Chapter 68: The Mirror World

The Shattered Face Ghost had three slots. One went to the Memory Ghost, one to the Mirror Ghost, leaving a single vacancy.

Gao Tian gradually began to understand the Mirror Ghost's rule.

Those bloody hands could use any mirror as a medium to drag people—or ghosts—inside.

The mirror's entrance could not be smaller than one-third of the victim's size. Otherwise, they would get stuck.

Meanwhile, the master of this rule could freely enter the Mirror World to evade attacks in reality.

The master faced no size restrictions for the entrance. The mirror only needed to be able to reflect their appearance.

But that presented another contradiction.

Once inside the Mirror World, getting back out was almost impossible.

Even the Mirror Ghost would find it difficult to release victims trapped inside.

A one-to-one exchange principle had to be followed.

That is, a person or ghost had to be pulled in before one could be let out.

Lock one in, let one out.

Old Man Red himself had to abide by this rule.

It was only by dragging Lan Zhu in first that he had earned the right to leave the Mirror World.

...

That was good news.

Even if an S-Level Fierce Ghost like the Artist entered the Mirror World, it would likely struggle to get out.

The only problem was how to get the Artist inside in the first place.

There was a very lame joke: how many steps does it take to put an elephant in a fridge?

The answer: three steps.

Open the fridge, put the elephant in, close the fridge.

Anyone could grasp the theory, but the actual execution was another matter entirely.

Not to mention the Ghost Mother and her endless brood of children.

Of course, now was not the time to think about that. What Gao Tian needed to consider was how to quickly leave Mirror Alley and meet up with Xia Ta and the others on the fourth floor.

Lan Zhu was still fiddling with the new toy in her hands. She loosened the Dog Leash slightly and poked at Old Man Red, wondering why the old thing wasn't struggling anymore. He looked as if he was on the verge of death.

Gao Tian looked at the carefree Lan Zhu, pondering how to get her out of the Mirror World.

Since the crazy woman wasn't dead, he definitely had to pull her out. She couldn't just stay inside for the rest of her life.

The awkward part was that although he possessed the Mirror Ghost's ability, pulling someone directly out of the mirror still seemed a bit tricky.

One for one.

To let Lan Zhu out, he had to lock another person or ghost inside.

Old Man Red had climbed into the mirror on his own, so he didn't count.

Unless Gao Tian sacrificed himself and voluntarily entered the Mirror World; then Lan Zhu could come out.

But then he would be trapped.

He was no saint; he wasn't nearly that selfless.

Furthermore, he had no clear idea what the world behind the mirror looked like, or if it hid new dangers.

Inside the mirror, Lan Zhu was still lazily toying with the nearly strangled Mirror Ghost. She didn't seem the least bit anxious to escape her mirrored prison.

A little curious, Gao Tian knocked on the glass and couldn't help but ask, "Hey, what's the world on that side of the mirror like? Is it fun?"

Hearing the knocking, Lan Zhu lazily lifted her head and glanced out at Gao Tian. She pointed to her ear, indicating she couldn't hear him clearly.

It wasn't until Gao Tian raised his voice an octave and repeated himself that Lan Zhu finally caught his words on the other side. Pressing her bloody little mouth against the glass, she shouted back, "The Mirror World is pretty good!

"In the distance, there's an endless edge of darkness! You can't see the end of it!

"If you follow the light and walk straight ahead, there are rows of standing mirrors! Each one represents a mirror in reality!

"I squeezed in through that round mirror earlier and walked for who knows how long. I just happened to run into this Old Man Red climbing in from a rectangular full-length mirror, so I caught him red-handed!

"As for the depths of the Mirror World, I don't dare go over there. Who knows what's hiding in the dark! When you shout into it, you don't even get an echo; both sound and light get swallowed by the endless void.

"But along the way, you can look through the different mirrors into different rooms, just like windows. It's incredibly fun!

"It's way more fun here than on the Apartment's fourth floor! I don't want to come out for now!"

Hearing Lan Zhu's description of the Mirror World, Gao Tian's mind stirred.

The depths of this place were that terrifying? Even Lan Zhu had sensed danger. That was truly rare.

However, the shallow areas of the Mirror World were far more useful than he had imagined.

In the real world, any room with a mirror became a 'window' inside the Mirror World.

While staying inside the Mirror World, one could observe real-world rooms containing mirrors through these 'windows.'

Running around the Mirror World to scout out the situation in every room on the fourth floor would be far safer than doing it on the outside.

Even if he ran into a haunted room, as long as he stayed inside the mirror, the ghosts outside wouldn't be able to do anything to him.

He could even launch sneak attacks and try his luck at dragging a few ghosts inside.

Just as Gao Tian looked up, intending to tell Lan Zhu to run around the Mirror World a bit more to see if she could reach other rooms and find Xia Ta and the others...

Lan Zhu had clearly grown impatient. Struck by a sudden whim, she didn't bother saying another word to Gao Tian. She simply dragged the seemingly breathless Old Man Red away, striding toward the depths of the mirror.

He had no idea where she had thrown the dry corpse she'd picked up in Room 413.

After all, the dry corpse didn't move, while Old Man Red could still struggle a bit. In terms of playability, the latter was vastly superior.

"Hey, hey, Big Sister, don't leave!

"Lady Lan Zhu, go check the mirrors in the other rooms to see if you can spot Xia Ta and Jiang Yang! Big Sister, don't just walk away!"

Gao Tian slapped the glass frantically, trying to catch Lan Zhu's attention inside.

Her figure simply walked further away. She headed into the depths of the mirror and soon vanished into a tiny speck.

Unbelievable.

Watching her disappearing back, Gao Tian didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

He also didn't dare enter the Mirror World on his own initiative just yet; this place was easy to enter but hard to leave.

Forget it, he would ignore Lan Zhu for now. He needed to figure out a way to leave Mirror Alley.

He wondered if there were any other ghosts left in Mirror Alley now that Old Man Red was dealt with.

As for that mysterious Study, as long as he didn't actively look at it, it didn't seem to trigger any rules.

Gao Tian slowly walked into the dark depths of Mirror Alley, staying on guard against unknown dangers.

...

...

Jiang Yang watched the blood-red numbers above his head drop to zero, and his surroundings began to spin. Every detail of Room 413 shrank away, while the furniture and layout of another room manifested one by one.

Had the effect of the Fierce Ghost Prohibition still failed to stop the television's curse?

Despite being teleported to an unknown room, Jiang Yang maintained his baseline composure and slowly gathered his thoughts.

Those strange hosts on the television had called Xia Ta their 'good daughter'?

Did they know each other?

He and Xia Ta had worked together in the Apartment for a long time. Come to think of it, he had never heard her mention her family, nor had he ever seen her contact any relatives.

If Xia Ta's parents had truly died in the Apartment and become ghost residents on the fourth floor, her failure to disclose such critical intelligence was an absolute dereliction of duty as an administrator.

Of course, Jiang Yang leaned more toward the ghosts in the TV lying. They were trying to pollute Xia Ta's memories.

Regardless, now was not the time to worry about Xia Ta; he needed to worry about his own situation.

Once the spatial transfer concluded, Jiang Yang looked around to observe his surroundings.

He had been randomly sent to a Study. A pale yellow chandelier cast a somewhat cozy glow. There was a window on the left wall looking out into endless darkness; opposite it seemed to be a small alley, with several mirrors piled up at the entrance.

On two of the walls, rows of wide bookshelves were densely packed with books. Physics, psychology, biology, medicine, folklore, historical rumors, supernatural novels—there were titles from every field, showing the Study's owner was highly learned and widely read.

Next to the desk was a wardrobe.

Jiang Yang's gaze slowly shifted. Seated at the desk was a slender corpse. It was a man wearing a turquoise shirt, still facing the table as he had right before death, gripping a pen and maintaining a writing posture.

It seemed the master of this Study had the demeanor of a true scholar, holding a writing pose even in death.

Jiang Yang changed his position to look from another angle, trying to see clearly what was placed on the desk.

It was a large, hardcover leather notebook, filled line by line with elegant, clean handwriting. Even right before his death, he had maintained a scholar's dignity, keeping every stroke perfectly orderly.

From this distance, Jiang Yang could only catch fragments and couldn't make out the notebook's full contents.

Jiang Yang was very curious about the Study owner's identity in life and what he had recorded in that large notebook. But he didn't approach rashly, afraid that the corpse was a disguised Fierce Ghost and that getting closer would trigger its Killing Rule.

Why not check if he could just leave the Study directly first?

Jiang Yang turned his head and saw the main door of the Study. It was right opposite the desk, locked tight.

Right at that moment, countless black particles rapidly converged opposite him, solidifying into a black hole. A large, heavily muscled man slowly stepped out of it, still wearing a look of bewilderment and confusion from his arrival.

It was Zhao Zhenjia. He had also been teleported to this room.