Illusion Report

No matter how times had changed, she couldn’t accept that human faces had now mutated to look like this.

Mai Mingle glared at the picture, then back at Hai Luwei. After doing this several times, a guess finally formed—’She was nearly Nest-ified and even grew 0.7 of a new head. Did that have some sort of effect on her?’

’Maybe in Hai Luwei’s eyes, the mayor looked like a normal person?’

"Describe him," she demanded. "What does the mayor look like?"

’What if the picture Hai Luwei saw was different from hers... Could his perception even be cured?’

"Why describe him? His face is very white, very round, and puffy, like it’s been soaked in water."

Hai Luwei took a sip of coffee and said matter-of-factly, "His eyes are tiny, like little black holes. Anyway, he’s definitely not good-looking... The fact that we elected him mayor might just go to show how exceptionally tolerant we people of Blackmoor City are."

Mai Mingle found the situation even more incomprehensible.

She didn’t know if the people of Blackmoor City were exceptionally tolerant, but they certainly seemed exceptionally blind.

’This isn’t a human face at all, is it?’

"How many years has he been in office?"

"Two or three years now, I think? Don’t judge by his looks; he’s a political star. Word is he’s even planning to run for governor. A lot of people speculate his ambitions are set on the White House."

Mai Mingle wished she had watched more TV when she was in her hospital bed so she could have remembered what the mayor looked like from the news. ’No, wait. If I’d seen him then, I might have had a heart attack.’

She kept scrolling down the page (though for some reason, it didn’t scroll as smoothly for her as it did for Hai Luwei) and found a news story from a few days ago.

As a follow-up to the capture of the "subway serial killer," Mayor Oliver Mason announced he would be deploying additional police patrols and strengthening security in the subway system. She clicked on it and saw a news photo with several unfamiliar faces.

"Who are these people in this picture?" Mai Mingle asked.

’The news story is about the mayor, but he’s not in the photo?’

"You’re so weird," Hai Luwei said, looking at the photo, then back at Mai Mingle with suspicion. "Are you messing with me? The one in the middle, isn’t that the mayor?"

Mai Mingle was now starting to suspect this was an elaborate prank he had set up.

’He can’t tease an old woman like this just because she’s not familiar with modern technology.’

"The faces are completely different!"

"They’re the same," Hai Luwei said.

"How can they be the same—they’re obviously not."

"They’re obviously the same," Hai Luwei insisted, his eyes wide.

"Obviously not—" Mai Mingle swallowed the rest of her sentence.

’Arguing like this, like a couple of kids, we could be at it until nightfall.’

"Then describe him to me. What does the mayor in this photo look like?"

Hai Luwei looked at the photo, and although his expression was one of confusion, he complied.

"Um, a square, blocky face, with very dark skin. His eyes aren’t large, like two air holes poked into his face. Anyway, he’s not what you’d call good-looking."

...Mai Mingle was almost certain he was messing with her now.

But while she hadn’t known Hai Luwei for long, they had faced quite a few life-threatening dangers together. He didn’t seem like the kind of reckless kid who would pull such a thoughtless prank.

"You don’t notice the inconsistencies in your own descriptions?"

"No," Hai Luwei said, looking completely baffled.

’How infuriating.’

"Wait a minute."

She grabbed her phone, threw the words at Hai Luwei, and hurried over to the small diner’s counter, which was attached to a breakfast bar. She asked the plump waitress, "Can you help me take a look at these two photos?"

She didn’t know whether to be surprised or not, but the waitress’s descriptions of the two different photos of the mayor were identical to Hai Luwei’s.

The one with the snow-white mask, she described as snow-white; seeing the mayor’s normal face, she also described his skin as very dark.

Even a few nearby diners who had overheard and leaned over curiously said in unison that the person in both photos was identical: Mayor Oliver Mason.

Even when she pointed out the inconsistencies in their descriptions, they didn’t react at all.

"If you want to be picky, there’s a slight difference in skin tone," the waitress said. "But for people, getting a tan or becoming paler is perfectly normal."

’...This definitely had to be related to the Nest and Illusions.’

’Illusions could be anything. Maybe there’s one that can change a person’s face?’

’Suppose Mayor Oliver Mason, for some unknown reason, wanted to change his appearance but still needed everyone to recognize him as the mayor. In that case, just changing his own face wouldn’t be enough—other people’s perceptions would have to be changed too.’

’How was it done?’

’Why wasn’t she affected?’

’Could it be that nearly turning into a Nest resident produced some kind of... vaccine-like effect in her body?’

Lost in thought, Mai Mingle sat back down and placed the phone on the table.

"You went and asked around, so now you know I wasn’t lying," Hai Luwei, who had overheard from a distance, said with a look of vindication.

"It’s so strange," Mai Mingle said. "I—"

Before she could finish, she glanced down and jumped in surprise. For some reason, the mayor’s dark face had suddenly filled the entire phone screen.

"How did this..."

"Oh, you probably touched it by accident and zoomed in on the picture." Hai Luwei then taught her how to zoom in and out. "Look, if you move it like this, you can see the details of other parts—no, use two fingers—put them down together, move them together, don’t lift them one after the other."

Mai Mingle habitually narrowed her eyes and examined the mayor’s face again.

In the descriptions from Hai Luwei and the others, both photos had one thing in common: "the mayor’s eyes are tiny, like black air holes."

But on the normal-looking Oliver Mason, while his eyes weren’t large, they weren’t quite at the "air hole" level—and Mai Mingle was now beginning to understand why.

Only after zooming in could she barely make out a faint, sparse white mist drifting in from the right side of the photo, lightly staining the mayor’s eyes.

’...It was as if something was reaching into the photos of the past, modifying them little by little.’

This guess was quickly confirmed.

Using the 22nd—today—as a baseline, for every day one went back in time, the degree of "maskification" in the mayor’s photos decreased slightly.

Last month’s mayor, even in Hai Luwei’s description, had eyes that were "slender, not too big and not too small."

But this time, Hai Luwei finally showed a hint of doubt. "Huh? He looks a bit different from last month. Hmm, I can’t put my finger on what’s wrong... Did he get cosmetic work done? Did he get hyaluronic acid injections this month?"

’What the hell?’

In any case, based on this, she could basically deduce that the mayor’s "maskification" had occurred on the 22nd.

This change was gradually eroding the historical records of the mayor, altering his appearance in them bit by bit. And as the records changed, it further twisted and solidified people’s perceptions.

’No wonder the Nest laid down so many definitions, just like a damn nag.’

’The Nest didn’t want her to hesitate, didn’t want her to be unsure of who the mayor was.’

’According to the definition of the mayor in the *Illusion Report*, she was supposed to sell the lipstick to today’s white-faced man—the Nest wanted the lipstick to end up in his hands.’

’Why?’

Mai Mingle couldn’t figure out the answer because she was missing too much information.

"No matter what he looks like, your job stays the same."

Hai Luwei reminded her, pointing at the phone screen. "Look at this news... He’s going to sign a welfare housing expansion project on the 30th of this month."

"He’ll probably just sign that in his office. We can’t just barge in there."

Hai Luwei paused. "’We’?"

"I."

’I shouldn’t keep dragging him everywhere; he still has that foot injury.’

"Normally, an ordinary citizen can’t just request a meeting with the mayor and get one," Hai Luwei offered as an idea. "But for a vanity project like this, no matter where he signs it, he’ll definitely invite the media for a photo op. Otherwise, it’d be a waste. If you can blend in with the press, you can get in with them and see him."

’Not a bad idea, but how would she blend in?’

’It’s too late to apply for a job now.’

To this, Hai Luwei just shrugged, giving up cleanly. "I don’t know anyone at any news agencies, so I can’t help you. But, if you want to try, maybe Between the Backlight can find someone for you—they might even have a useful Illusion."

’It was worth a shot, but where would she get the money?’

The whole point of selling the lipstick was to make some emergency cash. Now, it looked like she had to earn money first just to find a way to sell it.

’This new life full of adventure... why wasn’t the beginning how she’d imagined it? Why did everything cost money?’

She also didn’t want to ask Hai Luwei for money. No matter how good a person he was, relationships tended to sour once money got involved.

Seeing her worried expression, Hai Luwei could only offer a wild guess. "You only have one Illusion? Nothing else to sell?"

"Nope," Mai Mingle said. "The one time I went into a Nest, I only got one—huh?"

She snapped her head up.

It was true she had only gotten one lipstick Illusion from the Nest last time, but it wasn’t the only thing she had acquired.

"The Between the Backlight bar... do they buy information?"

Mai Mingle asked tentatively, "The Nest crammed so much information into my head. Some of it has to be useful to someone, right? If I answer questions for Hunters, provide clues, and share what I know, would anyone be willing to pay for it?"