After gradually becoming familiar with the mechanism of the illusion, Shinomiya Kaguya handled these illusions with ease.
However, to her regret, these illusions that directly interrogated her heart didn't allow her to awaken a Persona after she broke free from them autonomously.
Perhaps this was because she didn't face these illusions with her true heart, but used her own relatively strong mental power to forcibly capture the anomalies in the illusions to break free, without investing too much emotion in these illusions herself.
Kasumigaoka Utaha challenged the illusions in this way, facing the illusion with her own heart every time, and truly substituting herself into the illusion, so neither the time nor the probability of breaking free from the illusion could compare with her.
And Kasumigaoka Utaha couldn't say that her knot had turned into Miyauchi Hikage at some point, so she could only express helplessly that her mental power was not firm enough to escape successfully every time.
After consuming more than ten points of Reading Value, Kasumigaoka Utaha found that Miyauchi Hikage appeared more and more frequently in the illusions, and the plot in the illusions became increasingly wrong. From the normal party struggle and losing heroine plot at the beginning to the style of those literary abusive romance novels, she decisively chose to stop the plan to continue trying.
She could only blame herself as a creator for watching too many messy works for material, which affected her heart, so the content of these illusions became more and more unbearable.
If she continued to try, she would probably really be unable to talk to Miyauchi Hikage at school.
On Shinomiya Kaguya's side, after trying a few more times, she frowned and stopped.
"It seems not working well," she shook her head.
"Originally, every time I broke free from the illusion, I could slightly improve my mental power, but it seems that after the tenth time, there has been no improvement in my mental power, and the content in the illusion has begun to become perfunctory."
"It seems that the upper limit of this illusion for a person is probably only ten times." Saying this, Shinomiya Kaguya was still a little regretful.
Although the improvement brought by these illusions each time might be only a few percent, with one time every five or six minutes, her overall mental power had increased by nearly twenty or thirty percent compared to before in an hour.
This was much more efficient than her meditating at home.
Because Fubuki's aptitude was at this level, she might not be able to improve her mental power by half a percent even if she meditated for a month usually.
If she could maintain such a rising trend, the hundreds of mirrors with illusions in the Mirror Theater could probably make her mental power reach close to the special-grade level.
It was a pity that this quantity limit dashed her thoughts.
After trying again and confirming that her mental power indeed hadn't changed, Shinomiya Kaguya looked regretfully at the people around her and asked Kasumigaoka Utaha.
"There are only ten chances in total. I remember you have also tried six or seven times. Don't you plan to use up the remaining chances?"
Regarding this, Kasumigaoka Utaha waved her hand awkwardly: "I don't have such firm will as you. The difficulty of the illusion has been increasing. In the first few times, I still had a chance to see through the illusion, but it became more and more difficult later. Moreover, mental power is not that important to me."
The Water Affinity she obtained also came with a faint trace of divinity. Although this rather weak divinity seemed meaningless and couldn't even play any role in the illusion, it gave her the ability to steadily increase mental power even without cultivation and meditation.
Even if she didn't take this shortcut, it would only slow down the progress by a month.
Compared to the mental stimulation of being tortured to death in those illusions, she felt she'd better not challenge her limits anymore.
Since neither of them challenged the illusion anymore, their eyes returned to Ichinose Chizuru.
Judging from the content in the illusion, they probably couldn't find Shadow Chizuru's whereabouts through the illusion.
To solve this Mirror Theater, it seemed they could only let Ichinose Chizuru go herself.
It was just that they were more or less worried.
After all, Ichinose Chizuru was still an ordinary girl with no combat power currently.
Moves like Hamon breathing, Breathing Sword Technique, and Kusanagi Style martial arts only gave her the ability to fight back when facing ordinary people, at best a Grade 4 supernatural being level.
As the only ordinary person in the Metaverse, she had almost no chance of success in challenging the illusion.
And Ichinose Chizuru said it herself.
She only had 12 points of Reading Value on her now, which could save her three or four times in the illusion at most. If the Reading Value was exhausted and she still couldn't break free from the mirror illusion, then they could only let Miyauchi Hikage completely destroy this Mirror Theater.
Although Ichinose Chizuru could take turns staying in the Metaverse with others to preserve this Temporary Palace, they couldn't really let Ichinose Chizuru spend several months in the Metaverse with this theater, right?
And now it was not like before. Before Shadow Chizuru revealed her true colors, the Mirror Theater hadn't shown any danger yet. At that time, they could stay here alternately.
But now, several enemies wearing skull masks would spawn in the Mirror Theater from time to time to attack them.
These enemies had an average strength of Grade 2. Although they were not too strong enemies for Miyauchi Hikage and the girls who already possessed supernatural abilities.
But Miyauchi Hikage couldn't stay here forever. The other girls couldn't deal with those Shadows as effortlessly as Miyauchi Hikage. If any accident happened over a long time, they themselves might be in danger.
Ichinose Chizuru knew this herself.
So she directly stated that if she still couldn't break free from the illusion after exhausting her Reading Value, then they could only let Miyauchi Hikage destroy this Palace.
With such an idea, Ichinose Chizuru reached out nervously and touched a mirror.
As waves rose on the mirror surface, she was pulled into the mirror space herself, welcoming her illusion.
In the first illusion, she returned to her middle school days.
She inadvertently found the movie Senbazuru filmed by her grandmother when she was young as an actress at home.
Watching the grandmother who looked very similar to her when she was young showing that youthful feeling in the movie on TV, she also had the idea of becoming an actress and told her grandparents about this idea.
This time she was still supported by her grandparents.
It was just that in this illusion, her grandfather didn't encounter a car accident later, and her grandmother didn't fall ill due to excessive grief over grandfather's death and end up hospitalized for a long time.
Naturally, she in the illusion didn't need to face the economic crisis in reality.
What she needed to do was to train her acting skills step by step under her grandmother's guidance, and then use some remaining agency connections from her grandmother back then to recommend her to some agencies for interviews.
With quite good acting talent, she successfully debuted in high school and became a hot actress in college.
Although finally her grandfather couldn't beat the footsteps of time and passed away, he in the illusion watched his granddaughter continue his wife's career back then with satisfaction and go further, leaving with a smile.
It could be said that in this illusion, Ichinose Chizuru didn't realize she was in an illusion at all. Until her grandfather passed away in the illusion and the message of five points of Reading Value being forcibly deducted came to her ears, she realized that she was in an illusion.
She wiped the tears from her eyes, understanding why Shinomiya Kaguya and Kasumigaoka Utaha, who stepped into the illusion for the first time, showed such heavy expressions when leaving the illusion.
After all, although everything in the illusion omitted many processes and jumped directly to the result, because it itself displayed the true thoughts in her heart like a dream, her brain would subconsciously perfect those processes, making people completely unaware that these were false illusions.
For Ichinose Chizuru, this life in the illusion was the most perfect life she thought of herself, so much so that even after being forcibly awakened from the illusion, she still indulged in this environment somewhat unwilling to wake up just like this.
However, compared to Shinomiya Kaguya and the others who left the illusion directly after breaking free, her illusion hadn't ended yet.
She watched the development of the plot as a bystander in this illusion soberly.
Her sobriety didn't seem to affect herself in the illusion.
After losing her grandfather again, she in the illusion quickly packed up her mood after a period of grief and embarked on her journey again.
Various jobs filled her life, and the honors brought by these works made her win various awards until her hands were soft.
Similarly, she also saw the various chaos and unspoken rules of the entertainment industry clearly in these spectator scenes.
Even if she had talent, she racked her brains and had to become slick to barely maintain her independence in this cannibalistic entertainment industry.
But even so, after winning the Best Actress award in the illusion, she still welcomed a huge backlash.
Various rumors based on hearsay and fabrications fell on her for no reason, making it difficult for her to move forward in the entertainment industry instantly.
And in this process, many people hinted to her that as long as she bowed her head, they could help her solve these troubles.
Looking at the ugly appearance of those big shots who were usually glamorous, Ichinose Chizuru as a bystander had no change in expression.
After interacting with those big shots falsely again, looking at herself putting on makeup in front of the dressing table, Ichinose Chizuru asked herself in the mirror.
"So you created such an illusion to tell me that people like me simply can't survive in the entertainment industry?"
As she said these words, the "she" in the mirror showed a weird smile.
In fact, when Ichinose Chizuru found that her illusion hadn't ended yet, and her thoughts could no longer affect herself in the illusion, she realized that this might be the operation of that Shadow Chizuru.
Only when realizing this, she chose to wait patiently for the further development of the story, wanting to know what the other party's purpose was doing this.
Until seeing those premeditated framing after winning the Best Actress award, she roughly figured out what was going on.
Nothing more than wanting her to see the filth in the entertainment industry and make her retreat.
And as the shadow in her heart, if she really had such an idea, the other party would probably become stronger because of this.
"So if you encounter such things in the future, can you solve them yourself? Or do you want to be like Grandma back then, choosing to leave the entertainment industry and give up your ideal after encountering such things?"
Shadow Chizuru questioned her.
Ichinose Chizuru was silent.
She was now a college student who had just turned 19 for a few months.
Although she became more mature due to family circumstances, she hadn't really contacted those more complicated things, nor had she thought about what to do if she encountered such things after becoming an actress.
So facing her own Shadow putting these things nakedly in front of her, she didn't know how to refute herself for a while.
Feeling her silence, Shadow Chizuru let out a mocking laugh again.
"Although I don't know how you and your friends can break free from the illusion after completely falling into it, that shouldn't be a method without any cost, right? So how can you find a way to break the situation?"
"I will continue to wait for you in the illusion, until the day you can't hold on and leave."
As Shadow Chizuru said these words, Ichinose Chizuru could feel the surrounding illusion dissipating rapidly.
In the next moment, the mirror shattered, and she returned to the Palace.
Her face indeed looked a little pale now, so after her return, someone quickly supported her body so she wouldn't fall.
She looked at the person. The only person who could react in such a short time was Miyauchi Hikage.
And after she came back to her senses, Miyauchi Hikage confirmed that her emotions were not a big problem and withdrew his hand simply.
Immediately after, Shinomiya Kaguya and the others also gathered around hurriedly, asking her about her experience in the illusion.
"I stayed in the illusion for nearly an hour?" She uttered a doubt blankly.
After all, the other two girls stayed in the illusion for at most 15 minutes, and she could stay in that environment for a whole hour. No wonder the expressions on Shinomiya Kaguya and the others' faces were so nervous.
Ichinose Chizuru tried to tell her experience in the illusion completely. The emotion of reluctance to leave the illusion experience before had long been covered up by her.
Her grandfather passed away three years ago. Even if the grandfather in the illusion behaved realistically, it wasn't real.
And the perfect life in the first part of the illusion was completely destroyed by the terrible development later. But maybe this was also a means used by Shadow Chizuru for contrast.
Creating a perfect world for her in the illusion when she hadn't realized it was an illusion.
Then displaying the cruelty in reality doubly in front of her when she realized it was an illusion.
After hearing Ichinose Chizuru's explanation, Shinomiya Kaguya's first reaction was that Shadow Chizuru wanted to replace her in this way.
"She feels that with your personality, you can't survive in the entertainment industry. Only she, as your dark side, can adapt to the rules of the entertainment industry. She should want you to give up control of your body yourself. It's just that because of the diary, her idea fell through."
"And the illusion you experienced is obviously more detailed than ours, and the timeline spans further, so you stayed in the illusion for so long without coming out. It seems that this illusion was indeed prepared for you, and we can't help much."
At the same time, Shinomiya Kaguya and Kasumigaoka Utaha also began to analyze ways to break the situation.
"Actually, you don't have to worry about these things. After all, we don't exist in the future shown to you by Shadow Chizuru. With the support of the Shinomiya Group's power, it's impossible for you to encounter those experiences in the illusion."
Shinomiya Kaguya said this, but seemed to suddenly remember something, and her eyes suddenly brightened a lot.
"That's right. Shadow Chizuru exposed a huge problem in your illusion just now."
Her speaking speed also became much faster.
"Although Shadow Chizuru is the aggregate of negative emotions and desires in your heart, it seems that the shielding rule of the diary still works on her. The other party doesn't know the existence of the diary, so she doesn't know what method we used to break free from the illusion. In this way, I'm afraid she doesn't know why we know each other, so she didn't mention our existence at all in the illusion."
"If you can point out these variables of us, I'm afraid it will be your Shadow's turn to face a cognitive crisis."
Miyauchi Hikage on the side could fully understand the content discussed by the girls, but on the surface, he still had to make a frowning and pondering appearance of not understanding.
It seemed that the connection between the Shadow and the main body was more subtle than he imagined.
After all, although Kanoe Yuuko and Kanoe Yuuko's ghost didn't share memories, they were both existences differentiated from the dead Kanoe Yuuko. Although the two Kanoe Yuukos were incomplete respectively, they could both perceive the existence of the diary, and the debt owed by Kanoe Yuuko could be inherited by Kanoe Yuuko (Shadow).
As for Ichinose Chizuru and Shadow Chizuru, although Shadow Chizuru inherited most of Ichinose Chizuru's memories, she was also a clone constructed by Ichinose Chizuru's main body's desires and subconsciousness through the channel of the Metaverse and the Sea of Souls.
There was an extra process of the Sea of Souls in the middle.
Counting the settings on the Type-Moon side, the Sea of Souls in this world was probably also controlled by the counter force Alaya.
"Looking at it this way, the shielding mechanism of the diary can also have an effect on a will force like Alaya."
Regarding such a setting, Miyauchi Hikage was not too surprised.
After all, this was a cheat from a higher dimension. If it couldn't even hide from the world consciousness, then the style would indeed be a bit low.
Combined with the fact that his own Shadow couldn't be found in the Metaverse at all, Miyauchi Hikage felt that he was most likely an unregistered resident without registration information after transmigrating to this world. And existences like counter forces couldn't control him at all, only allowing him to cause trouble in this world.
Miyauchi Hikage was thinking about the counter force here, while also giving suggestions to Ichinose Chizuru.
Strictly speaking, it was poaching people for his Asahigaoka Media.
Although Asahigaoka Media was still just a roadside stand in the entertainment industry, it also planned to start developing in the film and television industry.
Even if Miyauchi Hikage's ambition was no longer in this small circle after obtaining the cheat of the diary, this also involved the future of thousands of people in Asahigaoka, so he naturally wouldn't let go completely.
At least hanging his name could make his Golden Rule passively effective.
Then Ichinose Chizuru and Sakurajima Mai, the former national daughter, could also be tried to fight for.
And Miyauchi Hikage's proposal indeed tempted Ichinose Chizuru.
After all, Miyauchi Hikage had a great reputation in the group. Just the ability to control fate was enough to make many people envious.
And the other party's growth rate was also fast, reaching the level of special-grade in half a month. God knows how far the other party could go on this path in the future?
Asahigaoka Media also had a visibly promising future. With the support of the Shinomiya Group, it was estimated to grow up completely in a few years.
Now the invitation of Miyauchi Hikage, the founder of Asahigaoka Media, could be considered letting her board the ship and become a crew member before this big ship officially set sail.
After resting for a while and eating something to replenish physical strength, Ichinose Chizuru quickly adjusted her mentality, planning to have a good confrontation with that Shadow in the illusion again.
It was just that the second illusion had a completely different change from the first one.
If the first illusion was to tell her that the entertainment industry was not that simple and wanted her to retreat in the face of difficulties.
Then after Ichinose Chizuru was fully prepared to severely torture her own Shadow with the reality, the content of the second illusion focused on "times have changed."
In the illusion, she was a somewhat famous actress from the beginning.
This time there were no messy scandals and framing. With her own backing in the entertainment industry, she didn't need to worry about those things.
Although the development was not as smooth as the first illusion, according to the trend in this illusion, it was at most one or two years slower than before.
However, all this changed in a certain year.
Various crises suddenly appeared around the world. Not only did monsters recover from underground, but there were also various youkai causing trouble in the human world, and even many aliens descended on Earth, attempting to invade Earth.
Under such an atmosphere, everyone was more concerned about their safety issues. Various entertainment facilities had begun to stop operating. Who would still care about these TV dramas and movies?
Her career suffered a sudden Waterloo, and she even encountered an attack from a supernatural existence during a trip, being seriously injured without the power to fight back under the opponent's attack.
Although she was saved in the end, she could only live in a wheelchair for the rest of her life.
And in that world full of despair, this basically sentenced her to death.
But when she in the illusion took sleeping pills preparing to end her life, having experienced an illusion once, she finally noticed the problem at the last moment.
At the same time, with the deduction of three points of Reading Value, she woke up completely at the last moment again.
Two points of Reading Value less than before. It seemed that because she had doubts in her heart, just hadn't woken up completely yet, unlike the last illusion where she was completely immersed and was awakened entirely by the diary.
And as she woke up in the illusion, her lower body which lost sensation in the illusion also regained feeling.
It was just that her mental state looked worse than the last time.
After all, in the last illusion, she didn't experience any physical or mental pressure. Even if she really couldn't stand the pressure, it was nothing more than quitting the entertainment industry.
But this illusion.
Youkai causing trouble, Hyakki Yagyou (Night Parade of One Hundred Demons), monsters drilling out from underground anytime, and even alien fleets in the sky wanting to invade Earth.
Even knowing that all this was an illusion now, that desperate oppressive feeling still made people feel suffocated.
And most importantly, all these things might really be staged in the future!
After all, the Mysterious Person mentioned more than once in the diary the "Shibuya Incident" that would appear in half a year and almost destroy the entire Shibuya, and mentioned that after the Shibuya Incident, supernatural power would return to the main stage of this world and rewrite the rules of this world.
The diary mentioned by the Mysterious Person a few days ago that there were many aliens lurking on Earth, including the fact that the existence of Ultraman was real, also made her feel some worry about this.
This illusion completely displayed those worries in her heart. Her preparations before entering the illusion had no effect in this illusion.
You have backing in the entertainment industry and don't need to worry about those unspoken rules?
Then this illusion directly destroyed the entertainment industry. Under Hyakki Yagyou, everyone was trying to survive. Even the Shinomiya Group in the illusion couldn't protect itself; who cared about the messy things in the entertainment industry?
Shadow Chizuru's voice appeared directly behind her.
"This is the future that this world will eventually face. Such a future cannot be stopped by you and your friends."
"Maybe you obtained those so-called cultivation methods from some places, but in front of those true powerhouses, what does this count? In the end, you can only hide and drag out an ignoble existence like others."
"Even that Miyauchi Hikage outside, do you think he can protect you in such a future?"
Ichinose Chizuru originally wanted to mention the diary. As long as the diary existed, her future would absolutely not be as miserable as shown in this illusion.
But she also knew that the other party probably couldn't receive intelligence from the diary like others, and telling the other party these things was meaningless.
She could only turn around and stare at the "self" standing behind her, telling the other party that her future could absolutely not be this bleak scene.
And after sensing Ichinose Chizuru's emotions, the expression on Shadow Chizuru's face seemed a bit hideous.
After all, she could indeed feel from the other party that her emotions were not fake.
The other party really felt that she could survive in such a future.
And just when she planned to further figure out what confidence the other party had to say such words, she suddenly felt that she seemed to have lost control of the Mirror Theater for a moment just now.
But when she sensed carefully, it seemed as if nothing had happened.
It was just that this strange feeling made her stop her verbal probing.
"With your mental state, how long can you persist?"
Accompanying these words, Ichinose Chizuru left the current illusion again.
It was just that when she left the illusion, she seemed to see a solemn expression on Shadow Chizuru's face.
This illusion took much less time than the last one; she successfully broke free from the illusion in just over twenty minutes.
And when she told what happened in this illusion, the attitudes of the two girls indeed showed some strangeness.
Although the Mysterious Person had already talked about the changes in this world in the future, growing up in the ordinary world since childhood, it was more or less difficult for them to understand what the future described by the Mysterious Person would look like.
Ichinose Chizuru's illusion showed the despair of such a world to ordinary people in front of them for the first time.
Monsters destroying cities during the day, youkai and vengeful spirits devouring human hearts at night, and alien armies in the sky coveting Earth—such a world sounded really desperate enough.
And just as Shadow Chizuru said, they couldn't stop such a future from coming now.
Not to mention them, even the Mysterious Person couldn't stop it.
However, Shinomiya Kaguya shook her head again quickly.
"These are things Shadow Chizuru brought out to affect our mentality. Don't worry too much about these things."
"Although we don't know what the real future will be like, this world won't be really that bad."
After all, even if the Mysterious Person couldn't hold on, there would still be an Ultraman named Ultraman Tiga to cover the bottom line in the future.
And after several girls comforted each other, Miyauchi Hikage finally spoke.
"Although I can't see clearly where the future of this world will go, I really haven't seen a future where this world faces destruction. So you don't need to worry too much about these things. After all, if the sky falls, there are tall people to hold it up."
"Anyway, let's get back to the current situation. Just now in the illusion, when you were chatting with Shadow Chizuru, you seemed to have mentioned my name, right?"
Hearing this, Ichinose Chizuru looked at Miyauchi Hikage with some surprise.
Indeed, Shadow Chizuru just mentioned Miyauchi Hikage's name in the illusion, and stated that even Miyauchi Hikage couldn't protect them in such a future like now.
It should be because Miyauchi Hikage's appearance of killing those minions effortlessly made Shadow Chizuru remember Miyauchi Hikage.
It was just that was in an illusion, right? How did Miyauchi Hikage know about this?
Several girls also looked at Miyauchi Hikage curiously.
So, did Miyauchi Hikage do something incredible again while they were chatting?
"The power of fate is like this. I will have some special induction to anything related to me. I sensed the changes in the Metaverse before like this, and now I sense that Shadow Chizuru like this too. Anyway, I can't explain the principle clearly myself, so you don't need to care too much about these details," Miyauchi Hikage spread his hands and explained his situation simply.
"Relying on the fact that the other party just mentioned my name, I re-completed the locking on the other party here, and at the same time, I have some more understanding of the situation of this Mirror Theater." Miyauchi Hikage closed his eyes and made a gesture of sensing carefully.
"I almost have some ideas. Anyway, why don't you enter the illusion again? I think at most trying one or two more times, I will be confident to end all this."