Illusion Report

Chapter 213: Chapter 176: Jin Xueli: The Long-Awaited Moment

The few seconds it took to escape the room were utter chaos.

In the intense panic, Jin Xueli’s vision was a blur of shifting colors and limbs. The air was pierced by fragmented screams, crashing sounds, and the urgent shouts of someone she couldn’t identify... Even though she couldn’t see it, she just knew: the resident behind them was waking up.

The fear of being half a second too late and never returning to the Human World was a stronger motivator than anything. She shoved a hospital bed out of the way, dragged Morando, and lunged out of the room, only to trip over Chaisi’s body—and just like that, Jin Xueli tumbled into the hallway, falling back into the Human World.

Morando landed beside her, and the several human faces on her body immediately began to shriek.

Jin Xueli looked up and found she could no longer see Morando’s face clearly. The human faces on her body were rapidly emitting clouds of smoke, shrinking drastically amid the billowing white fumes like effervescent tablets dropped in water.

’Does this mean I’ll be all right?’

The Hunter of Love rushed over with the speed and force of an arrow from Cupid. She helped Morando up, asking anxiously, "Are you all right? Does it hurt anywhere?"

’Okay, so *she’s* got someone looking after her.’

Jin Xueli turned her head and saw that the hospital room door had become a picture frame, perfectly framing the slender patient’s face. At some point, its face had filled the entire doorway, as if it were trying to squeeze through in a furious rage. But it remained a fingernail’s width away from the Human World of the hallway, unable to enter.

"Morando—"

Before she could finish shouting, the slender patient’s face—and the doorframe it clutched—began to rapidly retreat and shrink, plummeting into a mass of darkness. It seemed to be howling, but Jin Xueli couldn’t hear a thing.

In the blink of an eye, the space behind the door was empty, replaced by an unfamiliar private hospital room with a foyer and an inner chamber.

"It’s over," Morando said, her voice faint. "The connection has been severed... It can’t come back."

Before Jin Xueli could even nod, she heard Chaisi let out a joyous shriek.

"I’m back! I’m back in Blackmoor City! I’m back in the Human World!"

"...Chaisi?"

Jin Xueli called out his name in a daze, only then realizing that Chaisi’s eyes were still tightly shut, completely unconscious. A woman in a straw hat, her back to Xueli, was bent over, prying Chaisi’s mouth open.

A small, naked figure immediately popped its head out.

Its arms were no longer clasped tightly to its chest; it seemed to have completely forgotten about the Illusion. It glanced around, saw that the slender patient was gone, and immediately stepped one foot out from between Chaisi’s lips.

"I’m free hahaha I’ve escaped death and I’m back in the Human World I’m gonna find a wife a Hunter with my kind of experience is one in a million this rich life experience is an asset in the future she’ll have it made if she sticks with me me me—"

For several seconds, no one in the hallway spoke. They could only stare dumbly at it.

The small, naked figure leaped to the floor and suddenly broke into a run, shouting as it sprinted CLOMP-CLOMP-CLOMP toward the other end of the corridor. It grew a little larger with every step. By the time it ran into the empty waiting area at the end of the hall, the small, naked figure had become a full-sized, naked person.

Except the parts that should have been there... still weren’t.

No one thought of trying to catch it—which was only natural. They couldn’t get away from it fast enough.

Jin Xueli watched, dumbfounded, as it disappeared around a corner, running off to who-knows-where. For a moment, she even suspected that she was the one who had accidentally drunk some Ayahuasca and was hallucinating.

A bulge slid across Chaisi’s cheek.

"Isn’t... isn’t it a product of the Nest, too? Shouldn’t it have disappeared just like the faces on your body? This is the Human World—"

Jin Xueli had been directing her words at Morando, but she trailed off mid-sentence. She had just belatedly realized something and couldn’t continue.

’...Isn’t the hallway a little too crowded?’

This section of the hallway outside the hospital room was now packed with people.

Jin Xueli lifted her head and slowly looked around.

The Hunter of Love was still holding Morando’s shoulders, but her other hand gripped an iron rod, seemingly ready to swing it at any moment.

Chaisi was unconscious, so he could be ignored for now. The woman beside him still had her head lowered, her face hidden by dark hair and a straw hat. ’Is she a helper Han Liuyue brought?’

Surrounding them was a circle of figures whose backs looked vaguely familiar to Jin Xueli.

A tall, muscular security guard; a woman in a front-desk uniform; two nurses in pale blue scrubs; and a doctor.

No one spoke. No one moved. They just stood there silently, their backs to Jin Xueli.

Jin Xueli jumped to her feet. She suddenly remembered someone who was supposed to be here but was nowhere to be seen.

"Who are you? Where’s Han Liuyue? Han Liuyue!"

"...I’m right here."

Following the voice, Jin Xueli numbly turned her gaze.

The head with the sun-shielding straw hat and thick, greasy black hair like crude oil slowly turned away from the woman’s shoulder, inch by inch revealing a chalk-white, swollen face.

Pinprick-black eye sockets and a sharp, red mouth.

But unlike the first time she saw it in the parking lot, the face before her was incomplete. Like a shattered mask, its chin, cheeks, and forehead were missing several chalk-white pieces, revealing dark, deep holes underneath.

...Counting carefully, the Noh-mask-like face was missing five pieces.

From that mouth came Han Liuyue’s voice. "...You did well. Brother Chaisi is still alive."

Jin Xueli squeezed her eyes shut.

’When I open them again, maybe I’ll wake up in my own bed.’

"You’re just as spirited as last time. As for me, I’ve run into a bit of a tricky problem."

Jin Xueli opened her eyes.

"A problem? You mean your face?"

The Noh mask with Han Liuyue’s voice ignored her jab and continued, "You see, I originally intended to visit a friend. But after being back in Blackmoor City for two days, I’ve discovered that he isn’t easy to visit..."

"Never mind that. Why don’t we talk about your face first?"

"The first problem is that I need someone to show me the way—"

"Have you looked in a mirror? I think you should see a doctor—or maybe a carpenter."

Morando couldn’t take it anymore and called out her name. "Jin Xueli."

She whipped her head toward Morando, unable to control her voice. "What? That thing is not Han Liuyue!"

"...I know. Just hear her out first."

Morando’s tone was placating, even gentle. She glanced at the silent backs of the hospital staff nearby. "The five of them ending up like this seems to have something to do with her."

Jin Xueli took a deep breath.

"The first problem is minor. The second is more troublesome."

The Noh-mask-like Han Liuyue continued on as if she hadn’t heard them, talking to herself. "Chaisi Monroe is so meddlesome. He sold a defensive Illusion to the friend I want to visit. That makes it difficult for me to approach him... Honestly, why be so inhospitable? In any case, if there’s anyone in this world who understands the limitations of that Illusion and knows how to get close to its owner, it would have to be Brother Chaisi."

It was still using a mixture of Han Liuyue’s tone and speech patterns, as if Han Liuyue was merely one of the raw materials that had formed it.

"Who is this person you want to see?" Jin Xueli asked, trying to keep her voice steady.

"Han Liuyue" turned a deaf ear and simply continued.

"Chaisi must be woken up. He needs to regain consciousness so he can take me to see my friend. We’re in a hospital right now, aren’t we? I don’t care what methods you use, just wake him up. I’ve decided to give you thirty minutes. If he isn’t awake by then..."

"Wait, this person is a doctor."

Morando pointed. "You seem to have him under your control, right? Just have him treat Chaisi. I promise, we won’t interfere. Wouldn’t that work?"

"Han Liuyue" didn’t move, but the doctor, as if responding to a silent command, slowly turned around.

He looked exactly like a normal person—no, rather, he looked exactly like a normal person in a daze, as if he were sleepwalking.

The only difference was a spot on his forehead near his hairline. It wasn’t human skin, but a small, hard, smooth patch of chalk-white.

Its edges and size were a perfect match for the missing piece from "Han Liuyue’s" forehead.

"Unfortunately, no. Aren’t there other doctors? Go find another one. This one is useless now."

Jin Xueli found herself subconsciously looking for a hammer—she spotted it in Morando’s hand. But Morando just stared at her and shook her head.

"Why is he useless?" The one who asked, however, was the Hunter of Love.

As expected of a Hunter, she immediately had a theory. "You’ve infected them? Are they going to slowly turn into you? And then they’ll infect others?"

"Han Liuyue" seemed perplexed.

After a couple of seconds, it spoke. "No. It’s just that when I inserted my face into his forehead, the root accidentally pierced his brain. I think it went too deep, so now he’s useless."

’A root? That thing has roots underneath?’

’Wait, then what about Han Liuyue, whose entire face was covered—’

Just as Jin Xueli was about to speak, Chaisi, who was lying on the floor, let out a low, muffled groan.