control. But before he could finish his sentence, Hai Luwei himself was suddenly startled. He leaped up from the steps, nearly losing his footing and tumbling down.

It was as if an invisible hand had pinched the inner corners of Mai Mingle’s eyes and pulled them toward the center. The bridge of her nose suddenly vanished, and the corners of her eyes were now pressed tightly together, separated by only a thin layer of skin, about to merge into one.

Just as a dreamer might sometimes talk in their sleep, Mai Mingle’s voice was muffled and faint, but Hai Luwei still managed to catch it.

"sothatshowitissothatshowitissothatshowitis"

’Assimilation... Does it mean being "resident-ified"?’