Illusion Report

Chapter 388: Chapter 338: Mai Mingle - No Illusion Report

Chaisi pulled on his pants and zipped them up right in front of her. The moment his hand went for the zipper, Mai Mingle went back to studying the ceiling.

Chaisi himself, however, looked as natural as if he were simply eating a meal, paying it no mind at all.

Mai Mingle stared at the ceiling and thought, ’How strange.’

The things that took shape in the earliest years of her life, even eighty years later, still served as the tracks for the train that was "Mai Mingle." To this day, she couldn’t easily derail from them.

Mai Mingle was born into an immigrant family and was very conservative compared to the locals.

She remembered her mother’s feet were misshapen because they had been bound for a short time when she was a child. Although they were later unbound, the bones had been damaged and never healed properly, causing her to walk with a slight limp. Her mother had spent decades shuffling back and forth in their small shop on those crooked feet.

As her parents put down roots, her mother would allow her to wear slightly shorter pants and skirts every few years, but there were always limits to how much their views could change.

Born into such a family, even when Mai Mingle later lived through the height of the hippie movement, she always felt it was a story for another group of people. She just watched from a distance, admiring it quietly, before turning back to the daily grind of struggling for survival and a livelihood.

’If I had lived a different kind of life—like one of those young hippies gathering on the grass, playing guitars and singing—maybe I would also feel that a body is just a body, with nothing to hide or be ashamed of, right?’

She’d been lost in thought for a while. ’Has Chaisi put on his pants yet?’

Mai Mingle turned her head to look and found he had taken off his shirt again. She averted her eyes and sighed inwardly.

’Is it because everyone still sees me as an old lady?’

’Well, that doesn’t really matter.’

She had only had twenty or thirty years of youth; after that, she was just someone moving further and further away from it. So even now, Mai Mingle still occasionally had the strange feeling that she was actually just an old lady with a particularly obedient and energetic body.

"Alright," Chaisi said, finally covered up. He ran his fingers back through his hair. "Let’s go. We’re heading to the first floor."

’Huh?’

Mai Mingle had thought he was going to show her something like an Illusion.

When she infiltrated the Kai Family’s house, she had already explored the first floor. There weren’t any locked rooms. What could possibly be important enough to be kept on the first floor?

Chaisi had no intention of explaining further. He simply led her out the door, grabbing some coffee from Sha Xue on the way. He navigated the place like he owned it, leading Mai Mingle down a first-floor hallway.

"When I was trapped in the Black Abyss Belt, I saw you here, sneaking around and looking like a thief."

As Chaisi spoke, he pointed to a vase of flowers on a side table in the hallway. "Back then, I hadn’t gone deep into the Black Abyss Belt yet. I could even reach out and touch the vase."

’Yes, not only did you touch it, you used it to hit me,’ Mai Mingle grumbled to herself. ’It was like the place was haunted.’

"The ’thickness’ of the Black Abyss Belt isn’t uniform," Chaisi explained as he walked on. "In the ’thin’ spots, you can sometimes reach out and touch the human world. But in the ’thick’ spots... it’s almost impossible to come back."

"The fact that you managed to rescue Han Liuyue shows how much effort you must have put in."

Mai Mingle acknowledged his point, then thought for a moment. "Back when I was nearly cornered by the Kai Family Hunters, the door to your room suddenly opened. Was that you too, opening it from inside the Black Abyss Belt?"

Chaisi immediately looked back at her. "What?"

Mai Mingle explained briefly, and as expected, he shook his head. "How could that be possible? Even if I had seen you then, I would have just pushed you into the hands of your pursuers."

’...That’s true.’

’Was the lock really broken? Or was fate taking pity on me?’

Mai Mingle couldn’t think of an answer, so she could only set the question aside for now.

"We’re here," Chaisi said, stopping and opening a door.

Mai Mingle had been in this room before.

Before her was the Kai Family’s library. In the roughly thirty-to-forty-square-meter room, aside from a few computers in the corner that looked like they belonged to a different era than the rest of the mansion, the walls were lined with row after row of dark wooden bookshelves.

Chaisi walked over to one of the bookshelves, stretched out his arm, and pulled a dusty book box from the top shelf. He set it on the small table with a THUD.

"Take a look," he said, sinking into a chair.

’Read... a book?’

Mai Mingle didn’t ask any more questions and opened the box. All the answers, she presumed, lay within the two yellowed, old, handwritten journals before her.

*Postscript to the Nest Dominance Game*

The moment Mai Mingle clearly saw the handwritten title, she couldn’t help but gasp, instinctively glancing at Chaisi.

The title had clearly been added later. The handwriting was new, the script bold and unrestrained—it was very likely Chaisi’s.

"In the Kai Family’s collection, there are over seventeen hundred volumes related to Hunters and the Nest. This library only holds a small fraction of them. After I was drafted, I went through them one by one and finally found this book box, which had probably never been opened by anyone since it was acquired."

Chaisi lowered his gaze to his cup, his words drifting up with the steam from his coffee. "So much time has passed that even the records of its purchase, the person who handled it, and any related documentation are all gone."

According to him, this wasn’t an uncommon situation for collections held by Hunter Family Factions.

When a Hunter Family Faction confirms the death of a Hunter in their circle, they often reach out to the deceased’s family and use various methods to acquire all the valuable information the Hunter left behind.

Making a direct offer is just one method. They also use various ploys, like posing as a cleaning company, police officers, apartment managers, or even relatives of the deceased. They only want things that are worthless in the eyes of the world, and they act so quickly that it’s hard to catch them in the act.

But precisely because they indiscriminately hoover up so much material, it’s not guaranteed that someone has carefully examined every single item.

"Besides, I’ve heard an urban legend that someone once read a dead Hunter’s journal at home and could never get out again," Chaisi said, his tone almost flat as he took a sip of coffee.

"What do you mean? They couldn’t stop thinking about it?"

"No, I mean literally. He got lost in his own house, could never find his way out, and was trapped there until he died." Chaisi tipped his chin toward the journals in her hands. "But you can read these two without worry. I’ve already read them, and nothing happened to me."

Mai Mingle opened the first page.

*Entry by Lan Jiesen, January 12, 1966, Blackmoor City*

*...Now that time has passed and the dominance is over, I can finally sort through this experience and record it for posterity.*

*I was drafted into the Nest Dominance Game on November 5, 1960.*

*Even though it was six years ago, I still remember that day with perfect clarity.*

*After getting up that morning, I fried some slices of bread and sat down to eat breakfast while preparing to read the newspaper.*

*The headline of the newspaper literally changed before my eyes into: .*

*I spilled coffee all over myself. The newspaper was soaked, so I couldn’t save it. After reading the wet paper, I just sat there, stunned, for nearly ten minutes.*

Mai Mingle knew Chaisi was watching her reaction, but her entire focus was absorbed by the notes, leaving her no attention for anything else.

Lan Jiesen was the third contestant drafted into the Nest Dominance Game of 1960. He only gradually figured out how many others had joined after him during his search for the Illusions, and even then, he couldn’t say for sure that he had found them all.

That year, there were only six target Illusions, and their effects, appearances, and names were all completely different from this time.

*...I don’t believe the nature of the Illusions themselves is significant to the Nest Dominance Game. They are merely targets randomly selected by the chaotic force of the ’Game,’ not consciously chosen by anyone in the Nest.*

*If a target Illusion happens to already be in someone’s possession, that person will be drafted.*

’That much seems consistent with the present, at least.’

She continued reading for a while longer, skipping over Lan Jiesen’s detailed records of his struggles. She finally looked up near the end of the first journal, after Lan Jiesen had successfully obtained a target Illusion.

"What’s going on?"

She quickly flipped back and forth a few pages, suspecting she had missed something. "How can I have read this much without seeing a single Illusion Report? Is it later in the book?"

"No," Chaisi said. "I’ve finished them both. There aren’t any. In the 1960 Nest Dominance Game, the Illusion Report mechanic didn’t exist."

It wasn’t inconceivable that the Nest would move with the times and change how the game operated... but if that was the case, how did the contestants in the last round know where to find the Illusions?

Lan Jiesen had also stolen his target Illusion from someone else, but the journal didn’t explain how that previous person had obtained it.

"It was all inside the Nest," Chaisi said, gesturing to the second journal. "The clues for the Illusions, the fights, the tracking... that entire series of events all took place in the Nest. Back then, the reward for clearing some of the scenarios was a clue to an Illusion. Even when Lan Jiesen stole his, he did it inside the Nest."

’It’s true... aside from the beginning of the journal, which mentioned he received the summons at home, the vast majority of the entries were about things that happened inside the Nest.’

This was all because the Nest Dominance Game back then had a rule that no longer exists: "Target Illusions are not allowed to leave the Nest."

"So in the ’60 game, the competition was confined to the Nest," Mai Mingle said slowly, thinking aloud. "The Nest Dominance Game, just like the Nest itself, harbors immense malice toward humanity. Forcing contestants to compete for clues and Illusions inside the Nest... was a way to maximize the risk for them."

Chaisi nodded.

"Doesn’t that just support my theory? Why would the Nest go easy on us this time, letting us get Illusion Reports so easily just by doing things that aren’t life-threatening?"

Mai Mingle didn’t understand why someone as sharp as Chaisi would ignore such an obvious fact. "It’s clear, isn’t it? The Nest wants to use us to get to the human world, right?"

"Yes," Chaisi replied, still calm. "It seems that way, for now."

He was so calm that Mai Mingle was at a loss for words, only managing to let out a questioning "Huh?"

’Between the two of them, who was the one who didn’t understand the situation?’

"Keep reading," Chaisi said, pushing the second journal toward her. "I’ll explain after you’ve finished it all."

This time, she read even faster.

Thirty minutes later, Mai Mingle looked up.

She couldn’t accurately describe her shock. Her mind was a complete blank, and she could only repeat the fact almost unconsciously, several times over.

"How is that possible? In the ’60 game... someone succeeded?" she stammered. "Someone successfully... successfully dominated the Nest?"