Illusion Report

The two groups who had already made their purchases still hadn’t left. They stood far apart on the dim platform, talking in low voices.

Even without being able to hear them, Jin Xueli could guess what they were talking about.

They were all Household Hunters. For a Family Faction, the product descriptions on display had completely changed the vending machine’s significance.

Illusion Hunters risked their lives entering Nests for one thing, to put it bluntly: money.

The vending machine had been ignored before because its products were weak and had major limitations, offering little potential profit. Take the M&Ms, for example. They expired 24 hours after leaving the Nest. Who would pay a fortune for something that was practically single-use? If you could even sell it for what you paid, it just meant you were well-connected and had plenty of desperate suckers in your social circle.

The product limitations still existed—and were even more severe now—but even Jin Xueli, who didn’t belong to a Family Faction, could see at a glance that the potential returns were on a whole different level.

’A pity that’s only true for the Family Factions.’

Her flashlight beam swept over the product descriptions twice before landing on the image of a blue plastic bottle.

The gentle-faced female Hunter had bought a bottle of water without a second thought after reading the description, immediately clutching it and stuffing it into her backpack. It was only thanks to Jin Xueli’s sharp eyes that she’d identified the drink from a flash of blue.

Gate-Raid Sports Drink 500ml

As everyone knows, the threshold between life and death is like a great gate. On this side is the mortal world/the Nest; step through, and you’re headed for heaven or hell.

(Just kidding, as if humans could go to heaven, hahaha.)

In life, people don’t always cross that gate cleanly. Unexpected things happen that leave you hovering on the brink. Say you get hit by a car, have a sudden stroke, get shot... In situations like these, you might find that, hey, there’s actually a precious window of time for medical intervention tucked between life and death.

It’s like having one foot in and one foot out. You’d definitely want the mortal world to hold onto you for a little longer, right?

A little more time gives doctors a better chance to save you. A little less, a missed opportunity, and you’re destined to develop livor mortis.

This sports drink is especially for those hovering on the brink, letting you launch an attack on the gate of death itself! Amazing! It can’t bring you back from the dead, but it can buy you precious time for medical treatment. As long as you can still safely swallow liquids, every 1ml you drink adds 3 seconds.

Disclaimer: This product is effective at extending the window for medical intervention, but does not guarantee successful resuscitation. Please refer to the final word from your ER or attending physician for your specific prognosis.

Expiration (Post-Nest): 4 hours

Price: $38,000

Flavor: Cyanotic Livor Mortis

Thirty-eight thousand dollars for an Illusion that expires in just four hours. For a solo Hunter or a small Family Faction, it was a deal guaranteed to lose money. Without the network, information, manpower, and material support of a major Family Faction, just finding a client willing to trust you completely was already a Herculean task. And after that, there was an even bigger problem.

How would you even make the delivery?

Let’s say your client is in mortal danger, and their agent urgently contacts you, needing the sports drink Illusion within ten minutes.

A solo Hunter would have to enter the Nest via a Path, rush to a stash spot or the vending machine, get the Illusion, then open another Path back to Blackmoor City... By the time they got back, the client would already be buried.

But for a large Family Faction, it was a different story.

Jin Xueli didn’t know the exact procedures and methods, but she’d heard bits and pieces that gave her a glimpse of the bigger picture—for time-sensitive situations, the major Family Factions dispatched helicopters.

At this thought, Jin Xueli couldn’t help but glance back at the two shadows still whispering in the depths of the platform. They had bought their items so decisively. The Family Factions behind them must be massive, with no worries about finding a buyer. The cards they used to pay were probably faction-issued.

’Ugh, must be nice,’ she thought, turning away with a grimace.

Her credit card limit wasn’t even thirty-six thousand. Although Jin Xueli made good money from her broadcasts, thinking about this made her envy the advantages of a Family Faction. All her earnings were gray income. It couldn’t be declared, couldn’t be counted as personal assets, and did absolutely nothing for her credit score.

But it was different for Household Hunters.

Their income was paid out by their Family Faction under various labels: salaries, bonuses, dividends, commissions, subsidies, reimbursements... Not only was it all above board, but they could even pay just enough in taxes to keep the IRS off their backs.

’So what about the Family Faction’s income?’

"Me? Besides handling the accounting and finances," Amber had once told Jin Xueli plainly, "I’m also in charge of laundering the Family Faction’s money."

Jin Xueli let out another deep sigh.

She had spotted the item she wanted to buy a while ago.

But the reason she hadn’t bought it yet, and was instead standing here foolishly pondering money laundering and taxes, wasn’t just her tendency to get distracted and let her mind wander. There was one crucial reason: she didn’t have enough credit on her card.

Jin Xueli looked around, her gaze resting on the gentle-faced female Hunter for a couple of seconds before turning back to the pair in baseball caps sitting on the stairs and talking.

’Might as well try,’ she told herself, trying to psych herself up. ’It doesn’t cost anything to ask. What’s the worst that can happen? They say no?’

As she walked over to the stairs, the one in the baseball cap looked up. 𝘧𝓇ℯ𝑒𝓌𝑒𝑏𝓃𝘰𝘷𝘦𝘭.𝒸ℴ𝓂

"What’s up?"

Jin Xueli suspected she was probably making a fool of herself. "Um... excuse me, are you Household Hunters?"

The girl chewing gum nodded. "Yeah, what about it?"

She seemed to really like the one in the cap. Now that her left arm was back to normal, they were sitting shoulder to shoulder, looking much closer than the other pair.

"I’m a solo act, no Family Faction," Jin Xueli said, clearing her throat. "Uh... the vending machine. I haven’t bought anything yet. I saw something that would be really useful for me, and I can’t put it off. It’d be best to get it right now."

The two of them looked at her, waiting for her to continue.

She was in too deep to back out now. Steeling herself, she said, "But I don’t have enough credit on my card... Would you be willing to... put it on your card for me? I have the funds in my savings account, but my debit card doesn’t have a contactless chip, so the vending machine can’t read it..."

It felt so wrong to be in an unreal place like a Nest discussing such a realistic and trivial problem.

Afraid they would get the wrong idea, she quickly added, "I have the money, I’m not broke!"

In the shadow of the baseball cap, a long, narrow dimple suddenly appeared on the visible half of her face. "You have cash on you?"

Jin Xueli felt a wave of despair. "No, the cash is in Blackmoor City..."

"So you’re asking to borrow money, then?" The girl in the cap grinned wider, her white teeth flashing in the gloom.

"Now that you put it that way, I... I guess so..."

The other girl stopped chewing her gum, her mouth half-open as she stared at Xueli. Perhaps she’d never been asked for money by a stranger inside a Nest before.

Jin Xueli also felt the situation was getting a bit absurd. She stammered, "I mean, of course, it’s not like I can’t come back again, but my Path—ah, that’s... not convenient to talk about..."

The girl in the baseball cap suddenly burst out laughing.

When the laughter died down, she took off her cap, ran a hand through her messy, wavy short hair, and tilted her face up toward the dim light of the platform.

It was the first time Jin Xueli got a clear look at her face, and she was momentarily dazed.

Though she must have also been in her twenties, she had the look of an androgynous youth. Beneath the waves of messy hair was a pair of long, deep-set blue eyes, like the pure expanse of sky reflected between arctic icebergs.

The gum-chewing girl glanced at Jin Xueli, shrugged, and grumbled the expression on her face out loud: "I knew it."

"What?" Jin Xueli snapped back to reality, her embarrassment returning twofold. "Um, never mind, it’s okay, I’ll just come back again... After all, if I were in your shoes, I wouldn’t just lend money to a stranger either..."

But the girl—who no longer wore her baseball cap, though Jin Xueli still didn’t know her name—stood up and pulled a wallet from her back pocket.

"My driver’s license and card," she said, holding up two cards to Jin Xueli. "Give me your driver’s license, credit card, and phone."

"Huh? My phone, too?"

"Of course. How do I know your ID is real?"

The gum-chewing girl nodded in agreement. "These days, the only things people will absolutely come back for are their own kids and their phones."

The request was reasonable. The driver’s license was a given; of course she’d want to know who she was lending money to. The credit card was extra collateral, in case Jin Xueli didn’t pay her back or died in the Nest. Besides, she was only asking for the phone, not the password.

Yet Jin Xueli hesitated for a long moment before finally handing over her phone as well.

The girl looked down at the phone screen, which lit up at her touch. In its glow, her clean-cut face paused. She stared at the hundred-plus filthy messages still frozen on the screen, her expression unreadable. Without a word, she pocketed the phone.

For some reason, Jin Xueli felt a sense of shame, as if she’d been stripped naked.

"This is my address and phone number," the girl said, acting as if she’d already forgotten the messages. She scribbled a note for Jin Xueli and asked, "Is there any information on your phone you need to write down? A phone number, for instance?"

Anthony’s number was already engraved in her memory. Jin Xueli shook her head.

"Jin Xueli, right?" The girl glanced from the driver’s license to her, then smiled. "It’s rare to see an ID photo that’s as pretty as the person."

Jin Xueli thanked them profusely and they exchanged some necessary information. The whole time, she felt like she was walking through a daze, unable to believe she’d actually managed to borrow a card from a stranger. ’A stranger? And in a Nest, of all places?’

For some reason, she hadn’t dared to look at the girl’s driver’s license. It wasn’t until she was back in front of the vending machine that Jin Xueli finally snuck a glance at it.

Morando. Even the name was androgynous.

Jin Xueli took a deep breath, forced her attention back to the vending machine, keyed in a few numbers, and tapped the credit card against the reader.

A notification for a successful $12,000 charge popped up on the screen. With a CLUNK, a can of soda dropped into the slot below.

Jin Xueli reached down, grabbed it, and put it in her backpack.

As she straightened up, she turned and met Morando’s gaze.

She hadn’t tried to hide the soda can, and it was the only purple item. In the light of the vending machine, its color was vivid and clear. Anyone who had read the product descriptions would know that the purple soda had only one function.

To kill.