On the seventh day, the planet entered the "Mirror Era".
The World Health Organization released its first statistical report: To date, over eight million confirmed pairs of "mirror humans" had been documented worldwide. Every single case followed the exact same pattern—both individuals shared identical life paths up until a specific year, after which their fates diverged completely.
Those pivotal years clustered around a few key time points: 1993, 1999, 2008, and 2012. Of these, 1993 and 1999 accounted for a staggering 87% of all cases.
Ethan and Mason returned to Harborview. They needed to find more clues, and their journey would start at their shared high school alma mater.
In the principal's office, the elderly Principal Harris adjusted his reading glasses, flipping through thick stacks of student archives.
"Class of 1999... Ethan Carter..." He traced his finger down the page. "Here we go. Ethan Carter, student ID number 990312, SAT score 1350, admitted to the Computer Science Department at State Tech University."
He turned a few more pages, then froze. "Wait a minute—there's another Ethan Carter here."
The second file had a photo of Mason from his high school days—an exact duplicate of Ethan's graduation picture. Student ID number 990313, SAT score 1350, admitted to the Photography Program at NYU's School of Communication.
"How is this possible..." Principal Harris's hands trembled. "The ID numbers are consecutive, but our system shows that student ID 990313 never existed. This file... it looks like it was added later."
"What about 1993?" Ethan asked. "Anything unusual that year?"
Principal Harris flipped to the Class of 1993 records. His fingers came to a halt.
The student roster for that year listed three entries under the name "Linda Wang". The photos attached to each file showed three identical women.
"That's impossible," Principal Harris muttered. "I was the academic dean back then. I remember very clearly—there was only one Linda Wang in that graduating class."
The door to the archive room creaked open. Two men in black suits walked in, federal badges pinned to their lapels.
"Mr. Ethan Carter, Mr. Mason Reed," the middle-aged man leading the group said. "We're from the National Mirror Phenomenon Investigation Team. We need your cooperation with our inquiry."