Mai Minghe played rock-paper-scissors

Mai Minghe had not really expected the red-haired man to stop in his tracks instead of leaving just because she shouted.

With the hope of escape right before their eyes, who would refuse to take that last step?

So what happened next truly caught her off guard: the red-haired man hastily pulled back the foot he was about to set in the corridor, moving so abruptly that he almost lost his balance. Bracing one hand against the wall, he hopped backward twice on one foot and stopped between the doorway and the roundheads, swearing.

"How did you know?" His gaze passed over the roundheads and landed on Mai Minghe.

Although the room was packed with "residents" ready to attack them, this moment was a sliver of space between blades-a rare chance to exchange a few words.

Mai Minghe answered at once, "I don't know what's going on. I just know we can't go out. What did you see? Surely you didn't stay inside just because you believe in listening to your elders?"

"Don't go making yourself my elder." The red-haired man irritably wiped his face. "There's a resident in the doorway."

The ward door stood wide open, revealing an empty, brightly lit corridor. Under the corridor lights, there was not so much as a shadow on the floor tiles.

"Really? Incredible. Does it know how to turn invisible?" Despite her surprise, Mai Minghe could not help marveling. "They actually developed that technology? I remember back in '75 or '79, some scientist said they could use electromagnetic waves or something..."

"Stop rambling about random crap," the red-haired man interrupted, his expression growing even uglier. "How did you know we couldn't go out?"

Mai Minghe first glanced at the long, thin patient.

She had been 172 centimeters tall in her youth, yet she could only see as high as its navel. Its hospital gown was far too short, hanging over its chest, and there was a pitch-black hole in its belly-she did not dare look closely and immediately turned her gaze away.

Mai Minghe had not forgotten that inexplicable step she had taken.

The long, thin patient still refused to give up, but just as the roundheads had said, it seemed afraid to come in as long as she remained surrounded by them.

She had a moment to catch her breath, but she did not know how long it would last.

"These things are all here to hurt people, right?" Mai Minghe explained. "If they're so eager to help me get out, that must mean I shouldn't go out."

The red-haired man paused, as though her words were a handkerchief stuffed into his mouth. "...That's it?"

"Well, there are two other reasons," Mai Minghe said, rather embarrassed. "I don't know whether you'll agree. You seem familiar with the Nest. Look at these big heads-don't they have a lot of lines on their faces?"

The red-haired man nodded. Only half his attention was on Mai Minghe; the other half kept shifting warily between the roundheads, the long, thin patient, and the empty doorway.

"Same principle as stretch marks," he said quietly. "Except theirs grew on their faces."

The redhead did not look married, yet he knew something about this. Mai Minghe could not help remembering how men in the old days seemed to consider it shameful to know too much about such things concerning women.

Young people seemed different now. She wondered how much had changed.

"Right. Their heads have been stretched as big as full-term pregnancies, so it's no surprise they have marks like pregnant women's bellies. But those marks only appear when living skin is stretched until its fibers tear.

"I thought, these damned residents in the Nest aren't human, so why go to the trouble of growing stretch marks? If the big heads were originally living people... what turned them into this?"

A blister-like eyeball swiveled around to look at her.

Watching the doorway, the red-haired man nodded. "Makes sense. That means the resident that turned people into this hasn't shown itself yet. It's lurking somewhere."

Though invisible, that thing was right in the doorway. Thinking of it that way, no wonder the roundheads all stood in the middle of the room, leaving the doorway clear instead of blocking it.

If Mai Minghe had not rung the bell four times, if the thing hiding in the doorway had been the only resident she summoned, she would certainly have run around the figure in the room and straight for the door-in that situation, she would almost inevitably have run right into that thing's clutches.

From below the ceiling came the long, thin patient's voice. "Had enough of playing detective?"

The voice slid stickily into her ears. Waves of dizziness washed over Mai Minghe again, making her sick enough to vomit-expelling invading germs and toxins from the body was a biological instinct.

The long, thin patient slowly bent down. Its face was about to emerge from the gloom into the light from the doorway.

The redhead suddenly shouted, "Don't look at it!" Mai Minghe immediately averted her gaze and backed behind a roundhead. Her heart began pounding again, and she realized her mouth was dry and bitter, though she did not know how long it had been that way.

"Give it to me."

The long, thin patient bent over, its head suspended above Mai Minghe. Its voice echoed and dripped down, almost creating the illusion that mucus and scraps of flesh were mixed into the sound.

Its hand circled several times over the crowd, as though it wanted to grab Mai Minghe, but it never reached down. It only howled, "Give it to me! Give it give it give it give it!!"

Mai Minghe doubled over. Stomach acid surged up uncontrollably and splashed onto the floor.

Dizzy and weak-kneed, she reached out and caught a roundhead's arm. It immediately began whimpering and groaning, murmuring, "It hurts... it hurts so much..."

You didn't complain when your skull split apart, but holding your arm hurts?

Panting, Mai Minghe straightened and let go. The roundhead fell silent.

"Fuck, this guy's dead set on getting the phantasm." Standing by the wall, the red-haired man watched the long, thin patient. "There actually aren't many residents in the Nest that want phantasms, but you had to run into a difficult one."

Even without looking at it or going near it, just hearing its endless howling was unbearable. If Mai Minghe kept vomiting, she would soon pass out from dehydration and be completely at its mercy.

The red-haired man was not merely experienced; he might also have a way to deal with it. She was about to ask what to do when he spoke again. "...Rock-paper-scissors."

What?

A rustle came from beneath the ceiling. Even the long, thin patient seemed to turn its head toward him.

"Are you chanting a spell?" Mai Minghe asked with a strained smile.

"No, I just thought of that game." The red-haired man stood against the wall, far from Mai Minghe and all the residents. "Think about it. Why does the tall, skinny one want to grab you, but won't reach out?"

"It's... wary of something?"

"Right. It doesn't dare touch the roundheads. They said it themselves-they counter it. That's also why it doesn't attack the resident in the doorway. The moment it turns around, the roundheads behind it can pounce." He continued, "I don't know exactly why, either. And the tall, skinny one counters you, no question-"

By this point, Mai Minghe understood.

"Just like rock-paper-scissors, each beating the next in a cycle," she said, tentatively reaching toward a roundhead. "So next... I counter the roundheads?"

The moment she touched its arm, it began moaning and whining. Even its legs started shaking like a sieve.

"I don't understand why they're afraid of you, either," the red-haired man said.

"They aren't afraid..."

The long, thin patient laughed in broken bursts, as though realizing it could torment Mai Minghe with its voice-and it had to be said, it had found the right approach.

"After the one in the doorway catches these humans, it pumps its own bodily fluids into them and makes them into flesh tentacles, standing upright on the ground, specifically for dealing with other residents."

Mai Minghe wanted to hear more information. She just did not know whether she had enough innards left to vomit up.

As the long, thin patient spoke, she bent halfway over, feeling as though an enormous beast was churning deep in her belly, trying to squeeze out through her throat. There was nothing she could do but curl up and spasm like a shrimp.

"Humans have to stay alive to serve as flesh tentacles. Stimulation from another living human weakens the anesthetic effect of the bodily fluids, putting the flesh tentacles at risk of regaining consciousness, detaching from the main body, and dying." The long, thin patient explained almost patiently, "When you touch them, you wake them again and plunge them into unimaginable pain."

"Shut up," said a roundhead at the very front, flatly.

Mai Minghe was entirely of the same opinion-please, shut up already.

"So that's it. A stalemate." The red-haired man relaxed a little. "To attack the tall, skinny one, the flesh tentacles have to move, and moving means exposing you. If it takes that chance to grab you, it can use you to wake the flesh tentacles and make them fall off. In the end, both sides lose. But none of this has anything to do with me. Dragging me into it is really unfair."

Human or resident, no one paid him any attention.

...He's probably already planning to escape when the residents make their move on me, isn't he?

Mai Minghe seethed, vomited, and envied him all at once, wishing she could trade places with him.

"We can learn from the human spirit of negotiation. You get the human," the long, thin patient said, not caring in the least whether Mai Minghe vomited up her stomach. "I get the phantasm."

Oh no.

"How?" a roundhead asked.

"Have the flesh tentacles separate," the long, thin patient said. "I'll pluck the phantasm off her, then throw her into the doorway, into your mouth."

"You guarantee it?"

"Of course. I have no interest in her."

The roundhead fell silent for a while, then answered, "Agreed."

Mai Minghe very much disagreed.

But though a layer of anxious sweat broke out over her back, she had no idea how to stop them. Even if she countered the roundheads, so what? Could she really destroy her only line of defense?

Seeing the roundheads actually part in front of her, all she could do for the moment was run after them-wherever they retreated, she followed. For a time, it was practically a deadly game of hawk and chicks.

"If you'd given me the phantasm from the start, I might have let you remain a living old woman." The long, thin patient cared nothing for this little bit of stalling and resistance. It laughed in a flat monotone. "But you had to be clever, and that cleverness has cost you your life..."

Before it was even halfway through speaking, Mai Minghe involuntarily doubled over and retched again. She had already emptied everything she could vomit up. Her awareness grew dizzy and hazy, and she felt the roundheads hurriedly withdrawing around her.

No, I have to go with them-

Before she could straighten, the long, thin patient reached down with one hand and gripped her calf tightly.

1. My chapter reserve is like snow in the sun-less of it every time I look. I'm living off my dwindling savings... In the comments on the last chapter, I saw everyone enthusiastically asking me to take time off. On the male-oriented side, where you can get yelled at even for updating once a day, how are we not a revolutionary force! I'll absolutely arrange it, absolutely. I'll make sure everyone is thoroughly satisfied and feels right at home-come inside, climb onto the heated bed, kick off your shoes, and chat.

2. I'm getting on another plane on the 23rd. This year's theme is endless long-haul travel. Counting it up, I'll be curled up on planes for thirty or forty hours in total over these few weeks. Without me, life would lose some of its flavor for all those airlines.

3. Phantasm Report has quite a lot of worldbuilding details in all sorts of areas, plus the shifting viewpoints. Are you grannies finding it all right so far? Do the details need to be laid out more explicitly? Though it has a modern Western setting, it isn't hard to swallow, is it? I still used Western-style translated place names for the setting. Otherwise, having Jin Xueli run into danger on Red Flag Street One would feel like switching to the wrong show.

4. I just love rambling. I've only got the one mouth, after all. When I'm bored, I either eat or talk, and rambling doesn't make you gain weight.

(End of chapter)