The face that was quite handsome stayed outside the mirror, looking at the helpless girl emotionlessly. The skirt that her father bought her was wrinkled. The girl’s eyes shivered. She curled at the corner. Under the scrutiny of the man’s eyes, her body shuddered. The black anaconda was consuming the room inside the mirror. The darkness was replaced by something darker. The girl slowly retreated but there was no space left. She had no place to run or hide.
Han Fei took out Rest in Peace and said in a smile, “If you listen to my orders, you will live.” Han Fei uttered into the phone. He made sure the girl heard him. He looked at the girl. “Smile at me and you can live.” His tone was gentle but it caused the girl to shiver. What kind of strange request was that?
Ironman and Yan Tang stood outside the room. They heard Han Fei’s voice. They shared a look and saw the shock in each other’s eyes. Why would their teammate say something like that alone inside the room?
The girl trapped in the mirror heard the voice from her phone. She looked at the face outside the mirror. She didn’t dare to touch the phone on the ground.
“It’s a simple request. As long as you smile, it’ll be better for everyone.” Han Fei frowned. He wanted to complete this Grade F Hidden Mission but none of the ghosts inside the mirror was willing to smile for him. The neighbors walked out of the urn. The faces appeared outside the mirror, looking at the black room inside the mirror with curiosity.
“Come on, be happy. Let me see your smile.” Han Fei’s voice came from the phone. The girl looked out the mirror. Her lips slowly split open to reveal a smile uglier than a frown. Since he didn’t receive a mission complete notification, Han Fei stabbed Rest in Peace on the mirror. “Be more sincere with your smile. Come, I’ll teach you! First, you need to relax the muscle around your face and then widen your mouth. Bite on the phone speaker and align the ends with the edges of your mouth. Both ends have to curl upwards. Remember that both edges of your lips have to be parallel to the speaker. Keep it there! This is to train the curvature of your smile!” Han Fei was a very good actor. Giving a good smile was basic for an actor. The girl picked up the speaker and bit it with her mouth. Han Fei continued to push her until the girl cried. She was in a situation more despairing than being trapped inside the mirror.
Hearing the girl’s cries in the bedroom, Yan Tang and Ironman shared a look. The shock in their eyes turned into disbelief. What was happening inside the bedroom?
Han Fei sighed. He knew the girl was not the ghost he was looking for. He didn’t stop the anaconda. It moved to swallow the whole room inside the mirror. When it was about to swallow the girl, the girl’s skin was torn open from behind and a boy walked out!
The boy was covered in blood vessels. Several adult souls bound around the boy, among them was the girl’s father. “The owners of all the name cards are here. The boy is the culprit. He has been using the phone to lure in his victims.”
Crying echoed in the bedroom. Despair seeped into the mirror. Weep touched the mirror with his hands and his body slowly slipped through the mirror. After conquering his fear at Cattle Alley, and after being saved at Midnight Mall, Weep was the neighbor who accompanied Han Fei the most. He was no longer the boy who only knew how to play hide-and-seek. When Weep appeared, the room sank into sadness, all the despair became Weep’s weapon.
Weep entered the room in the mirror and his hands closed around the boy. Weep’s fingers invoked the despair of the souls around the boy. The souls which were enslaved by the boy now became his shackles. The despair formed a cage around the boy. Weep pulled out the most painful past in the boy. When the boy lost control, Weep sent the boy towards the anaconda. The anaconda slowly swallowed the boy. Weep pointed his finger on the boy’s forehead. The pain caused the boy to scream. His mind was dominated by despair. His red eyes flowed out a tear which was condensed from Yin energy. Weep grabbed the tear and took away the boy’s despair and memory. Compared to the boy, Weep was on a completely different level.
The mirror shattered and Weep walked out with the anaconda. Weep didn’t change physically but his presence thickened and his cries could reach further. But the one who gained the most was the anaconda. After consuming the room inside the mirror, it grew twice its size.
“Notification for Player 0000! You’ve discovered an unknown type pet!
“Pet Type: ???
“New ability: Black Room.
“Black Room: There is a black room hidden inside its body.”
When the black anaconda returned to Han Fei and Xu Qin, Han Fei received the system notification. After the snake consumed the strange mirror inside the dresser, it gained the power of the mirror. Han Fei was quite curious about this creature. He asked Xu Qin about it but she didn’t know many details. She treated her room next door as a place for her to dump her trash. She tossed her cursed food there but the room started to gain consciousness. It started to obey Xu Qin so that it would get fed.
Before the anaconda returned to the shadow, it opened its maw and regurgitated a girl holding a phone. The girl was a small Lingering Spirit. There was a giant wound on her back. Han Fei used Soul-depth Touch to touch her head. The girl’s soul was simple, it was filled with hatred. After she was trapped inside the mirror, she was used by the boy to trick others, she was quite pitiable. “Since I’ve saved you from the mirror, shouldn’t you thank me? You should follow us from now on.” The girl saw the table knives in Xu Qin’s hands and Rest in Peace in Han Fei’s hand. She nodded fearfully.
“Do you know the others at this building?” Han Fei tried to communicate with the girl. The girl kept showing Han Fei 4 fingers. It was unclear if she was talking about the 4th floor or Room 4. Due to his experience at Ziggurat, Han Fei was very sensitive to the number 4. He wanted to push for more but the girl couldn’t give him anything else. Han Fei had no choice and invited the girl into the urn.
Han Fei opened the door and realized Ironman and Yan Tang were eavesdropping.
“Brother Youfu what did you find inside the bedroom? How come we keep hearing you ask someone smile?” Yan Tang was too curious. He had to know.
“We were just communicating.”
“Communicating?” Yan Tang looked at the messy bedroom, it was similar to the last bedroom they visited. “This is your way of dealing with the ghosts?”
“Let’s go.” Han Fei waved. “We need to get to the 4th floor. We’ve stayed here long enough.” Han Fei still remembered the child’s shoeprint at the junction. The Pure Hatred could come at any moment so they needed to be quick. Han Fei carried the urn and walked out of the room. He noticed there were more mirrors on the corridor.
“The mirrors from the clinic appear to be moving with us.” Yan Tang studied the people in the mirrors. “The building should be very populated in the past, but they are now all inside the mirrors. This is weird. Do you think they enter the mirrors willingly or they were forced in?”
“If going into the mirror is the only way to survive, then I probably would enter the mirror too.”
Han Fei glanced behind him. He noticed the mirror with the doctor didn’t follow them.
They came to the 3rd floor. Paper money scattered the ground. It was like someone just died here. White couplets decorated the door.
“Did you guys notice something strange?” Yan Tang pointed inside one of the rooms. “Every mirror on this floor is covered with black cloth.”
“Normally, after a family member passes away, they will place a black cloth over the mirrors in his room. Apparently, that can prevent his soul from entering the mirror.” Han Fei said and then stopped. “The souls of the dead will be sucked into the mirror. But the person in the funeral wear is the real dead victim.” Han Fei called Ironman over. “You said you saw a man wearing funeral clothing?”
“Yes.”
“He was the only one?”
“Yes. He was the only one.” Ironman was confused.
“Then do you remember how he looks like? Perhaps we should try to look around this floor to see if we can find his picture.” Han Fei wanted to complete the mission and to do that, he needed to find a qualified ghost. The man was a good candidate. He was the only one who wore white funeral clothes and he felt quite ‘naughty’. They checked all the rooms on the 3rd floor and found nothing. They headed up to the 4th floor. There was a lot more paper money on the staircase. Han Fei regretted not bringing the merchant with him.
“Did you hear that? It comes from downstairs.” Ironman walked at the back of the group. He wanted to contribute something but as the player with the highest level, he needed others’ protection. Han Fei looked down from the banister and he saw something strange. On the corridor between the clinic and the apartments, one mirror was slowly moving down the corridor like it was pushed by the ‘people’ around it. It didn’t make any noise, its target appeared to be Han Fei’s group.
“One mirror is coming,” Ironman whispered.
“I saw it.” Han Fei didn’t stop. He was the first to reach the 4th floor. ‘A mirror can move on its own, this place should be Mirror God’s heaven. After we take down the plastic surgery hospital, I should bring Mirror God here to meet more of his kin.’
The rooms on the 4th floor were very strange. The rooms on the left were decorated for festivities while the rooms on the left were covered in paper money. Standing on the corridor, it felt absurd. “What is going on here?” He picked up an invitation from the ground. It was a wedding invitation. The invitation was normal but the invitee’s name had been crossed out. Stepping on the paper money and the red confetti, they came to the end of the corridor. The darkest place strung a big red cloth.
“My instinct tells me that it’s wise for us to not touch that piece of cloth.” Once Yan Tang said that Han Fei removed the cloth. Behind the thick red cloth was a giant mirror. A pair of bride and groom stood inside the mirror. The bride was in phoenix coronet and red veil; the groom was in a Tang outfit. They were in the middle of a Chinese wedding. The mirror was half red and half white. The pair stood on paper money and confetti, facing away from the corridor.
A chill wind blew into the old building and the temperature dropped. The paper money on the ground fluttered, the bride in the mirror took one step backward. Footsteps came from downstairs. The bride in the mirror heard something and her body started to turn.
“Brother Youfu, something is coming from the corridor!” Ironman shouted as he pointed behind him. The wind blew into his sleeves and Han Fei’s ring chilled. He slowly turned to look down the corridor. Moments later, a man in funeral wear appeared on the 4th floor. He stood facing away from the players. He didn’t get closer but he didn’t leave either. The tension was getting higher. At that moment, Auntie Lee heard something and she slowly approached the mirror. Due to the reflection, the corridor looked longer than it was.
“Auntie, don’t go there!” Yan Tang pulled on Auntie Lee. At that moment, Yan Tang felt someone looking at him. He lifted his head and Yan Tang realized the bride and groom had turned around. The couple had perfect bodies and flawless skin but they didn’t have faces!
“They are all coming! This is bad!” Ironman sweated nervously.
“Go to help Yan Tang.” Han Fei grabbed the urn in one hand and Rest in Peace in another.
“What about you?” Ironman didn’t get an answer because Han Fei jumped towards the man in the funeral wear. Han Fei hugged the urn and charged at full speed. Han Fei was imprinted in ironman’s eyes.
“I think I understand why they are so afraid of him.”