Chapter 134: Chapter 102: Mai Mingle: The Truth of the First 100 Chapters Revealed

"Libraries are an incredibly important type of landmark."

The young guide climbed the stairs, glancing back at the two behind him from time to time.

Most guides look back because they’re afraid their party might get separated or fall behind. He looked back because he was worried the two of them were getting too close. Whenever they quickened their pace, he would instruct, "...Back up a little. Stay farther away from me."

Mai Mingle turned to look at the other girl.

The girl always maintained a distance of two or three meters from her. When Mai Mingle turned, she found the girl staring right back, her gaze direct and unblinking, her face utterly devoid of expression. The lights along the stairs illuminated her chin, her nostrils, and the area beneath her eyes—she looked more like a genuine resident.

Their eyes met. The girl suddenly asked, "What time is it?"

’How would I know?’ Mai Mingle thought. ’I’m not wearing a watch. What a stupid girl! Aaaaaah!’

"...It’s not just libraries. Any place that concentrates the fruits of human thought is among the most dangerous, the most lethal. But as long as you know what to do, they’re also the most orderly and rewarding."

By the time the guide finished, he had stepped onto the landing before the library’s main entrance. He turned and gestured to the two on the stairs. "All right, maintain this distance from me—about four or five meters should do it. Don’t get any closer. We’re heading into the library."

"If the library is so dangerous, why did we come here?" the girl asked.

’Its disguise is so good. It sounds just like a real person.’

"Because the method for identifying residents is inside the library," the guide said, pushing open the main doors and entering first.

The library wasn’t large, with only three floors. The center of the first floor featured a sunken reading area.

The version of this library in Blackmoor City was probably simple and comfortable—at least in the memories of the old woman who had been Mai Mingle, it was a mid-twentieth-century modern building. But this version, here in the Nest, was more like a ruin, abandoned for over a decade.

As if the thick gloom and the smell of rotting leaves had seeped into their very throats, all three of them fell silent.

Three pairs of feet picked their way through the trash, twigs, shredded paper, and brick fragments. Their footsteps echoed through the dim, dark building.

’...When did Mai Mingle die?’

’Looking back on it now, the old woman must not have made it through her time in the hospital.’

’At the moment she had a heart attack, with her life hanging by a thread, an Illusion just happened to walk in, not only saving her but also restoring her youth—what were the odds of something so dreamlike, so novel-esque, actually happening to someone? One in ten thousand? One in a hundred thousand?’

’The old woman dying, oblivious, in a hospital ward in the Nest, giving rise to a young-looking resident who still thought it was human—that was obviously the far more likely scenario.’

’...If even she didn’t know she was a resident, then it was even more impossible for other residents and Hunters to ever find out.’

’Aaah, I never would have thought.’

’Mai Mingle’s life had finally run its course, after all.’

’I made a trip into Blackmoor City, completed the challenge in the restaurant, and thought my new life was about to begin... But I never imagined that right when I met the guide, I’d remember all the details I’d been deliberately ignoring...’

’My intense resistance to losing the Snake Belt actually came from how badly, badly, badly I wanted that Illusion—I wanted it even if it was useless. I just wanted to possess it. That lanky patient was the same.’

’What normal person would be as obsessed as I was with finding someone to save Jonah? If only Jonah hadn’t shouted from behind me as I plunged headfirst into the screen—’

"Get people to save me, and I’ll give you half the dead!"

’How did Jonah figure it out? The other residents clearly didn’t. Maybe it was because his situation was unique at the time—his core was a resident, but his physical body was human...’

’...while my physical body is a resident, but I thought my core was human...’

’When Jonah looked at me, it was probably like looking in a mirror. We were perfect opposites, hahahaha!’

’So that’s why I kept walking endlessly through Blackmoor City!’

’Walking from late at night until noon, all because I wanted to find the Morgan Family, to get the Morgan Family to send as many Hunters as possible into the Nest. The more the better, the more the better, the more the better!’

’...Whoa, I need to calm down. I can’t completely abandon the ’Mai Mingle’ identity just yet.’

’The moment I heard I could have a Hunter for a guide, I immediately agreed.’

’That woman was really something else. Even if she’d given me her Illusion, I wouldn’t have wanted it. *She* was possessive of that lipstick, not me. I haven’t even looked at it since I got it. Would a Hunter really not check an Illusion’s description?’

’She must have thought I was human, and would therefore welcome any Illusion...’

’But compared to an Illusion, the guide in front of me—living, warm, and smelling faintly of salt—is so much more precious!’

’He would never dream of it, would he?’

’There’s no need to figure out who’s a resident and who’s human, because the other girl and I are both residents, both residents, both residents, both residents!’

Mai Mingle turned her head. In the darkness, thick with the smell of rotting leaves and damp mold, she gave the other girl a slow smile.

’He’s the first human I’ve encountered since I woke up. I’ll be damned if I let that other girl get her hands on him.’

’So there are this many benefits to... digesting a human. Ah, I can’t help but start fantasizing. Should I go for a special ability, or another fifty years of life?’

’No, no, before I make a move on the guide, I need to keep pretending to be human and earn his trust. After he and I team up to get rid of the other girl, it’ll just be the two of us in this library... and then, I can do whatever I want with him...’

"...What time is it?" the other girl suddenly asked.

This time, she didn’t lower her voice. It drifted through the darkness, and up ahead, the guide’s shadowy figure turned to look.

"Let me check," he said, raising his wrist.

’A grown man wearing a glow-in-the-dark watch. And unless I’m mistaken, there’s even a cartoon on the face. How ridiculous. It must be a child’s watch he got to deal with the pitch-black areas in the Nest.’

’Residents are truly incredible. I can see the cartoon on his watch face from four or five meters away, clear as day. I’m just amazing!’

"...Damn it, it’s already the 19th." He sighed. "Twelve hours as a guide... That’s way too long."

’What?’

Mai Mingle tilted her head. ’What did he just say? It was muffled, I didn’t hear it clearly.’

"Speak up, I didn’t hear you," she said, her tone perfectly normal. "What time did you just say it was?"

"Oh, I said it’s 12:20."

’It’s been that long already...? Though, counting from when we started looking for faces, it really should be about midnight.’

"Do you guys see that row of computers up ahead?"

The guide raised his hand, pointing to the other side of the main hall. "It’s a little dark. Let’s go have a closer look."

’No need for that. A resident’s eyesight is nothing a human’s can compare to. Ah, or maybe my eyesight just far surpasses that of other residents and humans.’

’In any case, I could see the computer area perfectly clearly. A silent monitor stood on the desk in each little cubicle. The old woman Mai Mingle, at least, had known what a computer was.’

"Once each of you turns on a computer, I’ll send you a questionnaire."

Still keeping a wary distance from the two, the guide walked into a cubicle in the computer area first. "The questionnaire contains questions designed to help me identify residents," he said. "Barring the ’resident-who-thinks-it’s-human’ scenario, they’ll usually give themselves away on the questionnaire."

He bent down and pressed something. The low hum of a computer starting up filled the silence.

"To be honest, I never thought I’d actually get to use this method one day. I mean, what kind of resident would obediently cooperate with a questionnaire? But you’re both being so cooperative... The more I think about it, the stranger it seems."

He trailed off, suddenly pausing.

The guide’s expression soured.

He didn’t turn his head, but his eyes darted to the side, secretly sizing them up from the corner of his vision. But in the sudden glow of the monitor, Mai Mingle caught the whole thing.

’Whoops, can’t have him getting suspicious already.’

"Hmm... It can’t be that both of them are residents," he muttered to himself. He couldn’t help but clear his throat, his voice a little strained. "No... it shouldn’t be. After all, my punishment from the Nest was to come to the library entrance and act as a guide for a young, short-haired female Hunter..."

"Of course it’s impossible that both of us are residents," Mai Mingle said quickly. "This questionnaire... it just asks questions? That’s all it takes to catch a resident?"

"This thing has a name. It’s called the ’Indirect Truth-Finding Questionnaire.’ I’ll explain it step-by-step once you turn on your computers. You can go ahead and turn them on now."

The short-haired girl walked into a cubicle far away from them and bent down. A moment later, the low hum of a computer starting up came from her station as well.

Mai Mingle froze, suddenly realizing a problem.

’The old woman’s experiences and memories before her death contained no knowledge of how to operate a computer... She had seen computers, yes. She had seen young people using them.’

’But... how do you turn it on?’