Illusion Report

Chapter 215: Chapter 178: Mai Mingle: The Reason Behind the Rules

Mai Mingle felt as if she were walking through the deep sea.

The flashlight beam pushed through the heavy darkness, resisting the pressure of a million tons of seawater to carve out a small pocket of light and air she depended on to survive.

This was the powerful flashlight Hai Luwei had equipped for entering the Nest. A full six bulbs were lined up under a plastic plate, and turning it on was bright enough to white out your vision. But when she aimed it into the Nest, into the darkness ahead, Mai Mingle could almost hear the Nest scoffing at them.

But they could only follow it closely. One wrong step, and they might fall into the endless black, never to climb out again.

"How much farther?" Hai Luwei asked, his voice strained.

He had been dragging his injured foot for nearly ten minutes and was half dead from the effort. Although Mai Mingle had found him a thick branch to use as a crutch, it was barely better than nothing.

"I remember it was right around here,"

Mai Mingle wasn’t having an easy time either. Every time she put pressure on her foot, blood would bubble out of her wound. She swept the flashlight around, and a bus stop with a glass canopy emerged from the darkness.

The bus stop stood on the side of the road. The street was completely empty—the car she had driven here was nowhere to be seen.

"I parked the car near a bus stop... but I didn’t pay attention to which route it was for. It might not have been this one."

Mai Mingle raised the flashlight and swept it up and down the road. The only vehicle nearby was a yellow taxi, squatting dustily on the other side of the street, a phone number for calling a cab printed on its side. ’If I dial that number, could I actually get a ride?’

Unfortunately, the Nest information in her mind offered no answer.

"It took us less than fifteen minutes to walk to the apartment building after getting out of the car," Hai Luwei said, trying to sort things out. "Given that distance, there shouldn’t be multiple bus stops."

Mai Mingle studied the bus stop, growing less and less certain this was where she had parked. When the flashlight beam unintentionally swept over a sign, she suddenly gasped.

"What is it?" Hai Luwei jumped, startled.

"I get it now," Mai Mingle said, aiming the flashlight at the sign. "Look, it clearly says ’No Parking at Bus Stop’! Our car must have been towed."

Hai Luwei stared at the sign for a few seconds, then looked back at her.

"First of all, it’s not ’our’ car. It’s a car you half-found, half-stole... Second, the Nest has traffic laws? Who would even enforce them?"

Mai Mingle searched her memory for a moment. Ever since her transformation into a resident, she had become a sort of non-updating "Nest Encyclopedia," and Hai Luwei hadn’t stopped asking her about this and that the entire way.

"There is," she said with a heavy sigh. "There really is a traffic cop resident... the only resident in the entire Nest who acts as one."

"Really? What does it look like? So I know to watch out for it next time."

"I don’t dare to think about it," Mai Mingle said, a little sheepishly. "Just thinking about its existence makes me feel like my blood has stopped circulating. My limbs go numb. If I tried to picture what it looks like, I’m afraid I’d actually pass out."

"I’ve encountered residents that have a similar effect. Why does that happen?" Hai Luwei asked, plopping down on the bus stop bench.

"Do you know what a QR code is?"

Hai Luwei was genuinely surprised. "You know what a QR code is?"

Mai Mingle shook her head and chuckled. "Heh, how would I know about that?"

"...Huh?"

"I asked if you knew because I wanted you to explain it to me."

Mai Mingle tapped her temple. "The Nest information has an explanation for this effect... and it uses the term ’QR code,’ which I don’t understand at all. Isn’t it strange? The information exists in my head, but I don’t understand it myself."

"The basic principle... is that the positions of black and white pixels in a matrix represent binary information, ones and zeroes, which are then combined to form meaning."

This just confused Mai Mingle even more—but she gathered it meant something like ’the pattern carries information.’

"Some residents, and even parts of the Nest’s landscape, have color patterns on their faces like QR codes. They have special arrangements, and when your naked eye scans them, you automatically read the message they want to convey. For example, the message on the ’traffic cop’s’ face gives your body a command, making your limbs gradually go numb."

"Great. So you only find out who you’ve run into after you’re already paralyzed."

After sitting down, Hai Luwei seemed even more exhausted than before. He hugged his arms, slumped and dejected, like an old mattress discarded on the side of the road.

"Since the car is gone, what now? Should we look for it next time we come in?" He clearly wanted to go home.

Mai Mingle felt guilty for dragging him into this and didn’t want his foot injury to get any worse. But the words ’nine months’ were like a time bomb hanging from her nerve endings, weighing down her heart.

’Join that "Nest Dominance Game," then use its hints to find the "Time" Illusion... That’s the closest, and only, lead I have right now.’

Her gaze and the flashlight beam swept around in a circle. Looking at the taxi across the street, Mai Mingle suddenly had an idea.

"You sit here for a bit, and don’t move. Shouldn’t that car have a radio, too? Maybe any radio will work. After all, you said it yourself—the other car wasn’t mine, right? So there’s no reason it has to be that specific one. I’m going to go see if I can get the door open."

Hai Luwei craned his neck. "Are you sure the car’s empty?"

"Looks like it. Don’t worry, if it’s not empty, I’ll come right back."

Leaving the flashlight with Hai Luwei, she took his phone to use for light.

A clever phone—it looked like a brick, but it lit up with a single touch and was incredibly sensitive. On the screen was a photo of Hai Luwei holding a big white dog. The two looked nothing alike, but the vibe of their grinning smiles was identical.

"When we get back, you should teach me how to use this thing," Mai Mingle added before she left.

"Okay, okay. Hurry back."

From across the dark road, sitting behind a pool of light, Hai Luwei watched her circle around to the driver’s side of the yellow taxi.

As she had walked over, Mai Mingle had already confirmed that the car was empty—or rather, that it had no residents inside.

’If I can just pry the door open or smash the window, I can turn on the radio... Back when I was half-human, half-resident, I wanted to respond and participate, but the car radio was completely silent then. I hope I can find the station this time.’

Mai Mingle stood by the side of the road, held up the phone, and bent down to look inside the car.

The driver turned his head toward her.

Before her thoughts shattered and she collapsed, the last thing that flashed through Mai Mingle’s mind was that she was lucky she had brought Hai Luwei’s phone—

The photo of Hai Luwei holding the big white dog was faintly reflected on the window, conveniently obscuring part of the driver’s face.

Luckily... she hadn’t read the full "QR code."