Illusion Report

Chapter 387: Chapter 337: Mai Mingle: The Carrot and the Dominion Game’s Grindstone

...’Who is this person?’

Mai Mingle was so embarrassed she was at a loss for what to do. If the matter weren’t so important, she would have turned around and left, to come back another day.

Rumor had it Chaisi had his own apartment; he had just found a room in the mansion to crash in. In a corner of this room was a single bed meant for short rests, its sheets and quilt a tangled mess. No matter how she looked at it, the bed seemed too small for a man of Chaisi’s height.

Chaisi, for his part, seemed completely unbothered. He let out a long, drawn-out yawn and stared blankly for a moment, his eyes half-closed with sleep. Then, his brain finally kicked into gear. "...Ah, Mai Mingle."

His voice was hoarse, thick with a fog of sleep, and sounded completely different. The few times Mai Mingle had seen him before, even at his most disheveled in a hospital gown, he had never been like this—rumpled, exhausted, yet relaxed and calm. It was like he was a different person.

To say his hair was a bird’s nest would be an insult to birds. Beneath a wrinkled, loose-fitting white T-shirt, he wore only a pair of large shorts—wait, were those shorts, or boxers?

’Either way, I should stop looking.’

There was hardly a more private, more intimate moment than just after waking up. Having received an old-fashioned upbringing, Mai Mingle had no idea where to put her eyes, so she glued them to the ceiling.

"I’m so sorry," she said to the ceiling. "Forcing you to wake up like this."

"What’s so important? Is everything okay with Han Liuyue?" Chaisi rubbed his face vigorously.

’If it were about Han Liuyue, I wouldn’t be the one to know anything. He’s clearly not awake yet.’

"She’s fine. She’s in her hospital room," Sha Xue, who was fortunately also there, added. "She woke up once last night and even had something to eat."

Chaisi paused for a few seconds, then nodded. "Did she drink any water?"

"She did," Sha Xue replied, her tone still cheerful.

"How did she drink it?"

’How else do you drink water? Maybe we should let Chaisi sleep a little longer before trying to have a normal conversation?’

But Sha Xue didn’t seem surprised at all. "From a cup. Nobody taught her. She saw the glass of water, reached out to grab it, brought it to her lips, and GULP, GULP, GULP, drank the whole thing. She swallowed."

Mai Mingle had never heard the act of drinking water require such a detailed description before.

Chaisi let out a sigh of relief. "I see." He glanced at Mai Mingle, then said to Sha Xue, "Could you get us some coffee?"

He must have realized that whatever Mai Mingle had to say, it needed to be discussed in private.

But even though Mai Mingle had been rehearsing her words the whole way over, she still didn’t know where to begin long after Sha Xue had left. Just as she was about to speak, another voice in her head—another Mai Mingle—began to question whether this was all too absurd.

Chaisi misunderstood. "Do you need money?"

"No, no," Mai Mingle said, waving her hands frantically. "I don’t want money. I’m not here to borrow any. You helped me get in touch with the mayor, I sold the lipstick, and I’ve already received a handsome reward—"

She suddenly realized Chaisi had given her the perfect opening.

"Let me ask you a question," she said slowly. "In your opinion, what did the mayor look like two months ago?"

She had asked this question to Hai Luwei, Emily, Megan at the Hunter’s Bar, restaurant servers, customers, neighbors, and city government employees... They all gave the same answer.

But Mai Mingle had a sneaking suspicion that Chaisi’s answer would be different.

Chaisi paused and leaned back in his chair.

He still had the messy hair, the stubble, the dark circles under his eyes, and the wrinkled T-shirt, but in that moment, "Chaisi Monroe" was awake.

"A square jaw," he said in a low voice. "Darker skin, long, narrow eyes."

"The same as he looks now?"

Chaisi looked her straight in the eye. "Completely different."

Just as she’d thought.

Mai Mingle let out a long breath, but she still couldn’t stop the goosebumps from prickling her skin.

In the entire world, only she and Chaisi were aware of the drastic change the mayor had undergone.

"That night, when I was caught up in the shootout in the alley behind the bar, I remember someone was with you—I didn’t know at the time that it was Han Liuyue. She had a snow-white face and a pair of small eyes like pinpricks, looking for all the world like a relative of the mayor’s."

Mai Mingle chose her words carefully. "Now Han Liuyue has recovered, but the mayor has... ’inherited’ that Noh-like face."

Chaisi seemed to understand what she was getting at. He raised a hand, gesturing for her to stop. "That’s right. I did it."

Mai Mingle took a deep breath. "Why?"

"I knew he had changed, which isn’t surprising, since I’m the one who caused it. But how do you know?"

Chaisi stared at Mai Mingle. "Those ’Noh-mask spores,’ once they’ve fully taken root in a human host, produce a final face that distorts human perception. Anyone who sees it is made to believe the host has always looked that way, and that there’s nothing abnormal about their appearance. How did you get past that?"

’So the spores in Han Liuyue’s body hadn’t fully taken root back then?’

Mai Mingle had never been one to beat around the bush. "I was afflicted in the Nest," she said. "I became one of the residents."

Chaisi, who had just raised his glass for a sip of water, jolted. For a split second, it seemed he wanted to both leap to his feet and guard against her, but he just ended up choking. He devolved into a fit of hacking coughs, accomplishing nothing else.

"It’s okay, I’ve recovered. I’m human now," Mai Mingle quickly reassured him, standing up to pat his back. "Let me pat your back, help you breathe..."

"N-no need. I’m fine," Chaisi said, his face flushed red from choking, his eyes watering. "I’m not a child. Stop."

’Anyone under forty is a child,’ Mai Mingle thought. Still, she returned to her seat.

"When I delivered the lipstick, the mayor was holding a press conference." Without waiting for Chaisi to respond, she continued, "He applied the lipstick right in front of me and then said a great many things to the reporters..."

Mai Mingle was well aware of the lipstick’s effect; it was the first Illusion she had ever acquired, and she could probably recite its properties from memory now.

Mai Mingle knew the mayor had spoken after applying the lipstick.

Mai Mingle believed, with all her heart and soul, that the mayor truly had the ability to begin the social housing renovation project within a single day.

"...I knew, I knew there was a massive, contradictory gulf in my own perception, but I still couldn’t help but believe him," she said in a low voice. "The power of an Illusion is truly terrifying."

Chaisi said nothing, just nodded.

"There’s something I haven’t told you because I was afraid to. But now, I feel I have to..." Mai Mingle took a deep breath. "The reason I absolutely had to sell the lipstick to the mayor was because of the Illusion Report."

Confessing to a contestant like Chaisi that she was his competitor had taken every ounce of Mai Mingle’s courage. Now that she had made her decision, she was prepared to face any shock, doubt, or even hostility from him.

"That’s right," she said, closing her eyes. "I’ve been drafted into the Ruling Game, too."

Chaisi looked at her and said, "...Oh."

...’That’s a little too calm, isn’t it?’

In the quiet room, the two of them stared at each other for a few seconds.

"You knew?" Mai Mingle nearly leaped out of her chair. "How did you know? I joined after you, so the Ruling Game shouldn’t have sent you a notification, right? Wait, don’t tell me, let me think... Was it... because of the lipstick?"

Chaisi actually looked a little embarrassed.

"So you knew and didn’t say anything, just letting it stew?"

"We’re competitors," Chaisi reminded her, gesturing first to himself, then to her.

’He’s quick on the uptake!’

Mai Mingle exhaled and crossed her arms, thinking. Most of the time, honesty was the most cost-effective way to conduct oneself. Even now that she was a Hunter, forced to hide so many things, she hoped to be as frank as possible.

"I’m guessing your turning the mayor into a Noh-face has something to do with the Ruling Game, doesn’t it?"

As for the carrot dangled to keep contestants motivated, Mai Mingle could only think of one thing. "You were after an Illusion Report too?"

"Yeah," Chaisi finally admitted with a sigh. "I received it the day the mayor’s face changed. I can’t tell you what’s in it."

"Fine, fine, I didn’t ask." Mai Mingle frowned. "So, just as I thought, this is all getting more and more suspicious..."

"What do you mean?"

"Just between the two of us, two contestants, we’ve already caused a massive, possibly irreversible change to Blackmoor City because of the Ruling Game. So what about the others? What have they done?"

The more Mai Mingle spoke, the heavier her heart became.

"Even if we don’t know the specifics, we can assume they’ve all been made to do something. The Ruling Game wouldn’t just let them sit idle. So the key question is... what does the Nest want with the human world?"

This was her greatest worry.

She hadn’t even had a chance to bring up Ivan—because she couldn’t yet see his significance—but the matter with the mayor alone was enough to make her suspicious of the Nest’s true purpose.

Chaisi was silent for a while, and Mai Mingle couldn’t guess what he was feeling.

"Aren’t you worried that the Nest is using us under the guise of this ’game’? Can we really trust this Ruling Game thing?"

After a long moment, Chaisi finally reacted.

As if he had made up his mind, he suddenly stood up. "Come with me," he said. "I’m going to show you something."