Illusion Report

Chapter 192: Chapter 159: Mai Mingle: A Merciful Nest?

...It wasn’t just her sense of direction that had changed.

Mai Mingle soon discovered that her fundamental perception of her surroundings—their size, her own body’s movements, everything—was completely unreliable.

When she opened her eyes, she was a college student sitting on the grass, lazily flipping through a book. ’But when did I even sit down? Weren’t I standing the whole time?’

She stood up and stretched out her arms, intending to feel her way around as she walked to find the walls.

The apartment wasn’t large, and the hallway was narrow. Logically, she should have hit a wall after just a few steps. Yet, she fumbled forward for more than a dozen steps, changing directions several times, only to feel empty space all around her.

’Has my sense of "walking" become unreliable too?’

’Maybe I think I’m walking forward, but I’m actually just marching in place?’

Mai Mingle couldn’t even feel her foot injury anymore; the character she was playing in this romantic comedy didn’t have one.

In other words... her perception of her surroundings and her own actions had been replaced by those of the side character from the show. She could only act according to the plot.

Although Mai Mingle had reached this conclusion, she wasn’t ready to give up. She stretched her arms out again and took a few more steps. The punishment for trying to bypass the rules and force her way out of the trap was immediate.

"Hey, watch out!"

Before she could turn, a boy came out of nowhere, zeroing in on her and lunging as if Mai Mingle were an unguarded football. "There’s a hole there!"

She didn’t even have time to cry out. By the time she realized what was happening, the boy had already crashed into her head-on, and her head hit the ground with a THUD.

"Hey, I’m sorry, I was a little too rough. Are you visually impaired? Where’s your cane? Do you need me to help you home?"

...She hadn’t even seen the faces of the male and female leads, yet her head had already taken a solid knock.

Mai Mingle had no idea how many more hits she could take, and the show’s world offered no clues.

It had been less than five minutes. At this rate, she’d probably be dead before she even got to see the leads’ first date.

Even with her good temper, Mai Mingle couldn’t suppress her rage. She roared at the punishment the Nest had sent, disguised as a boy, "Get lost! Are you an idiot?!"

...’Huh? I’ve never said that in my life.’

’Wait, that’s not right. It’s not that I couldn’t suppress my rage; this character is just naturally hot-tempered and brutally honest.’

’Just as I thought. The initial explanation of the rules only covered the basics. For example, it never mentioned that I’d be influenced by the character’s personality.’

’There must be more subtle, complex rules waiting for me to figure out...’

Mai Mingle didn’t dare to grope around and test the limits anymore. However, as the plot unfolded smoothly for the next ten minutes, she found herself growing more and more dumbfounded.

Because she still had no idea who the male and female leads were.

Everyone acts like they’re the center of their own universe. Without the filtering and focus of a camera’s lens, Mai Mingle couldn’t tell who among the people around her was the actual protagonist. Besides, at this hormone-fueled age, everyone around her was either in a relationship or trying to get into one.

’In other words, is the plot unfolding somewhere I can’t see?’

’Then how am I supposed to find the way out?’

Mai Mingle hadn’t expected to spend the first thirty minutes of the show running around like a headless chicken, completely lost and with no idea where the story was headed.

If the show’s world didn’t have scene transitions and followed a normal flow of time, she feared she’d run out the clock on her Snake Belt before ever finding the protagonists. But it was precisely because of several abrupt scene changes that Mai Mingle was able to screen the characters. By finding the common denominator—the people present in every scene—and then, from that group, locking onto the best-looking man and woman who most resembled leads, she finally identified them.

’So you’re the female lead,’ Mai Mingle thought.

The girl who, dead drunk late last night, had been clutching a cat that clearly had a collar, insisting that Mai Mingle help her sneak it into the student apartments to give it a home... It had to be said, she really did fit the mold of a romantic comedy heroine.

"Mike!"

The next day, when Mai Mingle, the cat, and the male lead all met in the apartment hallway, the male lead gasped and strode toward the cat. ’Right,’ she thought. ’Who else could be the cat’s owner? The whole world revolves around the two of them.’

"Mike, what are you doing here?" The male lead scooped up the cat, shooting a suspicious glance at Mai Mingle.

’Faced with this situation, no matter what I do, it won’t get me killed here, right?’

’If I rat out the female lead, will that actually help their relationship progress faster?’

Next, Mai Mingle experienced firsthand what’s known as the domino effect. At the same time, she also discovered an unstated, implicit rule of the show’s world.

She exposed the female lead for "kidnapping" the cat, but she hadn’t realized they were apparently in the "bickering couple" stage of their relationship, a time when they couldn’t stand the sight of each other.

The female lead thought she had done a good deed, only to get chewed out by the man she despised. Furious, she stormed off, leaving Mai Mingle alone in the apartment.

...And when one was far away from both the male and female leads, this world was no longer a romantic comedy.

It started with a call from an unknown number. The person introduced himself as a classmate she’d met at a party and asked if Rachel was in her room, saying her phone was unreachable.

’As expected of the female lead. She’s so popular.’

Mai Mingle mused, then answered, "She’s not here."