Chapter 50: Chapter 40: Jin Xueli - Of Course You Pay for What You Buy

Beneath a messy shock of short hair, a slick expanse of flesh met Jin Xueli’s gaze.

She managed to stifle the urge to gasp.

Slight, smooth hollows where its eyebrows should be seemed to mark its eye sockets; it had no nostrils or mouth. When it spoke, a patch of flesh below its seamless nose pulsed outward with every word. She couldn’t help but worry that it would bulge out too far, then squeeze into a wrinkle as it fell back, a dark hole collapsing in the center of the fold.

’Sometimes, Jin Xueli really hated her own imagination.’

"So many customers today," the patch of flesh pulsed. "Don’t worry, I’ll be done in a moment. We got a lot of new stock in today."

As it spoke, it loaded several cans into the dark belly of the vending machine.

When the gentle-faced female Hunter had said the vending machine was being restocked, Jin Xueli never imagined a resident would be the one doing it.

The four of them had formed a semicircle just a moment ago, perfectly blocking her view of the resident crouching on the ground, which was why it had startled her. Now that Jin Xueli had moved closer for a better look, she saw that the restocking process was surprisingly authentic. There were several boxes next to the resident, some empty, some half-full. It was loading the vending machine can by can.

’The Nest sure has a strange sense of "realism" sometimes. Instead of loading drinks one by one, shouldn’t it do something about that resident’s face first?’

The companion of the Hunter in the baseball cap, a girl chewing gum, even struck up a conversation with the resident. "How often do you restock? How come we’ve never seen you before?"

"Depends on how well things sell," the resident replied to every question. "The stock from the last few months didn’t sell well, so there was no need to restock. That’s why I haven’t been around."

’The last few months...’ Jin Xueli thought back. She had checked before, and the items really weren’t great—pretty useless, in fact.

The vending machine in this subway station would get stocked with Illusions of different functions every so often. Every can of soda, every bag of snacks, was an Illusion with its own unique function and expiration date. Whether you could buy something suitable was all down to luck.

"What new items are there today?" the gentle-faced female Hunter asked.

"Oh, plenty," the resident said enthusiastically. "We even changed suppliers! More than half the items are new. I’ll post the new product descriptions, and you can see for yourselves."

The new product descriptions it posted took up an entire wall.

The five of them exchanged glances. The Hunter in the baseball cap took a step forward, said, "We were here first," and became the first to walk over, illuminating the product descriptions with a flashlight to examine them closely.

The gum-chewing girl stood beside the vending machine, securing the first spot in line. The other three, following the etiquette for buying soda Illusions, kept a distance of several paces from the pair.

"All done."

As the five Hunters watched with bated breath, the resident finally closed the vending machine. It not only took out a key to lock it but also picked up the empty cardboard boxes from the ground. "I’m leaving."

The gum-chewing girl had a sweet smile. She waved at it. "Thanks! Bye-bye."

It had been a while since Jin Xueli had seen a resident and a Hunter being so courteous to each other.

The thought had barely crossed her mind when the resident, halfway to the exit, stopped. It stood there, holding the empty boxes, and looked back at the group.

After the one in the baseball cap finished reading the descriptions and the gum-chewing girl took their place, it was still standing there.

When Jin Xueli couldn’t resist sneaking a quick glance at it, the flesh on the resident’s face pulsed.

"...Um, I just remembered. The company is having a promotion. We’re inviting lucky customers to try out new products. You can get free samples."

Jin Xueli quickly averted her gaze and took a step closer to the gentle-faced female Hunter.

The gum-chewing girl, as if she’d suddenly gone deaf, remained completely engrossed in the descriptions. Not a single person turned their head toward the resident.

"Anyone want to come?"

No one moved. No one looked at it. No one spoke.

"No takers?"

The five Hunters seemed to hold their breath. The Hunter in the baseball cap stood before the vending machine, shoulders tense.

"Really? You know, opportunity knocks but once..."

The flesh on the resident’s face pulsed with a soft POP right next to Jin Xueli’s ear. "...and you don’t want to miss it."

She swallowed the scream rising in her throat, staring intently at the ground. She had no idea when the resident had gotten so close.

’Don’t respond.’ Any competent Illusion Hunter would know, in that very moment, that they absolutely must not respond.

Aside from Jin Xueli, the other four had probably never seen a "restocking resident" either and didn’t know how to deal with it.

But in that brief exchange, they had all clearly reached the same conclusion and taken the same course of action. This was because a Hunter had to test the waters and make judgments in an instant, based on experience and intuition.

After its first invitation, the five of them falling silent in unison was a form of "testing."

Waiting to see what happened was, in most cases, the safest way to test the situation.

From its next question, "No takers?", it was clear the restocking resident interpreted "no answer" as "not going." This was a point all five Hunters immediately picked up on.

On the other hand, if the resident’s next words had been, "So everyone’s interested?", the five Hunters would have instantly realized it interpreted "no answer" as "wanting to go." In that case, they absolutely couldn’t have remained silent and would have had to refuse immediately.

The Nests and their residents were treacherous and unpredictable, but it was precisely because there was still a sliver of a chance to analyze, think, and react that being an Illusion Hunter was a profession that had endured.

"Sigh. What a shame."

These words seeped out from the patch of flesh and landed deep within the hair on the back of the gum-chewing girl’s head.

From Jin Xueli’s angle, she could see the resident standing right behind the girl, its featureless face stretched forward, probing into her hair. She still had no idea when it had moved over there.

"Alright, I’m really leaving this time. No one wants to exchange phone numbers with me?"

A single resident would often exhibit a certain "consistency" in its behavioral logic.

A resident who interpreted silence as refusal on one question was unlikely to suddenly interpret silence as agreement on the next. And so, amid the five Hunters’ breathless silence, the restocking resident seemed to regretfully disappear, step by step, into the shadows of the subway station exit.

Several seconds passed before Jin Xueli finally let out the long breath she’d been holding.

"That scared me,"

The other four also relaxed, and the girl started chewing her gum again. "I thought it was one of the harmless types of residents."

"How long have you been doing this?" the man who had been silent until now immediately lectured her. "Don’t you know residents can become dangerous at any time? It just depends on whether they feel like targeting you. And you were just chatting its ear off!"

"And how long have *you* been at it? A full year?"

The girl walked back from the product descriptions to stand beside her tall, lanky companion, glancing at the man out of the corner of her eye. "Do you know *why* I thought it was a harmless resident? Do you know the characteristics of a harmless resident? You love to lecture people so much, does a school pay you for it?"

"Hang on, no need to fight," the gentle-faced female Hunter said, quickly raising her hands to placate them as she saw an argument brewing. "It’s not a matter of principle, and besides, the danger’s passed. Didn’t I talk to it earlier, too?"

"You did, and you were wrong, too," the man said, not buying his companion’s attempt to smooth things over.

"Who died and made you the judge?" The girl flung her arm out. Massive muscles suddenly swelled layer by layer on her left arm, stretching her sleeve taut. "You’d better be more polite next time you speak."

"M&M Beans?" The man glanced at her arm and sneered. "Which Family Faction are you from? You think you’re the only one who’s ever bought M&M Beans?"

M&M Beans was one of the products from the vending machine. It was an abbreviation of the product name, "Machine Muscle." As the name implied, its general use was easy to guess. Simple, but effective.

It was very popular among Hunters, especially female Hunters, but unfortunately, it was rarely in stock. The most inconvenient part was that it would expire within 24 hours of being taken out of the Nest.

The fact that the girl had M&M Beans on her meant at least one thing: she had a place to store things within the Nest. That wasn’t surprising, as most Family Factions had their own stashes.

"Listen to me."

Jin Xueli took a step forward, positioning herself between the two. She felt she had to play the peacemaker. The two had simply gotten off on the wrong foot; there was no deep-seated grudge between them. They just needed a way to back down gracefully. Coming to blows in a place like this wouldn’t do anyone any good.

"Actually, neither of you is wrong. I just discovered tonight that the residents have been acting a bit abnormally lately."

The others all looked at her.

The Hunter in the baseball cap finished selecting an item and pressed the product number. "What’s going on?"

"You all know about the ’Vulture’ resident, right? I just ran into it."

Her desire to mediate might have just been an excuse. In reality, Jin Xueli wanted to use the Vulture incident to test the other Hunters’ reactions and see if anyone had information to add.

What she wanted most was to be able to confide everything she had experienced to companions of flesh and blood who could understand her ordeal. But she couldn’t expose the existence of the "Candle Tears" Illusion, and she was afraid of inviting their suspicion.

"Impossible."

As soon as Jin Xueli finished speaking, the man made an immediate judgment. "A Vulture won’t take on your appearance unless you’re dead. That’s common knowledge."

"That’s why I’m saying their behavior is abnormal," Jin Xueli said, getting a little irritated herself. "If you don’t believe me, go check Colorado Avenue. See if there’s a hopscotch grid drawn in chalk there."

The man fell silent, frowning.

"The changes and abnormalities appearing in the Nest recently have indeed become more numerous and frequent than before."

This was the first time the Hunter in the baseball cap had said such a long sentence. It was only then that Jin Xueli suddenly realized she was a woman.

She was at least 1.8 meters tall, with broad, flat shoulders and short hair. Not only was her appearance androgynous, but even her voice was a register lower than that of a typical woman.

"I assume none of you are here for the first time to buy something from the vending machine."

The woman in the baseball cap gently tossed the soda in her hand into the air and caught it. "Generally speaking, what would you say is the price of an Illusion like this?"

"Five hundred bucks?" Jin Xueli guessed.

The items in the vending machine were usually like that: you had to buy them with real-world money. They weren’t cheap, their functions were limited, their power was low, and their expiration dates were shockingly short.

That was why Illusion Hunters hadn’t simply become soda delivery men between Blackmoor City and the Nests.

"That used to be about the right price." The woman in the baseball cap smiled, and a long, narrow dimple appeared on the sharp lines of her lower face. "I just used my credit card. This one can of soda cost me over nine thousand bucks. But... it was worth it."

The moment she finished speaking, the gentle-faced female Hunter strode over to the product descriptions. Her flashlight beam swept across them twice, and she let out a soft gasp.