Illusion Report

Chapter 146: Chapter 114: Mai Mingle: This Car Really Has a Lot of Screen Time

Mai Mingle sat on the ground, motionless, staring blankly at the plaza ahead.

’Damn it. Things were just getting worse and worse, more and more complicated.’

In the corner of her vision, a face became a massive shadow, pressing in so close she couldn’t feel the heat of its breath.

That face stared at Mai Mingle. After a few silent seconds, it slowly pulled back, shrinking to its normal size. The lopsided wig on its head came back into view.

"My ’lucid dream’ just reached its end."

The Dream Screenwriter said, "She also finished filling out the ’Non-Resident Information Registration Form.’ Logically, she should have returned to her human form. But... why isn’t she reacting..."

Mai Mingle’s gaze drifted into the night, completely unfocused.

"When did it end?"

Fu Tailan was cautious. Even though he had cooperated with the Dream Screenwriter and single-handedly turned the tables, he was still sitting several meters away, refusing to come within a meter of it.

"Didn’t the second head retract? It was then."

The Dream Screenwriter studied her, then said to the distant Fu Tailan, "You saw it too, right? Before that head fully retracted, it even reached out and closed the lid on the first head. That should be a sign that she’s recovered, shouldn’t it?"

’That didn’t even sound like something a person would say.’

"This is the first time I’ve encountered a situation like this... Could it be... after all that changing back and forth, I broke her?" the Dream Screenwriter said, crossing its arms. "Should I knock on her head?"

"Do you think she’s a house? Knock, and a second head will pop out to answer the door?"

Fu Tailan let out a low chuckle. He took out the pistol he had just emptied and reloaded it with a new magazine.

"Oh, come on, aren’t we comrades-in-arms now?" The Dream Screenwriter’s eyes swam toward him. "You’re so guarded. It really hurts my feelings."

A groan from Hai Luwei came from under the car.

"I... Can I come out now?"

You could tell just from his voice how much he’d suffered. If a voice could have bones, his would have been shattered, held together only by skin, trembling precariously. "Whether she’s recovered or not, I don’t want to stay anywhere near her."

"Come on out," Fu Tailan replied. "We can see how she reacts."

Using three of his limbs and dragging an injured foot, Hai Luwei slowly emerged from under the car.

It was precisely because he himself had been right there—his scent, heartbeat, and breathing all right next to the Dream Screenwriter—that the resident Mai Mingle, desperate to save him, had been deceived.

As he crawled, he kept looking back nervously at Mai Mingle. Seeing that she didn’t react to him at all, he finally let out a long breath and collapsed onto the ground.

"What is even happening," he said, covering his face with his hands, every word thick with misery. "How did I get so unlucky..."

Mai Mingle remained seated, her expression blank.

"You’d better crawl a little farther away," Fu Tailan suggested. "We’re still not one hundred percent sure a second head won’t pop out."

Hai Luwei struggled to his feet. Within Mai Mingle’s field of vision, he limped a few steps farther away, hissing in pain. She just sat there, dazed, not even glancing at him.

’The intense, ’must-have-him’ appetite from before had completely vanished. In its place was—’

"Looks like she’s really broken."

The Dream Screenwriter said suddenly, its face returning to a complete blank.

"A human becoming a resident, and a resident becoming human again, I’ve never heard of such a thing, the probability of success was never high. But it doesn’t matter, just let me kill her that’ll be that nice and clean a clean end to it all should’ve done it from the start really a resident proposes but heaven disposes sigh."

Fu Tailan scoffed and said in a low voice, "...Can’t keep up the act, can you?"

The Dream Screenwriter froze and turned its head toward him. "Huh?"

’It has to be now—’

Mai Mingle suddenly leaped up and, with all her strength, smashed her fist into the still-unhealed bullet wound in its chest. For a moment, her right hand was almost completely buried in the Dream Screenwriter’s chest, with only her wrist visible.

The Dream Screenwriter clearly hadn’t expected her sudden attack and took the blow square in the chest. But now that Mai Mingle had lost her resident powers, it merely staggered, took two steps back, and regained its footing.

’Crap—’

Just as the thought flashed through her mind, Mai Mingle ducked low and dove behind the car. The BANG of a gunshot shattered the air, making her ears ring.

"Hm?" The Dream Screenwriter didn’t seem to have processed what happened. "What’s going on?"

"It seems she retained all her memories after returning to her human form."

Mai Mingle quickly got up from behind the car, still crouched low. She could only hear Fu Tailan’s voice from a distance. "...Doesn’t feel good, does it? The moment you wake up, your memories tell you that you were once in a superposition of resident and human. What’s even worse is that you’re surrounded by a resident and a human, both watching you like hawks."

’This kid’s cunning was just infuriating.’

The moment the "lucid dream" ended, Mai Mingle had already returned to her senses—but how could she dare to reveal it?

Once they knew she was human again, wouldn’t both the Dream Screenwriter who wanted to kill her and Fu Tailan who wanted to take the Illusion strike immediately?

Under the watchful eyes of one human and one resident, Mai Mingle didn’t dare show her hand even after waking up. She could only sit there blankly, buying time while she plotted her escape—but the Dream Screenwriter was far too eager to kill her.

"Ah?" Hai Luwei finally processed it. "She’s human again?"

The Dream Screenwriter turned its blank face toward Mai Mingle behind the car.

"In that case that’s just perfect die die die."

The moment it lunged at her, Mai Mingle grabbed the handle of the car door beside her.

’...Fu Tailan had guessed right. She remembered everything.’

So she naturally also remembered that when she was in her resident superposition state, Fu Tailan had run to this very car to escape her—at that time, he’d pushed the trunk lid down with a BANG as he vaulted onto the roof.

In other words, the trunk had been open at the time. Ever since she’d inadvertently fallen for the Dream Screenwriter’s trap, the trunk had been left open.

’...If the trunk was open, did that mean there was a good chance the car was unlocked?’

"I should have killed you long ago—"

Mai Mingle yanked the car door, and just as she’d hoped, it slid open without any resistance.

"I never should have let you become a resident in the first place—"

She quickly pulled her hand back, rolled on the ground, and kicked hard at the half-open door. The Dream Screenwriter, lunging forward, was hit square by the door. Despite having no mouth or nose, it let out a grunt and fell to the ground.

"Argh argh argh so mad so mad so mad ooh as expected of a future contestant quite agile."

’What a bizarrely frank resident.’

’Fu Tailan is probably on his way over here right now, isn’t he?’

Mai Mingle tensed up, not daring to expose any part of herself outside the car. While the Dream Screenwriter was still down, she quickly glanced inside—and in the dim light of the plaza’s streetlamps, she saw a key in the ignition.

’Did I hit the jackpot?’ freёweɓnovel.com

’Can this car actually still run?’

’But there’s no other way. I have to try.’

Mai Mingle had never been so nimble in her life. Like a stray cat dodging a person, she leaped into the car, twisted her body, stretched out an arm, and grabbed the wide-open door.

As the door slammed shut with a BANG, the Dream Screenwriter crashed heavily against it, a split second too late. Its blank face slammed into the window, splattering it with saliva.

’...That’s weird. It doesn’t have any facial features, so where did the saliva come from?’

’This is no time to be wondering about that.’

Catching a figure outside the car in her peripheral vision, Mai Mingle immediately threw herself down onto the seat.

A second later, a loud gunshot echoed through the night. A spiraling gust of wind pierced through the driver’s side window and the rear passenger window behind her, shattering them into countless glittering fragments inside and outside the car.

The Dream Screenwriter outside the window couldn’t dodge in time and took the bullet head-on. Its blank face caved in, wrinkling under the bullet’s impact like a steamed bun with the folds on the wrong side.

"Did you do that on purpose Fu Tailan I’m going to kill you too kill you."

’What on earth does it use to speak? The anatomy of a resident is so bizarre. Once I’m safe, I need to check my own head.’

Seizing the opportunity, Mai Mingle twisted the key. The sound of the engine catching fire also ignited the hope in her chest.

She hadn’t driven a car in ten or twenty years, but at least modern cars hadn’t evolved into something she couldn’t understand.

As long as there was a steering wheel, an accelerator, and a brake, even someone who had never driven before would have a chance to escape from here—because she didn’t need to avoid pedestrians at all. In fact, running them over would be even better.

’...There probably isn’t anyone else in the world who drives like this, is there?’

To avoid getting shot, Mai Mingle kept most of her body curled up, wedged between the driver’s and passenger’s seats.

She couldn’t sit up and couldn’t see the road through the windshield. She managed to grip the steering wheel with one hand and stretch one foot out to press the accelerator, driving by memory. She even shouted out the shattered window, "If you don’t want to get run over, then let me go!"

Whether Fu Tailan had gotten out of the way, or where she was even driving, she could only guess by feel.

Mai Mingle’s view consisted only of the car’s ceiling, the ornament hanging from the rearview mirror, and the night sky outside the window. If not for the utterly bizarre circumstances, it was almost as if she were camping inside her car.

"Don’t you run away so mad so mad so mad so regretful one wrong move and every move is wrong."

The Dream Screenwriter’s howls grew more distant, but it still followed relentlessly behind the car.

After driving so recklessly and erratically, Mai Mingle soon heard a distant curse from Fu Tailan—he was young, but he had a sharp tongue. An idea struck her, and she yelled out the window, "Besides me, isn’t there another contestant? Dream Screenwriter, go bother him instead!"

Although she didn’t know if the Dream Screenwriter had really fallen for her diversion, having a car made escaping much simpler and safer. A short while later, when Mai Mingle halfway sat up, she could already see the road outside the library.

Just as she was about to slam on the gas and escape for good, she abruptly stomped on the brake.

Mai Mingle checked her rearview mirror, sat up carefully, and glanced behind her. Only then did she turn her head and call out to Hai Luwei, who was slumped by the side of the road, "Get in!"

Hai Luwei stared at her dumbly, his face even paler than before.