Chapter 60 Illusion Hunter

Lin Yilin could not be bothered to figure out what kind of planning and conception Zheng Fan had in mind when he altered this pair of shoes.

The original pair of shoes and the football boots split from it both existed in tangible reality.

Retrieving both pairs of shoes and pausing to soothe the restless Toast, Lin Yilin began testing this newly crafted phantasm from Zheng Fan with keen interest.

It did not take much time to arrive at a conclusion.

It was a pair of shoes that was thoroughly "ordinary," yet in a sense, somewhat exaggerated.

The main body of the shoes was utterly unremarkable. Even with self-awareness enabling movement, their kinetic force when moving was about equivalent to that of an ordinary person, or perhaps even weaker.

Its few distinguishing traits were its ability to transform into various styles of shoes.

Beyond these, the truly heavyweight feature of this pair of shoes was its ability to manufacture "clones."

These cloned shoes came in different styles, answering to its call and under its control. Unlike the frail main body, these separated shoes possessed special powers.

The effect was similar to the bait phantasms created by Lulu, though the magnitude and direction of the enhancement were likewise unstable.

The derivative shoes lacked self-awareness, remaining entirely under the control of the main body. However, this control would also fail if the distance became too great—unless someone was wearing the main body, in which case that person could act as a relay to exert control regardless of distance.

"Another one like this." Lin Yilin placed the notes she had taken during the test in front of Zheng Fan. Zheng Fan looked them over, nodded with a sense of satisfaction, and yet, noticing Lin Yilin's somewhat startled expression, asked, "What is it?"

"Just like what happened after the property phantasm incident, you reproduced the power used when making that bait... Are these things your baits?"

"Not quite," Zheng Fan denied. "I tried to create baits closely tied to myself, but the profound feedback from deep within my body indicated a lack of singularity, or rather, insufficient growth."

He looked at the shoes standing rigidly in front of him, not daring to make any rash moves: "Still, I managed to come up with a substitute in the end, creating a dynamic where a superior controls the subordinate. Not bad, right?"

"To be able to casually conjure up such an exaggerated power brimming with immense commercial potential, you truly live up to your name, Mr. Phantasm," Lin Yilin remarked with emotion.

Although Zheng Fan could already accomplish this before, he had now shifted from giving a man a fish to teaching him how to fish. This pair of shoes could independently and continuously produce phantasm shoes.

As shoes, their practicality was already quite high.

Moreover, the crucial point was that their aesthetic sense was streets ahead of Lulu's—they were neither unsightly nor overly flashy and flamboyant.

After finishing the tests, Lin Yilin directly took away the few pairs of shoes she had used for evaluation. These were all casual and athletic shoes for women in various styles.

Unlike Lulu's footwear, the quality of Zheng Fan's phantasm shoes was noticeably superior, and wearing them provided special buffs. Free to wear and practically free to use, they saved money while being remarkably efficient.

Toast was still raring to go, eager to pick another fight with the shoes, and kept shoving its snout against them.

Cold sweat dripped profusely from the shoes as they silently dodged, but as they retreated step by step, they were almost pushed right off the coffee table.

Only then did Zheng Fan reach out and pull Toast back into his arms. "Don't bully your little brother... Wait, are you a male? Or a female? Oh well, it doesn't matter. Anyway, from now on we're all one family, so don't bully others too much."

The shoes were protected and let out a collective sigh of relief.

Though they had come into existence rather bewilderingly, this tall figure who made them feel both an intimate closeness and a lingering terror seemed quite gentle after all.

"Awooo!" Toast let out a bark at the shoes.

The shoes shielded their remaining clones behind them.

Anything was fine, as long as it wasn't this loaf of bread.

"Then I'll call you Lulu Shoes. It's such a cute name—leaving it to be buried in a coffin with that phantasm would be far too much of a waste," Zheng Fan decided.

Whether the shoes understood as Zheng Fan said this remained unclear.

Lin Yilin tidied up a shoebox, laying a layer of cushion inside to serve as a "residence" for the Lulu Shoes.

At first, it was placed in the same corner as Toast.

But the moment she turned her head back, she saw the Lulu Shoes quietly pushing their own shoebox deeper into the corner of the agency, determined to stay as far away from Toast as possible. Eventually, Lin Yilin simply stopped paying attention to it.

A short while later, she heard noises coming from within. It turned out that Toast had secretly sneaked over to harass the Lulu Shoes, latching onto one of them with its jaws and dragging it away, leaving the other shoe to chase after it in anxious, hopping steps.

When it finally realized it couldn't catch up, the shoe ran over to rub against Zheng Fan in a pathetic attempt to seek justice.

Yet, how could a single shoe possibly rub against someone?

It simply stepped squarely on Zheng Fan's foot, leaving even Zheng Fan—who had intended to help—silently speechless.

Having just sat back down at her desk, Lin Yilin was forced to stand up once more and rescue the struggling other shoe right out of Toast's jaws.

Fortunately, Toast was afraid of her. Seeing Lin Yilin approach, it obediently tucked away all its abnormal features and put on an innocent, bread-like facade. If Zheng Fan had gone instead, he probably would have had to smack Toast before it would let go.

Only after resolving the matter did Lin Yilin walk back. Passing by the coffee machine, she suddenly heard the sound of it operating and discovered it had brewed a fresh cup of coffee.

"Thank you," Lin Yilin accepted it with a hint of surprise, though she was already mostly used to it by now.

At any rate, the entity wasn't even pretending anymore. At least sipping a cup of high-end coffee gave her a slight sense of being comforted.

She sat back down at her desk and looked at the agency before her. It remained largely the same, yet inexplicably hosted several bizarre additions: Toast, a coffee machine, a pair of shoes, and a dark-themed handsome man whose appearance and inner self were in extreme fracture, capable of transforming at a moment's notice.

What on earth would this agency turn into in the future?

Although Lin Yilin's plans for the future did not include recruiting staff or expanding, given the current state of affairs, it was truly hard to say what might happen.

Still, if things grew more lively, that wouldn't be too bad either.

Lin Yilin did not dislike a bustling environment; she was simply not very good at integrating into one.

Yet... under circumstances like these, there were times when she was forced to dive right in, whether she wanted to or not.

Zheng Fan was experimenting with some bizarre transformation again. Holding her coffee cup, Lin Yilin froze in place, staring at him for a long while in a daze.

It wasn't until the notification sound of an incoming email on her computer brought her back to reality.

"Jiajia?" The email came from the classmate working at the Processing Bureau who had provided her with intelligence regarding the Divine Appearance Agency during the remnants of the Canetong incident.

After reading the first part of the email, she first nodded with a measure of satisfaction.

[The Jacob family has hidden circumstances. Just as you guessed, the meteoric rise of their faction ten years ago was likely related to that major earthquake. Looking at it this way, their sudden collapse today is indeed far from simple.]

Lin Yilin lightly bit her lip, feeling a brief surge of excitement, but she quickly calmed down.

At the very end of the email, the sender pivoted to mention another matter.

[P.S.: I'll be returning to Cihicoki next month, we can talk in detail then. Also, I've heard the recent rumors about you; it seems you're walking your path quite well, so let me congratulate you first. However, there's one more thing I must remind you of: Sister Ye is coming back—from over there. I just received contact from her, and she will probably notify you soon as well. If there truly is a powerful phantasm by your side right now—one that even satisfies you—]

[You must, absolutely must watch out for her!]

Staring at the email on the screen, Lin Yilin found herself falling into a blank stupor.

"What's wrong?"

Zheng Fan's voice suddenly rang out from close range.

Lin Yilin jerked her head around, only to find that Zheng Fan had appeared beside her at some unknown point.

"Your emotional fluctuations are abnormal. Not quite like your usual self."

With those words, Zheng Fan glanced toward the computer screen.

"Sister Ye? Who's that?"

Lin Yilin gathered her composure, straightened up in her seat, swallowed hard, and said, "A senior from my old club."

Zheng Fan looked at her, waiting for the rest.

"A phantasm hunter."