Illusion Report

It had only been a day since Jin Xueli last saw Morando, and she never expected they would meet again so soon—in fact, a mere half hour after Anthony had turned into soda.

Why?

After all, it was just as the girl named Qiao Yuyue had said: these days, the only things you absolutely had to get back were your own children and your cell phone.

Jin Xueli had no children. She could only say that without her phone, it truly felt as if she’d lost a piece of her soul.

"Oh, decided to call me yourself this time?" Morando said with a chuckle after the call connected.

’No need to remind me of my own embarrassing moments, whether directly or not. Even without reminders, I can remember every awkward incident for at least a decade—and they always storm into my mind in the middle of the night, driving away all sleep.’

"I can pay you back now. Are you free tonight?"

Morando was silent for a second. "Where?"

Jin Xueli gave her the address for the "Between the Backlight" bar, and heard Morando say, "That’s not far from me."

She wanted to ask if Morando lived nearby, but she was afraid Morando would think she was trying to dig up intel on a Hunter. Before she could speak, Morando added, "I just finished up with a client, so I can head right over."

’How nice. Other people go to a Nest and come back with a profit. And what about me? I’m out twelve thousand.’

Perhaps it was because this thought hung over her head like a dark cloud, occupying most of her attention. Or perhaps it was because she knew she was back in Blackmoor City and no longer needed to be on constant alert. Whatever the reason, when she walked into "Between the Backlight," she had yet to realize she’d made a huge mistake.

"Don’t move!"

The sharp command made Jin Xueli, who had just stepped through the door, jump in surprise.

She looked up to find every Hunter in the bar on their feet, their gazes fixed on her, ready for a fight. A few even had their hands on their waists, clearly prepared to draw their weapons.

"What... What’s going on?"

Jin Xueli froze mid-step, not daring to move. She glanced around the bar and asked blankly, "What’s wrong with all of you? What did I do?"

It wasn’t entirely true that *everyone* had stood up. In the entire bar, one person remained seated at the counter, pulling her baseball cap down to hide her soft laughter.

"What do you think you’re doing?" The bartender, who had a face like a Shar-Pei, held up a liquor bottle, seemingly ready to use it as a weapon at a moment’s notice. "What’s the big idea, walking in here with an active Illusion?"

Jin Xueli looked at the crowd, then down at the half-full can of soda in her hand, then back up at the crowd. Realization dawned.

"Ah, this... it’s not..."

Panicked, she started to put the soda down, but another shout of "Don’t move!" froze her in place. She had no choice but to explain, "I’m not going to hurt anyone with it—I mean, I *did* use it—but, ah, it has nothing to do with you! I wasn’t going to use it on any of you! I just forgot I was holding it. I’ve been carrying it around this whole time."

Even if an Illusion looks no different from an ordinary object, its presence will tickle a kind of sixth sense in an experienced Hunter—especially an active one.

’Walking in here like this,’ Jin Xueli belatedly realized, ’is probably the equivalent of storming an airport with a loaded gun.’

"...She’s a regular," the bartender said to the others, hesitantly lowering the bottle.

"Who forgets they’re carrying an Illusion?" a middle-aged man asked disbelievingly.

At this point, Morando finally decided to lend her support.

She slowly swiveled in her chair and said, "It’s true. When she bought the Illusion, she ran out of money and asked a strange Hunter standing nearby—someone she’d never even met—for a loan."

"And how would you know?" a woman asked, slowly taking her hand away from her hip but not yet sitting down.

"I was that stranger," Morando said, giving Jin Xueli a lazy wave. "Come on, pay me back."

Under the watchful eyes of a bar full of Hunters, Jin Xueli sheepishly scuttled over to the counter—but the ordeal wasn’t over yet.

A few of the still-wary Hunters closed in, gathering around to look at her and the soda can. "How do you use that Illusion?" one asked. "What does it do?"

It was possible they were feigning ignorance, asking a question they already knew the answer to just to see if she would tell the truth.

But Jin Xueli had no intention of lying.

"You take a few big gulps, and while you can still taste the grape, you quickly blow a puff of air in the target’s face."

"And then?"

"The target turns into grape soda," Jin Xueli said obediently. Sitting on a barstool, she lifted a rain-boot-clad foot and pointed to it. "I thought there’d be a huge mess, so I even wore rain boots, see? But it only ended up being about the volume of one or two cans of soda."

"Did you just... kill someone?" another Hunter asked.

"You can’t just say things like that." Even in a room full of Hunters, Jin Xueli wouldn’t admit to that publicly. "I just said you blow a puff of air at the target. I never said anything about killing."

At her words, a few of the other Hunters actually seemed to relax. Several pairs of eyes shifted to the soda can, a faint glimmer in them.

"When they turn into soda, can other people see it happen?" an old man asked.

Jin Xueli held up a finger. "Nope. After you blow on them, it takes effect the very first moment they are out of human sight. It’s instantaneous."

’Clothes, shoes, phone... nothing is left behind.’ Of course, she couldn’t mention that detail out loud.

"How much is left?" someone asked, taking a couple of steps closer. "And the expiration date?"

"There’s half left, and the expiration—" Jin Xueli suddenly realized what was happening. "Are you guys interested in buying it?"

Everyone present was an expert. Even though the purple soda was a brand-new type of Illusion, it only took them a little over ten minutes to determine its value and function.