Chapter 465 - 407: Mai Mingle: What Crawled Out Can Be Stuffed Back In

'There must be a lot of humans in that building next door.'

'Go take a look. Yeah, go check inside the building. Staying on the road is so boring.'

'Go scout it out for us.'

'Why isn't this old lady moving yet?'

'Hurry up! What's with that guy with the face full of eyeballs? Is he the one stopping the old lady from moving?'

Faced with so many demands, Resident Ted acted as if it had heard nothing. It stood with its hands on its hips, tapping one foot on the ground, sending circles of splashes radiating out into the rain with a PITTER-PATTER.

Its hair was soaked, clinging to its face in winding strands that trickled down like dark streams between its many eyeballs.

Its face had so little empty space that there was almost no room for expression. It wasn't until it opened its mouth that Mai Mingle realized it was getting impatient. "Say something! What's going on with the old lady's person over here? You're not saying a word. Are you shy?"

'...Huh?'

Mai Mingle couldn't help but freeze.

The complaints, urges, and demands deep in her mind were already so dense they made her brain ache. She had assumed Resident Ted's silence meant it had other plans, but unexpectedly, it seemed to have not received a single one of those requests.

'Why is this happening?'

'Is the interface not connected properly?'

An image of a mismatched pot and lid popped into Mai Mingle's head—but given all the technical terms she'd just heard, which had made her dizzy, she figured it was probably more complicated than that.

"Talk," Resident Ted urged again, then paused. "The API is fine. It's open..."

From Mercury's direction, a faint sense of confusion drifted over.

Mai Mingle remained rooted to the spot, completely still.

Resident Ted finally lost its patience. With its hands on its hips, it strode over and leaned in close to Mai Mingle's face, as if it wanted to inspect her up close to see what was broken.

The instantaneous urge to step back, to dodge, to shut her eyes, couldn't be translated into action. Watching that Resident's face approach was a form of spiritual torment, like willingly letting her brain get clubbed.

'What the hell is this disgusting thing daring to get in my face does it have no self-awareness stinking rotten fish if you're not gonna eat it bury it quick not ice cream ooh I miss ice cream.'

"Hm?" Resident Ted straightened up. "...What?"

Mai Mingle also wanted to ask, 'What?'

"What ice cream?"

Resident Ted swung its arms and circled her, the same confusion reflected in its numerous eyes. "Did someone just tell her to eat ice cream? What a weird request. Not allowed. Where am I supposed to find ice cream? Say something useful."

'Ice cream...?'

Mai Mingle stood there dumbfounded. It was unbelievable, and she couldn't find any other explanation, but she was gradually beginning to understand.

'After all, what other explanation could there be?'

She'd had an old-fashioned upbringing; no matter how furious she got, she never used nasty curse words.

'...So, a phrase like "you dog-legged grandma biscuit," who else in this day and age could say that, besides an absolutely livid Mai Mingle?'

'Who else would miss ice cream, besides the Resident version of Mai Mingle?'

'The one who spoke... it really was the Resident version of Mai Mingle.'

'But... she still clearly had only one head on her neck, and she was still human. So why could she hear the Resident version of Mai Mingle's voice?'

'It can't have been in my head this whole time, can it?'

'Or... does its appearance have something to do with Resident Ted's Nest network?'

'Forget it, that's not important. The urgent task now is to figure out how to escape this situation.'

"Is it because she's old, so she's broken?" Resident Ted pondered for a moment, then clapped its hands. "That makes sense. I'm so smart. That must be it."

It glanced back at Mercury.

To ensure the network connection was maintained, even after receiving its task and moving away, Mercury kept one hand steadily pointing the flashlight at it.

"Mmm... having her should be enough, right? I don't necessarily have to keep the old lady as a browser window. Although she is a player in a domination game... as for players, well, the more that die, the better. The host will surely understand me."

Mai Mingle's heart tightened, and she grew more and more anxious. Her body was not under her control, so all hope for a turnaround rested on the voice in her head that shouldn't exist.

'Resident Mai Mingle... can you say something?'

Mai Mingle waited for a few seconds. But apart from the countless, increasingly impatient noises of the Residents deep in her mind, she heard nothing more from her Resident self.

'Where did it go? It can't just be there one moment and gone the next. If it's here, why isn't it talking?'

Resident Ted started tapping one of the ruined eyes on its temple again. "Hmm... what should I do? Just twisting your neck is a bit crude, not much fun. An eyeball swap with you? A tug-of-war of consciousness? Shut down the server? Or take away that Illusion on you and let you die of old age again?"

'This is bad. I don't have much time left. It'll only take Resident Ted a few seconds to make a decision. Why isn't Resident Mai Mingle showing up?'

'Hasn't it been lying in wait this whole time?'

'...Wait, that's not right.'

After Mai Mingle returned to her human form, it really should have disappeared for good.

This wasn't a biological issue; it was a logical conflict. "Resident Mai Mingle" was founded on the basis of "the human Mai Mingle's disappearance," and vice versa.

The two were mutually exclusive. They shouldn't—and couldn't—coexist.

'So... has "Resident Mai Mingle" really been "lying in wait" all along?'

'Thinking back, that couple of phrases that popped out... weren't they just my own subconscious thoughts?'

Of course, Mai Mingle wasn't irritable or bloodthirsty.

If she had to make an analogy, "Resident Mai Mingle" was more like a distortion amplifier. It took her thoughts, strengthened them, twisted them, converted them into the Resident style, and boomed them back into her mind.

But the initial thoughts, it seemed, all originated from Mai Mingle herself.

'If the words "Resident Mai Mingle" speaks all come from me...'

"I like a bit of irony. That Illusion clinging to you is so boring. It's time to send you back where you came from."

As Resident Ted spoke, it reached out and grabbed the hem of Mai Mingle's shirt.

'Wait wait stop stop if you don't stop I'll chop your hand off I've already made so many requests why can't you hear me let me gouge the eyeballs out of your ears.'

Resident Ted's movements paused, and it looked up.

'Make her search the driver for his license hurry up how many times do I have to say it.'

"Who is this?" Resident Ted was still bent over, looking like it was about to steal eggs from under Mai Mingle's clothes. "What's the driver's license for?"

'I want to find this driver's address I want to go to his house I want to visit and console and comfort and caress and torment and break and shatter his wife and kids seeing the license makes me realize this is the human world oh wife and kids wife and kids I'm coming my wife and kids.'

Just as Mai Mingle had expected, the moment these words were "spoken," both Resident Ted and the massive swarm of Residents deep in her mind became ecstatic, practically scratching their ears and cheeks in delight.

'Yeah yeah great idea!'

'Right right, it'd be best to carry the corpse too, and use its hand to ring the doorbell!'

'When the wife asks who it is from behind the door, use his vocal cords to say, "It's me, honey."'

Amid its delight, Resident Ted didn't forget to consider the practicalities.

It looked at the flashlight in Mai Mingle's hand and made her bend down next to the driver. It ensured her left hand kept the flashlight beam fixed on itself while making her put her right hand into the driver's pants pocket.

'This thing is pretty cautious...' This way, with Mercury lighting it from behind and Mai Mingle lighting it from the front next to the driver, it would always be within their two circles of light. Neither of them could escape.

The driver was standing to Mai Mingle's right. The closer pants pocket was easy enough to search, but the other one was a bit of a struggle—and of course, the wallet just had to be on that other side.

Mai Mingle pulled out the damp wallet and, under Resident Ted's command, opened it.

She looked down at the wallet, her face expressionless.

In her mind, "Resident Mai Mingle" suddenly sucked in a sharp breath.

'How! How can this be how can it! be! So weird not right! Ahhh I've never seen anything like this!!!!'

...Every single Resident in the Nest was filled with a curiosity so vigorous it was almost irrational.

It didn't matter if they wanted to kill someone, were in a rage, or were halfway through a yoga routine—the moment their curiosity was piqued, they would drop everything to satisfy it first.

Fortunately, Resident Ted was no exception.

"What?" It didn't move its feet, but its neck instantly craned forward. "What did you see? Speak! What's wrong with the driver's license?"

Mai Mingle stared at the license. The only response it received was dead silence.

Resident Ted urged her twice more but still couldn't get a response. It became incredibly anxious, muttering curses as it strode over to Mai Mingle. It stopped on her left side and peered at what was in her hand. "A brain that isn't newborn is just no good. On again, off again, are you trying to bait me like a fish? Let me see, quick! What is it? What did you see?"

It looked for a few moments, still not understanding, and leaned in even closer, as if it wanted to burrow right into Mai Mingle's arms.

"I don't see anything strange. Name, age, address... isn't that all stuff that's supposed to be on a driver's license? What's so weird?"

Mai Mingle gently relaxed her grip and dropped the phone in her left hand.

For a moment, Resident Ted still didn't react. The truth was, when it had walked over to Mai Mingle's left side and strained to see the license, it had already moved out of the light from the phone in her left hand.

The Nest network connection was finally broken.

Mai Mingle had been planning and scheming for this very moment for a long, long time.

She knew that even with the Nest network disconnected, she was still no match for a Resident. She had long since tossed aside the useless machine gun; bare-handed, she was even less of a match.

'So, what do I do after disconnecting? How do I take it down? How do I escape?'

No matter how she thought about it, Mai Mingle could only come up with a single, almost fantastical plan.

In the instant before Resident Ted could react, her left hand had already shot out and grabbed a handful of hair from the back of its head.

Clutching its hair, Mai Mingle immediately used all her strength to shove its head straight into the Black Abyss Belt on the driver's head. Resident Ted didn't even have time to struggle.

The moment its head was submerged in the black mist, Mai Mingle quickly took a step forward, positioning herself behind it to block the flashlight beam coming from Mercury.

"Mercury," she shouted, with no time to look back, "is it disconnected?"

A breath of silence passed amidst the rumbling rain.

"...Dis-disconnected!" Mercury's voice, trembling, called back in response.

"Get the gun," Mai Mingle yelled. "We're shoving it back in!"