The mirror room was filled with bright and shiny mirrors, without a trace of impurities, yet dazzling to the eyes. Wen Shi didn't know that what was even more dazzling was that there was an octopus waiting eagerly at the door.
Apply the timeless experience: if a child is quiet, he must be up to something.
This rule is most suitable for people with big eyes.
The Mirror House owner finally recovered from his brief shock and wanted to confirm further whether there was indeed a problem with the experience project. He began to urge the burned player impatiently: "Hurry up."
The burned player calmed himself down and moved the mirror in his hand a little to the side. He first saw the back of his head and a part of the red candle in the mirror. As he adjusted the angle of the mirror back and forth, he saw his own face in the mirror through the double mirror.
The burned player did not close his eyes. There was a pupil pattern on the antique small mirror, which was slightly sunken downwards, like an eye that could not be closed.
"I saw you." His tone was weak. He didn't know if it was his illusion, but when he finished saying this, the distance between him and Hongzhu seemed to be a little closer.
One eye is staring at the mirror world, and the other eye is looking at the red candle in front.
Whether inside or outside the mirror, just when the burned player focused all his attention on the candle, there was a "pop" sound, and the red candle actually ignited automatically under his nose. The strong flame melted the grease on the surface below, and the smell was more unpleasant than the stench of a corpse, which made many people hold their breath.
The burned player does not need to control himself at all. When the candle starts burning, he even forgets to breathe.
He had also heard the story Qian Lai had told before. Lighting a candle meant borrowing life. The orange-yellow fire burned vigorously. Under the light of the fire, the burned player could clearly see how pale his face was in the mirror.
At the same time, a virtual image of a human face suddenly appeared in the mirror in his hand without any warning. The burned player's hand trembled and he almost threw the mirror away.
The boss reminded slowly: "Don't forget, you still have one sentence to say."
Realizing he had only said the first half of the sentence, the burned player forced himself to cheer up, his lips trembling, and the hand gripping the mirror handle sweating profusely: "Out, out..."
"Don't say it."
Suddenly, a voice came from the side, and Wen Shi calmly commanded: "Retreat."
The burned player reflexively took two steps back, and the wrinkles at the corners of his eyes grew visibly.
"Continue to retreat."
Perhaps it was because Wen Shi always appeared in the role of a savior, the burned player listened to his words and took a few steps back as if possessed by a demon. This time, his back was almost touching the cold mirror surface.
The unfamiliar face in the mirror in his hand kept getting bigger and bigger, almost overlapping with his face.
"Don't stop." Wen Shi reminded him patiently, but a faint smile appeared on his lips.
The burned player's exposed eye clearly caught Wen Shi's micro-expression, and he stopped as if suddenly awakened.
He did it on purpose, he was lying to me!
He only remembered Pei Wenwei's willingness to save people, forgetting he was also a vindictive person. This thought, once born, grew inexorably larger, and the burned player became increasingly certain of it. If the face in the mirror matched his own, something horrible would inevitably happen.
Qian Lai, who was standing behind him, also saw this and shook his head: "His rhythm has been disrupted."
At the beginning, the other party's starting point was still to study the rules of the game, but now it has been limited to whether Pei Wenwei is harming him.
After confirming Wen Shi's ill intentions, the burned player ignored his warning and began walking forward again, increasing the distance between him and the mirror behind him. The red candle burned more and more fiercely, and the feeling of its lifespan slowly slipping away made him eager to end the game.
After returning to his original position, following the rules of the game spoken by the boss at the beginning, the burned player said those three words: "Come out."
It is unlikely that the boss is lying. He had heard players coming out of the Danger House discussing what happened before. After those people went in, they were playing the shouting game according to the boss's requirements.
The three words were spoken lightly, and the moment the words fell, the red candle went out.
"fine."
The burned player breathed a sigh of relief; he'd almost fallen for the cunning trick played by the man next to him. His heartbeat gradually returned to normal, and as he glanced down at the mirror, he was stunned. He was horrified to discover that the red candle in the mirror was still burning, even more vigorously than before.
His feet moved forward uncontrollably, and like a puppet, he raised his arms and embraced the candle. The wax from the candle's previous burn had burned his skin painfully. The wax was incredibly sticky, and the player felt as if he were covered in superglue, clinging to it.
The bones that were holding the candle melted and disappeared, and the burned player's stomach was burned through. The red candle was like a monster, devouring his internal organs.
"save..."
His hoarse voice was almost melted by the heat. He tried his best to open his eyes wide, but from this angle he could only see the vague outlines of Wen Shi and several insect people.
"Save me." Just like in the Teeth Land of Enmity, the burned player used up his last bit of strength to ask Wen Shi for help.
Wen Shi's eyes flashed with a happy smile, but he sighed regretfully: "Why didn't you listen to me?"
He shrugged. "...In this kind of death game, if you choose a path and then retreat halfway, who else will die?"
The tone of ridicule made some people who saw the players' intestines melted out shudder subconsciously.
The person who was most affected was Song Yan, who was standing next to Wen Shi. He felt that these words seemed to have a hidden meaning, warning him never to look back.
Wen Shi didn't need to pay special attention to know Song Yan's complicated expression at the moment, and smiled.
Admiration and gratitude alone are not enough. Such emotions are too illusory. A hint of fear is needed to build a barrier that will not betray.
The burned player who was used as an example consumed the last bit of his life in the inhumane burning.
The last thing his eyes revealed was not fear but hatred.
"I...heaven..."
Those dead fish eyes stared straight in Wen Shi's direction, as if wanting to cut him into pieces with this gaze.
"Are you going to curse me to hell?" Wen Shi looked at the man next to him who died with his eyes wide open, feeling sorry for him. "Then you'll probably have to wait in line for a long time."
The boss blew out the candle in his hand, and the mirror house fell into darkness in an instant. No one acted rashly. When the boss relit the slender candle, only the skeleton of the burned player holding the red candle was left.
He took out a sterilized empty bottle and collected the earworms and small bright flying insects that had appeared out of nowhere and were flying towards him, as well as two other strange-looking nematodes.
"What a great harvest!" The boss was very satisfied.
Qian Lai also cursed his parents: "I can't believe my organs can be salvaged even after I die."
Most people had the same idea as him.
It is not the case when it is warm.
He had heard from Yu Xingzhou before that patients who wanted to apply for admission to Sunset Red Plastic Surgery Hospital had to provide a corpse that was within forty-eight hours.
Previously, the burned player's life was saved to be used as a ticket, but after Song Yan froze the shadow tour guide's body this morning, the only value of this ticket was greatly reduced.
One person died in the group of four, and Wen Shi and the others returned to the main group.
The death of the burned player is very valuable as a lesson for others. At least it proves that Wen Shi's initial reminder was not wrong, that they should never say "Come out".
Song Yan hesitated to speak beside Wen Shi. Knowing what he wanted to ask, Wen Shi patiently explained, "When playing Man in the Mirror, the game specifically emphasized the safety of the safe house, but it didn't just now."
From beginning to end, it was the boss who was the only one telling us how to play the game.
Furthermore, the risk in the name-calling game lies with your companions, but this time it's different. If you say it to a ghost that might exist, isn't that courting death?
"From the boss's perspective, it's a good argument that he didn't clear the field, which must mean he was confident there was no possibility of cheating."
Song Yan thought of something and continued, "The real game home is not outside the mirror, but inside the mirror."
"Yes, if you die at this stage, your soul will probably be trapped forever, and there will be a scapegoat in the mirror."
So, naturally, the sooner you start, the better.
As for what he would encounter in the mirror, Wen Shi was not a god and had no way of knowing.
When he was doing the analysis, he did not deliberately lower his voice, which made it convenient for those around him.
However, Song Yan tasted something else from Wen Shi's selfless sharing. Since entering the game, everyone's impression of him was that he was saving people. Even the burned players could not deny this.
Under this kind of psychological suggestion, if the other party has any intention to harm others, as long as some guidance is given in the analysis of the game, the whole team will be destroyed.
Wen Shi seemed to still be lamenting the fate of the burned players, staring at the fresh bones with shredded meat on the outside of the red candle: "People must be kind."
Song Yan suppressed his fear and nodded in agreement.
I will not harm others unless they harm me. But if someone harms me, I will use the false appearance of friendliness to lead the target to hell.
On the other side, Xiaohua asked Yu Xingzhou: "Captain, let's go too."
If there are too many stupid people in front, it will be troublesome to be left behind.
Yu Xingzhou nodded. As he passed by Wen Shi, he happened to hear him teaching Song Yan, and his brows knitted slightly beneath his mask. He now hoped very much that his speculation about the True Spirit Incarnation's identity was wrong. If so, even more terrifying than the immortality of the incarnation was Pei Wenwei's hands-on teaching style.
It is hard to imagine what this incarnation will look like after it has learned it.
Having learned from the previous experience, Yu Xingzhou and others did not say the phrase "come out, you're screwed". When they were completely attached to the mirror, the entire mirror surface became like a soft and rotten film, and the four of them fell into it one after another.
The large mirror had lost its luster, and even the candlelight in the boss's hand could not reflect much. There was a black palm print where each person disappeared, as if they were pulled in alive by a ghost claw.
This scene made people feel cold in their hearts. Wen Shi said nonchalantly: "Look, it's a closed-book exam."
"…"
Is this the point?
Wen Shi was not too worried about the safety of Yu Xingzhou and the others. The boss's means of survival were beyond the imagination of an ordinary person like him. Not to mention anything else, he couldn't even catch up with the scapegoats.
He was now more curious about the main quest that would be activated later.
"I hope I don't have to make a choice anymore."
Wen Shi murmured to himself, he has been making choices constantly since entering this game, and human nature is precisely what cannot stand the test.
The previous group had been in there for ten minutes and had not come out yet. The discussion gradually died down, and the sound of even breathing filled the entire space again.
When I turned around, I saw that Wen Shi was saving his energy for the main task, so he fell asleep again while hugging the bear.
There are smooth mirrors all around. I have to say that this scene has a fairy-tale atmosphere, as if he is lying on crystal.
A steel pipe perfectly serves as an atmosphere destroyer.
"Get up." The young man said coldly.
Reluctantly opening his eyes, the boy threw something over to him: "Take medicine."
Wenshi paid someone to keep the medicine box after breakfast because his backpack couldn't hold such an ordinary item and it would hurt him if he put it in his pocket.
The boy even mocked the Princess and the Pea at that time.
Wen Shi, like the game, basically doesn't do anything extra. He spends money on this extra effort to strengthen the bond between them: I dare to take the medicine you hand over to me personally, I trust you.
With more interactions like this, the boy will think twice before doing something in the future. This was how Wen Shi's father treated him when he was a teenager, always giving him love and trust.
Without water, Wen Shi reluctantly swallowed the medicine. After resting for a while against the teddy bear, he heard a sound from the front.
Part of the mirror regained its brightness, and Yu Xingzhou walked out of it.
"Where are the others?" Wen Shi asked.
"I'm not sure. It's an independent space after entering." Yu Xingzhou said his speculation: "It's very yin in there, there should be a lot of ghosts. I encountered two when I went in, one of them..."
He glanced in the direction of the red candle.
No doubt he was referring to the burned players.
Song Yan asked Wen: "Is the ghost that the player transforms into real or data generated by the game? Will it still exist?"
Wen Shi could not give an answer to this question.
Yu Xingzhou played a rock-paper-scissors game in the mirror, playing rock-paper-scissors with himself in the mirror. He could leave when he won. Every time he lost, the red candle would burn for three minutes.
Wen Shi thought this game was perverted when he heard about it.
"How do you win at it?"
Yu Xingzhou: "Let your hand speed exceed the speed of light."
"…"
"Just a joke." Yu Xingzhou said lightly: "Before the player died, the fire outside went out, but the candle in the mirror was burning. This shows that the candle exists independently in the mirror space."
Wen Shi raised his eyebrows: "So the point is not the rock-paper-scissors game, but destroying the candle in the mirror?"
Yu Xingzhou nodded.
In fact, this game is child's play for him who has timing skills.
Not long after, Xiaohua and others also came out one after another. They encountered different ghosts in the mirror space, and they played different tricks.
Xiaohua's expression was a bit serious, and she used anti-eavesdropping props: "I met Lu Bai."
A completely unfamiliar name.
Wen Shi looked at Yu Xingzhou, who explained, "A player who is in the same Deep Space Guild as Xiao Min."
Although they belonged to the same guild, the Deep Space Organization was much larger, and the two sides were not very familiar with each other. Xiao Min had followed them in earlier, and now his face was not very good. "I didn't run into Lu Bai, but I saw a player from another organization."
Regardless of whether it is fictional data created by the game, it at least shows that some of the players who were wiped out in the last round have made it here.
Yu Xingzhou: "Did you find out anything?"
Xiaohua shook her head.
Ghosts enjoy killing people, so it's very difficult to have a normal conversation with them.
"But I saw a bracelet on his hand that was worn by a patient, and it didn't match the name on his travel badge."
Xiao Min: "So did the player I saw."
Yu Xingzhou thought of a possibility: "The bracelet was stolen. They might have wanted to use the original owner's identity to sneak into the hospital and do something."
Xiaohua nodded.
"This is the strangest thing. Throughout our time playing the game, there's been absolutely no mention of the bracelet, let alone any chance of stealing it," she said, frowning. "It's as if the previous generation of players played a different game than ours."
Wen Shi recalled the boss's overjoyed expression upon seeing them, the words "So many people!" practically etched across his face. In reality, casualties were already high for both players and Shadow, so the boss's surprise came as a surprise. The guides' scrambling for resources on the train was partly to blame, but they wouldn't harm Shadow on the train. However, the boss acted as if he'd never seen so many tourists before.
"If that's the case, it makes sense."
His words attracted the attention of several people.
Wen Shi said slowly, "Since we got off the train, all of our side quests have offered almost no rewards. Now it seems the game order might be reversed. The bracelet is related to the hospital. Perhaps according to the original order, we should be doing the main team battle quest related to the hospital after getting off the train."
"During this process, you'll be stripped of many things, followed by the most brutal Screaming House skill seal, and finally, the Soul Screamer. The biggest feature of this experience is the lifespan extension."
"That makes sense," Xiaohua touched her chin, "Borrowing lifespan is for people who are about to die, not for ghosts."
Wen Shi's eyes seemed to be covered with a layer of haze. "Imagine if the things that were taken away from us before contained lifespan. If we want to survive, we have to borrow the lifespan of others. Our soul-calling gameplay must be different from the previous batch of players."
The latter's project should focus on how to light a candle, but they light the candle themselves and play games with ghosts in the mirror, and there is no benefit in winning.
Just by imagining it, one can imagine what kind of horrific fight borrowing life would trigger.
Everyone couldn't help but feel a chill in their hearts.
Yu Xingzhou said solemnly, "The existence of shadows can help maintain players' sanity in the early stages. Entering a group fight too early will be detrimental to the subsequent progress of the game."
If the main body is injured and the shadow dies, it will lead to a loss of control like burning the player.
So Wen Shi's conclusion was probably correct; the real battle was in the final stage—borrowing life. It tested human nature, and after this stage, even if one lost their mind, they could still exit the dungeon.
"So we've always had low quest rewards and no main quests..." Xiaohua swallowed hard, "Is it because the starting and ending points are reversed?"
What the hell is this!
Wen Shi's eyes rarely showed a hint of annoyance: "What on earth is this game about?"
Yu Xingzhou wanted to rub his eyebrows, but when he realized he was wearing a mask, he put his hand down again.
Don't you know what's going on?
If you think about it carefully, you really don't know. This person doesn't understand the significance of the true spirit incarnation. The incarnation is like an important button in a game, either playing the role of start or end.
This key didn't get pressed down for a long time, but it kept jumping up and down on its own. Can the game start?
Feeling the complicated gaze lingering on him for a long time, Wen Shi wondered: "What's wrong?"
Yu Xingzhou turned his face away: "Nothing."
He'd previously been undecided about whether both newcomers were incarnations, or if just one was the other. Now, he was leaning towards the idea that both were, with the other serving as a safety catch. There were plenty of side quests before the train stopped, and for two newcomers with no skills or points, expecting them all to survive was simply a fantasy.
The incarnation is a blank slate. The fear they felt before death and their hatred of the world are excellent nutrients for their true spirits. Song Yan is fine. Who would have thought that a newcomer with broken limbs and a missing tongue could actually survive.
Especially in the parkour segment, Pei Wenwei even thought of transforming into insects in order to keep them alive.
Wen Shi was still muttering to himself about the game not being maintained when thunder suddenly sounded outside the house. The noise was so loud that it seemed as if all the mirrors shook in an instant.
Wen Shi was startled by the thunder.
Yu Xingzhou said expressionlessly: "Well done."
Wen Shi: "?"
The game is really powerful, it made the big guys so angry that they started talking nonsense.
The anti-eavesdropping props expired, and everyone stood quietly in a corner. Yu Xingzhou walked to find Li Nan, who had just come out of the mirror. The two whispered for a while and looked in the direction of Wen Shi at the same time.
Wen Shi was completely unaware of this and was still openly sharing his experience of completing the dungeon with Song Yan, while lamenting that the game hadn't crashed yet.
The "Soul Calling" segment was played in a weird way. The borrowing of life that really played a bloody role did not work at all. A burned player died on the player side, and a person also died on the shadow side.
Halfway through his speech, Wen Shi suddenly remembered something.
The boss began to count the harvest. The tour guide stared blankly at the mirror on the ceiling. Suddenly, her radar moved almost reflexively. She glanced sideways and accurately caught Wen Shi's glance at her.
Damn, what is this brazier for?
Wen Shi floated to her side like a ghost. "Miss Tour Guide, I have a question for you. Does the tour group have a fixed route?"
The tour guide said with a guilty conscience, "What else?"
From the NPC's perspective, it's a completely different story. First, she was disgusted by the scene of Wen Shi saving people in the car, and after getting out of the car, she was provoked by the turtle man, so she took them to the Screaming House that night to lure everyone to attack Wen Shi.
Usually the person who gets voted out is definitely the most eccentric person in the team.
In order to avoid any more trouble, after Wen Shi's ability was sealed on the first night, the tour guide tried to lead everyone to the museum in a hurry, but to his surprise, his efforts were in vain.
The worst part was that she had spent the entire night battling her own shadow, and this morning the tour guide had taken a slack and brought them to the Mirror House. The Mirror House was the boss's home turf, so she didn't have to do any explaining, so she could just relax for a while.
Wen Shi probably understood something from her evasive expression.
"It turned out to be you." Four words squeezed out from between his teeth: "It turned out to be you!"
He finally found out the reason why the game had not crashed despite being played to this point: the tour guide had been making the logic self-consistent.
On the train, the other party once said:
Don't ever call me by my first name.
At first, Wen Shi didn't take this sentence to heart, and the NPC showed many quirks.
Now that I think about it, it is not ruled out that the tour guide is also one of the incarnations of the true spirit, and not being called by her name is an obsession engraved in the bones of the true spirit.
As for Song Yan, he will be playing the role of a newcomer, so he must have a name.
The tour guide is the key NPC in this dungeon. She is responsible for where the tourists travel. As long as she doesn't think there is a problem, there is no problem.
Wen Shi and Yu Xingzhou did not achieve full information communication.
Otherwise he would understand more clearly that the tour guide is like the third safety pin, and the other party has always enjoyed killing tourists. If the newlyweds survive the train by chance, as long as the tour guide is there, the trip can continue, and they will always wait until a newlywed dies.
I'm afraid Zhen Ling never dreamed that after playing one game after another and even finishing the final game, the real main task has not yet been started.
"I can't even play with nesting dolls." Wen Shi silently pointed at Zhen Ling in his heart.
After the boss had packed up everything, he led everyone out.
There was no joy of surviving a disaster. Everyone was basically waiting for the arrival of the main task, and they were a little nervous.
Team battles cannot escape the framework of life-and-death fighting, and I'm afraid this time is no exception. Fortunately, in "Man in the Mirror", two female players died on the Shadow side, which basically eliminated the number gap between the two teams. If they really fight to the death, the players may not necessarily lose.
"Attention all players, the side quest Mirror House has been completed and the main quest will be launched soon."
While they were each pondering the main quest, the game didn't let them continue to diverge, and directly gave them the last big question.
[Competing Teams: Player; Shadow]
[Location: Sunset Red Plastic Surgery Hospital]
[Task time limit: From midnight tonight, start the 12-hour survival countdown]
[Challenge goal: choose one of three]
Dear visitors, you've paid a substantial amount of money to participate in this tour, and Sunset Red Tours guarantees that your money will be used wisely. Sunset Town is famous for its plastic surgery, so why not experience the beauty treatments while visiting?
As a tourist, you have three options:
1. Shadow Hunt. Arrive at Sunset Red Hospital before midnight. If you can kill a shadow within the hospital, your strength, agility, and intelligence will be significantly improved upon your return.
2. Thief. Arrive at Sunset Red Hospital before midnight. If you manage to steal a bottle of God-level Evolution Fluid inside the hospital, a random transformation skill will be activated upon leaving the dungeon.
3. Rest easy. Be in bed at the inn before midnight, have a good night's sleep, and catch the return train the next day to conclude your trip.
[Note: You can only choose one of the above tasks, and once selected, it cannot be changed.]
[Remaining selection time: 2 hours]
Everyone fell silent.
What you fear will come true. It was time to make a choice again. Wen Shi glanced at the shadows. They must have received a mission as well. Although he didn't know the specifics, since the player options included hunting shadows, the shadows must also have the option to kill players.
When they walked out of the mirror house, no one spoke to each other.
This time, the team battle mission completely weakened the fighting between each other and left the decision-making power to each participant.
If you want to relax, you can just stay in the inn and lie down, but the first two options are too tempting. One can improve your overall quality, and the other is equivalent to lighting up a skill point.
Qian Lai couldn't help but breathe faster. He saw Wen Shi yawning calmly from the corner of his eye and asked quietly, "Aren't you excited?"
Wen Shi asked back: "What are you excited about?"
Qian Lai also thought of the opponent's skills, including body transformation, and remained silent decisively.
"..." Good fellow, drought kills drought, flood kills flood. He paused, "What are you going to do with Shadow?"
I think the options the game provides to Shadow are also very tempting.
Wen Shi looked at the young man when he heard this.
When there was only a short distance left before he could see the light of day again, the boy saw from afar the girl standing by the door, craning her neck to look around. She looked so anxious, like a novice parent taking her child home for the first time.
The boy subconsciously quickened his pace.
Wen Shi's lips curled slightly at this. Being waited on was a luxury. As long as there were people you cared about, you wouldn't be solely self-centered when making decisions. The next moment, sunlight streamed down, and without warning, another octopus head popped out from the other side of the door.
"…" The smile suddenly froze.
What a big head!
Not only that, there are eight long tentacles under the head, some of which are clinging to the door frame. The octopus wearing a gentleman's hat pulls out another tentacle: wave ~