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The Mirror Maze contained countless mirrors, and with them, countless mirror images of Mo Qi.
However, the one Mo Qi gazed upon was different. While all the other mirror images of Mo Qi reached out to drag him into the mirror, the one he had locked eyes with reacted differently. This mirror image extended its hands from the mirror, gently wrapping them around Mo Qi’s slender neck, with its thumbs resting on his Adam’s apple. It seemed poised to strangle Mo Qi, yet it also appeared to be softly caressing his neck.
Mo Qi showed a satisfied smile. He didn’t struggle. Instead, he gently placed his hands on the mirror image Mo Qi’s hands and softly said, “I leave the outside to you.”
Countless hands reached out from the mirror behind him, pulling Mo Qi into the mirror. The fingers of the mirror image Mo Qi trembled, but ultimately, they couldn’t bring themselves to strangle Mo Qi.
Since he had discussed it with Mo Qi beforehand, Qin Xunfeng didn’t try to stop him from being dragged into the mirror. However, he hadn’t expected Mo Qi to say such a thing to his mirror image in the end.
As Mo Qi was pulled into the mirror, the mirror image Mo Qi stepped out.
Mo Qi was the source of the mirror images. Once he entered the mirror, his original body was lost, and there were no more mirror images of him in the Mirror Maze. The mirror image Mo Qi that emerged from the mirror did not cast a reflection in the mirrors, leaving Qin Xunfeng alone in the maze.
Qin Xunfeng watched the mirror image Mo Qi warily, contemplating whether he should kill this person.
If Mo Qi hadn’t said, “I leave the outside to you,” to his mirror image, Qin Xunfeng would have attacked it immediately. Now, he hesitated, uncertain whether the mirror image in front of him was an enemy.
The mirror image Mo Qi approached the mirror where Mo Qi had vanished, gently touching the spot where he disappeared. Suddenly, he smiled appreciatively and said, “Well done.”
This was a phrase Mo Qi had previously said to Liao Ruxue, and now the mirror image Mo Qi returned those words to him.
“You… are you friend or foe?” Qin Xunfeng demanded, holding up an Item Card and pointing it at the mirror image Mo Qi. “Explain yourself, or I’ll attack!”
The mirror image Mo Qi replied, “Neither friend nor foe, just someone whose goals align with yours.”
“What is your goal?” Qin Xunfeng asked.
“To take Mo Qi back from Xia Yao,” the mirror image Mo Qi said darkly. “His life belongs to me.”
Despite having Mo Qi’s face, there was no discord in the way the mirror image Mo Qi said this. Though they looked identical, their auras were completely different, making it impossible for Qin Xunfeng to see them as the same person.
“I don’t trust you. You need to give me a reason to believe you,” Qin Xunfeng shouted.
The mirror image Mo Qi sneered, “You don’t trust me, but you should trust Mo Qi. He brought me out because he was worried this place is Xia Yao’s territory. If he gets trapped in the mirror, he won’t be able to control the situation completely. That’s why he needs me.”
“Because the five people, including Rong Feng, have mirror images, Mo Qi deduced that once someone enters the mirror, a mirror image will emerge. But with so many mirrors and countless mirror images, which one can come out? It can’t be that all mirror images can come out, right?”
Qin Xunfeng looked at the fingerprints Mo Qi left on the mirror and said, “It’s the first mirror image that comes into contact with the original’s fingerprints.”
Mirror Image Mo Qi: “That’s right. Mo Qi anticipated that the person stepping out of the mirror would be me, so he used ‘Gaze’ and ‘Resonance’ on me the moment I woke up to control me. ‘Gaze’ makes me fall in love with him and unable to bear him being taken by Xia Yao. ‘Resonance’ allows him to connect with me mentally for 40 minutes, during which he knows what happens inside, and I know what happens outside. There’s also one crucial skill, Mo Qi’s ultimate trump card. If I break free from his control, he can still easily come out of the mirror.”
“What method?” Qin Xunfeng was stunned. In such a short time, Mo Qi had come up with so many strategies using the characteristics of the mirror world and his own skills.
“‘The Broken Lotus,’” Mirror Image Mo Qi explained. “This technique can only be used by those who have ‘Resonated’ with Mo Qi. After using it, the two people involved will exchange bodies, allowing him to easily leave the mirror.” Mirror Image Mo Qi smiled. “See, he has anticipated everything.”
Qin Xunfeng nodded. “So you’re currently under his control?”
Qin Xunfeng gradually relaxed his guard, only to hear Mirror Image Mo Qi say, “No.”
Qin Xunfeng: “……”
Mirror Image Mo Qi said, “The problem is that the ‘Gaze’ skill has a 4% chance of causing a negative effect, which can manifest in two ways: ‘Frenzy’ and ‘Love to Death.’ I’ve triggered both. As his mirror image, even though I don’t have the cards, I possess all the skills he has. ‘Frenzy’ enhances my strength, making my skills stronger than his, and with ‘Resonance,’ I have the upper hand. I can also cut off the ‘Resonance’ at any time.”
Qin Xunfeng pulled out a grenade. “Don’t come any closer! If you dare approach, we’ll both perish together!”
“Who wants to perish with you?” Mirror Image Mo Qi said with disdain. “If I’m going to die, I’d rather die with Mo Qi. He’s even accounted for these negative effects and took the risk of using ‘Gaze.’ In fact, he’s anticipating the appearance of these negative effects.”
What Mo Qi knows, Mirror Image Mo Qi knows as well. Mo Qi had long suspected that the ‘Frenzy’ and ‘Love to Death’ effects from ‘Gaze’ were all limitations on the image in the painting. Once the negative effects are triggered, Mirror Image Mo Qi would inevitably be a fragment of the image in the painting.
If the negative effects were not triggered, Mirror Image Mo Qi would just be an ordinary mirror image. Mo Qi could use his skills to control him and manage the situations inside and outside the mirror. In a crisis, Mirror Image Mo Qi would still be Mo Qi’s means to exit the mirror. However, if the negative effects were triggered… it would be even better. The person in the painting that Mo Qi had been searching for was inside Mirror Image Mo Qi.
Mirror Image Mo Qi touched the mirror beside him, seemingly trying to see his reflection, but upon realizing it was Mo Qi’s face, he gave up.
He pressed on the wound on his chest and sneered, “So much for thinking of him? To the extent of using me?”
Qin Xunfeng: “……”
Help! Mirror Image Mo Qi is acting like a lunatic!
“Put away your grenade. If I wanted to control you, you wouldn’t even be able to draw your weapon,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said.
Qin Xunfeng didn’t dare to move; he was afraid of Mirror Image Mo Qi.
Mirror Image Mo Qi continued, “‘Love to Death’ can evoke the darkest depths of a person’s heart. I am the dark side that Mo Qi has always suppressed with reason. Mo Qi believes that love is respect and understanding, which is why his abilities are always so gentle. Do you know what I think love is?”
Qin Xunfeng’s body trembled. “Is it pledging life and death?”
“It’s domination and enslavement,” Mirror Image Mo Qi smiled.
He glanced at Qin Xunfeng’s hand, and Qin Xunfeng felt as if that hand no longer belonged to him. The hand, no longer under Qin Xunfeng’s control, betrayed his brain and obediently returned the grenade to the item card.
“What… what have you done to me?” Qin Xunfeng asked, horrified.
“Have you ever been in love?” Mirror Image Mo Qi asked.
“I’ve been in love once or twice,” Qin Xunfeng stammered.
Mirror Image Mo Qi continued, “In those relationships, did you ever experience this situation? Even though your mind constantly tells you to be rational, your hands, feet, words, body, and emotions all betray your mind and make you do things you couldn’t even imagine. You clearly know that this person isn’t right for you and are determined not to be caught up in the relationship, but as soon as you see him or hear his voice, you can’t control your body.”
“Yes,” Qin Xunfeng admitted.
“That’s domination. I only dominated your hand to betray your brain,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said with a cruel smile.
“Are you saying that my hand fell in love with you and didn’t want to hurt you, so it put the grenade away?” Qin Xunfeng was shocked. “Can skills be used like that?”
“They’ve always been usable like this. Mo Qi’s personal attribute card is ‘Heartthrob,’ which is a card that grows freely under the influence of the user’s emotions. Whatever the user thinks ‘love’ is, the skill will develop in that direction. Mo Qi sees love as ‘unique,’ ‘nurturing,’ ‘mutual understanding,’ occasional ‘hurt’ and ‘possession,’ and a feeling that can ‘surrender everything.’ Therefore, his skills include ‘Gaze,’ ‘Resonance,’ ‘Tenderness,’ ‘The Broken Lotus,’ as well as ‘Frenzy,’ ‘Love to Death,’ and ‘The Little Black Room.’ All of these are projections of his emotions, but I am different.” Mirror Image Mo Qi said to Qin Xunfeng, “Give me the makeup mirror with Liang Tianxiu.”
Qin Xunfeng didn’t want to give it to him, but his body had already betrayed his mind. With each command from Mirror Image Mo Qi, he followed through, obediently taking out the makeup mirror and handing it over.
“What do you need this for?” Qin Xunfeng asked.
Mirror Image Mo Qi replied, “I need a puppet.”
He opened the makeup mirror, revealing Liang Tianxiu inside.
When Liang Tianxiu saw the light, he immediately tried to seize the opportunity to escape, only to find that Mirror Image Mo Qi was blocking the other mirrors with his body. The makeup mirror had no reflections from other mirrors, leaving him with no escape route.
He then tried to kill the person who opened the mirror, but found no reflection of that person in the makeup mirror. He immediately said, “You’re not Mo Qi; you’re a mirror image.”
“It seems you know that a mirror image cannot be reflected within the mirror,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said. “Tell me, how did you all get into the Mirror Maze, and what happened after you encountered Xia Yao?”
Liang Tianxiu wanted to say, “Why should I tell you?” But upon seeing Mirror Image Mo Qi’s eyes, he lost control and began to recount what had happened.
At the time, He Yang and Ke Manman were dating. Recently, Ke Manman had been mentally unwell, often speaking nonsense and experiencing hallucinations, mistaking people around her for monsters. Before a gathering, Ke Manman kept complaining about the place, claiming she heard monsters crawling underground. Fearing she might harm others in the crowd, He Yang took her away to clear her mind in a more secluded area.
Liang Tianxiu, on the other hand, had gone to the woods to cool off after an argument between Xi Rou and Qin Xunfeng. He lay on the grass, hiding behind some bushes. He Yang and Ke Manman did not see him, and the two ended up having an intimate moment right there.
This is the trope of a low-quality horror film: all the ghosts and monsters turn out to be psychological disorders, and the dull plot is propped up by steamy scenes.
At this moment, Xi Rou arrived, arm-in-arm with Rong Feng. Seeing this, Ke Manman and He Yang, who were still embracing, quickly scrambled to adjust their clothes. Liang Tianxiu, seeing Xi Rou being so close to others again, angrily jumped out from behind the bushes and questioned Rong Feng, asking why he, who already had a girlfriend, was being so indiscreet with other girls.
The scene quickly descended into chaos. Ke Manman, startled by Liang Tianxiu’s presence while she was close to He Yang, screamed and pointed to a spot, claiming that there was a mirror watching them.
To calm Ke Manman, He Yang went over to check. He intended to reassure her that there was no mirror there, but as he walked between two trees, he vanished.
Ke Manman hurriedly followed, and she too disappeared.
Thus, one by one, the group, seemingly losing their sanity, entered the mysterious mirror world.
Upon hearing this, Mirror Image Mo Qi remarked, “The key to ‘The Wild Horror’ is Ke Manman’s mental illness. The discovery of the Mirror Maze entrance was also due to her hallucinations. It seems that the connection points between different tasks are related to key clues within this task.”
Qin Xunfeng quickly took out his notebook to jot this down.
Liang Tianxiu continued his recount.
After they entered the Mirror Maze, the nature of the maze caused everyone to lose their way and become disoriented.
At this point, Xia Yao suddenly appeared in the mirror, pulling out pliers from his pocket and using them to kill Xi Rou, who was separated from the group. After killing Xi Rou, Xia Yao stepped out of the mirror.
The main characters of “The Wild Horror” did not know Xia Yao, as he was part of a different storyline. However, Rong Feng, being an ordinary person caught up in the movie, recognized him.
Rong Feng confronted Xia Yao, demanding to know where they were and why he had killed Xi Rou. Xia Yao told Rong Feng to get lost. At that moment, everyone saw someone who looked exactly like Xia Yao, but this person did not have a reflection in the mirror.
This person was Mirror Image Xia Yao. When Xia Yao and Mirror Image Xia Yao met, they immediately began fighting. During the struggle, Xia Yao somehow obtained a shard of mirror and swallowed it, then embraced Mirror Image Xia Yao, causing them to merge.
The merged Xia Yao became completely different, gaining the ability to control mirror images. He selected five mirror images that looked exactly like Rong Feng and the others, pushed them into the mirror, and then left the Mirror Maze with the five mirror images.
“Xia Yao really didn’t say a word of truth,” Qin Xunfeng said in shock. He had genuinely believed that Xia Yao was speaking the truth at the time.
Mirror Image Mo Qi responded, “It’s half true and half false. The pliers smashing the mirror correspond to the pliers smashing Xi Rou; finding the light corresponds to finding the mirror shard; merging with the light corresponds to merging with the mirror shard and Mirror Image Xia Yao. The story he crafted was based on real events, which is why it seemed so convincing.”
“Are the five mirror images he took the replacements for the five of you?” Qin Xunfeng asked.
“No,” Liang Tianxiu shook his head. “He can control all mirror images except for the ones that replaced us. He cannot control those specific ones.”
“Xia Yao cannot control you,” Qin Xunfeng said to Mirror Image Mo Qi.
Mirror Image Mo Qi then asked Liang Tianxiu, “You have a mirror shard too, don’t you?”
“How did you know?” Liang Tianxiu asked.
“Just as I thought,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said. “The rules of the Mirror Maze task are now quite clear.”
First, anyone who enters the Mirror Maze will be dragged into the mirror upon physical contact with it, and a mirror image will leave the mirror as a replacement.
Second, for the original body to leave the mirror, it must kill a real person outside the mirror. At this point, the entity inside the mirror isn’t very powerful and can only achieve its goal by attacking the mirror image. Conversely, if the person outside the mirror discovers the pattern, they can use the reflections within the mirror to attack, just as Qin Xunfeng previously injured Liang Tianxiu.
Third, by finding a certain mysterious mirror shard and merging with the mirror image after leaving the mirror, one will gain immense power, just like Xia Yao.
After summarizing the rules, Qin Xunfeng frowned and said, “So, people like Xia Yao who have gained such power will next leave the maze and enter other sub-tasks within this SSR-level task?”
“It seems so,” Mirror Image Mo Qi replied. “So, Xia Yao’s claim that leaving the mirror requires just tricking one person into leaving is also a lie.”
Qin Xunfeng said, “…With such powerful outsiders meddling in the outside task world, how chaotic will it become!”
What kind of hell-level difficulty is this? Are SSR-level tasks always this terrifying?
Mirror Image Mo Qi sneered, “When Mo Qi entered the Mirror Maze, the number of player deaths was already at 8, with 22 survivors remaining.”
Qin Xunfeng: “…”
He couldn’t even imagine whether his teammates were still alive.
“The mirror shards that can absorb mirror images must be inside the mirror, right?” Mirror Image Mo Qi asked Liang Tianxiu.
“Yes,” Liang Tianxiu answered every question from Mirror Image Mo Qi.
“No wonder Mo Qi had to enter the mirror; that’s where the key to breaking the puzzle lies,” Qin Xunfeng said.
If he had encountered the Mirror Maze task, he would have been focused on finding an exit to escape. He couldn’t have ventured into the heart of danger like Mo Qi.
Mirror Image Mo Qi asked, “What happened to the five of you later?”
Liang Tianxiu’s expression instantly turned sorrowful. “Xi Rou’s body is inside the mirror; she can never leave. Ke Manman and He Yang killed two people who came in, and Ke Manman merged with her mirror image and left through an exit.”
Qin Xunfeng: “…”
Ke Manman was already a minor boss in the task capable of turning hallucinated monsters into real entities. Now, with the power to control mirror images, how powerful must she have become?
“You haven’t mentioned He Yang,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said.
“He Yang was killed by Rong Feng,” Liang Tianxiu said with a grim expression. “Rong Feng took advantage of He Yang’s duel with his mirror image and slit his throat with a mirror shard. Then Rong Feng swallowed the shard tainted with He Yang’s blood, absorbing both He Yang’s mirror image and his own mirror image, and left through another exit.”
Qin Xunfeng: “…”
The Mirror Maze seems like a task for raising monsters! He couldn’t even imagine how terrifying Rong Feng, who had devoured two mirror images, must be.
As Qin Xunfeng was pondering how to break the situation, he suddenly felt a chill on his back. Turning around, he saw Mirror Image Mo Qi looking at him with an eerie gaze.
“W-what are you doing?” Qin Xunfeng asked, terrified.
Mirror Image Mo Qi said, “If Mo Qi kills you and merges with me, it wouldn’t be a bad thing either.”
Qin Xunfeng: “…”
Help!
“Never mind,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said, looking at the mirror. “Mo Qi wouldn’t do that. He’ll find his own way out.”
He then ordered Liang Tianxiu, “I will send you back into the Mirror Maze, but you must assist Mo Qi and use your life to help him.”
Liang Tianxiu’s body trembled. He looked at Mirror Image Mo Qi and asked, “Are you willing to let me die for him?”
Mirror Image Mo Qi said cruelly, “Don’t act like you care so much about me. Didn’t you also once deeply love Xi Rou, yet now you willingly let me control you? Your love is just as superficial.”
Liang Tianxiu, deeply shaken, shook his head and said, “No, I am willing to do anything for you. Trust me, I will protect Mo Qi!”
Mirror Image Mo Qi shifted his body to align the makeup mirror with the mirror, and Liang Tianxiu was sent back into the mirror.
Liang Tianxiu cast a covetous glance at Qin Xunfeng, seemingly still eager to kill him and escape the mirror.
However, under Mirror Image Mo Qi’s control, he could only glare at Qin Xunfeng with resentment before turning and leaving to search for Mo Qi.
Qin Xunfeng: “… So the ‘Charmer’ card in your hands has developed skills like ‘Sea King’ and ‘PUA’?”
Mirror Image Mo Qi ignored Qin Xunfeng and strode forward.
“Where are you going?!” Qin Xunfeng quickly followed.
Mirror Image Mo Qi said, “Did you see Liang Tianxiu’s mirror image? The real person is inside the mirror, while the mirror image is outside. Why isn’t the mirror image present?”
“Right,” Qin Xunfeng said, “According to Liang Tianxiu’s description, Summer Yao also only appeared suddenly as a mirror image after leaving the mirror. Where are those mirror images hiding? Why didn’t they escape the maze before the fusion?”
“I know where they’re hiding,” Mirror Image Mo Qi said with clear intent.
“Oh right, you’re the mirror image!” Qin Xunfeng slapped his forehead.
Although it was a bit dangerous, Mo Qi’s move was so clever that if Mirror Image Mo Qi stood on their side, many problems could be resolved.