Illusion Report

Mai Mingle lowered her hand and gently touched the face below.

Other than the eyes being sliced in half and the orbital bones having become a pair of small grooves, it felt no different from the second, newly grown face.

’How peculiar,’ she thought.

’Where did the "top of the head" for the first face go?’

Mai Mingle twisted her head 180 degrees with great interest and found that the small piece of her scalp was dangling from the back of her head like an open lid—the back of the lower, first head, of course.

She reached out with her new hand and prodded the piece of scalp a few times. It was quite firm; she didn’t have to worry about it falling off when she moved.

’If any humans were here to see me fiddling with the back of my own head, they’d probably think this was a nightmare...’

’Speaking of humans, that Hai Luwei seemed to have run off just now.’

After waking from the dream, her memories returned, along with the hour she had lost. With a little thought, she understood that the person who had repeatedly asked "What time is it?" in her ear must have been Hai Luwei.

After she fell into the lucid dream, it seemed he hadn’t given up on saving her, trying every way he could to make her notice the gap between the dream and reality... ’Yes, that must be it.’

In other words, it was because he kept repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating and repeating

...that she had gotten distracted while answering the question and hadn’t written the full answer, resulting in her becoming a superposition of a resident and a human.

’It’s all Hai Luwei’s fault I turned out like this.’

’And he actually got away.’

’Got to catch him got to catch him got to catch him make him atone make him atone make him atone.’

She slowly stretched her neck toward the main entrance and listened for a moment.

The face below was still breathing, but the new one had no need to. So, in the dim, dark hall of the library, there was only a single, faint sound of breath.

’...After becoming a resident, I can hear so, so many things I couldn’t before.’

From outside the library doors, Mai Mingle heard the sound of individual dust motes rolling across surfaces; the sound of molecules pushing aside the air as a human scent spread; the sound of the ground vibrating faintly as human footsteps receded...

...and the sound of Hai Luwei talking to another person.

It was as clear as the white moon in the black night.

’I’m amazing, being able to hear everything even from this far away.’

’Hai Luwei isn’t taking this chance to run, he’s chatting with someone instead, so stupid, but that makes it so much more convenient for me, I used to be a good person so my preferred taste now is good people, my appetite is roaring, roaring, roaring.’

"Wait, where are you going?"

She had just taken a step when the other resident beside her darted ahead, blocking her path.

The guy’s face was a complete blank, and a wig sat askew on his head—no, it was probably real hair that had grown crookedly into the shape of a wig.

"You, come with me," the Dream Screenwriter said, pointing to the door. "Tell Daddy what abilities you have. Then, we have to go kill someone."

Her second, newly grown head and neck made her at least forty centimeters taller than before. Mai Mingle bent down slightly, looked at him, and asked, "...Why are you Daddy?"

"I was the one who gave you this new life."

"...You had the dream, too?"

The Dream Screenwriter was quiet for a moment before speaking. "What you call me doesn’t matter. Just come with me... You’re itching to try killing someone, aren’t you? It’s your first kill after becoming a resident, after all. Very important. I can provide you with the perfect target, not far from here."

"Oh, okay,"

Mai Mingle tilted her head in thought. Both her mouths smiled in unison, then spoke together. "Then let’s go. You lead the way."

She watched quietly as the Dream Screenwriter turned around, exposing his back.

***

Hai Luwei’s panic subsided slightly. He looked the boy up and down.

"You... Are you her friend?"

The other person’s hands were stuffed in the pockets of his hoodie, his face submerged in the shadow of the hood, revealing only a sharp chin.

But judging from his frame, he seemed to be a minor. If he was a friend, the age gap with Mai Mingle was a bit too large.

He suddenly had a flash of inspiration, a stroke of genius. "Ah, could you be her grandson? Are you here to save your grandma?"

The question fell like a brick, with no one there to catch it. It hit the ground with a THUD, shattering the conversation.

In the dead-silent night, the boy was silent for several seconds before speaking, utterly perplexed. "...What did you say? Grandma?"

’Huh, so they aren’t grandmother and grandson? I really thought I’d figured it out.’

’Then again, I don’t know when Mai Mingle regained her youth. This boy could be a friend she made after she became young again.’

But no matter who this person was, it was already too late.

"She’s in the library, but I’d advise you not to go over there. Her current state..."

"Is her life in danger?" the boy asked.

’...That’s a really hard question to answer.’

’If we’re talking about danger, the two of us are probably in more danger right now.’

Hai Luwei took a deep breath, at a loss for where to even begin explaining. If he didn’t start from the beginning, it would be impossible to make sense of it. But if he did, who knew when the Mai Mingle in the library behind them would decide to embrace her resident nature and come out to hunt and kill?

"She was turned by a resident into... uh, a superposition of a resident and a human. It’s not that she died and a resident appeared from her corpse; her entire being..."

He had witnessed the whole thing himself and still couldn’t quite understand what happened. The boy, upon hearing this, would probably think he was crazy. "I don’t know if there’s any chance of her recovering..."

The hooded boy thought for a moment, then asked, "What about her body? Is her body still the same?"

Hai Luwei was taken aback. "Ah, yes, the body is the same body."

"I see," the hooded boy said softly. "I’ll go save her now. You can leave."

’He must be Mai Mingle’s friend after all, right? And he seems pretty loyal... just a little naive and overconfident.’

"Are you really going? The way she is now, it’s too dangerous. You could get yourself killed."

"Yeah, I know," the hooded boy said, seemingly too lazy to explain. He had already walked past him, hands in his pockets. "Weren’t you leaving? What are you still standing here for?"

’The way he said that—what a little punk in his rebellious phase. So annoying to listen to.’

’Still, once he sees what Mai Mingle looks like, all that confidence will probably evaporate.’

"Don’t blame me for not warning you!" Hai Luwei shouted, but the boy didn’t look back, only giving a dismissive wave.

As the boy’s figure grew smaller, Hai Luwei remained rooted to the spot.

...He couldn’t quite say why.

If he had to find a reason... Hai Luwei found himself thinking about the boy’s hands.

When he had said, "You’re too late," the boy’s hands had remained perfectly still, tucked securely in his pockets.

...That was a little strange, wasn’t it?

The words a person speaks can be disguised, embellished, and altered. But body language is often beyond the control of a lying will; it becomes a subconscious expression of the truth.

When a person hears that someone they care about deeply is in danger, how can their body remain so relaxed, so composed?

In other words, were they really friends?

And if they weren’t friends... was the boy really going to save Mai Mingle?

Hai Luwei glanced at the boy’s back. He was walking quickly; in just a minute or two, he had already entered the plaza in front of the library.

’Whatever. Even if he has bad intentions, what more harm could be done to Mai Mingle in her current state? If anything, I should be worried about whether that boy will make it out alive.’

’Oh god, if the boy dies too, another resident will just pop out of his corpse... Is this place going to turn into a resident convention?’

’Once the resident density gets that high, I won’t be able to leave even if I want to. So I have to get out of here right now—’

Before the thought could even finish, a tremendous BOOM echoed through the night. As if struck by a cannonball, the library doors shattered into a thousand pieces that flew everywhere, launching a dark figure high into the night sky.

The dark figure flew past a streetlight. An askew wig on its head glinted for an instant in the lamplight before the figure disappeared, falling somewhere out of sight.

Hai Luwei froze for a split second, but even a split second was too long.

’The one who flew out... was that the Dream Screenwriter?’

’Looks like he was knocked flying, huh?’

As the thought surfaced in his mind, another shadow charged out of the library right behind—a figure with one head perched high atop another.

"HAI LUWEI AHHHHH HAI LUWEI AHHHHH GET OVER HERE GET OVER HERE LET ME KILL YOU"

The shadow shot toward him like a cannonball. The long flight of stairs and half the plaza seemed to be a distance she could cover in just a few steps. The boy happened to be standing directly in Mai Mingle’s path and only managed to avoid being sent flying by diving to the side at the last second.

’Wait, what did she just say?’

Hai Luwei suddenly realized what was happening, breaking out in a cold sweat just as Mai Mingle’s upper and lower faces became clearly visible.

’Why does she want to kill me?!’

He was too scared to even scream and turned to run, but his gaze fell upon the pitch-black road ahead, and he stopped dead in his tracks.

’No, the road ahead is a total black box. It’s too dangerous to rush in blindly—’

In that critical moment, some nerve in Hai Luwei’s brain fired. He abruptly dropped into a crouch, squatting on the ground.

A shadow and a gust of wind passed over his head. Mai Mingle’s pounce missed. She traced a parabola through the air and landed with a THUD on the road in front of him. Then, one after the other, her two faces turned toward him.

’The potential of a person in a crisis is really something. If I hadn’t ducked in time, Resident Mai Mingle would’ve nabbed me for sure.’

Even in the midst of his panic, Hai Luwei had time for such a thought. He knew he couldn’t escape forward, so he twisted around and ran back toward the library plaza.

Mai Mingle let out a shrill laugh and gave chase.

"Hey! Mai Mingle is right here!"

Hai Luwei sprinted desperately toward the boy up ahead, shouting at the top of his lungs, "Weren’t you looking for trouble with her? Well, here’s your chance!"