Illusion Report

Illusion Report

Only those who bring change to the world shall earn the right to advance

This is an exclusive report provided to contestant Mai Mingle to compensate for specific disadvantages and achieve a balance of circumstance and strength.

Our beloved contestant, Mai Mingle, the following is your path to obtaining the "Time" Illusion:

You will need to complete three action points.

This report contains the information for the first action point. Within thirty days of its completion, you will receive a report containing the second action point.

And so on. Once all three action points are complete, you will receive an Illusion Report containing information and clues about the target "Time" Illusion.

Using this report, you may be able to obtain the "Time" Illusion before the other contestants.

Action Point 1/3:

Before December 31, 2026, you must sell the "Flock of Birds Across the Sky" lipstick-type Illusion to the mayor of Blackmoor City, Oliver Mason.

Definition of December 31, 2026:

December 31, 2026, according to the Gregorian calendar standard used by humanity, based on the principle that time moves in a straight line and is unbranching and irreversible.

Definition of the "Flock of Birds Across the Sky" lipstick-type Illusion:

The one obtained by contestant Mai Mingle at the Nest’s Black Heart Restaurant.

(Image of a lipstick)

Definition of the mayor of Blackmoor City, Oliver Mason:

Mr. Oliver Mason (Social Security Number 113-35-570), who holds the office of Mayor of Blackmoor City as of November 22, 2026, and is identified and recognized as such by all informed parties, including this nation’s citizens, government members, party members, news media, and so on.

That is all.

Our beloved contestant, Mai Mingle, we wish you swift success.

Mai Mingle stared blankly at the notification on her phone. After reading it once, she read it a second and then a third time.

The message was simple and clear, but it triggered a flash flood of questions that left her staring into space for a long time.

’Was it really necessary to provide so many definitions? Who could possibly misunderstand something so straightforward? How did the Nest know she hadn’t sold the lipstick yet? Why would the Nest want to help the mayor buy something? And what if he refuses to buy it?’

’The Nest was cagey, too—not letting the falcon go until it sees the rabbit. They wouldn’t even tell her what the Illusion looked like until she completed the action points.’

But soon, all these questions receded. The biggest problem emerged like a rock after the tide goes out, weighing heavily on her mind.

’How was she supposed to meet the mayor?’

’She was just an ordinary citizen, with no connections and no special access.’

’It would be hard enough just to see him, let alone seize the opportunity to sell him an Illusion...’

Through the thick fabric of her pocket, Mai Mingle subconsciously pressed the small, tube-shaped object.

’It was a good thing she’d been caught up in that incident tonight and hadn’t sold the lipstick. No matter how high a price Chaisi might have offered, it couldn’t be more important than a clue to the Time Illusion—if she’d really sold it, she’d be regretting it to death right now.’

To be honest, Mai Mingle didn’t even know who the current mayor of Blackmoor City was.

She had spent years lying in a hospital bed with the TV constantly on. Local, national, and international news paraded across the screen from morning to night, but it all felt distant, like it had nothing to do with her. Sometimes, after the set was turned off, she would even forget it had been on in the first place.

’After the sun comes up, I should buy a newspaper and see if there’s any news about the mayor.’

’Having a goal to work toward was better than nothing.’

As a weight lifted from her mind, Mai Mingle started to feel drowsy again. ’Looks like Hai Luwei was right,’ she thought. ’Twenty hours really isn’t enough sleep.’

"...A newspaper?"

Over the phone, Hai Luwei’s confusion was so profound it was as if he didn’t even know what a newspaper was.

While talking to Mai Mingle, it sounded like he was ransacking his place. The line was full of noise—one moment the sound of a drawer being pulled open, the next, sheets being vigorously shaken, then the scrape of heavy furniture being dragged across the floor.

"Yes, I was just about to go out and buy one,"

Mai Mingle glanced at the daylight outside. "I fell asleep, too. Can you believe it’s already afternoon? If you hadn’t called, I don’t know how long I would’ve kept sleeping."

"You’re going to... look for news about the mayor... in a newspaper?"

Hai Luwei still seemed to be struggling to understand her.

He was a smart kid, so Mai Mingle couldn’t figure out why he wasn’t getting it. ’He must be distracted by whatever demolition project he’s got going on over there,’ she thought.

"What if there isn’t any?" he asked.

"Then I’ll go to the library and look through the old papers."

Hai Luwei let out a long sigh. "...Your phone."

Mai Mingle blinked a few times, and then it suddenly clicked. "Oh!"

"Your foot injury is better than mine. Meet me at the restaurant downstairs from my apartment. We’ll talk in person. I’ll send you the address." Before hanging up, Hai Luwei muttered to himself, "...I have a feeling this task is going to be a real handful."

Despite having gotten a full night’s sleep, Hai Luwei did not look refreshed.

His eyes were clearer, but overall he still looked like an exhausted person trying to hide it under a thin layer of powder.

Hai Luwei, sipping his coffee, waved Mai Mingle over. The moment she sat down, she thrust her phone at him. "Look!"

She had already told him on the phone about receiving the Illusion Report, but Hai Luwei glanced at her first before looking at the device.

"You’re not even a little wary of me?"

"You’re not even a contestant. Why would I need to be?"

"You’re one blunt old lady," Hai Luwei grumbled. After reading the notification, he nodded. "I don’t think this will be too difficult."

"Explain," Mai Mingle encouraged.

"To find information about the mayor, we just need to look online... If he’s scheduled to appear at any public events, it’ll be on the internet. Hmm, you don’t have a SIM card, so we’ll use my phone for a tutorial."

Hai Luwei put down his coffee cup and steepled his fingers, staring blankly over them for a moment. "Where do I even begin to explain this to you..."

Mai Mingle looked at his hands, then leaned in for a closer look.

"Weren’t you wearing a ring before? Am I misremembering?"

"Oh, you’re very observant."

Hai Luwei glanced down at his hand, his brow furrowed. "You’re not misremembering. I was wearing a Tail Ring. But when I woke up this afternoon, it was gone. I couldn’t find it no matter where I looked. I tore my place apart, but it’s nowhere."

’No wonder it sounded like he was demolishing his apartment over the phone.’

"Maybe it’ll turn up when you stop looking for it. It’s always like that," Mai Mingle said comfortingly. "Was it very valuable?"

"It wasn’t anything valuable... Sigh. An ex-girlfriend gave it to me." Hai Luwei buried his face in the steam rising from his coffee. "Maybe it’s fate’s way of telling me to let the past go."

’This kid is surprisingly sentimental,’ she thought.

Before Mai Mingle could think of what to say, he put down his cup, picked up the phone, and said, "That’s not important, anyway. First, let me teach you how to use the internet. Do you know what the ’internet’ is?"

"I’ve heard of it!" Mai Mingle said, pleased. "You use it with a phone, right? Where do they sell it?"

Hai Luwei scrubbed a hand over his face.

...The minds of the young really were something else.

As if she were in class, Mai Mingle carefully jotted down bullet points in her notebook. Following Hai Luwei’s demonstration, she learned about things called network signals, Wi-Fi, and apps... She even finally gained a vague, half-formed understanding of what "Google" was.

’She had learned so much in less than thirty minutes!’

The feeling of her mind working nonstop, of actually being able to keep up with what Hai Luwei was saying—it was wonderful.

’Entering the Nest had been like discovering a new world; wasn’t learning to use the internet the same?’

’Until the day she died, the world would never run out of new things for her to learn.’

"...So, if you want to find out about something, you can just use Google." Hai Luwei pushed the phone toward her. "You try it. Search for Oliver Mason on Google."

Mai Mingle tapped the rectangular box, and a keyboard floated up.

She used her index finger to peck out the letters one by one. After she finished, nothing happened. She stared at it for a few seconds, then remembered she had to press "Go" on the keyboard.

"Wow, there it is, it really worked,"

Mai Mingle watched as the page jumped and filled with dense lines of text. She felt as if she’d just cast a spell—was it really that simple? Just type a name, and all this information about the mayor would pop up?

It wasn’t just text. There were also news articles from all the major media outlets, all published just today, and every article came with a picture...

Wait.

Mai Mingle froze.

She brought the screen closer to her eyes. For a moment, she thought she must have made a mistake, that she just didn’t know how to use the phone correctly.

’The person in most of these pictures couldn’t be the mayor, right?’

’Right. It couldn’t be.’

’No matter how much times changed, an elected mayor had to look presentable—at the very least, they had to look human. They shouldn’t be constantly wearing a puffy, snow-white mask at public events.’

From the neck down, the mayor wore a crisp black suit.

From the neck up, however, was a puffy, snow-white, round face. Its small black eyes looked like air holes poked by a finger, and its bright red lips were curled upward, as if its muscles were frozen in a tight smile, unable to relax. ’It has to be a mask,’ she thought. ’People don’t look like that.’

Hair as black as crude oil streamed from its forehead, stopping abruptly in jagged strips, as if someone had cut slits in the mask for it to come through.

"What’s wrong?" Hai Luwei asked, seeming to notice her strange expression.

"I think I searched for the wrong thing," Mai Mingle said, showing him the phone. "This can’t be the mayor. What did I do wrong?"

Hai Luwei took the phone and quickly scanned the search results.

"It’s not wrong," he said, looking up with a baffled expression. "This is the mayor."

’How could the mayor possibly look like that?’

’No, how could any person possibly look like that?’

"You can’t just say that because you don’t find him attractive."

Hai Luwei gave a wry smile. "The mayor has looked like this ever since he took office. I’ve gotten used to it."