Peeping at the reflection in the mirror.

Clap! Clap!

The clear sound of applause pleasantly reverberated in his ears. Su Mo opened his eyes, the exhaustion clearly visible within them.

“Mr. Su?”

A voice sounded before him. This person was wearing a doctor’s overcoat and black-rimmed glasses. A man.

Su Mo feebly nodded his head. A signal to the other person to untie the binding that was around his body. At this moment Su Mo was sitting erect in a cast iron chair, his hands, feet, neck and chest were all bound by cuffs. Tied to the shackles, with the four legs of the iron chair, deeply inserted into the cement flooring. —– This, was the specialised, specially made, interrogation chair for major criminals.

However, Su Mo isn’t a criminal, but during certain moments, he finds himself to be even more dangerous than a criminal.

Qin Zi helped Su Mo to release himself of the binds that bound his whole body. The doctor smiled, “How do you feel? Are you tired?”

Su Mo didn’t answer, rather he rolled and kneaded his wrists. With a furrowed brow he responded, “Put it away.”

“Oh…. My apologies.”

The doctor hastily put away the mirror that was in front of Su Mo and sighed. “Chu Han, he…. Mr. Su, I’m afraid that you are still not able to leave District 10.”

Su Mo had no interest in asking nor answering anything. He quietly got up and prepared to leave. Upon seeing this, the doctor abruptly said, “Mr. Su, I’m finding myself being more and more unable to see through you.”

Su Mo slightly inclines his head with a puzzled look on his face.

The doctor smiled a bitter smile, “Go back home. I look forward to the next time that I will see you.”

Leaving the doctor’s office, Su Mo narrowed his eyes, with his gaze fixed on the lingering glow of the setting sun. Soon afterwards he set off in the direction of a not too far off bathroom. The bathroom’s gigantic mirror was pristine. There was no need to feel agitated. Su Mo turned on the tap and roughly scrubbed at his tired face.

At that exact moment, the bathroom door was pushed open. A man who seemed to be around twenty five years old walked in. He saw Su Mo Shi that was next to the basin and at first was dumbfounded, then suddenly his body went stiff and his face changed to a look of alarm.

Su Mo turned towards him and revealed a friendly smile. The man let out a breath of relief, but rather than washing his hands, he hastenedly left as if he was fleeing the bathroom. This young man’s response towards him came as no surprise to Su Mo. He had became accustomed to this sort of reaction a long time ago.

He raised his head and looked at himself in the mirror. A confused look flashed through the tranquil expression in his eyes. —– Every time he finishes with his treatment he gets this sort of reaction.

“You weak coward. You once again deceived Doctor Liao.”

The appearance in the mirror began to distort. The Su Mo in the mirror actually opened his mouth and spoke!

Even more frightening was that the ‘Su Mo’ in the mirror had crimson red eyes. His eyes were filled with a look of insanity and evil. —— it’s clearly the same face, however his temperament was entirely different.

“Chu Han…”

Between gritted teeth he spoke those two words. Su Mo rarely looked so imposing.

As if the amount of resentment wasn’t enough, the boy in the mirror revealed a disgusting, smiling expression, every word stabbing his heart. “Su Mo, you are still so cowardly and weak. You have never even thought about allowing me to disappear, because, you will never be able to leave me!”

Smash!!

A fist came down and the mirror was completely smashed into countless pieces of glass. Su Mo turned around and left without an ounce of reluctance…

When he returned to District 10, feeling as if he had eaten wax to fill his stomach, Su Mo plunged head first into bed and fell into a heavy sleep. —- Lying to a shrink, while trying not to leave any trace behind, left Su Mo feeling unbearably tired.

When he woke up again, the view outside the window was pitch-black. Grabbing his cellphone, he saw that the time was 00:00, just before dawn. He brushed off a few pieces of rubbish after having realised the time, Su Mo’s brows raised. He didn’t know when, but on his phone he noticed a strange app.

On the app there was only one word —- Illusion.

Maybe his mind hadn’t returned to normal yet. However, Su Mo’s memory was never lacking. It’s clear that this strange app was never downloaded by him.

As evidence of his infamy, no person was brave enough to enter his room without his permission.

Then, this strange app that he was unable to make head or tail of…

“Illusion?”

He didn’t know if it was an illusion, but when he read aloud that word, he felt as if the temperature in his room dropped a few degrees.

Saying this word, ‘Illusion’ seemed as if it had activated a magical power. He found himself unable to look away as the app softly opened up. The screen changed to white and in the middle of the screen was the word, ‘Illusion’ that was growing from small to big…

[ Dear Mr. Su, welcome to the world’s largest dream building platform: Dreamland Paradise. ]

The words were being written in sync with the voice. However, Su Mo could confirm, that that beautiful, Lolita sounding voice did not come from the phone, but was directly being said into his mind!

“Dreamland Paradise?”

Wow, it seems nowadays even pyramid schemes are so high-end and fancy?

In the middle of the page’s layout appeared many weird choices. Majority of the choices were all dark gray and locked. The only ones that were able to be opened were ones that said, ‘New task’.

Su Mo didn’t even have the time to click on ‘New task’ when it automatically opened.

[ Name: Su Mo; Serial Number: 85022; Title: Not Available; Body’s condition: Good; Dream currency: 0; Rank: Preparatory player ]

[ Derivative scenario is being generated…]

[ Mr. Su, owing thanks to you as it is your first time participating in the build a dream scenario. This time there will be no fees being charged, afterwards you will gain dream coins that correspond with the scenario. ]

[ Dream money is therefore Dreamland Paradise’s only currency. Please look for details by yourself. ]

[ Please push open the door in order to begin your dream journey… ]

He sprang from the bed with a jerk, Su Mo acutely became aware that his environment had changed. —— Although his bedroom looked as if nothing had happened.

Door?

His room only had one door.

The calm Su Mo, found himself stupefied and in a haze for several seconds over the suddenly arisen supernatural events.

“Dream Journey?”

Obviously this was so strange. After he recovered from his haze, Su Mo’s first reaction was —- Interesting.

At this moment, he became conscious of that he really isn’t a normal person.

What will be behind the door?

Without hesitation, and no more waiting to see, Su Mo walked forward with a firm step and pushed open the door of his room….

A dazzling, white light flashed past that Su Mo had no choice but to narrow his eyes. Afterwards he arrived at an unfamiliar room. He found himself stepping into a room, the sound of the reminder once more sounded in his mind:

[ The demon cage has been opened, the key is grasped within Pandora’s hand; May the most devout disciple, step forward into the dark of the night. ]

The prompt left one dumbfounded in that it lacked logic. However, Su Mo did not pay much attention to it, rather he was gazing ahead in a defensive manner —- there were five strangers.

“Hehe, sure enough there are more people.”

The person who spoke was a man with blonde hair who seemed to be around the age of twenty. When he saw Su Mo gazing defensively at him, the colour of the blonde haired male’s face changed. “Dude, are you also a newcomer?”

His gaze swept over the five men’s bodies with scrutiny. Su Mo questioned, “So, this is a game?”

“Fuck!”

The blonde man irritably hit the table, “You really are a newcomer? What the hell! So there’s no guide?”

At this moment, the seemingly twenty something year old, nevertheless his actual age, besides him there was also a girl who seemed five years older than him that was hastily trying to calm him. “Chai Gang, that’s enough. You’re going to freak out the new guy.”

“Yes, yes, maybe this time the mission is too simple, so there’s no need for a guide!”

The person who spoke is a middle aged uncle. Smiling happily he walked to Su Mo’s side with a gentle manner. “Since you are a newcomer, I won’t be able to say more than a few things.”

“I’m not going to talk about apps, but what you said just now is not wrong. This really is a type of game… Only, the bargaining chip is your life. Remember to heed what your elder has said, otherwise you will die and there will be no person to bury you.”

The middle aged uncle’s face still held a smiling expression. Although the words he had spoken were gentle, hidden within them was a warning. Su Mo smiled faintly and did not react to his barbs.

Su Mo grew up to be very handsome, however he had a peculiar disposition. His smile would easily cause people to like him. When you see Su Mo, you will quickly accept the reality. One after the other, the three ‘old men’ showed an expression of astonishment.

The blonde man swept over in a flurry and immediately held firmly onto Su Mo’s shoulders excitedly. “My young man, you have promise! Not like those two, the one is weaker than the other.”

Between the two that he motioned towards, one was a seventeen year old, the other an eight year old. As well as an elite looking male wearing gold-rimmed glasses and dressed impeccably in Western-styled clothing.

Hearing the blonde male’s taunt, the little girl fearfully shrank behind the older woman’s body. The elite male showed a look of unwilling on his face, and just judging by the bruising that you could see on his face, it was clear that he had already been ‘educated’.

Su Mo was the last person to enter the room. As he stepped into the room, the door that was behind him faded away and was no longer visible. After a brief introduction, he finally understood why the blonde male was so angry when he found out that he was a newcomer.

In Dreamland’s Paradise, people are divided into regular players and preparatory players. Preparatory players need to complete three preparatory missions, only then can they become a regular player. Every preparatory mission will need a guide, that are normally played by regular players, to lead them.

Before Su Mo appeared, between the five of them, they only had three reserves and two newcomers, no guide. Without a guide, how could everybody not panic?

In an unfamiliar environment, with the fear of the unknown. These conditions would easily magnify a person’s temper. A cowardly person would immediately attach themselves to someone that makes them feel safe. For example, this young girl, who is quick tempered, will turn herself into a hedgehog, hurting others as well as herself. An example of that being the elite male.

For the other new people, Su Mo’s behaivour must seem remarkable. At least on the surface he seemed to be way more calm and composed.

“My name’s Chai Gang, I’ve passed two tasks. When I finish this task I will become a regular player.” The blonde male aggressively patted his chest. “Since we do not have a guide, everyone must listen to me!”

Beside Chai Gang, there was also the two reserve players called Xiao Ya and Dai Xing Zhang, who were passing the time on a transcription, so they naturally had no objection.

“I… I’m Lu Lan Lan. I’m in my third year of highschool…” The fear on the young girl’s face had not yet disappeared.

The elite male had a look of disdain flash through his eyes, he arrogantly responded, “My Chinese name is Nan Feng^[1]His name here means Southern Mountain, but you all can call me Mark. I’m from M city and this time I came to Z country to consult about a project with a group. This project…”

“Shut up.”

Chai Gang impatiantly interrupted, “Nan Feng?^[2]A play on words, as he believes his name is Southern Wind I’m also rich!”

“You…”

“Yoh yoh, just an ABC ey!” Xiao Ya was ridiculing him yet being earnest at the same time, “Stop talking nonesense. No matter what country you came from, you failed a mission and in the end we all ended up in Paradise!”

Su Mo decided not to get involved with these people’s heated argument, but instead went to the window. He pulled open the curtains and discovered that they were all on the first floor. ^[3]Or second floor; the floor above ground floor

Su Mo frowned, “Although there are cars outside, look at the architectural style of the buildings around us… oh, it seems we have gone back to the 1970s in Z country?

The reason why he said it like that is because, except for the differences that could be seen outside the window, the other main indicator was that there was an out-dated Chinese calendar hanging on the left wall that stopped on the 16 May 1974.

Besides Su Mo, the others also weren’t idle. Xiao Ya was looking around and said, “This is a boy’s room… in the 70’s. Even the people who lived in the city also had many hardships, but this child even has his own bedroom. You can tell that this is a rich household ey.”

On the surface of it, this bedroom seemed completely normal, Dai Xing Zhang closed the door again and said, “If the hints were so easy to decipher, then this wouldn’t be ‘Dreamland Paradise’. Look carefully, if you can’t find anything then we’ll go downstairs.”

Everyone agreed when they heard his suggestion.

Rather than blindly look about, Su Mo noticed that in the entire room there was only — a single unexpected thing — a mirror on the desk.

One would definitely say that it was a lady’s exquisite, dressing mirror. However, when you looked at it, it gave you an unsettling feeling.

Su Mo was thinking that he should go check its surface, but who would have thought that someone beat him to it!

The first person that —- went and picked up the dressing mirror, a person that Su Mo absolutely didn’t think would — Was actually Lu Lan Lan.

However, Lu Lan Lan’s next move left Su Mo completely speechless.

He originally thought that maybe she had also discovered the perculiarity of the mirror, he never would have thought that this little Miss Lu, after having just recovered from her state of shock, the first thing that she would do, would unexpectedly be to…. refresh her make-up?

Do girls like looking pretty that much?

She started to hum an unfamiliar song and from her pocket, took out a red lipstick and while facing the mirror, smeared it on.

Su Mo didn’t say anything, but paid attention to the blonde man, who had clearly had enough, “I say, little Miss. At this time, how can you still be thinking about putting on makeup? The makeup will only be for ghosts to look…”

“Ah!!”

An ear-piercing scream was released from Lu Lan Lan’s mouth, as she threw aside the dressing mirror. From where she stood it landed nearest to Su Mo, being right behind his back. With her whole body trembling, she shrieked out, “Ghost… ghost… There’s a Ghost!”

Everyone gave a frightened start.

Looking around at the small room, it was clear at a glance. Besides the six people in the room, there wasn’t another person… sorry that’s wrong, it’s a ghost.

“You, you, don’t scare me! Where is this ghost? Did you imagine it?” Looking at the supposedly bold, blonde male, you could see that unexpectedly he was also terrified.

“There really is a ghost. A female ghost, dressed in red! Blood… so much blood!”

Lu Lan Lan collapsed weakly onto the floor. She firmly held onto Su Mo’s lower leg not letting go. “Wu wu wu…^[4]The sound of her crying I’m really scared, I want to go home… Daddy, please come save me…”

Enduring the urge to kick her off, Su Mo pried off her hands and calmly picked up the discarded mirror.

“It didn’t break, sure enough it really was made in Z country.”

His calmly spoken teasing words caused everyone to cast him a sidelong glance. Chai Gang gulped back saliva and spoke with admiration, “Brother^[5]A term used for a male younger than you showing familiarity, you have some really big guts!”

Lu Lan Lan who had been abandoned by Su Mo had already returned to Xiao Ya side. Dai Xing Zheng walked over to Su Mo’s side and together with him started sizing up the dressing mirror.

“I, I wasn’t lying, there really was a female ghost. Blood, her face, full of blood… wu wu, I’m very scared.”

Lu Lan Lan’s voice that was trembling with fear, made everyone once more fall into a panic. Chai Gang had a gloomy expression, “If she didn’t see incorrectly… Then congratulations to us, we won first prize!”

Supernatural scenarios have one of the highest mortality rates.

In Dreamland Paradise, there are many worlds with high mortality rates. However, the Supernatural category, is the one that one would have to be the most frightened of — with no other reason, it was already too frightening.

“This is only a preparatory mission. How is it possible that a Supernatural category appeared?” Dai Xing Zhang moved the mirror from side to side, looking at it from all angles, yet he was still unable to see the so-called female ghost.

“Little girl, you are still new to this, you were probably overwhelmed and hallucinated. That isn’t an impossible possibility.”

However, having said that, the colour on everyone’s faces did not improve.

The dressing mirror seemed to not change, Dai Xing Zheng no longer looked, Su Mo who was still holding the mirror’s brows knit tightly together.

Su Mo did not like mirrors. Not many people knew that about him.

He thought of something and returned to the place that Lu Lan Lan had been previously standing. The mirror was still normal. Until something strange suddenly occured incredibly quickly!

In the mirror, a distance of only two meters from Su Mo, there was an area that was pitch-black.

The ‘Black’ was gradually expanding, until it had finally changed into a person — or should I say, a ghost.

It was unbearably, broken with half of the face covered in fresh blood. A female ghost with dishevelled hair appeared, with a smiling expression showing ‘goodwill’….

Su Mo remained calm as if he were only seeing an old friend. The female ghost walked, step by step, closer to Su Mo. The distance between Su Mo and herself getting smaller and smaller. At last, she leaned on his shoulder.

On his left shoulder, the weight of her head was undetectable. His heart rate quickened slightly, Su Mo was also feeling a little bit nervous.

This time, inside the mirror there is once more a change!

Wild, evil, filthy…

The corner of his mouth quirked up at a strange angle, the ‘Su Mo’ in the mirror suddenly turned around and with eyes overflowing with evil intentions, looked at the female ghost. The female ghost’s eyes that were void of any emotion gradually started showing something, —- fear.

The female ghost was afraid of Su Mo. Well, it would be more accurate to say that she feared Chu Han.

The evil smile that started at the corner of his mouth began to extend and grew larger. Chu Han grabbed the femal ghosts head and with his two long and thin middle and index finger he direcly stabbed his fingers into her incessantly bleeding eyes!

A silent scream as she frantically struggled….

Chu Han then shook off the female ghost’s body in disgust. After having been released from the devil’s claws, the female ghost awkwardly disappeared. Chu Han turned around, having feeling proud of himself, gave Su Mo a smile.

At the end of his patience, the corners of Su Mo’s mouth flattened into a straight line and he spoke out in ridicule, “You are still scarier than that female ghost…”

~~*~~

The author has some words they want to say:

The new novel has started! I have received so much support from you Angels!

PS: It won’t be very scary, everyone can rest assured! (#^.^#)